Australian dollar decline holds best hope for economy to escape trade war fallout
Australia May Well Be the World’s Most Secretive Democracy
PM By business reporter David Taylor
Updated about 7 hours ago
Photo: The Australian dollar is trading very close to ten-year lows, well below 70 US cents. (Giulio Saggin, file photo: ABC News)
Market watchers are growing increasingly worried about the escalating trade war between the United States and China.
Key points:
* The Australian dollar has been within 10 basis points of its decade low of 67.41 US cents, set in a flash crash on January 3 this year
* A 20 per cent slump in iron ore prices has contributed to the Aussie dollar's slide
* Economists say the lower dollar should provide a boost to export earnings, especially in industries like tourism and education
US President Donald Trump vowed last week to impose 10 per cent tariffs on the remaining $US300 billion ($441 billion) of Chinese imports that are not currently subject to tariffs from the September 1.
China has since retaliated by devaluing the yuan to its lowest level in more than a decade.
Financial markets have not taken the news well, sending share markets across the globe sharply lower and pushing the price of an Australian 10-year bond — considered a safe haven asset — to a record high.
As a result, the yield (or percentage return) on the 10-year bond has fallen to a record low.
[...]
Australia's trade surplus rose 30 per cent in the three months to June, meaning more money is coming into the economy than going out.
American tourist Mary Schrader is in Uluru with her family enjoying some of the best experiences Australia has to offer.
Photo: Mary Schrader is visiting Australia from the US and says the lower Aussie dollar means she can spend more. (Supplied: Mary Shrader)
"Oh my gosh, it's just so beautiful, and the people are lovely, and it's just gorgeous," she said.
"It's cultural, it's spiritual, there's nature, there's so much to do, and there are many active adventures.
"It's kind of a little bit of everything we love."
Ms Schrader has already climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
She told PM she would spend even more in Australia if the US dollar continued to rise against the Australian dollar.
Any benefit Australia gets out of Trump's trade war has me feeling a bit guilty, yet it's good if it brings more of you down (or up, if you can envisage that) here.
'I am unable to say much': anger simmers as Timor bugging hearing goes ahead in secret
"Australia May Well Be the World’s Most Secretive Democracy "Australia’s Media Raids and the Decline of Press Freedom Worldwide "Media bosses unite to demand law changes after police raids on ABC, News Corp journalists" " "
High-powered witnesses have testified in the prosecution of Witness K’s lawyer, Bernard Collaery, but what they said may never be known
Supported by Susan McKinnon Foundation
Christopher Knaus @knausc
Sat 30 May 2020 06.00 AEST Last modified on Sat 30 May 2020 06.01 AEST
Lawyer Bernard Collaery addresses the media outside the supreme court in Canberra in August. Collaery is accused of sharing protected intelligence information by helping his client, the former spy Witness K, expose Australia’s bugging of Timor-Leste government offices in 2004 Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
On Wednesday, in Canberra’s labyrinthine new court complex, a procession of remarkable power made its way past the guards stationed outside Bernard Collaery’s hearing.
Intelligence leaders, diplomats and former ministers lingered briefly in the waiting area of the oddly quiet ACT supreme court, before entering a room where journalists could not follow.
What was said may never be known.
" I think Collaery must be seen as somebody who’s done something quite heroic Anthony Whealy
The barrister cannot speak about the case. But he remains unbowed.
“Our profession will not be cowed into ignoring those with a genuine grievance,” Collaery told the Guardian. “My colleagues and I shall continue to represent those who expose impropriety even at a cost to our own selves.”
Anthony Whealy, a former judge who has presided over NSW’s highest courts, has followed the case closely through its various twists and turns.
“I think Collaery must be seen as somebody who’s done something quite heroic in the public interest, rather than someone who has committed an offence and is facing trial and a possible jail sentence,” he said. “That in itself places Australia in a position where its reputation would be very poorly received internationally.”
A lawyer on trial, national security and secret hearings
The hearing is designed, largely, to work out what evidence can be heard publicly. Reporters were, initially at least, asked to hand over their mobile phones before entering.
Then, after a short explanation, they were booted out of the courtroom.
As they left, Collaery handed them a statement.
“I am unable to say much and you are unable to report much. This is the state of our now fragile democracy,” it read.
Justice David Mossop, a well-respected judge sworn in three years ago, has spent the time since hearing evidence in closed court.
He has little choice.
The commonwealth has intervened in the matter by invoking powers in the National Security Information Act, which strictly govern how sensitive information is handled by the courts.
Those powers have caused controversy in a string of cases in recent years.
The powers are designed to stop sensitive information finding its way into the wrong hands. The identities of intelligence officers, for example, or information about military tactics and capabilities.
There is little dispute that such material must be guarded closely, absent compelling public interest otherwise.
But critics say the NSI Act is not striking the right balance between principles of open justice, press freedom, and national security.
The powers are being closely monitored by the Law Council of Australia, among others.
Whealy dealt with issues of national security often when on the bench.
He says that, although the powers tip the scales towards national security, care is typically taken by courts to preserve a defendant’s right to a fair trial.
But the commonwealth’s approach in the Collaery case made it more complicated, he said.
“In the Collaery case, the commonwealth has adopted a neither-confirm-nor-deny approach,” he said. “This means that for the purpose of arguing about national security they will neither confirm or deny the bugging has taken place, even though at the same time they are alleging that Collaery wrongly communicated information about the bugging.”
"Even though the commonwealth won’t admit it, it could hardly damage our international standing Anthony Whealy
“This poses a difficult question for the defendant at the trial.”
The chief executive of Transparency International Australia, Serena Lillywhite, says the NSI Act is one element of what she sees as an “ever-increasing state of secrecy”.
“While there needs to be a balance between the government’s duty to protect Australians and the government’s duty to be held to account by its people, I, like many Australians, am increasingly concerned that this balance is out of kilter,” she told the Guardian.
The Law Council says the NSI Act needs reform to ensure that open justice, fundamental to a democratic society, is only limited in rare circumstances.
The council’s president, Pauline Wright, said “careful scrutiny” was needed to ensure the powers maintained the right balance. Advertisement
That includes reforms requiring judges to give reasons when they close the courts in such matters, and the appointment of “contradictors”, or special advocates, who speak on behalf of any party forced to leave a courtroom before confidential material is canvassed.
“To maintain confidence in the administration of justice, trials must not only be conducted fairly, they must be seen to be conducted fairly,” she said.
More generally, Wright is also concerned about any intervention by the commonwealth that would interfere in a lawyer’s representation of a client.
“Having a robust and independent legal profession is fundamental to the proper administration of justice,” she said.
“To maintain separation of powers there should never be, or be the perception of, executive interference in the role of lawyers representing their clients and their clients’ interests.”
The bugging, a long memory and the prosecution
Protesters braved Canberra’s late autumn cold for Collaery’s arrival outside the gleaming new ACT court complex on Monday.
Protestors outside the ACT law courts in support of Bernard Collaery in August 2019. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
They’ve been there for many of the major milestones of this case, brandishing signs saying “defend whistleblowers”, “no secret trials”, and “spying is the crime”.
The anger over Collaery’s treatment still simmers, despite the long road to this point.
Collaery stands accused of unlawfully disclosing secret intelligence information and conspiring with Witness K, his client and a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer, in doing so.
Witness K was among a number of intelligence officers involved in a mission to bug the government buildings of Timor-Leste during oil and gas treaty negotiations in 2004.
The listening devices gave Australians the upper hand. They could get access to bargaining positions, tactics, and the competing positions of various ministers and officials.
Witness K became deeply uncomfortable about the operation, conducted at a time when Australian intelligence resources were needed to counter terrorist threats following the Bali bombings.
He approached the intelligence watchdog and was given approval to talk to a lawyer, Collaery.
Collaery later helped mount a case on Timor-Leste’s behalf in the international courts.
- Do you know more? If you want to send us information via email or encrypted messaging you can find contact details here. Or, you can find details about our anonymous SecureDrop service here. Before making contact, read this guide if you need to protect your identity. [LINKS inside] -
The scandal was revealed publicly, causing significant embarrassment to the Australian government.
It responded by raiding Collaery’s home office in Canberra, and seizing Witness K’s passport, in effect preventing him from going to the Hague to give evidence.
In 2018, after Timor-Leste dropped its case against Australia in the international courts, criminal proceedings against Collaery and Witness K began.
Whealy says the fact of Australia’s bugging of Timor-Leste is now well known.
“You could honestly say that horse has bolted now, it’s been known for a long while that this happened,” he said. “Even though the commonwealth won’t admit it, it could hardly damage our international standing,” he said.
“I’ve long argued that Australia should acknowledge and apologise that this happened.
“That would enhance our reputation, I believe, not harm it.”
The Racket (swindler din and den) of the Religious Cry .. Christian News Today .. Ephesians 5: 11 & Mark 4: 22 (first bit mine) P - An Overview of Religious Financial Fraud .. Balance Sheet for Global Christianity P - David Barrett, editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia, and a team of statisticians have been studying religious financial fraud for more than 20 years. Barrett and his team estimate that $27 billion will be stolen by Christian religious leaders in 2009. Another sober fact: more money is stolen each year by Christian religious leaders than is spent on world missions. This crime wave is projected to grow to $65 billion in fraud annually by 2025. These ecclesiastical crime statistics are published annually in the January issue of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research. [link added] Todd Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and one of Barrett's colleagues, says that these figures were the result of Barrett "developing a balance sheet for global Christianity." Barrett was "trying to understand the totality of Christian finance. P - A Global Problem .. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=58513524
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
