Daily Telegraph, Sydney, Business News, Tim McIntyre

Transcription

1 MON 09 JULY 2018 Mediaportal Report Happy tale for self-employed Daily Telegraph, Sydney, Business News, Tim McIntyre 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 22,634 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² NSW Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 430 word(s), ~1 min Audience 232,067 CIRCULATION Riding the investment cycle Daily Telegraph, Sydney, Business News, David Libby Koch 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 43,661 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² NSW Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 948 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 232,067 CIRCULATION Time to take aim and score those money goals Daily Telegraph, Sydney, Business News, Anthony Keane 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 8,694 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² NSW Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 429 word(s), ~1 min Audience 232,067 CIRCULATION Banks to moderate sales pitch Daily Telegraph, Sydney, Business News 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 7,797 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² NSW Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 233 word(s), <1 min Audience 232,067 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT This report and its contents are for the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only and must not be provided to any third party by any means for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia and/or the relevant copyright owner. For more information contact copyright@isentia.com DISCLAIMER Isentia makes no representations and, to the extent permitted by law, excludes all warranties in relation to the information contained in the report and is not liable for any losses, costs or expenses, resulting from any use or misuse of the report.

2 Happy tale for self-employed Courier Mail, Brisbane, Business News, Tim McIntyre 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 8,202 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 430 word(s), ~1 min Audience 135,007 CIRCULATION Lendlease, HKMA swoop on Barangaroo complex The Australian, Australia, Business News, Ben Wilmot 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 10,913 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² National Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 537 word(s), ~2 mins Audience 94,448 CIRCULATION Time to take aim and score those money goals Courier Mail, Brisbane, Business News, Anthony Keane 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 3,232 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 429 word(s), ~1 min Audience 135,007 CIRCULATION Record interest in office assets The Australian, Australia, Business News, Elizabeth Redman 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 2,688 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² National Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 380 word(s), ~1 min Audience 94,448 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT For the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only. Not to be provided to any third party for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia. For further information contact copyright@isentia.com

3 Shipton urges banks to go bush The Australian, Australia, Business News, Michael Roddan 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 8,245 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² National Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 790 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 94,448 CIRCULATION GET ON BOARD 'BELT AND ROAD' PLAN The Australian, Australia, Business News, John Brumby 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 8,973 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² National Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 853 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 94,448 CIRCULATION Clever tax strategies may be legal, but they aren't productive Age, Melbourne, Business News, Ross Gittins 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 19,524 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² VIC Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 771 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 83,229 CIRCULATION Public interest again to the rear Age, Melbourne, General News, Colleen Lewis 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 25,287 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² VIC Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 863 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 83,229 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT For the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only. Not to be provided to any third party for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia. For further information contact copyright@isentia.com

4 Obeids leave taxpayers $7 million in the red Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, General News, Kate McClymont 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 28,493 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² NSW Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 638 word(s), ~2 mins Audience 88,634 CIRCULATION Clever tax strategies may be legal, but they aren't productive Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, Business News, Ross Gittins 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 28,573 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² NSW Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 771 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 88,634 CIRCULATION Riding the investment cycle Adelaide Advertiser, Adelaide, Business News, David Libby Koch 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 13,209 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² SA Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 948 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 112,097 CIRCULATION Time to take aim and score those money goals Adelaide Advertiser, Adelaide, Business News, Anthony Keane 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 2,722 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² SA Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 429 word(s), ~1 min Audience 112,097 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT For the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only. Not to be provided to any third party for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia. For further information contact copyright@isentia.com

5 Happy tale for self-employed Adelaide Advertiser, Adelaide, Business News, Tim McIntyre 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 7,036 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² SA Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 430 word(s), ~1 min Audience 112,097 CIRCULATION Happy tale for self-employed Daily Mercury, Mackay QLD, General News, Tim McIntyre 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 672 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 432 word(s), ~1 min Audience 7,738 CIRCULATION Riding the investment cycle Daily Mercury, Mackay QLD, General News 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 809 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 946 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 7,738 CIRCULATION Time to take aim and score those money goals Daily Mercury, Mackay QLD, General News, Anthony Keane 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 187 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 429 word(s), ~1 min Audience 7,738 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT For the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only. Not to be provided to any third party for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia. For further information contact copyright@isentia.com

6 Clever tax strategies may be legal, but they aren't productive Canberra Times, Canberra, Business News, Ross Gittins 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 9,170 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² ACT Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 771 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 17,579 CIRCULATION Happy tale for self-employed Gladstone Observer, Gladstone QLD, General News, Tim McIntyre 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 400 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 430 word(s), ~1 min Audience 3,301 CIRCULATION Riding the investment cycle Gladstone Observer, Gladstone QLD, General News 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 691 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 946 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 3,301 CIRCULATION Time to take aim and score those money goals Hobart Mercury, Hobart, Business News, Anthony Keane 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 1,344 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² TAS Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 429 word(s), ~1 min Audience 28,265 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT For the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only. Not to be provided to any third party for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia. For further information contact copyright@isentia.com

7 HAPPY NEW FINANCIAL YEAR West Australian, Perth, Your Money, Nick Bruining 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 12,272 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² WA Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 767 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 147,676 CIRCULATION Get an early start on your new fiscal year finances West Australian, Perth, Your Money, Bruce Brammall 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 6,539 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² WA Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 706 word(s), ~2 mins Audience 147,676 CIRCULATION Trust issues impediment to those seeking advice West Australian, Perth, Your Money, Laura Wright 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 6,943 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² WA Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 479 word(s), ~1 min Audience 147,676 CIRCULATION FPA must accept the new rules West Australian, Perth, Your Money, Neale Prior 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 3,717 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² WA Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 455 word(s), ~1 min Audience 147,676 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT For the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only. Not to be provided to any third party for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia. For further information contact copyright@isentia.com

8 Coast man's $1.4m rip-off Sunshine Coast Daily, Maroochydore QLD, General News, Amber Hooker 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 252 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 341 word(s), ~1 min Audience 10,046 CIRCULATION Presentations checked off in Victoria's $2b land titles sale Australian Financial Review, Australia, Companies and Markets 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 2,265 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² National Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 291 word(s), ~1 min Audience 44,635 CIRCULATION Riding the investment cycle Courier Mail, Brisbane, Business News, David Libby Koch 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 14,964 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 946 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 135,007 CIRCULATION Directors hit in Hayne fallout Australian Financial Review, Australia, General News, Alice Uribe 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 8,778 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² National Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 1112 word(s), ~4 mins Audience 44,635 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT For the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only. Not to be provided to any third party for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia. For further information contact copyright@isentia.com

9 Super is long overdue for reform Australian Financial Review, Australia, General News, Adele Ferguson 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 12,783 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² National Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 1169 word(s), ~4 mins Audience 44,635 CIRCULATION Open banking fuels financial planning rejig Australian Financial Review, Australia, Companies and Markets, James Eyers 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 6,108 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² National Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 715 word(s), ~2 mins Audience 44,635 CIRCULATION Proposals to kick-start SME growth Australian Financial Review, Australia, Companies and Markets, James Eyers 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 10,255 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² National Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 929 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 44,635 CIRCULATION APRA to investigate life insurers over losses Australian Financial Review, Australia, Companies and Markets, Alice Uribe 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 5,886 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² National Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 605 word(s), ~2 mins Audience 44,635 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT For the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only. Not to be provided to any third party for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia. For further information contact copyright@isentia.com

10 Riding the investment cycle Townsville Bulletin, Townsville QLD, General News, David Libby 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 5,407 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 946 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 16,484 CIRCULATION Time to take aim and score those money goals Townsville Bulletin, Townsville QLD, General News, Anthony Keane 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 1,111 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 429 word(s), ~1 min Audience 16,484 CIRCULATION Happy tale for self-employed Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD, General News, Tim McIntyre 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 3,455 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 430 word(s), ~1 min Audience 21,468 CIRCULATION Riding the investment cycle Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD, General News 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 5,626 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 946 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 21,468 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT For the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only. Not to be provided to any third party for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia. For further information contact copyright@isentia.com

11 Take aim and score those money goals Cairns Post, Cairns, General News, Anthony Keane 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 637 Photo: No Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 325 word(s), ~1 min Audience 13,896 CIRCULATION Happy tale for self-employed Cairns Post, Cairns, General News, Tim McIntyre 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 2,799 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 430 word(s), ~1 min Audience 13,896 CIRCULATION Riding the investment cycle Cairns Post, Cairns, General News, Libby David Koch 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 4,373 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 946 word(s), ~3 mins Audience 13,896 CIRCULATION ATO takes over early super reins Townsville Bulletin, Townsville QLD, General News 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 564 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 196 word(s), <1 min Audience 16,484 CIRCULATION COPYRIGHT For the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only. Not to be provided to any third party for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia. For further information contact copyright@isentia.com

12 Happy tale for self-employed Townsville Bulletin, Townsville QLD, General News, Tim McIntyre 09 Jul 2018 Page words ASR AUD 3,313 Photo: Yes Type: News Item Size: cm² QLD Australia Industry Super Australia - Press ID: View original - Full text: 430 word(s), ~1 min Audience 16,484 CIRCULATION Andrew Bragg and the BCA have been sprung at last Twitter 09 Jul :43 AM 563 followers Following 965 others 965 tweets Industry Super Australia - Social Media ID: DS View original - Favourite - Retweet - Reply COPYRIGHT This report and its contents are for the internal research use of Mediaportal subscribers only and must not be provided to any third party by any means for any purpose without the express permission of Isentia and/or the relevant copyright owner. For more information contact copyright@isentia.com DISCLAIMER Isentia makes no representations and, to the extent permitted by law, excludes all warranties in relation to the information contained in the report and is not liable for any losses, costs or expenses, resulting from any use or misuse of the report.

13 Daily Telegraph, Sydney Author: Tim McIntyre Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 232,067 Page: 23 Printed Size: cm² Market: NSW Country: Australia ASR: AUD 22,634 Words: 430 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 TIM McINTYRE IT WAS a perfect light bulb moment. Mark Dowsett was at a cafe, patting a dog from a neighbouring table when the pooch s owner mentioned they were on their way to dog daycare. You pay someone to hang out with your dog? Mr Dowsett asked. That s what I m doing for the rest of my life. He had been at a professional crossroads, but his epiphany allowed him to turn a passion into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare. My girlfriend and I genuinely love dogs, it just made sense, he said. I had a sales ground but had to market myself. I realised the key point of difference was me. I genuinely love animals. I set up social media, started doorknocking, calling people and doing work experience. I have now bought a dog grooming salon, am looking to open a dog hotel and still have the dog walking where it all stemmed from. But he was unsure about the administrative side of the business. I didn t even know what GST was, he said. He found the Solo & Smart app, which takes care of the admin side. Now everything is calculated (by the app), he said. I take photos of receipts and the app uploads them. At the end of the financial year, everything is itemised. Solo & Smart director Patrick Harrison said technology had made it easier for people to make money from a passion, without a big initial outlay or taking as many risks as in the past. More people are choosing to become self-employed, starting with a side hustle and going from there, he said. The biggest challenges of becoming self-employed were tax compliance, insurance and superannuation, which prompted the app s creation. We provide a platform to automate those systems. We target the self-employed because they have the biggest issues with cashflow, Mr Harrison said. Solo & Smart also offered a pay as you go insurance system where business owners only paid insurance for the portions of the year they worked. But the greater ease for running a business did not mean basic diligence was no longer required, according to Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) chief executive Peter Strong. It is easier which is a good thing but also a danger, he said. The compliance issues are what you ve really got to be on top of. He said budding small business owners should seek advice from people in similar industries and a trusted accountant. Happy tale for self-employed FOR A GOOD PAWS: Mark Dowsett turned his love of animals into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare.

14 Daily Telegraph, Sydney Author: David Libby Koch Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 232,067 Page: 24 Printed Size: cm² Market: NSW Country: Australia ASR: AUD 43,661 Words: 948 Item ID: Page 1 of 3 24 MONEYSAVERHQ MONDAY JULY DAILYTELEGRAPH.COM.AU David & Libby Riding the investment cycle It s a good time to evaluate the bumps in the road THE start of a new financial year and the turning point of the calendar year July is a great time to pause, ponder and review your investments. No matter whether it s shares, property, interest rates or the economy, everything follows a cycle. Nothing goes up forever and every bust is inevitably followed by recovery. The key is understanding where you are in the various cycles so you can ride the uptrends and avoid the downturns. July is a good time to make that assessment. SHARES The past 12 months has been pretty good for share investors with equities outperforming most other investment sectors including property. Average stock prices have risen 8.6 per cent over the period but when you add in dividends the total return is over 13 per cent. A double digit investment return in this era of low inflation and interest rates is impressive and most Australians would have been a beneficiary through their superannuation funds. Although since the start of the calendar year the market has returned just 2 per cent, so most of the gains were in the previous six months. What has been fascinating is that this strong return has not been driven by the big blue-chip end of the market but by middle and small cap stocks. The share prices of the top 100 biggest companies rose only 7.2 per cent and the top 50 by just 6.7 per cent. For example, average share prices of the big telecommunications companies dropped almost 35 per bank shares were down cent and Utilities down cent. By contrast, the S Ordinaries Index rose 21 per cent and the Mid Index was up 10.6 per c So, the market has b good, but the winners h harder to find and mom slower in the past six m While Australia s 8.6 return is well behind th cent on Wall St, the performance and mom of the American marke significant driver of ou Basically, the health of economy, China, comm prices and the US shar are the leading indicato need to follow when as whether share prices w continue to trend upwa At this stage our economy and China appear solid; good gain in oil, coal, nickel and w have more than offset f in beef and sugar prices is stable); US shares are because of the Trade w based on Donald Trum twitter comments) but company profits are sti PROPERTY The long-awaited reba of the Australian reside housing market is well underway, which is see the decade-long boom in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane deflate and even fall. But let s keep it in perspective; OVER the past five years national property prices are up 32.5 per cent. HOUSE prices peaked in September last year and are down 1.3 per cent i th with a 2.2 per cent rise in property values. Aft h bi b tightened their lending criteria and lifted investment loan i t t t Th

15 Daily Telegraph, Sydney Author: David Libby Koch Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 232,067 Page: 24 Printed Size: cm² Market: NSW Country: Australia ASR: AUD 43,661 Words: 948 Item ID: Page 2 of 3 in the next months more in the pipeline to come through although it looks like official interest rates won t oon. s seems to be e the worst s, followed elbourne etter. ny expect ne to be -15 per cent be realistic never buy u re a buyer, so drive a THE ECONOMY AND INTEREST RATES nomy has owth cycle ld record 27 ve years. It s ble result ries of es. During na buying today), ng he on boom ructure ast another rs. ast to be get surplus ar and net vernment debt will peak at 18.6 er cent of DP this year. obs growth tinuing and erve Bank is o indication raising official interest

16 Daily Telegraph, Sydney Author: David Libby Koch Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 232,067 Page: 24 Printed Size: cm² Market: NSW Country: Australia ASR: AUD 43,661 Words: 948 Item ID: Page 3 of 3

17 Daily Telegraph, Sydney Author: Anthony Keane Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 232,067 Page: 33 Printed Size: cm² Market: NSW Country: Australia ASR: AUD 8,694 Words: 429 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Time to take aim and score those money goals ANTHONY KEANE IF your January New Year money resolutions look shaky or have crumbled six months down the track, don t worry. A second chance has arrived with the new financial year, and now is a great time to set money goals and work out how to measure them. People s Choice Credit Union spokesman Stuart Symons said some small changes could often get money plans on track. Sometimes we can be motivated by a challenge, and if your goals were achievable at the start of the year they may still be achievable with some adjustments, he said. Most money success is measured based on the financial year that stretches from July to June, whether superannuation, the sharemarket, tax or company performance. Mr Symons said now was the time to reset. The best time to set financial goals is 20 years ago; the second-best time is today, he said. Author and certified financial planner Patrick Canion said human nature meant that most resolutions, if not ed up by an activity plan, turn into a good intention rather than a change in behaviour. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off and look at where you didn t follow through with the resolution, and what you can do to make sure that doesn t happen again, he said. Mr Canion said those who kept to January resolutions even for just a month or two were probably better off than they would have been if they didn t start at all. He said people should break down their future money goals into small pieces, such as every pay period, write them down and make them automatic with savings transferred from bank accounts the day wages went in. Identify the goal and break it down into things you can control. For example, with super you can say I will salary sacrifice $50 per pay rather than say I want a 20 per cent return on my money because those things are outside your control. Mr Symons also believes in breaking goals down into smaller, achievable ones. You will be helping yourself if you start to put small goals into place today and build towards larger goals, he said. People should check their goals remain realistic, and set new ones if this was not the case, Mr Symons said. Setting realistic goals will help you feel more positive about setting stretch targets in the future. Make sure you have the tools in place to measure your progress. It might be a budgeting app or spreadsheet, or simply a monthly appointment to sit down and track your savings or spending.

18 Daily Telegraph, Sydney Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 232,067 Page: 34 Printed Size: cm² Market: NSW Country: Australia ASR: AUD 7,797 Words: 233 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Banks to moderate sales pitch SUPERANNUATION COMMONWEALTH Bank of Australia and ANZ have stopped selling complex superannuation products to banking customers without giving proper advice, following action by the financial regulator. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said recently staff from the two banks were selling the products during so-called financial health checks without proper licensing and training. Australia s $2.6 trillion superannuation funds pool is the world s fourth biggest, and companies servicing it face scrutiny in an ongoing powerful misconduct inquiry that has already rocked the financial services sector. Last Friday, ASIC said that after monitoring the sales process, it was concerned that customers buying the products might have thought the CBA branch staff or the ANZ branch staff were considering risks specific to the customer when this was not the case. The commission said branch staff were trained and authorised to provide only Alexis George, ANZ group executive, Wealth Australia. general information, not personal advice. The two lenders have agreed to the regulator s enforcement action and will pay a total $2.5 million in community payments. CBA stopped selling the products at its branches in October, ASIC said. From August 18, ANZ will stop discussing the products during conversations with customers about their general needs, the bank announced. We acknowledge ASIC s concerns that customers may have regarded this as personal advice, and have agreed to change our distribution process, said ANZ group executive, wealth, Alexis George.

19 Courier Mail, Brisbane Author: Tim McIntyre Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 135,007 Page: 31 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 8,202 Words: 430 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 TIM McINTYRE IT WAS a perfect light bulb moment. Mark Dowsett was at a cafe, patting a dog from a neighbouring table when the pooch s owner mentioned they were on their way to dog daycare. You pay someone to hang out with your dog? Mr Dowsett asked. That s what I m doing for the rest of my life. He had been at a professional crossroads, but his epiphany allowed him to turn a passion into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare. My girlfriend and I genuinely love dogs, it just made sense, he said. I had a sales ground but had to market myself. I realised the key point of difference was me. I genuinely love animals. I set up social media, started doorknocking, calling people and doing work experience. I have now bought a dog grooming salon, am looking to open a dog hotel and still have the dog walking where it all stemmed from. But he was unsure about the administrative side of the business. I didn t even know what GST was, he said. He found the Solo & Smart app, which takes care of the admin side. Now everything is calculated (by the app), he said. I take photos of receipts and the app uploads them. At the end of the financial year, everything is itemised. Solo & Smart director Patrick Harrison said technology had made it easier for people to make money from a passion, without a big initial outlay or taking as many risks as in the past. More people are choosing to become self-employed, starting with a side hustle and going from there, he said. The biggest challenges of becoming self-employed were tax compliance, insurance and superannuation, which prompted the app s creation. We provide a platform to automate those systems. We target the self-employed because they have the biggest issues with cashflow, Mr Harrison said. Solo & Smart also offered a pay as you go insurance system where business owners only paid insurance for the portions of the year they worked. But the greater ease for running a business did not mean basic diligence was no longer required, according to Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) chief executive Peter Strong. It is easier which is a good thing but also a danger, he said. The compliance issues are what you ve really got to be on top of. He said budding small business owners should seek advice from people in similar industries and a trusted accountant. Happy tale for self-employed FOR A GOOD PAWS: Mark Dowsett turned his love of animals into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare.

20 The Australian, Australia Author: Ben Wilmot Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 94,448 Page: 21 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 10,913 Words: 537 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Lendlease, HKMA swoop on Barangaroo complex EXCLUSIVE BEN WILMOT OFFICE The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Lendlease s Australian Prime Property Fund Commercial have teamed up to swoop on the listed developer s timber office building at Sydney s Barangaroo South precinct for about $250 million. The deal marks one of the final commercial elements at the group s Sydney Harbour precinct and also points to the involvement of its development, building, and funds units in the area. Both the Asian group and the Lendlease-managed fund already hold a major exposure to the office towers and buying the boutique timber complex, to be occupied by WeWork, is a sign of their faith in both the new style of building and also the co-working space. In Brisbane, the company is developing the world s largest and tallest engineered timber office building, 25 King, in the Brisbane Showgrounds, in what will be its fifth timber building in Australia. WeWork is at the vanguard of a series of co-working companies that are expanding across the country, and last Wednesday it unveiled a deal to lease all six floors of office space across more than 10,000sq m at the 1 Sussex Street complex. The building, sporting an outdoor terrace and ground floor retail, is one of the last commercial buildings in the precinct and both the leasing and pre-sale deals have been in the works for some years. Hong Kong s central banking institution, the HKMA, forged into the area in December 2015, taking a 25 per cent stake in Tower One the final skyscraper to be built in the precinct for about $350m. Lendlease s ability to develop and then fund new product has been on display as it builds out its South Barangaroo holdings. It has already raised more than $3.5 billion of equity across the precinct. It has drawn investors including the Qatar Investment Authority, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Dutch fund APG. Local superannuation funds, as well as Lendlease s managed wholesale office fund have also been active in the area. APPF Commercial holds investments in all three office towers at the Barangaroo South precinct, as well as other nearby assets, including Darling Square, and has it also has a holding in the company s Melbourne Quarter in the Docklands. APPF Commercial has a one quarter stake in Tower One of International Towers Sydney. It also holds a 25 per cent interest in the trust that owns Towers Two and Three. That trust owns Australia s first engineered timber office, International House Sydney, which is occupied by global advisory firm Accenture. WeWork, meanwhile, has quickly expanded in Australia and has five other locations in Sydney open or announced, most recently 64 York Street and 383 George Street. The group has taken two sites in Melbourne and another in Brisbane, with space at Mirvac s planned Suncorp headquarters building also under consideration. The Lendlease building at Barangaroo South is known as Daramu House and will be built with cross-laminated timber and glue-laminated timber. Lendlease has said there is global trend to flexible working and the building show cases its ability to draw capital into projects but the parties declined to comment on the transaction yesterday.

21 The Australian, Australia Author: Ben Wilmot Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 94,448 Page: 21 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 10,913 Words: 537 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 WeWork has leased all six floors of office space at Lendlease s timber complex at 1 Sussex Street, Sydney

22 Courier Mail, Brisbane Author: Anthony Keane Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 135,007 Page: 33 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 3,232 Words: 429 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Time to take aim and score those money goals ANTHONY KEANE IF your January New Year money resolutions look shaky or have crumbled six months down the track, don t worry. A second chance has arrived with the new financial year, and now is a great time to set money goals and work out how to measure them. People s Choice Credit Union spokesman Stuart Symons said some small changes could often get money plans on track. Sometimes we can be motivated by a challenge, and if your goals were achievable at the start of the year they may still be achievable with some adjustments, he said. Most money success is measured based on the financial year that stretches from July to June, whether superannuation, the sharemarket, tax or company performance. Mr Symons said now was the time to reset. The best time to set financial goals is 20 years ago; the second-best time is today, he said. Author and certified financial planner Patrick Canion said human nature meant that most resolutions, if not ed up by an activity plan, turn into a good intention rather than a change in behaviour. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off and look at where you didn t follow through with the resolution, and what you can do to make sure that doesn t happen again, he said. Mr Canion said those who kept to January resolutions even for just a month or two were probably better off than they would have been if they didn t start at all. He said people should break down their future money goals into small pieces, such as every pay period, write them down and make them automatic with savings transferred from bank accounts the day wages went in. Identify the goal and break it down into things you can control. For example, with super you can say I will salary sacrifice $50 per pay rather than say I want a 20 per cent return on my money because those things are outside your control. Mr Symons also believes in breaking goals down into smaller, achievable ones. You will be helping yourself if you start to put small goals into place today and build towards larger goals, he said. People should check their goals remain realistic, and set new ones if this was not the case, Mr Symons said. Setting realistic goals will help you feel more positive about setting stretch targets in the future. Make sure you have the tools in place to measure your progress. It might be a budgeting app or spreadsheet, or simply a monthly appointment to sit down and track your savings or spending.

23 The Australian, Australia Author: Elizabeth Redman Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 94,448 Page: 21 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 2,688 Words: 380 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Record interest in office assets ELIZABETH REDMAN OUTLOOK Investment in commercial assets is running close to a record pace after some $15 billion of deals in the first half of the year. Office assets are in strong demand but foreign investment is falling, according to research from Cushman & Wakefield that also quantifies the Alter family s blockbuster sale of half-stakes in two shopping centres to QIC. The 50 per cent interest in Pacific Werribee changed hands for $611.5 million on a yield of about 4 per cent. Half of Pacific Epping traded for $372.5m on a yield of about 4.75 per cent. This means the Alter family s Pacific Group of Companies reaped $984m. Even as yields have been tightening for office and retail properties, investors are looking for opportunities with better returns than cash or bonds. The outlook for the second half of the year remains positive. A range of assets totalling over $1bn are in late stages of due diligence, which should provide a solid start to the third quarter, Cushman & Wakefield said. Government bond yields have recently tightened. This has helped maintain commercial real estate s relative value proposition and so is supportive of further investment activity. A total of $8.6bn was invested during the second quarter, taking the first half spend to $15bn. Foreign investors made up nearly a quarter of total spend during the second quarter, but foreign investment over the first half dropped to $4.4bn from $6.2bn in the first half of More than half the deal volume was in the office sector, where the largest deal was super fund REST s purchase of a 33 per cent stake in AMP Capital s Quay Quarter Tower. Real estate agency CBRE said that the first half of the year had allayed fears that a dramatic decline in buyer activity was on the cards and forecasts that the market was set for a more subdued phase had been disproved. After a relatively quiet start to the year, activity in the second quarter picked up substantially, proving that there is still considerable appetite for real estate assets in Australia, CBRE associate director Ben Martin- Henry said. He cautioned that Chinese capital controls were having a meaningful impact globally. If these restrictions continue we expect Chinese investment into Australia to record its lowest year since 2012, he added.

24 The Australian, Australia Author: Michael Roddan Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 94,448 Page: 17 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 8,245 Words: 790 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 WATCHDOG SAYS SECTOR MUST LIFT GAME IN REMOTE COMMUNITIES Shipton urges banks to go bush EXCLUSIVE MICHAEL RODDAN Revelations at the royal commission of companies swindling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including potential criminal offences by a notorious funeral insurer, have driven the corporate watchdog to call on senior bankers to break out of their city bubbles to better understand remote communities. The new chairman of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, James Shipton, who attended hearings for the banking royal commission in Darwin last week as part of a broader visit to the Northern Territory, said the inquiry had highlighted the threats from totally unacceptable behaviour from certain parts of the financial sector. I ve talked about a trust deficit in finance and you see this nowhere more clearly than what s been going on with indigenous consumers being sold inappropriate products, Mr Shipton told The Australian. I do not want any sector of our society, including our First Australians, not having access to the full benefit of our financial system; nor do I want them to fall victim to unscrupulous behaviour. The royal commission last week heard numerous tales of gouging of remote and regional communities, including dodgy car dealers exploiting relief payments made to Cyclone Yasi victims with sky-high interest rates of 48 per cent on loans, banks repeatedly and wrongly charging overdraft and dishonour fees to disadvantaged customers, and life insurers preying on indigenous mourning ceremonies. Counsel assisting Rowena Orr QC recommended criminal charges be laid against funeral insurer Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund, a private company run by non-aboriginal people that pushed largely useless funeral plans on thousands of indigenous children and babies. There were recommendations that another life insurer, Select AFSL, which used high-pressure sales tactics to push Let s Insurebranded funeral plans on to Aboriginal customers, be found to have engaged in unconscionable conduct and to have breached three sections of the ASIC Act. Select AFSL chief executive Russell Howden attempted to hide the behaviour from the royal commission, it was claimed. In all cases, ASIC has been investigating and taking action against the practices through its Indigenous Outreach Program and other means. These threats and challenges are well known to ASIC, Mr Shipton said. However, the royal commission heard the vast majority of city-based financial companies had no understanding of how their policies played out in regional communities. Mr Shipton said the hearings made clear that unless there is on-the-ground appreciation and understanding of the considerable task ahead it will be difficult for the financial sector to address these Continued on Page 19 FINANCIAL SERVICES ROYAL COMMISSION James Shipton

25 The Australian, Australia Author: Michael Roddan Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 94,448 Page: 17 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 8,245 Words: 790 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 Shipton urges banks to go bush Continued from Page 17 challenges and threats. I want to encourage financial firms, especially their senior leaders, to actively engage in closing the financial inclusion gap in remote and indigenous communities, Mr Shipton said. And by that I mean coming to remote areas, meeting local people, listening to the issues they face and understanding the barriers they encounter. The royal commission also examined a series of case studies that were not in the public hearings, including that of a Broome woman, a CBA customer, who had trouble cancelling a direct debit arrangement on an interest-free loan used to purchase whitegoods. Another woman was repeatedly charged overdraft and dishonour fees of $21.50 and $40 by Bendigo Bank, while Traditional Credit Union, which relies on fee income rather than interest income, charged high fees that hurt remote communities, according to submissions. Nathan Boyle, a policy analyst with ASIC s Indigenous Outreach Program, said banks often asked nonsensical questions of indigenous customers, such as demanding street addresses where there were none. In one instance, a Cape York woman was asked to fly 800km to Cairns to replace a missing ATM card. Mr Orr said the case studies best demonstrated the complex and overlapping difficulties experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote locations. Superannuation-related life insurance and death benefits for indigenous Australians are likely to be put on show next month when the royal commission probes the $2.6 trillion super industry. After hearing evidence and expert testimony last week, Ms Orr has now asked banks to formally consider whether they have taken sufficient steps to promote fee-free accounts, and whether their identification requirements for indigenous customers are out of step with reality. ANZ admitted its process for charging vulnerable customers fell below best practices. Ms Orr has asked the industry to consider if they should have a telephone service staffed with people who have been trained for engaging with indigenous customers. I am determined for ASIC to keep doing its job of engaging with indigenous people to help them take control of their financial lives, engaging with financial firms to make sure they do the right thing, Mr Shipton said.

26 The Australian, Australia Author: John Brumby Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 94,448 Page: 23 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 8,973 Words: 853 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 GET ON BOARD BELT AND ROAD PLAN Australia must use this opportunity to build China ties JOHN BRUMBY This week in Darwin the Australia China Business Council is hosting a major conference entitled One Belt One Road in Australia everything you need to know. As a city at the southern end of the Maritime Silk Road component of the Belt and Road Initiative, Darwin is Australia s geographical point of contact with the largest infrastructure development initiative since the Marshall Plan. Accordingly, the ACBC believes it is vital for Australia and northern Australia in particular to know more about BRI how it will work, its likely impact in our region and what opportunities and benefits there might be for Australian businesses. The timing of our conference couldn t be better. It s no secret that the Australia-China relationship is going through a difficult period at present. While our economic relationship remains strong at this point, the challenges in the government-to-government relationship are causing some anxiety in the business community. So finding a way to build more common ground between Australia and China is therefore a critical priority. One thing we could do that would benefit Australia and begin to repair the relationship would be to get on board with the Belt and Road Initiative. BRI is China s massive effort to improve and increase trade and economic activity along six land corridors and a maritime route through Asia and Europe. It s an infrastructure building initiative of unprecedented size and scale. It crosses three continents, and directly involves 68 countries containing more than 60 per cent of the world s population. The area covered by BRI is currently responsible for about a third of the world s economic output, and the very existence of BRI is likely to increase that share in the future. Eventually, it is estimated that a quarter of the global goods trade will go via the New Silk Road. BRI is about better access for China to existing markets, and access to new ones. It s about building an outlet for China s industrial overcapacity, and ensuring that the shift of more than half a billion Chinese people so far from abject poverty to relative wellbeing can continue. BRI is also about furthering the internationalisation of the renminbi, or the yuan, which is gathering pace every day. The Australian government has decided not to sign up to BRI at this point in time. This doesn t mean the government is opposed to BRI in fact Trade Minister Steven Ciobo has been very positive in his comments about BRI. It also doesn t mean Australian companies can t compete for work. The construction phase, which is already well under way in many countries, offers opportunities including straight construction work, services provision from food to financial services, digital support, HR, labour hire, education and more, as well as investment opportunities through partnership with Chinese investors and investment instruments such as the Silk Road Fund. But at the ACBC, we believe there would be tangible and additional benefits for Australia and Australian businesses if the government agreed to a more formal relationship with BRI. We believe this for four reasons. First, it would send a signal that we are ready and willing to engage in an Asia that is increasingly a world centre not only of growth but of innovation. It would also demonstrate that we welcome China s efforts to connect economies at a time when some developed nations (notably the US) are heading in a protectionist direction. Secondly, better infrastructure connecting Asia and Europe will benefit Australia. The Asian Development Bank has estimated $1.7 trillion of investment is required each year until at least 2030 to address Asia s infrastructure gap. As China and other Asian countries continue to grow, new untapped markets will open up for Australian products and services if we can get them there. Do we really want to turn down the opportunity, however small, to shape BRI to reflect Australian interests? Thirdly, the digital aspects of BRI will drive massive efficiencies across most industries. In the BRI digital network, every item on the New Silk Road will be traceable to an unprecedented degree, with enormous efficiency gains, while blockchain verification will lead to faster settlement times and fewer delays. Further, Big Data created within BRI s digital ecosystem will allow for increasingly sophisticated analyses of markets, systems and logistics. All of this should mean faster shipping times, with lower costs, fewer mistakes, and more finely-grained market intelligence available. This can only benefit Australian businesses. Finally, Australia needs foreign investment. As the world s largest economy and a nation of savers with $US3 trillion in foreign reserves, China is an important source of FDI, and the BRI label on a project is a powerful way to attract it. At our conference tomorrow and Wednesday there will be highlevel speakers and panellists from Australia, China and the region. We hope the conference will drive

27 The Australian, Australia Author: John Brumby Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 94,448 Page: 23 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 8,973 Words: 853 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 better understanding of BRI and confirm that for Australia, the BRI numbers really do add up. John Brumby AO is national president of the Australia China Business Council and an independent director of Huawei Australia. A Golden Bridge of Silk Road structure outside Beijing AAP

28 Age, Melbourne Author: Ross Gittins Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 83,229 Page: 21 Printed Size: cm² Market: VIC Country: Australia ASR: AUD 19,524 Words: 771 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Clever tax strategies may be legal, but they aren t productive COMMENT Ross Gittins The developed world s economists have been racking their brains for explanations of the rich countries protracted period of weak improvement in the productivity of labour. I ve thought of one that hasn t had much attention. Productivity isn t improving as fast it could be partly because of the increasing number of our brightest and best devoting their efforts to nothing more productive than helping their bosses or customers game the system. That is, helping them find ways around our laws tax laws, labour laws, even officially supported accounting standards for how profits should be measured and reported. What put this into my mind was all the kerfuffle a few months ago when Labor announced its plan to abolish refunds for unused dividend franking credits. When Paul Keating introduced dividend imputation in 1988, unused credits weren t refundable. Only in 2001 were they made so by John Howard. At first, the cost to the budget of this minor concession was tiny. Over the years since then, however, the cost has blown out extraordinarily. Why? Because a small army of accountants, lawyers and investment advisers started advising their clients (many of whom can t use their franking credits because they pay no tax on their superannuation payouts) on how to rearrange their share portfolios to take advantage of the new refund. Thus did they turn a small concession into a hugely expensive loophole. Scott Morrison s claim that Labor had overestimated the saving to be made by closing the loophole rested on his since-refuted assumption that it had failed to take account of the way the small army would respond by further rearranging their clients portfolios. But that s just one example. The truth is that helping their customers steal a march on the government is one of the main services the entire investment advice industry uses to justify its fees and commissions. A particular favourite is helping people with loads of super turn the cartwheels necessary to frustrate the mean-test rules and still get a part pension. For years, starry-eyed economists exulted in the phenomenal growth of the banking and financial services sector on the grounds of all the financial innovation going on. Post the global financial crisis it s clear much of the innovation was no more productive than finding new ways to minimise tax or get around financial regulations. And, of course, all the advances in risk management turned out to be more about slicing, shifting and hiding risk than reducing it. It s an open secret that our compulsory super system leaves employees open to hugely excessive fee charging, as layer upon layer of advisers clip each other s tickets and send the bill to the mug savers. The banks volume of trading of currencies, securities and derivatives in financial markets exceeds by many multiples the amount required to service the needs of their real-economy customers or even to keep markets deep (able to process big transactions without shifting the price much). The banks are just betting against each other meaning much of the bloated financial sector s activity isn t genuinely productive. And now there s the gig economy Uber, Airbnb, fast-food delivery services and all the rest. They represent a strange amalgam of genuine innovation using the internet and smart phones to bring buyers and sellers together much more efficiently than ever before with a lot of terribly old-fashioned tricks to get away from the tax, labour and consumer protection laws faced by their conventional competitors. Oh no, the people who drive cars, ride bikes or do odd jobs at our behest aren t our employees. Gosh no. So if they don t pay their tax, make super contributions or insure themselves, it s nothing to do with us. Note that even if all the cost saving extracted from the hides of these poor sods was passed on to customers, it would still be less a genuine efficiency improvement than a mere income transfer from unempowered workers to consumers, most of whom are not in need of a free kick at other people s expense. Now, it s true most of the practices I ve described are perfectly legal. And many people have convinced themselves that if

29 Age, Melbourne Author: Ross Gittins Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 83,229 Page: 21 Printed Size: cm² Market: VIC Country: Australia ASR: AUD 19,524 Words: 771 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 it s legal it must be moral. It may be legal and even moral, but what it s not is particularly productive. Business people loved to lecture the rest of us about the need to grow a bigger pie, not squabble over how the pie was divided. Turns out a surprising amount of business activity involves ensuring their slice is bigger than yours. If so, don t be surprised productivity improvement is slow. NATAGE A021 People have convinced themselves that if it s legal it must be moral.

30 Age, Melbourne Author: Colleen Lewis Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 83,229 Page: 19 Printed Size: cm² Market: VIC Country: Australia ASR: AUD 25,287 Words: 863 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Public interest again to the rear Victorians may well be kept in the dark about the misconduct and corruption of public servants whose wages they pay. Colleen Lewis Victoria s Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) is about to have its wings clipped. Those most adversely affected by this are all Victorians and the neglected public interest. By virtue of its legislation, Victoria already has a comparatively weak anti-corruption body, but thanks to a bill introduced very recently to State Parliament it is about to become even weaker as its ability to hold public hearings is to be severely restricted. The bill emanates from the office of the Special Minister of State, Gavin Jennings, who is responsible for integrity-related issues in the Andrews government. One would have thought the minister responsible for such a vital element of any government s platform would be strengthening the powers of IBAC, not weakening them. The minister and the government should have enough confidence in IBAC s commissioner to make such decisions. If they do not, why did they appoint the person in the first place? Restricting IBAC s ability to initiate public hearings is a giant leap ward for Victoria and could result in the corrupt conduct of some public servants (elected and appointed) being protected from the public gaze for many years longer than it should be. Imagine the outcome if Queensland s landmark Fitzgerald Inquiry had been conducted in private. The politicisation of the police would have continued, as would brazen police abuse of power. The National Party government would likely have remained in office longer than it did, and the systemic corruption that Fitzgerald exposed would have remained hidden. While it is not possible to know how long the extensive and widespread malfeasance would have continued, what is unarguable is that the public hearings laid bare to Queenslanders the extent of the hidden, secret corruption and abuse of power that had gone on for years. It was the public nature of the Fitzgerald Inquiry hearings that was the catalyst for the extensive reform program that followed. Would the conduct of former MP Eddie Obeid and the minister for mines have been exposed to the taxpayers of New South Wales, who paid their salaries for years, without that state s Independent Commission Against Corruption deciding it was in the public interest to hold public hearings? The public nature of the hearings of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse made all Australians aware of the unconscionable conduct of institutions that deliberately kept the conduct of their members and staff from public view by prioritising the reputation of the organisation over the appalling acts of the abusers. How would Australians have learnt about the misconduct of banks if the current inquiry into the banking, superannuation and financial services industry (the Hayne Royal Commission) was being held in secret? Closer to home, it is doubtful Victorians would have learnt of the misconduct and corruption exposed in the Department of Education and Training or the misconduct of police officers stationed in Ballarat, if IBAC had not made the considered decision that public hearings of such matters were in the public interest. History shows it made exactly the right call on both occasions. Despite the very few, examples only, noted above, it is obvious that the public interest is served by the ability of anti-corruption bodies to hold public hearings and to do so without unnecessary barriers being placed in their way. As made clear by distinguished former judge Stephen Charles QC, who advised the Baillieu government on the best model for an IBAC (the government did not act on his expert advice) the bill currently before the Parliament will permit suspects to potentially avoid public hearings if they could show it might damage their reputation, health or safety. If passed, this bill will mean Victorians may well be kept in the dark about the misconduct and corruption of some public servants whose wages they pay, and other investigations will be long delayed by court hearings launched by suspects determined to avoid exposure. It is hard to understand why any

31 Age, Melbourne Author: Colleen Lewis Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 83,229 Page: 19 Printed Size: cm² Market: VIC Country: Australia ASR: AUD 25,287 Words: 863 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 government, genuinely committed to openness, transparency and accountability, would be trying to further impede the effectiveness of Victoria s already constrained anticorruption body, IBAC. Why are they doing this? Why is the public interest, yet again, being put to the of the queue? Why should Victorians be denied the ability to learn, as speedily as possible, of the internal workings of the public sector they fund? Does the government think they do not have a right to know about such matters, and if so, why? The next state election is only five months away. The most important issue for all political parties and candidates should be openness, accountability and transparency in government and the broader public sector. Without such a commitment, through actions and not more words, the public interest will languish somewhere down the bottom of the priority list and the principle that public office is a public trust will continue to be ignored. The public hearings laid bare the extent of the corruption. Rowena Orr, QC, won t be dissuaded at the banking royal commission. Dr Colleen Lewis is adjunct professor at the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University.

32 Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Author: Kate McClymont Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 88,634 Page: 4 Printed Size: cm² Market: NSW Country: Australia ASR: AUD 28,493 Words: 638 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 LEGAL COSTS Obeids leave taxpayers $7 million in the red EXCLUSIVE Kate McClymont NSW taxpayers are yet to recoup any of the estimated $7 million owed by the now jailed former minister Eddie Obeid and his family. NSW taxpayers deserve their money, said a state government spokesperson, who added that actions were under way to recover some of these debts. However, no action appears to have been taken over the largest of these debts, which involve legal costs in excess of $5 million and which the Obeids were ordered to pay 18 months ago. In 2016, the former Labor powerbroker and three of his sons, Paul, Moses and Eddie jnr, lost a lengthy legal battle that they had brought against the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the state of NSW, then Commissioner David Ipp, counsel assisting and several investigators from the corruption watchdog. Justice David Hammerschlag was scathing about the case and, in a subsequent judgment on costs handed down in March 2017, he said: There is no reason why costs should not follow the event, and every good reason why they should. As well as ordering the Obeids to pay the costs of every person they sued, Justice Hammerschlag ordered the family to pay indemnity costs for Commissioner Ipp. The judge said that indemnity costs, intended to cover Commissioner Ipp s legal bill, might be ordered where there has been unreasonable, inappropriate or otherwise unjustifiable behaviour of significance in connection with the conduct of proceedings. The conduct of the Obeids in their failed case satisfies all three of those descriptions, the judge said. The multimillion-dollar cost of running the case for the corruption watchdog and its officers was paid by the Treasury Managed Fund (TMF), the insurer that looks after NSW government agencies. What is frustrating, say those involved in the matter, is that the TMF is yet to seek recovery from the Obeids. Following the costs order, the TMF was sent letters seeking updates on the recovery of costs from the Obeids but no response was received. TMF was just a black hole... it was like sending it to the dead let- ter office, said one of those involved in the litigation. I just cannot believe the Obeids 1HERSD1 A004 are not being forced to repay that money to the people of NSW, said another. The TMF is yet to provide a response to the Herald. In March, the government sent Eddie Obeid s lawyers a letter of demand giving him 28 days to repay more than $300,000 in taxpayer-funded legal assistance over three ICAC operations Cyrus, Meeka and Cabot. To date no payment has been received. Obeid has since been jailed over Operation Cyrus, which found he had acted corruptly over his family s secret involvement in cafe leases at Circular Quay. The Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Fund Trustee is also trying to recover $660,000 that has been paid to Obeid as part of his parliamentary pension. As well, attempts to recover almost $1 million in unpaid rent and other costs from the three cafe leases the Obeid family once owned at Circular Quay have also been unsuccessful so far. The corrupt actions of former Labor minister Eddie Obeid con-

33 Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Author: Kate McClymont Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 88,634 Page: 4 Printed Size: cm² Market: NSW Country: Australia ASR: AUD 28,493 Words: 638 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 stitute a complete betrayal of public trust, said the government spokesperson. Action is under way to force Mr Obeid to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funds, including legal representation funding and parliamentary superannuation entitlements, in relation to cases against him which have been finalised. The City of Sydney knows how difficult it is recovering money from the Obeids. In 2012 Justice Clifford Einstein ordered Moses Obeid and his company to pay the council $12 million for secretly selling the council s multifunction poles overseas in breach of licensing agreements. Moses Obeid successfully removed himself from any personal liability and by the time the council finally removed the Obeid-appointed liquidators from his company Streetscape, the cupboard was bare. Disgraced: Eddie Obeid.

34 Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Author: Ross Gittins Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 88,634 Page: 21 Printed Size: cm² Market: NSW Country: Australia ASR: AUD 28,573 Words: 771 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Clever tax strategies may be legal, but they aren t productive COMMENT Ross Gittins The developed world s economists have been racking their brains for explanations of the rich countries protracted period of weak improvement in the productivity of labour. I ve thought of one that hasn t had much attention. Productivity isn t improving as fast it could be partly because of the increasing number of our brightest and best devoting their efforts to nothing more productive than helping their bosses or customers game the system. That is, helping them find ways around our laws tax laws, labour laws, even officially supported accounting standards for how profits should be measured and reported. What put this into my mind was all the kerfuffle a few months ago when Labor announced its plan to abolish refunds for unused dividend franking credits. When Paul Keating introduced dividend imputation in 1988, unused credits weren t refundable. Only in 2001 were they made so by John Howard. At first, the cost to the budget of this minor concession was tiny. Over the years since then, however, the cost has blown out extraordinarily. Why? Because a small army of accountants, lawyers and investment advisers started advising their clients (many of whom can t use their franking credits because they pay no tax on their superannuation payouts) on how to rearrange their share portfolios to take advantage of the new refund. Thus did they turn a small concession into a hugely expensive loophole. Scott Morrison s claim that Labor had overestimated the saving to be made by closing the loophole rested on his since-refuted assumption that it had failed to take account of the way the small army would respond by further rearranging their clients portfolios. But that s just one example. The truth is that helping their customers steal a march on the government is one of the main services the entire investment advice industry uses to justify its fees and commissions. A particular favourite is helping people with loads of super turn the cartwheels necessary to frustrate the mean-test rules and still get a part pension. For years, starry-eyed economists exulted in the phenomenal growth of the banking and financial services sector on the grounds of all the financial innovation going on. Post the global financial crisis it s clear much of the innovation was no more productive than finding new ways to minimise tax or get around financial regulations. And, of course, all the advances in risk management turned out to be more about slicing, shifting and hiding risk than reducing it. It s an open secret that our compulsory super system leaves employees open to hugely excessive fee charging, as layer upon layer of advisers clip each other s tickets and send the bill to the mug savers. The banks volume of trading of currencies, securities and derivatives in financial markets exceeds by many multiples the amount required to service the needs of their real-economy customers or even to keep markets deep (able to process big transactions without shifting the price much). The banks are just betting against each other meaning much of the bloated financial sector s activity isn t genuinely productive. And now there s the gig economy Uber, Airbnb, fast-food delivery services and all the rest. They represent a strange amalgam of genuine innovation using the internet and smart phones to bring buyers and sellers together much more efficiently than ever before with a lot of terribly old-fashioned tricks to get away from the tax, labour and consumer protection laws faced by their conventional competitors. Oh no, the people who drive cars, ride bikes or do odd jobs at our behest aren t our employees. Gosh no. So if they don t pay their tax, make super contributions or insure themselves, it s nothing to do with us. Note that even if all the cost saving extracted from the hides of these poor sods was passed on to customers, it would still be less a genuine efficiency improvement than a mere income transfer from unempowered workers to consumers, most of whom are not in need of a free kick at other people s expense. Now, it s true most of the practices I ve described are perfectly legal. And many people

35 Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Author: Ross Gittins Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 88,634 Page: 21 Printed Size: cm² Market: NSW Country: Australia ASR: AUD 28,573 Words: 771 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 have convinced themselves that if it s legal it must be moral. It may be legal and even moral, but what it s not is particularly productive. Business people loved to lecture the rest of us about the need to grow a bigger pie, not squabble over how the pie was divided. Turns out a surprising amount of business activity involves ensuring their slice is bigger than yours. If so, don t be surprised productivity improvement is slow. 1HERSA1 A021 People have convinced themselves that if it s legal it must be moral.

36 Adelaide Advertiser, Adelaide Author: David Libby Koch Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 112,097 Page: 42 Printed Size: cm² Market: SA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 13,209 Words: 948 Item ID: Page 1 of 3 Q David & Libby Riding the investment cycle It s a good time to evaluate the bumps in the road THE start of a new financial year and the turning point of the calendar year July is a great time to pause, ponder and review your investments. No matter whether it s shares, property, interest rates or the economy, everything follows a cycle. Nothing goes up forever and every bust is inevitably followed by recovery. The key is understanding where you are in the various cycles so you can ride the uptrends and avoid the downturns. July is a good time to make that assessment. SHARES The past 12 months have been pretty good for share investors with equities outperforming most other investment sectors including property. Average stock prices have risen 8.6 per cent over the period but when you add in dividends the total return is over 13 per cent. A double digit investment return in this era of low inflation and interest rates is impressive and most Australians would have been a beneficiary through their superannuation funds. Although since the start of the calendar year the market has returned just 2 per cent, so most of the gains were in the previous six months. What has been fascinating is that this strong return has not been driven by the big blue-chip end of the market but by middle and small cap stocks. The share prices of the top 100 biggest companies rose only 7.2 per cent and the top 50 by just 6.7 per cent. For example, average share prices of the big telecommunications companies dropped almost 35 per bank shares were down cent and Utilities down cent. By contrast, the S Ordinaries Index rose 21 per cent and the Mid Index was up 10.6 per c So, the market has b good, but the winners h harder to find and mom slower in the past six m While Australia s 8.6 return is well behind th cent on Wall St, the performance and mom of the American marke significant driver of ou Basically, the health of economy, China, comm prices and the US shar are the leading indicato need to follow when as whether share prices w continue to trend upwa At this stage our economy and China appear solid; good gain in oil, coal, nickel and w have more than offset f in beef and sugar prices is stable); US shares are because of the Trade w based on Donald Trum twitter comments) but company profits are sti PROPERTY The long-awaited reba of the Australian reside housing market is well underway, which is see the decade-long boom in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane deflate and even fall. But let s keep it in perspective; OVER the past five years national property prices are up 32.5 per cent. HOUSE prices peaked in September last year and are down 1.3 per cent i th with a 2.2 per cent rise in property values. Aft h bi b

37 Adelaide Advertiser, Adelaide Author: David Libby Koch Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 112,097 Page: 42 Printed Size: cm² Market: SA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 13,209 Words: 948 Item ID: Page 2 of 3 tightened their lending criteria and lifted investment loan i t t t Th THE ECONOMY AND INTEREST RATES nomy has owth cycle ld record 27 ve years. It s ble result ries of es. During l Crisis it ur products t was the boom, the on boom ructure ast another rs. ast to be get surplus ar and net vernment debt will peak at 18.6 er cent of DP this year. obs growth tinuing and erve Bank is o indication raising official interest in the next months more in the pipeline to come through although it looks like official interest rates won t oon. s seems to be e the worst s, followed elbourne etter. ny expect ne to be -15 per cent be realistic never buy u re a buyer, so drive a

38 Adelaide Advertiser, Adelaide Author: David Libby Koch Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 112,097 Page: 42 Printed Size: cm² Market: SA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 13,209 Words: 948 Item ID: Page 3 of 3

39 Adelaide Advertiser, Adelaide Author: Anthony Keane Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 112,097 Page: 43 Printed Size: cm² Market: SA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 2,722 Words: 429 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Time to take aim and score those money goals ANTHONY KEANE IF your January New Year money resolutions look shaky or have crumbled six months down the track, don t worry. A second chance has arrived with the new financial year, and now is a great time to set money goals and work out how to measure them. People s Choice Credit Union spokesman Stuart Symons said some small changes could often get money plans on track. Sometimes we can be motivated by a challenge, and if your goals were achievable at the start of the year they may still be achievable with some adjustments, he said. Most money success is measured based on the financial year that stretches from July to June, whether superannuation, the sharemarket, tax or company performance. Mr Symons said now was the time to reset. The best time to set financial goals is 20 years ago; the second-best time is today, he said. Author and certified financial planner Patrick Canion said human nature meant that most resolutions, if not ed up by an activity plan, turn into a good intention rather than a change in behaviour. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off and look at where you didn t follow through with the resolution, and what you can do to make sure that doesn t happen again, he said. Mr Canion said those who kept to January resolutions even for just a month or two were probably better off than they would have been if they didn t start at all. He said people should break down their future money goals into small pieces, such as every pay period, write them down and make them automatic with savings transferred from bank accounts the day wages went in. Identify the goal and break it down into things you can control. For example, with super you can say I will salary sacrifice $50 per pay rather than say I want a 20 per cent return on my money because those things are outside your control. Mr Symons also believes in breaking goals down into smaller, achievable ones. You will be helping yourself if you start to put small goals into place today and build towards larger goals, he said. People should check their goals remain realistic, and set new ones if this was not the case, Mr Symons said. Setting realistic goals will help you feel more positive about setting stretch targets in the future. Make sure you have the tools in place to measure your progress. It might be a budgeting app or spreadsheet, or simply a monthly appointment to sit down and track your savings or spending.

40 Adelaide Advertiser, Adelaide Author: Tim McIntyre Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 112,097 Page: 41 Printed Size: cm² Market: SA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 7,036 Words: 430 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 TIM McINTYRE IT WAS a perfect light bulb moment. Mark Dowsett was at a cafe, patting a dog from a neighbouring table when the pooch s owner mentioned they were on their way to dog daycare. You pay someone to hang out with your dog? Mr Dowsett asked. That s what I m doing for the rest of my life. He had been at a professional crossroads, but his epiphany allowed him to turn a passion into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare. My girlfriend and I genuinely love dogs, it just made sense, he said. I had a sales ground but had to market myself. I realised the key point of difference was me. I genuinely love animals. I set up social media, started doorknocking, calling people and doing work experience. I have now bought a dog grooming salon, am looking to open a dog hotel and still have the dog walking where it all stemmed from. But he was unsure about the administrative side of the business. I didn t even know what GST was, he said. He found the Solo & Smart app, which takes care of the admin side. Now everything is calculated (by the app), he said. I take photos of receipts and the app uploads them. At the end of the financial year, everything is itemised. Solo & Smart director Patrick Harrison said technology had made it easier for people to make money from a passion, without a big initial outlay or taking as many risks as in the past. More people are choosing to become self-employed, starting with a side hustle and going from there, he said. The biggest challenges of becoming self-employed were tax compliance, insurance and superannuation, which prompted the app s creation. We provide a platform to automate those systems. We target the self-employed because they have the biggest issues with cashflow, Mr Harrison said. Solo & Smart also offered a pay as you go insurance system where business owners only paid insurance for the portions of the year they worked. But the greater ease for running a business did not mean basic diligence was no longer required, according to Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) chief executive Peter Strong. It is easier which is a good thing but also a danger, he said. The compliance issues are what you ve really got to be on top of. He said budding small business owners should seek advice from people in similar industries and a trusted accountant. Happy tale for self-employed FOR A GOOD PAWS: Mark Dowsett turned his love of animals into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare.

41 Daily Mercury, Mackay QLD Author: Tim McIntyre Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 7,738 Page: 11 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 672 Words: 432 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 TIM McINTYRE IT WAS a perfect light bulb moment. Mark Dowsett was at a cafe, patting a dog from a neighbouring table when the pooch s owner mentioned they were on their way to dog daycare. You pay someone to hang out with your dog? Mr Dowsett asked. That s what I m doing for the rest of my life. He had been at a professional crossroads, but his epiphany allowed him to turn a passion into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare. My girlfriend and I genuinely love dogs, it just made sense, he said. I had a sales ground but had to market myself. I realised the key point of difference was me. I genuinely love animals. I set up social media, started doorknocking, calling people and doing work experience. I have now bought a dog grooming salon, am looking to open a dog hotel and still have the dog walking where it all stemmed from. But he was unsure about the administrative side of the business. I didn t even know what GST was, he said. He found the Solo & Smart app, which takes care of the admin side. Now everything is calculated (by the app), he said. I take photos of receipts and the app uploads them. At the end of the financial year, everything is itemised. Solo & Smart director Patrick Harrison said technology had made it easier for people to make money from a passion, without a big initial outlay or taking as many risks as in the past. More people are choosing to become self-employed, starting with a side hustle and going from there, he said. The biggest challenges of becoming self-employed were tax compliance, insurance and superannuation, which prompted the app s creation. We provide a platform to automate those systems. We target the self-employed because they have the biggest issues with cashflow, Mr Harrison said. Solo & Smart also offered a pay as you go insurance system where business owners only paid insurance for the portions of the year they worked. But the greater ease for running a business did not mean basic diligence was no longer required, according to Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) chief executive Peter Strong. It is easier which is a good thing but also a danger, he said. The compliance issues are what you ve really got to be on top of. He said budding small business owners should seek advice from people in similar industries and a trusted accountant. Happy tale for self-employed FOR A GOOD PAWS M k D t d hi l f i l i t f ll ti b i D W lk & D FOR A GOOD PAWS: Mark Dowsett turned his love of animals into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare.

42 Daily Mercury, Mackay QLD Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 7,738 Page: 12 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 809 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Riding the investment cycle It s a good time to evaluate the bumps in the road THE start of a new financial year and the turning point of the calendar year July is a great time to pause, ponder and review your investments. No matter whether it s shares, property, interest rates or the economy, everything follows a cycle. Nothing goes up forever and every bust is inevitably followed by recovery. The key is understanding where you are in the various cycles so you can ride the uptrends and avoid the downturns. July is a good time to make that assessment. SHARES The past 12 months has been pretty good for share investors with equities outperforming most other investment sectors including property. Average stock prices have risen 8.6 per cent over the period but when you add in dividends the total return is over 13 per cent. A double digit investment return in this era of low inflation and interest rates is impressive and most Australians would have been a beneficiary through their superannuation funds. Although since the start of the calendar year the market has returned just 2 per cent, so most of the gains were in the previous six months. What has been fascinating is that this strong return has not been driven by the big blue-chip end of the market but by middle and small cap stocks. The share prices of the top 100 biggest companies rose only 7.2 per cent and the top 50 by just 6.7 per cent. For example, average share prices of the big telecommunications companies dropped almost 35 per cent, bank shares were down 6.7 per cent and Utilities down 5.7 per cent. By contrast, the Small Ordinaries Index rose almost 21 per cent and the MidCap 50 Index was up 10.6 per cent. So, the market has been good, but the winners have been harder to find and momentum slower in the past six months. While Australia s 8.6 per cent return is well behind the 13.7 per cent on Wall St, the performance and momentum of the American market is still a significant driver of ours. Basically, the health of our economy, China, commodity prices and the US sharemarket are the leading indicators you need to follow when assessing whether share prices will continue to trend upwards. At this stage our economy and China appear solid; good gains in oil, coal, nickel and wool have more than offset falls in beef and sugar prices (iron ore is stable); US shares are volatile because of the Trade war (and based on Donald Trump s twitter comments) but US company profits are still strong. PROPERTY The long-awaited rebalancing of the Australian residential housing market is well underway, which is seeing the decade-long boom in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane deflate and even fall. But let s keep it in perspective; OVER the past five years national property prices are up 32.5 per cent. HOUSE prices peaked in September last year and are down 1.3 per cent since then. HOUSE prices fell 0.2 per cent in June the ninth consecutive month-on-month decline. So the big picture is that residential property owners are still well ahead over five years but the cycle has turned down in some of our biggest markets. For example, Sydney values are down 4.5 per cent over the year, Perth by 2.1 per cent and Darwin by 7.7 per cent. Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide only rose by about 1 per cent while Hobart has been the standout with a 12.7 per cent rise. Regional areas did better, as a whole, than capital cities with a 2.2 per cent rise in property values. After such a big boom, a correction was inevitable and now it s happening. As always it boils down to demand and supply. The boom in prices sparked a record building boom (220,000 homes in the last year) to meet the demand from new migrants and overseas investors. To cool the boom the Federal Government put restrictions on overseas investors, migration has slowed, banks tightened their lending criteria and lifted investment loan interest rates. They ve succeeded in what they set out to achieve. We ve seen this correction coming for a long time. Auction clearance rates have fallen and homes for sale are staying on the market longer. All downturn indicators depending on the region. Now the debate is around how severe the downturn will be. The building boom has a fair bit more in the pipeline to come through although it looks like official interest rates won t move up anytime soon. So the consensus seems to be Sydney will likely be the worst affected city for falls, followed by Brisbane, with Melbourne holding up a little better. In this cycle, many expect Sydney and Brisbane to be down as much as per cent from their peaks. If you re a seller, be realistic in your pricing and never buy before you sell. If you re a buyer, you have the power so drive a hard bargain. THE ECONOMY AND INTEREST RATES The Australian economy has been in a growth cycle for a world record breaking 27 consecutive years. It s an incredible result driven by a series of important influences. During the GFC it was China buying our products (still is today), then it was the mining investment boom, the housing construction boom and now the infrastructure boom which will last another three to five years. We re forecast to be in budget surplus next year and net government debt will

43 Daily Mercury, Mackay QLD Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 7,738 Page: 12 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 809 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 peak at 18.6 per cent of GDP this year. Jobs growth is continuing and the Reserve Bank is giving no indication of raising official interest in the next six months at least.

44 Daily Mercury, Mackay QLD Author: Anthony Keane Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 7,738 Page: 13 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 187 Words: 429 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Time to take aim and score those money goals ANTHONY KEANE IF your January New Year money resolutions look shaky or have crumbled six months down the track, don t worry. A second chance has arrived with the new financial year, and now is a great time to set money goals and work out how to measure them. People s Choice Credit Union spokesman Stuart Symons said some small changes could often get money plans on track. Sometimes we can be motivated by a challenge, and if your goals were achievable at the start of the year they may still be achievable with some adjustments, he said. Most money success is measured based on the financial year that stretches from July to June, whether superannuation, the sharemarket, tax or company performance. Mr Symons said now was the time to reset. The best time to set financial goals is 20 years ago; the second-best time is today, he said. Author and certified financial planner Patrick Canion said human nature meant that most resolutions, if not ed up by an activity plan, turn into a good intention rather than a change in behaviour. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off and look at where you didn t follow through with the resolution, and what you can do to make sure that doesn t happen again, he said. Mr Canion said those who kept to January resolutions even for just a month or two were probably better off than they would have been if they didn t start at all. He said people should break down their future money goals into small pieces, such as every pay period, write them down and make them automatic with savings transferred from bank accounts the day wages went in. Identify the goal and break it down into things you can control. For example, with super you can say I will salary sacrifice $50 per pay rather than say I want a 20 per cent return on my money because those things are outside your control. Mr Symons also believes in breaking goals down into smaller, achievable ones. You will be helping yourself if you start to put small goals into place today and build towards larger goals, he said. People should check their goals remain realistic, and set new ones if this was not the case, Mr Symons said. Setting realistic goals will help you feel more positive about setting stretch targets in the future. Make sure you have the tools in place to measure your progress. It might be a budgeting app or spreadsheet, or simply a monthly appointment to sit down and track your savings or spending.

45 Canberra Times, Canberra Author: Ross Gittins Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 17,579 Page: 37 Printed Size: cm² Market: ACT Country: Australia ASR: AUD 9,170 Words: 771 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Clever tax strategies may be legal, but they aren t productive COMMENT Ross Gittins The developed world s economists have been racking their brains for explanations of the rich countries protracted period of weak improvement in the productivity of labour. I ve thought of one that hasn t had much attention. Productivity isn t improving as fast it could be partly because of the increasing number of our brightest and best devoting their efforts to nothing more productive than helping their bosses or customers game the system. That is, helping them find ways around our laws tax laws, labour laws, even officially supported accounting standards for how profits should be measured and reported. What put this into my mind was all the kerfuffle a few months ago when Labor announced its plan to abolish refunds for unused dividend franking credits. When Paul Keating introduced dividend imputation in 1988, unused credits weren t refundable. Only in 2001 were they made so by John Howard. At first, the cost to the budget of this minor concession was tiny. Over the years since then, however, the cost has blown out extraordinarily. Why? Because a small army of accountants, lawyers and investment advisers started advising their clients (many of whom can t use their franking credits because they pay no tax on their superannuation payouts) on how to rearrange their share portfolios to take advantage of the new refund. Thus did they turn a small concession into a hugely expensive loophole. Scott Morrison s claim that Labor had overestimated the saving to be made by closing the loophole rested on his since-refuted assumption that it had failed to take account of the way the small army would respond by further rearranging their clients portfolios. But that s just one example. The truth is that helping their customers steal a march on the government is one of the main services the entire investment advice industry uses to justify its fees and commissions. A particular favourite is helping people with loads of super turn the cartwheels necessary to frustrate the mean-test rules and still get a part pension. For years, starry-eyed economists exulted in the phenomenal growth of the banking and financial services sector on the grounds of all the financial innovation going on. Post the global financial crisis it s clear much of the innovation was no more productive than finding new ways to minimise tax or get around financial regulations. And, of course, all the advances in risk management turned out to be more about slicing, shifting and hiding risk than reducing it. It s an open secret that our compulsory super system leaves employees open to hugely excessive fee charging, as layer upon layer of advisers clip each other s tickets and send the bill to the mug savers. The banks volume of trading of currencies, securities and derivatives in financial markets exceeds by many multiples the amount required to service the needs of their real-economy customers or even to keep markets deep (able to process big transactions without shifting the price much). The banks are just betting against each other meaning much of the bloated financial sector s activity isn t genuinely productive. And now there s the gig economy Uber, Airbnb, fast-food delivery services and all the rest. They represent a strange amalgam of genuine innovation using the internet and smart phones to bring buyers and sellers together much more efficiently than ever before with a lot of terribly old-fashioned tricks to get away from the tax, labour and consumer protection laws faced by their conventional competitors. Oh no, the people who drive cars, ride bikes or do odd jobs at our behest aren t our employees. Gosh no. So if they don t pay their tax, make super contributions or insure themselves, it s nothing to do with us. Note that even if all the cost saving extracted from the hides of these poor sods was passed on to customers, it would still be less a genuine efficiency improvement than a mere income transfer from unempowered workers to consumers, most of whom are not in need of a free kick at other people s expense. Now, it s true most of the practices I ve described are

46 Canberra Times, Canberra Author: Ross Gittins Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 17,579 Page: 37 Printed Size: cm² Market: ACT Country: Australia ASR: AUD 9,170 Words: 771 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 perfectly legal. And many people have convinced themselves that if it s legal it must be moral. It may be legal and even moral, but what it s not is particularly productive. Business people loved to lecture the rest of us about the need to grow a bigger pie, not squabble over how the pie was divided. Turns out a surprising amount of business activity involves ensuring their slice is bigger than yours. If so, don t be surprised productivity improvement is slow. People have convinced themselves that if it s legal it must be moral.

47 Gladstone Observer, Gladstone QLD Author: Tim McIntyre Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 3,301 Page: 18 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 400 Words: 430 Item ID: Page 1 of 3 Happy tale for self-employed TIM McINTYRE IT WAS a perfect light bulb moment. Mark Dowsett was at a cafe, patting a dog from a neighbouring table when the pooch s owner mentioned they were on their way to dog daycare. You pay someone to hang out with your dog? Mr Dowsett asked. That s what I m doing for the rest of my life. He had been at a professional crossroads, but his epiphany allowed him to turn a passion into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare. My girlfriend and I genuinely love dogs, it just made sense, he said. I had a sales ground but had to market myself. I realised the key point of difference was me. I genuinely love animals. I set up social media, started doorknocking, calling people and doing work experience. I have now bought a dog grooming salon, am looking to open a dog hotel and still have the dog walking where it all stemmed from. But he was unsure about the administrative side of the business. I didn t even know what GST was, he said. He found the Solo & Smart app, which takes care of the admin side. Now everything is calculated (by the app), he said. I take photos of receipts and the app uploads them. At the end of the financial year, everything is itemised. Solo & Smart director Patrick Harrison said technology had made it We provide a platform to automate those systems. We target the self-employed because they have the biggest issues with cashflow, Mr Harrison said. Solo & Smart also offered a pay as you go insurance system where business owners only paid insurance for the portions of the year they worked. But the greater ease for running a business did not mean basic diligence was no longer required, according to Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) chief executive Peter Strong. It is easier which is a good thing but also a danger, he said. The compliance issues are what you ve really got to be on top of. He said budding small business owners should seek advice from people in similar industries and a trusted accountant. easier for people to make money from a passion, without a big initial outlay or taking as many risks as in the past. More people are choosing to become self-employed, starting with a side hustle and going from there, he said. The biggest challenges of becoming self-employed were tax compliance, insurance and superannuation, which prompted the app s creation.

48 Gladstone Observer, Gladstone QLD Author: Tim McIntyre Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 3,301 Page: 18 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 400 Words: 430 Item ID: Page 2 of 3

49 Gladstone Observer, Gladstone QLD Author: Tim McIntyre Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 3,301 Page: 18 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 400 Words: 430 Item ID: Page 3 of 3 FOR A GOOD PAWS: Mark Dowsett turned his love of animals into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare.

50 Gladstone Observer, Gladstone QLD Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 3,301 Page: 19 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 691 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Riding the investment cycle It s a good time to evaluate the bumps in the road THE start of a new financial year and the turning point of the calendar year July is a great time to pause, ponder and review your investments. No matter whether it s shares, property, interest rates or the economy, everything follows a cycle. Nothing goes up forever and every bust is inevitably followed by recovery. The key is understanding where you are in the various cycles so you can ride the uptrends and avoid the downturns. July is a good time to make that assessment. SHARES The past 12 months has been pretty good for share investors with equities outperforming most other investment sectors including property. Average stock prices have risen 8.6 per cent over the period but when you add in dividends the total return is over 13 per cent. A double digit investment return in this era of low inflation and interest rates is impressive and most Australians would have been a beneficiary through their superannuation funds. Although since the start of the calendar year the market has returned just 2 per cent, so most of the gains were in the previous six months. What has been fascinating is that this strong return has not been driven by the big blue-chip end of the market but by middle and small cap stocks. The share prices of the top 100 biggest companies rose only 7.2 per cent and the top 50 by just 6.7 per cent. For example, average share prices of the big telecommunications companies dropped almost 35 per cent, bank shares were down 6.7 per cent and Utilities down 5.7 per cent. By contrast, the Small Ordinaries Index rose almost 21 per cent and the MidCap 50 Index was up 10.6 per cent. So, the market has been good, but the winners have been harder to find and momentum slower in the past six months. While Australia s 8.6 per cent return is well behind the 13.7 per cent on Wall St, the performance and momentum of the American market is still a significant driver of ours. Basically, the health of our economy, China, commodity prices and the US sharemarket are the leading indicators you need to follow when assessing whether share prices will continue to trend upwards. At this stage our economy and China appear solid; good gains in oil, coal, nickel and wool have more than offset falls in beef and sugar prices (iron ore is stable); US shares are volatile because of the Trade war (and based on Donald Trump s twitter comments) but US company profits are still strong. PROPERTY The long-awaited rebalancing of the Australian residential housing market is well underway, which is seeing the decade-long boom in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane deflate and even fall. But let s keep it in perspective; OVER the past five years national property prices are up 32.5 per cent. HOUSE prices peaked in September last year and are down 1.3 per cent since then. HOUSE prices fell 0.2 per cent in June the ninth consecutive month-on-month decline. So the big picture is that residential property owners are still well ahead over five years but the cycle has turned down in some of our biggest markets. For example, Sydney values are down 4.5 per cent over the year, Perth by 2.1 per cent and Darwin by 7.7 per cent. Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide only rose by about 1 per cent while Hobart has been the standout with a 12.7 per cent rise. Regional areas did better, as a whole, than capital cities with a 2.2 per cent rise in property values. After such a big boom, a correction was inevitable and now it s happening. As always it boils down to demand and supply. The boom in prices sparked a record building boom (220,000 homes in the last year) to meet the demand from new migrants and overseas investors. To cool the boom the Federal Government put restrictions on overseas investors, migration has slowed, banks tightened their lending criteria and lifted investment loan interest rates. They ve succeeded in what they set out to achieve. We ve seen this correction coming for a long time. Auction clearance rates have fallen and homes for sale are staying on the market longer. All downturn indicators depending on the region. Now the debate is around how severe the downturn will be. The building boom has a fair bit more in the pipeline to come through although it looks like official interest rates won t move up anytime soon. So the consensus seems to be Sydney will likely be the worst affected city for falls, followed by Brisbane, with Melbourne holding up a little better. In this cycle, many expect Sydney and Brisbane to be down as much as per cent from their peaks. If you re a seller, be realistic in your pricing and never buy before you sell. If you re a buyer, you have the power so drive a hard bargain. THE ECONOMY AND INTEREST RATES The Australian economy has been in a growth cycle for a world record breaking 27 consecutive years. It s an incredible result driven by a series of important influences. During the GFC it was China buying our products (still is today), then it was the mining investment boom, the housing construction boom and now the infrastructure boom which will last another three to five years. We re forecast to be in budget surplus next year and net government debt will

51 Gladstone Observer, Gladstone QLD Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 3,301 Page: 19 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 691 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 peak at 18.6 per cent of GDP this year. Jobs growth is continuing and the Reserve Bank is giving no indication of raising official interest in the next six months at least.

52 Hobart Mercury, Hobart Author: Anthony Keane Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 28,265 Page: 19 Printed Size: cm² Market: TAS Country: Australia ASR: AUD 1,344 Words: 429 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Time to take aim and score those money goals ANTHONY KEANE IF your January New Year money resolutions look shaky or have crumbled six months down the track, don t worry. A second chance has arrived with the new financial year, and now is a great time to set money goals and work out how to measure them. People s Choice Credit Union spokesman Stuart Symons said some small changes could often get money plans on track. Sometimes we can be motivated by a challenge, and if your goals were achievable at the start of the year they may still be achievable with some adjustments, he said. Most money success is measured based on the financial year that stretches from July to June, whether superannuation, the sharemarket, tax or company performance. Mr Symons said now was the time to reset. The best time to set financial goals is 20 years ago; the second-best time is today, he said. Author and certified financial planner Patrick Canion said human nature meant that most resolutions, if not ed up by an activity plan, turn into a good intention rather than a change in behaviour. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off and look at where you didn t follow through with the resolution, and what you can do to make sure that doesn t happen again, he said. Mr Canion said those who kept to January resolutions even for just a month or two were probably better off than they would have been if they didn t start at all. He said people should break down their future money goals into small pieces, such as every pay period, write them down and make them automatic with savings transferred from bank accounts the day wages went in. Identify the goal and break it down into things you can control. For example, with super you can say I will salary sacrifice $50 per pay rather than say I want a 20 per cent return on my money because those things are outside your control. Mr Symons also believes in breaking goals down into smaller, achievable ones. You will be helping yourself if you start to put small goals into place today and build towards larger goals, he said. People should check their goals remain realistic, and set new ones if this was not the case, Mr Symons said. Setting realistic goals will help you feel more positive about setting stretch targets in the future. Make sure you have the tools in place to measure your progress. It might be a budgeting app or spreadsheet, or simply a monthly appointment to sit down and track your savings or spending.

53 West Australian, Perth Author: Nick Bruining Section: Your Money Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 147,676 Page: 1 Printed Size: cm² Market: WA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 12,272 Words: 767 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 New super rules have benefits if you know how to use them HAPPY NEW FINANCIAL YEAR Nick Bruining It s the new financial year and there are some fresh superannuation rules to negotiate. They can help the young, old and investors who have a looming capital gains tax bill to get rid of. First home super saver scheme Starting with the young, the new first home super saver scheme is a no-brainer for first homebuyers. It allows you to save a deposit quickly and efficiently earning a rate of interest that will beat any bank and is taxed at a big discount. Voluntary contributions of up to $15,000 a year, capped at $30,000 a person, can go into super and then be withdrawn to be used towards a deposit for your first home. Eligible contributions date to July 1, 2017, but July 1 this year is the first date you can withdraw the money. You can t access the boss s compulsory super, only the extra money you pay in. The money can be injected via salary sacrifice which means that it comes out before tax is calculated. If you can convince mum or dad to give you the money, you can simply pay the money in without claiming a deduction or, claim it as a personal tax deduction yourself. That way, you might be up for a tax refund at the end of the year as well. If salary sacrificed or claimed as a deduction, you ll normally lose 15 per cent contributions tax but that s still better than the personal income tax you might have paid. If no deduction is claimed, no contributions tax comes out. Along the way, and regardless of how well your super performs, a statutory interest rate based on the 90-day bank bill plus 3 percentage points is available. Right now that puts the rate at about 4.9 per cent. But there s a sting. If your funds perform better than the statutory rate, it will help boost your retirement nest egg because the surplus stays in your super. If your fund performs worse or tanks over the period, you run the risk of biting into your remaining super capital and eroding your future nest egg. Over time, the effects might be minimal but don t think that the government will be paying interest into your account. It won t. When you ve signed up for your new home or have found the home of your dreams, you apply to the Australian Taxation Office to have the money released and when it comes out, you pay tax at your normal tax rate, less a 30 per cent discount. At most, you ll be up for 17 per cent but typically, a young person earning between $37,000 and $90,000 a year would cop 7 per cent tax on the amount withdrawn plus the Medicare levy of 2 per cent. Roll over unused concessional contribution caps July 1 is also the start of an ability to roll over unused concessional contribution caps. Say your combined compulsory employer super and salary sacrifice total $20,000 for this fiscal year, $5000 short of the $25,000 cap. If unused, you can now carry that $5000 into the tax year and could make concessional contributions totalling $30,000 next year. The rules allow you to aggregate up to five years worth of concessional contributions useful if you have a decent capital gain. You might elect to roll over your concessional cap for the next few years and when you sell the asset, make a tax-deductible concessional super contribution to reduce the capital gains tax liability associated with the sale. But be sure you meet the other contribution eligibility rules. Super downsizer The super downsizer allows any

54 West Australian, Perth Author: Nick Bruining Section: Your Money Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 147,676 Page: 1 Printed Size: cm² Market: WA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 12,272 Words: 767 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 person over 65 to drop up to $300,000 into super. This is a nonconcessional contribution which means no contributions tax comes out when it is paid in. You need to have lived in your primary dwelling for at least 10 years, entered the sale contract after July 1, 2018, and get the money into super within 90 days of settlement. Where this might be useful is if you plan to downsize but don t have the cash to build the new home or snap up the bargain that just appeared online. Rather than getting stung by taking out a bridging loan, you could withdraw money from super to do the change-over while tarting up your current home for sale. Then when you are ready, sell your home and re-inject the proceeds into your super to replenish the nest egg. THE SUPER DOWNSIZER ALLOWS ANY PERSON OVER 65 TO DROP UP TO $300,000 INTO SUPER.

55 West Australian, Perth Author: Bruce Brammall Section: Your Money Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 147,676 Page: 1 Printed Size: cm² Market: WA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 6,539 Words: 706 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Get an early start on your new fiscal year finances with Bruce Brammall A big tax bill can sometimes be a nice problem to have particularly if it has come care of a big bonus. I got that very call from a client, just before the end of the financial year. I m getting a $50,000 performance bonus and another $150,000 in company shares issued to me. It s all coming before the end of the financial year. What can I do? As I said, sometimes it s a nice problem to have. Sadly, the answer for her was: Bit late. Not a lot. Sure, she could donate money to charity and do some other minor purchases. She could have, potentially, quickly set up a geared investment and pre-paid some interest (but margin loans aren t as simple as they used to be). Her super contributions had already been maxxed at her $25,0000 concessional contributions limit. The dying days of a financial year is not the time to start sorting out this problem. June is when final adjustments are made. July is when smart people start planning their finances and taxes for the year ahead. If you think it s likely you ll get a bonus, a pay rise, sell an asset and make a capital gain or you ve just made a resolution to get your act together, now is the time to get serious. What should you be doing? Today, I ll focus on three important strategies. 1. Consider negatively geared investing The point of geared investment is that if you make a tax loss on a cash basis on the investment that is, the income received in rent or dividends is less than the costs of holding the investment, such as interest then you re able to claim a tax deduction on that income loss. For example, rent from a property might be $20,000. But the cost of interest, rates, insurance, agents fees, depreciation and general maintenance is $40,000. And that $20,000 loss is then used to offset your other income, thereby reducing your overall tax position by up to $9400. The same can also be applied to the purchase of equity-based investments. But be warned geared investing is not for everyone. Any geared investing involves taking higher risks. And anyone who is contemplating geared investing needs to understand the risks involved. Continued P3

56 West Australian, Perth Author: Bruce Brammall Section: Your Money Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 147,676 Page: 1 Printed Size: cm² Market: WA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 6,539 Words: 706 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 Time to begin is now FROM P1 2. Get serious about your super Super contributions can now be used by almost everyone as a way of beefing up your superannuation fund and as a tax deduction (without needing salary sacrifice options). From July 2017, employees became able to make tax-deductible contributions to super at any time during a financial year. These personal tax deductions make up part of your annual $25,000 concessional contributions limit, which also includes what your employer contributes as concessional contributions. That is, if you re earning $100,000 and your employer puts in 9.5 per cent as superannuation guarantee payments, then they have contributed $9500. You could tip in up to a further $15,500 into your super fund. It s not as good a tax lurk for very high income earners, however. Those earning more than $250,000 a year have to pay extra tax on their contributions (30 per cent instead of 15 per cent). And if their employers are already contributing more than $25,000, their ability to use this as a tax deduction is limited. 3. Protect their income with insurance. If you earn a reasonable income and you don t have income protection, you re possibly crazy. What happens if your wonderful income suddenly stops? Income protection will replace up to 75 per cent of your earnings in the event that you can t work because of accident or illness. And it s tax deductible. Depending on your sex, age, occupation and smoker status, an income protection policy will cost most people somewhere between $800 and $4000 a year. But what it s protecting is millions of dollars. If you re a 30-year-old earning $80,000 a year, it s protecting $2.8 million (35 years times $80,000). If you re a 40-year-old earning $150,000, it s protecting $3.75 million (25 years times $150,000). The time to start proper planning of your finances is now. Not next June. Bruce Brammall is the author of Mortgages Made Easy and is both a financial adviser and mortgage broker. bruce@brucebrammallfinancial.com.au.

57 West Australian, Perth Author: Laura Wright Section: Your Money Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 147,676 Page: 8 Printed Size: cm² Market: WA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 6,943 Words: 479 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Trust issues impediment to those seeking advice Laura Wright More than half of working Australians say that they don t have someone they trust to advise them on personal finance and investing, according to a survey commissioned by NGS Super of 1002 working-age Australians in April this year. The report, titled Closing the Trust Gap in Finance and Investing, highlights that the lack of trust in the financial services sector has been to the detriment of the relationship between Australian consumers and their financial institutions. The report shows that in the absence of a professional source of guidance, Aussie men and women are turning to those closest to them for financial advice. Of the men surveyed aged 50 and over who said they have someone to trust for financial advice, 47 per cent classified a friend as a source. Of the women surveyed under age 50 who said they have someone to trust for financial advice, 69 per cent classified a family member as a source. Interestingly, only one-third of all men and women (33 per cent and 28 per cent respectively) said they have consulted an adviser in the past five years. And a staggering 60 per cent of those under 50 years of age (split almost equally between men and women) reported not having anyone they felt they could trust when it comes to investment advice. The industry needs to work harder to improve consumer confidence which has been rocked in recent months. While the financial services industry has made steps to address the lack of trust amongst consumers, more needs to be done to rebuild confidence in the sector. Our research highlights an opportunity for the industry to educate Australians young and old on the value of receiving quality, unbiased and professional financial advice in addition to actively demonstrating the benefits. The trust deficit represents a solid opportunity for industry super funds in particular to step up and be champions for the financial advice industry with our member-first proposition, where we don t pay commissions to our advisers who work in the best interests of members. Unfortunately, too many Australians are unaware that their industry super fund offers financial advice and planning services, with less than one per cent of our members taking up our fund s financial advice offering. While there is absolutely a need to address problems in the industry that have or could adversely impact customers, we also need to call out all the positive stories that so many of our members have experienced from their advisers to ensure that they have absolute peace of mind that their financial future is in safe hands. Laura White is acting chief executive of NGS Super SUPER- SIZED WORRY 50% of people find superannuation complex 60% of women were able to choose their own adviser 86% of people who chose their own adviser said they were satisfied * Source: Closing the Trust Gap in Finance and Investing report

58 West Australian, Perth Author: Neale Prior Section: Your Money Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 147,676 Page: 8 Printed Size: cm² Market: WA Country: Australia ASR: AUD 3,717 Words: 455 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 FPA must accept the new rules Neale Prior Listening to financial planners fight new laws requiring them to have a degree reminds me of my attempts to understand the Serbian political perspective as NATO bombed Belgrade and Novi Sad in Serb soldiers and paramilitaries were in Kosovo fighting highlycriminalised terrorist groups linked to Afghanistan Islamic extremists inflicting untold misery on Christian Serbs. And Kosovo is significant to Serbs. It was where their great leader Prince Lazar was martyred by the invading Ottomans in 1389 and where the Serbs whipped the Turks 523 years later. Financial planners right now feel like they are under attack and they re grabbing at bits of their own history to deal with a changed world. All sorts of rotten stuff has been done by a minority of financial planners and by multi-level product-pushing machines created by the big four banks and AMP. All this has triggered radical action by Federal politicians, investigations and even a royal commission. Right or wrong, it has also triggered laws requiring all planners to have a uni degree or the equivalent by The body the Federal Government has entrusted with putting its law into action, the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority, has made it clear that it does not see industry qualifications as the same thing as qualifications obtained from a university. These non-degree industry qualifications include the Financial Planning Association s USdesigned Certified Financial Planning designation (that it likes to hype up with the registered ). As Nick Bruining pointed out in Your Money in May, the CFP designation has been undermined by an appalling weakening of testing standards over two decades. And the FPA s been weakened with infiltration by product floggers from the big four banks and AMP. Yet in its submission to FASEA released last week, the FPA again called for its CFP designation to effectively be recognised as the equivalent of a university degree. The FPA wants this compromised trade qualification given the same status as a graduate diploma for a financial planner who has an unrelated university degree. This is a delusional call based on forgetting all those inconvenient truths that led to Federal Parliament demanding higher education standards for planners. Like Prince Lazar, the CFP is now at best a guiding light visible through the fog of history and all that has subsequently gone wrong. The CFP has never been a university degree and never will be as long at it is administered by a compromised outfit like the FPA. Universities may choose to give the CFP some credit towards a graduate diploma under the new laws. Recognising the CFP as anything approaching a university qualification would undermine laws passed by Parliament. The FPA needs to learn from Serbia and get on with it.

59 Sunshine Coast Daily, Maroochydore QLD Author: Amber Hooker Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 10,046 Page: 3 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 252 Words: 341 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Coast man s $1.4m rip-off ASIC lawsuit claims businessman directed clients money for his personal use AMBER HOOKER Amber.Hooker@scnews.com.au A FORMER Sunshine Coast financial adviser allegedly convinced at least 10 clients to pay unsecured loans worth $1.4 million to his now-collapsed property development company, according to documents filed in court. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) claims Refocus Financial Group operator Brett Andrew Gordon then used clients money for his own personal use, and as working capital for Refocus. The company still operates in Maroochydore despite Mr Gordon not having a financial services licence, according to ASIC s lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of Queensland. The watchdog has commenced proceedings against Refocus, Mr Gordon, his partner Heather Jean Swift and the company of which she was sole director, Consultia Super Pty Ltd. In a document published on Tuesday, ASIC states Mr Gordon and Refocus were authorised representatives of Solar Financial Advisory Pty Ltd between June 2017 and August last year. They allege that during this time Mr Gordon, 50, recommended his clients establish self-managed superannuation funds and advance unsecured loans to a related company, Diverse Capital Management Pty Ltd, to undertake property development. ASIC claim at least 10 clients loaned $1.4 million to Diverse on Gordon s recommendation. Those funds remain outstanding and Diverse was placed in liquidation on May 18 with debts of $1.5 million. Solar terminated Mr Gordon and Refocus as authorised representatives after becoming aware of Mr Gordon's conduct, and reported it to ASIC. Following an investigation, ASIC claims Ms Swift also received money from Diverse Capital Management for her own personal use. ASIC also claims Mr Gordon and Refocus entered into other unsecured loan agreements to borrow funds from self-managed super fund clients of Refocus, which have not yet been repaid. ASIC is seeking court orders to appoint a provisional liquidator to Refocus and Consultia; prevent Mr Gordon and Ms Swift from dealing with their assets; and, restrain Mr Gordon from providing financial services. The matter will be heard in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Juky 11 and ASIC is continuing its investigation.

60 Australian Financial Review, Australia Section: Companies and Markets Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 14 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 2,265 Words: 291 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Presentations checked off in Victoria's $2b land titles sale It's getting to the business end of Victoria's $2 billion land registry privatisation. Street Talk understands management presentations were held last week for the two bidding groups in the data room. Final and binding offers must be submitted to the government at the end of August It's understood bidders were not presented with any new facts or figures, with management sticking very closely to its pre-prepared script and sale documents. Sources said the presentations were typical of a government-run process where probity officials seem to have the first and last say on most matters. As first reported by this column last month, two consortiums spearheaded by Macquarie and First State Super are shortlisted into the second round. Macquarie is bidding via its Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets investment arm, while NSWbased First State Super has teamed up with industry superannuation fund manager CBUS for its bid. Up for grabs is the right to run Victoria's land titles registry for the next 40 years, following similar moves by rival states NSW and South Australia in the past 12 months. The contract is described by parties in the process as "designing a big IT project" to digitise the land titles registry and set it up for the coming four decades. It is expected to be worth about $2 billion. MIRA is viewed as the contender to beat given the whopping $1.6 billion it paid last August for the rights to run South Australia's lands titles registry and services unit in a 40-year privatisation. CK Infrastructure had been in-andaround the auction until the Hong Kong-based utilities giant's $13 billion tilt at ASX-listed APA Group diverted its focus. The government and its advisers - UBS and Flagstaff Partners - received indicative bids in late May.

61 Courier Mail, Brisbane Author: David Libby Koch Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 135,007 Page: 32 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 14,964 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 1 of 3 32 MONEYSAVERHQ David & Libby Riding the investment cycle It s a good time to evaluate the bumps in the road THE start of a new financial year and the turning point of the calendar year July is a great time to pause, ponder and review your investments. No matter whether it s shares, property, interest rates or the economy, everything follows a cycle. Nothing goes up forever and every bust is inevitably followed by recovery. The key is understanding where you are in the various cycles so you can ride the uptrends and avoid the downturns. July is a good time to make that assessment. SHARES The past 12 months has been pretty good for share investors with equities outperforming most other investment sectors including property. Average stock prices have risen 8.6 per cent over the period but when you add in dividends the total return is over 13 per cent. A double digit investment return in this era of low inflation and interest rates is impressive and most Australians would have been a beneficiary through their superannuation funds. Although since the start of the calendar year the market has returned just 2 per cent, so most of the gains were in the previous six months. What has been fascinating is that this strong return has not been driven by the big blue-chip end of the market but by middle and small cap stocks. The share prices of the top 100 biggest companies rose only 7.2 per cent and the top 50 by just 6.7 per cent. For example, average share prices of telecommunications c dropped almost 35 per bank shares were down cent and Utilities down cent. By contrast, the S Ordinaries Index rose 21 per cent and the Mid Index was up 10.6 per c So, the market has b good, but the winners h harder to find and mom slower in the past six m While Australia s 8. return is well behind th cent on Wall St, the performance and mom of the American mark significant driver of ou Basically, the health of economy, China, comm prices and the US shar are the leading indicat need to follow when assessing whether sha prices will continue to upwards. At this stage our eco and China appear solid gains in oil, coal, nickel have more than offset f beef and sugar prices (i stable); US shares are v because of the Trade w based on Donald Trum twitter comments) but company profits are sti PROPERTY The long-awaited rebalancing of the Australian residential housing market is well underway, which is seeing the decade-long boom in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane deflate and even fall. But let s keep it in perspective; OVER the past five years national property prices are up 32.5 per cent. been the standout with a 12.7 per cent rise. Regional areas did better,

62 Courier Mail, Brisbane Author: David Libby Koch Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 135,007 Page: 32 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 14,964 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 2 of 3 ime soon. sensus seems to be kely be the worst or falls, followed with Melbourne ittle better. le, many expect risbane to be h as per cent aks. seller, be realistic g and never buy ll. If you re a buyer, power so drive a raising official nterest in the next six months at least. investors. To cool the boom the Federal Government put restrictions on overseas Now the debate is around how severe the downturn will be. The building boom has a fair e pipeline to come ough it looks like st rates won t THE ECONOMY AND INTEREST RATES tralian economy in a growth cycle record breaking 27 ears. It s an ult driven by a ortant influences. FC it was China oducts (still is t was the mining oom, the truction boom nfrastructure will last another ve years. We re forecast to be in budget surplus next year nd net overnment debt l peak at 18.6 per t of GDP this year. bs growth is ontinuing and the Reserve Bank is giving no indication of

63 Courier Mail, Brisbane Author: David Libby Koch Section: Business News Article type : News Item Classification : Capital City Daily Audience : 135,007 Page: 32 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 14,964 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 3 of 3

64 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: Alice Uribe Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 1 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 8,778 Words: 1112 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Insurers push for royal commission exclusions Directors hit in Hayne fallout Exclusive Alice Uribe Insurers are refusing to cover big banks and other financial services companies hit by legal action related to the Hayne royal commission after revelations of misconduct and illegal action. The loss-making directors' and officers' insurance sector, which covers directors, executives and employees involved in the management of a company, has over the past six months lifted premiums by 70 per cent on average and up to 400 per cent as it sees its profits sliced by an increase in class actions, a key cost it covers for Australian public companies. To minimise potential fallout, the corporate insurance sector has begun to insert "royal commission exclusions" into the class action defence policies it provides to ASX-listed companies, as well as professional indemnity protection for top executives. "There has been an attempt by some insurers to ring-fence their exposure to royal commission issues through the introduction of exclusionary language onto financial lines insurance policies," said Aon Risk Solutions director Eden Fletcher, who advises banks and fund managers on D&O and professional indemnity cover. "This can create uncertainty for organisations and their directors and it is therefore imperative that such exclusions are resisted or, if unavoidable, challenged and interrogated closely." It is understood that some insurers are excluding future claims arising out of the royal commission, when renewing insurance policies. The general manager of advocacy at the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Louise Petschler, said it was becoming increasingly difficult for companies to negotiate "appropriate" D&O cover with insurers. "We are expecting the growth of these insurance premiums to accelerate, on the of the Hayne royal commission," she said. Some insurers had already sought exclusions during recent annual renewals, Mr Fletcher says. Senior counsel assisting the banking royal commission, Rowena Orr, QC, on Friday told Commissioner Hayne it was open for him to find numerous instances of misconduct against ANZ, Bendigo Bank, Commonwealth Bank Continued p2 From page 1 Directors hit in Hayne commission aftermath and Rabobank for their dealings with farmers. Ms Orr earlier said the Hayne inquiry should be open to finding that beleaguered wealth manager AMP misled the corporate watchdog over its fee-for-no-advice scandal, also recommending criminal charges. There are about 20 open class actions in play, with AMP facing five actions over its fee scandal. CBA is fighting off two class actions relating its potential lack of disclosure about the Austrac investigation. Adam Suplina, a national manager at US-based D&O insurer AIG, said royal commission or "other exclusionary language is only used as a last resort". "However, we are becoming more selective by making sure we have the right terms and conditions and commensurate premium for the risk we cover," he said. Another large corporate insurer, Bermuda-based XL Catlin, would not comment on any insertion of exclusionary language and said it would "continue to assess each insured on their merits and provide coverage according to our technical underwriting Criteria ". Insurers continue to push up the price of premiums as they struggle against what is now a "hard market" and the surge in class actions - something highlighted by a recent Australian Law Reform Commission review. Insurers are being forced to lift premiums due the ongoing increase in securities class actions, and fears that QBE's landmark $132.5 million settlement in 2017 will push up the average $50 million settlement cost. Industry experts say that the country's bigger banks tend to take out D&O policies with a ceiling cover of $500 million, and typically pay up to $5000 per $1 million of cover or $2.5 million a year. This means even a 30 per cent hike on cover within a $500 million policy would mean a $750,000 increase on the cost of such cover. D&O insurance policies are made up of side A and B, which cover directors and officers, while side C is an extension taken up by companies to cover costs associated with class actions, often centred on failure to meet continuous disclosure obligations.

65 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: Alice Uribe Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 1 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 8,778 Words: 1112 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 Scott Curley, a director at GSA Insurance Brokers, said that most rises were coming from under-pressure side C cover. "You can still get directors' cover, but the side C cover is where it's becoming really restricted. It's a hard market. "We haven't seen the last of it Pricing is going to increase, and the royal commission is going to drive those costs. Until [related] class actions stop... the issue is still going to be there." Ewen McKay, product leader of management liability at XL Catlin, said the revelations from the royal commission were having an impact "In time, it is generally expected that D&O and PI claims will flow from the royal commission - which may see increased pricing across D&O and PI portfolios more generally for companies in the financial services sector, and not necessarily only for those involved in the royal commission." The big D&O insurers - including XL Catlin, AIG, Chubb and Berkshire Hathaway - are now employing a "walk away" policy where they won't provide cover if they can't get what they deem to be an "appropriate price" for policies, according to Mr Fletcher. "The market is already difficult if you haven't had any issues, but if you've had historic issues or ongoing issues, there may be no insurer appetite to try to participate on the program at all," he said. XL Catlin's Mr M^Kay agreed there could be "restrictions to coverage" for companies that have had been affected by the royal commissions as well as premium increases. AIG, however, has no plans to stop offering side C insurance. "AIG has been writing D&O including side C classes for decades, and the royal commission won't change this," Mr Suplina said. But Aon's Mr Fletcher answered "yes, potentially" when asked if those companies that had active class actions against them, or had had issues of bad practice raised at the royal commission, would struggle to get side C cover. The fallout for ASX-listed companies of a hardening market includes not only the risk of higher prices and tougher exclusions, but also a skinnier time frame for policy renewal negotiations, which used to happen months in advance, but now happen in as short as four weeks. "The biggest thing we are seeing are these organisations maintaining higher deductible levels. The position taken by insurers is to ensure clients have more skin in the game," Mr Fletcher said. Where before an ASX-100 company may pay the first $500,000 of a claim before a policy kicks in, this figure is now sitting at $2.5 million, he said. "Or up to $20 million-$30 million, and in the case of some banks much more." There are about 20 open class actions in play, with AMP facing five actions.

66 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: Adele Ferguson Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 1 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 12,783 Words: 1169 Item ID: Page 1 of 3 Super fail The inability or refusal of a raft of super funds to hand over vital data, including investment returns by asset class, is something the royal commission needs to explore. Adele Ferguson page News Systemic fintech risks: RBA p8 Companies APRA tackles insurers p16 Adele Feiguso aferguson@fairfaxmedia.com.au; Twitter.@AdeleJerguson wwww.afr.com I Monday 9 July 2018 Super is long overdue for reform As the royal commission prepares for a showdown with the $2.6 trillion superannuation industry on August 6, it has assigned a team to trawl through submissions, meet key players and comb various reports including the Productivity Commission's landmark draft report into super. There are a lot of rabbit warrens the royal commission could head down, the most popular being the political wars of industry funds and retail funds. Retail funds have chronically underperformed industry funds over the past 12 years by almost 2 per cent, according to the Productivity Commission's draft report But the real scandal is that one in four funds - retail, industry, corporate and government funds - persistently underperform and they have been allowed to get away with it Put simply, entrenched underperformance is system-wide and is costing Australians a fortune. In the default segment of the market the Productivity Commission's draft report spearheaded by Karen Chester identified 26 funds as persistent underperformers. They include 12 retail funds and 10 industry funds, which represent $62 billion of assets and 1.7 million member accounts. Given almost 85 per cent of CEOs (representing 90 per cent of assets and 92 per cent of member accounts in the system) told the Productivity Commission in a governance survey that they do regular and robust performance attribution analysis of their funds, it stands to reason they would know if they were an underperformer. This raises two key questions: why haven't there been more mergers, and why hasn't the prudential regulator done more such as demanding better data or taking more draconian action? That a trustee has been allowed to sit on the board of an underperforming fund year after year and fail tofix the problem or investigate merging with another fund is a huge governance problem. Then to have a regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), allow the system to continue to operate with little transparency and consistently fail to supply quality performance data, is shameful. This apparent regulatory apathy has been to the detriment of millions of Australians who have put their trust in the system. The lack of data was laid bare in the Productivity Commission's governance survey, which showed only 42 per cent of funds (representing 59 per cent of assets and 62 per cent of accounts) were able to provide data on net rates of return for Australian-listed equities. The dearth of data prompted the Productivity Commission to raise questions about the adequacy of any performance attribution work being undertaken. "Such work should have rendered such a question easily answerable - and could arguably imply a contumelious disregard for members by those who elected not to respond," the report said. The inability or refusal of a raft of funds, both industry and retail, to hand over vital data including net investment returns by asset class is something the royal commission needs to explore. If data is bad or unavailable, it makes it impossible to follow the money in terms of outcomes for

67 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: Adele Ferguson Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 1 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 12,783 Words: 1169 Item ID: Page 2 of 3 members and related party transactions. Since the release of the draft report the Productivity Commission has gone to CEOs of the funds requesting net investment returns by asset class, fees and costs by asset class and related party incidents of transactions and fees and costs. More are co-operating but it is understood that some funds are genuinely struggling to get the data. If true it raises a host of questions about the trustees and how they have been able to do their job if they haven't had proper data to assess the fund. It also raises issues about the quality of office systems of some funds. If the royal commission goes down this line of questioning, it will send chills through the boards of those funds that can't muster up the data, are seen to be underperformers and have done little to address the problems. Over the past few weeks the Productivity Commission has invited,a cross-section of industry participants to attend a series of public hearings on its series of recommendations to modernise the super system. The royal commission is no doubt poring through them. At one of the hearings, Cathy Nance, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, raised the hoary issue of mergers and suggested a key stumbling block was self-interest "It is very difficult for people to do themselves out of jobs," she said. "So, consequently, you tend to get their effort focused on preserving a situation rather than doing them out of their role." Nance made a number of suggestions, which the royal commission - and APRA - should consider. Industry Super Australia's Matt Linden also attended a hearing and referred to various matters including the poor quality of data available. "As you know the APRA data collections suffer very significantly at the moment in respect to transparency around fees, costs and expenses and, really, many retail funds have structured themselves in a way to shelter themselves from that sort of disclosure and they've lobbied vigorously to resist disclosure, and limiting the extent of that disclosure to the Registrable Super Entity [RSE] itself rather than a related party," he said. This also needs to be looked at as transparent quality data, publicly available should be a given. The royal commission is also expected to look at complaints made by members to individual funds. Most complaints revolve around disputes Over death benefit distributions and deductions of life insurance premiums. The royal commission wrote to super funds asking them to identify any misconduct as far as January 2008 and describe the misconduct and impact Funds were also asked to identify any conduct that had fallen below community standards and whether it was due to culture or governance. Thesuperannuation industry was included in the terms of reference for a royal commission and many deemed it a political stunt by the Coalition to target industry funds, their boards and the role of unions. That may be so but it doesn't mean a review isn't justified. When the royal commission was announced last year it prompted a flurry of press releases and statements. CBus Super Australia's Steve Bracks told a conference: "Australia's super system is world-class, and there is no evidence of gouging, fraud or unethical behaviour to warrant a royal commission into the industry." Time will tell. But Australia's superannuation system is long overdue for reform. Some funds are beacons of light but there are still too many that are opaque, lack accountability and are riddled with conflicts. And as the Productivity Commission has shown, it has entrenched underperformance that needs to be fixed. Australians are counting on it To have a regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, allow the system to continue to operate with little transparency and consistently fail to supply quality performance data, is shameful.

68 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: Adele Ferguson Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 1 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 12,783 Words: 1169 Item ID: Page 3 of 3

69 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: James Eyers Section: Companies and Markets Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 13 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 6,108 Words: 715 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Open banking fuels financial planning rejig James Eyers The financial planning industry is poised for a shake-up as the government's plan to make it easier for customers to access banking data drives new technology that will allow advisers to respond in real-time to the changing financial circumstances of their clients. Open banking will also change the financial advice industry by allowing advisers to tailor their offering to individuals. Grow Super, part owned by IOOF, and Basiq, part owned by Westpac Banking Corp and National Australia Bank, have worked together to build the software that provides alerts to advisers about when to call their clients. The product will be white-labelled for advisory groups to enhance the quality of customer advice. IOOF is piloting the new alert system and has plans to provide it to its 2000 financial advisers. It could also be rolled out to the former ANZ OnePath network, after IOOF bought most of ANZs wealth operations for $975 million last year. The alert tool works by tapping into banking data through Basiq, if the customer has authorised it Basiq currently "scrapes" data from bank accounts and super funds, but when the government's open banking regime comes into force mid-way through next year, the banking data will be accessed via Basiq's "application programming interface" (API), providing a cleaner and regulated feed. Ben Marshan, head of policy and government relations at the Financial Planning Association, said the use of live banking data via open banking will improve the quality of financial advice. "Gients are going to know where they are because they can access live data, while planners will be able to be better coaches and mentors, by helping clients to stay on track to achieve their objectives using real time data to proactively engage," he said. "Advisers working in with Gen X and Gen Y are really excited about this." Grow Super has developed a series of algorithms that run over the bank data, monitoring customers' cash, credit limits and spending. They can identity various life events, such as the receipt of an inheritance or birth of a child. Advisers can then be alerted right away that advice may be needed, triggering a conversation starter. "Financial advice is about getting advisers in front of clients at the right time," said Alex Naylor, head of partnerships at Grow Super, with 15,000 clients after a year in the market The Hayne royal commission has raised questions about the use of generic information, and advisers' tendency to recommend products rather than studying customers' individual circumstances. Basiq founder Damir Cuca said "the biggest advantage of open banking is the ability to treat an individual as an individual". An ability to access live, specific financial information on clients will also change the expectations on advisers, he suggests. "You will have an intimate understanding of customers through the power of data, and will have to act on that" Mr Cuca said. "You can't play dumb if you have more information about a customer. You will have a level of responsibility to act on that "They won't be able to use a blanket approach if they know their clients as an individual. Advice will have to be based on actual hard facts." Continued p16 From page 13 Open banking fuels finance planning rejig Other technology companies are also developing APIs to enhance the delivery of financial advice, including Raiz Invest, which recently listed on the ASX, and ASX-listed Zip through its Pocketbook subsidiary. Open banking is also set to improve the on-boarding process for new advice clients. This remains slow and is often paper-based; the typical planner-client interviews to attain information to generate a statement of advice can take around four hours. But Grow has cut this to minutes, by using Basiq's platform to automatically categorise and then populate the information using the online bank and super data. "The more accurate the information given to us, the better tailored advice we can provide," said Mr Naylor. Customer access to banking data will not only create new efficiencies in financial services. In a speech to CEDA on Wednesday, Digital Transformation Minister Michael Keenan said making it easier to share data across the economy via the new "customer data right" will also help customers in the energy, telecommunications and health sectors. "Improving Australia's use of data represents arguably the single best opportunity we have to substantially enhance national productivity," Mr Keenan said.

70 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: James Eyers Section: Companies and Markets Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 16 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 10,255 Words: 929 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Proposals to kick-start SME growth James Eyers A new private-sector fund has been proposed by the industry ombudsman as part of a package of reforms to kickstart business credit growth after the Hayne inquiry exposed a market failure - banks reluctant to supply patient capital for small businesses to grow. With the Reserve Bank of Australia working on initiatives to improve SME access to capital and the banking royal commission considering bank misconduct towards small businesses and farms after its recent hearings, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) has made eight policy recommendations to improve conditions in a report titled Affordable Capital for SME Growth. The report highlights banks' requirement for SMEs to pledge property security against loans, and their shortterm nature, as restricting growth. To improve the supply of capital, die ombudsman suggests creating two new funds, one ed by the private sector and a second by the federal government, to improve SME access to long-term funding. A Business Growth Fund should be created and operate commercially and independently of the government, offering loans and equity investment for amounts between $250,000 and $5 million, the ASBFEO said. It suggests an initial pool of $1.5 billion be sourced from the Future Fund, superannuation funds and banks, and for its loan and investment decisions to be made by professional managers. A similar fund exists in the UK: the British Growth Fund. It was created in 2011, has a balance sheet of 2.5 billion ($4.46 billion) and has invested 1.4 billion in 220 SMEs, typically taking a 10 to 40 per cent minority equity stake. Canada also established the Canadian Business Growth Fund in "If we want to get SMEs running well, the economy needs to address the market failure. There is a bit of a groundswell developing around this issue in overseas jurisdictions and we are being left behind," said Anne Scott, principal adviser for small business at the ASBFEO. Another recommendation is for the government to create a Capital Enhancement Fund that could provide a new pool of capital for non-major banks to raise "tier two", or hybrid debt. The fund would buy the notes from the banks at a set rate of return, which would be reduced if the bank lifts the amount of new small business lending. The recommendation is based on a similar fund set up by the US government, known as the Small Business Lending Fund. It's a $US30 billion fund that provides capital to community banks. Recipients have increased lending to SMEs by at least 5 per cent since the fund was created in The federal government could also use its financial strength to assist SMEs by creating a guarantee scheme, the ASBFEO suggests. It could be drawn on by commercial banks to provide some of the security for a loan, thereby encouraging banks to lend more to SMEs than they otherwise would be prepared to. The ombudsman suggests the scheme be managed by an independent agency and for member banks to pay an annual subscription fee plus a fee for each security granted. The ASBFEO has also ed the Productivity Commission's call, in its interim report on competition in banking, for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to move away from a "one size fits all" model for assessing the capital levels for banks lending to SMEs when the loan is not secured by a residence. The PC and ASBFEO want APRA to consider letting banks adjust the risk weighting depending on the nature of the alternative security, which could reduce loan costs. It has also called for the Personal Property Security Register to be made easier to use so title for a broader range of security can be registered and used to borrowing. On the demand side, the ASBFEO ed the government's open banking reforms, and said it would improve information for small businesses on financial products. The new policy suggestions come after the banking royal commission uncovered misconduct by banks towards small business customers. Counsel assisting the commission said last month it was open to find each of the major banks, plus Suncorp and Bank of Queensland, either breached the Code of Banking Conduct or ASIC Act due to misleading or unconscionable conduct towards SME customers. Potential failings at the majors include National Australia Bank applying the proceeds of the sale of a customer property to reduce his business debts without proper legal entitlement; Westpac holding proceeds from the sale of a property to rectify its own mistake regarding a security shortfall; CBA overcharging thousands of overdraft customers; and ANZ failing to exercise proper care and diligence when lending to a franchise. The Reserve Bank has been working closely with banks and small business advocates to improve access to capital. Deputy governor Guy Debelle said in a speech last year "it's not the absence of entrepreneurial spirit, it's the absence of entrepreneurial finance that's been the main factor holding that part [small business] of the economy ". The RBA hosted a round table in April where small and medium businesses owners were invited to talk directly to senior bankers, including ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott It was also attended by ASIC, APRA, Treasury, the Australian Banking Association and the Australian Council of Small Business. A key focus for discussion was access to finance for business expansion. Key points Government urged to create a fund to provide capital for non-major banks. It should offer loans and equity investment for $250,000 to $5 million.

71 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: James Eyers Section: Companies and Markets Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 16 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 10,255 Words: 929 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 *** rs Q A ^ j f r" 1 «#.* i-i """ IS :^H*' i 1 f 1 i?l in Bjjjt)" it.. ^^i» / L ' ; " V "'S 1 _ ^ 1 "I SMEs represent more than 99 per cent of all Australian businesses and more than 7 million jobs, PHOTO: LOUISE KENNERLEY

72 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: Alice Uribe Section: Companies and Markets Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 16 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 5,886 Words: 605 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 APRA to investigate life insurers over losses Alice Uribe The prudential regulator is preparing to investigate life insurers after a preliminary review of the sector revealed the "bells and whistles" and cheap pricing associated with loss-making individual income protection insurance is putting the product's long-term viability at risk. "The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will pursue close engagement with a select group of primary individual disability income insurance (DII) writers, and the core activity will be a targeted review of their individual DII portfolios in the second half of 2018," said APRA in an industry update last week. It also warned insurers that it would consider "more significant supervisory responses" such as potential Pillar 2 capital requirements if it believed progress was "inadequate". The spectre of greater scrutiny of the DII market, also known as income protection, was raised last year as regulator concerns intensified that these poor performing retail policies were dragging down the profitability of the entire life insurance industry. In October, The Australian Financial Review reported that APRA had contacted insurers and industry bodies for detailed information which would help it understand why the life insurance industry had lost $1.5 billion over the last four years on retail income protection policies, and whether enough had been done to mitigate this. "Disability income insurance offered to individuals outside of superannuation (individual DII) has been an area of heightened focus over the last 12 months due to its ongoing poor performance and adverse experience," APRA said last week. "Notwithstanding the somewhat improved performance since 2015, APRA remains concerned about the commercial sustainability of this product in its current form." According to APRA statistics for the 12 months to March , individual DII lost more than $700 million, by 2018 this had improved to a $146 million loss, while DO within super made $248 million. Retail life insurers have tended to offset continual losses in disability insurance against their lump sum business (which includes death, trauma and total and permanent disability policies). But for the year ended June 30,2017, the aggregate lump sum business made a $324 million after-tax profit, compared with $914 million for This means the retail life insurance industry made a combined loss of $53 million for the year, and failed for the first time to offset losses on individual disability insurance. Industry experts say increasing prevalence of mental health claims contributed in part to the continued bleed. APRA put its focus on life reinsurance companies in its preliminary review of the sector to determine the factors that may prevent the long-term sustainability of individual DII, and the risks that life insurers will stop offering income protection outside of super. Reinsurers told the regulator that individual DII products were "substantially under-priced relative to the benefits they offered" and questioned the ongoing reliance on better performing life insurance products propping up the also-rans. "Most reinsurers believed that a more sustainable individual DII products should include considerable product simplification, tighter definitions... benefits to promote return to work, and appropriate pricing," APRA said. Interestingly, reinsurers said ratings house preferences for products with additional "bells and whistles" in recommendations to financial advisers working outside of the Big Four was an impediment to product simplification. The chief executive of actuarial firm Rice Warner, Michael Rice, said last year that insurers had been in an "arms race" to release more options to the market "The aim has been to meet as many potential customers' need as possible. However, this has led to product definitions becoming more lenient and proliferation of benefits without the necessary adjustments to product pricing," he said. Adete Ferguson page

73 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: Alice Uribe Section: Companies and Markets Article type : News Item Classification : National Audience : 44,635 Page: 16 Printed Size: cm² Market: National Country: Australia ASR: AUD 5,886 Words: 605 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 The prudential regulator is placing heavier scrutiny on income protection insurance.

74 Townsville Bulletin, Townsville QLD Author: David Libby Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 16,484 Page: 22 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 5,407 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 1 of 3 David & Libby Riding the investment cycle It s a good time to evaluate the bumps in the road THE start of a new financial year and the turning point of the calendar year July is a great time to pause, ponder and review your investments. No matter whether it s shares, property, interest rates or the economy, everything follows a cycle. Nothing goes up forever and every bust is inevitably followed by recovery. The key is understanding where you are in the various cycles so you can ride the uptrends and avoid the downturns. July is a good time to make that assessment. SHARES The past 12 months has been pretty good for share investors with equities outperforming most other investment sectors including property. Average stock prices have risen 8.6 per cent over the period but when you add in dividends the total return is over 13 per cent. A double digit investment return in this era of low inflation and interest rates is impressive and most Australians would have been a beneficiary through their superannuation funds. Although since the start of the calendar year the market has returned just 2 per cent, so most of the gains were in the previous six months. What has been fascinating is that this strong return has not been driven by the big blue-chip end of the market but by middle and small cap stocks. The share prices of the top 100 biggest companies rose only 7.2 per cent and the top 50 by just 6.7 per cent. For example, average share prices of the big telecommunications c dropped almost 35 per bank shares were dow cent and Utilities dow cent. By contrast, the Ordinaries Index rose 21 per cent and the Mi Index was up 10.6 per So, the market has good, but the winners harder to find and mo slower in the past six m While Australia s 8 return is well behind t cent on Wall St, the performance and mom of the American mark significant driver of ou Basically, the health o economy, China, com prices and the US sha are the leading indica need to follow when a whether share prices w continue to trend upw At this stage our economy and China appear solid; good gai in oil, coal, nickel and have more than offset in beef and sugar price is stable); US shares ar because of the Trade w based on Donald Trum twitter comments) bu company profits are st PROPERTY The long-awaited reb of the Australian resid housing market is wel underway, which is se the decade-long boom in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane deflate and even fall. But let s keep it in perspective; OVER the past five years national property prices are up 32.5 per cent. HOUSE prices peaked in September last year and are down 1.3 per cent with a 2.2 per cent rise in property values.

75 Townsville Bulletin, Townsville QLD Author: David Libby Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 16,484 Page: 22 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 5,407 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 2 of 3 tightened their lending criteria and lifted investment loan THE ECONOMY AND INTEREST RATES nomy has owth cycle ld record 27 ve years. It s ble result ries of es. During a buying today), ng he on boom ructure ast another rs. ast to be get surplus ar and net vernment debt will peak at 18.6 er cent of DP this year. obs growth tinuing and erve Bank is indication raising official interest n the next onths more in the pipeline to come through although it looks like s won t on. s seems to be e the worst s, followed elbourne etter. ny expect e to be -15 per cent be realistic never buy u re a buyer, so drive a

76 Townsville Bulletin, Townsville QLD Author: David Libby Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 16,484 Page: 22 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 5,407 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 3 of 3

77 Townsville Bulletin, Townsville QLD Author: Anthony Keane Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 16,484 Page: 23 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 1,111 Words: 429 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Time to take aim and score those money goals ANTHONY KEANE IF your January New Year money resolutions look shaky or have crumbled six months down the track, don t worry. A second chance has arrived with the new financial year, and now is a great time to set money goals and work out how to measure them. People s Choice Credit Union spokesman Stuart Symons said some small changes could often get money plans on track. Sometimes we can be motivated by a challenge, and if your goals were achievable at the start of the year they may still be achievable with some adjustments, he said. Most money success is measured based on the financial year that stretches from July to June, whether superannuation, the sharemarket, tax or company performance. Mr Symons said now was the time to reset. The best time to set financial goals is 20 years ago; the second-best time is today, he said. Author and certified financial planner Patrick Canion said human nature meant that most resolutions, if not ed up by an activity plan, turn into a good intention rather than a change in behaviour. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off and look at where you didn t follow through with the resolution, and what you can do to make sure that doesn t happen again, he said. Mr Canion said those who kept to January resolutions even for just a month or two were probably better off than they would have been if they didn t start at all. He said people should break down their future money goals into small pieces, such as every pay period, write them down and make them automatic with savings transferred from bank accounts the day wages went in. Identify the goal and break it down into things you can control. For example, with super you can say I will salary sacrifice $50 per pay rather than say I want a 20 per cent return on my money because those things are outside your control. Mr Symons also believes in breaking goals down into smaller, achievable ones. You will be helping yourself if you start to put small goals into place today and build towards larger goals, he said. People should check their goals remain realistic, and set new ones if this was not the case, Mr Symons said. Setting realistic goals will help you feel more positive about setting stretch targets in the future. Make sure you have the tools in place to measure your progress. It might be a budgeting app or spreadsheet, or simply a monthly appointment to sit down and track your savings or spending.

78 Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD Author: Tim McIntyre Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 21,468 Page: 18 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 3,455 Words: 430 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 TIM McINTYRE IT WAS a perfect light bulb moment. Mark Dowsett was at a cafe, patting a dog from a neighbouring table when the pooch s owner mentioned they were on their way to dog daycare. You pay someone to hang out with your dog? Mr Dowsett asked. That s what I m doing for the rest of my life. He had been at a professional crossroads, but his epiphany allowed him to turn a passion into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare. My girlfriend and I genuinely love dogs, it just made sense, he said. I had a sales ground but had to market myself. I realised the key point of difference was me. I genuinely love animals. I set up social media, started doorknocking, calling people and doing work experience. I have now bought a dog grooming salon, am looking to open a dog hotel and still have the dog walking where it all stemmed from. But he was unsure about the administrative side of the business. I didn t even know what GST was, he said. He found the Solo & Smart app, which takes care of the admin side. Now everything is calculated (by the app), he said. I take photos of receipts and the app uploads them. At the end of the financial year, everything is itemised. Solo & Smart director Patrick Harrison said technology had made it easier for people to make money from a passion, without a big initial outlay or taking as many risks as in the past. More people are choosing to become self-employed, starting with a side hustle and going from there, he said. The biggest challenges of becoming self-employed were tax compliance, insurance and superannuation, which prompted the app s creation. We provide a platform to automate those systems. We target the self-employed because they have the biggest issues with cashflow, Mr Harrison said. Solo & Smart also offered a pay as you go insurance system where business owners only paid insurance for the portions of the year they worked. But the greater ease for running a business did not mean basic diligence was no longer required, according to Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) chief executive Peter Strong. It is easier which is a good thing but also a danger, he said. The compliance issues are what you ve really got to be on top of. He said budding small business owners should seek advice from people in similar industries and a trusted accountant. Happy tale for self-employed FOR A GOOD PAWS: Mark Dowsett turned his love of animals into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare.

79 Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 21,468 Page: 19 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 5,626 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 1 of 3 It s a good time to evaluate the bumps in the road THE start of a new financial year and the turning point of the calendar year July is a great time to pause, ponder and review your investments. No matter whether it s shares, property, interest rates or the economy, everything follows a cycle. Nothing goes up forever and every bust is inevitably followed by recovery. The key is understanding where you are in the various cycles so you can ride the uptrends and avoid the downturns. July is a good time to make that assessment. SHARES The past 12 months has been pretty good for share investors with equities outperforming most other investment sectors including property. Average stock prices have risen 8.6 per cent over the period but when you add in dividends the total return is over 13 per cent. A double digit investment return in this era of low inflation and interest rates is impressive and most Australians would have been a beneficiary through their superannuation funds. Although since the start of the calendar year the market has returned just 2 per cent, so most of the gains were in the previous six months. What has been fascinating is that this strong return has not been driven by the big blue-chip end of the market but by middle and small cap stocks. The share prices of the top 100 biggest companies rose only 7.2 per cent and the top 50 by just 6.7 per cent. For example, average share prices of the big telecommunications c dropped almost 35 per bank shares were dow cent and Utilities dow cent. By contrast, the Ordinaries Index rose 21 per cent and the Mi Index was up 10.6 per So, the market has good, but the winners harder to find and mo slower in the past six m While Australia s 8 return is well behind t cent on Wall St, the performance and mom of the American mark significant driver of ou Basically, the health o economy, China, com prices and the US sha are the leading indica need to follow when a whether share prices w continue to trend upw At this stage our economy and China appear solid; good gai in oil, coal, nickel and have more than offset in beef and sugar price is stable); US shares ar because of the Trade w based on Donald Trum twitter comments) bu company profits are st PROPERTY The long-awaited reb of the Australian resid housing market is wel underway, which is se the decade-long boom in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane deflate and even fall. But let s keep it in perspective; OVER the past five years national property prices are up 32.5 per cent. HOUSE prices peaked in September last year and are down 1.3 per cent with a 2.2 per cent rise in property values. tightened their lending criteria and lifted investment loan

80 Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 21,468 Page: 19 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 5,626 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 2 of 3 more in the pipeline to come through although it looks like s won t on. s seems to be e the worst s, followed elbourne etter. ny expect e to be -15 per cent be realistic never buy u re a buyer, so drive a THE ECONOMY AND INTEREST RATES nomy has owth cycle ld record 27 ve years. It s ble result ries of es. During a buying today), ng he on boom ructure ast another rs. ast to be get surplus ar and net vernment debt will peak at 18.6 er cent of DP this year. obs growth tinuing and erve Bank is indication raising official interest n the next onths

81 Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 21,468 Page: 19 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 5,626 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 3 of 3

82 Cairns Post, Cairns Author: Anthony Keane Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 13,896 Page: 34 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 637 Words: 325 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 Take aim and score those money goals ANTHONY KEANE IF your January New Year money resolutions look shaky or have crumbled six months down the track, don t worry. A second chance has arrived with the new financial year, and now is a great time to set money goals and work out how to measure them. People s Choice Credit Union spokesman Stuart Symons said some small changes could often get money plans on track. Sometimes we can be motivated by a challenge, and if your goals were achievable at the start of the year they may still be achievable with some adjustments, he said. Most money success is measured based on the financial year that stretches from July to June, whether superannuation, the sharemarket, tax or company performance. Mr Symons said now was the time to reset. The best time to set financial goals is 20 years ago; the second-best time is today, he said. Author and certified financial planner Patrick Canion said human nature meant that most resolutions, if not ed up by an activity plan, turn into a good intention rather than a change in behaviour. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off and look at where you didn t follow through with the resolution, and what you can do to make sure that doesn t happen again, he said. Mr Canion said those who kept to January resolutions even for just a month or two were probably better off than they would have been if they didn t start at all. He said people should break down their future money goals into small pieces, such as every pay period, write them down and make them automatic with savings transferred from bank accounts the day wages went in. Identify the goal and break it down into things you can control. For example, with super you can say I will salary sacrifice $50 per pay rather than say I want a 20 per cent return on my money because those things are outside your control.

83 Cairns Post, Cairns Author: Tim McIntyre Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 13,896 Page: 32 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 2,799 Words: 430 Item ID: Page 1 of 2 Happy tale for self-employed TIM McINTYRE IT WAS a perfect light bulb moment. Mark Dowsett was at a cafe, patting a dog from a neighbouring table when the pooch s owner mentioned they were on their way to dog daycare. You pay someone to hang out with your dog? Mr Dowsett asked. That s what I m doing for the rest of my life. He had been at a professional crossroads, but his epiphany allowed him to turn a passion into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare. My girlfriend and I genuinely love dogs, it just made sense, he said. I had a sales ground but had to market myself. I realised the key point of difference was me. I genuinely love animals. I set up social media, started doorknocking, calling people and doing work experience. I have now bought a dog grooming salon, am looking to open a dog hotel and still have the dog walking where it all stemmed from. But he was unsure about the administrative side of the business. I didn t even know what GST was, he said. He found the Solo & Smart app, which takes care of the admin side. Now everything is calculated (by the app), he said. I take photos of receipts and the app uploads them. At the end of the financial year, everything is itemised. Solo & Smart director Patrick Harrison said technology had made it easier for people to make money from a passion, without a big initial outlay or taking as many risks as in the past. More people are choosing to become self-employed, starting with a side hustle and going from there, he said. The biggest challenges of becoming self-employed were tax compliance, insurance and superannuation, which prompted the app s creation. We provide a platform to automate those systems. We target the self-employed because they have the biggest issues with cashflow, Mr Harrison said. Solo & Smart also offered a pay as you go insurance system where business owners only paid insurance for the portions of the year they worked. But the greater ease for running a business did not mean basic diligence was no longer required, according to Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) chief executive Peter Strong. It is easier which is a good thing but also a danger, he said. The compliance issues are what you ve really got to be on top of. He said budding small business owners should seek advice from people in similar industries and a trusted accountant.

84 Cairns Post, Cairns Author: Tim McIntyre Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 13,896 Page: 32 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 2,799 Words: 430 Item ID: Page 2 of 2 FOR A GOOD PAWS: Mark Dowsett turned his love of animals into a full-time business, Dawgy Walks & Daycare.

85 Cairns Post, Cairns Author: Libby David Koch Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 13,896 Page: 33 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 4,373 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 1 of 3 Q David & Libby Riding the investment cycle It s a good time to evaluate the bumps in the road THE start of a new financial year and the turning point of the calendar year July is a great time to pause, ponder and review your investments. No matter whether it s shares, property, interest rates or the economy, everything follows a cycle. Nothing goes up forever and every bust is inevitably followed by recovery. The key is understanding where you are in the various cycles so you can ride the uptrends and avoid the downturns. July is a good time to make that assessment. SHARES The past 12 months has been pretty good for share investors with equities outperforming most other investment sectors including property. Average stock prices have risen 8.6 per cent over the period but when you add in dividends the total return is over 13 per cent. A double digit investment return in this era of low inflation and interest rates is impressive and most Australians would have been a beneficiary through their superannuation funds. Although since the start of the calendar year the market has returned just 2 per cent, so most of the gains were in the previous six months. What has been fascinating is that this strong return has not been driven by the big blue-chip end of the market but by middle and small cap stocks. The share prices of the top 100 biggest companies rose only 7.2 per cent and the top 50 by just 6.7 per cent. For example, average share prices of the big telecommunications c dropped almost 35 per bank shares were dow cent and Utilities dow cent. By contrast, the Ordinaries Index rose 21 per cent and the Mi Index was up 10.6 per So, the market has good, but the winners harder to find and mo slower in the past six m While Australia s 8 return is well behind t cent on Wall St, the performance and mom of the American mark significant driver of ou Basically, the health o economy, China, com prices and the US sha are the leading indica need to follow when a whether share prices w continue to trend upw At this stage our economy and China appear solid; good gai in oil, coal, nickel and have more than offset in beef and sugar price is stable); US shares ar because of the Trade w based on Donald Trum twitter comments) bu company profits are st PROPERTY The long-awaited reb of the Australian resid housing market is wel underway, which is se the decade-long boom in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane deflate and even fall. But let s keep it in perspective; OVER the past five years national property prices are up 32.5 per cent. HOUSE prices peaked in September last year and are down 1.3 per cent with a 2.2 per cent rise in property values.

86 Cairns Post, Cairns Author: Libby David Koch Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 13,896 Page: 33 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 4,373 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 2 of 3 tightened their lending criteria and lifted investment loan THE ECONOMY AND INTEREST RATES nomy has owth cycle ld record 27 ve years. It s ble result ries of es. During a buying today), ng he on boom ructure ast another rs. ast to be get surplus ar and net vernment debt will peak at 18.6 er cent of DP this year. obs growth tinuing and erve Bank is indication raising official interest n the next onths more in the pipeline to come through although it looks like s won t on. s seems to be e the worst s, followed elbourne etter. ny expect e to be -15 per cent be realistic never buy u re a buyer, so drive a

87 Cairns Post, Cairns Author: Libby David Koch Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 13,896 Page: 33 Printed Size: cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 4,373 Words: 946 Item ID: Page 3 of 3

88 Townsville Bulletin, Townsville QLD Section: General News Article type : News Item Classification : Regional Audience : 16,484 Page: 20 Printed Size: 93.00cm² Market: QLD Country: Australia ASR: AUD 564 Words: 196 Item ID: Page 1 of 1 ATO takes over early super reins FROM the start of this month responsibility for the administration of the early release of superannuation benefits on compassionate grounds was transferred from the Department of Human Services to the Australian Taxation Office. The ATO is responsible for most of an individual s interactions with the superannuation system. This change will enable the ATO to build on these existing relationships and provide a more streamlined service to members. A key improvement under the new process is the ATO providing electronic copies of approval letters to superannuation funds at the same time as to the applicant. This will mitigate fraud risk and negate the need for super funds to independently verify the letter with the regulator. Individuals will also upload accompanying documentation simultaneously with their application, rather than the current two-step process. This transfer of function is one of a range of measures the government is progressing to ensure the rules governing superannuation serve the interests of members. It complements the review under way on the rules governing the early release of superannuation benefits on compassionate grounds and in cases of financial hardship. Treasury will report to the government based on the review findings later this year.