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- 27AUG2021-FRI (copy 01)
27AUG2021-FRI (copy 01)
Business news and updates: Daily roundup!
Friday 27th August 2021
LAST CHANCE: Have Your Say and You Could Win a $3000 Gift Card
Take part in the 3rd annual ELMO HR Industry Benchmark Survey, in partnership with AHRI. Your contributions to this year’s survey will help establish new 2021 benchmarks based on a wide range of qualitative and quantitative data, which you can subsequently use to gauge how your organisation fares across each functional area within HR, relative to others in your market, industry and/or company size.
(This survey will close on Friday, 27th August, 2021 id:2021-08-26-10:14:36:918t at 11:59pm AEST)
Let’s Talk: Top e-commerce tips from successful managers
For many SMEs, online sales have been the difference between surviving the pandemic and being unable to continue trading. Australian e-commerce reached a record high in 2020, and with Australia Post reporting that sales were equally strong for the 2020-2021 financial year, it appears that consumer behaviour has changed forever.So, if your business is fast-tracking its digital presence, what strategies can you adopt to maximise online sales?Let’s talk…
International Borders: Ai Group says it’s time for Australia to open up
The Ai Group has called upon the National Cabinet to seriously consider options to fast track the opening of both state and international borders. The national peak business representative body outlined a set of measures for consideration by the National cabinet to open up Australia to the rest of the world.
Lockdowns are hurting employment, sales and cash flow: Xero Small Business Index
Xero’s July Small Business Index shows that COVID restrictions and lockdowns have dealt a blow to small businesses. Nationwide, jobs growth slowed, sales decreased and wait times on payments from suppliers increased by 2.8 days. In July, the index fell by 41 points and now sits at 101. This is the lowest index seen since December of 2020.
How to prepare your small business for an unpredictable future
With a new wave of lockdowns putting uncertainty back at the top of the agenda, the businesses that will continue to thrive are those that respond quickly and effectively to ongoing change.
Fending off app overload in the hybrid workplace
There’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic has turned how we work on its head. Some businesses have been left to play catch-up with their unfinished digital transformation projects, while those with a head start are looking at optimising their newly minted hybrid work environments, in which some employees working from home while others continue to work on site.
Australia’s major banks have rushed to join an expanded federal lending scheme that will provide loans of up to $5 million to enterprises with less than $250 million in revenue. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg declared that small and medium-sized businesses will no longer be required to have received JobKeeper wage subsidies or been damaged by floods in order to participate in the programme. The treasurer stated that small firms were desperate due to ongoing coronavirus lockdowns, which put owners under great stress.
According to the foreign minister, Australia believes in attaining net-zero carbon emissions, preferably by 2050, rather than merely talking about it. Many close allies, including the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, are advocating more ambitious climate action pledges during the November meetings in Glasgow. The final official ministerial meeting before the Conference of the Parties, or COP, is scheduled for next month in Milan.
Businesses believe the ACT government’s ultra-strict Covid requirements, which are significantly stricter than those elsewhere, are crippling them. Staff at Better Music in Phillip, one of the country’s largest music stores, have been warned they are not allowed to enter even to receive instruments that have already been paid for and are in transit from abroad. This high-priced inventory might simply be returned to European and Asian vendors. The shop also can’t fulfil internet orders, whereas competitors in Sydney and Melbourne can, therefore the trade goes to the competitors, according to owner Greg Soulsby.
According to recent research, Australia’s ageing population should not put strain on health budgets because of the quantity of untaxed wealth in the country. The Australia Institute has released a paper that casts doubt on the validity of the analyses used by the federal government in its recent Intergenerational Report (IGR). The Institute of Governmental Research (IGR) warned in June that Australia’s tax system would struggle to sustain our ageing population in the coming decades.
Some of the country’s leading technology companies have committed to investing billions of dollars to strengthen cybersecurity defenses and to train skilled workers, the White House said following President Joe Biden’s private meeting with top executives.The Washington gathering was held during a relentless stretch of ransomware attacks that have targeted critical infrastructure and major corporations, as well as other illicit cyber operations that U.S. authorities have linked to foreign hackers.The Biden administration has been urging the private sector to do its part to protect against those increasingly sophisticated attacks. During the meeting, Biden referred to cybersecurity as a “core national security challenge” for the U.S.
A recent McKinsey analysis indicates a 38 times rise in telehealth services in the US, which has begun garnering major investor attention. In India till last month, the Central Government’s eSanjeevani initiative completed around 80 lakh consultations in around 16 months. Private companies, including a few established giants in the healthcare space, are increasingly investing in promising health-tech start-ups by backing their R&D and product development.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), there were just over 2.4 million actively trading enterprises as of June 30, up a record 3.8 per cent year on year (data goes back 18 years). Over the year, the number of small firms (1-4 employees) increased by 15.2 per cent.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says increased confidence and a further surprise decline in the unemployment rate are further indications that when virus lockdowns are lifted, there will be a strong economic recovery. The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index increased 0.5% in the previous week, aided in part by a surprising reduction in the unemployment rate to a 12-year low of 4.6%.
As millions of Australians remain under lockdown, disturbing data suggests that one-fifth of households have less than $1000 in cash reserves — a 6 per cent decline from before the outbreak, according to new research. It also discovered that nearly a quarter of Australian households reported that if they lost their income, they would only be able to maintain their current lifestyle for one month, while 11 per cent would only be able to do so for two weeks – the equivalent of a brief Covid lockdown, according to the ME Bank report. However, there was some good news in the form of a new record high for cash stashing, with 58% of families saving an average of $960 every month.
Australia’s consumer watchdog, the ACCC, is taking Telstra, Optus and TPG to court, alleging they misled hundreds of thousands of consumers over NBN speeds. If it succeeds, the companies could each be forced to pay millions of dollars in fines.Despite the $60 billion investment in NBN Co, Australia lags far behind the world’s best in broadband speeds, ranking at number 53 on the Speedtest Global Index.
Investment scams reported to Scamwatch have cost Australians more than $70 million in the first half of 2021 alone. The figure now exceeds the full-year total for 2020, and losses for this year are forecast to reach $140 million. According to the data, there has been a 53.4% increase in complaints, from 3104 in the first half of 2020 to 4763 thus far in 2021. The surge in crypto-based frauds is particularly worrying for regulators at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
PayPal, the financial technology company, will soon allow its UK users to purchase and trade cryptocurrencies using its app or website. The global payments provider made the announcement, noting that consumers will be able to buy, hold, and trade Bitcoin beginning this week. Customers in the United Kingdom will also be able to use their PayPal accounts to trade three other forms of cryptos, including Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. PayPal’s new offering does not charge UK users to hold any of the four cryptocurrencies.
South Korea is set to ban Google and Apple from mandating software developers to use their payment systems, thereby prohibiting them from earning commissions on in-app purchases, the first major economy to impose such restrictions on the tech companies.
