Latest updates on Key Economic Indicators

Australian Dollar: $0.7425 USD (up $0.0003 USD)

Iron Ore Jan Spot Price (SGX): $143.83 USD (up $2.85 USD)

Oil Price (WTI): $45.73 USD (down $0.53 USD)

Gold Price: $1,858.59 (up $19.29 USD)

Dow Jones: 30,008.69 at 3.10pm NY time (down 209.57 points on Friday's close)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

---

Bob Dylan sells his entire catalogue of songs to Universal

Bob Dylan has sold his entire catalog of songs, which encompasses more than 600 songs over 60 years, in a "landmark agreement" with Universal Music Publishing Group.

The agreement between Dylan and the company was announced Monday.

It's a major shift for the singer and songwriter, who has controlled much of his own intellectual property according to multiple reports.

Financial terms weren't disclosed, but the New York Times says it's estimated at more than $300 million.

"To represent the body of work of one of the greatest songwriters of all time - whose cultural importance can't be overstated - is both a privilege and a responsibility," said Universal Music Publishing Group CEO Jody Gerson in a statement.

"It's no secret that the art of songwriting is the fundamental key to all great music, nor is it a secret that Bob is one of the very greatest practitioners of that art," added Sir Lucian Grainge, the CEO of Universal Music Group.

"Brilliant and moving, inspiring and beautiful, insightful and provocative, his songs are timeless—whether they were written more than half a century ago or yesterday."

Music publishing has become increasingly lucrative in recent years, especially in light of the pandemic that has halted live performances. Last week, Stevie Nicks sold her catalogue in a reported $100 million deal.

Dylan, 79, has numerous famous tracks, including "The Times They Are a-Changin'," "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Mr. Tambourine Man."

Earlier this year, he released his first track in eight years called a "Murder Most Foul," a 17-minute song about the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.

In 2008, he won a Pulitzer Prize special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."

In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

He's sold more than 125 million records and continues to perform worldwide.

---

Credit rating wallop for states over Covid debt

The Australian - Page 1 & 4 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Patrick Commins, Rachel Baxendale - PortMac.News Summary

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has downplayed suggestions that the federal government's credit rating could be downgraded, after the nation's two largest states lost their coveted AAA ratings.

S&P Global Ratings has downgraded the credit ratings of New South Wales and Victoria to AA+ and AA respectively, in response to the coronavirus-induced blowout in their debt. It is the first ratings downgrade for both states since 1989, and they have had triple-A ratings since 2003.

Martin Whetton of the Commonwealth Bank says there is a strong possibility that Australia's credit rating will be downgraded from AAA in the next 12 months, due to the rise in the nation's debt-to-GDP ratio.

---

Cuts just the thin end of a big wedge

The Australian - Page 4 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Adam Creighton - PortMac.News Summary

Australia has had low levels of public debt for a generation, but the nation's debt is set to rise from 46 per cent of GDP to 74 per cent by 2024.

S&P's decision to downgrade the credit ratings of New South Wales and Victoria is almost certainly to be followed by a downgrade of South Australia's credit rating at some point.

Some experts believe that Australia's credit rating is also at risk of a downgrade. Meanwhile, central banks cannot keep printing money indefinitely in order to buy their governments' debt.

---

'Same old' bill won't stop militants: MBA

The Australian Financial Review - Page 6 : 8 December 2020 -Original article by Michael Bleby - PortMac.News Summary

Master Builders Australia has welcomed the federal government's plan for legislation to enable the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining & Energy Union to be broken up.

An MBA spokesman says the bill is a "good first step" but falls short of the remedies that were included in the Ensuring Integrity Bill, which the government shelved due to lack of support in the Senate.

Building industry sources also contend that the bill is unlikely to have any impact on the high labour costs of unionised construction projects, which are enshrined in enterprise agreements.

---

A little patience makes work safer for delivery riders

The Australian Financial Review - Page 8 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by David Marin-Guzman - PortMac.News Summary

The New South Wales government will hold talks on safety within the food delivery sector in the week beginning 14 December, following the deaths of five delivery riders in Sydney in two months.

Kitty Lu from food delivery platform Easi says it is using a 20-minute range for estimated delivery times, rather than 10 minutes, so as to discourage drivers from rushing deliveries.

Lu says consumers are happy to wait an extra 10 minutes for their deliveries, stating that no customer expects their rider to die in the process of delivering food.

---

Part-time jobs drive economic recovery as restrictions ease

The New Daily - Page Online : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Euan Black - PortMac.News Summary

The ANZ Bank has stated that advertised job vacancies rose by 13.9 per cent in November as Victoria came out of its lengthy coronavirus lockdown.

ANZ's senior economist Catherine Birch says the recovery in job ads was stronger than expected.

Birch adds that Australian Bureau of Statistics data suggests that part-time employment is already back above pre-pandemic levels, but that full-time employment is still well down.

---

Crunch time for Victorian quarantine hotels

Herald Sun - Page 9 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Brianna Travers - PortMac.News Summary

Victoria's Police Minister Lisa Neville has confidence in the state's revised hotel quarantine program, claiming that is a "completely different program" to the ill-fated first version.

Neville adds that she will take "full responsibility" for the quarantine program. A total of 253 returned travellers arrived in Melbourne on 7 December; the government will charge $3,000 for their 14-day stay at two quarantine hotels.

One of the passengers was transferred to a separate 'health' hotel after showing symptoms of the coronavirus.

Another eight passengers with medical needs have also be sent to this hotel.

---

CSL-UQ vaccine more 'robust' than fast rivals

The Australian Financial Review - Page 17 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Yolanda Redrup - PortMac.News Summary

Phase two and three trials of the Australian COVID-19 vaccine being developed by CSL and the University of Queensland are due to start in December.

If they prove successful, it is hoped the vaccine will be ready for use by the general population by mid-2021.

Professor Paul Young from the University of Queensland says the vaccine is more traditional than the mRNA vaccines that are already being rolled out, but he believes it will be more robust and a better long-term option.

He says COVID-19 may prove to be endemic, which would mean that people would require annual vaccines.

---

PM urged to call out Beijing's behaviour

The Australian - Page 7 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Geoff Chambers - PortMac.News Summary

Federal Liberal MP Dave Sharma has outlined an eight-point plan for managing and mending relations with China, while he says tensions between Australia and China are likely to linger for at least the next 20 years.

Sharma says Australia should be more willing to "call out" attempts by Beijing to interfere in Australia, and to "resist language or policy that smacks of containment".

Sharma says Australia's Chinese communities should be seen as assets and that Australia's security agencies should improve their engagement with them, while Labor MP Tim Watts has stated that decoupling from China "would be an unprecedented act of national self-sabotage".

---

China suspends importation of more Australian beef as trade battle escalates

abc.net au - Page Online : 8 December 2020 - PortMac.News Summary

Surprise - surprise ! China's General Administration of Customs has stated that it has suspended beef imports from Australian supplier Meramist, but it has not provided any reason.

Meramist is the sixth Australian beef supplier that China has imposed a ban on since the start of 2020, as trade tensions between the two countries grow.

As well as targeting Australia's beef sector, China has imposed hefty tariffs on barley and wine, delayed the unloading of coal shipments and blocked lobster imports. [Click to view full article here]

---

Next census could be last five-yearly population snapshot

The Australian Financial Review - Page 9 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Tom McIlroy - PortMac.News Summary

Australia's Census and Statistics Act has required a five-yearly population snapshot since 1977, but Australian Bureau Statistics head David Gruen has indicated the 2021 census could be the last five-year snapshot.

He said it has become clear to him during his time at the ABS what an expensive exercise the census is, and that the ABS is likely to investigate more secure and less costly way of collecting data in the future.

Australia conducted its first census in 1911, while the most recent census in 2016 was hit by a distributed denial of service attack and technology failures.

---

New chapter in gold case

The Australian - Page 21 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Robert Gottliebsen - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian Taxation Office has filed an appeal against a ruling by the full Federal Court in regard to the notorious 'gold case'.

The case dates back to 2000, when Australia introduced GST using the UK system for taxing refined gold.

However, crooks discovered how to manipulate the process, and it took until 2016 for the ATO plug a gap that had resulted in billions in GST revenue being lost.

The ATO should have followed the 'money trail' to find out where the crooks were, but instead it decided it was the gold refiners who were the thieves.

If this was what it believed, it should have taken them to court, but instead it decided to bankrupt them.

The 'gold case' has highlighted shortcomings in Australia's taxation appeal system, and the federal government should adopt the US system.

---

Sports rorts inquiry calls on Sport Australia to clarify legality of grants made

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Katherine Murphy - PortMac.News Summary

Parliament's joint committee of public accounts and audit committee has examined the allocation of funds under community sport infrastructure grant (CSIG) program.

The federal government's management of the program was savaged by the Australian National Audit Office in a report released at the start of 2020.

The committee has asked Sports Australia to clarify the legality of grant decisions made under the program, while it urged the Finance Department to review its record keeping requirements [Click to view full article here]

---

Centrelink job-search rules 'a waste of time'

The Australian - Page 5 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Stephen Lunn - PortMac.News Summary

A survey of more than 600 welfare recipients by Anglicare has found that 80 per cent think Centrelink's mutual obligation rules are pointless.

Just one in eight believes complying with the rules is assisting them to find paid work, while 75 per cent stated they were prepared to undertake Centrelink activities that were fair, and which resulted in work.

Anglicare also found that 72 per cent of people on income support and not working were having to skip up to four meals a week prior to the introduction of JobSeeker.

---

Why Australia's intergenerational wealth gap is widening

The New Daily - Page Online : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Rod Myer - PortMac.News Summary

People over the age of 65 experienced the biggest increase in their wealth in the 16 years to 2018, according to the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) report.

The wealth of those between 65 and 74 rose by 98.1 per cent, while the wealth of those aged 75 and over increased by 83.4 per cent.

By way of contrast, the wealth of people aged between 18 and 34 rose only 10.5 per cent.

Conny Lenneberg from the Brotherhood of St Laurence says one of the reasons for the intergenerational disparity in wealth has been the decline in the number of full-time jobs for younger people.

This has occurred at the same time as house prices have boomed, making it harder for young people to get into the housing market. The HILDA report is produced by the University of Melbourne.

---

Lobbyist given desk, car space in government building

The Australian - Page 5 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Charlie Peel - PortMac.News Summary

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has confirmed lobbyist Cameron Milner was given access to a cark park at Queensland government offices in Brisbane during the recent election campaign.

Milner and fellow lobbyist Evan Moorhead worked as advisers to Labor during the recent campaign, with both being former ALP state secretaries.

Milner's and Moorehead's lobbying firms were in high demand during the campaign, and both actively lobbied government officials in the lead-up to the 31 October election.

---

Bureaucrat tied to $1m land deal

The Australian - Page 3 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Paul Garvey - PortMac.News Summary

The Western Australian Corruption & Crime Commission has linked former WA Department of Housing head Paul Whyte to a dubious land deal in the Pilbara town of Roebourne.

The CCC has alleged that an associate of Whyte's bookmaker made almost $1 million on the sale of land to the Department to be used for a new police complex, with Whyte having signed the contract for the sale of the land.

Whyte has previously pleaded guilty to numerous charges relating to his theft of more than $22 million of taxpayers' money.

---

Iron ore miners lead stock gains

The Australian - Page 20 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Rebecca Le May -  PortMac.News Summary

 

The Australian sharemarket posted a modest gain on 7 December, with the S&P/ASX 200 adding 0.6 per cent to close at 6,675 points.

Rio Tinto was up 2.46 per cent at $115.98, Fortescue Metals Group rose 3.79 per cent to $21.39 and National Australia Bank advanced 0.52 per cent to finish at $23.25. However, Cochlear shed 3.17 per cent to end the session at $208.

---

Banks hit for 'Supporting' stressed loans

The Australian - Page 13 & 20 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Cliona O'Dowd - PortMac.News Summary

Australia's mortgage securitisation market is worth more than $100bn.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has noted that some of the nation's banks have been repurchasing stressed mortgage loans which are subject to repayment deferral from their securitisations.

APRA has warned that this provides "implicit support" to securitisations, which may be a breach of prudential standards. Some $170bn worth of home loan repayments were deferred at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia; this has since fallen to around $68bn.

---

Retirement 'adequacy' is a problem for Australia

The Australian Financial Review - Page Online : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Aleks Vickovich - PortMac.News Summary

Australia has ranked in fourth position in the latest Global Pension Index, down from third position, while the index's authors have described Australia's pension system as 'B Grade'.

Its system scored well on the issues of 'integrity' and 'sustainability', but not so well on 'adequacy', which measures the system in terms of the extent to which it meets the financial needs of retirees.

The release of the index preceded the recent release of the review of Australia's retirement income system.

Some see putting more money into the system as the answer to improving its adequacy, but others contend that the cost of the system is part of the problem, including the amount of fees being charged by super funds.

---

Afterpay benefits outweigh harm of no-surcharge rule

The Australian Financial Review - Page 15 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by James Eyers - PortMac.News Summary

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe has indicated in a speech that the central bank is unlikely to require that buy now, pay later providers remove their 'no-surcharge' rules for the present.

Lowe stated that the point has not arrived when the costs associated with such rules outweigh the innovative benefits associated with BNPL products.

Lowe noted in his speech to the AusPayNet event that growth in the number of BNPL providers is leading to competitive pressure that could result in downward pressure being put on merchant costs.

---

Arnott's pours $8m into stirring up exports

The Australian - Page 15 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Eli Greenblat - PortMac.News Summary

Arnott's Group will ramp up canned soup production at its Campbell's factory in Shepparton, amid growing demand for soup in Asia.

The private equity-owned company will upgrade the plant in regional Victoria at a cost of $8m, which will increase the factory's production volumes by 30 per cent over the next 12 months.

The capital investment will also increase the factory's export volumes by 400 per cent. Arnott's CEO George Zoghbi says the company will focus on exports to South-East Asian countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand rather than China, given the current trade tensions.

---

Woolworths opens latest dark store, creating up to 900 jobs

The Australian Financial Review - Page 14 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Sue Mitchell - PortMac.News Summary

Woolworths has opened its third 'dark store' in Sydney, with the 15,000 square metre facility located in a former Fastway Couriers distribution centre at Lidcombe in Sydney's south-west.

The centre will create up to 900 jobs, and will boost Woolworths' online distribution capacity in Sydney by almost 20 per cent.

The pandemic has led to a surge in online grocery shopping in Australia, with Woolworths' online food sales doubling in the September quarter.

---

What tops Aussie kids' 2020 Cool List? Netflix, Minecraft, iPads and iPhones

Market Research Update - Page Online : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Roy Morgan - PortMac.News Summary

Roy Morgan's annual retail sales forecast, released in conjunction with the Australian Retailers Association, indicates that Australians will spend more than $54.3 billion during the Christmas trading period.

A solid part of this will go on gifts for children. Netflix tops the 2020 Kids' Cool List from Roy Morgan's Young Australians Survey for the third year in a row, with the streaming service declared "really cool" by 62% of 6-9 year olds and 70% of 10-13 year olds.

Second in the overall list is Minecraft, riding a renewed wave of popularity.

The digital creative building game is especially popular with 10-13 year olds (60%, compared to 54% of 6-9 year olds).

Apple's iPad has dropped a little since topping the list in 2016, but it is still judged cool enough to claim third place overall - and to be the top choice of the 6-9 year olds (64%).

When it comes to what's "really cool" right now, other items and brands that get the thumbs-up from the nation's kids are iPhones (49%); Computers, including Laptops and other Tablets (45%), Nike (42%), Roblox (40%), Harry Potter (just under 40%) and, in equal ninth place, gaming consoles PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch (38%).

Roy Morgan has been going direct to the source to find out what matters most to Australia's children since 2004.

Each year over 2,000 young Australians aged 6-13 tell them about everything from their hobbies and favourite TV shows to how much pocket money they get, how they like to spend their time, and how they feel about themselves, their families and the world at large.

---

Tech giants win concessions in code

The Australian Financial Review - Page 3 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by John Kehoe, Max Mason - PortMac.News Summary

The federal government will shortly release the final version of its News Media and Digital Platforms Bargaining Code, after Coalition backbenchers were briefed on the draft legislation on 7 December.

The government has agreed to a concession in order to gain the support of digital giants Google and Facebook; it will allow them to include the monetary value they deliver to news outlets via online reader traffic in determining the proportion of their revenue that must be paid for the use of news publishers' content.

Some backbenchers have questioned why the code excludes digital platforms such as Twitter and Google-owned YouTube.

---

BGH bid puts end to Village family feud

The Australian Financial Review - Page 12 & 24 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Max Mason - PortMac.News Summary

Private equity firm BGH Capital will have a stake of about 78 per cent in cinemas and theme parks group Village Roadshow after shareholders endorsed both of its takeover proposals.

BGH will pay $3 per share to take control of Village, with the Kirby family and former CEO Graham Burke holding a stake of about 22 per cent.

Clark Kirby will retain his role as Village CEO while Burke will join Robert Clark as co-executive chairman.

Village director Peter Tonagh says the deal will benefit all of the company's shareholders.

---

Grocon weighed down by hefty debts

The Australian - Page 17 : 8 December 2020 - Original article by Ben Wilmot - PortMac.News Summary

Grocon entities are believed to owe external creditors $60 million, but documentation suggests that Grocon Pty Ltd owes hundreds of millions of dollars to its own subsidiaries.

The largest outstanding amount is $102.71 million, which is owed to a Grocon entity associated with The Ribbon project in Sydney's Darling Harbour.

Grocon's head Daniel Grollo is hoping to win a $270 million legal case over a development deal that went wrong at Sydney's Central Barangaroo precinct and then repay his creditors.

However, there may be very little left over for them unless he can deal with the inter-company debts.