Lack of competition driving decline in Australian living standards, productivity: report

STORY: Lack of competition driving decline in Australian living standards, productivity: report SHOOTING TIME: March 29, 2024 DATELINE: March 30, 2024 LENGTH: 0:01:40 LOCATION: Canberra CATEGORY: SOCIETY SHOTLIST: 1. various of Australian Parliament House 2. various of flights (Virgin, Rex, Qantas) 3. various of Australian Banks (ANZ, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank) 4. various of Australian telecommunications companies (Telstra, Optus, Vodafone) STORYLINE: The living standards of Australians are under threat from a lack of competition in the private sector, a parliamentary inquiry has warned. In a report published on Wednesday, the federal parliament's bipartisan Standing Committee on Economics found that there has been a decline or stagnation in competition in Australia and a rise in market concentration across a range of sectors. It attributed the slowdown in Australia's productivity over the past decade to reduced competition, increased market concentration, slower private investment in new technology and

Australian gov't concerned about major telecommunications outage: acting PM

STORY: Australian gov't concerned about major telecommunications outage: acting PM SHOOTING TIME: Nov. 8, 2023 DATELINE: Nov. 8, 2023 LENGTH: 00:00:41 LOCATION: Canberra CATEGORY: ECONOMY SHOTLIST: 1. various of Optus offline store footage 2. various of street views STORYLINE: The Australian government has expressed concerns over the impact of a major telecommunications outage on critical services. Millions of Australians were on Wednesday morning left without mobile and internet service after Optus, Australia's second-largest telecommunications company with over 10 million customers, was hit by a major outage. The loss of service has caused public transport delays across the country, downed payment systems and cut hospital telephone lines. Speaking at a press conference, acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government was concerned about the outage. "We are first and foremost focused on those immediate emergency services and keeping people safe and we have been very focused on tho