Mob Rule !

That " Black lives Matter " slogan means different things to different people.  In America it clearly refers to the injustice suffered by people of colour in every aspect of their lives.  In particular, it is aggravated by the senseless deaths where the police are quick to use their guns in minor confrontations and such deaths are swept under the carpet.

In Australia it is a manifestation of shame for the way our " First Nation " indigenous people have suffered in the hands of their " white invaders ".  They represent a majority of prison inmates out of proportion to their numbers and the rate they experience " death in custody " has become a national disgrace.

What is disturbing is the way street demonstrations to support the " Black lives Matter " movement are descending into mob rule.  Early isolation in response to the coronavirus has started the recovery process but we legally need to avoid crowds to prevent a second wave of this disease.  Despite the dasmage this isolation has done to our economy, vast crowds are marching through the streets and ignoring the need to keep a safe distance to avoid contamination.

Now a change in the way policing is to be valued is likely to increase the rate of confrontation between the law and the indigenous population.   That old " quota " system of arrests and convictions will be changed to a new guise which will result in a sharp increase in the number of search warrants conducted annually.

Police will be targetted to achieve success in varying areas of crime with the highest numbers allocatted to areas where many indigenous people live.  It appears to be an invitation to the police to concentrate on" the usual suspects " and go for the low hanging fruit.

This " Black lives matter " has become an emotive issue and many law abiding people are taking to the streets in the belief that solidarity with the movement takes precedence over any form of restriction imposed by the government.  It is a clash of wills that may see this coronaravirus sweep across the country in the numbers that have been tragic overseas.   It is inevitable that these will clash with the police trying to impose the law set by the government.

What seems to be forgotten is that we have a very effective way of imposing our will on the law.  It's called the " democratic process " and we regularly go to the polls and vote in a government.  If sufficient numbers make their demands clear to those who represent them in parliament we will get the necessary law change - or we will get a change in who sits on the treasury benches.

It is a lot more effective than marching through the streets and it completetly avoids spreading the coronavirus.

Budget Repair !

The national debt has blown out by billions of dollars to fund relief for workers displaced by this coronavirus lockdown. It is inevitable that eventually the tax regime will need to change to restore this balance in government coffers.

A seventy page " budget repair " document prepared by Liberal/National Senator  Gerard Rennick will be used to lobby the parliament for tax changes to increase the tax flow into treasury.  It carries measures that may make the average taxpayer feel very uncomfortable.

Once again the ABC will be in the tax man's sights.   The proposal suggests that the Australian Broadcasting Commission be either sold, or instructed to pay its cost by introducing similar advertisintg as is the backbone of the commercial television networks.   The national advertising dollar is finite and if it is stretched another way we will probably see a sharp reduction in the fare shown on commercial television.  It would also introduce another influencing factor to ABC independence.

The primary objective in Senator Rennick's proposal would be a sharp revision of the rate applied to Capital Gains Tax.   At present, this is levied at the taxpayer's marginal tax rate  and it is suggested that be raised to the company tax rate of thirty percent for all assets in excess of two million dollars.
At present the taxpayers primary residence is exempt from the tax and rental properties are taxed  at a fifty percent discount provided they have been in the taxpayer's hands  for longer than a year.

Canny investors have been taking advantage of the endless inflation in Australian house prices by buying rental property and selling after that year has elapsed to make profits that are not available through traditional investment opportunities.   The whole idea of a " capital gains tax " was to give the government a share of windfall profits.

It seems inevitable that government eyes must fall on the huge inflation profits accrueing on private homes year after year.  To many people this is their retirement nest egg and assumes greater importance than whatever their superannuation account will deliver.  During the lockdown many withdrew from their superannuation and home equity now plays a bigger role in retirement plans.  Any move for the government to intrude on that area of investment will be met with fierce opposition.

If the government does move on taxpayer residences the capital gains tax exemption would probably still apply until the property reached double its purchase price, and then additional value would attract the tax.  For every dollar thereafter the governmenrt would collect ninety cents.

The universities also feature in this tax recovery plan with the tax office going after profits gained from admitting foreign students.  It is this profit that has kept the lid tightly closed on fees for Australian students and any rise in university overheads from tax must be reflected in higher tuition fees.  The universities are alread under pressure with the coronavirus deflecting entry into the country that may see a huge drop in overseas student numbers from next year.

This propsal is simply a talking point raised by this Senator.  The debate will contain many opposing views and it will be hotly covered in the media.  What is finally decided will probably bear little relation to what is contained in this proposal.   It is simply an early warning to the taxpayers that we face a serious financial outlay and bold measures will be needed to restore the situation.

A Dirty Old Man !

An independent enquiry found that Dyson Heydon was guilty of sexually harassing female associates and that his reputation for that sort of conduct was an open secret in the highest judicial circles.  Absolutely nothing was done to stop this abuse despite Heydon sitting as a justice on the highest court in Australia.

Since records began with the old testament of the bible, sex has been a problem for society.  The urge to copulate with a female is built into the psyche of evert male and it becomes active from puberty.  As every mother fears, this sex urge used to be a threat to virginity from the start of the courting ritual and daughters were urged to marry young to avoid this threat.

We now live in a more equal society and this has devalued the sex act to the extent it is now deemed a tradeable asset. Men with power in the business world know that an ambitious woman may trade sex for promotion or to a valued position for which many are seeking selection.  This was infamous in Hollywood where  the " casting couch " usually played a big part in the selection for starring roles.

There should be no surprise that sexual advantage took place in the precints of the High Court. A similar liason nearly saw the president of the United States turfed out of office on an impeachment charge and we should remember how that affair started. It seems that an intern in the White House encountered the president and struck up a conversation.   Somehow the subject turned to women's underwear and Monica volunteered that she was wearing a " thong ".   The president was unaware of that term, so Monica lifted her skirt to illustrate its brevity - and things started from there !

Dyson Heydon has been revealed as a " dirty old man " who uses the power of his office to entice young women to appease his exual appetite.  It is probable that the reputational damage may see him dropped from the board of prestigeous companies and shunned in the legal world.  It is unlikely he will be prosecuted because all of the women would have been over the age of consent.

It does send a strong message to society at large.  The predatory male using position to pressure subordinates for sex no longer has the benefit of silence for cover.  A company which does nothing to investigate and stop predatory behaviour risks exposure in the market place which may see both suppliers and customers shun their products.  Ignorance that the problem existed is no longer a defence for management.

If nothing else, it introduces a new factor for consideration in any new burgeoning relationship. Where any degree of seniority exists it poses a danger of misinterpretation because sex has become a very casual occurrence in social relationships.   The abilitty of women to speakup and accuse these violaters has changed the ground rules.  They are fast moving in the right direction.

Additional Benefit from Solar !

The ever decreasing costs of electricity storage is making solar farms an exciting alternative to rural farming communities and this is generating opposition to prevent the loss of prime agricultural land from contributing to the world food supply.

It seems we need a new definition of how we classify farmland when we examine this issue.  It would be a shame to see land presently worked to grow crops for harvest disappear under a mass of photo volcanic cells, but that argument does not hold up when the land in question is simply used for grazing.

A vast area of the Australian countryside is set aside for the grazing of sheep or cattle and is considered " marginal " from an agricultural point of view.  Evidence is starting to appear where a mix of solar gathering on farms that duplicate as grazing grounds for sheep and cattle actually benefit from the presence of those solar panels.

Last year Australia experienced a severe drought and one of the outcomes was a vast reduction in stock because most graziers were forced to buy feed to keep their animals from starving.  Vast herds shrunk to a nucleus of the best breeding animals and now the drought has broken it is estimated that it will take years to regain those herd numbers.

What is surprising is a report from a Dubbo farmer who has  an array of solar panels located on his fifty-five hectare farm.  During the worst of the drought his sheep continued grazing amongst the panels when surrounding farmers were buying in feed and reducing their herd sizes.   He noticed that night temperatures induced moisture to form on the solar panels and this dripped off onto the pasture below when the sun rose in the morning.  The panels were generating enough water to sustain the surrounding grass and delivering sustainability for his sheep.

There is a benefit to be gained by locating solar farms on marginal grazing land if this mix of activities can be managed.  The ideal situation would be electricity generated by solar during the day having the excess used to pump water back to elevated lakes to use hydro power to sustain supplies during rhe night when the sun is not shining, and this is the tactic that will be employed in the enlarged Snowy Mountains development.

There appears to be a strong case for combining solar farms on maginal grazing land to combine the   productive effect of leasing the land for that use with the benefit of drought protection. The right combination of land use can have a positive effect on farm finance by reducing that old drought scourge that has long affected the farming community.

ABC " News " Cuts !

For most of the earlier years of the twentieth century the most listened to new service in Australia was provided by the ABC.  In paricular, the midday news and the seven o'clock evening news was a regular news feature on every commercial radio station across the depth and breadth of Australia.  Those were the days when commercial radio relied on the ABC for what was termed " the National news " !

The arrival of television brought a drastic change and the establishment of rival networks quickly saw competing newsrooms see the value of news gathering in the quest for ratings.  The ABC was accused of having a left wing bias, but as the national broadcaster it reigned supreme as the  most watched news service with national appeal.   People tended to believe what they saw on the ABC.

Now budget cuts are intruding into the ABC's ability to provide a full spectrum of services.  Important in-depth shows like " Australian story " and " Foreign Correspondent " which expand on items covered briefly in the news will be reduced in number and many back office services will be forced to share with SBS.  Staff cuts will reduce the ABC payroll by two hundred and fifty people.

One of the casualties will be the closure of two ABC channels to fit the budget into a new five year plan.  The ABC is about to seriously shrink in size and one of the things that will disappear from air is the much watched flagship 7-45 am news programme.  Across Australia this was where many people got their first look at the world news as they ate breakfast or drove to work in the morning commute.

The fact that the ABC is retreating in news provision is coming at a time when the very authenticity of news in general is under question.  The computer and the internet have opened the door to phenomenons such as Facebook which may be inundated with news items created by banks of computers churning out input disguised as the contributions from Australian citizens.  Much of this originates from foreign government actions designed to enhance the vote for political parties with which they share a common interest.

We are facing what will probably be the greatest change to the Australian business cycle since Federation.   The lockdown to defeat the Coronavirus forced commerce to close and put people out of work and the shape of the recovery that is emerging will be very different.  It is important that the independence of the ABC news gathering remain intact to give an unfiltered view of how public opinion is forming. Otherwise, that view will be shaped by the external influences that create agendas by manipulation through media such as Facebook.

This budget cut back could be the first of many that emasculates the ability of the ABC tio provide a national news service on an Australia wide basis.  That is a unique reality that has served us well over a long period of time !

The " CSI " Effect !

In July of 2009 a crime in Sydney shocked Australia.  When a suburban newsagency failed to open early on Sunday morning to deliver the weekend papers, enquiries at the newsagents home revealed that the entire family had been brutally bashed to death in their beds.

Norman Lin (45), his wife Lily (43), her sister Irene (29) and the Lin sons  Henry (12) and Terry (9) had been the victim of an intruder.  The police found no evidence of a forced entry and the electricity had been cut off at the meter.  These murders resulted in a long and careful police investigation.

Eventually, the family brother in law,  Robert Xie wass arrested and faced prosecution.  Xie protested his innocence and claimed to have been asleep in his own bed alongside his wife on the night of the murder, and this was corroberated by his wife.

Four times Xie faced a jury and three of those trials were abandoned when the jury failed to reach a verdict.   That fourth trial reached culmination when the judge took the unusual step of allowing a majority verdict instead of a unanamous verdict in Januarty 2017.   Xie was subsequently sentenced to five life sentences, to be served without access to parole.

What is believed to be the damning evidence was referred to as " stain 91 ".   This consisted of a blood stain on the floor of Xie's garage and it was claimed that it contained DNA evidence from both of the Lin children and two of the adults.  The prosecution made use of a DNA " expert " and this appeal claims he went far beyond his area of expertise and intruded into the jury's role.

It is clear the prosecution offered no evidence on the age of the stain and it is believed that the Lin children often played in Xie's garage and he was frequently visited by the entire family.  The judge took the precaution of warning the jury about what she called the " CSI effect " where DNA claims made on an American crime show often veered well beyond the parameters that exist at that time.

Under Australia's " double jeapardy " laws had Xie been found not guil;ty at those abandoned trials he could not have been retried.  Because the jury failed to reach a verdict he could have faced new trials endlessly and many would assume that these failures showed that the prosecution failed to present a clear case of guilt.

The public will await the outcome of this appeal with interest.   Either an innocent man has spent years in prison and the perpetrater of this crime remains free, or the police got the right suspect but botched the case for the prosecution.

Once again, the ever evolving mysteries of DNA are proving critical in the justice system and non technically minded men and women on juries face the task of deciding what they choose to believe.  It does not bode well for the future where such evidence seems destined to inevitably land in the court of appeal  !

The Education Attrition Rate !

The attrition rate in the Australian education systemn is shocking.   Nationally, just one third of the  students who begin in year one go on to complete year twelve. Significantly, the loss mainly occurs in the transition to high school and we are losing an amazing degree of talent.

The Federal government is negotiatig a deal with the states and territories to implement a programme called " Closing the gap ".   In particular, this loss is impacting heavily on indigenous students, many of whom could speak two to five languages and would be regarded as highly talented in other circumstances.

The plan calls for six million dollars to fund the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience which would brng mentoring help to 250 schools to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children engage in education.  A National University study found that indigenous children starting school have a 200 to 400 word vocabulary whereas non-indigenous children usually had an extended vocabulary of 600 or more words.

This will be even more important now that university fees are under review and it is likely that fees for the most popular courses are set to rise sharply.  The drop out rate at university is also a cause for concern and higher fees will probably bring with it a drop in the numbers seeking to advance their job prospects by seeking higher education levels and that is exactly the opposite of what industry in Australia needs to happen.

It is highly important that indigenous people have access to well paying career jobs and that will only be attained through them obtaining the necessary qualifications.  That can only be brought about by ensuring that they complete their education which then opens the right doors.  It is quite clear that incentives are needed to keep bright young indigenous minds within the education system.

This " Closing the Gap " is welcome as indigenous education suffered a five hundred million cut in the 2014 budget.  A lack of education is unacepptable.  These are not just statistics - they are real people.  Education is the key to a better lifestyle.

This programme will not miraculously cure the drop out rate, but it will help by making an improvement.  This is a problem that will be solved on a case by case basis - with one family at a time.  At least it is a step in the right direction  !

The Coming Fire Season !

Last Sunday was the shortest day of the year.   We are now on the annual curve back to longer days which will culminate in summer and with that comes a return of the bushfire season.  Last summer was the year we will never forget.  A combination of an enduring drought and the record high temperatures that are the outcome of global warming brought a fire storm that destroyed lives and property from which we are still recovering.

What got us through the inferno of last summer was the volunteer bush fire brigades who turned out in their thousands and battled the fires for weeks without a break. No sooner were the fires out than we had this coronvirus to contend with, and as a result the Australian economy is looking very different heading towards this next summer.

Those volunteer fire fighters were a mix of self employed and people who worked for a boss who released them to undertake their fire fighting duties.  Most of those businesses have been weeks in lockdown and a return to employment hinges on this pandemic being contained. There are tentative signs that this is happening, but there are also signs that we may be entering a second wave of the virus that may make local lockdowns a critical response.

Last summer's national emergency saw a heavily increased use of water bombing planes and helicopters.   The dropping of fire retardant from the air conbined with men on the ground to tame the flames and it is important that we have a repeat of the aircraft available for next summer. Exactly the same aircraft orbit between the fire seasons in both the north and south hemispheres, but they need to be booked in advance to ensure availability.

Perhaps the biggest danger is the possibility that many of those volunteers who gave their time unstintingly last summer may be unemployed when this fire season comes around.  The state of the economy will certainly make it much harder for employers to release employees for fire duties and it is highly likely we may have to cope with reduced numbers.

Volunteer members of rural fire brigades are highly trained people.   Fighting fire is a complex art and they give of their time all year to gain that expertise.   It would not be unreasonable to expect the government to chip in and make a pay contribution on the days that they are on the fire front.  In the present economic circumstances that should not be left to the goodwill of their employers.

What happens on the fire front next summer depends on luck.  If we have a wet sumer the risk will be reduced, but there is every expectation of fires to be fought and we have a volunteer army in place to respond.   In the changed economic cuircumstances, the government would be wise to put in place the financial incentives to ensure that happens.

Making Penalties Fit the Crime !

We are fast seeing the unemployment rate reaching eight percent and the state government is looking at ways of discounting fines to bring them into each individuals ability to pay.  The vast majority of fines are for a fixed amount and apply equally to rich business people and aged pensioners despite their uneven income levels.

From this July 1, people who receive Centrelink benefits may apply to have fines reduced by half where that fine is being collected by Revenue NSW.  That will include traffic, speeding and parking fines and  for minor court matters such as stealing, offensive behavior, intoxication and disorderly conduct.   It will not apply to court ordered fines, including jury duty fines and fines ordered against body corporates.

That fine regime is somethintg set by parliament.   Whenever an individual crime increases sharply in volume the politicians seem likely to increase its severity in the belief that a penalty increase will see the convictions drop.  Fines of five hndred dollars are now common and these take no account of the ability to pay of the person fined.

In particular, we are seeing many Indigenous Australians in prison because of outstanding fines and they are more likely to be unemployed or getting a low wage than other segments of the Australian population.  Aborigines are over represented in the prison system and the inflexibility of the fine system seems to be a leading cause.

The law in Australia is something we inherited along with the first fleet and that was something that harked back to Magna Carta.   In the earlier days of merry olde England kings ruled by divine right - and they owned everything.  They could personally impose taxes if they needed money to fight a war.  The local barons had a run in with King John and they forced him tio sign Magna Carta at Runneymede and that gave many personal freedoms.  Australian law accepts Magna Carta as its base.

It seems that this fine discount is a temporary measure while we fight our way out of this Coronavirus pandemic and the recession it has caused, but our fine system is basically unfair.   The fine applies to the event and not the person applicable.  The impost of the fine can be greatly different to the spending power of individuals subject to its measure.

Now - for the first time - that imbalance is being taken into account in the collection of fines.  If ever this concession comes to an end it will be difficult to return to a regime of applying fines without regard to ability to pay.  Perhaps we are seeing a watershed in Australian law that signals a new permanency  !

Ducking and Dodging !

The world tax regime is very kind to international companies by allowing them to arrange tax matters to avoid paying tax.  One of those dodges is intellectual property.  The right to reward for ownership of intellectual property is slippery and that person often seems to have residence in a country with supportive tax laws.

Another favourite dodge is manipulation of the price charged when intellectual goods pass between countries.  If they are going into a country with a high tax regime the stated price can be artificially low to mask the tax payable.  Echelons of high priced lawyers and accountants keep at the cutting edge of tax laws to ensure that international companies get the best of both worlds when it comes to tax payable.

Australia had proposed a fair tax on internet behemoths like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon in 2018.   We later changed course when US President Donald Trump threatened to impose retaliatory measures that would result in a trade war.  Instead, Australia promised to support a move by Paris based OECD countries and G20 countries to design an international tax accord which had a stronger chance of surviving and might even have been accepted by the internationals themselves.

That is now on the backburner because US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnunchin has writteen to treasurers in the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy  advising them that he believes that the talks are at an impasse.  America would not  entertain discussions until later this year at the earliest.  That reason is crystal clear.   This is an election year in the United States.

The collapse of an international deal will force dozens of countries - including Australia - into difficult decisions.  They may decide to continue to strive for a global deal without the US, or try to introduce their own digital tax.  Both options risk a retaliatory tariff from Trump who is highly protective of US tech business.  The UK plan for a digital tax could also be a hurdle in its upcoming negotiations for a free trade agreement with the US.

It is quite clear that nothing will eventuate until this US election is over in November and we see who sits in the oval office for the next four years.   Even if it produces a change in the presidency there is no guarantee that the incoming president will be sympathetic to a change in the tax regime that will see the world companies based in the US pay more tax.

Many countries have been hoping that an increase in tax revenue from the tech giants could have helped repair budgets damaged  by the Coronavirus pandemic and the recession that followed.
It is encouraging that last year Google reached a $481.5 million settlement with the Australian tax office after a protracted dispute flowing from an audit of its tax practices.

Tax justice still seems a long way from happening, but there are terntative signs that it is slowly moving in the right direction  !

A New Border War !

The worlds two most populous countries share a common border, but that border was not settled when India gained independencwe from Britain and Mao won a civil war to proclaim China a Communist state.  It has constantly been a point of friction ever since and the two countries have engaged in limited armed hostilities on several occasions.

Once again fighting has broken out on the India/Chinese border and the world holds its breath.   These are now nuclear armed nations and both are headed by leaders of an intemperate nature. Another unssettled dispute involves the Indian provinces of of Jammu and Kashmir in which its 8,500,000 residents follow the Muslim religion.

This is claimed by both India and Pakistan and both countries have troops facing one another and regularly clash over this unsettled holdover from the days of Indian independence.  The matter was supposed to be settled by a referendum, but that never happened.

Fortunately, a degree of restraint has been in place in this latest eruption of violence between India and China.  The two sides have fought over control of an access road to an airfield, but so far this has not involved firearms.   The clash has been between bodies of men armed with steel bars and baseball bats and an undetermined number on both sides have been killed.  New reports suggest that these deaths involve about thirty people on both sides

What happens next depends greatly on the leaders of these two nations. Modi is fast taking India into becoming a predominantly Hindu state and Xi Jinping has aspirations for China to become a world military power.   The danger is that nationalistic ambitions may fuel this border tension to the point where neither is prepared to back down.  That was exactly the cause of Europeas countless border wars of an earlier century.

Exactly the same problem exists between India and Pakistan.  They also face each other armed with nuclear weapons and elements within Pakistan uphold a holy war against India that has taken the form of armed incursions across their common border.  A Pakistan terror group recently conducted a raid on Mumbai's hotels, killing foreigners and setting fire to buildings until they were individually eliminated.

The United Nations was supposed to be the world body to arbitrate these sort of disputes.   It has dissolved into power blocks to little effect.  The days of the United Nations taking concerted action to right a wrong seems to be over.   We can only hope that both Modi and Xi Jinping have the good sense to not let this border tension get out of hand.  A nuclear clash betwwen these two Asian behemoths  is all it would take to permanently damage a world economy crippled by this spreading virus pandemic  !

A Responsibility Change !

Following the Opel Tower and Mascot Tower disasters, we now have another major faulty building for the owner occupiers to contend with on the Sydney skyline.  Once again the apartments were bought off the plan and when construction was complete the necessary " occupation cerificate " was signed off by a private certfier.

That  "Occupation certificate "is a critical document because it allows the developer to force the buyers to  settle on their purchase and move into the tower.  The new state Building Commissioner now declares this new building riddled with fire hazards and defects.  Much of the work is incomplete and there are glaring faults such as one of the lifts being permanently unusable because the lift shaft is too small for the lift fittings to be installed.

Theoretically, the developer and the builder can be called upon to fix these faults, but should they find it impossible to fund the work and declare bankruptcy the onus falls back on the individual apartment owners.  This is the financial nightmare that awaits prospective unit buyers and which an update of building regulations was proposed to eliminate.

The Building Commissioner has been given new powers, but the weak link in the building code is the ability of the builder and the developer to choose a certifier of their own choice to sign off on that important occupation certificate.  At worst, the certifier could have his or her right to issue such certificates cancelled and that leaves building rectification on the shoulders of the unfortunate apartment owners.

Before the permit for private certifiers, the responsibility rested with the council involved.  It was the job of the council to supervise the building construction and when they signed off on that occupation certificate the rescources of the entire council was guaranteeing the structural integrity of the building.   There was no doubt who had the responsibility to fix any faults that developed.

The building industry whinged that councils were too slow to sign off on work and so private certifiers were permitted.  Unfortunately, they were not backed by any financial liabilities and all too often a close relationship developed between the certifier and the people paying for their services.  That has become too apparent in the spate of faulty buildings awaiting rectification.

The answer is abundantly clear.   We need to  dispense with private certifiers and again rest responsibility for buildings with the councils.  It is council inspectors who should check the building work at each stage of construction and have the ability to issue stop work orders where faults are found.  When a council issues an occupation certificate they are taking responsibility for the safety of the buiilding and the cost of any necessary repairs.

It is quite clear that authorising private certifiers has been a failure.  What is required is for the government to take the necessary steps to put responsibility where it belongs and ensure that apartment buyers are getting what they pay for.   A building free of defects that will serve for the purpose for which it was constructed !

A Play on Words !

Sydney Water has just lost another round of its court battle with Kleenex over whether it engaged in deceptive advertising when it claimed that its " wet wipes " were flushable.  Kleenex is a subsidiary of the giant American Kimberley Clark company and many years ago its product designers came up with an innovative new product.

They thought there was demand for a moistened wash cloth for cleaning baby bottoms after a nappy change.  A damp cloth would be kinder to a baby's delicater skin that wiping clean with toilet paper and changing baby often occurred in a location where water was not available.  The sales volume of this new product proved the designers were correct and the product was labelled " flushable ".

Then a strange thing happened.  Adults took a liking to these wet wipes and started using them as personable toilet paper and the mass making its way through the sewerage system began to exhibit a new problem for the water authorities.  These wet wipes did not dissolve as readily as toilet paper and we quickly began to encounter sewerage blockages.

What were termed  " fatbergs " formed and the only way to clear them away was to dig up the sewer and mechanically remove the conglomerate of paper, fats, grease, hair and other waste and truck it away to a landfill.   This was a huge expense and Sydney Water began advertising to stop people putting wet wipes down the toilet.

Its initial court case over that " flushable " instruction failed.  Last June the Federral court found that the consumer watchdog had failed to prove that the Cottonelle product  - rather than wipes generally -  caused actual harm to sewerage systems.    This product has been discontinued, but is replaced with new products which still bear that flushable label.

Now a full bench of the Federal Court has upheld a decision that Kleenex had not engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by claiming four types of Cottonelle " flushabl;e "cloths were fit for flushing.   The court said the watchdog had argued in the  original case that the products caused " actual harm " in sewerage systems, rather than posing a risk, and it could not change course during the appeal.

So we have massive blockages still occurring in the sewer system and the public show no signs of discontinuing their habit of replacing toilet paper with wet wipes.   Either Sydney Water needs to redesign the sewerage flow to accomodate wet wipes or Kleenex needs to discover a formulae that allows this product to disintegrate without harm to the sewer system.

And next time around the legal minds that word court challenges need to take more care in how they describe the occurrence they wish to discontinue.  That interpretation of the lexicon is something the court system takes very seriousl;y  !

Our Biggest Threat !

We have just had an example of how an unexpected world event can disrupt the Australian economy and this has turned the spotlight on our vulnerability to any interruption to the world oil supply.  The Coronavirus threw millions of people out of work and while parts of the world are making a slow recovery we are yet to see the worst of this pandemic in some countries.

The majority of our oil is refined overseas and imported into Australia.  We have an obligation by way of our membership of the International Energy Agency to hold a reserve in this country  to insulate us against any interruption to the world supply.  That reserve has been allowed to recede beyond its critical point because we have an understanding to dip into the American strategic reserve in a world emergency.

The stability of America is now under question since this " Black lives matterv " issue has brought raging mobs onto American city streets. The Australian government is urgently seeking to improve our holding of oil products. We need local storage for between another seven million and fifteen million barrels of oil stored locally to meet that quota.

That has started a frantic search for any unused liquid storage sites ariound the country and probably means we need to build some new facilities.  Our commercial transport system relies heavily on oil and the supplies that reach Australia travel through congested sea areas which are claimed by many nations.  Any commencement of hostilites could see these sea routes blocked.

There is an expectation that we are about to be less dependent on oil once the electric car replaces the internal combustion engine, but commercial transport within Australia will continue to need oil.  Much of the railway system runs on disel electric trains and heavy road transport is mostly oil based.  Without transport our food supply distribution would quickly come to a halt and oil is of critical importance to maintain our defence needs.

Our entire economy is critically based on a reliable supply of oil products and that is going to continue until well into the fuiture.  Our safety relies on a peaceful world and that is determined by events that are far outside Australian control. We need an onshore strategic reserve to tide us over should world events lead to some sort of economic blockade.

That comes at a bad time with governmenrt expenditure pushed to the limit to get the economy moving again after the virus lockdown, but an interruption to the oil supply isprobably the biggest danger we face in an increasingly hostile world.  This oil threat is something we ignore at our peril.  It has the capacity to bring Australia to a standstill.

Replacing Kings Cross !

The Sydney night life scene simply died when the government put up the shutters in Kings Cross. It was a bawdy concentration of drinking holes that made much use of the female anatomy to draw in thousands of revellers until the wee small hours of the morning.  It became a dangerous place to visit but the surging crowds loved it and when it closed our reduced drinking hours put us out of favour with the rest ofthe world.

The lid was kept firmly shut on any alternative emerging to replace Kings Cross when the required liquor license needed to be obtained from an existing venue.  The price of such a license soared and they changed hands at exorbitant prces.  Sad to say, Sydney now lacks the charm and conviviality that made Kings Cross famous around the world.

The government has taken a step into the unknown by ending the eleven year freeze on issuing new liquor licenses. As a consequence, the price of existing liquor licenses has collapsed, much to the chagrin of those holding such a valuable entity.   It frees up the opportunity of the entrepreneur to get into the entertainment business and Sydney will undoubtedly gain a new entertaiment Mecca - but it will not be in Kings Cross.

That suburb has changed forever. " Gentrification " set in once those bawdy bars closed and this venue close to the centre of the city has been reclaimed by the commercial world.  That Kings Cross phenomenon was derived from Sydney becoming the R and R centre for the Vietnam war and thousands of free spending servicement on leave provided the stimulus  for the type of entertainment that flourished there.

This is happening at a very interesting time.  We are emerging from a pandemic and new entertainment venues will have to abide by rules that limit crowds.  It is hoped that what replaces Kings Cross will be widely dispersed, but that depends on what finds favour and there will be a tendency for an entertainmernt cluster to emerge.  The lure of the old Kings Cross was the proliferation of " girly " shows packed into that famous " golden mile ".

The government has accepted that Sydney needs an off colour, raffish draw card to match the rest of the world.  It waits to see what emerges, knowing that it will not be popular with the existing people that live there.  As happened in Kings Cross, property values will soar as the surroundings draw in more entertainment venues. Entertainment venues bring their own rewards of increased job opportunities and work for live bands.  The Sydney music scene will  expand rapidly once this new era gets under way.

We are on the cusp of a new era.  Just what - and where - remains to be seen.  It will be an exciting time as something new finds its place in Australia's biggest city.  There is the inevitability that Kings Cross would be replaced and now the roadblock has been removed it is about to happen.  The only question is what form it will take  !

Protective Power of Aspirin !

Aspirin is probably the oldest pain reducer known to humankind.  It was used to treat battle wounds in the days when the Parthenon was being built in Greece and today it has been replaced on pharmacy shelves by a vast assortment of modern drugs.

It has a reputation in modern society for properties that shield us from bowel cancer and all through the last century many people popped an aspirin a day as a precaution.  It was both encouraged and forbidden by some sections of the medical profession because it was also known to irrtitate the stomach and cause internal bleeding, but the rumour of bowel cancer protection was strong and it found a place in numerous family medicine cabinets.

At long last that medical equation has been solved.  An article by a Melbourne hospital published in the Lancet gave the results of research they conducted into aspirin.  Their finding was that people aged from fifty to seventy should take an aspirin tablet daily to reduce the rate of bowel cancer by fifty percent.

This good news got even better.  The survey also found that taking aspirin for just a few years delivered  a long term protective effect  against this disease for years after the patient stopped taking it.  It was a clear vindication for those who persisted with aspirin during the time its benficial effects were treated as rumour.

This finding arose from a randomised controlled trial which monitored 427 opeople given aspirin and 434 given a placebo.  All of them had Lynch syndrome which is an inherited disorder which puts them at higher risk of getting a range of cancers, including bowel cancer.

The trial was conducted between ten and twenty years and there were 40 cases of colorectal cancer or bowel cancer in those taking  600 mg of aspirin daily, compared to  58 cases in those who were not. It delivers a clear indication that aspirin as a protection from bowel cancer helps built a form of immunity to the disease.

One of the other benefits is that aspirin is probably down at the cheapest end of the pricing of pain killers.  It is available, over the counter without the need for a prescription for mere pennies where the advanced drugs on pharmact shelves attract ever rising prices.

The outcome of this trial reccomends that people would be wise to take two aspirtin tablets a day for   an average of two and half years to gain the cumulative effects of the drug in shielding them from bowel cancer.

For many, this is vindication for their long held belief and for others it is a prasctical way to avoid one of nature's most diabolical life ending diseases.

A Humourless Australia ?

People from many nations have laughed at the comedy series " Fawlty  Towers ".  In one memorable spisode, Basil is receiving the first German tourists to visit his hotel after the second world war and he admonishes staff to " not mention the war ".

Of course Basil comits numnerous blunders which culminate in him goose stepping through the dining room, holding a finger under his nose to signify Adolph Hitler's toothbrush moustache.Sadly, we will never see that again because it has been deemed too " racist " and that episode has now been withdrawn from the series.

Even our own ABC is taking the censor's knife to shows that once were prime entertainment on our television screens.  The jokes standup comedians used to depict national steriotypes are now deemed offensive.   We can no longer refer to Scots as " stingy " or the Irish as " thick " and it remains to be decided what happens to the many comic situations that apply to our Australian character.

This has been creeping into the entertainment scene for a very long time.  The artist Joliffe used to regulary draw farmer Sandy Blight and his Aboriginal helper getting into all sorts of predicaments on the farm.  That was a favourite with many Indigenous people, but it was proclaimed " racist " and quickly disappeared from the newsagents shelves.

Someone wrote a witty little ditty called " My Boomerang won't come back " and that has not been heard on air for years.  It was claimed to be offensive because it made fun of Aboriginal people and is often referred to as the sort of " rubbish " that poisons relations between the white race and Indigenous people.  It seems to suggest that Aboriginal people lack a sense of humour.

What seems to be creeping in is a reluctance to show life as it really was in the twentieth century.  In America many familiers employed coloured women as cooks and nannies but now that role is considered offensive and is being removed from series that held vast viewing audiences. The censor's cutting knife is getting ever sharper and the racist view is getting deeper.

Whatever happened to our sense of humour  ?  We always made jokes at the expense of our politicians and today that seems to be the only sort of humour that holds up well.  The political cartoon in the daily newspaper is something that still seems to attract most Australians and often is the reason for buying the paper.

We seem to be in danger of losing the character that made Australians known across the world.  It was our ribald sense of humour in almost any circumstances that distinuished us as a separate race.  In comparison, we saw others who lacked in humour.  Our humour was infectous and often the reason strangers settled so well in this country.

Perhaps a very good reason to stop and think before we consign traditional Australian humour to the dust bin.  If we change our sense of humour we change Australia - and not for the better !

Creating an Icon !

George  Floyd was accused of tendering a counterfeit twenty dollar bill to buy a packet of cigarettes.  His death when placed under arrest by police was captured by cameras and stirred passions around the world.  Millions of people now know his name and his face is fast becoming as recogniseable  as the rulers of world countries.

Fate has singled out George Floyd to become a symbol that may change the world.  That picture of him laying in the gutter with a white policeman kneeling on his neck for over eight long minutes has come to recognise the injustice common to coloured people in most of the world.  His anguished cry of " I can't breathe "  was studiously ignored and when the knee pressure to his neck was finallty removed he had last conscience and when he reached hospital he was pronounced dead.

That film footage travelled around the world and brought millions into the streets as far apart as Sydney, London, Paris and widely across the United States.   What was remarkable was that people thought it mattered more than their personal safety from the Coronavirus which is still cutting a swathe by person to person infections.  In America, angry mobs resorted to burning public buildings and looting stores and many days later the unrest is showing no signs of disappating.

This is an issue that may prevent Donald Trump from securing a second term as president.  Trump declared himself the " law and order president " and called out the military to guard the white house. Coupled with his hesitation in ordering the necessary isolation when the Coronvirus roared out of China, the rersulting deaths in the USA may make supporters have a change of heart.  This pandemic has added to the unemployment queues and badly damaged the American economy.  The voters are looking for someone to blame for the damage.

It is highly likely that George Floyd's death has created a new icon to head the " Black lives matter " movement.  Years earlier a sniper's bullet that killed legendary black preacher Martin Luther King in Memphis in 1968 cemented his family as a spokesperson for black America.  Lacking an official " royalty " it seems that Americans anoint one of their own to that elevated position and this certainly helped John Kennedy win the country's highest office.  It remains to be seen if one of the Floyd family has the gravitas to step up and take the leadership that this unfortunate death is offering.

It seems quite clear that policing in America has become a military force more conducive to an army of occupation than a means of safeguarding the public.  The public are becoming afraid of their police and it will take a change of culture to alter that, and Trump is fast heading in the other direction.

The world reaction to George Floyd's death is a clear warning sign.  The fact that vast crowds took to the streets at risk of their own lives from this virus infection illustrates the depth of feeling.  The only question is whetheer the change that is coming is brought about by legislation or if inaction leads to a form of government that changes the nation forever.

The mood of the people has signalled the need for change !

A Fallen Hero !

Edward Colston was a revered citizen of the English city of Bristol.  He was a noted thilanthropist and when he died in 1721 the citizens gratefully contributed to a fund to erect a statue in his honour.  His name is enshrined in much of the Bristol architecture including a private school, the city's concert hall, a towering office block and an assortment of suburban street names.  The name plate at the base of that statue declares he was " a virtuous son of this city "

It says something of his changed status that this week a howling mob placed a rope around that statue and pulled if off its plinth.  They dragged it through the streets to the waterfront and dumped it in the harbour.  It was the way Colston amassed his fortune that brought a change of heart 125 years after his death.

Edward Colston was a slave trader and during his lifetime from 1636 to 1721 collecting slaves and selling them on the open market was a licensed English industry.   Ship owners crewed their ships with cut throat crews and sent them to the coast of Africa.  An armed party trekked inland until they encountered a native village.  They surrounded it and their firearms prevailed against the crude weapons used by the villagers.  They carefully examined their captives and rejected the old and infirm and children too young to survive the sea voyage.  The men and women destined for the slave blocks were shackled, marched back to the coast and forced into the hold of their ship.

It was a cruel enslavement. The captives were chained together in appalling conditions with limited food and water, often for weeks that ran to months as the ship travelled to the cotton growing states of America or the sugar cane fields of the Caribbean.  Their human waste was uncollected and a slave ship could be detected by the odour it emitted when it passed other traffic on the high seas.  Usually many slaves died during the journey and the bodies were thrown overboard to be eaten by the following sharks.

At their destination they were put in holding pens to fatten them to get the best price when they were individually auctioned.  Colston made a point of having his " brand " stamped into the chest of his captives with a red hot branding iron, the way rachers branded their cattle.      The letters " RAC " stood for "Royal African Company " and this signified that he operated with an individual English license to collect slaves.  The slaves travelling in his ships were branded for life.

We are now seeing a growing world wide trend where the relatives of former slaves now live in the countries that contributed to their misery.   That statue to Colston is seen as an affront and together with the anti slavery zealots of today they are not prepared to let those statues stand without complaint.  In the United States, statues relating to the Confederacy which sought to perpetuate slavery during the American civil war are being torn down.

All this is finding voice in the "Black lives matter " movement.  In much of the world, having a skin that is not white condems that person to inferior status in jobs and housing and their relationship with the police.  A black persons death is not treated as seriously nor investigated with the same zeal than if a white person had been involved.

It is becoming clear that those we depicted as national heros of yesteryear are being called upon to account for their actions in the light of the conditions that prevail today.

Learning to Cope !

New Zealand has become the first country in the world to abandon the restrictions imposed to contain the Coronvirus with the exception of its closed borders.  People from overseas arriving in the country will still be required to go into isolation for ten days to stop the virus being reintroduced by an infected arrival.

What it means for ordinary New Zealand citizens is the end of  containment measures such as keeping a one point five metre distance from one another. Shops and businesses are expeced to reopen immediately and the former carefree life of eating out and having a beer in a pub will be reinstated. 

New Zealand is a very small country by world standards and it reacted quickly when this pandemic roared out of China.  Unfortunately the rest of the world was not so prudent.  This virus is still to reach its peak in parts of South America, Indonesia and other asian hot spots.  The United States was slow to take counter measures and now its death rate is one of the world's highest.

Thankfully, the infection rate here in Australia is fast coming under control.  The positive outcomes from testing continues to drop and we have started to conditionally ease restrictions. The lockdown certainly damaged our economy and curious Australian eyes will be focussed across the the Tasman to see how quickly New Zealand business recovers and how the employment figures react.

Now that recovery is in sight it may be a good time to look to the future.  The last serious pandemic was the Spanish Flu in 1918, but we did have MERS and SARS that caused a moderate death rate and we would do well to remember that Ebola is still bubbling away in parts of Africa.  In an ever more crowded world, the scientists tell us that future pandemics are inevitable.

The research needed to determine how this Coronavirus made the crossover from the animal world is being hampered by politics. It originated in China, but the Chinese government is creating obstacles to any serious investigation and the blame game is being enthusiastically applied to cover the inadaquecies of their ruler's response.  Because of this, the origin of this pandemic will probably remain a mysterty.

The next time we may not be so lucky.  The majority of infected people recovered from this virus but if Ebola ever manages to get a foothold in a crowded community it would be catastrophic.  It could easily kill half the worlds population.  As we recover from this pandemic, it is vitally important that we put in place the measures needed to contain the next one !

A " Drought " Tax !

The New South Wales government is toying with the idea of linking water charges with the state of Warragamba dam.  When the water level is satisfactorily heigh standard water rates would apply, but when the level falls a corresponding " drought tax " cuts in and the price increases.

This would replace the present flat tax of $2.11 per kiloletre with what would be termed a " average weather " price of  $2.30 per KL. When the dams fall below sixty percent the price of water would hike to a " drought price " of $3.32 per KL. That would stay in place until the dam level recovered to seventy percent.

The thinking seems to be that if the price increases the householder will take care to use less water and this would replace the existing rationing that kicks in when we face a water drought.  It is interesting that this proposal surfaced at the same time as a plan to double the volume of drinking water produced by a new desalination plant was shelved indefinitely.

In a submission, the the NSW Energy and Water Ombudsman  warned large families and renters would pay twenty to thirty-six percent more in a drought.   This plan would hit those less able to pay the hardest.

What this proposal obscures is the fact that the city of Sydney has but a single source of its water, and that is Warragamba dam.   That was where we drew our water when the city was half its present size, and as the city continues to grow it is forced to service an ever larger customer base.  This is being supplemented by stealing water from cities like Wollongong and Nowra which are suffering their own water shortages.

We were suffering an agonising drought in 2019 and that coincided with an abyssmal fire season early in 2020.  An enormous volume of water was used fighting those fires and we had the good luck that the fires were followed by copious rain.  Warragamba's level is presently holding near the eighty percent mark.

If the scientists are correct, Australia is entering a climate change linked to global warming which will see less rain and higher summer temperatures.  We have unlimited water in the surrounding sea and the only way we can guarantee sufficient for the city is by using desalination to turn salty sea water into the stuff we can drink.  We simply can not tax our way into an adequate water supply.

It takes time to construct a desalination plant and that should be high on our plans to insulate the Sydney water supply from drought. There is no doubt this city will continue to grow and in the future a higher percent of its water needs will have to come from desalination.  This drought tax idea is simply putting off the inevitable.  Desalination is the only option to ensure the taps do not run dry  !

Hidden Dangers !

Why does it take four years to put in place the obvious solution to a tragedy that killed one baby and seriously injured another ?  In June 2016 the gas lines in the operating theatre at Bankstown Lidcombe hospital incorrectly delivered nitrous oxide when the signage indicated it was connected to oxygen.

This caused the death of one new born and permanent brain trauma to another.  As a result, that child will never walk or talk.  This incident caused an immediate investigation and it was discovered that the gas line installation was carried out by a person with no formal qualification for that job.  He lied when he claimed that the necessary testing had been carried out on completion of the installation.

Ominously, it was discovered that medical gas line installation was not an occupation that required any form of lcensing and it has taken four years for that anomoly to be corrected.   The legislation is now in place to ensure that medical gas is carried out by people qualified to do the job properly.

The aftermath of that tragedy should have been sufficient reason for immediate change.  Safe Work NSW launched criminal proceedings against the man who did the installation. Banksrown Lidcombe hospital and the company who supplied the industrial gases to industry.  The gas supplier was cleared by the court,  Bankstown Lidcombe hospital entereed into an enforceable  undertaking to change its management of medical gas installation, and the man who incorrectly installed the gas was fined $100,000 in the Downing Centre District court.

What this tragedy proved was that the safety aspect of job training and licensing in place to regulate industry does have anomolys.  These can exist for years without incident, until the fates decree that someone dies as a result and the media spectrum is focussed on the shortfall.

We live in an age of innovation.   We are constantly confronted with entirely new industries delivering services that can be extensions of previous technology and those extensions deliver new forms of danger.  In those trades, people gravitate to new jobs and such extensions do not necessarilly require formal training, or the training requirement is far from adequate.

That this medical gas tragedy should have happened should be a wake up call for a long, hard look at what other industrial aspects have slipped through the safety net.

Domestic Violence Responsibility Widens !

During the Coronavirus lockdown it was a hallmark of government policy that where possible business should continue to function with employees working from home. The age of the computer made this feasible in many industries, but now a finding in the New South Wales Supreme Court has raised the responsibility for family violence while employees are working from home as a direct charge on the employer.

This case arose where a woman and her de facto partner lived together with the woman's teenage son and a recent baby.   They both worked for the same employer but competed for clients and it appears that the de facto partner was suffering paranoid delusions and believed his partner was trying to steal his clients and intended to ruin him.   He attacked her with a hammer, causing her death.

An application for worker's compensation was made on behalf of the children but this was denied by the nominal insurer. The Worker's Compensation Commission then found in the children's favour but this was appealed.  In March this year the commission decided to pay the children $450,000.

The judgement says an employer might not always be responsible for domestic violence between couples who work from home but in this case there was a " palpable  and direct connection between the de facto's delusions and the harm suffered by her ".

Women's Safety NSW commented that many women had been forced to work from home with their abusers since the pandemic, without ever being asked if it was safe.   This decision would bring the issue of family violence onto business radars.  It might result in time off to attend court or put them in contact with support services.

For the business community this opens new ground.  That age old argument that what hapens behind closed doors is a private matter has just emerged as a business responsibility.  There was the expectation that when this coronavirus eventually recedes it might leave behind it in the business world a new era where the office became redundant and a greater number of employees worked permanently from home.

It also raises the spectre of very intrusive questions being asked in employment interviews.  Would an employer be justified in rejecting an employment applicant if evidence surfaced that the police had been called to that persons home in response to a domestic violence complaint ?

Unfortunately, many people have very volatile relationships, not all of which constitute domestic violence.  A loud argument can result in neighbours calling the police.  This is a court decision which will have far reaching consequences  !

Striking a Balance !

The Australian government is moving quickly to apply new migration laws to avoid overseas money being invested in industries that are vital to our trading position.  In a carefully worded speech, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg did not mention China, but it was cleary obvious that this was the prime target.

Frydenberg made it clear that new rules will now apply and the government will have the power to order disinvestment even after a sale has been approved.  Preserving our national interest is the test that will apply and that is likely to run counter against a tactic of the Chinerse Communist party which adheres to a policy known as  " yi shang, hi zhang " which translates into "using business to pressure governments ".

All this harks back to the 2018 decision to ban Chinerse electronics firm Huawei from having any connection with out 5G communication network upgrade.  It was feared thast allowing Huawei to blend both its expertise and its technical innovations into 5G would allow China to eavesdrop conversations and  intercept coded messages to the detriment of our business commuinity.

China is out biggest trading partner and it is clear that they intend to use the advantage this gives them to pressure Australian government decision making.  The export of Australian beef and barley to China has been reduced and the ever growing market for Australian wines is under threat.  All this is coming at a very bad time as we struggle to emerge from the isolation caused by the coronavirus.

There is another aspect of Chinese trade and Chinese migration to Australia that will distort our new approach.  Back in the days when the British lease on Hong Kong was being negotiated in a return to China a lot of very rich Hong Kong families established a bolt hole in Australia in case the situation deteriorated.

The estblishment of that " One country, two systems " solution eased tensions but there are many Hong Kong Chinese who have citizenship rights here and right now China is in the process of rolling back that agreement with Britain and forcing Hong Kong to toe the Communist line.  It is likely that Hong Kong residents with entry into Australia will be moving their money and their family here as a safety measure.

We would not want to slam the door shut if Hong Kong deteriorated into a blood bath but it is quite clear that Hong Kong is not going to go peacefully without a fight.  Millions of the city citizens have taken to ther streets in noisty demonstrations and it seems inevitable that eventually China will send in the PLA, and there is still the threat of an invasion hovering over Taiwan.

It seems that Chinese people and Chinese money pose problems.  We need to diversify our over balanced  reliance on Chinese trade and that will be difficult.  But we need to remember that not all Chinese are Communists.

A Fair Business Tax !

We are in a recession  and it is abundantly clear that the way ahead is going to be painful. The isolation needed to combat the coronavirus is being slowly lifted and we await to see what sort of economy emerges, but there is the expectation that we will have to endure both unemployment and under- employment.

It is the average employee who is being asked to delay a long awaited wage rise and in particular, civil servants in NSW are asked to accept a twelve month wage freeze and that includes the very people who put their lives on the line to keep hospitals and medical services running during the pandemic.

It is galling to read reports that indicate the biggest businesses in this country continue to use both the accounting and the legal system to install systemic tax avoidance.  Once again the tax office is going after them and again it will be a long running battle in the courts, with the big end of town using its wealth to recruit the brightest and sharpest cover to avoid paying their fair share of the tax burden.

This becomes a legal battle between the best minds in Australia with the very letter of the law being manipulated to gain a tax advantage.  The ATO is involved in a fight with one of this country's biggest accounting firms and the advice they have given three of Auistralia's biggest corporations which allowed them to move thirty billion dollars of international shares into offshore tax structures which put them out of range of the tax office.

This plan was allegedly designed by the mandarins of PwC Australia as an accounting exercise, but much of the documnentation was carried out by law firms - which allowed it to claim legal priviledge.  It then had to survive the judgement of the highest court in this land and that was a matter of legal argument being used to advantage.

The business world had developed into a very complex miasma.  Intellectual property has become a factor in assessing profit and in many cases the process involved was developed in one country, manufactured in another and exploited in the products sold in a third.  Unscrambling that profit into individual components can become a nightmare.

What needs to apply is a very simple maxim.  If profit is made in Australia it needs to be taxed in Australia and no other exemptions should apply.   The fee for using intellectual rights should be established and registered prior to manufacturing and the value of that which is manufactred outside Australia and imported determined by the courts and not the trading enterprises involved.

We need a simplified tax system.  The one in place allows the companies with the biggest bank accounts to employ the minions that are simply not available to the average Australian business to do battle with the tax office.   Surviving this recession will be harder unless all aspects of the business world pay their fair share of the tax burden.

A " Tradie " Recovery !

The building industry in Australia changed massively after the end of the second world war.  Prior to that change a builder employed a lot of men who constructed a new home from raw material.  They put in the foundations, cut and nailed up the frame and the builder needed the skill to calculate the roof structure they put together on the job. It was time consuming and costly, and the average home took months to reach completion.

When change occurred it took a " builder " to the new height of a " building manager " because he or she now managed the construction of a house by sub-contractors.  Homes were now built on a concrete slab and this was put in place by specialised crews who dcveloped the skills to do that quickly and cheaply.  The house frame came from a factory, as did the roof trusses and the building trade diverged into specialists who contractedf to deliver their services.  All the associated work was undertaken by a vast army of " tradies " who were generally self employed and skilled in their particular trade.

The Federal government is hoping that we can emerge from the recession caused by the coronavirus by a " tradies " led recovery.   It is considering offering a $25,000 grant to people who order a new home to be built or who order renovations that come close to a new home category.  Construction of a new home or the start of renovations must be contracted to begin from July 4 to December 31 to be eligible for the grant.

It is also required that this work be contracted to commence within three months of the contract signing to avoid a blow out in house prices.  It looks to provide a powerful incentive to get the building industry moving and it is today's building industry that generates vast employment in the factories that contribute the merchadise that goes into home construction.  The reckoning is that if the building industry makes a move the effect will be widespreaed across all sections of the manufacturing industry and this will have a positive effect on employment.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics underline the parlous state of our building industry.Building approvals fell by 1.8% in April and 2.6% in March.  Over the past year 174,719 new homes were approved by councils and this was a twenty-two percent decrease on the average of the past ten years.

It is thought this plan ticks all the boxes.  We have a housing shortage and we badly need a constant supply of new homes to keep the price of homes stable.  Too many people chasing too few homes is certainly one of the causes of the rapid accelleration in house prices to unsustainable levels. In the building industry of today, the number of " tradies " who supply their services number in the millions and are essential in providing construction, painting, pumbing and electrical work.

If this vast workforce is making money, they and their families are also spending money and that is something we badly need to get the rest of the economy moving.  It seems to be a practical step that will deliver an outcome.

Wage Freeze Danger !

It was certainly a big ask to request workers on the government payroll to accept a tweve months wage freeze to allow the state government to apply the saved money to job creation as we emerge from this virus lockdown.    The bean conters think a public serctor wage freeze would save the government about three billion dollars and this would be better spent on job creation.

That failed to get the numbers up in the parliament with Labor and the minor political parties opposed.  It will now be settled in the Industrial Relations Commission and that means endless hearings because the eight million people involved work under a wide variety of public sector awards.

The unknown factor is how the IRC will respond to the cases being put before it.  Public sentiment is strongly behind the nurses, doctors and paramedics who have courageously stood shoulder to shoulder at great personal risk to treat patients suffering from the coronavirus.  While the rest of the community sheltered in isolation our medical defence stayed on the job with deficient means of self protection.

There is the hope that the IRC will award pay increases where they are due and that our medical professionals will head that queque.   The IRC might also look favourably on fire fighters who week after week last summer  battled a forest inferno that almost wiped out many small towns and destroyed both homes and lives, but here the division of labour is greatly divided.

Most of the members of the Rural Fire Service are volunteers.  In a national emergency, their employers usually grant them leave to fight fires but the only ones on the governmenrt payroll are the members of city fire brigades.  They also fought these summer fires but to reward them with a pay increase and ignore the volunteers who turned out in their thousands would be a gross traversty of justice.

It is essential that the national wage structure delivers a living wage and in recent times that has been falling short.  Usually, it is a labour shortage that forces employers to pay more to fill vacancies but a" Gig " economy has emerged that has absorbed any excess labourforce and kept job demand unusually stable.  As a result, private sector wages have stubbornly failed to move upward despite increased living costs.

There is a danger than if public sector pay is frozen it will signal the private secvtor to resist wage increased and these are essentially overdue.  Commerce will face headwinds emerging from this recerssion but keeping business costs artificially low will only distort a healthy market place.  If a business has to underpay workers to survive it has no place in a healthy society.

There are many businesses that will not survive this recession and that is nature runnng its course. Using the law to artificially control wage levels is not the sort of society that has long prevailed in Australia.

Separating the " Sad " from the " Bad " !

It appears that New South Wales is giving up on a plan to to divert those suffering intellectual disabilities and brain injuries from serving time in the prison system,.  In 2017 it embarked on the Congenitive Impairment  Diversion Programme (CIDP} in Penrith and Gosford local courts.  This was extendced to June this year, when funding will expire.

It has now been decided that funding will not be renewed.  In the first twelve months of the scheme  sixty-eight percent of participants were diverted from the criminal justice system.   Just seven percent of the 180 participants appearing before the court received a prison sentence.

Alleged offenders found by the programmes neuropsychologists to have a cognitive impairment are connected with support services, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme ( NDIS ).   This helps lower the cost of the prison system and removes the mentally deficient from the stress and danger when hardened criminals impose on their lack of acumen.

Almost forty five percent of participants  had an intellectual disability,  22 percent had an acquired brain injury and 13 percent had a borderline intellectual function.  Critics of the prison sysem have long contended that prison serves as an alternative to our lack of adequate medical services to treat people with degenerative brain functions.

This was a practical approach to separate the " bad " frm the " sad ".  It cost $1.2 million for the fifteen months to September, 2018 and that will be more than matched by the increased number of prisoners held in NSW prisons when the scheme ends.

A Department of Communities and Justice spokesman  said "there hase been  positive results under the programme" but " the current model is not appropriate to expand to other locations, and deliver other services provided by the government ".

A lot of people are ending up in prison for want of appropriate disability supporty.  CIDP workers  navigate alleged offenders tjhrough ther hoops of the NDIS and court processes.  Some will contend that this programme has become a victim of the spending needs to ease the economy back to work after the ravages of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Sounds like CIDP just got shoved back into the " too hard " basket.   The families of the mentally disabled will despair that an uncaring system will again consign them to the prisons, until they do their time and emerge - to reoffend and face another court which sends them back to prison.

End to Shonky Aparartment Buildings !

At long last a bill is on its way to both houses of the New South Wales parliament which looks likely to curb those who buy apartments off the plan from being forced to complete the contract when the finished structure is found to have faults.

It will come too late for the owners caught in the repair bills for both Opel Towers and Mascot Towers but if it survives the progress promised it will give the  NSW Building Commissioner new powers to stop the rorts that are encompassing ever higher numbers of apartment owners with the need to finance repairs to new buiildings.

What makes this so promising is the bill has the support of the Berejiklian government, the Australian Labor Partty and the Greens.  Despite the failure of previous bills to gain accord this one was put together with the three parties finding issue on common principles.

Called the Residential Apartment Building Bill it would give the Commissioner the power to order  builders rectification and stop work orders.   One of its strongest powers would be the ability to withhold occupation certificates, which would stop buiilders or developers from forcing buyers to settle on properties with defects.

There is now the prospect that this will introduce a statutory duty of care allowing owners to sue those involved in the construction of a building with defects.  This has been what was sadly lacking and which led to the problems in Opel Towers and Mascot Towers.

Giving the Commissioner the necessary powers is one thing.  Ensuring that those powers are used to effect change will require the setting up of inspections to ensure standards are being met and that means access to the buiding in all stages of construction.  The Commissioner will need to have inspectors with the right grade of skills and this  was welcomed by Professionals Australia which said " the earlier this is put in place the better ".

This parlous building situation emerged when short cuts became customary on building sites and stress loads were often ignored.  The laws were already in place to stop this problem occurring, but the implementation of checks was weak.   We are about to enter a new regime and it is vital that everty stage of the building process meets thr accepted standard.   A law is only as good as the necessary input tio police it.

The end of shonky building practices seems to be in sight, provided the Commissioner is given the tools to do the job !

An Eerie Prediction !

In America, most of the people are afraid of their police.  Even a minor confrontation with a citizen will bring a convoy of police cars with lights flashing and sirens wailing.  Their policing methods are heavy handed and they have progressively adopted the stance of an army of occupation rather than a force tasked with protecting the public.

Once again an incident has inflamed the citizens to revolt and set a city ablaze.  The ever present cameras in public hands recorded the arrest of unarmed black man George Floyd.  He was wrestled to the ground and a policeman used his knee to his throat in a choke hold.  There were four police present at this arrest and when the knee pressure was removed the victim had lost conscionce.  He was put in an ambulance and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The aftermath was predictable. " Black deaths matter " supporters looted shops and burned down the police station.  The unrest spread to other cities and President Trump escalatedf the violence with an incendiary remark that related this crime to violence that once rocked Miami.

Three centuries ago, America fought a bloody civil war to end slavery in the southern states.  The victor passed laws to achieve that objective, but simply walked away and made no effort to implement them.  The white people of the south maintained coloured segregation in what became known as the " Jim Crow "era.  Coloured people were protected by a law they could not access because the KKK promised a lynching to anyone who tried.

Both Washington and state governors are afraid of the power of their police because that is what stands between them - and the mob !   Strong police unions have used that power to insulate officers from murder charges where unreasonable force being used has caused death.  Either the state has refused to prosecute, or the hearing before a Grand Jury is moved to an area where white prominence will assure an acquittal.

America is probably the most heavily armed country in the world.  There are more hand guns in the community than people, and America has a population that exceeds three hundred million.  A clause in the constitution means ordinary citizens can buy and own the same assaut rifles as used by the American armed forces.  America used the draft to require its young people to fight in many wars and there are now vast numbers of veterans with the military skills - and the weapons - to confront the government if it chooses to do so.

It is clear that gun control is not going to happen.  It seems inevitable that civil unrest will eventually cascade into an armed confrontation with the police, bringing the spectre of civil war.  No worse catastiophe can befall a society.  The might and money of American business can come crashing down in a welter of burning cities.

That could become a reality if America lacks the goodsense to bring its police back under control asnd implement the reasons it fought a civil war back in the 1800's.  Otherwise its place in history may be similar to that of the Roman Empire.   When that collasped, the world was plunged into what is called the " Dark Ages "  !