Gold star for the Australian economy

In coming weeks it shall be interesting to see how the Opposition's Abbott and Hockey work a negative political spin on the International Monetary Fund and the Reserve Bank of Australia's consistently positive view of the national economy.

International Monetary Fund's Australia—2010 Article IV Consultation Concluding Statement September 15, 2010:

This statement contains our preliminary policy recommendations following discussions with the Australian authorities and a range of private sector institutions. The discussions focused on the pace of exit from macro stimulus, managing the mining boom, and addressing vulnerabilities related to high household and external debt.

1. Despite growth slowing due to the global financial crisis, Australia was one of the few advanced economies to escape recession in 2009. This reflected strong demand for commodities from China, a prompt and significant macro policy response, a healthy banking sector, and a flexible exchange rate. With a mining boom now driving the recovery and dissipating spare capacity, policy stimulus is appropriately being withdrawn.
2. Australia’s growing integration with emerging Asia also underpins its favorable medium-term growth prospects. However, it brings with it vulnerabilities to which policy will need to respond. The impact on Australia’s terms of trade from industrialization and urbanization in China and the rest of emerging Asia is expected to be long lived. Careful macroeconomic management of the mining boom could permanently raise household incomes in Australia. However, shifting resources to the mining sector without giving rise to inflationary pressures will be challenging. Moreover, the growing dependence on mining may amplify the business cycle, as the economy will be more vulnerable to swings in the terms of trade.

Reserve Bank's 30 September 2010 Financial Stability Review :

The Australian financial system remains in relatively strong condition, as does the broader economy. The effects of the global crisis on the Australian economy and financial system were quite mild, and economic growth has now broadly returned to trend. This performance reflects several factors including the greater scope that existed for macroeconomic policy action in Australia to moderate the impact of the crisis, the comparatively strong balance sheets of the domestic banks in the period leading into the crisis, and the high exposure of the Australian economy to trade with the Asian region.
Indicators of the financial strength of Australian banks have generally continued to improve recently.
In aggregate, Australia’s banking system remained profitable during the crisis period, and profits have increased further in the latest half year. The flow of bad debt charges has generally peaked, while the stock of non-performing assets on banks’ balance sheets appears to be stabilising at a level that remains low in comparison with previous cyclical experience. Loan impairments and losses have been concentrated mainly in lending to businesses, particularly for commercial property. There has been some upward drift in arrears rates on the housing portfolio, though these remain fairly low overall......

The financial position of the household and business sectors in Australia remains sound. Household incomes have been growing at a solid pace and unemployment has been declining. Households continue to exhibit a somewhat more cautious approach to debt than prior to the crisis, with welcome signs that the recent housing market strength led by first-home buyers has cooled.
Notwithstanding recent cyclical variations, housing prices have shown little net change as a ratio to incomes over several years, following an earlier structural increase in this ratio associated with financial deregulation and the shift to a low inflation environment. Within the national housing market, there has been some significant regional variation, with market conditions particularly strong recently in Victoria.

In the business sector, there has been considerable deleveraging in the post-crisis period, bringing average debt-to-equity and interest-payment ratios to levels close to their lowest in three decades.
Businesses have made use of both new equity issuance and strong internal funding during this process. While this shift in business funding was in part demand-driven, there was also a notable tightening of supply in 2008 and 2009; the availability of debt funding to businesses now appears to be improving, though credit availability for some sectors, including commercial property, remains quite constrained.....

What the Royal Society actually concluded concerning climate change science

There is a growing suspicion being voiced that The Australian newspaper has abandoned balance in favour of headlines which can be used as ammunition against the Gillard Government.

I cannot in truth confirm this suspicion, however its October 2 headline Top science body cools on global warming and the thrust of the article below that banner bears only a passing resemblance to last month's The Royal Society paper, Climate change: a summary of the science.

The Society's considered summary in concluding remarks stated:

57 There is strong evidence that changes in greenhouse gas concentrations due to human activity are the dominant cause of the global warming that has taken place over the last half century. This warming trend is expected to continue as are changes in precipitation over the long term in many regions. Further and more rapid increases in sea level are likely which will have profound implications for coastal communities and ecosystems.

58 It is not possible to determine exactly how much the Earth will warm or exactly how the climate will change in the future, but careful estimates of potential changes and associated uncertainties have been made. Scientists continue to work to narrow these areas of uncertainty. Uncertainty can work both ways, since the changes and their impacts may be either smaller or larger than those projected.

59 Like many important decisions, policy choices about climate change have to be made in the absence of perfect knowledge. Even if the remaining uncertainties were substantially resolved, the wide variety of interests, cultures and beliefs in society would make consensus about such choices difficult to achieve. However, the potential impacts of climate change are sufficiently serious that important decisions will need to be made.
Climate science – including the substantial body of knowledge that is already well established, and the results of future research – is the essential basis for future climate projections and planning, and must be a vital component of public reasoning in this complex and challenging area.

Congratulations to the HEMP Party - now a legitimate political party sited in Nimbin, NSW, Australia

In certain spots on the NSW North Coast they're partying like it's 1969.
Last week the Australian Electoral Commission registered the following:

Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party

Date Registered:
23 September 2010

Name of Party:
Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party

Abbreviation of name of party:
HEMP

Party Correspondence Address:
51 Cullen Street
NIMBIN NSW 2480

Registered Officer of Party:
Name: Graham Askey
Address: 9 Frank Street
LISMORE NSW 2480

Wishes to Receive Public Funding:Yes

First words in the Forty-Third Australian Parliament that Tony Abbott may repudiate

Somehow I suspect that these words may be some of the first Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will repudiate in the Forty-Third Commonwealth Parliament:

Mr Speaker, you are the custodian of the traditions of this parliament. You are the custodian of the rights of members. You are no longer a creature of party. You are no longer the creature of the executive. You are now free to be in this parliament everything that a Westminster style Speaker should be. This is your time, Mr Speaker, and I know you will use it in the best interests of this parliament and this nation.

A far cry from this previous statement by Abbott on 22 February 2008:

Mr Speaker, you are acting dishonourably.

Which may in part explain the constrained look (hinting at barely restrained annoyance) on the Speaker's face, on the first sitting day since the August 2010 general election, as Abbott proclaimed:

Mr Speaker, I never wavered in my faith that you were the best person for the job that you hold. There were weeks when others doubted. There were weeks when you must have doubted yourself what was going to emerge from this parliament. But I was with you every step of the way. I was there, I was your true friend......

Although it is more likely that the reason for this apparent coolness towards Abbott may be found in Jenkins' remark after his re-election as Speaker:

It is true to say that it has been an interesting period over the last few weeks, and you get to acknowledge those that are close to you, both family and friends. At some stage, perhaps, the true story of the last few weeks will be aired.......

As for future interaction in the House of Representatives between this pair, perhaps one should look to the past. Harry Jenkins or his deputy removed Abbott from the House during the Forty-Second Parliament at least thrice and he was requested to resume his seat on occasions too numerous to mention. One has to wonder how long it will be before he tries The Speaker's patience during this particular parliament.

Teh Drum woz wrung! Poodle doesn't win 'most loathed' prize

The Sydney Morning Herald poll early yesterday evening

Aunty ABC has been getting her knickers in a knot because Marieke Hardy over at The Drum online decided to presume that "there is nobody in the entire world who is loathed by Australia more than Christopher Pyne".

Of course Aunty should apologise to "Poodle' Pyne for getting its facts wrong.

He's only the second-most loathed person in Australia! After Andrew Bolt or Alan Jones on any given day and when the wind is blowing in from the west.

Here's editor Jonathan Green disappearing up his own nether regions in an effort to avoid whatever fall-out he imagines might come his way:

"On Monday I approved a piece by Marieke Hardy titled The Pyne experiments. I was wrong to do that.
Marieke is a very talented writer ... we value her contributions. Drum readers love her too, regularly making her Monday columns among our top 10 pieces for any given week.
I feel I let her down this time, because the assault on Christopher Pyne she filed this week was not on a par with the main body of her work. It was not up to her standards, and failed to meet the standards for argument and well-thought opinion we try to maintain on this site. As her editor I should have told her that and pulled the piece.
We’ve dropped it from our site now, and we take this opportunity to apologise to Christopher Pyne for both the attack and for its deeply personal nature. There is no formal pressure on us to do this, but we think it’s the right thing to do.
Mistakes happen in daily publishing. Sometimes things see the light of day that on reflection ought more properly have been cut, re-written or dropped altogether. I take the view that while it’s regrettable to make the error in the first place, it’s never too late to both apologise and do what you can to correct the situation.
Jonathan Green"

Telstra tries to close the gate behind those bolting brumbies

In the Clarence Valley on the NSW North Coast Telstra customer satisfaction is probably at an all time low and, in a clear case of karmic retribution, some customers are telling me that they will be abandoning their home and business accounts as soon as current contracts expire because this national telecommunications company is not supporting the community and local economy.

So it was with some amusement that I read the following in The Herald-Sun on Thursday 30 September 2010:

AFTER years of appalling service Telstra has finally conceded the customer is always right.
In a major turnaround, Telstra chief David Thodey yesterday pledged to lift rock-bottom customer satisfaction levels.
Under a $1 billion plan already under way, Telstra intends to drastically reduce complaints and resolve problems on a first-call basis.
In recent months Telstra has scrapped a $2.20 "administration fee" and shelved charges for calls to Telstra's help desk for service and support from home and mobile phones.
Some "nuisance fees" will also become a thing of the past, with Big Pond customers no longer having to pay for extra email addresses.
And in another break with the past, Mr Thodey declared there would be no flashy advertising campaigns, instead spending the money to change staff attitudes.
"What we will be focused on is changing the culture of this company, changing the way we interact with customers and giving a different experience," Mr Thodey said.
Staff are already being sat down to watch a short film that Telstra marketing chief Kate McKenzie says will teach them to stop "lecturing to the crowd" - "Something we've been guilty of in the past," the film's narrator says.
Ms McKenzie adds: "We don't want to shout at our customers, we want to have a dialogue with them."

The day before the newspaper article I received a copy of this email:

From: [redacted]
Sent:Wednesday, 29 September 2010 8:53 AM
To: 'nswtcw@team.telstra.com'; Telstra - Susan.Passmore (susan.passmore@team.telstra.com)
Cc: [redacted]
Subject: Attention Ms Sue Passmore
Importance: High

Ms Passmore

I am totally dismayed (no, disgusted!) by Telstra's decision to close its Grafton call centre.

It seems loyalty counts for nothing – only the almighty dollar counts!

Hence, I now hold serious doubts about remaining as a Telstra customer.

Please forward to me at my postal address (below) the relevant information, papers, forms, etc associated with closing my account for all Telstra services associated with my phone number and address.

[Name and address redacted for privacy reasons]

UPDATE:

TELSTRA shares crashed to a new low yesterday as the telco tried to calm staff concerns over speculation thousands of jobs would be cut.
It is believed to be part of a three-year plan to simplify the business and strip costs to bolster dwindling earnings.
Shares in Telstra fell 6c to $2.62 as David Thodey's strategy to revitalise its lumbering business failed to win over investors and as speculation on massive job cuts permeated the market.
In an internal memo, Telstra staff were told to expect more job cuts but to remain focused on improving the business.
[The Australian on 1 October 2010, as Telstra share price continues to reach record lows]

A nugget of truth?

"I gave a Bible to my daughter.

That's how you make atheists."

Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists