AUSTRALIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Costs balloon in NDIS surge

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Original article by Geoff Chambers
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 30-Sep-19

Annual expenditure on the National Disability Insurance Scheme blew out to $11.9bn in 2018-19, with more than 117,000 new participants joining the NDIS during the financial year. Data from the National Disability Insurance Agency also shows that there has been a sharp rise in costs associated with external consultants and service providers, including recruitment firms, call centres and law firms. An NDIA spokeswoman says that spending on contractors and consultants is expected to account for 1.6 per cent of the NDIS’s total costs in 2019-20, compared with 2.6 per cent in 2017-18.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE AGENCY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Mining earnings heading for peak

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Original article by Sarah-Jane Tasker
The Australian – Page: 17 & 20 : 30-Sep-19

Resources Minister Matt Canavan says the latest Resources and Energy Quarterly report underlines the importance of mining to Australia’s economy, noting that the sector contributed a third of GDP growth in the June 2019 quarter. He has urged lenders to continue to provide financing for resources and energy projects, at a time when local mining companies intend to increase their annual investment expenditure for the first time in six years. The report forecasts that resources and energy exports will top $282bn in 2019-20, eclipsing the record $279bn in 2018-19.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND SCIENCE

Setka forks out $40k of members’ funds on ad

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 5 : 26-Sep-19

Embattled Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining & Energy Union official John Setka has criticised senator Jacqui Lambie in a full-page advertisement in the ‘Herald Sun’. Lambie has signalled that she will support the federal government’s Ensuring Integrity Bill unless Setka steps down as Victorian secretary of the CFMMEU. Setka has accused her of attempting to blackmail himself and the union’s members. A spokesman for Setka says the ad was "union business", so it was funded by the CFMMEU rather than Setka.

CORPORATES
CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MARITIME, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA

Activists call for blanket cap on Qld LNG exports

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 21 : 26-Sep-19

The Australia Institute and the Lock The Gate Alliance are among the activist groups that have urged the federal governance to impose a cap on Queensland’s LNG exports. They contend that such a cap would put downward pressure on domestic gas prices. Another option that has been advocated by some activists is to amend the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism to include a price trigger. The federal government is reviewing the ADGSM, which has not been utilised to date.

CORPORATES
THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE LIMITED, LOCK THE GATE ALLIANCE INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND SCIENCE, ENERGY USERS ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA, ORIGIN ENERGY LIMITED – ASX ORG, AGL ENERGY LIMITED – ASX AGL, ESSO AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, REMAPAK PTY LTD, CLAYPAVE PTY LTD

Brickworks backs union clampdown

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 10 : 26-Sep-19

Brickworks executive Wladyslaw Kluktewicz has expressed support for the federal government’s Ensuring Integrity Bill. He has told a Senate inquiry that the proposed legislation is necessary to address the issue of "rogue" union officials who visit non-unionised workplaces and attempt to hold meetings with workers. Michael Wright, the Electrical Trades Union’s national assistant secretary, also appeared before the inquiry.

CORPORATES
BRICKWORKS LIMITED – ASX BKW, ELECTRICAL TRADES UNION, CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MARITIME, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Pollution at top of PM’s ocean plan

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Original article by Dennis Shanahan, Graham Lloyd
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 26-Sep-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told the United Nations’ General Assembly that problems such as plastics pollution and illegal fishing are a more "immediate threat" to the world’s oceans than climate change. Morrison argued that industry must take a leadership role in developing commercially sustainable ways of ensuring that plastics are recycled. His address to the UN has coincided with the release of a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on global warming’s impact on sea levels.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, UNITED NATIONS. GENERAL ASSEMBLY, INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE, AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE AUSTRALIA, PRATT INDUSTRIES (USA) INCORPORATED, MINDEROO FOUNDATION

Government’s anti-union bill retrospective

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 25-Sep-19

ACTU president Michele O’Neil has told a Senate inquiry that some provisions of the federal government’s Ensuring Integrity Bill are retrospective. She says the requirement that a court must be satisfied that the deregistration of a union or the disqualification of an official is unjust would allow the court to take into account industrial breaches that occurred before the legislation took effect. This would have implications for the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining & Energy Union, which has a long history of breaching workplace laws.

CORPORATES
ACTU, CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MARITIME, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP

Tax cuts, not surpluses, key to growth

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Original article by Adam Creighton
The Australian – Page: 5 : 24-Sep-19

Returning the Budget to surplus has been a priority for the federal government since it won office in 2013, and it is on track for a surplus in 2019-20 after posting a deficit of less than $700m for 2018-19. However, documents released under Freedom of Information laws show that the Treasury is of the view that tax cuts may be the best way to stimulate the economy. The Treasury papers note that the government’s income tax cuts package will boost household disposable income by 0.75 per cent over three years, while delaying or reversing future tax cuts would reduce the efficiency of the economy and the tax system.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

PM push to wind back China’s trade benefits

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 24-Sep-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for an overhaul of the global trading system in response to the economic rise of China. He said China should now be recognised as a newly-developed economy and it should no longer be entitled to concessions under World Trade Organization rules for developing nations. Speaking in Chicago during his official visit to the US, Morrison stressed that global trade rules are outdated and are no longer "fit for purpose", particularly with regard to digital trade. He also emphasised the importance of Australia’s alliance with the US, and said Australia will never take it for granted.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, CHICAGO INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, UNITED NATIONS. GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Solitude warning for Australia

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Original article by Michael Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 10 : 23-Sep-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stated that his visit to Washington will lay the foundation for another century of friendship between Australia and the US. However, Chinese academic Yu Lei has stated in ‘The Global Times’ that Australia risks straining its relationship with Asian nations if it boosts military ties with the US, and that this could leave it in solitude. US President Donald Trump stated during Morrison’s visit that the trade war with China could run until the presidential election in November 2020, while he stated during a joint news conference with Morrison that China represents a "threat to the world".

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT