updates on Key Economic Indicators

Australian Dollar: $0.7529 USD (up $0.0089 USD)

Iron Ore Jan Spot Price (SGX): $155.00 USD (up $8.71 USD)

Oil Price (WTI): $46.95 USD (up $1.40 USD)

Gold Price: $1,834.98 (up $0.59 USD)

Dow Jones: 29,978.44 at 3.10pm NY time (down 90.37 points on yesterday's close)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

Australian COVID vaccine terminated due to HIV 'false positives'

The Age - Page Online : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Rob Harris = PortMac.News Summary

A clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by the University of Queensland and CSL has been terminated after several participants returned false positive HIV test results.

More than 200 volunteers have taken part in the phase one clinical trial.

The federal government has responded to the setback by cancelling a deal to buy more than 50 million doses of the vaccine. A health official has claimed that the government is already seeking to source additional supplies of other vaccine candidates.

The university and CSL will continue work on developing a COVID-19 vaccine.

Covid comeback to deliver $10bn boost to budget

The Australian - Page 1 & 6 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Patrick Commins - PortMac.News Summary

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia expects the federal government to announce a revised Budget deficit of $204bn for 2020-21 in its upcoming mid-year economic and fiscal update.

This compares with a deficit forecast of $214bn in the Budget on 6 October. CBA attributes the likely improvement in the fiscal position to factors such as better-than-expected economic growth in the September quarter, the continued strength of the iron ore price and a fall in demand for the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme.

Employers seek wage fines delay

The Australian - Page 1 & 4 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Ewin Hannan - PortMac.News Summary

Unions and employers' group will both push for changes to the federal government's proposed industrial relations reforms.

The ACTU will seek further changes with regard to casual workers, enterprise bargaining and greenfields agreements. Meanwhile, Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry CEO James Pearson wants harsher penalties for wage underpayments in the small business sector to be deferred until 2023.

He contends that larger fines and the threat of imprisonment will not encourage employers to invest, create jobs and take risks when the economy is still recovering from the coronavirus-induced recession.

Labor will weigh up IR tweaks

The Australian Financial Review - Page 4 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Phillip Coorey - PortMac.News Summary

The federal government is continuing to attract scrutiny over its proposal to allow employers to negotiate enterprise agreements that do not comply with the 'better-off-overall test' in the Fair Work Act.

Labor has indicated that it will not support the proposal in its current form, but says it is open to changes that will not result in workers being exploited.

Business Council of Australia CEO Jennifer Westacott agrees that any amendments to the government's proposal must include safeguards to ensure that the BOOT is not abused.

Gig economy faces Senate inquiry as disability care heads same way

The Australian Financial Review - Page 14 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Ronald Mizen - PortMac.News Summary

The Senate has announced an inquiry into the impacts of insecure or precarious employment, with Labor senator Tony Sheldon saying it will look at business in various sectors that seek to utilise a gig-economy structure.

Sheldon has previously noted his concern about the promotion of mobile phone apps that link disability support workers with NDIS participants, having described them as "Uber for disability workers".

The inquiry will also examine how gig economy jobs impact the ability of workers to enter the housing market and plan for their retirement.

Older dudes suffer in the job-loss stakes

The Australian Financial Review - Page 4 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Matthew Cranston - PortMac.News Summary

Research by the Reserve Bank of Australia shows that the average age of a long-term unemployed person is 37.

Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers notes that the federal government's JobMaker hiring credit scheme will not help a lot of long-term unemployed people to return to the workforce, given that the cut-off age is 35.

The RBA study also shows that men account for 61 per cent of the long-term unemployed. Male workers have also been hardest hit by job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Growers call for worker bubbles

The Australian - Page 6 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Rosie Lewis -PortMac.News Summary

The Australian horticultural sector claims it is facing a potential labour shortage of 26,000 people by March, and government efforts to get Australians to perform agricultural jobs have failed.

It wants the federal and state governments to agree to bring in Pacific Islanders quarantine-free, with its call coming as 34 growers reported crop losses worth $22.5 million in just one week.

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud says there are 22,000 'pre-vetted' workers from Pacific and Timor Leste ready to come to Australia under seasonal and Pacific worker schemes once quarantine plans have been agreed on by state governments.

Chinese lunch diplomacy: 'Only US more unfriendly than you'

The Australian - Page 1 & 6 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Will Glasgow - PortMac.News Summary

Editor-in-chief of the 'Global Times' Hu Xijin had lunch with Australia's ambassador to China Graham Fletcher on 9 December, the day before China imposed a further 6% tariff on Australian wines.

The 'Global Times' is owned by the Chinese Communist Party, and Hu is one of Australia's biggest critics.

Hu has told his followers on Chinese social media platform Weibo that he told Fletcher that the US was the only country more unfriendly to China than Australia, and that he was particularly unhappy about Australia's new foreign interference law and its refusal to allow Chinese company telecommunications company to be involved in constructing Australia's 5G network.

Nationals push for trade portfolio in looming Morrison cabinet reshuffle

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Daniel Hurst - PortMac.News Summary

Agriculture Minister and deputy National Party leader David Littleproud has called on the Chinese government to explain exactly why it is targeting Australian exports, contending that is due to more than merely technical reasons.

China advised on 10 December that it will impose a further tariff of six per cent on Australian wine, in addition to the punitive tariffs that were previously announced. Littleproud also believes that the trade portfolio should be allocated to the Nationals in an upcoming cabinet reshuffle, arguing that the people it represent relies on trade more than any other industry.

The current Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has been elevated to the finance portfolio.

'No one's safe under these laws': Surveillance Bill could target activists and downloaders

The New Daily - Page Online : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Isabelle Lane - PortMac.News Summary

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has recently tabled new surveillance legislation, arguing it is needed to clamp down on child sexual abuse and terrorism offences committed under the protection of the 'dark internet'.

He has since referred the legislation to the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security for review, with its findings not expected until 2021.

Victorians Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe claims the legislation could be used against anyone from young children illegally downloading films to Black Lives Matter campaigners, and that the legislation is just another example of Dutton attempting to stay relevant.

Tech sector leads bourse lower

The Australian - Page 23 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Rebecca Le May - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian sharemarket lost ground on 9 December, with the S&P/ASX 200 shedding 0.67% to close at 6,683.1 points.

BHP was down 0.59% at $42.48, Ramelius Resources fell 8.45% to end the session at $1.62 and Appen retreated 12.43% to finish at $26.20.

However, Fortescue Metals Group rose 3.26% to a record high of $22.51 and National Australia Bank was up 0.43% to $23.54.

ABC shows pinged for ALP bias

The Australian - Page 3 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Max Maddison - PortMac.News Summary

Former BBC adviser Kerry Blackburn has recommended that the ABC review the composition of the panel on its current affairs program 'The Drum'.

This follows a review by Blackburn which concluded that 'The Drum' and political talk show 'The Insiders' favoured Labor over the Coalition government during the 2019 federal election campaign.

Blackburn found that other ABC television and radio programs were 'open and fair minded', including interviews on '7.30' and Radio National, and that overall the ABC's content meets the 'impartiality standard'.

News Corp close to inking deals with tech giants

The Australian Financial Review - Page 23 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Max Mason - PortMac.News Summary

Facebook and Google will be required to pay for Australian news content under the federal government's proposed code of conduct that was introduced into parliament on 9 December.

The legislation comes as News Corporation's CEO Robert Thomson says the media company is in advanced talks with both Google and Facebook about global content deals, and as Facebook faces an anti-trust case in the US from a group of state attorney generals and the Federal Trade Commission which is seeking to have its purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp unwound.

Facebook faces up to its big social split

The Australian - Page 17 & 21 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Richard Gluyas - PortMac.News Summary

Facebook is currently the subject of parallel lawsuits in the US, one from the Federal Trade Commission, the other from 46 states.

The FTC lawsuit is seeking the forced sale of photo-sharing application Instagram and mobile messaging service WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired for $US1 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2012 and $US19 billion in 2014 respectively.

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims says it is keeping a very close eye on the US legal action against Facebook, while Facebook vice president and general counsel Jennifer Newstead has noted the FTC approved both the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions at the time.

Cave fallout threat to Rio expansion

The Australian Financial Review - Page 1 & 25 : 11 December 2020 - Original article by Peter Ker, John Kehoe - PortMac.News Summary

Rio Tinto stated prior to its destruction of ancient indigenous rock shelters at Juukan Gorge that the number of iron ore mines that it had in the 'study and approval' phase was the most it had had since 2010.

Goldman Sachs mining analyst Paul Young says Rio Tinto needs to construct up to 12 'replacement' mines in Western Australia within the next 5-6 years, and he claims that the legislative response to Rio's actions at Juukan Gorge could impact production of iron ore as soon as 2021.

A federal parliamentary investigation into the Juukan Gorge incident has called for a moratorium on so-called 'Section 18' approvals by the Western Australian government, which has rejected the proposal.