Australia is drowning in debt – not Government borrowings – the private hellish sort that drives misery, paralysis even suicide.

posted by David Collyer on Wednesday, October 14th 2009

One in six Australians is having serious trouble paying their debts, according to a survey released yesterday by credit agency Veda Advantage.

The rest of us have also drunk deeply from the cool pools of liquidity the banks provide.

If well managed, the use of debt to buy long-life items is a boon. It can smooth the lumps and improve the quality of our lives.

However – like fire – this wonderful servant is a cruel master.

The seriously indebted cannot lift their eyes from earning a living for a moment. Not for a moment. They can be ruined by any adverse event – unemployment, sickness, even an interest rate rise.

We owe, we owe! It’s off to work we go!

And while Treasurer Swan, the RBA and Treasury are seeing the stimulus package and Australia’s stellar export performance protect us from the economic catastrophe elsewhere, the fact remains that these one-in-six citizens are in very serious financial trouble.

A full economic recovery depends on consumer willingness to spend. The one-in-six cannot spend, and the rest of us will hesitate before making serious commitments to buying even more stuff.

Prof. Steve Keen offers a detailed analysis of this key economic trend at http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2009/10/06/rba-gets-it-wrong-again/

Read it and swallow hard. Major new economic drivers will be needed for Australia to resume the economic growth we have enjoyed in the past. There are further benefits available in the transition to a digital, connected world, but these must be regarded as modest compared to our mountain of debt. Private debt. Crazy-making debt.

Government can’t stop citizens taking on debt. But much more must be done to address the general lack of financial knowledge. Australia needs fresh consumer laws obliging the use of clear language to reduce the informational asymmetry between consumers and the finance spivs.

David Collyer

“David Collyer is currently contesting the Higgins by election for the Australian Democrats against Clive Hamilton for The Greens and Kelly O’Dwyer for the Liberal Party,”

Granny-Gate – Sex For Cig’s – Brumby Government Goes From Bad to Bloody Unbelievable!

posted by Scott Kane on Friday, September 25th 2009

Is This What Victoria Has Reduced Elderly Women To?

Community Services minister Lisa Neville says:

“…the state government had begun the process of improving the care-home sector and that it was unacceptable if women were exchanging sexual favours for necessities.”

This only comes after the Victorian Public Advocate, Colleen Pearce, tells Victoria:

“It is not uncommon for us to hear about (elderly) women either trading cigarettes for sex or else being raped.”

Epic Fail, Minister!

When a Minister of the Crown who is ultimately responsible for the portfolio in which this is allegedly taking place only offers us spin about beginning “…the process of improving…” we are sorely in need of a ministerial resignation.

Minister We’re Talking About Crimes – Not “Favours”

Colleen Pearce is rightly and justifiably outraged.  But for the minister who holds ultimate responsibility of thousands of elderly woman and men to call it “…unacceptable…” is a sick, perverted joke at the expense of our loved ones.  A group who, by definition, cannot look after themselves and  are generally voiceless, apart from the work of Advocates like Colleen Pearce.

Not “…unacceptable…” Minister – the word to use is intolerable.

Across every area of responsibility,  Brumby government is always “gonna fix it” – yet they preside over a mess, one they’ve created through negligence and a complete lack of interest.

This has become the anthem of the Brumby Labor government.

“Gonna!”

Stated Plainly Cigarette Smoking Is An Addiction.

Using a powerful addiction to a substance such as nicotine found in cigarettes – an addiction experts state is harder than heroin to beat – as a tool to rape must not be minimised by calling it a “favour”.

It’s a crime.  A crime under state, federal and international law.

It’s disgusting.

What is it with the Brumby government?

• We’ve got the Bushfire Royal Commission tasked with finding no blame.
• The Brimbank Botch Up.

And now..

• Nursing Home Bordellos?

The community is sickened by reports of women being trafficked to work in the sex trade.

There is very little difference here.  These people are vunerable – in many cases as vulnerable as children.

This is the era – or should that be error? – of Labor party spin, big government advertising budgets to tell us of their glorious achievements.

Perhaps Labor will make a TV commercial now asking Victorians to:

• “Ration” their abuse of the elderly, in keeping with their water policy,
• Dob in a Granny Grabber

…or some other trendy, disconnected “shiny” campaign to demonstrate their total lack of real concern.

That the press haven’t called this “Granny-Gate” is in itself amazing.

Our Elderly Depend On Us As Much As Our Children For Protection

Elderly people constrained to nursing homes should be receiving care – not abuse – respect – not rape -  palliative care – not pain.

Resign Minister!

Scott Kane

How long can the lies go on? Either Aussie home prices will crash or enter a long agonizing decline.

posted by David Collyer on Wednesday, September 16th 2009

The largest investment of most citizens is their home.  Funnily, this sector of the economy has the poorest statistics and the most lies told.

For first home buyers contemplating the Great Australian Dream, beware!

• Interest rates are at century lows.  We may enjoy another few months of ‘accommodative’ rates, but like night follows day, they must and will revert to normal as the economy improves.
• House prices are currently 6 to 7 times average weekly earnings, when they are typically at three.  Anyone taking on a mortgage without a large deposit and a substantial, secure and growing income is risking everything and may live, work and die for nothing but that mortgage.
• House prices in Europe and America have touched these levels and crashed.  You can now buy a house, albeit of low quality, in Detroit for $US6,000.

These incontrovertible facts speak more loudly and clearly than any gold-toothed salesman’s pitch to get you commit your life to paying a mortgage on whatever property he is selling today.

Associate Professor Steve Keen, an economist at the University of Western Sydney, says he remains confident that house prices across Australia will fall dramatically in the medium to longer-term.

“The boost to house prices courtesy of what I call the first home vendors grant has been substantial,” he told the ABC tonight.

“It hasn’t only pushed up lower level prices below the $500,000 mark, it’s also boosted prices up to $1 million or more, because when those vendors sold their houses to the first home buyers they got an extra $30,000 or 40,000 in cash, which they leveraged up to an extra $200,000 to go and buy houses in the medium to high price range.”

He says this boost is only temporary and that Australia may experience a long slow decline in house prices of up to 40 per cent over the next 10-15 years, similar to Japan’s experience during the 1990s.

And if some pretty boy salesman tells you prices can only rise further, ask him to put it in writing.   Hmmm.  He declined, didn’t he?

For example, in Britain, agricultural land prices began falling in 1850 and continued falling for 90 years.   They spluttered back into life in 1940, at one twentieth of their original price.

The ultimate irony is that government, politicans, bankers, real estate agents and economists know this to be true.  Why are they mute?  Why do none of them feel responsible for warning people of an accident ahead?

David Collyer

Socialism or Economic Engineering? Australian Banking Needs a Fifth Pillar.

posted by David Collyer on Friday, September 4th 2009

Australia doesn’t have enough banks.  The big four banks hold 92 per cent of the market and have grown lazy, fat and flabby – charging high fees and taking wide margins (the difference between loan interest rates and deposit rates).

They do this because they can; they can because customers have nowhere else to go.

With only four players, all can compete by advertising and not on price.  In economic language, they are oligarchs operating a cartel.  There is no collusion – they don’t need to – they simply signal to each other with market announcements.

What are our sisters doing?

Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand has created a government owned bank called Kiwibank.  It is tearing market share off the majors, all subsidiaries of the same four Aussie banks, by offering good deposit interest rates and cheap mortgages.

In Canada, the government has long refused mergers between its five major banks on competition grounds.  This makes them work for their money and provides Canadian citizens genuine alternatives.

It would be easy to create a bank on the distribution capacity of Australia Post, perhaps merged with a regional bank to kick-start the process.  It could begin with a simple set of deposit and loan products.   And where it did compete on price, exactly how fond we are of our oligarch banks would be quickly revealed.

If that sounds rather too Socialist, the government could undertake to float the new bank on the Australian Stock Exchange once it is established and stable, while announcing a new ‘five pillar’ no-merger policy.

Look upon it as economic engineering, an opportunity to re-introduce a genuinely competitive financial market in Australia.

A fifth major Australian bank.  I’d like to see that!

The author holds ANZ shares.

Abbott, Brough and Macklin know racism and squalor better than UN Rapporteur James Anaya.Really!

posted by Robin Davis on Monday, August 31st 2009

If  United Nations Special Rapporteur James Anaya did not understand why the “lucky country’s” indigenous people live in third world squalor and poverty he does now. He just needed to listen to the Government and Opposition responses to his August 27 statement on Australia’s treatment of indigenous people (1).

Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott: “I think this is the kind of nonsense we are used to from these armchair critics.” (2)

Former indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough: “I get very annoyed when I hear people pontificating about human rights when today there will be children sitting out there in abject squalor with diseases they don’t have to have, inadequate education, poor nutrition and poor access to health and we have some nicety about human rights legislation.” (2)

Federal indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin: “… When it comes to human rights, the most important human right is the need to protect the lives of the most vulnerable, particularly children, and for them to have a safe and happy life, and a safe and happy family to grow up in. These are the rights that I think need to be balanced against other human rights.” (2)

The diversionary rhetoric used by Brough and Macklin implies that to criticise the Intervention is to condone the sexual abuse of children and the squalid living conditions of indigenous Australians. It also implies the absurdity that achieving standards of education, health care, employment, housing, police protection, personal safety, opportunity and freedoms taken for granted by other citizens – in other words, indigenous rights – is not possible whilst upholding human rights, as if the two issues were not one and the same!

Implicit in these comments, too, is the notion that Professor Anaya knows nothing, should say nothing unless he can say something nice, and that the UN should keep its nose out of our business … thank you very much!

Actually the professor did say a few nice things. He balanced his criticism with credit where credit is due and his criticism was reasonable, justified and fair.

Speaking of the government’s initiatives, particularly the Northern Territory Emergency Response, he expressed concern that its income management regime, imposition of compulsory leases, and community-wide bans on alcohol consumption and pornography “ … overtly discriminate against aboriginal peoples, infringe their right of self-determination and stigmatize already stigmatized communities.

“… Any such measure must be devised and carried out with due regard of the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination and to be free from racial discrimination and indignity.

“ … Any special measure that infringes on the basic rights of indigenous peoples must be narrowly tailored, proportional, and necessary to achieve the legitimate objectives being pursued.  In my view, the Northern Territory Emergency Response is not.

“… As currently configured and carried out, the Emergency Response is incompatible with Australia’s obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, treaties to which Australia is a party, as well as incompatible with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which Australia has affirmed its support.”

These are obviously the words of someone who has got a handle on the issues, sticks to the facts and expresses his conclusions in a polite and diplomatic manner. In contrast, Abbott’s and Brough’s insults deserve no further comment, except to say they are reminiscent of John Howard’s jingoism at the height of the “Tampa” disgrace.

Abbott, Brough and Macklin seem to overlook the fact that the “top down” Intervention embodies the same paternalism, racism, discrimination, stigmatisation and lack of respect that has brought indigenous Australians to their present state of despair.

As former WA premier and former federal health minister, Dr Carmen Lawrence, said in the inaugural Dhungalla Kaella Oration in May this year (3)(4): “This is not the first time they’ve been subjected to the will of others, with painful consequences; decisions about their lives have been taken from their hands many times before.

“ … Reinforcing a sense of powerlessness is precisely the opposite of what is needed to generate sustained change” and underlying the uniform constraints placed on welfare is “the racist assumption that ‘all blackfellas are the same’ … stereotypically portrayed as violent, abusive, drunks entirely dependent on welfare.”

Commenting on the style and content of the Intervention, Dr Lawrence said that the conclusion we were invited to draw was that “… Aboriginal people in such communities are so completely debased that there are none among them capable of being partners in addressing the depressing catalogue of disadvantage; only outsiders could properly diagnose the problems and devise the solutions.

“Apart from the sharp insult, what message does it send parents who are providing good care for their children when they are placed on the same quarantining regime as those who abuse and neglect their children? This is the antithesis of making people responsible for their lives; it reduces their ability to take control.

“The task is to dismantle institutionalised racism and discrimination in Australian public policy and to reduce racial bias amongst service providers and policy makers – not to mention politicians and the media.”

It seems Professor Anaya and Dr Lawrence are on the same page. Abbott, Brough and Macklin might have the best of intentions, but sadly they are reading from a book that is long out of print.

(1) http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/313713727C084992C125761F00443D60?opendocument

(2) http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/macklin-libs-defend-nt-intervention-20090828-f1j9.html

(3) http://www.reconciliation.e-newsletter.com.au/link/id/d99c0a45eee675c89990/page.html#c1a852da1cf3cea136ea

4) http://www.vic.democrats.org.au/PrejudiceOfGoodPeople.pdf

Australia’s NBN will be aerial, not wireless; cheap not secure. Feed Senator Conroy to the Possums!

posted by David Collyer on Tuesday, August 25th 2009

Australia desperately needs the new National Broadband Network.  Our business and social communications labor under two impediments: the tyranny of distance and lousy internet speeds.  Lousy!

The cost of the NBN is staggering – $43 billion and rising; the cost of not installing it promises to be higher.  Our ability to play a meaningful role in world affairs utterly depends on the quality of our communications network.

Minister for Communications senator Conroy has found a way to cut the capital outlay:  aerial cabling.

That’s right.  Slung underneath the minimum five wires of three phase power and Foxtel’s cable that pass every house in built-up areas, will be our broadband connection.

So every street tree will have to be pruned even harder (remember the tree vandalism when the Foxtel cables went up).  With our big houses, small blocks and extensive paving, street trees are usually the most important shading and cooling feature we have available.

The US Defense Department designed the internet’s decentralized network to survive a nuclear war.  Your connection will be at the mercy of possums, tree branches, bushfires and passing trucks. This vital service will not be reliable enough.

And (Ahem!) extra aerial cabling will lower property values by reducing the amenity and aesthetics of your street.

Conroy thinks this is progress.  He is protecting the nation from wasteful spending.

Think again, senator Conroy.

We don’t have to dig trenches everywhere. There has been significant advances in laser-guided horizontal boring – you will have seen the equipment on the streets –that minimize disruption and are LOW COST.

We could underground all the electric wires at the same time.   I’d like to see that!