How Christmas muddied the decision to ease NSW restrictions

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Original article by Tom Rabe,Mary Ward,Jenny Noyes
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 24-Dec-20

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced a "very modest" easing of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in Sydney’s northern beaches region. The revised rules will apply for three days from 24 December, and will allow households in the local government area to have a limited number of visitors over this period. The number of visitors will depend on whether a resident lives north or south of Narrabeen Bridge. A government minister has conceded that the temporary changes would not have been at any other time of the year. NSW reported eight new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 on 23 December, while genome sequencing has linked a female healthcare worker to the northern beaches cluster; it was previously thought that she had contracted the virus after driving returned travellers from Sydney Airport to a quarantine hotel.

CORPORATES
NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET

Survival of the fittest: Media’s toughest year in decades

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Original article by Zoe Samios
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 21-Dec-20

Few would disagree that 2020 has been the toughest year for the Australian media sector for decades. The year began with the remnants of the summer bushfires, before the sector was hit by the impact of COVID-19. The virus saw media companies lose huge amounts of revenue, while forcing big changes to the way that production houses and newsrooms operated. The year has been one of mergers and restructures, of shutting down newspaper and magazine titles, and of executive and talent changes. Competition increased within the streaming sector, media outlets continued their stoush with Google and Facebook, while relations between ABC chair Ita Buttrose and the federal government became increasingly strained over the course of the year.

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GOOGLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, VILLAGE ROADSHOW LIMITED – ASX VRL, OOH!MEDIA LIMITED – ASX OML, SOUTHERN CROSS MEDIA GROUP LIMITED – ASX SXL

ANZ-Roy Morgan New Zealand Consumer Confidence ends 2020 on a high – up 5.1pts to 112.0 in December

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 21-Dec-20

ANZ-Roy Morgan New Zealand Consumer Confidence rose 5.1pts to 112.0 in December, and it is edging closer to its historical average of around 120. Consumers’ perceptions of their current financial situation rose 3 pts to +4, while a net 25% of consumers expect to be better off financially this time next year, down 2 points. Meanwhile, a net 18% of consumers think it is a good time to buy a major household item, up 7 points. Perceptions regarding the next year’s economic outlook lifted 12 points to -6%, and the five-year outlook rose 3 points to +18%.

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

Tax Office to review rejected JobKeeper bids

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Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 7 : 21-Dec-20

Karen Payne, the Inspector-General of Taxation & Taxation Ombudsman, has found that some businesses may have been unfairly denied coronavirus assistance by the Australian Taxation Office. As a result of her findings, the ATO will re-evaluate rejected applications for business cashflow payments and the $90 billion JobKeeper program. However, despite her findings, Payne and professional bodies such as the Institute of Public Accountants have praised the ATO for the way in which it quickly implemented government assistance programs during the pandemic.

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AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF TAXATION AND TAXATION OMBUDSMAN, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE

Covid laggards beat Aussies to top of the class for economic performance

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Original article by Patrick Commins
The Australian – Page: 6 : 21-Dec-20

Data from the OECD shows that Australia’s real GDP contracted by 4.2 per cent over the first nine months of 2020. In contrast, real GDP in the US and Brazil declined by just 3.5 per cent and 4.1 per cent respectively during this period, despite the fact that they have been hit much harder by COVID-19 case numbers and deaths. The economies of many countries also rebounded more quickly in the September quarter than Australia, despite having been hit harder in the June quarter. Elliot Clarke of Westpac attributes this to Australia’s tougher lockdown restrictions and the second wave in Victoria.

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ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC

Australia’s iron ore miners cashing in

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Original article by Shane Wright
The Age – Page: Online : 21-Dec-20

The federal Department of Industry has revised its export earnings forecasts in response to a surge in the iron ore price. It had forecast in September that the nation’s iron ore producers would boast sales of about $97bn in 2020-21, but this has now been upgraded to $123bn. The forecast for iron ore sales in 2021-22 has in turn been upgraded from $80bn to $95bn. However, thermal coal exports are expected to be lower in 2020-21 due to China’s restrictions on imports from Australia. Meanwhile, the nation’s overall resources and energy exports are now expected to total $278.7bn in 2020-21; this is $22.3bn higher than was forecast in September, but $11.9bn lower than in 2019-20.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INDUSTRY, SCIENCE, ENERGY AND RESOURCES

Renewables cutting power bills

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Original article by Patrick Commins
The Australian – Page: 2 : 21-Dec-20

The Australian Energy Market Commission has predicted Australian households will pay around nine per cent less for electricity in 2023 than they are at the moment, with the Commission’s forecast based on a combination of cheaper renewable power and falling gas prices. Looking at individual states, Victorian households can expect to pay 15 per cent less by 2022-23, but New South Wales households can only expect to pay two per cent less, due to the closure of the Liddell coal-fired power plan

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AUSTRALIAN ENERGY MARKET COMMISSION

Cricket Australia discussed shifting broadcast rights to Nine

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Original article by Zoe Samios
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 21-Dec-20

Sources have indicated that the bitter legal dispute with Seven West Media prompted Cricket Australia to hold informal talks with Nine Entertainment about taking over the broadcasting rights. The informal talks are believed to have ended when Cricket Australia recently received a $12.5m instalment payment from Seven. The media group pays about $70m a year for the free-to-air rights, as part of a six-year deal with Cricket Australia and pay-TV group Foxtel. Amongst other things, Seven is seeking a discount of about 20 per cent due to coronavirus-induced changes to the cricket schedule for the 2020-21 summer.

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SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, CRICKET AUSTRALIA, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

Failed Xinja scored secret China lifeline

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Original article by Michael Roddan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 14 : 21-Dec-20

Xinja recently handed back its banking licence to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority following its failure to secure a $433 million injection from Dubai-based World Investments, while sources have stated that Xinja failed to secure any monies from Australian institutional investors. It has been revealed that Xinja secured a multimillion-dollar capital injection from a "shadowy" Chinese company during 2019, but that it kept the investment a secret; it is believed the company in question was called Happy Sino Steel.

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XINJA BANK LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, HAPPY SINO STEEL, WORLD INVESTMENTS

State on verge of superspread disaster: expert

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Original article by Stephen Rice
The Australian – Page: 4 : 21-Dec-20

University of New South Wales epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre says the state government should impose a lockdown across metropolitan Sydney if the northern beaches cluster worsens on 21 December. Professor MacIntyre warns that New Year’s Eve could become a major ‘superspreader’ event, as people who contract the coronavirus on Christmas Day will be at their most infectious six days later. She contends that a short, sharp lockdown across Sydney could avoid a major outbreak and much harsher restrictions in the new year.

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UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES