Rolling Stone magazine NFTs its cover: What you've missed

Australians are working more overtime, and Rolling Stone mints an NFT.

Here are five things you might've missed this week.

Investors throw support behind climate change fight

Investors are joining the climate change fight, as Australian Ethical's funds under management increased 50% over the past year to $6.07 billion as of June 30, 2021, up from $4.05 billion a year earlier.

The fund puts the inflows down to increasing participation in the fight against climate change.

"Australians are sick of a government that refuses to acknowledge the very real danger we are all facing when it comes to climate change," says John McMurdo, CEO and MD of Australian Ethical.

"The 'sticking our heads in the sand and doing nothing' approach is simply unacceptable when we know Australia is going to be hit harder than many other countries by economic losses resulting from increasing climate impacts, such as bushfires."

Recent research by Australian Ethical found that 'climate change' and 'the environment' were the number one drivers of investment decisions by individuals considering ESG factors.

"But, not only that, the research also revealed that it was your average Australian leading the charge by instructing their financial advisers to invest in climate-friendly options, not the other way around."

The Lowy Institute's Climate Poll 2021 showed 70% of Australians think Australia should "increase its commitments to address climate change", while 74% believe "the benefits of taking further action on climate change will outweigh the costs".

Rolling Stone magazine NFTs its cover

Brag Media will release the first-ever non-fungible token (NFT) of the Rolling Stone Australia cover.

The cover features local solo artist Tones and I.

NFTs are digital assets that confer authenticity and ownership of something digital, in this case the front cover of a magazine.

The run will be limited to 350 NFT collectable bundles, priced at $250, which include the NFT, a physical copy of Rolling Stone Australia signed and numbered by Tones And I, and a cassette of her debut album.

"We know that being featured on the cover of Rolling Stone is a monumental moment for artists, and it was no different for Tones And I who was picked by Brag Media's managing editor, Poppy Reid, to feature on the cover of our first issue last May," says Brag Media CEO, Luke Girgis.

"By minting an exclusive NFT of this cover to celebrate the issue and create a one-of-a-kind collectable for the NFT community, we also have an opportunity to - hopefully - help Tones And I achieve the first-ever #1 ARIA album sold as a NFT on our new store."

Going into overtime

More Aussies are working overtime without being paid for it.

According to the latest Hays Salary Guide, overtime increased in 33% of organisations in Australia over the past 12 months, while just 13% managed to decrease overtime in the same period.

Of those organisations that increased overtime, a fifth kept the average weekly additional hours to less than 5%, 38% increased overtime by between 5% and 10%, 33% increased it by 10 to 20%, and 9% saw overtime rise by more than 21%.

Concerningly, but 59% of non-award staff went unpaid for those extra hours.

"Last year, tight budgets forced employers to try to achieve more with less as they navigated their way through the crisis and back to growth," says Nick Deligiannis, managing director of Hays in Australia and New Zealand.

"According to employers, the number one impact will be increasing workloads for existing staff (nominated by 62% of employers). This is a dangerous indicator for employers, who risk their employees' engagement, retention, and physical and mental health when overtime becomes excessive."

Savings drop in June quarter

After building up their war chests in 2020, Australians are turning away from saving, with average monthly cash savings declining through the June quarter.

Savings peaked at $953 in February, and hovered around $800 before hitting $703 in June, its lowest level since March 2020.

Finder's head of consumer research Graham Cooke attributes the drop in saving to increased consumer confidence following last year's recession.

"It's also possible the housing market boom has led more Australians to take on mortgages, leaving less money available for savings.

"However, this is a slightly disappointing result - I would have liked to see the increasing savings trend stick."

$35 million to be repaid to OnePath Life customers

More than 40,000 OnePath Life customers will be remediated up to $35 million dollars after ASIC found that the insurance company had hooked them using nefarious phone sales tactics.

Those include pressure selling tactics (such as promoting a deferral of the first premium payment, and using the cooling off period as an inducement to buy the product), failing to provide information about key policy exclusions, and leading the consumer to believe that the salesperson was calling from ANZ Bank with a special customer offer.

At this time, OnePath Life was owned by ANZ but operating independently.

OnePath Life is in the process of reviewing the phone sales and offering incomes, but many of those affected have had their money refunded.

"It's really disappointing that despite OnePath offering refunds to around 26,000 consumers, less than one in two consumers have banked their cheque or arranged with OnePath for their refund to be paid into their bank account," says ASIC deputy chair Karen Chester.

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