Latest updates on Key Economic Indicators:

Australian Dollar: $0.6923 USD (down $0.0019)

Iron Ore Jul Spot Price (SGX): $119.70 USD (up $5.35 USD)

Oil Price (WTI): $109.83 USD (up $2.21 USD)

Gold Price: $1,822.77 USD (down $7.53 USD)

Copper Price (CME): $3.7500 (up $0.0110 USD)

Bit-coin: $20,906.62 (down 2.24% in the last 24 hours)

Dow Jones: 31,438.26 (down 62.42 on Friday's close)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

Russian missiles strike busy shopping centre in Kremenchuk:

Two Russian missiles struck a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, killing at least 13 people and wounding 50 more, according to senior Ukrainian officials.

The attack caused a huge fire and sent dark smoke billowing into the sky, footage circulated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shows.

A Reuters reporter saw the charred husk of a shopping complex with a caved-in roof.

Firefighters and soldiers were pulling out mangled pieces of metal as they searched for survivors.

"We don't understand how many people could be remaining under the rubble," the regional rescue service chief said on television.

Mr Zelenskyy says more than 1,000 people were in the shopping centre at the time of the attack. He gave no details of casualties but said, "It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims".

Dmytro Lunin, the regional governor said it was unlikely many survivors would be found in the smouldering rubble, because "it was a big fire and there was a lot of smoke".

G7 summit pledge to continue supporting Ukraine for 'As long as it takes':

The leaders of the world's dominant economic powers again threw their weight behind Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, committing to support his nation's fight against the Russian invasion for "as long as it takes".

After conferring via video call with the Ukrainian president at this year's Group of Seven summit in the German Alps, G7 leaders again underscored their commitment to Ukraine, with plans to pursue price caps on Russian oil as well as new tariffs and other sanctions.

In addition, the United States will provide an advanced surface-to-air missile system for Kyiv — Mr Zelenskyy's top request — to help Ukraine fight back against Vladimir Putin's aggression.

The new efforts by the leaders came as Mr Zelenskyy openly worried that the West has become fatigued by the cost of a war which is contributing to globally soaring energy prices.

Albanese says 'China on notice'

The Australian Financial Review - Page 1 & 3 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Phillip Coorey - PortMac.News Summary

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says that if Russia's goal when invading Ukraine was to achieve success quickly, then the invasion has been a "Strategic failure".

Speaking en route to the NATO summit in Madrid, which he is attending as part of a delegation of countries from the Asia-Pacific, Albanese says Ukraine's resistance to the invasion has helped to bring democratic nations closer together.

Given China's designs on Taiwan, Albanese suggests that it should take heed of the global response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Spanish to press Albanese to buy more destroyers

The Australian Financial Review - Page 4 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Phillip Coorey, Andrew Tillett - PortMac.News Summary

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will hold talks with his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez in Madrid, ahead of the NATO summit meeting.

Sanchez is expected to lobby Albanese to consider purchasing up to three additional Hobart-class air warfare destroyers.

The vessels were built in Adelaide and based on the design of Spanish shipbuilder Navantia, which contends that the proven design would avoid a capability gap associated with the completion of the Hunter-class frigates project.

However, sources have indicated that Albanese is unlikely to make any such commitment.

Expansion of NATO top of summit talks

The Australian Financial Review - Page 9 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Robin Emmott, Humeyra Pamuk - PortMac.News Summary

The NATO summit in Madrid has a lot on its plate as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues.

It will try to persuade Turkey to lift its veto on Sweden and Finland joining the alliance, agree on a new resolve to address China's military rise, increase joint defence spending, provide more military aid to Ukraine, and set aside more troops in readiness to defend the Baltics.

US Senator Angus King says allowing Finland and Sweden to join NATO would send an important message to Putin, but Turkey is unhappy about what it says is Finland and Sweden's support for Kurdish militants and arms embargoes on Ankara.

G7 to hurt Russia with oil price cap

The Australian Financial Review - Page 1 & 7 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Hans van Leeuwen - PortMac.News Summary

The G7 leaders are looking to impose a "Price cap" on Russian oil, so as to reduce the benefit it is getting from rising oil prices as it continues its war on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to speak to the summit and ask for more heavy weaponry to help drive the invasion back, while there is said to be concern amongst European leaders that Putin would respond to any price cap on oil by further cutting gas supplies to Western Europe.

The cap would be put in place by a requirement that shippers and insurers only agree to handle Russian oil if the ceiling is observed, but the G7 leaders would have to get the co-operation of the nations that are buying Russian oil for it to be effective.

Census Data : Boom! It's the march of the millennials

The Australian - Page 1 & 4 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Stephen Lunn, David Tanner, Carly Douglas - PortMac.News Summary

Data from the 2021 census reveals that millennials now match baby boomers as a proportion of Australia's population, despite millennials having five fewer birth years to count.

The 2021 census has revealed that there are more than one million single-parent families for the first time, and that the majority of people living in Australia are first or second-generation migrants.

Over 5.5 million people speak a language other than English at home, while almost 40% of census respondents reported they have 'No religion', up from 30% in 2016 and 22% in 2011.

Census Data : Home ownership levels steady as mortgagees rise

The Australian - Page 4 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Mackenzie Scott - PortMac.News Summary

Analysis of the 2021 census data shows that 31% of Australians own their home outright, compared with 41.6% in 1996 and unchanged from 2016.

Meanwhile, 35% of households now have a mortgage, compared with 26.2% in the 1996 census and 34.5% in 2016.

The nation's total housing stock has risen by nearly one million dwellings over the last five years, to almost 11 million.

About 70% are detached homes, while 13% are townhouses and 16% are apartments.

Push for 20 weeks paid dads' leave

The Australian - Page 1 & 2 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Greg Brown - PortMac.News Summary

The existing commonwealth-funded parental leave scheme provides the primary care giver ­- typically a woman - a total of 18 weeks' leave at the minimum wage.

Men usually receive two weeks of commonwealth-funded "Dad or partner pay".

The new federal government will look at giving men up to 20 weeks of paid parental leave to reflect changing gender roles in society.

Georgie Dent, the executive director of families advocacy group The Parenthood, stresses the importance of scrapping the distinction between primary and secondary care givers in order to promote gender equity in parental leave schemes.

Majority of jobseekers dissatisfied with 'Jobactive'

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Luke Henriques-Gomes - PortMac.News Summary

An Australian Council of Social Service report has found that 75% of jobseekers were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the service they got from Jobactive, the privatised employment services program that has cost around $1.3 billion a year since it was introduced in 2015.

Survey respondents described their appointments with job consultants as a "Tick-a-box exercise", while they stated that consultant turnover was too common.

Jobactive is to be replaced by a new program called 'Workforce Australia', but the report states it retains many of the problems "Baked" into Jobactive.

Enterprise bargaining's slow death will lead to tailored pay deals

The Australian Financial Review - Page 39 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Alice DeBoos - PortMac.News Summary

The number of enterprise agreements in Australia has fallen by 60 % in the last decade, and the decline of enterprise bargaining is likely to continue under the new federal Labor government.

Put simply, employers now only do enterprise agreements if they must.

In many cases, employers have had an enterprise agreement for a long time, and this has become too difficult to change.

Many employers are walking away from the bargaining system, and some are opting for a tailored approach to enterprising bargaining that may be the way of the future.

Why wage rises leave business with a dilemma

The Australian - Page 25 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Robert Gottliebsen - PortMac.News Summary

The CEOs and boards of Australian companies are in a difficult position.

Middle-ranking executives have received low pay rises in recent years, and they have become more reliant on bonuses and the second income of their spouse.

However, these may be in jeopardy if the Reserve Bank is forced to dramatically slow the economy via higher unemployment, which would in turn prompt these executives to seek pay rises that are in line with the inflation rate.

People on the average income are also finding it hard to make ends meet and are looking to change jobs.

Meanwhile, across-the-board wage rises of 5% or more - in line with the increase in the minimum wage - would lock in high inflation and draconian interest rate increases.

RBA out of sync with global peers on inflation

The Australian Financial Review - Page 5 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by John Kehoe - PortMac.News Summary

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe received reactions of surprise when he recently told a central banking audience that Australia only releases inflation data every quarter; those in the audience are used to monthly figures in their countries.

Getting inflation data released less often than other nations potentially makes it harder for the RBA to react to changes in inflation than other central banks.

Lowe told his audience that the RBA and the Australian Bureau of Statistics are working on trying to release monthly figures.

The RBA meets every month, whereas the US Federal Reserve and most other central banks meet every six weeks or so.

 'Cut out emails' : ATO warns of fraud attempts

The Australian Financial Review - Page 7 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Max Mason - PortMac.News Summary

Australian Taxation Office assistant commissioner and director of e-invoicing Mark Stockwell says its firewall is hit constantly by hackers trying to steal its data.

However, their inability to do so has lead fraudsters to set up fake web sites that pretend to be the ATO, with it having taken down around 600 such sites in the last 12 months.

Stockwell recommends that businesses use electronic invoicing instead of emails and PDFs when invoicing, so as to minimise fraud attempts.

Australia 'ill-prepared' for food insecurity

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Daniel Hurst - PortMac.News Summary

Former Australian defence force chief Chris Barrie says the war in Ukraine has highlighted the issue of food insecurity, and he says it is a problem for which Australia is "ill-prepared".

He was commenting ahead of the release of a report by the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group, which notes that 2 degrees Celsius of warming could see crop production in south-east Asia fall by one-third per capita by 2040.

Former Australian colonel Neil Greet says Australia faces disruptions to its own food growing systems as a result of climate change.

Possible link between blood clots & Covid symptoms investigated

The Guardian - Page Online : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Nicola Davis - PortMac.News Summary

UK researchers are about to start conducting trials on whether blood thinners should be given to people that have had Covid, following claims of possible links between blood clots and ongoing Covid symptoms.

Professor Ami Banerjee from University College London, who is leading a study called Stimulate-ICP, notes that studies have revealed that almost a third of people suffering from long Covid have clotting abnormalities.

 Unis 'Too reliant on China intake'

The Australian - Page 1 & 7 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Tim Dodd - PortMac.News Summary

Chinese students accounted for 50.5% of NSW's foreign university students in 2021, up nearly 6% from 2020.

This is according to the NSW Auditor-General's latest report into the state's universities, with Auditor-General Margaret Crawford criticising them for failing to diversify their foreign student intake and warning of 'Concentration risk'.

Governments and national security operatives have stated a number of times in the past two years that universities need to wean themselves off the Chinese student market, due to the tensions between Canberra and Beijing and concerns about foreign interference on university campuses.

'Crypto winter' : Operator Banxa to cut staff by 30%

The Australian Financial Review - Page 18 & 20 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Paul Smith - PortMac.News Summary

Cryptocurrency operator Banxa is to implement a restructuring plan that will include extensive redundancies, with its workforce to be cut by 30%.

Its operations will be centralised in the Australian and Philippines markets, and European MD Jan Lorenc is to leave the company.

CEO Holger Arians has indicated that the job cuts are necessary because Banxa is facing a "Crypto winter" that he expects to last for another 12 months.

Banxa is among a number of crypto operators to have announced job cuts recently, with others including Crypto.com and Coinbase.

Insurers, funds at loggerheads over adviser commissions

The Australian Financial Review - Page 2 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Aleks Vickovich - PortMac.News Summary

Allens partner Michelle Levy is heading Treasury's Quality of Advice, and her final report is due by 16 December.

The review sees life insurance companies at odds with industry superannuation funds and consumer groups over the issue of commissions paid to financial advisers for providing advice on life insurance.

Life insurers want the review to recommend that commissions should be retained or restored as they argue commissions help to make the provision of advice more affordable, but consumer groups and industry super funds want the practice of paying commissions to advisers to be banned.

Metcash warns of strong food inflation

The Australian - Page 15 & 19 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Eli Greenblat - PortMac.News Summary

Listed grocery wholesaler Metcash has posted a net profit of $245.4m for the year to 30 April, which is 2.7% higher than previously.

Underlying earnings were up 17.7% to $472.3m and revenue rose by 6.4% to $17.4bn.

Metcash has advised that food inflation at its supermarkets business accelerated in the second half of the financial year, including 5.3% growth in April.

Meanwhile, Metcash's liquor sales rose by 8.7% to $4.8bn and its hardware division's sales were up 20.5% to $3.1bn.

Rex pushed for NSW to re-regulate rural routes

The Australian - Page 15 & 24 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Robyn Ironside - PortMac.News Summary

NSW deregulated its intrastate air network in 2018, but it has been revealed that Regional Express (Rex) approached the NSW government about re-regulating its country routes.

Re-regulating of them would have required Rex, Qantas and other airlines to tender for various regional routes.

Regional Transport Minister Sam Farraway has confirmed Rex's approach on the issue, but he says that he believed that re-regulation was unnecessary.

Farraway noted that Rex had been the beneficiary of a multimillion-dollar assistance package earlier in 2022 via the NSW government's Jobs Plus program.

Carsales mops up expanding US RV and truck trader

The Australian Financial Review - Page 11 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Tess Bennett, Alex Gluyas - PortMac.News Summary

Carsales will purchase the 51% stake in US online caravan, truck, equipment and motorbike listings group Trader Interactive that it does not already own.

Carsales had acquired its initial 49% stake in Trader Interactive for $US624 million in May 2021, and will pay $US809 million ($1.2 billion) to assume full ownership.

Carsales aims to raise $1.2 billion to fund the purchase by issuing 68 million new shares at $17.75 each.

Sydney and Melbourne property prices set to tumble, say analysts

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Peter Hannam - PortMac.News Summary

Data from CoreLogic shows that house prices in Sydney have fallen by 3% since peaking in February, while prices in Melbourne are now 1.8 % below the March peak.

Tim Lawless of CoreLogic says the housing market downturn could potentially last for another 12 months, and the extent of the decline may at least partially depend on how quickly the Reserve Bank tightens monetary policy in response to inflationary pressures.

High fuel prices threat to holiday park revival

The Australian Financial Review - Page 29 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Larry Schlesinger - PortMac.News Summary

Australia's holiday and caravan parks generated revenue of $1.12 billion in the first five months of 2022, according to figures from the Caravan Industry Association and accounting firm BDO.

This represents a 4% increase on the same period in 2021, as well as being significantly higher than the $928 million earned in the first five months of 2019.

However, Angus Strachan from BDO warns that demand for holiday and caravan park accommodation could ease in coming months as consumers contend with higher petrol prices and other cost of living increases.

ASX rises 1.9% fuelled by rally in banks

The Australian Financial Review - Page 24 : 28 June 2022 - Original article by Alex Gluyas - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian sharemarket posted a strong gain on 27 June, with the S&P/ASX 200 rising 1.9% to close at 6,706 points.

Core Lithium was up 12% at $1.02, Beach Energy added 4.1% to end the session at $1.65 and National Australia Bank finished 3.4% higher at $27.93.

However, Evolution Mining was down 21.9% at $2.64 and OZ Minerals shed 3.8% to close at $18.46.