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President Trump is off and rolling to try and get re-elected and at present is has to said he is very much looking like the favourite, which I am sure will worry many. All else really pales into insignificance.
Boris has fired his Chancellor to more centralise his power – which is a worrying trend I believe.
In Australia the National Party seems to be melting down and coal is driving all sorts of stupidity in virtually all the major political parties. It is truly bizarre what is going on and is costing us all a lot.
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Major Issues.
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Disability insurance market poised for total failure
Feb 10, 2020 — 12.00am
The $5 billion disability income insurance market faces total failure unless sweeping changes are made to the design and sale of products, a new study commissioned by the Actuaries Institute found.
The study, conducted by KPMG, found life companies had lost $3.4 billion over the last five years by selling overly complicated products with generous terms to individuals through financial advisers.
The market as it's operating is not sustainable, and you could have a market failure. That's not a fanciful idea.
— Ian Laughlin, Actuaries Institute
It called for life insurers to offer simpler, more realistically priced products that serviced customers' needs rather than focusing on the sort of "bells and whistles" that boosted their ratings among agencies like IRS and Rice Warner.
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New decade, new powers for the Reserve Bank
Secular stagnation, inequality and climate are questioning the dogma we have been indoctrinated with. The RBA remit should be expanded to include an independent fiscal envelope.
Vimal Gor
Feb 9, 2020 — 11.59pm
John Maynard Keynes once said that “economists are economical, among other things, of ideas; most make those of their graduate days do for a lifetime”.
Conventional thinking eventually fails to keep up with the laboratory of the actual economy, but from the facts new ideas emerge for those with open minds. Episodes of depression and stagflation have put paid to old ideas and paved the way for new ones in economic thinking.
At the beginning of a new decade, secular stagnation, wealth inequality and climate change are intersecting to make those with open minds question the dogma most of us have been indoctrinated with since we opened our first economics textbook.
The RBA is better placed than most central banks to consider the themes of inequality and climate change if they choose. One of the three goals of the RBA Act of 1959 is “the economic prosperity and welfare of the Australian people”.
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Why not a local bond market to boost our economy?
Feb 10, 2020 — 12.00am
Has the absence of an active corporate bond market in Australia limited our economic development? The depth and liquidity of American debt markets has enabled the United States to fund strategic projects and investments since Alexander Hamilton restructured state debt in the 1790s.
A deep and liquid debt market has allowed US pension funds to sensibly invest in corporate America with benefits for both the broader economy and pension fund members.
Australia now has the third largest pool of savings in the world, but if investment managers want to invest in Australian corporate bonds, they must go overseas. Not only is this more expensive for Australian investors and businesses, not only does it reduce competition for capital, remove a form of debt that can meet specific business and investor needs, but the lack of an Australian bond market has reduced our nation’s capacity to be a world leader in financial markets.
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What is the future of superannuation?
By Jennifer Duke and Charlotte Grieve
February 9, 2020 — 12.00am
Making ends meet in retirement isn't something most people think about until they're close to leaving the workforce. But superannuation is heading for its biggest shake-up since the 1990s, and any changes could drastically change the financial future for millions of people.
This week, Treasury closed submissions into its Retirement Income Review. While the name may sound dry, it's actually a crucial moment for workers, employers and the superannuation industry itself.
The review, recommended by the Productivity Commission, is the first of its kind since the 1990s when compulsory superannuation was put in place. The panel was set up to look closely at the means-tested age pension, compulsory superannuation and the voluntary ways people fund their retirement, such as home ownership and savings.
So far the submissions have been focused on the Australian population's major demographic shift – people are living for longer and the financial situation of workers is drastically different to when the system was created 27 years ago.
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Unions conspire with bankers to make you pay more super
Ross Gittins
Economics Editor
February 10, 2020 — 12.00am
When is big business most successful at "rent-seeking" – winning special favours – from government? Often, when it’s got its unions on board. That way, both the Coalition and Labor are inclined to give it the privileges it seeks.
Despite the decline in the union movement’s power and influence in recent decades – and all the nasty things the bosses continue saying about unions – it’s very much a product of the capitalist system.
Over the decades, its greatest success has come in industries with some form of pricing power that’s allowing businesses to make outsized profits. The union simply applies pressure for the workers to be given their share of the lolly.
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Mortgage lending surged in December
· Australian Associated Press
Mortgage lending accelerated beyond expectations in December, led by a surge in loans to owner occupiers and, in particular, first home buyers
The total number of owner-occupier loans for dwellings excluding refinancing lifted by a seasonally adjusted 3.5 per cent in December to $27.5 billion - the best monthly growth result since mid-2015.
Economists said the mortgage surge had its roots in the relaxing of lending standards last year, while three 0.25 per cent interest rate cuts since June has helped lower borrowing costs.
There was a 5.1 per cent increase in the amount loaned to owner-occupiers for December to $14.2 billion, easily beating the 1.6 per cent increase tipped by the market, with the figure accelerating rapidly from the 1.6 per cent growth recorded in November.
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Now is the time to rebalance your portfolio
The best way to protect your investments from a downturn is to revisit your asset allocation.
Feb 11, 2020 — 11.02am
Reading the headlines since the beginning of the year, two things would be on your radar – unsustainable market levels and the likelihood of softer returns.
Stock markets, both in the US and Australia, have continued to rise to levels unwarranted by the current economic landscape and may be headed towards a correction. Investors would be well advised to temper their expectations of returns.
Portfolio returns are likely to be softer, with the likelihood of a lower range than we have been accustomed to over the long term, and an elevated chance of a correction in the nearer term.
The rally has gone on for quite some time – it’s been almost a decade since the global financial crisis. Higher valuations, a slowing global economy and a series of prominent macro risks combine to elevate the chances of a correction. And while the correction in December 2018 washed out some of the valuation excess of the market, it continues to trade in extended territory.
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Coalition stability is now just farcical
The Nationals in Parliament are threatening to eat the Morrison government alive just at it attempts to get down to business for 2020.
Feb 12, 2020 — 5.44pm
So much for claims of a return to leadership stability in the Coalition. This was always most unlikely. Now it’s just farcical.
Michael McCormack will clearly not be National leader and Deputy Prime Minister by the time of the next election and almost certainly much sooner, assuming the party doesn't split completely.
Nor is it just a “Canberra bubble” story Scott Morrison can dismiss. The more obvious the division, the weaker a prime minister looks in his ability to manage his government.
Morrison’s appeals for Coalition unity will clearly be ignored until this brutal, self-indulgent brawl in the National Party plays out.
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Whole-of-nation effort needed to chart a course in changing Asia
With a more assertive China and distraction in the US, now is the time for Australia to build stronger direct and independent connections to Asia and to support the resilience and sovereignty of countries that are feeling the pressures of a contested world.
Richard Maude
Feb 13, 2020 — 12.00am
A moment of bright opportunity for Australia in Asia has emerged amid the uncertainty roiling the region – the twin realities of a more powerful China and a more competitive China-US relationship are driving Australia and many of our most significant regional partners closer together.
Maximising the possibilities of this moment requires a whole-of-nation effort. A rebooted aid strategy for Asia, better-resourced diplomacy and a stronger on-the-ground commercial presence in the region would help take us further, faster.
Like Australia, many of our Asian partners feel strongly the growth of China’s power and influence and pressure to conform to Beijing’s wishes.
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What Sun Tzu knew – and the West needs to understand
Why an ancient Chinese text on warfare remains a favourite manual for policymakers from Donald Trump to Dominic Cummings.
John Gray
Feb 12, 2020 — 5.52pm
In a tweet in July 2012, Donald Trump cited one of Sun Tzu’s most celebrated maxims: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” Trump is not known as a great reader, and this must be one of the few direct quotes from a book in all of his compendious Twitter corpus.
His former consiglieri Steve Bannon was also a Sun Tzu enthusiast, believing his ancient text, The Art of War, provided guidance in how to conduct a trade war with China, while one of the President’s former aides had “Art War” on his car’s licence plate.
Perhaps more significantly, Trump’s one-time defence secretary, James Mattis, a former Marine Corps general respected by military leaders throughout the world for the sobriety of his judgment, revealed in an interview in 2018 that he is closest to Sun Tzu in his thinking about warfare.
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How to clean up politics: six rules of engagement
John Hewson
Columnist and former Liberal opposition leader
February 12, 2020 — 6.51pm
Scott Morrison had his Trump Lite moment when he stared blankly at the Australian people and told them that an internal report – which they were not allowed to see – had found $100 million in sports grants were legitimate. It said much about the lack of transparency that is at the heart Australian politics and its parlous state.
Today I am proposing a six-point clean-up of politics and government in Australia. But first, a detour to Donald Trump.
“Read the transcript,” the US President said, ad nauseam, in his defence against impeachment, concerning his telephone call with the Ukrainian President and the revelation that he withheld military assistance until the Ukrainians launched an inquiry into his potential Democratic opponent, Joe Biden. Too bad the transcript he urged all to read wasn’t actually a verbatim transcript but a self-serving, obfuscating summary.
Scott Morrison read selectively from the report by Phil Gaetjens, his former fixer and now secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, on the sports grants affair. Gaetjens found – no surprise – that the then sports minister, Bridget McKenzie, had a clear conflict of interest in failing to declare her membership of a clay-shooting club to which she made a grant.
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It's time we clipped the ministerial wing of its protected species - the advisers
David Crowe
Chief political correspondent
February 14, 2020 — 12.00am
Some of the desks are being cleared out in the ministerial wing of Parliament House after a summer that subjected ministers and their staff to more scrutiny than they could take. The office of Angus Taylor has farewelled several advisers after the farce of the Clover Moore letter, when the Energy Minister sent fake numbers to the City of Sydney mayor and the media in a bumbling attempt to grab a headline.
Few mourn the departure of Josh Manuatu, a senior adviser and Young Liberal apparatchik who has been named in some reports about the affair. He has been swept off the national stage and tossed to the Liberal office in the Australian Capital Territory. His fate is to be a big political fish in a very small pond.
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald asked Manuatu in a Whatsapp message on Thursday whether he had created the false document or sent it to others. He read the message but did not reply.
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House prices to rise at 20pc this cycle
They've already jumped 8 per cent since their mid-2019 trough, but they have much further to go given the RBA's three rate cuts.
Feb 14, 2020 — 11.42am
The housing boom is tracking more or less exactly as we expected. Based on the RBA’s model of housing dynamics, one should pencil in total capital gains of about 20 per cent this cycle assuming no further reductions in rates. This has profound ramifications for portfolio construction.
When house prices were still in free fall back in April 2019, we controversially forecast that the record 10 per cent bust (which we predicted in 2017 when prices were still climbing) would promptly end and be superseded by a sharp 10 per cent rebound. To the best of my knowledge, no other investors shared this central case.
This was based on the assumption of two immediate RBA cash rate cuts, which would push home values up 10 per cent in the next 12 months.
Martin Place duly delivered in June and July, and then poured more fuel on the flames with a third cut in October. And the central bank has implored borrowers to believe these rates will remain low for long.
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Nationals turncoat was third cab off the rank in Labor ambush
Feb 14, 2020 — 7.00pm
When Llew O'Brien turned on the government on Monday and did a deal with Labor, the crossbench and fellow rebel Nationals to be elected as Deputy Speaker, he spoke of the "honour'' of having such a role bestowed upon him.
In reality, Mr O'Brien was the third choice under a plan Labor's Tony Burke had hatched several days before in what turned out to be a successful bid to humiliate the government.
Two other rebel Nationals were approached first – David Gillespie from NSW and Queenslander Ken O'Dowd, both of whom declined.
Mr O'Brien, a key supporter of Barnaby Joyce, had quit the Nationals on Sunday after Mr Joyce's failed bid to roll Nationals leader Michael McCormack the week before.
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First Peoples' triumph or two-edged sword?
Peter Hartcher
Political and international editor for The Sydney Morning Herald
February 14, 2020 — 7.30pm
For years the political class has been debating whether to grant constitutional recognition of the unique place of Indigenous Australians. There was even a campaign – "Recognise". This week the High Court just did it.
The court did it in a judgment that "is really important and vastly overlooked in the flurry of the week's media," as Stan Grant, an accomplished international journalist and Wiradjuri man, put it. It's "one of the most remarkable documents I've ever read in Australia".
The court considered "the fundamental principle of what it is to be an Australian and what it is to be Aboriginal", Grant says. And, as it happens, the highest court in the land found that there is a difference. You can be an Australian and not an Aboriginal person, but you can't be an Aboriginal person and not an Australian.
The court ruled that an Aboriginal person can't be considered an "alien" under the constitution. So what? Aren't aliens the things that the big radio telescopes are looking for?
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The think tank behind Australia's changing view of China
The Department of Defence-backed Australian Strategic Policy Institute has become a flashpoint in the breakdown of consensus in Beijing.
Feb 15, 2020 — 12.00am
On Tuesday in the Australian Senate, Labor's Kim Carr rose to his feet, thundering about "hawks intent on fighting a new cold war". In his sights was the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which he said was taking nearly $450,000 from the US State Department (ASPI says the true figure is less than half that amount) to track Chinese research collaborations with Australian universities, "vilifying and denigrating" Australian researchers and their work.
It's not the most vehement denunciation of ASPI on the public record. Only the most recent.
Over the past five years, the Canberra-based think tank has come to dominate the Australian public‘s understanding of China’s rise. It has staunch supporters, many in Parliament, who credit it with raising issues such as Chinese military involvement in Australian universities, the spread of Uighur detention camps in Xinjiang, and the recent and contested defection of a Chinese intelligence agent.
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Coalition driven to distraction after a series of slip-ups
Feb 14, 2020 — 3.57pm
Never was a government more relieved and happy to head for the safety of the Canberra bubble than Scott Morrison and his wounded band of politically damaged and policy-compromised colleagues this week.
On the final day of a disastrous first parliamentary sitting fortnight for the year, members of what is referred to with increasing irony as the Coalition leapt on a story of possible policy difference within the opposition with an almost shrill hysteria.
Sure, the government was riven with anxiety that the madness that has consumed most of its members from the Queensland LNP – and Barnaby Joyce – might lead to a breakaway group that would deprive the government of its numbers in the House of Representatives, and thus majority government.
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Bushfire Crisis And Climate Policy
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BCA plots path to zero emissions by 2050
The lobby group for the nation’s biggest companies is on a collision course with the Morrison government, kicking off work on a new energy and climate policy that formally backs a price on carbon and net zero emissions for the economy by 2050.
A 12-page paper outlining the policy review, along with the appointment of former Australian Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren to help the BCA secretariat with the project, is understood to have been sent last week to the Business Council of Australia’s 130 members.
The objective, according to the paper, is to develop an updated, comprehensive energy and climate change policy package “driven by science, technology and innovation to put Australia on a path to net zero emissions by 2050”.
“Climate change will have serious economic, environmental and social consequences for Australia,” it says.
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Collinsville an unlikely front line in climate wars
It may only be $4 million for a feasibility study but the government's announcement of a feasibility study of a new coal-fired power station will fire up the arguments over Australia's energy policy in a tense atmosphere.
Feb 9, 2020 — 7.00pm
Collinsville? Prepare to hear a lot more about this small central Queensland town. It may not have the same political resonance as Adani’s coal mine just yet but it is still about to become the next flashpoint in the Australian coal wars.
The trigger is the government’s confirmation over the weekend that it will pay $4 million for a feasibility study by Shine Energy into a new coal-fired power station in Collinsville.
That Shine is operated by the local Indigenous community and is proposing a joint solar and coal venture for a high efficiency low emissions (HELE) plant will only intensify the opposing claims of moral and economic rectitude in the coming battle.
The government’s willingness to consider backing a feasibility study into the project is not new. Nor does it offer any real evidence the $2 billion project can ever proceed given the reluctance of Western financiers to back new coal plants.
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'Economic brink': Solar plants curtailed as grid links stall
By Peter Hannam
February 10, 2020 — 12.01am
Almost a dozen solar farms in western Victoria and NSW have had output deliberately cut or start dates delayed because of poor grid capacity.
Last September, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) abruptly slashed the output of five solar farms - four in Victoria and one near Broken Hill in NSW - to half their nominated capacity of just shy of 350 megawatts.
In addition, as many as six other projects in Victoria or southern NSW have been told by AEMO to wait nine months or more before they can be connected to the grid, an industry executive said. A senior official at a separate investment group confirmed similar numbers of delays.
"AEMO approved all of these new generation connections and the generators’ only apparent ‘crime’ - for which they are now being severely economically punished - is that they followed through on Connection Agreement contracts approved by AEMO," said the executive, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid being penalised for speaking out.
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Yes, we have the tech to cut emissions to 2030 and beyond
More gas and more tech — not taxation — is the way to support cheaper and low emission climate solutions without damaging the economy.
Feb 11, 2020 — 12.13pm
Partisan and often emotional views on energy and emissions policy are understandable — the environment, the economy, jobs, incomes and cost of living are all at stake. But policies need to be fact-based and focused on deliverable, pragmatic solutions without harming the economy.
So let’s start with the facts.
Australia meets and beats its emission reduction targets. We will beat our Kyoto targets by a large margin, and will meet and beat our 2030 Paris target. With emission reductions of nearly 13 per cent since 2005, we strongly outperform comparable commodity-exporting developed countries like New Zealand (up 4 per cent) and Canada (down only 2 per cent) and there is no comparison with China (up 67 per cent) and India (up 77 per cent). Projections from December have us on track to meet and beat our 2030 targets, driven by the $3.5 billion Climate Solutions Package.
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Coal is Kryptonite across both major parties
While defending coal at all costs will have short and medium-term political benefits in Queensland, those whose jobs depend on it are also owed some forward thinking.
Feb 13, 2020 — 7.00pm
As part of his newfound freedom on the backbench, Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan has redesigned his Facebook page.
The logo of the Liberal National Party, to which the former resources minister belongs, sits in the bottom right corner while dominating the page is the slogan "Keep Our Jobs Here'', accompanied by an emblem of the Southern Cross.
The latter is a direct lift from the official logo of the Australian Workers' Union, which just happens to represent a lot of workers in north and central Queensland's mining sector, especially coal.
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Record temperature as Antarctica warms up
Scientists in Antarctica have recorded a record temperature of 20.75C, breaking the barrier of 20C for the first time.
Brazilian scientist Carlos Schaefer cautioned that the reading, taken at a monitoring station on an island off the continent’s northern tip last Sunday, “has no meaning in terms of a climate-change trend” because it was a one-off temperature and not part of a long-term data set.
But news that the icy continent is recording temperatures in the relatively balmy 20s is likely to further fuel fears about the warming of the planet.
The reading was taken at Seymour Island, part of a chain off the peninsula that curves out from the northern tip of Antarctica. The island is home to Argentina’s Marambio research base.
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Bushfires: Fires force new thinking on rebuild of critical infrastructure
Critical infrastructure will need to be future-proofed against bushfire catastrophes following the recent destruction of power transmission lines, telecommunications and agricultural fencing, according to bushfire recovery chief Andrew Colvin.
The scale of the damage caused by the fires that razed more than 12 million hectares across the country and took 33 lives, was so great that new ways of protecting infrastructure needed to be considered. Data provided by the Bushfire Recovery Agency, established by Scott Morrison, shows more than 2100 power poles in southeast NSW had been damaged or destroyed, with some communities still without electricity.
An unknown number of mobile phone towers had also been lost, with at least 22 portable towers having been deployed to provide temporary coverage for affected towns and regions in NSW. Half of all towers destroyed still had not been replaced.
More than one million cubic tonnes of agricultural fencing is also claimed to have been lost in the fires, and the industry has warned there are not enough fence posts produced in Australia every year to replace the 50 million that had been destroyed.
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Coronavirus And Impacts.
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China struggles to contain virus as pressure grows on Xi
Feb 9, 2020 — 3.33pm
Hong Kong | China is struggling to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus which has claimed 813 lives after 89 more people died on Saturday, with President Xi Jinping under growing pressure to contain public anger over the death of a whistleblower doctor.
Hundreds of millions of people were scheduled to return to work in China on Monday after a three-week shutdown, but many factories were electing to remain closed. There were growing fears the return to work would accelerate the spread of the virus and many employers were telling their staff to stay home.
Authorities on Sunday reported 89 new deaths, a daily record, and 2656 new confirmed infections. The total of 813 deaths includes one person in Hong Kong and another in the Philippines.
While most of the new cases and deaths were in China's central Hubei province, there were fears the virus could spread when millions of migrant workers return from the extended Chinese New Year holiday and go back to work.
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Government hoping on coronavirus 'breakthrough' as universities challenged
By Jennifer Duke
February 9, 2020 — 11.16am
The federal government is hoping for a "breakthrough" on coronavirus in a matter of weeks to avoid staring down a multi-billion dollar impact on the education sector that could threaten the budget surplus.
Education Minister Dan Tehan has warned that disruptions could significantly affect the crucial education sector, after ratings agency S&P said universities could lose about $3 billion in revenue from fees if Chinese students miss the first teaching period due to the travel bans and quarantine requirements.
Mr Tehan said universities were doing their own assessments but agreed there would be a big impact should the entire first semester be disrupted due to measures to help stop the spread of coronavirus.
"It's very much wait and see what happens," he told Sky News on Sunday morning. "But my hope is that we will see some sort of a breakthrough and we will be able to get students here for the first semester but we will have to wait and see."
The death toll in mainland China from coronavirus has risen by 81 to 780 in the latest figures, passing the 774 deaths recorded globally during the 2002-2003 pandemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
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UK faces ‘major’ coronavirus outbreak, warns world expert
New disease is greater threat than ebola and could overwhelm NHS
Sunday February 09 2020, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
Britain could suffer a “major outbreak” of the coronavirus, which is likely to become a pandemic, according to the microbiologist who co-discovered ebola and the presence of Aids in Africa.
Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said he was “increasingly alarmed” by the rapid spread of the virus and the “huge” number of cases emerging daily.
Almost 35,000 people in at least 28 countries have been infected, with 3,500 new cases yesterday. Among them were five Britons, including a boy aged nine, in the ski resort of Contamines-Montjoie in the French Alps, bringing the total number of cases involving UK citizens to seven. The global death toll climbed to 811.
The virus poses more danger than ebola, Piot said: “It’s a greater threat because of the mode of transmission. The potential for spread is much, much higher.” He said that even with a low death rate, “if the number of people who get infected is huge, then that will also kill a number of people”.
Ministers have ordered a “no-deal style” emergency plan amid fears that China will shut down for months, leaving Britain without goods that are manufactured there.
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Singapore's PM warns infection rate likely to increase
Feb 9, 2020 — 4.43pm
Jakarta | Singapore's government has implored its citizens to stay calm as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases steadily increases and precautionary measures are cranked up.
By Saturday night, Singapore had 40 confirmed cases of the virus, including some people with no known links to previous cases or recent travel history to China (though investigations are ongoing). The day before, the government pushed its Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) up from yellow to orange, the same level the SARS outbreak got to in 2003.
The upgraded alert prompted many to rush to load up on household basics including rice, noodles and toilet paper. Photos of denuded grocery shelves flooded social media. Those who tried to avoid the long queues by going online found Amazon.com and its local competitor RedMart had run out of delivery slots.
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Chilling effect of the coronavirus is turning up in the shipping news
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
February 10, 2020 — 1.21pm
If you want to track the damage being done to global economic activity and growth by the coronavirus, just keep an eye on commodity prices and declarations of force majeure by Chinese companies. Both are showing increasing signs of the stress.
With one of China’s major manufacturing centres and transport and logistics hubs locked down and nearly 40,000 people in China already infected, the virus is having an increasingly more chilling effect on economic activity there.
That in turn is flowing through to demand for the raw materials and disrupting the supply chains that feed the world’s largest manufacturing centre.
Chinese companies and traders have been delaying or cancelling shipments of commodities. Now they are starting to try to use declarations of "force majeure" to walk away from contracts.
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Australia prepares to extend China travel ban due to coronavirus
By Eryk Bagshaw
February 10, 2020 — 7.45pm
Australia is set to extend its coronavirus travel ban in a move expected to hammer the education sector and block 100,000 international students from entering the country in time for the start of semester.
The flu-like disease claimed its highest number of fatalities in China so far on Monday, up by 90 to more than 900, with 40,235 infections recorded since the epidemic began. The head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said as the virus spreads to other countries the figure could be "just the tip of the iceberg".
Government sources confirmed preparations were under way for an extension of the travel ban for all non-Australian residents travelling from China once the current temporary 14-day restriction expires on Saturday.
But there are no plans for a third Qantas flight to evacuate Australians stranded in the epicentre of the outbreak in China's Hubei province, leaving some feeling abandoned.
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Cochlear slides 5pc as coronavirus hits guidance
Feb 11, 2020 — 9.55am
Hearing implant maker Cochlear has cut its full-year underlying net profit guidance by 5 per cent after taking a hit from the coronavirus.
The shares fell 4.2 per cent to $234.40 at 10.40am AEDT, after dropping as much as 5.2 per cent earlier.
Thanks to hospitals across greater China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) deferring surgeries to limit the spread of the coronavirus, Cochlear has been forced to reduce its net profit guidance from $290 million to $300 million to $270 million to $290 million.
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Coronavirus cases outside China 'could be spark' for bigger fire
Shivani Singh and Stephanie Nebehay
Feb 11, 2020 — 3.18am
Beijing | The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) the spread of coronavirus cases which had no history of travel to China could be "the spark that becomes a bigger fire" as people across China trickled back to work after an extended Lunar New Year holiday.
The death toll from the epidemic rose to 908, all but two in mainland China, on Sunday as 97 more fatalities were recorded - the largest number in a single day since the virus was detected in the city of Wuhan in December.
The Diamond Princess cruise ship with 3700 passengers and crew onboard remained quarantined in the Japanese port of Yokohama, with 65 more cases detected, taking the number of confirmed case from the Carnival Corp-owned vessel to 135.
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Cochlear warning shows outbreak's twin shocks
Cochlear's shock profit warning underscores how the world faces a double shock from the coronavirus outbreak, as Chinese hospitals defer surgeries as they deal with the crisis. And we still don't fully understand the true extent of the fallout.
Feb 11, 2020 — 10.57am
Cochlear’s surprise decision to downgrade its full-year profit forecast because of the coronavirus outbreak is a reminder this deadly virus is making the eternally mysterious state of the Chinese economy even more difficult to decipher.
Cochlear says its big problem is that hospitals across mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are deferring surgeries, including Cochlear implants, as part of the barrage of measures being used in China to limit the risk of infection from the coronavirus.
Large chunks of Cochlear’s supply chain are also located in China, particularly for its sound processors and for various accessories.
But the ASX-listed group has three months of inventory for most of its components, and at this stage isn’t expecting supply chain problems to disrupt customer deliveries.
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Virus infects the lifeblood of Amazon merchants
Lisa Baertlein
Feb 12, 2020 — 9.21am
Los Angeles | Amazon sellers are bracing for product shortages as Chinese workers - worried about the fast-spreading coronavirus - may be unable or unwilling to return to idled factories.
Brandon Young, who pulls in more than $10 million in annual revenue from the online marketplace, has a 30-45 day supply of portable Apple Inc watch chargers that could be difficult to replenish because they are built from genuine Apple components that are exclusively made in China.
Plugable Technologies founder Bernie Thompson says he could run out of his top-selling triple display laptop docking station by the end of this month, even if factories open as planned next week.
The entrepreneurs are among the 1 million-plus Amazon sellers whose livelihoods depend on factory workers in China, where the coronavirus has sickened more than 30,000 and killed more than 600 people.
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Expert sees coronavirus over by April in China, WHO still alarmed
David Kirton and Stephanie Nebehay
Feb 12, 2020 — 4.26am
Guangzhou/Geneva | The coronavirus outbreak in China may be over by April, the country's senior medical adviser said, but deaths surpassed 1000 and the World Health Organisation warned of a global threat potentially worse than terrorism.
"Wake up and consider this virus as public enemy number one," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
As the epidemic squeezed the world's second-biggest economy, Chinese firms struggled to get back to work after the extended Lunar New Year holiday, hundreds of them saying they would need loans running into billions of dollars to stay afloat.
Company layoffs were beginning despite assurances by President Xi Jinping that widespread sackings would be avoided, as supply chains for global firms from car manufacturers to smartphone makers ruptured.
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Like terrorist 'attack': Coronavirus vaccine 18 months away, warns WHO
By David Kirton and Stephanie Nebehay
February 12, 2020 — 4.05am
The first vaccine for the coronavirus could be 18 months away, warned the World Health Organisation, which urged global unity to prevent "far more cases and far higher costs" from the disease.
There are urgent talks underway at the World Health Organisation in regards to the global outbreak of coronavirus.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the severity of the coronavirus outbreak means it should be regarded as akin to a terrorist attack.
"To be honest a virus is more powerful (in) creating political, social and economic upheaval than any attack," he said.
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Second wave of the coronavirus crisis hits corporate Australia
Elizabeth Knight
Business columnist
February 12, 2020 — 12.09am
Tuesday’s profit downgrade by Cochlear represents the second-wave impact for Australian companies in response to the coronavirus crisis. There will doubtless be more before this episode turns the corner.
The first wave, which became evident in January, hit Australian companies directly exposed to China in the travel, tourism and education industries – think airlines, hotels and casinos.
The effect was near immediate even though some of the affected businesses can’t estimate the impact on June half profit at this stage.
Like everyone else they don’t know how long the damage tail will be even after the coronavirus is contained.
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China exposure hits home
Vitamin company Blackmores will reveal today just how much it expects its earnings to be hit by the deadly coronavirus which has cut into sales to its lucrative China market.
Blackmores sells directly to China and through the “grey” market of Chinese tourists visiting Australia who take products back home for friends and relatives as well as Australian-based Chinese.
What would have been a particularly strong time of the year for the company — the Chinese New Year period — has now become a black hole for Australian businesses catering to Chinese tourists who are now temporarily banned from coming to Australia.
As the half-yearly profit season begins this week, the spotlight is being thrown on to the many different interlinkages between the vast range of Australian businesses and the China market.
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Virus will hit economy but not credit rating: S&P
By Shane Wright
February 13, 2020 — 9.47am
The coronavirus outbreak will hurt the Australian economy but will not hit the federal government's credit rating, according to one of the world's key ratings agencies.
S&P Global on Thursday morning said while it believes the virus will strip half a percentage point from Australian economic growth this year, that did not mean there would be a direct flow-on impact to the nation's credit standing.
Australia is one of 11 nations to have the top credit rating from the world's three major rating agencies which includes S&P.
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Coronavirus: Virus death toll in Hubei surges by 242 in one day
The Chinese province at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak has reported a record rise in the death toll, as global health experts warned the epidemic could get far worse before it is brought under control.
On Thursday, health officials in Hubei province said 242 people had died from the flu-like virus, the fastest rise in the daily count since the pathogen was identified in December, and bringing the total number of deaths in the province to 1310. The previous record rise in the toll was 103 on February 10.
The grim new tally came a day after China had reported its lowest number of new coronavirus cases in two weeks, bolstering a forecast by Beijing’s senior medical adviser for the outbreak there to end by April.
But the 2015 new confirmed cases reported in mainland China on Wednesday was dwarfed by the 14,840 new cases reported in Hubei alone on Thursday, when provincial officials said they had adopted a new methodology for counting infections.
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Coronavirus: Covid-19 on par ‘with the major pandemics of 20th century’
The impact of the unfolding coronavirus epidemic “may be comparable to the major influenza pandemics of the 20th century”, epidemiologists at Imperial College London say.
The respected MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at the Imperial has estimated in a new report that 1 per cent of people infected with coronavirus will die, but they stressed this early estimate carries a high degree of uncertainty.
The estimated death rate is almost 10 times the case fatality ratio of seasonal influenza, which the World Health Organisation calculates kills 0.13 per cent of those infected.
Neil Ferguson, co-author of the MRC Centre report, said an exact case fatality ratio for the coronavirus would not be known for some time, but early estimates indicated the unfolding epidemic would have deep effects.
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Coronavirus could infect two-thirds of globe, top scientist says
By John Lauerman
February 14, 2020 — 3.11am
As the number of COVID-19 cases jumps dramatically in China, a top infectious-disease scientist warns that things could get far worse: two-thirds of the world's population could catch it.
So says Ira Longini, a World Health Organisation adviser who tracked studies of the virus's transmissibility in China. His estimate implies that there could eventually be billions more infections than the current official tally of about 60,000.
Several companies have already closed their doors as coronavirus concerns affect restaurant and tourism operators.
If the virus spreads to anywhere near that extent, it will show the limitations of China's strict containment measures, including quarantining areas inhabited by tens of millions of people. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has credited those steps with giving the rest of China and the world a "window" in which to prepare.
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Global economic impact of virus approaching GFC levels
By Shane Wright
February 14, 2020 — 11.13am
The coronavirus outbreak could leave the world economy in its worst state since the global financial crisis, with fresh warnings economic activity could contract through the first quarter of the year.
Amid warnings from a top infectious-disease scientist that up to two-thirds of the world's population could catch the virus, analysts are downgrading their expectations for the global economy as the impact on the tourism, manufacturing and services sectors grows.
Capital Economics overnight released analysis pointing to a sharp slowdown in growth through the first three months of 2020, driven by the virus outbreak.
It said global growth had already slipped to 2.8 per cent annualised through the December quarter, from 3.1 per cent in the September quarter.
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Chinese medics pay heavy price as death toll rises
By Nicola Smith
February 15, 2020 — 8.59am
Taiwan: The coronavirus epidemic has taken a severe toll on Chinese health workers, infecting 1716 and killing six, with numbers expected to rise, Communist Party officials have said.
The stark admission by Zeng Yixin, China's National Health Commission vice-minister, comes amid repeated calls from hospitals for more protective equipment, particularly in Hubei province - the region at the centre of the epidemic.
The majority of infected medical staff - 1102 - work in Wuhan, where doctors have been forced to reuse the same equipment due to shortages in masks and bodysuits. Another 400 have been infected elsewhere in Hubei province.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said the data was "a critical piece of information, because health workers are the glue that holds an outbreak response together".
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'Coronavirus has been the beheading of us': Tourism devastated, survey shows
By Tim Barlass
February 14, 2020 — 5.34pm
An industry survey of tourism businesses reveals the devastating impact of the Chinese travel ban to Australia as a result of the new coronavirus with some companies facing closure and others laying off staff.
One NSW business said it has lost $9 million, while one estimate puts the nationwide loss in tourism revenue at more than $2 billion.
The survey by the Australian Tourism Export Council found 91 per cent of the 100 or so members who responded had experienced cancellations from international clients as a direct result of the coronavirus. About 85 per cent said their forward bookings were being negatively affected
Several businesses reported losses in excess of $1 million with cancellations stretching out to at least May. About 33 per cent said they had received cancellations from markets other than China as a result of the outbreak of the disease.
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Coronavirus cases surge in China with virus plaguing front line workers
After the coronavirus death toll ballooned for a second day, a new figure about workers on the front line has sent officials into a panic.
Chinese’s Xi Jinping risks 'Chernobyl moment' as China scrambles to contain the coronavirus, while the UK battles a “super spreader”.
The World Health Organization is seeking more information from China about a new large number of health workers falling sick because of the coronavirus after it was revealed more than 1,700 of them have tested positive and six have died.
While infections and deaths from the new virus in China ballooned for a second straight day on Friday, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the health commission was “highly concerned” by the infections.
Dr Ghebreyesus said this new figure was a “critical piece of information” because health workers are “the glue that holds the health system and the outbreak response together”.
“We need to know more about these figures, including the time period and circumstances in which the health workers became sick,” he said.
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Senior China diplomat concedes challenge of coronavirus
Alessandra Galloni and Ryan Woo
Feb 15, 2020 — 8.49am
Berlin | A top Chinese official acknowledged that the new coronavirus is a deep challenge to the country, but defended Beijing's management of the epidemic while lashing out at the "overreaction" of other countries.
In a wide-ranging interview with Reuters in the German capital on Friday (Saturday AEDT), State Councillor Wang Yi, who also serves as China's foreign minister, urged the United States not to take unnecessary virus-response measures that could hamper trade, travel and tourism.
"The epidemic overall is under control," he said. "This epidemic is truly sudden. It has brought a challenge to China and the world."
"We've taken such complete prevention and control efforts, efforts that are so comprehensive, that I can't see any other country that can do this," Wang said, adding that any leader in another country would find the challenge very difficult.
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Wild rumours based on shoddy research
· The Times
There is no evidence that the new Chinese coronavirus was engineered by humans, scientists have said, dismissing “shoddy” research that has suggested otherwise.
Public health officials have warned of an “alarming” spread of false rumours about the Covid-19 epidemic, and planning is under way to deal with any infection epidemic in Western countries (see story below).
Two weeks ago Indian researchers published a genetics paper that claimed to have found unusual insertions in the genome of the virus sweeping China. Some were similar to those in HIV.
The suggestion was that these mutations could not have arisen naturally and were instead inserted at a laboratory.
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Royal Commissions And The Like.
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None this week.
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National Budget Issues.
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Surplus almost certainly gone as coronavirus and bushfires hit
By Shane Wright
February 10, 2020 — 10.48pm
The budget surplus is almost certainly gone as economists warn the Morrison government's run of good luck has finally ended with the coronavirus and bushfires punching holes in revenue and forcing up spending.
A former Reserve Bank board member said the government's plan for a surplus was already unsustainable because it depended on a string of luck, while economists said Treasurer Josh Frydenberg faced an uphill battle to deliver a promised $5 billion surplus for the 2019-20 financial year.
The government, which highlighted its promised surplus during last year's election campaign, has sought to play down expectations in the past fortnight as the extent of the coronavirus outbreak has grown.
Australia is set to extend its coronavirus travel ban beyond Saturday in a move expected to hammer the education sector and block 100,000 international students from entering the country in time for the start of semester, government sources confirmed.
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The Great Australian Dream is keeping the economy weak
Ross Gittins
Economics Editor
February 12, 2020 — 12.00am
Do you worry about the enormous size of your mortgage? If you do, it seems you’re not the only one. And the way Reserve Bank governor Dr Philip Lowe sees it, people like you are the main reason consumer spending is so weak and the Reserve and the Morrison government are having so much trouble getting the economy moving.
Until the global financial crisis in 2008, we were used to an economy that, after allowing for inflation, grew by about 3 per cent a year. The latest figures show it growing by barely more than half that. (This, of course, is before we feel the temporary effects of bushfires and the coronavirus.)
This explains why the Reserve cut its official interest rate three times last year, dropping it from a record low of 1.5 per cent to an even more amazing 0.75 per cent. Cutting interest rates is intended to encourage people to borrow and spend. So far, however, it’s shown little sign of working.
The federal government has responded to the current situation on the Coronavirus, as well as a ministry reshuffle.
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Consumer confidence remains weak: Westpac
Australian consumer confidence has bounced to a three-month high but remains well below average.
The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment rose 2.3 per cent to 95.5 points in February.
“Despite the modest improvement this month, sentiment remains weak overall,” said Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan.
“At 95.5, the index remains well below the long run average of 101.4 and firmly in pessimistic territory below 100.”
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Abolish stamp duty - impose a proper land tax instead
Jessica Irvine
Economics writer
February 12, 2020 — 4.34pm
Sometimes it’s possible to sense when a good idea’s time has come - when several strands in the national conversation weave together to form an obvious pointer on where to from here.
I sense one now around tax reform.
First, we hear news that Australia’s sleeping property giant, which awoke in the middle of last year, has only continued its rampage this year, with home prices now poised to topple previous records within months.
From property bust to boom, the national conversation must now inevitably swing back to concerns about housing affordability and how future generations will ever be able to afford secure and dignified housing for themselves and their families.
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Low rates for years: RBA warns of risks if household debt climbs
By Shane Wright
February 13, 2020 — 4.23pm
Interest rates could remain low for "decades", the Reserve Bank governor has signalled while warning Australians may be starting on a fresh binge of mortgage debt that could expose one of the nation's biggest economic vulnerabilities.
Amid continuing signs the retail sector is struggling, Philip Lowe admitted there were already signs of a "cross-over" between Australians using last year's interest rate cuts to get their finances in order and people borrowing more to get into the property market.
The RBA sliced official interest rates to a record low of 0.75 per cent last year as it sought to drive down the unemployment rate and lift wages growth. Since it started cutting in June, house prices have rebounded, with Sydney and Melbourne values lifting by almost a percentage point a month.
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Health Issues.
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Health insurers must evolve: APRA
Government reforms aimed at supporting the private health sector have been unable to halt the increasing number of Australians ditching their private health insurance policies, according to the nation’s financial regulator who says insurers must also pull their weight to ensure the sector’s long-term health.
Writing exclusively in The Australian today, Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority executive Geoff Summerhayes warned consolidation among private health insurers was inevitable unless “whole-of-industry response” is taken.
Mr Summerhayes said last week only three private health insurers would have a sustainable business model by 2022 as young health fund members continue to dump cover as more older, costlier members continue to take up insurance.
“Over a number of years, the government has undertaken a range of reforms and measures designed to support the industry, including on affordability, as well as welcome steps to make the health insurance system easier for consumers to understand. Despite this help, insurers have been unable to halt or reverse the broader trends,” Mr Summerhayes writes in The Australian.
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Bullying of junior doctors endemic despite zero-tolerance pledges: survey
By Kate Aubusson
February 10, 2020 — 3.33pm
One in three doctors in training in Australia is exposed to bullying, harassment or discrimination with potentially dangerous effects for the entire healthcare system, including patient care.
The largest comprehensive survey of almost 10,000 doctors in training found 33 per cent had been targeted or had witnessed the toxic behaviour at work in the 12 months prior to the survey being conducted.
Yet only one in three had reported it and fewer than half could say their report had been followed up.
That was despite 80 per cent of respondents saying they knew how to raise concerns and 75 per cent saying their workplaces had a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment and discrimination.
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How to fix burnout for young lawyers and doctors
Graduate unease about work/life balance reflects a bigger problem: high achievers studying law and medicine straight out of school.
Feb 11, 2020 — 4.03pm
There is growing unease and striking parallels among the junior workforces of the elite professions of law and medicine. The trends offer important implications for the wider workforce.
In the past 18 months, there has been an underpayments scandal of graduates at law firm Ashurst. King & Wood Mallesons has been subject to a Fair Work notice regarding fatigue among its workers. There have also been growing concerns surrounding poor mental health in the profession. Lawyers are in the top handful of jobs regarding suicide rates.
Within medicine, multiple units have been downgraded due to concerns around bullying, including the cardiothoracic ward at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the intensive care unit at Westmead Hospital. Both have had their capacity to train junior doctors suspended pending further investigations.
A 2018 article in the Medical Journal of Australia cites concerns around doctor welfare. Statistically, female doctors now have a similar risk of suicide as their male counterparts, in contrast to men having three times the risk in the community.
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Government to fund advanced training for 100 rural GPs
By Dana McCauley
February 12, 2020 — 12.00am
Country towns will get an extra 100 GPs qualified to deliver babies and treat patients in rural hospitals under a Morrison government plan to help address the shortage of doctors in regional and remote areas.
Regional Health Minister Mark Coulton will on Wednesday announce the government will fund advanced training in obstetrics, emergency medicine and general practice for 100 trainee doctors from next year at the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine.
An extra 100 rural GP specialists will be trained under the plan.
The extra training is part of the government's March 2019 promise to develop a national rural generalist pathway to channel more doctors to the regions. It allocated $62 million over four years in last year's budget to kick-start the project.
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Bid to Close The Gap on Indigenous benchmarks has 'failed'
By Rob Harris
February 12, 2020 — 12.00am
Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt says successive governments have "failed" to reach the lofty expectations of closing the gap of Aboriginal disadvantage in health, education and employment set a decade ago and a new community-led approach is needed.
The annual Closing the Gap report, to be released today, shows a staggering failure to meet targets in improving levels of Indigenous childhood mortality, life expectancy, school attendance and employment.
Mr Wyatt told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald an Indigenous child mortality rate of 141 per 100,000 — twice the rate for non-Indigenous children - "shouldn't be occurring in a first-world nation" and showed governments and agencies "still have a lot of work to do".
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Group aims to end breast cancer in 10 yrs
· Australian Associated Press
No Australian woman would die of breast cancer by 2030 under an ambitious research strategy being pushed by the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
The $100 million plan includes determining why one in 10 women don't survive beyond five years after diagnosis, funding for immunotherapy research, more personalised therapies and prevention programs.
If successful, NBCF CEO Professor Sarah Hosking said there could be zero deaths by 2030.
"There is currently no data coordination between medical facilities and clinics," she said on Thursday.
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Rogue cell breakthrough for auto-immune treatments
The diagnosis and treatment of auto-immune diseases could be revolutionised after scientists for the first time isolated the rogue cells that cause the immune system to attack itself.
The researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of NSW used cellular genomics technology to reveal the genetic mutations that cause immune cells to make antibodies that attack the body’s own cells — uncovering the root cause of auto-immune disease.
An estimated one in eight Australians suffers an auto-immune disease and the cause of the conditions has remained a mystery.
Doctors treating auto-immune diseases are currently unable to ascertain whether a treatment drug is working to eradicate rogue immune cells, and the researchers said their breakthrough could transform the management of diseases ranging from multiple sclerosis, coeliac disease, thyroid disorders and rheumatoid arthritis, among scores of other auto-immune conditions.
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International Issues.
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End State of the Union spectacle for good.
David Von Drehle
Feb 11, 2020 — 12.00am
Congress, in the name of self-respect, should put an end to the State of the Union address.
It's a made-up tradition steadily warped over time from an exercise in communication between equal branches of the government to a political sideshow in which Congress is a mere prop. It has become an annual measure of America's dangerous decline from a nation that governs itself into a nation dependent on its chief executive.
It feeds the cult of presidential personality, which is a bad thing regardless of who sits in the Oval Office.
Article II of the US constitution requires that the president "from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient". That's exactly what presidents did, usually in the form of a written report – typically as dull as dishwater – for most of the nation's history.
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Trump’s re-election would be dangerous for the world
If Mr Trump wins, this victory could well be even more significant than his first. For the American people to choose a classic demagogue twice could not be dismissed as an accident. It would be a decisive moment.
Feb 12, 2020 — 9.51am
With one bound, US President Donald Trump was free. With the expected display of naked partisanship, Senate Republicans (with the exception of Mitt Romney) abandoned their constitutionally mandated role as judges of his alleged abuse of power.
They have deferred the decision to the voters in November’s presidential election. Mr Trump will possess many advantages: passionate supporters; a united party; the electoral college; and a healthy economy. His re-election seems likely.
The most obvious reason why Mr Trump might win again is the economy. Even by his standards, last week’s State of the Union address was a case of exaggeration piled on hyperbole.
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Democrats bearish on Sanders really should know better
The past four years in politics have taught us to expect the unexpected.
Feb 13, 2020 — 9.18am
Astute chroniclers of British politics have formulated what is known as the Banter Heuristic. According to this rule of thumb, whose predictive record has few betters, the silliest outcome is also the likeliest to transpire.
Here follows an account of its portents for the US in 2020.
Offered five or so candidates of weight, Democrats continue to dither over their presidential nominee. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders turns up to the party’s summer gathering with a clear but not quite decisive plurality of delegates, amassed in such primaries as New Hampshire’s on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT). As grandees doubt an avowed socialist’s chances against President Donald Trump, the first “brokered” convention since 1952 crowns AN Other.
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Irish election result throws open Pandora’s box for reunification
BILL EMMOTT
Sinn Fein’s success in Ireland’s general election, where it headed the poll, has come as a shock, owing to the party’s historic ties to the Irish Republican Army and that organisation’s association with violence.
The cause of its success was domestic discontent, not nationalist fervour. Nevertheless, Sinn Fein’s victory will put Irish unity — and thus the future of Northern Ireland’s inclusion in the United Kingdom — firmly on the agenda.
No one is more surprised by the result than Sinn Fein itself. Last May, the party, under new leader Mary Lou McDonald, captured just 9.5 per cent of the vote in local elections, and 11.7 per cent in the European parliament election.
These results left party leaders so discouraged that they didn’t even bother to run a full slate of candidates in the weekend’s general election. Yet it has suddenly surged to 24.5 per cent, ahead of both of Ireland’s traditional mainstream parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
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I look forward to comments on all this!
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David.
