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Hello and good morning, team.
1. The federal government expects the Australian economy to grow 5% this financial year and 4.5% in the next as a result of fiscal stimulus measures. Speaking yesterday, Scott Morrison said key to the recovery strategy was restarting and overhauling temporary migration visas, pushing JobSeeker recipients into regional areas, and keeping state borders open. He also laid out his longer-term economic priorities, including developing Australian into a global leader in research and development (R&D) and developing a reliable, low-emissions energy base.
2. There are to be an estimated 110,000 job losses when the JobKeeper wage subsidy finishes at the end of March. The forecast comes from Commonwealth Bank economists Kristina Clifton and Nicolas Guesnon, who expect more than half of those to come from high risk industries like transport, accomodation and the arts. However, the report argues the overall impact will be "minimal" as slack in the labour market stops unemployment from rising sharply.
3. Job ads have returned to their pre-pandemic level, according to new data from SEEK. Ads on the online platform through February were 12.4% up on the same month last year. Tasmania is leading the nation, with ads up 40% on the last year.
4. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews broke several ribs and damaged vertebrae in a "nasty fall" at a holiday home on the Mornington Peninsula on Tuesday. He is to be transferred from a private hospital near Frankston to the specialist trauma centre at The Alfred hospital.
5. Cult home fitness brand Peloton will enter the Australian market in the second half of 2021, the company has announced. Local riders will be granted access to Peloton's live-streamed and on-demand stationary bike workouts, which have attracted a dedicated following overseas. It won't come cheap, with the brand's base-model bike starting at AU$2,895. My take is that Peloton is going to absolutely explode here. Mark my words.
6. Prepare yourself for Australia's streaming market to get a tad more crowded. Paramount+, which is set to replace 10 All Access with a somewhat bulkier offering, is gearing up to launch in Australia later this year. The move signals another company's enthusiasm to get a stronger foothold in Australia's lucrative streaming market, where 14.5 million Aussies forked out to access a TV subscription service in 2020.
7. Sick of hearing about NFTs? Too bad! This is how the economy works now! Billionaire Jack Dorsey has joined the craze by offering the very first tweet in history for sale. The Twitter CEO is auctioning the tweet "just setting up my twttr" dated March 21, 2006. The highest bid is $2.5 million, in case you still thought that antiquated notions like "actual value" still have any relevance these days.
8. The UK royal family on Tuesday issued a response to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Oprah interview. Buckingham Palace said the family was "saddened to learn" how hard things had been for the couple. It said the racism allegations "are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately."
9. The Japanese government has decided to exclude overseas spectators from attending the Tokyo Olympics, reports Kyodo News. The decision has been made in order to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. A poll in January revealed that only 16% of Japanese people think the Olympics should go ahead this year. There have been reports as far back as January that Japanese officials already thought the Games were "doomed".
10. Tesla told regulators its "full self-driving" beta won't be fully autonomous when it's released. Emails between Tesla and California's DMV about the software were made public on Friday. Tesla's official stance that the FSD beta's public release won't provide full autonomy appears to contradict Elon Musk's bullish claims about the technology. On a conference call in January, Musk indicated Tesla would achieve Level 5 autonomy, which requires zero human intervention, in 2021.
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