1. Scomo threatens to intervene on wharfie dispute
The month-long dispute between the Maritime Union of Australia and Patrick Terminals has gone too far according to the Australian Prime Minister, citing the economic damage of not having fully operational, efficient ports while the country is in recovery. Mr Morrison also sees it as an opportunity to announce longer term intentions for sweeping legislation that would break up the power of the MUA. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg ordered an inquiry from the Productivity Commission as to the “broader issues” that have hamstrung the efficiencies of Australia’s ports. “The inquiry would include an examination of recent criticisms by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission of the poor performance of Australia’s ports, exacerbated by MUA’s enterprise bargaining deals,” the AFR reports.

2. Not out of the Omicron woods yet
Doctors are cautioning against simply brushing off the new coronavirus strain a mild illness. The hesitancy towards making such a broad claim is that Omicron has not yet reached a broad range of the global population, and thus we have not seen how various environments and immune systems will react to its properties. Typical symptoms that have been reported so far include fatigue, coughs, head and body aches, and occasional sore throats. “The WHO has warned of the potential for Covid surges with ‘severe consequences’ fueled by omicron, whose constellation of genetic changes suggest it may be both more transmissible and capable of evading the immunity provided by vaccination or a prior infection,” Bloomberg reports.

3. Allegiance in the Senate to demand better transparency from Coalition
In what is not a very common occurrence to see the Labor Party, One Nation and independent senator Rex Patrick bandy together with such fervour, the parties have unanimously targeted the Coalition “for insisting that national cabinet documents remain secret under FOI laws, despite the government losing a case brought by Patrick in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on that very point in relation to a previous FOI application,” The Guardian reports. Senator Patrick went on the offensive yesterday, directly naming Coalition officials who rejected his request for the documents under the guise of “disputed exemption”. Patrick reduced the disregard for FOI laws to “bureaucrats ignoring justice Richard White’s decision in the Administrative Tribunal”. What’s more, “The Morrison government insists national cabinet is a subcommittee of the federal cabinet, despite justice White finding in the AAT in August that the evidence before him in a dispute over a previous application by Patrick did not support that view”.

4. AMP targets fintech in new growth strategy
AMP CEO Alexis George, appointed in April this year, is on the hunt for fintech companies to help grow the business and cut costs as part of its new and improved growth strategy focused on domestic banking, financial advice and retirement solutions. Ms George has pledged to turn around AMP’s loss-making financial advice business by 2024, on top of additional cost reductions of $115 million within three years. Her reasoning for pursuing fintechs is simple: “Of course, in this new world, we have to understand we can’t build everything ourselves. We don’t have the capacity, we don’t have the capability,” Ms George said. “And in my mind, learning to partner better with fintechs, traditional suppliers, and other players in the market, will become a skill that we have to hone, a very important skill.”

5. ASX futures down as Wall St dips on bond tapering
ASX futures were down 46 points or 0.6% to 7185 near 7am AEDT with the AUD dropping 0.3% to 71.25 US cents. The ASX is set to follow a broad sell-off in New York with falls in oil, gold and iron ore as investors braced for a more aggressive taper by the Fed. On Wall St near: Dow Jones -1.8%, S&P 500 -1.7%, Nasdaq -1.5%. The Bloomberg dollar spot index slipped 0.3%.