Morning Briefing: ASIC to throw support behind whistleblower research

The securities regulator is set to back the world's largest research project into corporate whistleblowing... Is Melbourne's real estate market set to follow Perth's?...

ASIC to throw support behind whistleblower research  
The securities regulator is set to back the world's largest research project into corporate whistleblowing, according to the Australian Financial Review 

As part of a national project to make it easier for whistleblowers in the private sector to reveal illegal or unethical behaviour, The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has announced it will send letters to 30,000 companies next week with the invitation to be part of a research project. 

The project will consist of two surveys of the country's largest employers to find out more about attitudes to whistleblowing and what employees think about it. 

AJ Brown from Griffith University will lead the project and expects this survey to reveal a large gap between what managers think about the protections in place for whistleblowers and what employees think about what happens to those who speak up

Is Melbourne's real estate market set to follow Perth's?
It’s easily been one of Australia’s top-two real estate markets in recent years, but economic issues and oversupply are set to bring Melbourne’s run to a screeching halt in the near future according to on property analytics firm.

While it may seem like an extreme comparison, analysts Propertyology believe market conditions in Melbourne now closely resemble those seen in Perth before the bottom dropped out of prices in 2014

“We’re not saying Perth now and Melbourne now are the same. What we’re saying is that signs that we saw in Perth say two years ago, we’re seeing something similar in Melbourne today,” Propertyology market analyst Simon Pressley said.

“The comparison is Melbourne’s manufacturing sector, we’re drawing a comparison with that to WA’s iron ore sector and both [cities] have a lot more supply of housing than demand requires. That’s where we see the similarity,” Pressley said.

Those concerns will likely result in price falls during 2017-18, though Pressley wouldn’t nominate a by how much.

 

Broker Tip of the Day

“We put a lot of effort into training,” Cui says. “Brokers are required to get 30 CPD points per year, but our internal policy insists on at least 50 points.”  
Eric Cui, Alliance Mortgage Solutions, Top 10 Independent Brokerages 2015