My December

Country of Origin:

Example . Made in Australia does not mean Made in Australia. Overseas Ham Meat can be wrapped around an Australian Bone and labelled Made in Australia. I choose to avoid food products made in countries which do not have the same health and chemical restrictions as our own country, yet am finding this more and more difficult as the Retail Giants and Large Manufacturers push the legal aspects of country of origin to the lmits. Apparently this will be watered down even further if we do not act prior to the proposed free trade agreements in the pipe line this year. It seems that despite the majority of the population demanding truth in country of origin labelling it is brushed aside by both major political parties as they seem to agree that less, misleading, or even absent information in the name of bigger profits is acceptable.

Political Disagreements:

When visiting my home town I work with the local solitcitor whom I value as a good friend. We have differing political views on many issues and agree on a small number. Debates become part of a daily routine as we try to get our point of view across and convince the other of its merits. When he convinces me with facts and evidence I agree. When I convince him with facts and evidence he resorts to calling me a Greenie, Hippie, Tree Hugger, Socialist etc etc and then changes the topic. Lucky I value the friendship.

Rainfall:

While travelling down to western NSW during the second week of December, I arrived at Goondiwindi only to be told the road to Moree was closed due to flooding. I had to drive east to Inglewood then south to Inverell, west to Warialda and west to Moree. The first 2 hours of the detour was during blinding rain and reducing my speed to 20km in an effort to see the road. My fear was that I would get through a creek and over a hill only to be stopped at another creek and then unable to get back through the creek I had just come through. Water was running over the roads in many places and it would not take much to trap me. Luckily from Warialda the weather became fine. All in all an additional 5 hours to the trip. The irony : The Moree road opened 10 mins after I left Goondiwindi. The luck: A woman was trapped between 2 creeks on the same back rd that I had driven only hours before and spent the night trapped in her car and was helicoptered out the next morning.

Family:

My sisters were also at my mothers as it was her 75th birthday. The eldest daughter gave mum a few photo frames to hang family pictures on her walls. In front of the whole family Mum said to her ” when I was younger I would have accepted the gift and said thank you very much, but now I am older I want to tell you that I do not like them at all” We all went slient and my sister leaned over and said to me ” Now she is older my foot, she has never been any bloody different” to which we both agreed and chuckled.

Love:

One of the families I vist have a majorly disabled son who actually died in her arms last month before she resuscitated him. He requires 24 hours care and totally handicapped. He was rushed to Dubbo Hospital where the mother was advised to let him go. The mother refused and pointed out to them that if it was her other son with no disability they would be doing all they could to save him and her love for them both is equal and she demands they do all in their power to save her son. He is flown to Sydney and the parents were down there for 9 weeks and only returned home the second week in December with their disabled son. The unflincing love and devotion of a mother is an amazing force.

So these are a few events that I have experienced during the last month, has anyone else got any they would like to share.

Back to the Future

A couple of actions appear to be happening at the moment, which the MSM, seem to be either reporting very lightly, or not reporting at all. I think this could be due to the fact that these actions would not have the desired outcome for the media barrons or their CEO counterparts in other conglomerates as well. While I appear to have seen very little reporting on these matters I believe they should be much more forward in the media at the moment.

1) Sham Contracting: The construction industry in Australia seems to have a substantial number of sham contracts going on at the moment which are currently under investigation. Unions, for many years have been labelled the bad sector of Industrial Relations with claims of intimidation, thuggery and underhanded tactics. This is used at every single opportunity to alienate the general community against unions.

Little did we know that possibly the biggest sham and underhanded member of Industrial Relations, especially in the construction industry is the contractor. Contractors have been signing false statutory declarations claiming their sub contractors have been paid properly, when this is obviously not the case. It is estimated that up to $2.5 Billion in tax revenue is lost each year as a result of these sham contracting practices. In addition it is estimated that up to 168,000 sham contracting arrangements exist in the construction industry alone and this represents up to 46% of all independent contractors.

Hopefully the tide is turning and employees are seeing through the scam that is outsourcing and contracting in the name of avoiding the benefits of Annual Leave, Sick Leave, Superannuation, Long Service Leave, Payroll Tax, Work Cover, etc, etc, while paying exactly the same rate of pay to the contracted worker. If this was the actions of Unions then there would have been a military Intervention of the Waterfront type against the unions. Hopefully the correct outcome from the investigations will see the worker actually rewarded the way they should be instead of the way their crooked contractor deems it. Will we go back to the future where employees were actually employees with benefits and rights? I hope so.

2) There seems to be a growing protest movement in the USA against large corporations and against obscene profits. It appears to be growing in size and momentum. I wonder if this is the start of the lower and poorer classes of the USA (which have exploded as a percentage of the classes over the last 15 years) finally deciding enough is enough and it is time for their voices to be heard and time for change, but an even bigger change than what the current 2 major parties propose.

History shows that once the total wealth shifts too far to the very few at the top (no matter whether they are Government or Private owners) instability in the political system can erupt with dire consequences of the election of extreme leaders on either side of the political divide with a commanding electoral margin. This margin then allows them to alter the constitution in the extreme to favour their own political bias either left or right.

The snippets of protests I have managed to observe remind me a of the protests in the peace era of the sixties. These protests are not the type of violent protests against the G8 but rather the sit in type protests against the Vietnam War. With almost 10% unemployment and wealth distribution continuing to skew to a mega wealthy few, the USA appears to be heading towards a hotbed of “us versus them”.

While there is the emergence of the Tea Party to the right, there also appears to be, the emergence of a number of groups to the left as well. If these groups merge, like the Tea Party, it will make for very interesting politics indeed. Overall there are far more Lower and Poor socioeconomic groups in the USA than there are wealthy groups, due to the continuing concentration of total wealth to the few at the top. Will the USA go back to the future and have a much fairer taxation and social system, which existed before the election of Ronald Reagan? I hope so.

Super Profit or Super Obscene or Super Con

Rio Tinto today announced a 122% increase in its profit to $14,300,000,000.  Which is more than many country’s total GDP.

It revealed its bottom line almost tripled last year with record underlying earnings of over US $13.9 Billion based on soaring prices.

That same year “Last Year” it was proposed that a “Super Profit Mining Tax” be introduced by the Rudd Government on profits that were considered excessive.  The mining industry immediately went into massive hysterics claiming it would send them broke, projects would be cancelled, many thousand of contractors would be thrown to the scrap heap and they would mine elsewhere.  A major scare campaign was unleashed against the government complete with the mega wealthy protesting in the public domain, like a PAYG worker, as though they would not be able to afford their bread or milk should the tax proceed.  The coalition jumped on the band wagon claiming it would kill off the industry.

To make the situation alarming and distressing to the community, the major mining companies immediately announced a hold on projects and people were sucked into the claims that mining would go broke.  Most did not understand the tax only extended to profits over and above a certain level.  Not standard profits but determined super profits.  The ALP became scared and started their ultimate demise of Kevin Rudd and now we have the Gillard Government.  Amazingly with the change of leader and a backdown of the tax all of the projects immediately recommenced.  A real demonstration of the power of these monolithic beasts.

I am sorry but I consider a 122% increase in profit to $14.3 Billion Dollars nothing short of obscene and a major con of the Australian people.

So, who will share in this astronomical profit?  Shareholders only.  The country of which they mine a non renewable resource has been well and truly taken for a ride by Mining Conglomerates and their mega wealthy owners.

Obviously the mining industry knew full well that their profits were going to be Super Obscene and as a result spending a few hundred million to stop tax being imposed on many billions was good management on their behalf.

After release of these results, I would like the coalition and the mining industry, to please put forward their argument, once again, as to why we should not have a Super Profits Mining Tax.

It is a Super Profit.  It is Super Obscene and worst of all it is a monumental Super Con of the Australian people.

ADDITIONAL UPDATE : Newcrest Mining Announces a 148% increase in profit.

Arrestable Offences

I hope this works, because if it does I have finally understood Miglos instructions and it will be my first Blog at Cafe Whispers.

Today, Malawi is passing a law, making it an offence to Fart in public.

Which means that I should never visit Malawi, especially after Curry, Baked Beans or anything containing yeast.  :)

To lighten the mood, I thougth it would be a good idea to ask everyone, what would you like to make an arrestable offence ?

National Consumer Credit Protection

Well as of today there is a new set of laws to be policed by ASIC to ensure greater protection of the consumer when it comes to personal borrowings. A Person engaged in Credit Activities is any person either broking or providing credit to a personal person or persons.

Remember this does not extend to business lending or company borrowings.

The major changes between what happened before and what happens now is as follows.

1)      Persons engaging in Credit Activities must act in the best interests of the customer at all times.

2)      A product recommended must not be “Unsuitable” for the borrower.

3)      Persons engaging in Credit Activities must ensure to their best abilities that the borrower can afford the loan being recommended now and into the foreseeable future

4)      Persons engaging in Credit Activities  must ensure Borrowers are not placed  in a stressed situation by borrowing and must not be required to dispose of an asset to meet commitments.

5)      Unlike the old law the new law extends to Investment Properties as well.