Latest updates on Key Economic Indicators - PortMac.News Summary

Australian Dollar: $0.6920 USD (up $0.0020 USD)

Iron Ore Aug Spot Price (SGX): $95.18 USD (down $0.50 USD)

Oil Price (WTI): $39.71 USD (down $0.11 USD)

Gold Price: $1,770.43 (down $10.39 USD)

Dow Jones: 25,734.97 (down 77.91 points)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

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Putin wins big in vote allowing him to extend his rule to 2036

Bloomberg - Page Online : 2 July 20 - Original article by Ilya Arkhipov, Stepan Kravchenko

PortMac.News Summary

Russia's Central Election Commission has advised that 78 per cent of voters have backed a proposal for President Vladimir Putin to run for another six-year terms when his current term ends in 2024

This is despite the fact that polling by the Levada Center shows that Putin's popularity has fallen to 60 per cent, which is around the lowest levels since he became president in 2000. [Click to view full article here]

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Girl, 15, among more than 300 protesters arrested by Hong Kong police

The New Daily - Page Online : 2 July 2020

PortMac.News Summary

Police in Hong Kong have arrested 370 demonstrators who staged a protest against the Chinese government's new national security laws.

Police have stated that 10 of the arrests were for offences related to the new security laws. Some of the protestors were arrested for displaying Kong independence flags, including a 15-year-old girl.

The legislation allow people who breach the national security laws to be extradition to the Chinese mainland for trial. 

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Organised crime caught ripping off jobs schemes

The Australian - Page 1 & 4 : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Simon Benson

PortMac.News Summary

The Australian Federal Police has revealed that overseas-based organised crime groups are exploiting federal government programs aimed at assisting people who have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

These include the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme, the increased JobSeeker payment and the early access scheme for superannuation fund members. The AFP is believed to have had more than 50 bank accounts frozen as part of its investigation.

The AFP is also concerned that drug traffickers will ramp up their activities when Australia's state and national borders re-open.

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Victorian Premier warns state could go back into lockdown as coronavirus cases rise by 73

abc.net.au - Page Online : 2 July 2020

PortMac.News Summary

Victoria reported 73 new coronavirus cases on 1 July, including nine that are linked to known outbreaks.

The number of virus infections that have been attributed to community transmission has risen to 301, after 20 additional cases were detected. Several hospitals and schools are among the sites where new infections have been reported.

Meanwhile, stage three restrictions have now been reintroduced in 36 suburbs and 10 postcodes in Melbourne.

Premier Daniel Andrews has flagged the possibility of another statewide lockdown if the virus is not contained. [Click to view full article here]

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Tender waived for Victorian quarantine hotel security

The Australian - Page 1 & 5 : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Rachel Baxendale

PortMac.News Summary

The Victorian government has appointed retired Family Court judge Jennifer Coate to head a judicial inquiry into the state's hotel quarantine program.

Hotel security contractors have now been linked to two coronavirus clusters that comprise 48 cases in total,

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the state government did not undertake a formal tender process before awarding the hotel quarantine contracts to three private security firms.

A government spokeswoman has indicated that the tender process was waived for MSS, Unified and Wilson due to the urgency of the need to quarantine returned travellers.

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'Ghosts' spooked hotel quarantine system

Herald Sun - Page 5 : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Mark Buttler, Grant McArthur, Matthew Johnston

PortMac.News Summary

There have been claims of widespread rorting by private security firms that have been given hotel quarantine contracts by the Victorian government.

Amongst other things, it has been alleged that security firms had rostered on significantly fewer guards than they claimed were on duty, and that fake names were used to bill taxpayers for the contractors who did not exist.

Sources have indicated that the government had been warned about the practice of 'ghosting' several months ago.

It has also been alleged that a number of security contractors were paid in cash, while some are alleged to have had intimate relations with people in quarantine.

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Localised lockdown 'won't be the last'

The Australian - Page 5 : 2 July 2020 -Original article by Natasha Robinson

PortMac.News Summary

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Tony Blakely says the Victorian government's move to reimpose coronavirus restrictions on certain suburbs is essential and should work "very well".

He has also raised the possibility of the lockdown being extended to other postcodes or even the whole of Melbourne if the virus is not contained.

David Paterson from the University of Queensland's Centre for Clinical Research says localised lockdowns are likely to be widely used across Australia in coming months.

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For economy's sake, state won't shut down

The Australian - Page 5 : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Yoni Bashan

PortMac.News Summary

There are currently 63 active coronavirus cases in New South Wales, and Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello has conceded that the state can be expected to face fresh outbreaks.

He says the state is likely to adopt the Victorian government's strategy of a localised approach to lockdowns, targeting individual suburbs or postcodes, and a statewide lockdown is unlikely.

Meanwhile, Victorians who live in designated coronavirus hotspots will face large fines and possible jail time if they travel to NSW.

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Gippsland tourism operators asking for people's postcodes amid Melbourne coronavirus scare

abc.net.au - Page Online : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Kellie Lazzaro

PortMac.News Summary

The Gippsland region has been a popular destination for Victorians during the state's school holidays.

However, some businesses that cater to tourists are turning away travellers who are residents of the Melbourne suburbs that have been designated coronavirus hotspots.

There have been reports that some tourism operators in regional New South Wales are also asking visitors from across the border for their postcode. [Click to view full article here]

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G4 virus: Concern for pandemic potential flu strain found in China

News.com.au - Page Online : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Benedict Brook

PortMac.News Summary

It is believed that at least 1 in 10 people who work with pigs in China have contracted a newly-identified strain of swine flu.

Designated genome 4, the virus is genetically descended from the H1N1 swine flu strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.

Chinese scientists say the new virus has the "essential hallmarks" of being highly adapted to infect humans, and a US infectious diseases expert has warned that the new strain is "very, very dangerous".

However, the Chinese government has downplayed concerns about the G4 flu strain. [Click to view full article here]

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America's official COVID-19 death toll could be underestimating fatalities by 28 per cent

News.com.au - Page Online : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Shannon Molloy

PortMac.News Summary

The official death toll from the coronavirus in the US has topped 129,000.

However, new research suggests that many more people may have died from the respiratory illness.

A total of 781,000 deaths were recorded in the US in the three months to 30 May, including 95,235 that were attributed to the coronavirus.

The total number of deaths recorded during the three months was more than 120,000 higher than usual for this period, prompting the researchers to speculate that some of the 'excess' deaths were due to the virus.

They note that some of the deaths occurred before coronavirus diagnostic kits became widely available. [Click to view full article here]

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Tax office tells some sole traders who received JobKeeper they were not entitled to payments

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Elias Visontay

PortMac.News Summary

The Australian Taxation Office's website states that business that were started after 1 January may be eligible for the JobKeeper wage subsidy.

However, a number of sole traders who started their business after this date have now been advised by the ATO that they do not qualify for the scheme.

The ATO has sent compliance emails advising that they may have to repay any money they have received via the scheme.

David Hall, who started his marketing business in February, has likened the situation to the federal government's troubled 'Robodebt' program.

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Employers flooded with job applications despite higher rate of welfare benefits, data finds

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Luke Henriques-Gomes

PortMac.News Summary

Unpublished data from SEEK shows that the number of job applications submitted to employers in June was significantly above pre-coronavirus levels.

The figures show that at the end of June, the number of applicants per job was 16 per cent higher than in February, while candidate availability was about 30 per cent higher than in February.

This is despite the fact that the JobSeeker unemployment benefit was temporarily doubled due to the virus, and indications that this has resulted in some businesses finding it hard to recruit staff. [Click to view full article here]

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Call to scrap super increase 'or risk economic recovery'

The Australian - Page 4 : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Gerard Cockburn, Richard Gluyas

PortMac.News Summary

Industry Super Australia chairman Greg Combet warns that there would be a significant impact on the retirement savings of many Australians if the legislated increase in the super guarantee does not proceed.

A report from the Grattan Institute claims that lifting the super guarantee from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent by mid-2025 will affect the economy's recovery from the pandemic.

Combet rejects suggestions that workers will miss out on a pay rise if the super guarantee is increased.

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Research reveals 480,000 members have emptied their super accounts

The New Daily - Page Online : 2 July 202 - Original article by Rod Myer

PortMac.News Summary

More than $17bn has been withdrawn from superannuation funds via the federal government's early access scheme.

Mercer principal David Knox says the scheme was badly planned and designed; he adds that while some people were facing financial hardship due to the pandemic, many of the 2.3 million people who have used the scheme did not really need to do so.

Knox argues that the government should not have implemented the early access scheme until its JobKeeper and JobSeeker programs were in place; this would have given people a better idea of their financial situation, and they may have been more reluctant to tap into their retirement savings.

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Military boost still may not be enough to cover plans

The Australian - Page 6 & 7 : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Ben Packham

PortMac.News Summary

Defence experts have questioned whether the federal government's decision to allocate an additional $270bn to defence over the next decade will be sufficient

Marcus Hellyer of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute says it is possible that defence spending could rise to at least 2.4 per cent of GDP over the next 10 years.

He adds that there were already doubts about the affordability of the defence spending measures outlined in a 2016 white paper. Hellyer notes that the cost of some previously announced defence programs has blown out considerably, including the Future Frigates program.

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We modelled the future of Leadbeater's possum habitat and found bushfires, not logging, pose the greatest threat

The Conversation - Page Online : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Craig Nitschke, Andrew Robinson, Melissa Fedrigo, Patrick Baker, Raphael Trouve

PortMac.News Summary

Researchers from the University of Melbourne have used modelling to assess the long-term impact of climate change and timber harvesting on the habitat of the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum.

The modelling focused on 280,000 hectares of Victoria's Central Highlands, which is home to the majority of remaining Leadbeater's possums.

It shows that bushfires present the greatest threat to the species' habitat across a large area, although timber harvesting is a major threat on a more local scale.

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Offshore gains lead stocks higher

The Australian - Page 20 : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Melissa Yeo

PortMac.News Summary

The Australian sharemarket posted modest gains on 1 July, with the S&P/ASX 200 adding 0.62 per cent to close at 5,934.4 points.

Resolute Mining was 7.1 per cent higher at $1.22, Beach Energy was up 0.7 per cent at $1.53 and National Australia Bank advanced 1.9 per cent to end the session at $18.56. However, Rio Tinto was down 0.8 per cent at $97.15 and Lendlease eased 1.3 per cent to $12.21.

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NAB targets high net worth clients as part of new wealth strategy

The Australian Financial Review - Page 18 : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Aleks Vickovich

PortMac.News Summary

Justin Greiner will head National Australia Bank's newly-created NAB Private Wealth division, which comprises its JBWere, Nabtrade and private bank businesses.

Greiner has flagged plans to hire at least 50 additional bankers and financial advisers for the new division, which will target high net worth customers.

He says the coronavirus pandemic has presented an opportunity for NAB to increase this segment of its customer base. Greiner stresses that the new division will not have the vertical integration problems that have plagued MLC, which NAB is seeking to divest.

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AMP exits life insurance after 170 years

The Australian Financial Review - Page 18 : 2 July 2020 - Original article by Aleks Vickovich

PortMac.News Summary

Shares in AMP rallied on 1 July after the wealth manager completed the sale of its life insurance business to UK-based Resolution Life for $3bn.

As part of the deal, AMP will have a 20 per cent stake in the newly-established Resolution Life Australia, which will own AMP Life.

The sale of the life business finally cleared all regulatory hurdles in June; AMP had revealed plans to sell it in October 2018. AMP expects the cash component of the transaction to boost its capital by about $1.1m.