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30JULY2021-FRI
Sydney lockdown to continue amid rising COVID-19 cases but construction to resume
Friday 30th July 2021
Many small business owners learn leadership skills through hard-fought experience rather than formal training. They begin with a small team of people they know and understand how to support, but more sophisticated leadership skills are required as the workforce grows.
The NSW Government has extended Sydney’s lockdown by four weeks until August 28 following persistently high COVID-19 case numbers, but a ban on non-occupied buildings in most of Sydney was lifted to offset the economic impact.
When you think about the traits of a successful person, you think of someone who is confident, hardworking, intelligent, strategic, and someone who can generate high returns. While they might possess qualities that are great for business, just because someone is successful doesn’t make them a great leader.
Many business owners believe that they are too small to have an impact on global environmental issues. They think it is up to corporations and governments to find solutions. Catalyst, a new research program that aims to provide businesses with an accurate picture of real-time shifts in consumer sentiment towards important environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, believes that all businesses have a role to play, irrespective of their size.
Our lives are constantly changing, so it’s essential to reset and refresh your goals regularly. Now that EOFY is over, it’s the perfect time to take stock and reset both your personal business goals and your plans for the new financial year.
Australia’s economy is set for a dramatic fall in the current September quarter, as the cost of Sydney’s extended lockdown blows out to many billions of dollars.ANZ is forecasting a 1.3 per cent economic contraction in the current quarter, CBA a 2.7 per cent slump.CBA’s forecast means an economic hit to Australia of more than $13 billion. Both banks expect more financial support to come from the federal and NSW governments and the Reserve Bank
Victorian businesses hit hard by repeated coronavirus lockdowns are being given a $400 million helping hand.The joint state and federally-funded package announced on Wednesday includes $5000 grants for about 30,000 businesses hit by capacity limits under the current public health restrictions.Twenty-four sectors are eligible including gyms, cafes, restaurants, catering services and hairdressers.Businesses in Melbourne’s CBD can get an additional $2000, in recognition of reduced foot traffic due to office density limits.Licensed venues, which have higher operating costs, will be eligible for larger grants of up to $20,000 under a $70 million boost to the state government’s Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund 2021.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham are facing backlash after it was announced that Sydney residents in lockdown without work will receive a cash boost to their disaster payment.In a statement after the announcement, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) said the Morrison Government had “finally relented to pressure”, criticising the late decision which came more than a month after Sydney first went into lockdown.The Covid-19 Disaster Payment will be raised to $750 per week for those who typically work over 20 hours, and $450 for those who work under 20 hours, matching the levels of the initial JobKeeper scheme.
Aussies spent a record $50 billion on online shopping last year, with Victorians taking out the title for the most prolific spenders as they endured months of lockdowns.Last year, nine million Australian households shopped online – that’s 82 per cent of all households, a report from Australia Post revealed.The Victorian suburbs of Point Cook, Cranbourne, Hoppers Crossing, Craigieburn and Doreen took out the first five spots in the top ten that shopped the most in Australia, based on purchase volume.
Google Cloud has launched its second Australian cloud infrastructure region in Melbourne to improve latency and availability for customers.The Melbourne region joins the existing Australian region in Sydney, which the hyperscale public cloud provider launched in 2017. It brings the total number of Google Cloud regions to 27 worldwide, of which 11 are based in the Asia Pacific.
Despite an increase in coronavirus infections, the United States’ economic recovery is on pace, according to the Federal Reserve in a new policy statement that remained upbeat and highlighted ongoing discussions about the potential withdrawal of monetary policy support.
Boeing reported its first quarterly profit since 2019 and its revenue topped expectations as the giant aircraft maker tries to dig out from the most difficult stretch in its history.Boeing earned $567 million in the second quarter, compared with a $2.4 billion loss a year ago.Still, Boeing’s core commercial-planes business lost money. That was offset, however, by profits in its defence and space unit and its services division.Still, Boeing’s core commercial-planes business lost money. That was offset, however, by profits in its defence and space unit and its services division.
American Express is set to partially resume its business in India from August by acquiring merchants, even as it works to fix the issues of compliance related to data localisation of its card users that led to a regulatory ban on new card issuance, said three people familiar with the matter. The company has asked its partner banks and payment operators in India to recommence the onboarding of new merchants on its network from August 7.
Homeowners are cheering the ongoing surge in residential property prices but it’s seriously discouraging first home buyers, particularly in NSW, where median values are highest in the nation and are still rising.According to the latest CoreLogic monthly property values data, dwelling prices surged 13.5 per cent nationally over the year to June 30.
Billions of dollars in tax relief for wealthy Australians is locked-in regardless of who wins the next election, with federal Labor officially vowing to support the final stage of tax cuts after months of internal party debate. The stage-3 tax cuts will see everyone earning between $45,000 and $200,000 paying 30 per cent in tax from 2024. The changes scrap the 37 per cent tax bracket for those earning above $120,000, making those earners the biggest winners from the cuts.
China’s anti-dumping duties will end imports of Australian bottled wine, rendering the Chinese market unviable in the near term, new research has found.The latest report on the wine sector from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Science says the Chinese tariffs, imposed for five years, have already seriously disrupted Australia’s wine trade.Only about 60 per cent of wine destined for China would find a place in Australia’s existing markets by 2025 unless efforts were made to find new buyers or to do things differently.
The world economy risks losing $4.5 trillion from highly infectious variants of Covid-19 spreading through poor countries where vaccination rates are lower, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned.Calling on rich countries to take urgent action to share at least 1bn doses with developing nations, the IMF said the gap between rich and poor economies had widened during the pandemic and risked worsening further next year.
Jeff Bezos has offered to pay up to US$2 billion in expenses if NASA awards Blue Origin space the contract to build a spacecraft for a proposed moon-landing mission as early as 2024.In April 2021, the agency gave the US$2.9 billion deal to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, rejecting a bid from Blue Origin and defence contractor Dynetics at the same time.
Tesla netted a record $1.1 billion in profit during the second quarter. That’s more than double the $438 million it made in the first quarter, and more than 10 times the net income it reported a year ago.So how did Tesla do it?Car sales: Tesla produced and delivered more than 200,000 vehicles during the second quarter, an all-time high.Reduced costs: The company slashed costs at its factories, boosting its operating margin to 11%.
Online learning platform Byju’s is on an acquisition spree as the industry is moving toward consolidation amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of schools and colleges.India’s highest-valued startup has acquired Singapore-based professional education platform Great Learning and school learning app Toppr for US$600 million and $150 million respectively, according to media reports.
