GOVERNMENT SPENDING POLICY – AUSTRALIA

Content on ice as ABC still frozen

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Original article by Lilly Vitorovich
The Australian – Page: 2 : 23-Oct-19

The ABC’s MD David Anderson has told a Senate estimates committee hearing that the public broadcaster will have to find annual cost savings of about $40m from fiscal 2022 due to its funding freeze. He added that the cost of producing quality Australian content is rising, while the ABC is facing growing competition for audiences from international streaming video providers. Anderson also said a controversial documentary about One Nation was reviewed by editorial managers and lawyers before it was broadcast by the ABC in March.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, ONE NATION PARTY, AL JAZEERA, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, WALT DISNEY COMPANY

Uni funding: job success gets more weight

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Original article by Robert Bolton
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 2-Oct-19

Education Minister Dan Tehan has advised that the federal government will give more weighting to graduate employment outcomes when allocating additional money to the nation’s universities under a new performance-based funding model. The increased focus on ensuring that university graduates are equipped with the skills to obtain employment quickly follows the government’s move to provide an extra $80m in performance-based funding in 2020. Meanwhile, the Australian Learning Lecture Project has questions the relevance of ATAR entry scores for admission to university courses.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING, AUSTRALIAN LEARNING LECTURE PROJECT, UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG, VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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

Morrison spruiks infrastructure as key

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Original article by Richard Ferguson
The Australian – Page: 4 : 6-Sep-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison hopes the federal government’s massive infrastructure investment program will help stimulate the economy. The government will spend some $100bn on infrastructure projects over the next decade, including $48.2bn over the next four years. However, shadow infrastructure minister Catherine King contends that the government failed to meet its infrastructure spending commitments in its first five Budgets.

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

Electric car transition unstoppable: Labor

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Original article by Richard Ferguson
The Australian – Page: 2 : 28-Aug-19

The federal government will contribute $15m to the cost of building 48 electric vehicle charging stations in the eastern states. Meanwhile, shadow energy minister Mark Butler has doubled down on his recent comments regarding Labor’s election policy on electric vehicles, stating that the transition to electric cars is "unstoppable". Butler has maintained that Labor’s target for electric vehicles to account for 50 per cent of new car sales by 2030 was ambitious but "very sensible".

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, ABMARC

Federal debt boss: why borrowing isn’t easy

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Original article by Adam Creighton
The Australian – Page: 4 : 26-Aug-19

Australian Office of Financial Management CEO Rob Nicholl has rejected suggestions that the federal government’s capacity to increase its borrowings has been boosted by the downturn in bond yields. The yield on 10-year government bonds fell below the cash rate of one per cent earlier in August, and Nicholls argues that demand for government debt has not risen despite a global downturn in bond yields. The federal government is resisting pressure to ramp up its infrastructure spending instead of prioritising a return to a Budget surplus.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY. OFFICE OF FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Tax cuts necessary if Shorten won: PBO

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Original article by Michael Roddan
The Australian – Page: 4 : 20-Jun-19

The Parliamentary Budget Office’s review of federal election commitments shows that Labor’s policies would have cost about $17.3bn. In contrast, the Coalition’s election promises would have cost just $100m, as most of its spending commitments were outlined in the Budget prior to the election. The review also suggests that a Labor government would have had to cut income taxes by about $210bn over the next decade to avoid breaching its target of maintaining a tax-to-GDP ratio of 24.3 per cent.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. PARLIAMENTARY BUDGET OFFICE, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, CENTRE ALLIANCE, MORGANS FINANCIAL LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

States climb $180bn debt mountain

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Original article by Michael Roddan
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 19-Jun-19

The combined net debt of Australia’s state and territory governments is set to exceed $184bn over the next four years, compared with just $81bn in 2018-19. Increased investment in infrastructure will be a key contributor to the debt blowout, and Robert Carling of the Centre for Independent Studies stresses the need for such projects to be subject to a cost-benefit analysis. He adds that New South Wales and Victoria could potentially be at risk of losing their AAA credit ratings if their net debt continues to rise, although he says this is unlikely in the near-term.

CORPORATES
THE CENTRE FOR INDEPENDENT STUDIES LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, MOODY’S INVESTORS SERVICE INCORPORATED, DELOITTE ACCESS ECONOMICS PTY LTD, NEW SOUTH WALES. THE TREASURY, SOUTH AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF TREASURY AND FINANCE

ABC staff told to brace for cuts

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Original article by Andrew White
The Australian – Page: 7 : 21-May-19

ABC MD David Anderson has warned the public broadcaster’s employees that it will need to reduce costs by $14.6m in 2019-20 after the federal government failed to reverse its funding freeze in the April 2019 Budget. Anderson has reiterated that investing in content must be the ABC’s priority; he had previously indicated that jobs and services would need to be cut if the funding freeze remained in place. Labor had committed to scrapping the freeze if it won the federal election.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

ABC boss busy playing politics

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Original article by Lilly Vitorovich
The Australian – Page: 4 : 8-May-19

The ABC’s MD David Anderson recently rejected claims of political bias at the public broadcaster. However, former chairman Maurice Newman says it was inappropriate for Anderson to use his first interview in his new role to suggest that if electors care for the ABC, they should not vote for the Coalition on 18 May. Anderson warned that the ABC will need to reduce its services due to the funding freeze in the May 2019 Budget.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY