Wiki World

Australian Blog ★ Adventure Australia
ALL BLOG ARTICLES· ──► (BLOG HOME PAGE)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
australian national sea simulator tests research coral bleaching acidification increasing sea temperatures

Australia is Heading for Economic Disaster

The Australian economy is heading southward and this does not mean we are moving closer to Antarctica. Our financial health is still in primary products. The price and demand for iron ore and coal still drives the economy. At the moment the foot is really off the accelerator and we are idling downhill. We will eventually reach the bottom. Then the country will have big problems.

Tax revenue is already falling due to lower demand by China. US demand for Chinese good remains sluggish. As the world economy falls it impacts strongly on Australia. We have not made the move away from agriculture and manufacturing. This is mainly because our resource bowl has kept wages high. Manufacturing countries always have a wage differential advantage. In time, wages will rise in China as they have in Japan. Then companies will probably move to Southeast Asia.

The hope that Australia will have a increase in IT start-ups to offset the fall in resource exports is not well founded. Products in the Internet sphere have short lives, a few years at most. IT moves on the initiative of individuals. It never will be a mass employer. We need to forget this pie in the sky and concentrate on something else.

It will cost to improve employment. Government will have to subsidize companies to keep jobs here. Politicians make the same incorrect assumption over and over again - the free market will solve all economic problems. The free market has never done much without human input. International trade exists due to comparative advantage. If a country does not have this in a sector, other sectors that do must pay.

A start would be tax breaks for enterprises who bring home their support services from India and the Philippines. To allow mining employment to fall without stimulation elsewhere is economic suicide. The country will fall into a very deep hole down the track. Opening more shopping centres is not the way go. This is not increasing the capital base. It is dividing up the market between too many sellers.

✴ Economics by Ty Buchanan ✴

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Australian Blog ★ Adventure Australia
ALL BLOG ARTICLES· ──► (BLOG HOME PAGE)

Government Beliefs Have No Foundation

The present federal government has a policy of the market will solve all problems: we will get rid of regulatory bodies and legislation. This would be good if it was right but it isn't. Private industry will not build roads, for example.

Getting rid of regulation on investment advisers was a mistake. Thankfully it was resurrected and defeated in the Senate. If it had stayed, advisers would have pulled the wool over the eyes of the poor in society - those who do not know how the system operates.

The government is trying to abolish the body that reviews charity organizations. Senate opposition will put an end to this. Why is the government wasting its time and taxpayers money throwing legislation at the Senate that clearly will not get through?

There is no debt problem in Australia contrary to the wild obsession put forward by the Coalition. Australia has only 17 per cent debt. This compares to over 90 per cent for most other Western countries.

The economy has had a dramatic fall in growth. This could be seen as due to spending cuts. However, there have been only small spending cuts. The national debt is higher now than it was under Labor. Blaming Labor would seem to be right, but Independents, Greens and the Palmer United Party are blocking radical changes.

Abolishing the carbon tax is seem as a win for the Coalition. This is only for the short term. There is no doubt it will be back when we have a labor government after the next election. Just the threat of cuts is offending voters right across the board. Putting it bluntly, Tony Abbott looks like a fool stumbling in the dark. Reason and common sense are not part of his arsenal. National debt is a furphy: people don't care about debt as long as they can earn an income.

Politics by Ty Buchanan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Australian Blog★
ALL BLOG ARTICLES· ──► (BLOG HOME PAGE)

Sydney Versus Melbourne

There has always been a battle between Sydney and Melbourne over which city is the best. It is a longing to be seen as the capital of the country despite the nation having built an official capital in Canberra, ironically, midway between Sydney and Melbourne.

Sydneysiders think little of claims by Melbourne. A recent world survey put Sydney at ninth as the world's most attractive cities. Melbourne didn't rank in the ten. The problem was that the researchers only knew of Sydney as an Australian city. This says a lot about how outsiders view Australia.

Most capitals have the highest population of any other city in a country. Sydney clearly has the highest population. Though many Australian companies choose Melbourne as their base, overseas businesses go to Sydney. Furthermore, Sydney is the main distribution point for Australian news to the world.

Thankfully, tourists from other countries do not come to Australia to experience city life. They get that at home. They spread themselves broadly across the country in choice of vacation destinations. There is not much doubt that tourists enter the country through Sydney. This does give a "tourist dollar" advantage to the city. The Gold Coast, Great Barrier Reef and Melbourne would be fly-on destinations for most visitors.

Tourism by Ty Buchanan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Australian Blog★
ALL BLOG ARTICLES· ──► (BLOG HOME PAGE)

Australia Annoys Microsoft

Microsoft is unhappy about a country that does not like government data stored overseas. It is jumping up and down about this policy in Australia. The question that must be asked is - Why is the big data giant so miffed about it? The loss in income for Microsoft cannot be that great. There must be another reason.

Like Google, is Microsoft collecting data to use for its own ends? It is so upset it refuses to launch the Office 365 service in Australia. Microsoft is aggressively lobbying the Coalition government to change the rules and open up the market. It must be after something more than profit.

Everything put into the cloud can be accessed by the cloud's owner. These services already hold data from many countries. If say a major government could get its hands on such data think of the power they would have. It seems only reasonable that countries should consider national security to be more important than reducing costs.

Internet by Ty Buchanan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Australian Blog★
ALL BLOG ARTICLES· ──► (BLOG HOME PAGE)

Gene Bank Needed to "Save" Endangered Native Animals

There is no way that Australia can prevent the extinction of some native animal species. Some can be preserved with a national gene bank. Though a seed bank has already been set up to save native flora, nothing is planned for fauna.

Present debate is centered on the loss of the northern and southern gastric brooding frog. If a gene bank had existed the frog would have been preserved. Australia has the worst record of native animals going extinct than anywhere else, not something to be proud of. Over 40 birds and mammals have disappeared since European settlement.

Because government has been slow in allocating resources, private organizations have started gene banks. Indeed Taronga Conservation society Australia has stored genes from 20 native animals. This is far from adequate. Over 2,000 species need preservation.

With the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, the Animal Gene Storage and Resource Centre of Australia at Monash University has a total of 100 endangered species in storage. Funding from the public and enterprise supports these "frozen" storage facilities. Nothing has been added for four years due to lack of resources. Looking the other way is not the solution.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Conservation by Ty Buchanan

Australian Blog★
ALL BLOG ARTICLES· ──► (BLOG HOME PAGE)

Bushmeat Trade Is Depleting Natural Forest

Bushmeat is not just a problem in Africa. Asian countries have the same problem, as the demand for meat from wild animals increases. Taking animals from tropical forest changes the whole ecosystem. It is common sense really. As the number of creatures feeding on vegetation and other animals decline there is an abundance of vegetation growth and remaining fauna. More growth kills off food for these animals.

While some plants increase, others decline. Even the amount of vegetation not consumed can fall. Uneaten vegetation crowds out growth for all, so saplings do not grow tall. Plants need animals to disperse seeds. Consequently, the variety of plants falls.

Just two decades ago the Lambir Hills National Park in Sarawak was pristine. There was an abundance of animals and trees. Now all the large animals have been killed off by hunters after a profit.

Once such dramatic change occurs there is no way back. The large animals will not breed back to original numbers. The damage also impacts on remaining animals who find their usual food source is no longer plentiful.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Society

Australian Blog★

Create Your Own Country

Establish your own country. People have been doing this for decades. They pronounce kingship and plant crowns on their heads to rule in perpetuity. Don't laugh. These people are serious. Such "countries" have currencies made, issue stamps and visas, and even produce constitutions. People can become "citizens" on the Internet.

Why do they establish new countries? Some do it because they are fed up with the country they live in, others to highlight an issue of contention. Doing it just for laughs or getting an income from tourism is not uncommon.

Recently a meeting of micronations took place at a Sydney university. They discussed their place in The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations. The meeting went well. There were Laughs aplenty. Just imagine how the leaders were decked out with flowing robes, scepters and crowns.

There is a problem, however. It is an illusion of independence. The "countries" are still part of the larger countries they are in. If the leader works, he/she has to pay income tax to the larger nation. Furthermore, a tiny new nation pays rates and land taxes to the local council.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Politics

Australian Blog★

Donkeys and Mules Are Celebrated

Donkeys and mules are not forgotten. There are people out there who care a lot for these animals. They have established the Donkey All Breeds Society of Australia National Donkey and Mule Show. They deserve a medal for creating such a long title for the celebratory weekend.

Entrants were brought in from all over Australia. The tiny Mediterean Miniature donkey was the cutest in the show. Very large animals were represented like the 16 hands high American Mammoth donkey.

Many animals performed for the spectators. It is a myth about the independent, angry mule. Indeed, they like to be trained. Donkeys really put on show in the trail, driven, sulky, halter and snigging classes. Trainers were as young as five years old. Some donkey entrants were elderly, in their mid-twenties. The show was such a success that it will continue. It is affectionately called the long ears show.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Society

Australian Blog★

The NBN May Never be Completed

We hear so much praise about progress of the new broadband network being rolled out by the National Broadband Network (NBN). The problem is - there has been little progress. Apart from the acclaimed network in a part of Tasmania, few customers enjoy ultra-fast broadband anywhere else.

The Internet divide still exists between city and rural. Obviously the NBN will be laid out in city areas because this is where the greatest income will be obtained. As it now stands rural regions will not get faster Internet until way past 2020. Many people will be dead by then. How do we know if fiber optics will be superceded? Soon the ocean protection walls will be finished around Venice and there are cries that it is old technology and will not save the valuable city. Perhaps the same will be said about the NBN.

In the present economic climate where will be few businesses left in populated cities to enjoy the improved communication. Only if the mineral sector declines and the Aussie dollar drops in value will manufacturing and service sectors become profitable again. But a fall in mineral income will mean less tax to pay for the NBN.

The Internet may make unforeseeable changes. For example, Skype and Gmail have pushed the cost of international calls down to a few cents a minute. Telcos can no longer make a profit from providing the service. Internet operations first offered this in the early 2000s. it faded. Now it is back with a vengeance. If Internet operators can find a way past the mobile barriers put up by the telcos that will bankrupt these monster companies who overcharge for mobile calls.

There is no question that the NBN is monopolistic. It will be the only Internet provider. Smaller companies will be given piecemeal resale access. However, this will be on NBN terms. Talk is all about the benefits. If the Coalition wins the next election they could dismantle the whole operation.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Society