While newspaper print editions are still read by millions, Australians are increasingly turning to the internet, tablets and smartphones for their news fix. Major newspapers such as The Age and Sydney Morning Herald are meeting the challenge head on. 221,000 Australians aged 14+ reported using the Sydney Morning Herald’s app in the last seven days, while 199,000 used The Age’s app.

Australian Defence Force personnel, including former members, are more likely to suffer from mental conditions including panic attacks, anxiety and stress. Male defence force members are almost three times more likely (8%) than the average Australian man aged 14+ (3%) to have panic attacks.

In the 12 months to December 2012, 18% of Australians aged 14+ ate a dairy snack or dessert in an average four-week period (down from 22% in 2008). Consumption of these snacks is higher among women (21%) than men (15%), with both genders sharing a penchant for Dairy Farmers Custard above other brands.

While dog-owners outnumber cat-owners (27.2% of Australians aged 14+, as opposed to 12.1%), the cat-owners recorded a much higher incidence of fussy pets: 52.1% of them agreed with the statement, as opposed to 23.4% of dog-owners. The popular image of cats having servants rather than owners has been supported by our recent findings.

Australia’s leading research organisation, Roy Morgan Research has collaborated with world-leading healthcare company, Alere, to establish the Alere Wellness Index, a comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date reflection of the nation’s health. The Index will inform the decisions of Healthcare Planners, Commonwealth and State Health Promotion Agencies, Medicare Locals as well as Healthcare Industry stakeholders and Community organisations.

The customers of the major financial institutions show very little loyalty when it comes to where they hold their deposits, with barely half (average 53%) of their deposit dollars being held with any one institution. For the 12 months to February 2013, the Commonwealth Bank has had the highest share of their customers’ deposit wallet with 60%.

The top 20% of bank customers have 65% of the industry's total value, but this quintile is the least satisfied with a 73.5% satisfaction rating, compared to the total average of 78.9%. All of the major banks achieve their highest satisfaction levels among their lowest value customers (Quintile 1) and their lowest satisfaction at the top end (i.e. Quintiles 4 and 5).

The satisfaction of the Big Four banks’ business customers in March 2013 was only 64.0%, down from 64.9% 12 months ago. Westpac remains the clear leader among the Big Four with 67.9% satisfaction, followed by NAB (63.9%), CBA (63.7%) and ANZ (60.4%).

The traditional business model of insurance brokers, built upon personal relationships appears to be in decline. In industries that are more likely to use online channels to purchase insurance products such as Construction and Professional Services, the use of brokers has been in steady decline. 

While Construction businesses are as concerned about the overall state of the economy as other businesses, they also report other significant pressures, particularly the cost of raw materials. 36% of Construction businesses say cost of raw materials impacted their performance compared to just 24% of businesses overall.

Australian businesses in the Accommodation, Cafes & Restaurants sectors have recorded better performance than Australian businesses on average over the past 12 months. The Accommodation and Food Services segment has a level of confidence of 124.4 marginally above the total business average of 123.0 and well ahead of a number of other key industries.

Total usage of Debit Ccards is growing much faster and looking set to overtake Credit Cards. In the latest 12 months to February 2013, Australians 18+ report some 109 million debit card transactions in an average month, compared to 117 million transactions for credit cards. For debit cards, this is an almost threefold increase from February 2009.

Last weekend’s multi-mode Morgan Poll shows support for the L-NP down to 54.5% (down 1%) compared to the ALP 45.5% (up 1%) on a two-party preferred basis. The improvement for the Government comes after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a $14.5 billion increase in education funding over six years in response to the Gonski Review into school funding.

With the Prime Minister Julia Gillard pitching the Government’s new $14.5billion education funding model, school funding looks set to be a core component of Labor’s re-election campaign. However, when asked to nominate up to three issues of importance to them, only one in seven electors nationally (14%) selected improving education in the two years to December 2012.

Defence and national security ranks second-to-last as a concern for electors, with just 5.5% citing it as an important issue. The only issue that is less important nationally is the ‘needs of people outside cities’ with 3.5% support. Many electorates that contain or are near army, navy or air force barracks and bases unsurprisingly rank above the national average.

Consumer Confidence has risen to 123.8pts (up 2pts) and is now 11.4pts higher than at the same time a year ago. The rise has been driven by increasing confidence about Australia’s economic conditions over the next 12 months.