Bit of Claytons with your Port?
Prime Minister John Howard says he will not be moving to take control over state ports as they struggle to keep up with demand for coal exports.ABC News
In the progenitor's honour.
Business Archives
April 11, 2007
April 12, 2007
Good Stuff, But A Poor Beginning
"We're not about winning elections in a year, we're about winning debates over a decade. The conservative ideas experiment has been tried and it's failed. They've left Australia with fragile prosperity based on a boom, far too many kids left behind, a changing climate, a divided culture and knee-jerk responses to real security threats." - Michael Cooney, Policy Director, Per Capita Thinktank
April 13, 2007
Drawing the Long Bow
PM credits IR laws for jobs surge - National - smh.com.au
"I do believe, after a year - and a year in which 276,000 new jobs have been created - it is reasonable to assert that one of the contributions made to this spectacular growth in employment has been the removal of the unfair-dismissal provisions under Work Choices," - Little Johnny Howler
April 18, 2007
The Good and the Bad, but not all Ugly
Support for Labor IR plansSo says Peter Hendy, CEO of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in response to Kevin Rudd's outlining of his party's approach to industrial relations, productivity and climate change."It is not possible to see how any of the major announcements are a forward step for jobs or productivity from where we are today,"
April 19, 2007
Another bites the dust
According to today's Fin Review, yet another property development and investment entity is poised to go under.
April 26, 2007
Run and Hide!
New IR body will be 'hand-picked by unions': Howard.
"I tell you what the problem of that is, is that those people will be hand-picked by the union bosses."
"This is a political device to give the impression of modernity but in reality it will hand back even greater power to union bosses,"
May 5, 2007
It's the business, stupid!
By the time this post makes it to the internet, several days will have passed after these events actually happened, but I just can’t help convert them to text in the ether. For posterity, naturally. No names mentioned in order to protect the innocent. Me!
It's the business, stupid! (cont.)
Greetings once again, dear reader. Part two of the business trip from.....not quite hell..... but by yesterday arvo, pretty close.
May 14, 2007
Laying a Reith in memorium
Watching the ABC production 'Bastard Boys' last night, I couldn't help but wonder at the timing of the screening.
May 18, 2007
Spin Cycle
Are you wondering, as I'm wondering, just why the price of petrol at the bowser keeps going up & up, while politicians continue to tell us how strong our economy is?
June 6, 2007
Ball Bag Battler
Someone needs to wise Graeme Samuel up to the fact that petrol retailers don’t set the Terminal Gate Price of fuel in this country. Supposedly, he already knows this, but judging by this toothless tilt at the refiners, he’s merely rattling his nuts around inside his threadbare pants. Time to grow some real gonads, Mr Samuel. Perhaps Iemma’s stem cell legislation might be your saving grace. Unless you happen to be a mick, that is.
June 10, 2007
Popularism Large
"Australians by and large accept that international settings and market forces will govern the price of petrol, but they will not tolerate being taken for a ride by anyone"
How very prophetic and self-soothed by the little twirp as well. Have you noticed, reader, the almost incessant use by Howard of the terminology, "by and large"?
June 11, 2007
V8 Supercars - Round Five - Eastern Creek
This long weekend saw the V8 circus return to Eastern Creek, outside of Sydney, for the first time since 2005.
Continue reading "V8 Supercars - Round Five - Eastern Creek" »
June 19, 2007
Nothing Ever Changes
Staff loyalty in business?
I suggest it's more likely to be staff gullibility, but who's really to blame if the workplace becomes too hard to handle?
June 22, 2007
Spin or Reality?
Mortgage repayments Hit New Record High
As someone who works within the Australian finance industry, I'm always alert to news and events which appear in my morning mail alert from Plugger.
July 9, 2007
Everything Old
Early this morning, Australian Eastern Standard Time, American aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, officially launched it’s long-awaited new generation commercial aircraft, the Boeing 787 series Dreamliner.
July 17, 2007
Porcine Posterior
Mr McFarlane does not believe regulation is needed in Australia, saying competition will bring the fees down.
(via ABC Online)
July 29, 2007
By Default
Credit privacy set to be tested
The forerunner of many impending alterations to the way borrowers and lenders will be conducting their business in the near future.
August 9, 2007
History Repeats
Watching 7:30 Report tonight I was absolutely shocked to see an article about this issue and also this one, both of which highlight banking practices I thought were long since dead.
August 10, 2007
Regulation and Rationalisation
The currently running Parliamentary inquiry into lending approval standards being conducted in Canberra seems to have fingered the mortgagee trustees, Permanent Custodians and Perpetual Trustees as principal movers in repossession actions.
Time for a review of practices.
Three banks raise interest rates.Earth-shattering news, to be sure. This was 2 hours 23 minutes old when I came across it. Since 9:00am this morning, my Inbox had received notification of five other lenders and mortgage managers raising their rates, and a couple even offering NIL application fees as some form of recompense. Let's face it, folks. ALL financial institutions will raise rates because the money comes from the same place.
August 17, 2007
More Irrationality
Roll up! Roll up!
You want uranium? Well, buddy....do we have a deal for you!
August 18, 2007
Some More Than Others
Remember what I wrote earlier this week in regard to the finance industry's non-conforming lenders?
August 21, 2007
Flying Blind
How does Jetstar win these awards while deliberately placing their passengers and staff at such great risk?
I heard this story today on The World Today and immediately thought of those awards. Operational excellence for mis-tuning the main communications on take-off. That's a hot one! After my own Jetstar experience in May, I'll never fly them again. If you still fly them, I'd suggest you don't fly out of Avalon. Dickie might be beating something up, but that's unlikely given the exposure he's creating. Is it really worth the risk?
August 22, 2007
Poor Business Models
Came across this story in this morning's business mail. Yet another example of how the finance industry, and particular the mortgage broking marketplace is continuing to evolve in this country.
Ain't Gonna Happen
I'll be short & sweet on this issue because I reckon Ross Gittins says it all fairly well. It's an issue I've been banging on about for quite some time now, and with good reason. I can't stand liars and have little tolerance for fools, yet all we get treated to by our elected representatives are examples of the former who treat we voters as the latter.
I'll say it again, and this time I have Gittins' article as a backdrop. Politicians do NOT control interest rates. They influence interest rates, usually adversely, but simply cannot control them. The Reserve Bank of Australia board determines interest rates in this country and does a bang-up job too, if I may say! I especially like the statement Gittins includes in his piece from Reserve Bank Governor, Glenn Stevens:
"Since we now had a good system for allowing the Reserve to keep inflation low, a return to double-figure interest rates would be "unusual"."As Gittins points out so eloquently, fear and loathing over interest rates is transparent. Political it's most definitely not.
August 24, 2007
Harbingers
John Symons, CEO of Aussie Home Loans, stated earlier this week that in the shadow of the US sub-prime mortgage meltdown, some re-pricing of risk in the Australian, if not the world financial marketplace would result.
August 30, 2007
A Lawyers Banquet
This Tamar Valley pulp mill saga has, more or less, washed over me to a great degree. I don't live in Tasmania, and aren't directly impacted by the proposal. I have sympathies with the likes of Peter Cundall who lives in the valley, but without definitive evidence being available for analysis, it's a bit difficult to form an opinion either way.
September 4, 2007
APEC...what a bewdy!
Here’s yet another example of just how beneficial APEC in Sydney is for business and commerce.
Dear Introducer
A you are aware, world leaders will be descending upon Sydney this week to participate in the APEC conference commencing Friday 7th September. While we are expecting some minor disruptions and delays during the week leading up to the conference, we have been advised that Friday 7th September will see major cuts to transport services into the city and significant disruptions and delays for those wishing to access the city area.
Because of this, on Friday 7th September Macquarie Leasing will be running a skeleton staff for the acceptance and settlements area for deals originating in NSW, ACT and QLD. In addition, there will be no customer service staff available on that day. This means no clients nation-wide will be able to obtain early payout figures or other similar services.
We intend to run a skeleton version of our Business Support Team who will continue to assist introducers on the 1800 *** *** number.
We apologise for inconvenience this may cause you or your clients.
I do my lease and chattel finance business through MacLease. I do hope none of my clients want anything done between now & next Monday.
September 5, 2007
It's all about market share
If this isn't price fixing, collusion and gouging, then perhaps we'd better have Messrs Oxford and Webster redefine just what those particular words mean.
September 6, 2007
No Longer Amusing
Paranoia-ridden APEC security authorities should have demanded all Sydney CBD workers to pass through metal detectors before entering the cordoned zone. Restaurants should have been issued with plastic cutlery for their al fresco dining areas. Indeed, why hasn't the Sydney CBD been completely shut down, which would have made the job of ensuring no fork-wielding malcontents approached any VIP a whole lot simpler?
October 1, 2007
Point Zero Three Eight Pecent
That's the gauge by which Premier Anna Bligh today decided to not consider Daylight Saving for Queensland this year, or any year. Today's decision by Anna Bligh not to consult the people on the issue of Daylight Saving reads like the fix it is.
October 18, 2007
Too Much Innuendo, Not Enough Objectivity
Too much arguing, not enough debating. That's the title of the Oz editors piece in today's edition.
Continue reading "Too Much Innuendo, Not Enough Objectivity" »
November 7, 2007
Unknown Unknowns
I never cease to be amazed at the trust and faith your average home buying punter puts in their chosen lender or mortgage broker.
December 6, 2007
Where Do You Want To Bank Today?
This is why I no longer work in retail banking, why I will never return to retail banking and why retail banking in my view is unlikely to ever return to the service ethos that I was taught by the NAB in the seventies and eighties.
January 14, 2008
Where's the ACCC?
Wayne Swan seems to have been brought up-to-date on some of the realities which confront Mr & Mrs Average Home-Owner.
February 4, 2008
Australia 2020
It’s a play on words, a political mechanism, and hopefully a means of Government actually achieving something positive in policy direction for the longer term benefit of Australia.
Those Damnable Petrol Prices
Political opportunist, Steven Fielding, has come out claiming
"it's about time the Rudd Government really got a handle on this issue by cutting petrol tax"
February 6, 2008
Be Aware
The expected norm when the Reserve Bank of Australia exercises monetary policy is for banking houses to mirror the increased cost of funds by raising appropriate retail lending rates. That's 'mirror', which means to pass on whatever the rise was to customers through their contracted interest rates. Of course, anyone who has ever read a loan agreement will realise that lenders in Australia can lawfully charge whatever they please in interest rate terms. The simple fact that we expect only to bear the RBA rise in rates, doesn't mean we actually get the RBA rise in rates.
Today's rise in housing rates by the Commonfilth Bank departs from the expected norm in a somewhat troublesome manner. Clearly, what this 0.05% higher rise than that decided upon by the RBA says that the CBA under-estimated their losses during the October-November period of 2007, when the first tranche of sub-prime mortgage losses were felt by lenders in Australia, and the 0.10% increase applied by the CBA in January wasn't sufficient to recoup those losses. The question which arises is this. Is it ethical of the bank to adopt a bloody-minded attitude which says, "fuck you, borrower.....read your loan agreement!"?
The cure for such attitudes is regulation, and I seriously doubt whether any government of any persuasion would ever head down that road. The other option, which remains open to all borrowers at any time, be they business, commercial or retail home borrowers, is to fixed their lending interest rates. I did, several months ago. If you're smart, especially on a home loan, you'll do the same. Leaving one's self open to the whims and fancies of the financial marketplace is a prime example of caveat emptor.
One Time Only
If you are a shareholder in mining conglomerate, Rio Tinto, are you likely to be happy with 3.4 BHP shares in exchange for each of your Rio shares?
BHP seems to think you should be. Pundits are claiming that Rio is valued at 3.6 to 3.8 BHP shares per Rio share. Wouldn't you be happier being recompensed fairly, as opposed to being shafted by the Big Australian?
We'll soon see just how much Rio shareholders value their stake, and how serious BHP really is to own it's competitor.
February 12, 2008
Pride goeth before windshear
A hard landing by a Qantaslink Boeing 717-200 in Darwin last week may lead to the loss by QANTAS of it's enviable reputation of never having lost an aircraft.
February 22, 2008
Secrets, Lies and Regulators
This is an interesting article and harkens back to past posts I've made on the credit crunch and finance industry in Australia.
April 1, 2008
Truth of the Matter
As ill advised as it may have been for me, I watched Four Corners last evening.
April 29, 2008
Does Brisbane Need A "Darling Harbour"?
I'm a Brisbanite, but can't actually say I've paid a whole lot of attention to this seemingly benighted development. Until now.
Continue reading "Does Brisbane Need A "Darling Harbour"?" »
May 4, 2008
How Power Corrupts
In the face of over-whelming party disenchantment with NSW Labor government's stated intention to sell off publically owned electricity generation assets, one wonders at the probable fall-out for Morris Iemma, Michael Costa, et al, should they push on, as they claim they will.
May 8, 2008
When Is It Cheap?
Anyone who believes that supermarket chains are in the petrol game for any other reason than to boost bottom line profits, must also believe that politicians never tell lies and Santa Claus is real.
May 12, 2008
Big Red W To Absorb Dragon
The very first thought which popped to mind as I heard this story on the way home was, "Was her head-hunting purposely planned?"
May 14, 2008
Oh, alright then.
Just about every politically aware Oz blogger has expressed their impressions of LAST NIGHTS budget delivery, so I thought I may as well do likewise.
May 19, 2008
Australian Society of Incorrigible Crooks
Here’s an issue of some considerable concern.
Continue reading "Australian Society of Incorrigible Crooks" »
May 20, 2008
Competition Commission Listens, But That's All
Every day in the media, we’re treated to gems coming from the ACCC inquiries into grocery prices and petrol retailing.
Every day, there’s another revelation from Woolworths or Coles on one subject or the other. Coles admits to ripping us off on fuel pricing. Woolworths now admits to boosting it’s profit margins on it’s Australian businesses in order to keep it’s New Zealand operations afloat. All at our - the Australian shopper's - expense. Marvellous stuff, but what is the ACCC going to do about these bare-faced admissions? Can it do anything? Absolutely nothing, I’d suggest. Meanwhile, if you’re shopping at Woollies, you’re helping to support a New Zealand business operation which is losing money, effectively.
As for some forty percent or more of the grocery marketplace in this country being held by “Aldi, independent grocers, milk bars, petrol stations and specialty stores”, I’d suggest Mr Luscombe needs to be given an average shopper’s weekly list & sent out into the real world to get the ‘best buys’. He won’t be getting them at the local servo, any independent or Aldi either. Competition is healthy in Australian grocery marketplace. It’s the Woolworths/Coles cabal against the rest. The simple fact that no single entity can adequately compete with the grocery camarilla, is immaterial. If both of the giants say competition is alive & kicking, then it must be so. Graham Samuel clearly believes the stories he’s being told.
May 22, 2008
Why Not Ask Why?
I happened to hear the recorded proceedings of the US Senate's grilling of Big Oil on AM this morning.
May 25, 2008
Are We Facing Food Stamps and Ration Cards?
This morning's Insiders program was interesting on a number of levels.
Continue reading "Are We Facing Food Stamps and Ration Cards?" »
June 3, 2008
Users and Takers
Those who read here even semi-regularly will know that I'm an inhabitant of the finance industry.
June 11, 2008
Five Cents For Your Dollar
Is this really the way Queenslanders want their state promoted?
June 17, 2008
Clarity in the Automobile Industry
Today, Honda Motor Company announced, what I believe, will be the next generation after fossil fuel powered road transport. The hydrogen fuel cell powered motor vehicle, which in it's current incarnation, Honda call FCX Clarity.
June 18, 2008
What Can We Do? What Should We Do?
Apropos of yesterday's post on alternatively powered motor vehicles, I thought I'd make a point about something which rolled into my Inbox today, courtesy of one of my brokers.
June 19, 2008
On Yer Cycle!
"Fuelwatch is about empowering the consumer. If there's going to be a price hike tomorrow, you will know about it ... and you will know where to buy petrol and how to avoid the price hike" - Graeme Samuel from this article in today's Fin Review.
June 23, 2008
Calling It
Nothing much in the news today, so it's back to banging on about the price of petrol
June 24, 2008
Ten Years Later ...
I can't help but draw some parallels between the current QANTAS engineers payrise stoush, and the 1998 waterfront dispute.