10 things you need to know this morning in Australia
Good morning.
1. More underpayments! Supermarket giant Coles announced yesterday it had underpaid its supermarket managers by $20 million, just months after rival Woolworths' own wage scandal. The company has flagged $12 million in backpayments for those store members and $4 million in interest and additional costs.
2. How convenient then that the Attorney-General’s Department has released two new discussion papers outlining the need for new penalties to combat wage theft. Australian businesses found guilty could face million-dollar fines and be forced to display a public notice of their crimes, while directors could face disqualification and up to ten years imprisonment as punishment. It comes after a string of underpayment scandals including George Calombaris’ Made Establishment as well as Bunnings, Coles, Woolworths, Sunglass Hut, and the Commonwealth Bank among others.
3. You thought that was it for wage theft this morning? Wrong! Wrong! Wesfarmers has announced in its half-yearly earnings call that it had underpaid Target staff by $9 million. "Immediate steps are being taken to rectify identified issues, notify and repay affected team members, including interest, and ensure accuracy in the future through a robust program of auditing and monitoring," chief executive Rob Scott said.
4. Non-profit superannuation fund Prime Super has broken ranks with the rest of the industry and conceded increasing the compulsory contribution rate to 12 per cent is "unrealistic". Citing Australia's pitiful wage growth, chief executive Lachlan Baird said, "Although the current 9.5 per cent compulsory rate is not enough to grow superannuation savings for a comfortable retirement, Australia is in a period of low-wage growth [and] therefore an increase in the contribution rate is not realistic at this point in time."
5. Surging house prices have made the RBA slightly uneasy about further interest rate cuts. In the minutes from its February meeting, the RBA expresses concern “a further reduction in interest rates could also encourage additional borrowing at a time when there was already a strong upswing in the housing market amid rising house prices.” Lower interest rates = more borrowing = more housing market activity. Who would have thought.
6. Look, this isn't a weather service, but it feels like it's worth mentioning: the storm which moved over Sydney and New South Wales last night was certainly something. Constant lightning afflicted large parts of the coast, and wind gusts of up to 111km/h. A man was killed in Harrington Street in The Rocks after he was hit by a gas bottle which was picked up by the winds, and the SES saw hundreds of callouts.
https://twitter.com/brando_lives/status/1229735285774139394
7. More than 1,700 Chinese healthcare workers have gotten the coronavirus, and 7 have died. A study found that 29% of infections were in medical staff. The seven dead include Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist censored by China after warning colleagues about the virus. One study found that nearly a third of the patients involved were healthcare workers.
8. Global stocks are tanking after Apple warned the coronavirus was seriously impacting sales. The iPhone maker doesn’t expect to hit its quarterly revenue target as the outbreak is hampering production and hurting demand. However, the company reportedly still plans to launch a new iPhone next month.
9. SpaceX is collaborating with Space Adventures to send a small number of private citizens into space as early as 2021. The company intends to take up to four tourists into orbit on the Dragon spacecraft for five days. I'm certainly not putting my hand up.
10. After Jeff Bezos' announcement that he would donate $10 billion to fight climate change, some are pointing out the fact that Amazon uses an insane amount of packaging for almost everything. Amazon has frequently been called out for its tendency to use lots of packaging to send small items.
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Why not commemorate the end of Holden with our look back through its history in pictures?
