SMEs to gain faster access to the NBN; The $1 million retirement ‘myth’ busted: Midday Roundup

NBN Co is looking to boost its construction workforce by 4500 people in a bid to roll out high speed broadband to small businesses across Australia faster.

“To bring high-speed broadband to Australians faster, our delivery partners will need a bigger pool of trained, skilled workers,” NBN chief executive Bill Morrow said.

The chief executive of Internet Australia has welcomed the announcement, saying that without the NBN Australia will not be able to create the jobs of the future.

“Internet Australia commends NBN’s decision to engage retired telco workers and to create an expanded workforce to help fast track the construction of the National Broadband Network,” Patton said.

“Australia needs ubiquitous, fast broadband if we are to develop a digitally enabled future based around the internet and the opportunities it provides to support innovation.”

Report busts ‘myth’ about $1 million retirement 

Claims that Australians need more than $1 million to retire on are a myth, according to a report by the Australian Institute of Super Trustees release today.

The paper, entitled ‘Busting the $1 million retirement myth’, outlines how superannuation and the age pension can play a joint role in boosting overall retirement income.

According to the paper, a super retirement balance of $150,000 would deliver the equivalent of a 38% increase on the age pension

AIST chief executive Tom Garcia said claims about needing $1 million to retire on were causing unnecessary fear among many older Australians, who needed to understand that superannuation “did not exist in a vacuum”.

“The reality is that most Australians – including most of those starting out in the workforce today –will not retire with the equivalent of $ 1 million in super,” he said.

“We need to stop focusing on the needs of a privileged few and start talking about how relatively small balances of super can still make a big difference to the quality of life in retirement.”

Shares down in early trade

Aussie shares are in the red this morning off the back of international markets and struggling commodity stocks.

Tristan K’Nell, head of trading at Quay Equities, said the local sharemarket would be subdued today thanks to poor data from China and falling commodities heading into lunch.

“The Australian share market is beginning the week in the red with the market taking a conservative approach ahead of a huge week of events both locally and overseas,” K’Nell said.

“The market had opened flat before struggling to make any inroads with a host of macroeconomic events of the week combining with poor data from China and continued falls in commodity markets to see the market losing ground heading into lunch.”

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 0.46%, falling 26.1 points to 5673.1 points at 11.32am AEST. On Saturday, the Dow Jones closed down 0.32%, falling 56.12 points to 17,689.86.