AUSTRALIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Labor, Libs leave $60b health hole

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Original article by Laura Tingle
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 6 : 14-Jun-16

The issue of public hospital funding is under scrutiny, with the health policies of the Coalition and the Australian Labor Party only providing funding for the next four years. Professor Stephen Leeder notes that none of the major political parties have outlined a plan for sustainable funding of the public hospital system. Deloitte Access Economics’ Chris Richardson says Australia faces a "black hole" in hospital funding that will ultimately have to be addressed by the federal government rather than its state counterparts.

CORPORATES
LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, DELOITTE ACCESS ECONOMICS PTY LTD, SOUTH AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET

Undue payments under scrutiny

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Original article by Grace Collier
The Weekend Australian – Page: 22 : 11-Jun-16

Wesfarmers CEO Richard Goyder has criticised the Australian Labor Party for opposing plans to reduce the company tax rate. However, many of Wesfarmers employees are covered by the Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association’s enterprise bargaining agreement. The SDA in turn contributes more to Labor’s coffers than any other union. While Labor is widely seen as being "anti-big business", it in fact ultimately receives much of its funding from the large end of town. Furthermore, a lot of this funding is sourced from what the trade union royal commission labelled "corrupting payments".

CORPORATES
WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, SHOP, DISTRIBUTIVE AND ALLIED EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO TRADE UNION GOVERNANCE AND CORRUPTION, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, TARGET AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, KMART AUSTRALIA LIMITED, BUNNINGS GROUP LIMITED, ACTU, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT

Copper stopper, two million more get fibre under Labor’s NBN plan

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 13-Jun-16

The Federal Opposition will announce details of its broadband policy on 13 June 2016. An additional two million homes and businesses will be connected to the national broadband network via fibre-to-the-home, rather than fire-to-the-node, if the Australian Labor Party wins the federal election. Labor will also seek to determine whether homes that have been connected via fire-to-the-node can be upgraded to fibre-to-the-home. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says Australia needs a high-quality NBN in order to compete with Asia.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE

Captain’s call ‘a bid to sink Greens’

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Original article by Sid Maher, Sarah Martin
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 13-Jun-16

The Federal Government will direct preferences to the Australian Labor Party, rather than smaller parties such as the Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team. Labor in turn has indicated that it will not direct preferences to Xenophon’s party in South Australian seats. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has defended the Coalition’s decision to direct preferences to its arch rival, arguing that it is in the national interest to avoid another minority government in which the Greens and minority parties have significant influence.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, NICK XENOPHON TEAM, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Reform FWC for actual fairness

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Original article by Steve Knott
The Australian – Page: 12 : 10-Jun-16

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s abrupt change in stance regarding the Fair Work Commission’s review of weekend penalty rates was not unexpected. FWC president Iain Ross – a former ACTU official – was appointed by Shorten in 2012, when he was the nation’s industrial relations minister. Indeed, 18 of the 27 appointments to the "independent" FWC made by the Australian Labor Party between 2007 and 2013 were affiliated with Labor or were previously in the union movement. Meanwhile, a survey has found that 87 per cent of employers in the resources sector support a review of the FWC.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, ACTU, AUSTRALIAN MINES AND METALS ASSOCIATION (INCORPORATED)

Overseas companies ‘can game the system’

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Original article by Joe Kelly
The Australian – Page: 6 : 10-Jun-16

The Australian Labor Party’s proposal to increase the threshold for offshore investment in agricultural land has been criticised by Treasurer Scott Morrison. Labor would require purchases of farmland valued at $A50m or more to be approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board, but Morrison contends that offshore buyers would seek to avoid this by acquiring land for $A49m. Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has also criticised Labor’s proposal to lift the threshold for foreign investment in the agribusiness sector to $A1bn.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. FOREIGN INVESTMENT REVIEW BOARD, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF AGRICULTURE AND WATER RESOURCES, AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

High company tax rate halted Sydney shift for Catcha Group

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Original article by Ben Potter
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 10-Jun-16

Catcha Group founder Patrick Grove has indicated that the corporate tax rate was a key factor in his decision not to relocate some of his Malaysia-based business empire’s operations to Australia. He adds that the corporate tax rate meant Australia was ruled out when he was considering shifting Catcha’s headquarters to a global city several years ago. The Federal Government intends to reduce the tax rate for all companies to 25 per cent over the next decade.

CORPORATES
CATCHA GROUP, IFLIX LIMITED, IPROPERTY GROUP LIMITED, ICAR ASIA LIMITED – ASX ICQ, ENSOGO LIMITED – ASX E88, REA GROUP LIMITED – ASX REA, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, ANDERSEN, TECHNOLOGY ONE LIMITED – ASX TNE, ONESHIFT PTY LTD, POWEREDLOCAL

Labor retreats on cuts

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Original article by Phillip Coorey, Patrick Durkin
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1& 6 : 10-Jun-16

The Federal Opposition will unveil a number of savings measures on 10 June 2016 that it will implement if it wins the federal election. It will also no longer oppose some of the spending cuts that were announced in the Australian Government’s May 2014 Budget, which have been stalled in the Senate. These measures are expected to include the Government’s proposed changes to welfare payments such as the Family Tax Benefit and a reduction in R&D tax concessions. The Opposition aims to eliminate the budget deficit within five years.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FINANCE

Labor admits bigger deficits prompting AAA warnings

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 9-Jun-16

The Federal Opposition has conceded that the budget deficit will increase over the next four years under its 10-year economic plan. However, it expects to eliminate the deficit in 2020-21, and argues that its policies will have a much greater net benefit to the budget bottom line over a decade than the Australian Government’s plans to reduce the company tax rate. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has warned that the Opposition’s higher deficit over the next four years could jeopardise Australia’s triple-A credit rating.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FINANCE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Minority rule would knock confidence

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Original article by Vanessa Desloires
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 29 : 9-Jun-16

The 2016 federal election remains too close to call, raising the prospect of a hung parliament or a minority government. Analysts warn that investor sentiment would be affected by a minority government, with Chris Nicol and Daniel Blake of Morgan Stanley noting that both business and consumer confidence were hit during the tenure of the previous minority government between 2010 and 2013. Analysis by Citigroup concludes that the Coalition is likely to win the election, although the Australian Labor Party could gain around 10 seats.

CORPORATES
CITIGROUP PTY LTD, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, MORGAN STANLEY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, CITIGROUP PTY LTD, STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, HARVEY NORMAN HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX HVN, JB HI-FI LIMITED – ASX JBH, BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, WHITEHAVEN COAL LIMITED – ASX WHC