AUSTRALIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Banks grilled on plans for Suncorp

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Original article by Richard Gluyas
The Australian – Page: 13 & 16 : 12-Apr-21

The CEOs of Australia’s four major banks will appear before a parliamentary committee on 15 and 16 April. Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh says he will seek a commitment from the CEOs that they will not seek to acquire Suncorp’s banking division should it be put on the market. He also wants to them to rule out any further acquisitions in the financial technology sector. The housing market, cyber security, lending standards and the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic are also likely to be among the issues raised by the economics committee.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STANDING COMMITTEE ON ECONOMICS, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

‘Ideology gone mad’: Silk slams super veto laws

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Original article by Cliona O’Dowd
The Australian – Page: 17 : 9-Apr-21

AustralianSuper CEO Ian Silk has criticised key elements of the federal government’s proposed superannuation reforms. He is particularly concerned about provisions of the ‘Your Future, Your Super’ bill which allow the government to block an investment by a super fund, even if it is in members’ best financial interests. Silk says that amongst other things, this raises genuine concerns about sovereign risk. David Knox of consultancy firm Mercer in turn warns that subjecting super funds to performance tests will result in lower returns over the longer term, as trustees will be reluctant to invest in some asset classes.

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AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, MERCER INVESTMENTS PTY LTD

Clot fears force vaccine switch

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Original article by Natasha Robinson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 9-Apr-21

The federal government has acted on the advice of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, which has recommended that AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine be restricted to people aged 50+. ATAGI stated that Pfizer’s vaccine is now preferred for people under the age of 50, after the European Medicines Agency concluded that there is a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and a blood-clotting syndrome. Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy says the government has acted out of an "abundance of caution", given that the extremely rare syndrome mainly affects younger people. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has conceded that the target date for giving all Australians at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine will need to be revised.

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AUSTRALIAN TECHNICAL ADVISORY GROUP ON IMMUNISATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, ASTRAZENECA PLC, PFIZER INCORPORATED, EUROPEAN MEDICINES AGENCY

Morrison blames international supply issues for slow Covid vaccine rollout

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Original article by Paul Karp
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 7-Apr-21

About 855,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered nationally since the federal government’s rollout began in late February. Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the rollout has fallen well behind schedule because the government has not received 3.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Europe. It had contracted to buy 3.5 million doses from Europe in total, and a government source doubts that the remaining 400,000 doses will be delivered. Meanwhile, some 2.5 million doses that have been produced by CSL in Melbourne have yet to be distributed; Morrison says they must first undergo batch testing to ensure that they are safe.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, ASTRAZENECA PLC, CSL LIMITED – ASX CSL

IMF spurs debate on JobKeeper extension

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Original article by Steve Jackson
The Australian – Page: 4 : 6-Apr-21

The International Monetary Fund’s latest economic outlook report highlights the role that job-retention schemes have played in supporting nations’ economies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Washington DC-based agency has also cautioned against winding back such measures too soon. Grattan Institute CEO Danielle Wood contends that the federal government’s fiscal capacity is sufficient to have maintained the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme, which ended on 28 March. She notes that some sectors are still struggling in the wake of the pandemic.

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INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND, GRATTAN INSTITUTE

ALP’s return to olden days of IR

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Weekend Australian – Page: 7 : 3-Apr-21

Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn says Labor’s proposed industrial relations policy would "seriously undermine" the nation’s economic recovery. Amongst other things, Labor intends to abolish the Australian Building & Construction Commission and scrap the government’s building code if it wins the next federal election. Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash notes that the ABCC has recovered more than $2.7m in wages and entitlements for some 4,200 employees since it was reinstated in 2016, while it has secured $12.7m in penalties for breaches of workplace laws.

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AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION, MASTER BUILDERS AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EDUCATION, SKILLS AND EMPLOYMENT

Gig workers, truckie safety, industrial deaths on Labor’s agenda

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 4 : 1-Apr-21

Delegates at Labor’s two-day national conference have backed key measures in the party’s industrial relations platform, including minimum entitlements for workers in the gig economy and the introduction of national industrial manslaughter laws. Labor will also abolish the Australian Building & Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission if it wins the next federal election, and scrap the government’s building code and union demerge laws.

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AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. REGISTERED ORGANISATIONS COMMISSION

Treasurer warns of subsidy dangers

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Original article by Geoff Chambers, Richard Ferguson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 29-Mar-21

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the federal government will continue to provide economic stimulus following the end of the JobKeeper scheme on 28 March. He has flagged further targeted support for sectors that have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and says the wage subsidy scheme had ‘stemmed the tide’ of coronavirus-induced job losses. However, he cautions that fiscal discipline is also necessary to prevent higher taxes and higher debt in the future. Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers says JobKeeper should have been extended in a "responsible, temporary, and targeted fashion", and he has warned that the Coalition will be responsible for any job losses in coming weeks.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Andrew Laming to quit politics after unacceptable behaviour

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Original article by
SBS News – Page: Online : 29-Mar-21

The Liberal-National Party has confirmed that Queensland MP Andrew Laming will not contest the next federal election. The announcement came one day after a woman accused him of taking a picture of her bottom on his mobile phone in 2019, and two days after he apologised for trolling two women from his constituency online. The announcement that Laming would step down from Parliament had been made by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who said that Laming’s behaviour had been "unacceptable".

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LIBERAL-NATIONAL PARTY OF QUEENSLAND, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Two cabinet ministers attended event at which woman alleged Christian Porter raped her

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Original article by Paul Karp, Christopher Knaus, Katharine Murphy, Naaman Zhou
The Guardian – Page: Online : 6-Mar-21

Attorney-General Christian Porter has strenuously denied allegations he sexually assaulted a woman during a 1988 debating competition at the University of Sydney. It has been revealed that current federal Health Minister Greg Hunt attended the event as a member of the University of Melbourne debating team, while Communications Minister Paul Fletcher is understood to have been one of the event’s adjudicators. A spokesperson for Hunt said he had never met the woman in question to the best of his knowledge, while a spokesperson for Fletcher declined to comment.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS, AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT