Today's News - Monday 14 December 2020
Today's News - Monday 14 December 2020
Our Backyard
In September, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he hoped to have "as many people home, if not all of them, by Christmas".
Since then, more than 43,800 Australians have returned from overseas, including more than 17,000 Australians registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
At least 36,000 citizens and permanent residents who have registered with DFAT are still unable to return.
Scott Morrison has continued to step back from his controversial use of "carry-over credits" to help meet Paris Agreement emissions reduction targets but has not committed to abandoning them.
He told a virtual meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum leaders on Friday that he was "very confident" Australia wouldn't need to use the credits to reach Australia's Paris agreement emissions reductions target.
But he did not renounce their use, as advocates of stronger climate action had hoped.
Australia has promised to cut 26 to 28 per cent of its emissions by 2030.
Australian officials have been talking with Taiwan about boosting trade between the two economies as the Morrison government looks for alternative markets for billions of dollars worth of exports hit by China’s trade strikes.
Officials from the Department of Foreign and Affairs and Trade have held meetings with counterparts in the Taiwan government in recent weeks to discuss more trade opportunities.
While the Australian government has at this stage ruled out striking a free trade agreement with Taiwan, the two countries are discussing options to boost exports into the self-governed democracy of 23 million people.
Any move to enter a formal economic agreement with Taiwan could further inflame tensions with China, which has claimed sovereignty over the island state since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Farmers forced to destroy crops during the coronavirus pandemic have received a boost, with Scott Morrison unveiling a new scheme to increase their temporary workforce.
Fruit farmers have been forced to destroy their crops or leave them to rot, given a severe labour hole blown open by the pandemic. The government estimates the industry requires an injection of 26,000 fruit pickers
The Prime Minister confirmed national cabinet had made a bilateral agreement to “unlock” the shortage.
The agreement means seasonal workers would, under specific health orders, be able to come into states for work but would be confined to those jurisdictions.
Every state is spending far more money than in 2019. At least 10 per cent more, and up to almost 20 per cent more in Queensland, NT, South Australia and Tasmania.
The large spending has been attributed to Australia’s savings.
Nearly two-thirds of Australians say they would support the introduction of a universal basic income (UBI), according to a new poll.
According to Stanford University's Basic Income Lab, at its core, a UBI is a cash payment given to all members of a community on a regular basis (for example every month) regardless of income level and with no strings attached.
The COVID lockdowns may have increased sympathy for UBI. More than 3.6 million workers received JobKeeper payments between March and September (totalling nearly $70 billion), and 1.5 million were still receiving the payments after the program was revised in October.
The survey question was put to 1,026 Australians.
CBA on Friday morning clipped savings rates by five basis points on its standard and conditional deposit accounts – the second time CBA has cut rates since the central bank announced further monetary easing measures on November 3 that included lowering the official cash rate to 0.1 per cent.
CBA since November 3 has lowered savings rates on deposit accounts between 20 and 25 basis points, which is more than the 15 basis point reduction prescribed by the RBA.
CBA’s standard NetBank Saver account now attracts a five-month introductory rate of 0.55 per cent that then changes to a measly ongoing rate of 0.05 per cent.
Non-bank lender Liberty Financial is looking to broaden the brokers it uses after it was dropped from the lender panel for a major mortgage broker while its agreement with a second broker is in flux.
Liberty, which is expected to list as a $1.8 billion group on Tuesday, has been removed from the lending panel for Connective Services which has been estimated to account for about 23 per cent of the loan introducer market.
Its agreement with another major broker, AFG, is also up in the air, industry sources say. Liberty declined to comment on commercial arrangements. There are expectations in the industry that a new agreement with AFG will be inked shortly between the two groups.
The concerns about the agreements come as AFG's attempts to buy Connective Services have been rejected by a shareholder in Connective that is owned by a senior Liberty Financial staffer.
Before AFG lobbed its offer, that staffer took legal action to increase his stake in Connective alleging his rights were oppressed by other shareholders. Liberty is funding that legal action but is not involved in the case. That legal action revealed Liberty had not documented a promise of an $82 million loan to the staffer to help acquire a larger stake in Connective if he wins his case.
The ACCC will investigate allegations of unfair contracts in chicken meat and horticulture sector.
The ACCC report has made four recommendations to government and industry including to:
Mandate the Food and Grocery Code with significant penalties for contraventions
- Establish economy-wide unfair trading laws
- Toughen up unfair contract provisions in business-to-business contracts
- Increase price transparency reporting across perishable agricultural commodities
The competition watchdog says fresh food markets have characteristics of power imbalances.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-10/accc-hands-down-report-into-supermarket-treatment/12970134
The financial crimes watchdog says criminals and foreign interference agents have infiltrated "junket" gambling tour operators working in Australia and urged casinos to do more to address the high level risk of money-laundering.
The anti-money laundering authority AUSTRAC said on Friday it had identified instances of junkets being exploited and infiltrated by "serious and transnational criminal entities", including individuals taking part in what could be "regarded as foreign interference".
Junkets bring wealthy Chinese high rollers to overseas casinos and extend them credit to gamble with, circumventing China's tight capital controls, and have become an important part of Crown and rival operator Star Entertainment's businesses in recent years.
Coles is selling lobster for half price this Christmas after buying more than needed to help out fishermen who had their stock rejected by China.
The major supermarket has dropped its Western Australian Rock Lobsters prices to just $20 — matching the price at Woolworths — which will be available in the deli section of its stores nationally.
The company purchased 29 times the amount of lobsters it did last year, in what Coles General Manager for Bakery, Deli and Seafood Andy Mossop said was a win for the industry and consumers.
He said the supermarket chain was preparing for its busiest week of the year for seafood sales, with customers buying 70 per cent more in December compared to other months.
Premium airlines including Qantas are running refresher courses for pilots ahead of international travel starting up again.
The Boeing 737 Max plane also returns to the skies this year after being grounded in 2018.
Aviation experts say some pilots don't have access to flight simulators for training.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-13/coronavirus-means-some-pilots-may-be-out-of-practice/12957796
The Government launched the Global Talent visa last year.
"With this program, we are targeting the world's most highly skilled migrants", then-immigration minister David Coleman said at the time.
"By enabling local businesses to access the world's best talent, we will help to grow high-growth industries in Australia."
The visa offers a path to permanent residency for those who are internationally recognised in one of the target sectors, are nominated by a person or organisation in Australia with a national reputation and have the ability to earn more than $153,000.
The target sectors are agricultural tech, space and advanced manufacturing, financial tech, energy and mining tech, medical technology, cybersecurity and data science/advanced IT.
Applicants for the new Global Talent visa need a nomination from a person or organisation with a national reputation.
Young leaders in emerging sectors are being approached out of the blue to provide nominations for a new visa at the heart of the Government's migration revolution. In one case, cash was offered in exchange.
But as it gets up and running, concerns have been raised that the scheme may be a magnet for fraud.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-11/global-talent-visa-nomination-integrity-fraud-growth/12971514
The NSW pandemic initiative that would give each resident $100 to spend on food and entertainment has been delayed for an important reason.
A trial version of the program was set to begin this week but has instead been postponed.
The decision to push back the trial of the “dine and discover” program until early next year was made after businesses that were to partake in the scheme asked for a delay.
Restaurants in The Rocks, a central Sydney neighbourhood where 500 residents were supposed to get a sneak-preview of the voucher scheme from last Wednesday, felt that holiday business was going well enough without the voucher scheme.
Many were booked out and asked for it to be rolled out in January instead, when crowds are expected to thin out.
Hospitality workers are being offered sign-on bonuses of up to $1000 in a battle between pubs and restaurants to secure staff amid a labour shortage that may drive up wages and food and drink prices.
The competition is particularly hot in Victoria where venues are reopening after months of lockdown to find a workforce raided by other states and absent of backpackers and skilled visa holders, who were told early in the pandemic to return home and denied access to JobSeeker or JobKeeper payments.
Victorian president of the Australian Hotels Association, David Canny, said the shortage extended from unskilled roles such as dishwashers through to head chefs, and it meant some venues were unable to reopen or were closing for days just to give overworked staff a break.
Queensland train drivers and guards pocketed more than half a million dollars in overtime each week last financial year, despite patronage plunging during the pandemic.
But Transport Minister Mark Bailey said the multimillion-dollar overtime bill was "normal".
State government data revealed during budget estimates showed $28.3 million was shelled out on overtime pay last financial year.
Mr Bailey said that number was expected to drop to $24.3 million in 2020-21, as the state had invested in training more drivers.
Rio Tinto could have to pay up to $250 million in compensation to the traditional owners of Juukan Gorge, according to the chief executive of the National Native Title Council.
Council chief executive Jamie Lowe said that the sites destroyed for the expansion of Rio Tinto's Brockman 4 iron ore mine had an economic value of $135 million.
He said it was difficult to quantify the cultural loss of the destruction of the 46,000-year-old sites, but said the High Court last year had awarded compensation to native title holders for the loss of their spiritual connection to their land.
A mysterious monolith in an Adelaide paddock has disappeared in circumstances eerily similar to others found in locations around the globe.
The three sided, three-metre-tall structure covered in cryptic coordinates appeared at Noarlunga, next to the Seaford train bridge before it disappeared on Friday.
As of Sunday, all that remains are three metal posts.
And while Adelaide no longer appears to have its monolith, the mysterious identity of those behind the bizarre stunt may have been solved.
Despite some speculating it was the work of aliens or – a sculptor who died in 2011 – it appears to be the work of an artist collective.
World News
Australia's disastrous 2019-2020 "Black Summer" bushfire season blew so much smoke into the upper atmosphere that it blocked sunlight from reaching Earth's surface, potentially causing a brief global cooling effect comparable to a moderate volcanic eruption, new research has found.
In late 2019 and early 2020, raging bushfires in south-east Australia spawned a rash of rare fire-induced thunderclouds, known as pyrocumulonimbus clouds, or pyroCbs. This pyroCb "super outbreak", as scientists are now calling it, injected plumes of smoke into the stratosphere, a layer of the atmosphere that starts about nine miles overhead. There, the smoke plumes spun up their own winds, creating self-sustaining vortexes that circled the globe, in one case climbing to an unprecedented altitude of more than 32 kilometres in the process.
Findings published recently in Communications Earth & Environment and presented at the virtual American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference this week show that smoke acted like a planetary shade, reducing the amount of sunlight hitting Earth's surface for several months.
A UK pub has applied to become a “place of worship” in a bid to reopen despite lockdown restrictions.
The New Baron pub in Hinckley, Leicestershire, can currently only open for takeaways and deliveries.
But places of worship such as churches are allowed to open for services and private prayer across all three Tiers of the coronavirus restrictions.
The Elmesthorpe Brewery Company, which owns the boozer, has applied for the venue to be registered as a religious meeting place under the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855.
If successful, the pub would be christened The Church of New Baron, with patrons to be known as New Baronials, while owner Nirad Solanki, or Father Niri, would lead the flock.
European leaders gathered in Brussels this week ready to clash on fundamental issues, from democracy to climate change. But they ended a two-day summit on Friday with a string of significant deals, including a plan to give unprecedented money-raising authority to the European Union to help economies struggling through the pandemic.
Although the spectre of a disorderly Brexit on December 31 loomed over the meeting, the prime ministers and presidents spent little time on it. Instead, they fought over a host of other issues - and, ultimately, struck some bargains. Along with a $2.9 trillion spending plan that includes an emergency pandemic fund, leaders committed to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the next decade.
World leaders should declare states of "climate emergency" in their countries to spur action to avoid catastrophic global warming, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has told a climate summit.
More than 70 world leaders were due to address the one-day virtual gathering aimed at building momentum for much steeper cuts in planet-warming emissions on the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris climate accord.
G20 countries are spending 50 per cent more in their rescue packages on sectors linked to fossil fuel production than low-carbon energy.
Diplomats are watching for stronger pledges from countries like China, India and Japan.
The Nigerian military had located and exchanged fire with gunmen who kidnapped scores of secondary school students in northwestern Katsina state, according to a statement from the president.
The gang, armed with AK-47s, stormed the Government Science secondary school in Kankara district at about 9.40pm on Friday, police and locals said. A parent and school employee said that roughly half of the school's 800 students were missing.
President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement that the military had located the kidnappers in a forest and was exchanging fire with them, aided by air support.
Katsina is plagued by violence the government attributes to bandits - a loose term for gangs of outlaws who attack locals and kidnap for ransom. Attacks by Islamist militants are common in north-eastern parts of the country.
An enormous iceberg is heading toward South Georgia Island in the southern Atlantic, where scientists say a collision could devastate wildlife by threatening the food chain.
Scientists have long been watching this climate-related event unfold, as the iceberg - the size and shape of Jamaica – has meandered and advanced over two years since breaking off from the Antarctic peninsula in July 2017.
The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, registering a record high temperature of 20.75 degrees Celsius on February 9. The warming has scientists concerned about ice melt and collapse leading to higher sea levels worldwide.
Iranian dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam, who was convicted of fomenting violence during the 2017 anti-government protests, has been executed, state television reported.
Iran's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Zam on Tuesday. He was captured in 2019 after years in exile.
His Amadnews feed had more than 1 million followers.
The son of a pro-reform Shiite cleric, Zam fled Iran and was given asylum in France.
Iran said it had trapped Zam in 2019 in a "complex operation using intelligence deception".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-12/iran-executes-dissident-journalist-ruhollah-zam/12978514
Indonesian Islamic cleric Rizieq Shihab has been arrested in Jakarta on suspicion of breaching coronavirus restrictions by holding events that drew thousands of followers in the city, his lawyer said.
Police were investigating the provocative and politically influential cleric for violating COVID-19 control measures after several mass gatherings were held to celebrate his return from self-exile in Saudi Arabia last month.
The arrest came after six of Mr Rizieq's supporters were killed in a shootout with police on Monday.
Indonesian police say they have arrested a man believed to be the military leader of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network and the suspected bombmaker behind the 2002 Bali bombings.
Aris Sumarsono, known as Zulkarnaen, had eluded capture since 2003.
He was arrested late on Thursday by counterterrorism police without resistance in a raid at a house in East Lampung district on Sumatra island, National Police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan said.
New Zealand and the Cook Islands will let people travel between the countries without quarantine, its leaders have announced.
Dad who died of cancer left $10 note to buy son’s first legal beer.
Six years after Matt Goldman lost his dad to cancer he received a special gift that left him in tears and now he has shared the story.
Days after Elon Musk’s SpaceX SN8 test capsule exploded, his latest prototype was seen leaning precariously on its side before collapsing on the launch pad.
A hardback first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has sold at auction for 68,000 pounds ($119,380) in England.
The issue was one of 500 copies published in the first run by Bloomsbury back in 1997, before JK Rowling's saga of wizards and magic became a global literary phenomenon.
Another Potter first edition sold for 50,000 pounds ($87,780), representing an extraordinary slice of luck for sellers Karen and Charlotte Rumsey.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-13/harry-potter-first-edition-sells-for-68000-pounds/12979246
Covid-19
One returned traveller in Victorian hotel quarantine has been diagnosed with COVID-19 overnight, as the state recorded its 44th day in a row without community transmission of the virus.
The new case, which was acquired overseas, brings the total number of confirmed infections in the state's quarantine system to six.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-13/victoria-hotel-quarantine-one-new-coronavirus-case/12978418
Health authorities in Australia are sticking with their March timeline to rollout the COVID-19 vaccine.
Experts say we have nothing to lose by waiting a few months, but something to gain.
Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly says Australia is in talks to secure more doses of Pfizer's vaccine.
Clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Queensland in partnership with biotech company CSL have been abandoned after trial participants returned false positive HIV test results.
The vaccine is one of four the Federal Government had committed to purchasing, and agreements had been made to secure 51 million doses of the vaccine.
In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, CSL said it would not progress with trials, however stressed the vaccine had a "strong safety profile".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-11/uq-csl-coronavirus-vaccine-trial-to-be-abandoned/12973656
Peru has suspended trials for China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine due to a "serious adverse event" that occurred with one of the volunteers for the study, the Peruvian government has said in a statement.
The health ministry said the event is "under investigation to determine if it is related to the vaccine or if there is another explanation".
A controversial plan to ease restrictions for five days over the Christmas period in the UK has sparked fears it could fuel a devastating rise in coronavirus infections.
The British government has announced COVID-19 restrictions will be eased from December 23 to 27 to allow families to celebrate Christmas together.
Under the new rules three households can form a “Christmas bubble”, with no social distancing requirements for people within the bubble.
People can meet those in their bubble in private homes, places of worship or outdoor public spaces.
Japan saw more than 3,000 new infections of the novel coronavirus for the first time in one day on Saturday, public broadcaster NHK reported, as the number of cases continues to rise in the winter.
A total of 3,041 people were newly infected. Japan's capital and largest city, Tokyo, confirmed 621 new cases on Saturday.
While Japan has not seen anywhere near the kind of massive outbreaks that have hit the United States and parts of Europe, infections have worsened as winter has set in, particularly in regions such as the northern island of Hokkaido.
So far, some 2,588 people have died in Japan from the coronavirus.
Property
Multi-billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff has called on state and federal governments to offer more incentives to apartment developers and purchasers — given his source market of immigrant and student purchasers has all but dried up.
Acquisitive pub baron Arthur Laundy has capped off a strong year, paying more than $30m for Sydney’s Bidwill Hotel in one of 2020’s larger deals.
The billionaire owner of Laundy Hotels, which controls more than 70 pubs and hotels in NSW and Queensland, said he bought the large hotel in the outer western Sydney suburb of Bidwill on Friday for cashflow purposes.
Mr Laundy is fresh from the success of developing the Marsden Brewhouse in western Sydney, and has just won council approval for a $35m redevelopment of the Log Cabin Hotel, a popular fixture of the Penrith community, with a couple of partners in tow.
Suburbs recording largest year-on-year increase in median sale price over the past 12 months:
Brisbane
- St Lucia – 37.5 per cent
- Sandgate – 22.9 per cent
- Virginia – 22 per cent
- Highgate Hill – 20 per cent
- Samford Valley – 19.4 per cent
Sydney
- Pearl Beach – 45.5 per cent
- North Willoughby – 43.8 per cent
- Glenorie – 40.5 per cent
- North Avoca – 38.6 per cent
- Bayview – 34.1 per cent
Melbourne
- Tyabb – 43.6 per cent
- Aberfeldie – 24.4 per cent
- Collingwood – 23.4 per cent
- South Melbourne – 22.9 per cent
- Coburg – 20.5 per cent
Hobart
- Dodges Ferry – 29.4 per cent
- Primrose Sands – 26.4 per cent
- Carlton – 19.4 per cent
- Rokeby – 18.1 per cent
- Berriedale – 17.2 per cent
Adelaide
- Millswood – 34.6 per cent
- Hove – 33 per cent
- Seacliff – 21.3 per cent
- Blackwood – 21.1 per cent
- Craigburn Farm – 20.7 per cent
Perth
- Coodanup – 29.1 per cent
- Kelmscott – 26.6 per cent
- Medina – 20.3 per cent
- Mount Nasura – 20 per cent
- Madora Bay – 18.4 per cent
(Source: realestate.com.au)
https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/dr-andrew-wilson-79b70058/detail/recent-activity/
Markets
Non-bank lender Plenti will use a new loan funding facility to help accelerate growth and push into areas including commercial car and renewable energy loans.
The new $100m warehouse funding facility with National Australia Bank was announced in a statement to the ASX on Friday. It is targeted at personal and renewable energy lending.
The statement also noted fresh mezzanine finance from two undisclosed domestic investors and an increase in an existing secured car finance loan funding facility to $275m.
Plenti chief executive Daniel Foggo said the new NAB facility further diversified the company’s funding sources and positioned it for the next phase of growth.
Toyota is preparing to show off its all-new SUV next year, which will be unlike anything the brand has built before.
The Japanese brand has confirmed it will unveil its first fully-electric car. The yet-to-be-named EV will be the same size as the current RAV4 but will be built on the company’s new scalable electric platform.
Westpac has pledged shareholders will see a return to normal dividend payments in 2021 following a tumultuous year that has swiped the bank’s profits by 66 per cent.
At the country’s second largest bank’s annual general meeting, Westpac chief executive Peter King affirmed the embattled bank had accelerated plans to fix its risk compliance failures that led to a money laundering scandal in 2019 and subsequent record fine.
Airbnb’s shares more than doubled on debut in New York in one of the world’s biggest IPOs this year. Shares soared as high as $US146 on the Nasdaq, well above the initial $US68 a share, giving it a sky-high valuation of more than $US100bn ($132bn). That’s more than double the value of hotel giant Marriott, and a striking result for a company whose existence was threatened this year by the coronavirus pandemic and widespread travel bans.
On Friday, Australian shares have dropped for a second consecutive day as CSL shares slumped on its abandoned COVID-19 vaccine trial, while the Australian dollar rallied.
The All Ordinaries index closed slightly lower (-0.4pc) at 6,886 points on Friday. Meanwhile, the benchmark ASX 200 performed a little worse, down 0.6 per cent to 6,642.
The steelmaking material jumped (+4.3pc) to $US156.58 a tonne.
Shares in BHP (+0.8pc) and Rio Tinto (+0.5pc) posted solid gains. Fortescue Metals jumped (+2pc) to $22.95, its highest ever closing price.
The price of Brent crude reached more than $US50 a barrel for the first time since oil prices slumped in March.
Woodside (+2.6pc), Santos (+2.8pc) and Beach Energy (+0.8c) were among the energy stocks making gains.
Shares in Airbnb have soared on debut, in the biggest US stock market listing of 2020. Shares in Airbnb's initial public offering were priced at $US68 and the stock soared past that during its first session of trade, closing at $US144.71.
The Australian dollar jumped above 75 US cents overnight, its highest value in two-and-a-half years.
Its six-week rally was mainly driven by surging commodity prices and a weaker US greenback.
By 5:00pm AEDT, the local currency was buying 75.55 US cents.
https://www.smh.com.au/business