In 21st Century Australia the rich get richer and the poor lag behind

Richest households 15% richer

The wealthiest 20% of households have increased their average net worth 15% since 2005-06 (CPI adjusted), while the poorest 20% of households saw only a 4% rise, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

These wealthy households had an average net worth of $2.2 million per household, and accounted for around two-thirds of total household wealth. The poorest 20% of households had an average net worth of $32,000 per household, which accounted for 1% of total household wealth.

The average wealth of an Australian household in 2009-10 was $720,000, up 14% (CPI adjusted) since 2005-06.

There were differences in the average levels of wealth between the states and territories. Average net worth in Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania were below the national average.

Household wealth was more concentrated in metropolitan areas. The average net worth of households located in capital cities was $772,000 as compared with $629,000 in areas outside of capital cities.

Owner-occupied homes were the main asset held by Australians. Mortgages on them were the main liability, with over two-thirds of Australian households owning their own home either outright or with a mortgage.

For households who owned their home outright (2.7 million households), the average value of the home was $541,000. For those households with a mortgage on their home (3 million households), the average value of the home was $521,000, and the average mortgage outstanding was $188,000, giving a net home equity of $333,000.

One in five households owned property other than their own home, including holiday homes and rental properties.

Superannuation was the main financial asset held by households, with three-quarters of all households having some superannuation assets.

For households with superannuation, the average value of their superannuation was $154,000, but for half of these, the value was less than $60,000.

More information can be found in Household Wealth and Wealth Distribution, Australia, 2005-06 (cat. no. 6554.0).

Media notes:
· When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.

Canute Shire Council tries to turn back the sea

Whiting Beach in happier days

Canute Clarence Valley Shire Council and coastal erosion reported in The Daily Examiner 15^th October 2011:

“THREE metres of sand has eroded this year from Yamba's Whiting Beach sparking fears Hickey Island could again be cut off from the mainland.

This could also potentially leave the $500,000 worth of work on the nearby car park and boat ramp, which is almost complete, at the mercy of Mother Nature.

Last year the aggressive erosion claimed the concrete access steps to the popular beach that sits just inside the Clarence River mouth, near the ocean-exposed Turners Beach.

This left beachgoers having to scramble across a small sand dune to dip their toes in the water.

Clarence Valley Council deputy general manager Des Schroder said the council was aware of the problem and working on contingency strategies to curb the erosion.

The most likely plan of action would be a three-pronged attack using sand, sandbags and adding to the existing breakwall structure in an effort to combat the erosion.

"Our staff, along with the office of the environment, are looking at what we can do there to prevent the erosion," Mr Schroder said.

He said the plan could include pumping sand from the western end of Hickey Island to build up Whiting Beach, building up the T-piece attached to the breakwall designed to divert river currents, and sandbagging to help retain sand on the beach.

Mr Schroder dispelled fears that the erosion could again cut Hickey Island from the mainland, saying it would take five years of severe erosion and no action on the problem for that to happen.

He said there was some evidence to suggest that a change in current direction had contributed to the increased rate of erosion.

"There is a fair bit of evidence this year from the office of environment that the current has subtly changed direction," he said…….”

Clarence By-election: Nationals make the same mistake a second time

The Sydney Morning Herald 16 October 2011:

A former north coast mayor has been selected by the NSW National Party to contest the Clarence state by-election.

Chris Gulaptis beat six other preselection candidates in a ballot on Sunday…....

Mr Gulaptis ran for the Nationals during the 2007 federal election, but failed to win the seat of Page.

The Daily Examiner 16 October 2011:

IN a tightly contested pre-selection this afternoon, Chris Gulaptis was chosen to lead The Nationals to the November 19 by-election for the seat of Clarence.

Nationals spokesman Jeremy Challacombe said the decision was so close it came down to preferences

One has to wonder why the NSW Nationals have mounted a tired horse. The last time Gulaptis stood for mayor he was soundly defeated 6 votes to 3 and, the last time he stood for a federal parliamentary seat 56.5 per cent of Page voters did not give him their primary votes and/or their second, third or fourth preferences.
This man has the ability to take Clarence from an extremely safe Nationals seat to an almost marginal one in the space of weeks.

All that glitters is not gold for NSW North Coast communities

Average industry ATRs as a deviation from the industry-wide ATR
for the period 1995-96 to 2007-08

 Disparities in average rates of company tax across industries

On 10 October 2011 The Daily Examiner published an article Our Valley of riches: Miners homing in on billion-dollar resources.

This article pointed out the fact that Red Sky Energy expected gross revenues of $4 billion from its Clarence Moreton Project, that on today’s gold prices Centius Gold could realize $2.3 billion in revenues and, that Anchor Resources is progressing towards re-opening old workings during a period of record antimony metal prices.

Which might lead one to suppose that the NSW Treasury along with communities on the Dorrigo Plateau and in the Bellingen, Coffs Harbour and Clarence Valley local government areas would see a hefty financial benefit from all this commercial activity.

This is far from the reality of the modern mining industry in Australia.

Not only will the number of mining jobs be small, as Anchor Resources’ admission that it is only looking to create 60 positions to last less than ten years clearly demonstrates, but the bulk of mining profits derived from the projected shaft and open-cut mining may never see taxation applied. So adding little to the O’Farrell Government coffers and thereby giving even less to NSW residents by way of government resources.

In the case of coal seam gas mining specifically, the NSW Government has granted a five year moratorium on the payment of mining royalties. In the matter of gold mining, it will be exempt from the federal proposed mineral resources rent tax no matter how large the profits of individual companies.

As for mining generally; in 2007-08 Australian Taxation Office statistics recorded 4,290 mining companies having combined incomes which totalled $160,323,192,189, which in turn had combined taxable incomes of $29,010,243,407 and net tax actually paid was $8,068,463,15 after all allowed deductions had been made. Mining royalty payments made in that financial year added up to a tax deductible $3,924,902,975.

Of these 4,290 mining companies, there were some who paid no tax at all and these comprised 68.3 per cent of all mining companies. Which means only around 1,360 mining companies Australia-wide paid tax in that year.

How did they do that? Well, there are at least 20 deductions, rebates, concessions, exemptions, offsets etc., available to the mining industry and their combined value is literally worth billions. In 2007-08 the industry total for expenses claimed under R&D concessions alone was $2,508,321,897 and immediate deduction for capital expenditure $3,785,347,506.

It is worth noting that in 2007 the Business Council of Australia in Tax Nation stated: Taxes collected are negative for the mining industry group because as major exporters survey participants reported a significant GST refund which more than offset other taxes collected.

In other words, from all these billions of dollars quarried from mining ventures on the NSW North Coast state government and taxpayers are likely to receive nothing or next to nothing once annual tax returns are lodged.

A state of affairs all candidates in the forthcoming Clarence by-election might like to consider before deciding on what policy position they will take in relation to mining in the environmentally sensitive Nymboida River section of the wider Clarence River catchment area.

It's World Food Day Today, 16 October 2011

It is World Food Day today and it’s no surprise to find that this event is supported by the multinational biotech industry and agricultural sectors which promote GMO crops.

To counteract this I suggest……………………...

Send an email of support to Millions Against Monsanto here.

Sign up for Mothers Against Monsanto weekly newsletter here and join the network here.

Contact your Federal MP and tell him or her that you demand a review of the Australian Government’s position on GMO labelling. Contact details here and here.

Write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper stating how you feel about genetically modified crops and foods.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Who is Henry Ergas and why did he hop aboard Teh Rabbit's Fright Bus?

Prompted by a tongue-in-cheek Jeremy Sear tweet asking the questions “Where the hell is Henry Ergas pulling this "$1 trillion" figure for the carbon price from? And who is Henry Ergas anyway?” I went looking for answers.

This is Henry:

Pic from The Australian

This is what what Wollongong University has to say about Henry:

Professor Ergas is a well-known regulatory economist who held a range of leading positions at the OECD before returning to Australia in the mid-1990s. He chaired the Australian Intellectual Property and Competition Review Committee for the Australian Government in 1999-2000 and was a member of the Prime Minister’s Export Infrastructure Task Force in 2005 and the Defence Industry Policy Review in 2006. He has published extensively on infrastructure regulation and cost-benefit analysis."

This is what Liberal Party hacks have been saying about Henry:

“evidence before the inquiry by Professor Henry Ergas, the carbon tax will cost the Australian economy more than $1 trillion between now and 2050.”

This is what The Prof tells the Murdoch meeja:

“the carbon tax will cost a year's national income: that is, $1 trillion.”

This is what the Liberal Party’s best mate told the Senate Carbon Tax Inquiry on 10^th August 2011:

“Yes. What is available that Treasury have indeed released, and I congratulate them on doing so, is a spreadsheet that is similar to a spreadsheet that they had released for the CPRS model and that spreadsheet allows you to look at the change in the value of GDP under the base case, as it were, and with the so-called core policy, which is the primary abatement scenario that they model, and also under the so-called high-price scenario, which is where you go for more ambitious abatement. So what you can do, Senator, is you can use that spreadsheet—and you do need to make a number of assumptions—to calculate the value today of the change in GDP under those alternative carbon tax scenarios. To put it in perhaps simplistic terms—but this may help explain what is going on—say that in 2020 GDP would otherwise have been $2 trillion and instead, under the modelling of the core policy, it is $1.8 trillion, and in 2030 it would have been $3 trillion and instead is $2.6 trillion, you can take that difference and express it as if it were a value today. You can bring it back to the present. To do that you have to find some way of adding up amounts at different points in time. You have to take some account of the time value of money. In the calculation that I set out, I used a discount rate—that is, the assumed time value of money, as it were, that is used in the Garnaut report. When you do that, you get a GDP loss that is in the order of somewhere between $890 billion and $1.345 trillion for the core policy scenario. I rounded it to about $1 trillion.”

This is the conclusion he drew for the Business Council of Australia:

The Gillard government's emissions trading scheme poses a $9 billion risk to the already stretched federal budget in its first five years if carbon price estimates prove optimistic

And this is how good an economist ol’ Henry is:

Extracted from ASIC's database at AEST 20:14:00 on 15/10/2011

 

Name	NETWORK ECONOMICS CONSULTING GROUP PTY LTD
ACN	006 819 969
ABN	72 006 819 969
Type	Australian Proprietary Company, Limited By Shares
Registration Date	27/07/1987
Next Review Date	27/07/2010
Status	Deregistered Date Deregistered 21/10/2009
Locality of Registered Office	not available
Jurisdiction	Australian Securities & Investments Commission
Former Name(s)	ERGAS & ASSOCIATES PTY. LTD.
	WATRON PTY. LTD.
Extracted from ASIC's database at AEST 20:41:54 on 15/10/2011

 

Name	CONCEPT ECONOMICS PTY LTD
ACN	129 990 530
Type	Australian Proprietary Company, Limited By Shares
Registration Date	03/03/2008
Next Review Date	03/03/2012
Status	Deregistered Date Deregistered 08/05/2011
Locality of Registered Office	not available
Jurisdiction	Australian Securities & Investments Commission

From Bloomberg Business Week:

Network Economics Consulting Group Pty. Ltd. provides economic and strategic advisory services.

Mr. Henry Ergas Managing Director  

From Manta:

Concept Economics Pty Ltd

Henry Issac Simon Ergas Director

Inevitable conclusion – why on earth would I trust the carbon tax sums done by a Menzies House amigo who apparently couldn’t balance the books of two businesses?

Some advice for polluter: sell a couple of racehorses, pay your bills and get your house in order!

South Grafton abattoir owner Ramsey Food Processing has been found in contempt of court relating to initial charges of polluting waterways in 2008.

On Thursday, Justice Sheahan of the New South Wales Land and Environment Court held the company in contempt of court orders and noted "for the record" that the defendant did not appear at the day's hearing.

Ramsey Food Processing failed to carry out an environmental audit of the abattoir's operation and failed to place notices in local and State newspapers to notify the public.

Justice Sheahan adjourned the contempt proceedings for further hearing on conviction and sentence on December 7 and 8, 2011.

He ordered the defendant to pay the costs of the prosecutor's motion "as agreed or assessed".

Read the full report in today's Daily Examiner here.

Source: The Daily Examiner, 15/10/11