Yang’s death sentence unlikely to stop Li visit

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Original article by Will Glasgow
The Australian – Page: 2 : 7-Feb-24

Sources have indicated that Chinese Premier Li Qiang is still is expected to visit Australia in late 2024. It would be the first visit by a Chinese leader since 2017, and is unlikely to be affected by a Beijing court’s decision to give Chinese-Australian academic Yang Hengjun a suspended death sentence on espionage charges. Associate professor Feng Chongyi says the federal government should make Li’s forthcoming state visit conditional on the release of Yang, whose sentence could potentially be reduced to life in prison after two years of good behaviour.

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Crossbench close to workplace deal

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 7-Feb-24

The federal government and crossbench senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie are said to be close to a deal on key provisions of the Closing Loopholes No. 2 Bill. This includes the right of employees to ‘disconnect’ from their workplace outside of their standard hours of work. Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has backed down on a contentious provision that could have resulted in employers being fined for unreasonably contacting staff outside of working hours. He says workers should also be entitled to ignore after-hours phone calls and emails from their employer without fear of being penalised for doing so. Burke and the crossbenchers are also believed to have reached agreement on the right of casual workers to request conversion to permanent employment.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS

Dutton sets scene for election tax battle

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 6 : 7-Feb-24

The Coalition agreed to support changes to the legislated stage-three income tax cuts at a partyroom meeting on Tuesday. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says the Coalition will back the tax cuts for people on low incomes, in order to support families amid the cost-of-living crisis. However, Dutton has indicated that the Coalition will take a "significant" tax policy to the next election; he says the Coalition will reduce taxes for Australian families, as they will need a lot of support to recover from Labor’s current term in office. Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor says ‘bracket creep’ is among the tax issues that the Coalition will aim to address.

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LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence recovers 1.3pts to 83.8 after Albanese Government reveals substance of Stage 3 tax cut changes

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 7-Feb-24

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence rose 1.3pts to 83.8 in the week to 4 February, but it has now spent a record 53 straight weeks below the mark of 85. Consumer Confidence is now 0.2pts above the same week a year ago (86.6), and 5.8 points above the 2023 weekly average of 78.0. Consumer Confidence was up in NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, but down in Victoria. Now 21% of Australians (up 2ppts) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year, while 52% (up 2ppts) say their families are ‘worse off’. Looking forward, 33% (down 1ppt) of Australians expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, while 33% (up 1ppt) expect to be ‘worse off’. Now 11% (up 2ppts) of Australians now expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next 12 months (the equal highest figure for this indicator since April 2022), while 30% (down 1ppt) expect ‘bad times’ (the lowest figure for this indicator since May 2022). Meanwhile, 23% (up 1ppt) of Australians say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items, while 49% (up 1ppt) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

‘Job is not done’, says RBA boss

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Original article by Ronald Mizen
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 7-Feb-24

Investors have priced in a 41 per cent chance that the Reserve Bank of Australia will reduce the cash rate by June, compared with 53 per cent before the central bank left rates on hold at 4.35 per cent on Tuesday. RBA governor Michele Bullock says that while inflation fell to 4.1 per cent in the year to December, it remains too high for the central bank to begin easing monetary policy. She adds that the RBA will not begin doing so until it is confident inflation that will sustainably return to the target range of 2-3 per cent target; it does not expect this to happen until late 2025. Bullock also cautioned that further interest rate increases cannot be ruled out.

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RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Cooling inflation, stable rates may encourage buyers

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Original article by Nila Sweeney
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 29 & 30 : 7-Feb-24

Tim Lawless of CoreLogic says the Reserve Bank’s decision to leave the cash rate unchanged on Tuesday could prompt an upturn in house buying activity. He notes that house prices remain below their peaks in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Darwin and the ACT; Lawless says that some buyers may capitalise on this to buy into the market before interest rates fall. Judo Bank’s chief economic adviser Warren Hogan says the rental housing market is still a major concern, while SQM Research MD Louis Christopher warns that rising rents could put upward pressure on inflation.

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CORELOGIC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, JUDO BANK PTY LTD, SQM RESEARCH PTY LTD

Catalano and Waislitz take fight to Seek in regional Australia

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Original article by Sam Buckingham-Jones
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 7-Feb-24

Australian Community Media’s owners Antony Catalano and Alex Waislitz will launch a new job listings website in partnership with SpotJobs’ co-founder Lewis Romano. ViewJobs is slated to be launched in early March, and will focus on job vacancies in regional areas. Romano says most of the existing sites do not necessarily cater to the requirements of regional and rural employers; he notes that there has been five per cent growth in regional job advertisements in recent months, while job ads in metropolitan areas have fallen by 10 per cent. ACM will use its portfolio of regional newspapers to promote ViewJobs, which is jointly owned by Catalano and Romano.

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AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY MEDIA PTY LTD, SPOTJOBS PTY LTD, VIEWJOBS

Apple Pay overtook Afterpay in average users in 2023 to become the third most widely used digital payment service in Australia

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 7-Feb-24

The latest Roy Morgan Digital Payments Report shows that Apple Pay has more than doubled its share of users in the Australian market over the last three years, and it overtook Afterpay amongst Australians during 2023 as user numbers of Afterpay plateaued. Apple Pay is now used by almost 4 million Australians (17.7% of the population) in an average 12 months and is clearly the third most widely used digital payment service. The user numbers for Apple Pay exceeded that of Afterpay, which is now used by around 3.4 million people (15.2%), for the first time in March 2023. Afterpay launched in the Australian marketplace in late 2014, just over a year before Apple Pay entered the Australian market late in 2015. The rapid growth in user numbers for Apple Pay contrasts with the digital payment services from PayPal and BPAY, which are both used by over 40% of Australians, but have not experienced much growth in recent years. These new digital payment findings are from Roy Morgan Single Source, Australia’s leading consumer survey, derived from in-depth interviews with around 60,000 Australians annually.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, APPLE PAY, AFTERPAY LIMITED, PAYPAL AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BPAY PTY LTD

CFMEU seals 25pc pay rise deal

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 6-Feb-24

Construction group Multiplex has reached a deal on a new enterprise agreement for its Western Australian workers who are members of the CFMEU. The new agreement includes a pay rise of 25 per cent over four years, comprising an immediate increase of 10 per cent and followed by three annual pay rises of five per cent. Zach Smith, the national secretary of the CFMEU’s construction division, rejects suggestions that the wage deal will be inflationary. Industrial action at Multiplex sites in WA that was scheduled for this week has been cancelled in the wake of the pay deal.

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CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MARITIME, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, BROOKFIELD MULTIPLEX LIMITED

Don’t get your hopes up on rates cut: OECD

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Original article by Patrick Commins
The Australian – Page: 4 : 6-Feb-24

The OECD has forecast that Australia’s inflation rate will fall to 3.5 per cent by mid-2024 and just 2.75 per cent by mid-2025. The Paris-based organisation is also upbeat about inflation globally, forecasting that inflation will be in line with central bank objectives in most Group of 20 countries by the end of 2025. However, the OECD has also cautioned central banks against easing monetary policy too quickly in response to the downturn in inflation. Meanwhile, Challenger Limited’s chief economist Jonathan Kearns has downplayed the prospects of multiple interest rate cuts in Australia during 2024; he says a single rate cut late in the year is most likely.

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ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, CHALLENGER LIMITED – ASX CGF