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Written by John Harris
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 In February I wrote that the NSW Labor Government, led my Morris Iemma, was set to supernova. (other media use the term 'implode') Then, the main issue was corruption; in, and outside, Wollongong City Council. I raised other issues, including incompetent project management, the proposed privatisation of electricity, and incompetent Health Minister (Reba Meagher). In July I wrote that NSW needed new ministers, and that at least the following should go: Morris Iemma, Michael Costa, Reba Meagher, Frank Sartor, David Campbell, Joe tripodi & Graeme West; and that NSW had become a dictatorship (under Morris Iemma and Michael Costa). I August I suggested that the embarrassment that ensued when Morris Iemma's early recall of Parliament backfired, and it became obvious that Parliament would not allow the privatisation of electricity, was "unsustainable". Yesterday, 5-Sept, that supernova occurred.
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Labor rule can’t save unions |
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Written by Janet Albrechtsen
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It should be a fine time to be a union leader in Australia. Having bankrolled Labor victories in every state and territory and ejected the evil anti-union conservatives from Canberra, the planets are aligned for a revival of union power under a Rudd Labor Government. Now consider the real world. Even with the ALP running the country, union relevance is anything but assured. And unions know it. That’s why strikes are back in fashion. But recent attempts by unions to flex their muscle to prove they still matter, only confirm that they probably don’t.
It’s true that unions can point to a long list of successful special pleading. Recall the secret deal between then Victorian premier Steve Bracks and the Police Association over pay, weapons and taxpayer-funded legal representation for police facing corruption charges in return for union support during the most recent state election. In NSW, raw union muscle explains occupational health and safety laws with a duty of care that presumes employer guilt and gives unions the right to prosecute OHS breaches, claiming a handy percentage of any fine paid. Labor lawyers call it a moiety but it’s really union payola.
And sure, unions have applied political heat to secure big pay rises in the public sector. Witness the 15.2 per cent won by Victorian teachers in May and the pay offer of 21.7 per cent to teachers in Western Australia last month. Unions are now threatening rolling strikes in South Australia and NSW unless Labor governments cave in to similar demands. After a long period of industrial peace where strikes fell to a low of 135 in 2007, with 50,000 lost working days, down from 1519 strikes and 1.3 million working days lost in 1987, unions are back.
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Ethics Of Corporate Money Lending |
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Written by John Harris
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Recent reports suggest that owner Larry King "borrowed" about $40 Million to personally invest in a racehorse stud, "Written Bloodstock", which has failed as a business. Mr King invested the money with Mark Peters, a former bankrupt, and banned gambler.
There were several options available to raise the money, including business and/or personal loans in the name of Mr King. What he did, it's been reported, is borrow $40 million from his other company, Beechwood Homes. At least some of this money would have had an attached liability on the balance sheet: it was money paid by customers for work that had yet to be done! It was also money needed by the company to ensure that it continued to receive other payments - that is, to continue its business operations.
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Move over, China: Australia presses on with net censorship plans |
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Written by Derek barry
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Mandatory ISP filtering is the main element of the Australian Government’s $125.8 million Plan for "Cyber-Safety". But anyone in Australia naive enough to believe this prurient and populist ISP filtering plan will work, should look carefully at what is happening in Europe with the Swedish bit torrent tracker site The Pirate Bay. Pirate Bay is a database of links to music and films offered on peer to peer networks without the copyright owners’ permission. Four days ago, Italian authorities attempted to block the site after an anti-piracy court ruling. Critics couldn’t help noticing that Prime Minister and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi owns a lot of the companies who stood to gain from banning the site. In any event, the ban was easily circumvented. Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunder said they implemented countermeasures to allow Italians to access their site. “We’re working on setting up a really annoying system for them to filter,” he said.
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Written by Jason Soon
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Cartels - explicit arrangements between competitors in the same industry not to compete – are condemned by regulators in almost all developed economies. The current government thinks existing civil penalties which include fines aren't steep enough.
In January this year it released for public comment a draft bill, that among other things, would send individuals found guilty of 'serious cartel conduct' to jail for up to five years.
The push for jail-terms for cartelists has much popular support, especially in light of the recent conviction of 'cardboard king' Richard Pratt for price fixing. (As it turns out he is also now facing possible jail time for allegedly lying about knowledge of his cartel). But what are the strongest arguments that can be made for prison?
One argument by the Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Graeme Samuel, is that cartel-related offences such as price fixing are akin to theft and fraud. But this analogy seems quite stretched. When you go out and buy something from the supermarket, you don't buy it on warranty that its price wasn't set cooperatively.
The strongest argument I can think of comes from economics and it relies on the claim that heavy fines are not enough of a deterrent. The decision to set up or join a cartel is effectively a calculated gamble taken by the businessperson and a good one at that. Cartels rely on secret agreements and if they can get up and running, they can raise prices quite substantially for a number of years, as research has shown.
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