VIRUS DISEASES – AUSTRALIA

Union takes Tax Office bosses to Federal Court in work from home row

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Original article by Noel Towell
The Age – Page: Online : 9-Dec-20

The Australian Services Union has commenced legal action against senior executives at the Australian Taxation Office. The ASU alleges that the executives – including Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan – were in breach of workplace laws and the ATO’s enterprise agreement, which includes working at home provisions. The union claims that ATO staff who had been working from home due to the pandemic were ordered to return to their offices without the required notice period when the federal government announced stimulus measures such as the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN SERVICES UNION, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE

New report into Consumers and COVID-19: from crisis to recovery examines the impact of COVID-19 on rental housing, mortgage providers, energy, telco, insurance, credit markets and more

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Original article by CPRC – Consumer Policy Research Centre
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 20-Nov-20

The Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) has partnered with Roy Morgan Research to conduct monthly surveys measuring the financial impacts and consumer experiences of COVID-19 across essential and important services markets, including housing, energy, telecommunications, credit and insurance. The September Report has just been released which examines consumer concerns about financial wellbeing and dealing with household expenses such as telcos and those of essential services providers. The report explores how renters and mortgagors have been impacted and the steps they’ve taken to manage household expenses across a range of consumer sub-groups who have had to deal with very different impacts from COVID-19. Click through to view a detail report in granular detail on the impact of COVID-19 on Australians.

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CONSUMER POLICY RESEARCH CENTRE, ROY MORGAN LIMITED

March target to vaccinate five million

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Original article by Natasha Robinson
The Australian – Page: 5 : 12-Nov-20

Health Minister Greg Hunt says the federal government aims to begin distributing COVID-19 vaccines in March. The government has agreed to purchase 10 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, which would enable five million Australians to be inoculated. The Therapeutic Goods Administration has granted a provisional determination for both the Pfizer vaccine candidate and one being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. The TGA hopes to approve the vaccines for use in Australia in January.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, PFIZER INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIA. THERAPEUTIC GOODS ADMINISTRATION, ASTRAZENECA PLC, OXFORD UNIVERSITY

Flu fatalities nosedive thanks to adherence to anti-virus measures

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Original article by Imogen Reid
The Australian – Page: 9 : 9-Nov-20

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid says coronavirus-induced international border closures is probably the main reason why the nation’s 2020 flu season was much less severe than usual. He adds that reduced social interaction, better hygiene and higher levels of vaccination also helped curb the spread of flu. Data from the Department of Health shows that Australia has recorded just 21,215 confirmed cases in the flu in 2020, compared with more than 300,000 in 2019. Likewise, just 36 deaths have been linked to flu, down from 943 during the 2019 flu season.

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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION LIMITED

Have ‘the guts to open’, like NSW

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Original article by Finbar O’Mallon, Jenny Wiggins
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 5-Nov-20

The New South Wales government will reopen the state’s borders to travellers from Victoria on 23 November. Premier Gladys Berejiklian says it is in the national interest for other states to reopen their borders with NSW, and she has urged them to do so. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the NSW government’s decision is a sign of confidence in his state’s health system. However, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says her state will monitor the situation in Victoria during the next month before considering any move to ease border restrictions.

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NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, VICTORIA. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, QUEENSLAND. DEPT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET

SA expected to soften borders with Victoria to allow quarantine

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Original article by Emily Cosenza
Herald Sun – Page: Online : 4-Nov-20

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall says the state is likely to scrap its hard border with Victoria within two weeks. However, Victorians will still be required to self-quarantine for 14 days after entering the state. Marshall says the travel restrictions will initially be relaxed for people living in border communities, who will no longer need to tested for COVID-19 every week if they want to travel to SA. Victoria has now recorded four consecutive days with no coronavirus cases, and there are just 38 active cases across the state. Meanwhile, the number of active cases among returned travellers in hotel quarantine in SA has increased to 13 after two more tested positive for COVID-19.

CORPORATES
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET

70% of working Australians’ employment impacted by COVID-19 – second lockdown hits Victoria hard

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 3-Nov-20

Seventy per cent of working Australians have now had ‘a change to their employment’ because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research by Roy Morgan. Such changes include working from home, having their work hours reduced, or being made redundant. This is based on research conducted during September, and compares to a finding of 67 per cent in July. The biggest impact in September was found in Victoria, where 79 per cent of working Victorians reported that they had had a change to their employment, 10 per cent more than any other state; Victoria was going through its second lockdown at the time.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Exodus from Australian cities as coronavirus pushes people to the regions

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Original article by Benedict Brook
News.com.au – Page: Online : 30-Oct-20

The pandemic is expected to see an increase in the trend of people moving away from the big cities, which could see a big fall in their populations. Nerida Conisbee from property website REA Group says people that have gone through lockdown are looking for somewhere to live with more space, while Griffith University urban planner Tony Matthews says that while previously people wanting to move away from capital cities were looking for somewhere with a train line, good broadband connection is now the most important piece of infrastructure. Research by Roy Morgan and Uber has found that no capital city CBD has returned to pre-COVID levels of movement, with Adelaide being the closest at 78 per cent.

CORPORATES
REA GROUP LIMITED – ASX REA, GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY, ROY MORGAN LIMITED, UBER AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

‘Precious’: No new locally acquired cases in Australia

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Original article by Hannah Wootton
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 2-Nov-20

No new locally acquired COVID-19 cases were confirmed anywhere in Australia on 1 November, it being the first time in almost five months that this has happened. It has put pressure on the states to open their borders, with federal Health Minister Greg Hunt saying there was a good chance that interstate families could be reunited before Christmas. With England to shut down for four weeks from 5 November because of surging infections and France having shut down on 30 October, Victorians were reminded by Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton to remain vigilant.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH

AFL modelling the ‘worst case scenario’, a second season played in interstate bubbles

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Original article by Michael Warner, Glenn McFarlane
The Australian – Page: 24 : 30-Oct-20

The Australian Football League is expected to release details of the length of the 2021 season and the length of quarters in early December. Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon has confirmed the AFL’s modelling for 2021 includes the possibility of using hubs again in the event of another outbreak of COVID-19, while Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett says he is hopeful that AFL crowds in Victoria will get back to 50 per cent capacity in 2021. Gordon says colder weather seems to make the virus harder to control, so a winter sport such as the AFL should not get complacent.

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AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, WESTERN BULLDOGS FOOTBALL CLUB, HAWTHORN FOOTBALL CLUB