High satisfaction ratings for chemists and pharmacies as Australia faced bushfires and then the COVID-19 pandemic

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 17-Jun-20

Research conducted by Roy Morgan in the year to March 2020 shows that 12 million Australians (57%) shop at chemists/pharmacies in an average four weeks. The leading stores, including Priceline Pharmacy, My Chemist, TerryWhite Chemmart and Chemist Warehouse, each have well over 1 million customers. Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says that the good news for chemists and pharmacies is that the 12 million customers of Australia’s chemists/ pharmacies rate their customer satisfaction amongst the highest of any of the more than 30 industries Roy Morgan measures on a weekly basis. Overall customer satisfaction for chemists/pharmacies averages a very high 90.5% and is in third position out of 32 industries. Chemists/Pharmacies rank behind only car manufacturers (92.3%) and hardware stores (90.8%). This high satisfaction for the industry is across the board and the top eight chemists and pharmacies are separated by a total of only 5% points.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

12.7 million Australians use streaming music services

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 17-Jun-20

Over 12.7 million Australians (61%) now use music streaming services in an average four weeks, an increase of over 3.7 million from three years ago. Spotify is the clear market leader, used by 8 million Australians; it has more than doubled its Australian user-base since 2017, up by 4.4 million (+122%). The most prominent rival to Spotify is clearly YouTube Music (including Google Play Music), now used by 5.5 million Australians (26%). Apple Music and SoundCloud are each used by substantial numbers of Australians as the third and fourth most popular services in the music streaming market. It is important to understand that these figures do not include all live radio streams and podcasts that Australians are able to listen to via these services. Early in 2019 over 1.6 million Australians downloaded podcasts in an average four weeks, and there are many others who livestream radio broadcasts of sporting events and talkback radio as well. In contrast to these growing services a declining minority of 8.1 million Australians (39%) do not currently use any music streaming services, a drop of 2.7 million from three years ago.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, SPOTIFY LIMITED, YOUTUBE MUSIC, APPLE MUSIC, SOUNDCLOUD

NAB latest company to investigate underpayments to staff

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The New Daily – Page: Online : 16-Jun-20

National Australia Bank has admitted that about 1,500 employees have been underpaid, although Wendy Streets of the Finance Sector Union believes that the figure may be much higher. She says the issue of underpayments at NAB has been a concern for the union for some time. Affected staff will collectively receive about $1.3m in backpay, superannuation and interest, while the bank has commissioned King & Wood Mallesons and PwC to undertake a review of its payroll system.

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NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, FINANCE SECTOR UNION, KING AND WOOD MALLESONS, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS AUSTRALIA (INTERNATIONAL) PTY LTD

Growing Virgin bondholders group emerges as kingmaker

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Original article by Lucas Baird
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 27 : 16-Jun-20

Final, binding offers for failed airline Virgin Australia are due on 22 June, with a decision on whether Bain Capital or Cyrus Capital Partners gets chosen as the successful bidder due at the second creditors’ meeting in mid-August. Unsecured bond and note holders in Virgin are owed around $2 billion, and a group of them has increased to almost 6,000 members in recent weeks; the group is getting advice from law firms Faraday and Corrs Chambers Westgarth on the sales process. Jason Harris from the University of Sydney Law School says any sales agreement that results in the bondholders getting little in the way of their money back is likely to be challenged in court.

CORPORATES
VIRGIN AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX VAH, BAIN CAPITAL LLC, CYRUS CAPITAL PARTNERS LP, FARADAY AND KENT, CORRS CHAMBERS WESTGARTH, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN

JobKeeper cash needed for schools and hospitals

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Original article by Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 2 : 16-Jun-20

Restaurant & Catering Australia CEO Wes Lambert has urged the federal government to retain the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme until at least the end of 2020. However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has argued that retaining coronavirus stimulus measures beyond the scheduled expiration date of late September would result in less funding for essential services such as health and education. The government may introduce stimulus measures that target sectors which have been hardest hit by the economic downturn.

CORPORATES
RESTAURANT AND CATERING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Rio set indigenous precedent at Argyle

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Original article by Victoria Laurie
The Australian – Page: 5 : 16-Jun-20

Professor Ciaran O’Faircheallaigh of Griffith University says a clause in Rio Tinto’s agreement with traditional owners regarding the Argyle diamond mine could be used to protect heritage sites in the Pilbara. The agreement signed in 2005 ensures that Rio Tinto cannot use section 18 of the Aboriginal Heritage Act to destroy sites that are of cultural significance to indigenous people. Rio Tinto’s recent blasting that destroyed ancient rock caves at its Brockman mine had been approved under section 18 in 2013.

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RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY

Early access super requests near $15bn

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Original article by Gerard Cockburn
The Australian – Page: 15 : 16-Jun-20

Data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority shows that 2.12 million people have applied to withdraw money from their superannuation fund via the federal government’s early access scheme. Some $14.8bn has been paid out to 1.98 million fund members; AustralianSuper heads the list, having paid out $1.98bn to 264,404 members. The early access scheme has been criticised by the ACTU in a submission to a Senate committee hearing into the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, ACTU

Bad loans hit small banks hard: Citi

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Original article by Cliona O’Dowd
The Australian – Page: 16 : 16-Jun-20

Citigroup analysts note that Australia’s smaller mortgage lenders have actively pursued increased market share in recent years. However, Citi warns that they are set to be hardest hit by a coronavirus-induced rise in loan losses later in 2020, as such losses tend to be highest during the first 3-4 years of a loan. Citi contends that small lenders will need to focus on capital demands rather than further growing their market share, which in turn is likely to prompt a swing back to large lenders.

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CITIGROUP PTY LTD

Facebook says it doesn’t need news stories for its business and won’t pay to share them in Australia

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Original article by Naaman Zhou, Amanda Meade
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 16-Jun-20

Social media company Facebook has rejected a proposal to share its advertising revenue with news publishers. The mandatory code of conduct being developed by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission would govern the relationship between media companies and digital platforms such as Facebook and Google. Facebook claims that there would be no significant impact to its income if it stopped sharing news content, while it says the revenue-sharing proposal means it would be subsidising a competitor.

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FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, GOOGLE INCORPORATED

State delays hold up HomeBuilder grants

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Original article by Nila Sweeney
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 33 : 16-Jun-20

Housing Minister and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar says there is a lot of interest in the federal government’s HomeBuilder scheme. He says there have been more than 296,000 visits to the HomeBuilder website and over 23,000 people have registered their interest in the scheme. However, mortgage brokers claim that they have not yet been able to get any borrower processed under the scheme, as the states have not yet signed up to it. Homeloanexperts.com.au MD Otto Dargan says it is still waiting to hear from the appropriate state government bodies on advice as to how the scheme will work.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, HOMELOANEXPERTS.COM.AU