Australia - you're standing in it
BTW….I do agree with you on tax write offs but I know that if you added together the tax deductions of every tradie in Australian history you’d still not break the top 100,000 cases of rorting tax deductions sitting on the ATO desk right now.
I actually agree with everything blowin (or dsds) has said, ...and to a certain extent, australia has become what I believe to be ideal - where a tradesman can earn as much as a pen pushing professional... kind of...
however, I do question how sustainable our situation has become... (not very...)
and more importantly, i think the top end - be it the capital city top end tradesman, or the high level mid management / professional type positions - have become totally detached from the harsh reality of award wage / minimum wage type positions... this disparity from the top to the bottom has become so wide... hugely, disproportionately so...
this has been well reported, where just a few decades ago, the CEO of a company might earn say 3 -5 times what an average employees gets, but now its more like 10 - 20 times... even more...
and, politicians wages have seen a similar proportionate increase... I wish I had the link, but I remember reading that apparently politicians wages are somehow pegged to high management / professional positions - so, when they see a 10 or 20% increase, as we've seen over the last few decades - politicians enjoy the same...
meanwhile, low income earners are scratching for a 3% increase, and have been doing so through the same period, where top end positions have enjoyed huge wages growth - decades of this conpounding disparity basically...
and another interesting 'development' through this period, is the casualisation / increase in insecure work. where once again the bottom end, not only gets scraps, but has seen 'benefits' and security stripped away... an interesting example of this was through the recent minimum wages debate, where public service unions and workers fired up about their measely pay increases offered in comparison to others - and rightfully so.... however, the public service brings with it all sorts of benefits low income earners and casual workers in the private sector can only dream of...
my main point is how the top ends have become totally detached from the bottom, both in terms of renumeration and security / benefits
and, i know from my own experiences, and friends who have done quite well, that the higher up the chain you go, the less you seem to need to pay for...
be it corporate lunches, travel benefts, paid trainings, tax write offs, fifo accomodations beyond accomodation, or even right down to uniforms and neccesary certificates as basic as first aid etc... where the poor agency plebs at the bottom are paying for it all out of their own pockets... the disparities are huge!
hugely so, well beyond anything resembling 'fair'!!
The housing market bit in the heading gets sidelined - but if you've ever wondered how Australia's energy market got to the current situation, it's a very good recap.
Hmmmmmmm
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=the+victorian+government+bans+game+sh...
I hear they have a personal vendetta against the bees. That ain’t good
Just out of interest re: the tradies, one smart comment I read recently suggested the historic 3:1 house-price-to-earnings might reflect how long it would take a single worker to build one (assume carpenter or stonemason type skillset).
Bank Volt collapses:
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/banking/australian-bank-volt-co...
"It said it had adequate funds to return customer’s money and to ease the transition of money to a different bank account quickly Volt had increased the daily transfer limits to $250,000, it told customers."
foot & mouth special
what is it?
https://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/pests-diseases-weeds/an...
Hmm 100 years without it, a very good effort
Now some sensationalism
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-14/foot-and-mouth-bali-tourism-fligh...
https://www.9news.com.au/national/foot-and-mouth-disease-in-bali-risks-1...
A big nothing-burger? Or a real problem?
The Ms, a farmer's daughter, alerted me to this one. It would appear Australia has in place strong biosecurity measures... but... the needs of the agricultural industry are now pitted against the entitlement of gimmedat and the tourism industry. If corona is anything to go by, expect freedom rallies and business bodies to determine that tourism gets it's way, then the biosecurity measures to get hosed down by changes in legislation to allow whatever is popular in and to continue.
Will foot and mouth get here and spread widely? A staggering failure if it does so, decimating billions of dollars and an industry, but we live in an age of staggering failures.
"To be crystal clear, Australian policy makers did not see high gas prices as a problem to be avoided. This was the plan all along."
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2022/july/richard-denniss/gaslightin...
velocityjohnno wrote:"To be crystal clear, Australian policy makers did not see high gas prices as a problem to be avoided. This was the plan all along."
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2022/july/richard-denniss/gaslightin...
Excellent article.
Now let’s go further and substitute skilled worker shortages for gas shortages in the above article. The result being lower wages bills for business. That’s why when good ol’ “Son of a struggling working class mum and man of the proletariat” Albo tells us we are now part of a “global labour pool” you realise that, like the price of gas going up competing on a global level, the price of Australian labour is destined for third world levels.
Then we should substitute vaccines for gas. The government lies to the public and puts the Australian public through the ringer just to guarantee the billion dollar profits of the energy companies. You really think the vaccine mandates for healthy young people aren’t the exact same style of behaviour?
“Don’t trust governments” says the turd with his snout in the trough that earned $550k a year as the PM- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-19/scott-morrison-says-put-faith-in-...
Those pizzas aren't going to deliver themselves.
I'm surprised everyday Aussies aren't up in arms about how access to their own energy got made expensive, or not happening. But, they're not. And I did link up in 'interesting stuff' a critique of the UK Labour party being very much not a party for the workers. At least over there the public wised up to it, and the red wall fell.
Wondering out loud, did the corporatism begin with the BOE (1694 I think) and the Enclosure Acts, where land became titled, the titles able to be used as financial instruments (eg secure a loan, be onsold, etc)? If so, the world that exists today - and has benefited many of us, and is almost impossible to live in without being part of - begins with a colossal theft from the people so today's goings-on are at least consistent with history.
velocityjohnno wrote:Wondering out loud, did the corporatism begin with the BOE (1694 I think) and the Enclosure Acts,
Ha ha...you and your history degree. Most people looking for clues stretch themselves to land in the 1970s, but you've reached beyond that by three centuries.
velocityjohnno wrote:Those pizzas aren't going to deliver themselves.
I'm surprised everyday Aussies aren't up in arms about how access to their own energy got made expensive, or not happening. But, they're not.
from the monthly article...
"It’s easier for some people to tell themselves today that politicians are hopeless and can’t plan ahead than admit that, like the gas industry, Australia’s political leaders, state and federal, Labor and Liberal, knew exactly what would happen when they let the gas industry build enormous export facilities. They knew the gas industry wasn’t spending tens of billions of dollars to make gas cheaper for Australians, and they knew that all of the fracking and the environmental harms weren’t going to drive down the price of gas for Australians. They knew it would all be exported for enormous profit, and that customers would pay a heavy price"
pretty much nails it.
stunet wrote:velocityjohnno wrote:Wondering out loud, did the corporatism begin with the BOE (1694 I think) and the Enclosure Acts,
Ha ha...you and your history degree. Most people looking for clues stretch themselves to land in the 1970s, but you've reached beyond that by three centuries.
Hehe. I've once read it described as a reverse-takeover by William of Orange, of England - those taken over also got the Dutch innovations (remember the mighty V.O.C.) of a working stock market...
tbh I'd like to know more of this time: did the people become free after feudalism, after the Parliamentary wars, the Bill of Rights 1689 - did a corporatism arise in this environment? Edit: throw in the Union of 1707 I think, the massive sheep farm concerns... I've been going back through Flannery's "Future Eaters" and the horrific warfare and cannibalism that European explorers found in New Zealand around this time, in part because they 'ate their future' - the Moa and other non-renewable food staples - and did not have the animals of a temperate economy eg pig, chicken, sheep.
But yeah most don't go back beyond the 1970s when looking for the root of modern problems, who can blame them, Disco is shocking.
Just go back to capitalism... ripping off yr bro's for profit... everything else stems from that. The love of money/root of all evil... I know a few local moneylovers that will happily screw u with no qualms.
Majority rules don't work in mental institutions. The smartest people in Australia get the same amounts of votes as some psycho inbred.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/foot-and-mouth-disease-detected-...
"Pork products that were for sale in the Melbourne CBD were also found during routine inspections to contain viral fragments of both foot and mouth disease and African swine fever – another livestock disease that has not previously circulated among animals in Australia."
Ew.
one comment, might be from one of you lot, sounds like a barrel of fun:
"I was in the UK when F&M swept through. It was awful. Millions of animals perished (by culling, burning in huge pyres), no one could access wild places (all parks shut), and farmers' lives were destroyed. So, extreme measures are now required to stop it entering Australia before it can take hold. As other commentators have posted, if it gets into the feral animal population, controlling it will be nigh on impossible. Maybe we should have a hiatus on travel to certain areas of Indonesia, ban all imports of meat from China and Indonesia, and make the punishment for evading customs with undeclared meat products a tremendous fine.....or worse. The government cannot afford to be asleep at the wheel on this, if it gets in it will be a catastrophe."
If only Barnaby was this excited about climate change and land clearing which is also a threat to Aussie farms. The farmers federation and the cattle council are both calling for vigilance but not closed borders. Not the Nationals, , they as well as Rebekah Sharkie (SA Mayo) call for border closures with Indo. That’d suck ……….
News we didn't really ask for at all...sorry 'bout that! Please try to be outraged!
Mollydookers refuse to sue the Govt over bastardized Right Handed Medicare Forms!
Amputees object to Medicare Form objectifying their disability. (Not Funny Guys!)
Birthing Parents plan to remove their Mother from Medicare Forms!
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/bill-shorten-intervenes-to-replace-b...
lightheartedly, I just found the ideal job for blowin:
Deputy Director Migration and Labour Markets at the Grattan Institute:
Ever wanted to work at @GrattanInst? We're currently recruiting for a new Deputy Program Director or Senior Associate to work on migration and labour markets!
— Brendan Coates (@BrendanCoates) July 13, 2022
Applications close midnight Sunday 24 July: https://t.co/dUJhCXx6Hj
A short thread on what you'd be doing. /1
"Reporting to the Economic Policy Program Director, the Deputy Program Director (Migration and Labour Markets) leads Grattan’s work program on migration policy, bringing an economic lens to how Australia’s migration program can best maximise the wellbeing of the Australian community."
gsco wrote:lightheartedly, I just found the ideal job for blowin:
Deputy Director Migration and Labour Markets at the Grattan Institute:
https://twitter.com/BrendanCoates/status/1547365288341311488
"Reporting to the Economic Policy Program Director, the Deputy Program Director (Migration and Labour Markets) leads Grattan’s work program on migration policy, bringing an economic lens to how Australia’s migration program can best maximise the wellbeing of the Australian community."
Hmmm…. I suspect the Grattan institute would find unappealing any evidence or opinions which contradicts their pre planned outcomes..
"Millions of Australian households have been warned to brace for savage hikes to their power bills after prices in the country's biggest electricity market rocketed to their highest levels on record. "
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-29/aemo-reports-record-wholesale-pow...
"Bruce Mountain, Victoria Energy Policy Centre (VEPC) director at Victoria University, said households and businesses had only just begun to feel the effects of spiralling wholesale costs, and much worse was coming."
(That man has to have the strongest, most Australian name in the country. Respect.)
good article.
looking forward to read the book. Murray's game of mates is essential reading.
https://theconversation.com/how-mates-and-grey-corruption-rig-the-politi...
To quote Geoffrey Blainey: “The multicultural lobby has little respect for the history of Australia between 1788 and 1950. In the eyes of multicultural supporters, Australia was a desert between 1788 and 1950 because it was populated largely by people from the British Isles and because it seemed to have a cultural unity, a homogeneity which is the very antithesis of multiculturalism.”
Wilhelm Scream wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/14/hollow-cloying-ven...
Loving this restrained Facto.
what an absolutely terrible decision...
not to mention a rude and dismissive attitude from dictator dan
pretty funny watching uber woke wankers like dandrews getting totally caught up in the 'oh no, the queeny is dead' moment
such a terrible terrible decision... i actually find it hard to believe... especially from 'that' side of politics
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/we-won-t-be-silenced-indigen...
RBA now has negative equity after massive loss on bond buying to try to shift interest rates down during the covid panic:
"The bonds were accumulated under a A$300 billion emergency stimulus program that ran from November 2020 to February 2022.
The losses eclipsed underlying earnings of A$8.2 billion and left the central bank with an accounting loss of A$36.7 billion. It also ate up all the RBA’s reserve funds, leaving it with a negative net equity position of A$12.4 billion.
Bullock noted that while this would bankrupt a normal commercial entity, the RBA’s liabilities are guaranteed by the government."
An internal review considered the program was "successful" but results could not be clearly separated from other policy moves (i.e. could not really be measured) - mainly the more tradition tool of interest rate.
The Fed in the USA determined that the recent $3 trillion dollars of QE they did moved interest rates down by possibly 75 basis points - less than 1%. This was horrifically ineffective result was not hidden but presented as proof it worked. That is only $3,000,000,000,000 - so seems like excellent value for money....
Thankfully we have such financial experts to save us.
frog it’s just an “accounting” or “on paper” loss due to the statutory requirement to mark the value of its assets (here govt bonds) to their market value on its books.
The reserve bank will hold the bonds to maturity. It would only be a problem if the RBA tried to sell the bonds before maturity.
The way it works is the RBA conducts quantitative easing by buying bonds at a high price (low bond yield) in order to inject money into the economy. Now that interest rates and hence bond yields have gone up (bond prices have gone down), if the RBA was to sell the bonds now at a lower price they’d be incurring quite a loss. But they won’t be doing that.
The RBA will make a small profit on its bond holdings if it holds them until the bonds mature (basically the yield the bond was trading at when it bought the bonds).
gsco.
Does this ‘paper loss’ have any particular bearing on national credit ratings or the like?
gsco,
Yes, I know that it will partially or maybe fully sort itself out.
The headline loss sounds dramatic and I don't mind a bit of embarrassment for the Reserve Bank.
What is odd is that the experiment of QE by multiple CBs is so ineffective in its stated goals. The Eurodollar University vid link is quite amusing and informative. Much of what the CBs do is mumbo jumbo and talk, however, the markets lap it up. They are given way more credit for knowledge and influence over the economy than deserved given the evidence.
CB think:
Crisis hits. Must do something. Oh dear, can't fix covid, can't fix shutdown, can't fix supply chain, can't fix war. Must do something. Massive QE sounds so dramatic and most people think it is the same as money printing (it is not). So big time QE is announced. Shock and awe. The market stops plummeting and spikes upwards papering over some of the economic cracks. Lots of distortions in the market result.
It is more of a big hologram rabbit out of a hat than sound economic policy. And in the RBA's case red faces now the paper loss has come out will make them think twice before doing it again.
Not really etarip. Overwhelmingly no, only a little bit yes:
Australia's (sovereign) credit rating is an assessment of the Commonwealth government's credit worthiness: its ability to pay back its debt (mostly bonds issued in capital markets).
It's not an assessment of how much of the govt's debt the RBA holds or whether it's currently holding a paper loss.
But as Australia's central bank and a macroeconomic manager, the RBA has a strong influence on the govt's credit worthiness. In that sense the quality, performance, track record and effectiveness of the RBA in general as an economic manager (including its quantitative easing activities) is a factor considered in Australia's sovereign debt ratings.
The main ratings agencies are Moody's, Fitch and S&P, and the actual calculation of credit ratings is fairly complicated. Fitch has a fairly exhaustive explainer and this is a nice summary from it of the factors they use:
Australia has pretty well the best credit ratings a country can have, and here's a neat S&P visual:
Yep that’s what I thought
Thanks
Thanks gsco. I’ll need to reread that summary a couple of times.
frog debate about those issues has gone on for like >100yrs in the economics profession and is central the conduct of macroeconomic policy.
The gfc and covid are pretty neat little experiments to test the effectiveness of QE and researchers will be doing so for the next few decades.
I’m not sure if many people actually care about this too greatly, but the koala population is plummeting in numbers at an alarming rate. At the turn of the 20th century there was estimated to be 8-10 million koalas in Australia. NSW now has an estimated 20,000 koalas left.
There’s a koala colony around my house and it’s amazing to realise that they constitute a certain percentage of the koala population left on earth. Then you watch as their habitat is being utterly destroyed, the trees they need to survive cut down for the FIVE (!!!!) new suburban developments in this tiny coastal town alone, and you realise that koalas will probably be extinct in the wild within our lifetimes.
But think of the diversity and the skills shortage!
Crazy and sad.
From Macrobusiness:
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released population and immigration data for the March quarter, which shows that we are well and truly back on board the ‘Big Australia’ train to oblivion.
Net overseas migration (NOM) was 96,200 in the March quarter – the highest quarterly intake on record:
This surge in NOM drove Australia’s quarterly population increase to 124,200 – the strongest quarterly result since March 2017:
The Albanese Government used this month’s Jobs & Skills Summit as a trojan horse to ramp immigration to its highest ever level, including via:
Lifting the permanent non-humanitarian migrant intake to a record high 195,000 a year;
Turbo-charging temporary migration by:
Expanding work rights for international students via:
Uncapping the number of hours international students can work while studying for another year; and
Extending the length of post-study work visas by two years.
Committing to clear the ‘backlog’ of “nearly one million” visas awaiting approval.
The former Morrison Government’s uncapping of international student working hours has already seen a huge lift in student visa applications from India and Nepal. And Labor’s maintenance of this policy, combined with its two-year extension to post study work visas, will only turbo-charge international student arrivals even more.
Of the outstanding “nearly one million” visa applications, 571,000 were for temporary visas, almost 150,000 were skilled applicants and 232,000 were family visas.
Combined with lifting the non-humanitarian permanent migrant intake by 35,000 to a record high 195,000, and the moves around student visas, clearing this visa ‘backlog’ will inevitably lead to an unprecedented surge in NOM next year.
In turn, the population explosion will exacerbate other chronic ‘backlogs’ afflicting Australians, including:
An extreme shortage of hospital beds and chronic ambulance ramping;
An extreme shortage of schools;
An extreme rental shortage, with vacancies at record lows and rents soaring at double-digit rates;
An extreme shortage of public housing; and
An east coast energy shortage.
Every one of these areas of shortage will be exacerbated by the Albanese Government’s ‘Big Australia’ push. That’s why the overwhelming majority of Australians do not support mass immigration.
Rather than unloading the immigration dump truck, Labor should be working hard to eliminate the ‘backlogs’ in hospitals, schools, housing and other economic and social infrastructure, not adding to it.
Sadly, Labor cares more about lining the pockets of Big Business and the education-migration industry than the welfare of ordinary Australians.
DSDS. Re : Koalas. I care, hope the rest of us do also. Its not new news, this situation with population decline has been going on for a couple decades and worsening. Another example of a human induced tragedy right in front of our own very eyes, we are crap as a nation at appreciating the uniqueness of our fauna and flora, I’m completely fed up with gross land clearing and habitat removal or fragmentation just so we can build another or few more houses. I say it again, way too many people in the world and in Australia. For those people in Oz who consistently call for a national population increase into millions way beyond our current levels, always have some economic reasoning for their argument. How are we going to feed, provide water etc. We will end up like the USA with great disparities, for example piping water 1000’s of kms originally collected in the Rocky Mountains and sending it to SE California and Arizona for horticultural/agricultural purposes. The Colorado River has for years been at some of its lowest levels on record. Building new towns and 100,000’s of new homes in desert landscapes outside Phoenix for them to be nearly or all but empty now. Getting services of any kind to remote new developments equals more land clearing. When is enough, enough ?
Macropods, as good as they are at breeding are also susceptible to the plight of Koalas, most people laugh when I mention that, take the time to read, plenty of current data available, they too are susceptible to this insatiable need for us as a nation to clear more of the small amount left of Australia’s vegetation. Sickening
The ALP has processed 2,000,000 visas since it came to power a few months ago.
How’s that working out for the housing, rental availability, unemployment rates, wages growth , environmental and emissions policy promises Albo ya sackless wonder?
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2022/10/17/alan-kohler-labor-policies...
Oh but at least the ALP don’t engage in such political pettiness as sports rorts to buy votes…..
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2022/10/albo-writes-blank-cheque-for-da...
If you voted for the ALP it’s high time to give yourself a proper uppercut
Good on Labor for getting this done.
https://theconversation.com/paid-parental-leave-extended-to-26-weeks-by-...
And yeah, it is a great achievement if they truly processed 2 million visas since they took over. The system has gone through years of neglect and it's an international embarrassment.
flollo wrote:Good on Labor for getting this done.
https://theconversation.com/paid-parental-leave-extended-to-26-weeks-by-...
And yeah, it is a great achievement if they truly processed 2 million visas since they took over. The system has gone through years of neglect and it's an international embarrassment.
“An international embarrassment”
What do you reckon the international community will think of Australia when the last koala dies to to all habitat being clearfelled to accomodate economic migration? If you think that the imaginary global shame of orderly migration rates is bad , then wait till you see how the world reacts when we finally destroy the country by filling it up with consumers and wage slaves.
To be honest, I’m at a loss that people believe that anyone overseas gives a flying fuck about anything Australians do. Let alone imagine that this perceived “embarrassment” should be rectified at the expense of Australia’s environment and living conditions. Blows my mind.
Well, you said processed (positive or negative outcome for the applicant). Yes, it's an embarrassment when people apply and wait for months, sometimes years to get an outcome. It's an embarrassment when people can't get in touch with anyone or have any idea what is happening with their application for months on end. It's a system that is 'free' on the surface but it's so complex by design to turn people away. Many people outside this country know that Australia is one of the toughest countries in the world to get into. That's a fact and many don't bother. And quite often these are people with degrees and a solid financial situation.
andy-mac wrote:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-17/worker-shortage-griffith-four-cor...
No surprise Australia isn’t finding cheap labour in international workers after they way they treated there own citizens over the past 2 years.
Why would you want to come to this country?
burleigh wrote:andy-mac wrote:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-17/worker-shortage-griffith-four-cor...
No surprise Australia isn’t finding cheap labour in international workers after they way they treated there own citizens over the past 2 years.
Why would you want to come to this country?
Not to mention Labour Hire companies farking over temporary visa workers from Pacific etc before Covid. Problem all the same, across many industries.
Reap n sow etc....
乁( •_• )ㄏ
They are even talking about reintroducing the baby bonus, they should be paying people to not have kids Imho. The biggest enemy of this planet is humans.
old-dog wrote:They are even talking about reintroducing the baby bonus, they should be paying people to not have kids Imho. The biggest enemy of this planet is humans.
True. We are now facing the 6th mass extinction in cosmological history.
If any other organism did this, a biologist would call it a virus.
Does this parasite actually do anything for the people of cook ? He gets paid a decent salary to do what ? Besides diddly squat .Meanwhile……………. Former prime minister Scott Morrison has been described as a “virtuous globalization mastermind” and credited with “controlling natural disasters” by the agency that says it now “exclusively” represents him.
Morrison is known for “aggressively working toward a net zero global emissions economy”, the Worldwide Speakers Group said.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/17/virtuous-globaliz...
Supafreak wrote:Does this parasite actually do anything for the people of cook ? He gets paid a decent salary to do what ? Besides diddly squat .Meanwhile……………. Former prime minister Scott Morrison has been described as a “virtuous globalization mastermind” and credited with “controlling natural disasters” by the agency that says it now “exclusively” represents him.
Morrison is known for “aggressively working toward a net zero global emissions economy”, the Worldwide Speakers Group said.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/17/virtuous-globaliz...
The word "Mastermind" bring two things to mind
1) Dr Evil &
2) Albert Einstein
It sure as hell ain't No. 2) in this instance
The "I can't believe it's not politics" thread.