Latest updates on Key Economic Indicators 

Australian Dollar: $0.7445 USD (up $0.0045 USD)

Iron Ore Jan Spot Price (SGX): $132.50 USD (up $1.24 USD)

Oil Price (WTI): $45.68 USD (up $0.48 USD)

Gold Price: $1,840.42 (up $12.08 USD)

Dow Jones: 30,049.91 at 3.05pm NY time (up 166.12 points on yesterday's close)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

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Christmas Koala

Picture a Christmas tree and you'll probably think of baubles, tinsel and fairy lights, but one Australian woman came home to find an unusual adornment: A koala.

Surprised by the unusual visitor, Amanda McCormick, who lives in Coromandel Valley near Adelaide, southern Australia, called local koala rescue organization 1300Koalaz.

'This evening our hotline operator took a call. At first she thought she was the victim of a prank call,' wrote the organization in a Facebook post Wednesday.

'But no, a koala desperate to get in the Christmas spirit had wandered into Amanda McCormick's house and decided it wanted to be the fairy on the Christmas tree.'

Dee Hearne-Hellon, 1300Koalaz co-founder, told CNN that it is not unheard of for koalas to enter homes, but it's not an everyday occurrence.

'The koala was a healthy juvenile female and was released out the front of the house, which is in a really lovely area for koalas if they have to live amongst us,' said Hearne-Hellon. 'The koala was still in the same tree she chose to climb when I saw her today (Thursday).'

The team celebrated the successful removal on Facebook with a festive ditty: "Tis the season to be jolly, Koalalalala Lalalala."

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China iron ore purchases boost economy's lift-off

The Australian Financial Review - Page 1 & 4 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Matthew Cranston - PortMac.News Summary

Iron ore was the major contributor to Australia's $12.7bn worth of exports to China during October.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the latest national accounts data shows that Australia's recession is technically over.

Analysts are upgrading their economic forecasts for the December quarter and 2021 after the nation recorded GDP growth of 3.3 per cent in the September quarter.

The federal government is also set to upgrade key economic forecasts in its mid-year Budget update, while Morrison has stressed the mutually beneficial nature of Australia's relationship with China.

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Vaccine rollout by March but no fast track

The Australian Financial Review - Page 3 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Tom McIlroy - PortMac.News Summary

The federal government has indicated that it is on track to approve a COVID-19 vaccine in early 2021, with the roll-out to begin in March.

John Skerritt of the Therapeutic Goods Administration has ruled out fast-tracking the roll-out of a vaccine.

He says Australia lacks the emergency authorisation mechanism that has been used in the UK to start distributing the Pfizer vaccine in the next week. Professor Skerritt notes that Australia will have access to data on the vaccine roll-out in the UK before local distribution of coronavirus vaccines begins.

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Overseas education in charm offensive

The Australian - Page 5 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Richard Ferguson - PortMac.News Summary

The international education sector is keen to work with the federal government to attract foreign students and to promote the benefits of such students to the Australian economy and society.

International Education Association CEO Phil Honeywood says 240,000 Australians work in the sector in "one shape or another", while Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge has suggested the idea of a 'digital vaccination card' as a way of helping foreign students to avoid having to quarantine when they arrive in Australia.

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Unis at risk of corruption, and it's the staff who say so

The Australian - Page 6 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Tim Dodd - PortMac.News Summary

A survey by South Australia's Independent Commissioner Against ­Corruption has found four in 10 staff at the state's three universities believe their institutions are susceptible to corruption and inappropriate conduct.

The survey of over 3,200 staff raised issues of concern such as low entry standards, falsification of data in research grant applications, and pressure to pass failing students.

University of Adelaide interim vice-chancellor Mike Brook has told staff that inappropriate conduct of the sort highlighted in the survey was not acceptable and would not be tolerated.

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Backpackers paid just $3 an hour

The Australian - Page 1 & 4 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Ewin Hannan - PortMac.News Summary

The findings of a union-funded investigation suggest that wage exploitation is rife in Australia's fruit-picking industry.

Amongst other things, the McKell Institute's three-month investigation found that workers are being paid just $60 a day to work on some farms in the Coffs Harbour region of New South Wales, and in some instances wages are as low as $3 an hour.

Workers are often recruited by labour hire companies via websites such as Facebook and Gumtree.

The Australian Workers' Union has called for a royal commission into working condition in the fruit-picking industry.

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Great housing dream lives on

The Australian - Page 1 & 4 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Simon Benson - PortMac.News Summary

Data from the Treasury shows that nearly 500 applications for the federal government's HomeBuilder grant were approved each week in November, compared with fewer than 20 per week in July.

The Treasury now expects 40,000 applications for the grant to be submitted by the end of December, well above the initial forecast of just 27,000.

Separate data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the value of new home loan construction commitments rose 65% year-on-year between July and October, while first- home buyer loan commitments rose to the highest level since 2009 in October.

The HomeBuilder scheme has been extended to the end of March, although the grant will be reduced from $25,000 to $15,000.

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Inefficient tax system 'stuck in the '70s'

The Australian Financial Review - Page 4 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by John Kehoe - PortMac.News Summary

Australia ranks behind only Denmark in terms of its reliance on personal and company income taxes in terms of its tax take, according to a new report from the OECD.

Meanwhile, Australia ranks equal lowest with Switzerland with regard to reliance on value-added taxes, with the 10% goods and services tax accounting for just 11.7%t of total tax revenue.

Nonetheless, Australia is a relatively low-taxing country by global standards, with its tax take of the overall economy at just 28.7%t of GDP, compared with the OECD average tax-to-GDP ratio of 33.9%.

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Coalition dumps plan to cap cash

The Australian Financial Review - Page 8 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Tom McIlroy - PortMac.News Summary

The federal government has backed down on plans to cap cash transactions at $10,000, a measure it had first introduced in the 2018 Budget.

It was aimed at limiting black economy transactions and reducing tax avoidance, and was tipped to raise as much as $5 billion in additional revenue.

Some minor parties and certain right-wing Liberal and National MPs had pressured the government to abandon the measure, claiming that it represented an infringement of personal liberty.

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar says COVID-19 has had a major impact on small business, and that now is not the time to impose an additional burden on the sector.

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Australian MP and ex-soldier blasts release of 'Unproven rumours' alleging Afghan war crimes

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Daniel Hurst - PortMac.News Summary

Federal MP Andrew Hastie has attacked Twitter for not taking down a tweet that showed a digitally created image of an Australian soldier cutting the throat of a child in Afghanistan.

The tweet was made by a Chinese foreign ministry official, but the ministry has denied it amounted to disinformation, stating it was based on a report of alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan that was released in November by the Australian Defence Force.

Hastie, who is a former special forces member, says the release of a report by military sociologist Dr Samantha Crompvoets that contained "Unproven rumours" about Australian soldiers killing Afghan children and which triggered the inquiry that resulted in the report released by the ADF, has given China the opportunity to malign Australian troops.

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Spying reform laws to be unveiled

The Australian - Page 4 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Rosie Lewis - PortMac.News Summary

Former ASIO head Dennis­ Richardson was asked by the Turnbull government in 2018 to review Australia's intelligence legislation; the unclassified parts of his review will be published on 4th December.

There are 190 unclassified recommendations, of which around 70 relate to telecommunications and surveillance devices.

Attorney-General Christian Porter has told parliament that Richardson had concluded that the key principles underpinning Aust­ralia's intelligence laws are sound, but that his review contains a number of recommendations for improvement, some of which are "very complex".

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PM and treasurer bill taxpayers for private jet to Lachlan Murdoch's Christmas party

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 4 December 2020 - Original article by William Summers, Christopher Knaus - PortMac.News Summary

It has been revealed that Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg travelled to Sydney in December 2019 to attend Lachlan Murdoch's Christmas party.

They flew from Canberra on Morrison's private jet on the evening of 5th December, returning to Canberra the next morning the same way.

The two flights cost taxpayers almost $5,000.

Morrison lives in Sydney and his family travelled with him, which offers some explanation for his trip.

However, Frydenberg has declined to answer questions on whether his trip to Sydney constituted parliamentary business or if attending the Murdoch party was his primary purpose for travel.

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Innovation doesn't mean pitting jobs against profits: Marles

The Australian Financial Review - Page 5 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Ronald Mizen - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian economy is suffering from a broken innovation system, according to Labor's deputy leader Richard Marles.

He has made this assessment in a chapter of 'The Write Stuff', a new book written by 30 members of Labor's Right faction.

Marles notes the challenge of developing an economic policy that does not alienate the voters that Labor needs in order to win government, while he observes that Australia is no longer among the 20 most innovative nations in the OECD.

Marles claims that Australia needs a culture that embraces 'innovation, risk and science'.

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Big miners power rise in bourse

The Australian - Page 20 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Lachlan Moffet Gray - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian sharemarket posted a modest gain on 3 December, with the S&P/ASX 200 adding 0.39 per cent to close at 6,615.3 points.

Fortescue Metals Group rose 13.3 per cent to $20.65, Woodside Petroleum was up 1.9 per cent at $22.85 and Kogan.com advanced 7.7 per cent to $17.35.

However, National Australia Bank shed 0.13 per cent to end the session at $22.97 and Afterpay was down 2.4 per cent at $96.20.

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Westpac risk culture slammed

The Australian - Page 17 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Richard Gluyas, Lachlan Moffet Gray - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's deputy chairman John Lonsdale says Australia's leading corporate criminal Westpac's governance, culture and accountability program is still inadequate and more action is needed.

Westpac has agreed to an enforceable undertaking in which the bank has acknowledged that the complexity and scope of its remediation program presents "Significant execution risks".

Westpac will submit an integrated remediation plan to APRA within 90 days of the enforceable undertaking taking effect.

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Black Friday a US boom for Afterpay

The Australian Financial Review - Page 19 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by James Eyers - PortMac.News Summary

Listed 'buy now pay later' provider Afterpay has advised that the Black Friday sale on 27 November resulted in a record number of transactions via its platform.

Meanwhile, some $900m worth of sales in Australia were made using Afterpay during November, compared with $2.2bn for the entire September quarter.

US consumers have also embraced Afterpay, with the number of retail sales made using its platform topping $1bn in November, compared with $1.6bn for the three months to September.

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ASIC warns against using cheques for compensation

The Australian Financial Review - Page 23 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Michael Roddan, Edmund Tadros - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has issued new guidance on the compensation programs being implemented by the finance industry.

The sector owes around 3.6 million wrongly charged customers more than $3.5 billion.

ASIC's guidance includes advice that repayment by the use of cheques "should be a last resort", noting that it is an outdated form of payment and that cheques are less likely to be cashed in, particularly if the cheque is of low value.

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WeChat platform powers Hong Kong's IPO boom

The Australian - Page 21 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Robert Gottliebsen - PortMac.News Summary

There have been 125 IPOs in Hong Kong so far in 2020, raising around $US40 billion.

Technology, biotechnology and property management companies have been the most common floats, with the IPO 'boom' having been arguably fuelled by online broking platforms such as Futubull and Tiger Brokers.

Futu, in which WeChat owner Tencent Holdings has a stake, saw its total number of paying customers increase by 38% to 419,000 at the end of September.

Futu's Chinese clients can use their mobile phones to subscribe to IPOs, as well as borrowing money to take part in floats.

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Booktopia bolts on debut, trials robots

The Australian - Page 15 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Eli Greenblat - PortMac.News Summary

Shares in Booktopia have closed at $2.72 on debut, after reaching an intra-day high of $2.90.

The stock listed on the Australian sharemarket at $2.86, compared with an issue price of $2.30.

The online book retailer had raised $43.1m via its IPO, with the bulk of the proceeds to be used to fund its growth strategy, reduce debt and for working capital.

Meanwhile, Booktopia has advised that it will begin a trial of autonomous robots at its Sydney distribution centre in early 2021.

The company says this technology will significantly increase the facility's storage capacity and operational efficiency.

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Nuix is 'Best in class' and well-priced for ASX debut, say fundies

The Australian Financial Review - Page 22 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Elouise Fowler, Yolanda Redrup - PortMac.News Summary

Investigative analytics and intelligence software company Nuix will make its Australian sharemarket debut on 4th December in what will be the biggest IPO in 2020.

Nuix will list with a market capitalisation of around $1.8 billion.

Existing shareholders have sold down $875 million worth of stock at the issue price of $5.31.

Nuix's majority owner Macquarie will make around $566 million from the float, while still retaining a 30 per cent stake in the firm.

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News Corp teams up with Nova for daily news podcast network 'News Feed'

Mumbrella - Page Online : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Zanda Wilson - PortMac.News Summary

'News Feed' is being launched by Nova Entertainment and NewsCast, with the latter being News Corp Australia's podcasting unit.

It will be a series of daily news podcasts from News Corp's state-based mastheads, including the 'Herald Sun' in Melbourne and 'The Advertiser' in Adelaide.

The podcasts will be produced from 5am daily, and will be presented by Nova Entertainment newsreaders.

Nova Entertainment's digital commercial director Kane Reiken says the new venture "will create new opportunities for News Corp clients".

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Tax Facebook if it cuts news, says Nobel Prize economist

The Australian Financial Review - Page 19 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Max Mason - PortMac.News Summary

The federal government is to shortly table legislation to enact a code of conduct that will require Facebook and Google to pay for the news content they use on their platforms.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz notes that newspapers are getting less advertising revenue than they used to because it is being diverted to social media, which means less production of news.

Both Facebook and Google have threatened to cut news from their platforms because of the proposed code, and Stiglitz says if they do this then the government should tax them.

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Make big tech pay for posting the news it does not make

The Australian Financial Review - Page 39 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Angela Flannery - PortMac.News Summary

The business model of traditional media has been harmed by the emergence of digital platforms.

The fall in the revenue of traditional media companies has resulted in a decline in public interest journalism, which is seen as a vital component of a healthy democracy.

Digital platforms use content from Australian news publishers and gain a number of benefits from doing so, but they do not pay for this content.

The federal government's legislation to enact a revenue-sharing code of conduct for Google and Facebook will help to address this.

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Art starter with banks joining government in $90m scheme

The Australian Financial Review - Page 3 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Tom McIlroy - PortMac.News Summary

The arts sector, which is worth around $115 billion a year to the Australian economy, has been hit hard by COVID-19.

To help it recover, the federal government has developed the $90 million 'Show Starter' loan scheme, in which the Commonwealth Bank and the ANZ Bank have agreed to participate.

Eligible organisations can apply for up to 50% of the total cost of a new arts and entertainment activity, to a maximum of $5 million.

The scheme is part of the government's $250 million JobMaker plan for the creative economy.

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Iron ore hits six-year high on Brazil cuts

The Australian - Page 13 & 20 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Nick Evans - PortMac.News Summary

The benchmark price of iron ore rose to $US136.75 a tonne on 3rd December, after Vale reduced its 2020 production guidance.

The Brazilian producer now expects full-year output of 300 million to 305 million tonnes, down from previous guidance of 310 million to 330 million tonnes.

The news boosted the share prices of Australian iron ore miners, with Fortescue Metals Group rising 13.2% to $20.65.

Broda Tyler of RBC Capital Markets expects an iron ore supply deficit of 2% in 2021.

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Iron ore is nation's A-bomb in trade war

Herald Sun - Page 67 : 4 December 2020 - Original article by Terry McCrann - PortMac.News Summary

Iron ore is Australia's biggest source of exporter revenue overall and from China in particular.

It is the nation's sole weapon in any trade war with China, and Australia has significant leverage given China's dependence on iron ore imports.

A 10% reduction in iron ore shipments to one of its biggest trading partners would have a major impact on China, while boosting the price of the steel input and consequently Australia's export revenue.

Brazil would not be in a position to fill such a shortfall in iron ore supply to China for some time, while it will be at least five years before high-quality iron ore exports from Africa begins.

Australia could further hurt China by maintaining iron ore export volumes and prices for customers in Japan and South Korea, making those nations' steel industries more competitive against China.