Crystal Smith ran the words through Wordle:
Mmmm...
Mmmm...
Details and debate here.
Related Posts
. It gets better. Pixar's gift to humanity
. Would my pay drop if I became a woman?
. Women's pay plummets (relative to mens')
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Okay. Guess which set of words advertised boy's toys
Crystal Smith ran the words through Wordle:
Details and debate here.
Related Posts
. It gets better. Pixar's gift to humanity
. Would my pay drop if I became a woman?
. Women's pay plummets (relative to mens')
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The future, as seen in Google search results
At least we're still here.
xkcd asked the questions...
Via Joshua Gans
Related posts:
. How do I get my girlfriend to...
. So you think "adult" sites are the most popular on the web?
. What Does China Censor Online?
Read more >>
xkcd asked the questions...
Via Joshua Gans
Related posts:
. How do I get my girlfriend to...
. So you think "adult" sites are the most popular on the web?
. What Does China Censor Online?
Monday, April 18, 2011
Carbon tax. "We'll be rooned" What crap.
Richard Denniss has done the figures
Richard Denniss ABC 666 April 18 by 1petermartin
Food manufacturers have joined mining and energy companies in demanding a guarantee the proposed carbon tax will leave them no worse off against international competitors.
The guarantee is demanded in a letter delivered to prime minister Gillard signed by 45 executives including the heads of Nestle, Yakult, Goodman Fielder and Bundaberg Sugar.
It seeks assurances the carbon tax will “not impose costs on Australia’s export and import competing industries ahead of their international competitors”.
Several executives who signed the letter including the heads of OneSteel, BlueScope and Xtrata Coal meet with the prime minister tomorrow at the industry assistance working group.
The plea comes as the Australia Institute prepares to release an analysis ridiculing claims export exposed industries will be made worse off describing the impact on their income as “likely to be trivially small” after compensation.
Prepared using data from the department of climate change the figures show the steel industry would lose 2 per cent of its income before compensation and 0.1 per cent after the kind of compensation proposed as part of the 2009 carbon pollution reduction scheme. Alumina producers stood to lose 4.6 per cent of their income (0.3 per cent after compensation) and aluminum manufactures 11.4 per cent (0.6 per cent and after compensation)...
“Firms such as BlueScope claimed in 2009 the carbon price would shut them down, but since then the Aussie dollar has appreciated 50 per cent. That has had far more impact,” said Australia Institute executive director Richard Denniss.
“A $20 per tonne carbon tax would cost BlueScope at most 0.4 per cent of its revenue, assuming it doesn’t cut its emissions. Tha’s around $34.5 million per annum. By way of comparison it says in its annual report this year’s wage increases will cost it $57.2 million.”
Food and Grocery Council chief executive Kate Carnell said her members had decided to join the push for compensation because they were already under pressure from rising costs “such as energy, wages and water, higher transport costs, record high global commodity prices and supermarkets forcing down retail prices.”
“If a carbon tax puts Australian manufacturing at a disadvantage, it will ultimately result in exporting Australian manufacturing jobs and exporting emissions,” she said.
Dr Dennis said even by the standards of the days manufacturers demanded massive protection just to stay in business the new claims were “unprecedented both in the extent of the exaggeration and the relative lack of scrutiny”.
“These firms have survived and often prospered as the dollar has soared since 2009 when they told us they were on the edge.”
The Australian Council of Social Service will today demand a flat fortnightly payment to low income earners as compensation for the carbon tax, a change from its position in 2009 when it accepted a percentage increase in benefits.
“If the carbon tax pushes up average prices $10 per week, we want a $10 per week increase in benefits for everyone in the bottom two fifths of the income distribution,” said senior policy officer Tony Westmore.
“Low income earners who are not on benefits should get a large one-off cash payment.”
Published in today's SMH and Age
The industries that cried wolf
ACOSS Carbon Price and Low Income Households
ACOSS president Cassandra Goldie on compensation by 1petermartin
Related Posts
. On the day of the Canberra carbon tax protest... some sense
. Carbon tax, your questions answered
. Easy listening. Why power prices are really climbing
Read more >>
Richard Denniss ABC 666 April 18 by 1petermartin
Food manufacturers have joined mining and energy companies in demanding a guarantee the proposed carbon tax will leave them no worse off against international competitors.
The guarantee is demanded in a letter delivered to prime minister Gillard signed by 45 executives including the heads of Nestle, Yakult, Goodman Fielder and Bundaberg Sugar.
It seeks assurances the carbon tax will “not impose costs on Australia’s export and import competing industries ahead of their international competitors”.
Several executives who signed the letter including the heads of OneSteel, BlueScope and Xtrata Coal meet with the prime minister tomorrow at the industry assistance working group.
The plea comes as the Australia Institute prepares to release an analysis ridiculing claims export exposed industries will be made worse off describing the impact on their income as “likely to be trivially small” after compensation.
Prepared using data from the department of climate change the figures show the steel industry would lose 2 per cent of its income before compensation and 0.1 per cent after the kind of compensation proposed as part of the 2009 carbon pollution reduction scheme. Alumina producers stood to lose 4.6 per cent of their income (0.3 per cent after compensation) and aluminum manufactures 11.4 per cent (0.6 per cent and after compensation)...
“Firms such as BlueScope claimed in 2009 the carbon price would shut them down, but since then the Aussie dollar has appreciated 50 per cent. That has had far more impact,” said Australia Institute executive director Richard Denniss.
“A $20 per tonne carbon tax would cost BlueScope at most 0.4 per cent of its revenue, assuming it doesn’t cut its emissions. Tha’s around $34.5 million per annum. By way of comparison it says in its annual report this year’s wage increases will cost it $57.2 million.”
Food and Grocery Council chief executive Kate Carnell said her members had decided to join the push for compensation because they were already under pressure from rising costs “such as energy, wages and water, higher transport costs, record high global commodity prices and supermarkets forcing down retail prices.”
“If a carbon tax puts Australian manufacturing at a disadvantage, it will ultimately result in exporting Australian manufacturing jobs and exporting emissions,” she said.
Dr Dennis said even by the standards of the days manufacturers demanded massive protection just to stay in business the new claims were “unprecedented both in the extent of the exaggeration and the relative lack of scrutiny”.
“These firms have survived and often prospered as the dollar has soared since 2009 when they told us they were on the edge.”
The Australian Council of Social Service will today demand a flat fortnightly payment to low income earners as compensation for the carbon tax, a change from its position in 2009 when it accepted a percentage increase in benefits.
“If the carbon tax pushes up average prices $10 per week, we want a $10 per week increase in benefits for everyone in the bottom two fifths of the income distribution,” said senior policy officer Tony Westmore.
“Low income earners who are not on benefits should get a large one-off cash payment.”
Published in today's SMH and Age
HOW BADLY HURT?
Revenue cost of a $20 per tonne carbon tax (with compensation)
Carbon steel 2.0% (0.1%)
Flat glass 4.2% (0.2%)
Cartonboard 4.4% (0.2%)
Alumina 4.6% (0.3%)
Integrated iron & steel 6.4% (0.4%)
Newsprint 7.4% (0.4%)
Aluminum 11.4% (0.6%)
Glass containers 2.4% (0.8%)
Australia Institute, assuming CRPS level of compensation
The industries that cried wolf
ACOSS Carbon Price and Low Income Households
ACOSS president Cassandra Goldie on compensation by 1petermartin
Related Posts
. On the day of the Canberra carbon tax protest... some sense
. Carbon tax, your questions answered
. Easy listening. Why power prices are really climbing
Saturday, April 16, 2011
The high Aussie shouldn't be hurting the budget, but it is. Here's why:
 |
| AMP |
US economist Paul Krugman uses a catchphrase to describe the misfortune that often befalls economic planners that achieve their goals. “No good deed goes unpunished”.
The Nobel Laureate uses it most to describe what happened to Japan in the early 1990s after it raised interest rates to prick an asset bubble.
But it also applies to Australia’s May budget in which Wayne Swan will wear the consequences of some of the successes he had been praying for.
Obscured by talk about the soaring dollar and the hole it is said to be punching in budget revenues is a more complex chain of events, harder to explain in public, but nevertheless painful.
The forecasts for the last May budget were based on the technical assumption the Aussie could stay at around 90 US cents for years to come.
After the Aussie sailed through 100 US cents in October, the November budget update used an assumption of around 98.5 for years to come.
This week the Aussie marched north of 105 and leading economists such as Shane Oliver of AMP were talking about 110 by years end with it staying that high until the next global economic collapse.
Treasurer Wayne Swan said this week the high dollar was “weighing heavily on government revenues”. A leaked Treasury document briefing identified the high dollar as one of the reasons non-mining revenues had all but stopped growing.
But this doesn’t sound right to Oliver... He says if you graph the currency and the budget position going back decades you will see the budget position usually improves as the Aussie climbs rather than goes backwards.
“When the Aussie climbed from 48 to 98 US cents from the year 2001 the budget balance kept getting better.” So big were the surpluses, Howard government handed out a record run of tax cuts to try to keep them down. As the Aussie slid during the 1980s budget deficits grew.
“It’s obvious if you think about it. The high dollar is almost always the result of high commodity prices, so much so that former Fed chief Alan Greenspan used to consult the Aussie for a quick guide to the strength of global demand.”
The high dollar will harm the profits of trade exposed industries unconnected with mining. “Around 30 per cent of listed company earnings are sourced overseas,” says Oliver. “So a 10 per cent rise in the Aussie will cut earnings by about 3 per cent.”
But the iron ore and coal miners whose massive and unexpected earnings increases are driving the dollar will by definition be raking in much more.
The effect on the budget tax takings should be ambiguous at worse, and more likely positive.
But there will be budget problems nonetheless -- not directly because of the rising dollar but because of another much-wanted development happening for the same reason.
Miners are responding to the higher iron ore and coal prices driving the dollar in exactly the way we would want them to. They are bringing forward plans to expand and develop new mines.
The latest capital investment intentions survey show an increase in investment plans this financial year of 24 per cent and an increase next financial year of 38 per cent. It’s exactly what Wayne Swan would want. It’ll help set up budget revenue for years to come.
But it’ll cost the budget bid-time in the year ahead. As mining companies invest they write off profits for tax purposes meaning that for at least the next year (the ABS hasn’t surveyed investment intentions beyond then) not only will the non-mining corporate tax take be flat, but tax from the big miners will be weak as well.
And Australians are borrowing less. More sluggish credit growth is another thing Wayne Swan would have wanted a few years back.
But it means hits the profits of financial sector firms, normally the only really bright spot apart from mining.
The gods are looking kindly on Wayne Swan.
They’ve given him what he wanted.
On May 10 his budget will wear the consequences.
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. What Swan will say budget night - Growth has sunk to 2.25%
. Swan's Budget is under attack from all sides
. Swan spins an ever-worse budget
What Swan will say budget night - Growth has sunk to 2.25%
 |
| The Age |
Rapidly deteriorating budget forecasts show Australia’s economy hit far worse by the January floods and cyclone and Japan’s tsunami and nuclear disaster than previously believed.
When Treasurer Wayne Swan rises to his feet to deliver the May 10 budget he will announce forecast growth this financial year of just 2.25 per cent, far lower than the 3.25 per cent forecast in the November budget update and well below the 2.5 per cent tossed around informally in budget meetings just weeks ago.
The downgrade wipes around $13 billion off Australian production.
The crumbling growth further pressures Mr Swan to find budget cuts with immediate effect to offset revenue losses that will be felt in 2011-12.
Around half of the one percentage point hit to growth flows this financial year from Cyclone Yasi and the run of floods.
An earlier Treasury briefing seen by The Age said the floods would wipe six billion off gross domestic product from lost coal production alone. Many mines were still unusable and it was “yet to be determined when mine production will be restored to full capacity”.
The Australian disasters are expected to wipe 0.5 percentage points from economic growth this financial year, possibly sending March quarter growth backwards.
“With already patchy growth in some sectors, the impact could lead to flat or even negative growth in the March quarter, although there is likely to be a rebound in the June quarter,” the March minute reads.
The new more negative assessment adds in an extra 0.25 per cent hit to economic growth from Japan’s earthquakes and tsunami...
In addition Treasury has told Mr Swan the non-mining economy is weaker than foreseen.
Consumers are saving and paying down debt rather than spending as had been expected in the November budget update. Mr Swan has been told every component of retail spending is growing below its long-term trend.
The 105 US cent Australian dollar is hurting both exporting and import-competing industries in more deeply than anticipated in the November update which assumed a long term exchange rate of 98.5 US cents.
Borrowing by business is sliding in a way not expected, slipping 1.7 per cent in the past year harming both financial firms and the construction sector. Non-residential construction is languishing around 30 per cent below pre-crisis levels.
Speaking in Washington where he is attending international meetings Mr Swan defended his determination to return the budget to surplus by 2012-13 saying he could do it “without choking off the economic recovery”.
“The early years of the budget will bear the brunt of the natural disasters,” he said. “But these events have not knocked our economy off course.”
The new Treasury forecast puts Australia’s economic growth down towards the bottom of the international pack.
This month’s International Monetary Fund forecasts for 2011 had United States growth of 2.3 per cent, UK growth of 2 per cent, and Japanese growth of 1.5 per cent.
The downgraded forecast relates to only the current financial year. Mr Swan has been told the 3.73 per cent growth forecast for 2011-12 remains on track and could even be revised up.
Budget forecasts are continually revised in the weeks leading up to budget night as new information becomes available. The 2.25 per cent growth forecast for this financial year is firm, but the outlook for future years will continue to be revised over the next three weeks.
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. Swan's Budget is under attack from all sides
. Swan spins an ever-worse budget
. The high Aussie shouldn't be hurting the budget, but it is. Here's why:
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Oh my. For some it'll be a tough budget. From tonight's Gillard speech:
...The party I lead is – politically, spiritually, even literally – the party of work.
The party of work not welfare, the party of opportunity not exclusion, the party of responsibility not idleness.
That central purpose – work for all who seek it – stands, after all the transformation in our understanding of the economy in the decades since. And it stands for the future.
Throughout our history many Governments have faced economic circumstances which forced them to question long-held personal convictions or cherished party platforms.
In this sense, I am fortunate: the boom, the participation challenge and the opportunity to cut long term welfare dependency mean that some of my own firmest political convictions are in fact the most urgent practical necessities of our day.
The values I learnt in my parents’ home – hard work, a fair go through education, respect – find themselves at the centre of Australia’s economic debate, in the challenge to cut long term welfare dependency.
As Prime Minister, I see a real chance, driven by the economy, to achieve goals I have always held dear.
I want young people to have a fair go, to have an opportunity in life, never to be held back by economic circumstance or social expectation.
I’ve worked to ensure this in education.
Our reforms have been founded on high expectations.
That all children can learn.
That you don’t settle for failure or disguise failure with low expectations. That there is no one who cannot benefit from new skills.
I have fought the prejudice that said some kids can’t learn, that they are better off at the back of the room doing busy work and being passed on up to the next grade. That fight goes on.
And I am extending this campaign of high expectations to welfare as well.
Our reforms are founded on high expectations.
That everyone who can work should work.
I will fight the prejudice that says some people’s lot is drawing a fortnightly cheque, that we shouldn’t expect anything more of them and it doesn’t matter if they are forgotten by policy makers and the society around them.
The social and economic reality of our country is that there are people who can work who do not.
We know there are 230,000 people who have been unemployed for more than two years.
That there are 250,000 families where no adult has been working for at least one year.
And that the youth unemployment rate is still double the overall unemployment rate.
The Government’s approach to this is practical and realistic.
We know that not everyone on a welfare benefit can work.
Some bear disabilities or caring responsibilities that mean paid work is impossible. These Australians deserve our greatest respect and ongoing support.
Others on a benefit can work but not right away. Some need practical help to overcome ill-health or meet family responsibilities.
Some should take up obligations which may not involve working now but will prepare them for work in the future.
Things as simple as learning to read and write at a higher level.
The right mix of incentives is vital to all.
Relying on welfare to provide opportunity is no longer the right focus for our times.
Our strong economy gives us a real chance to create opportunity from the cradle to the grave.
The problem of long term welfare dependency has been long discussed but the new realities of our economy create quite a different policy environment from the recovery of the 1990s or the growth of the last decade.
Because we have unprecedented demand for skills and labour, this is possible.
Because the people I am talking about have been bypassed by the economy for so long, this is difficult.
I want to help individuals, families and communities whose worklessness has seen them excluded from society and the economy through decades of economic growth.
Understand – the people I am talking about include people whose lives present “hard cases”.
There will always be an argument to focus on someone else.
But I am firmly convinced that the economic and social policy arguments for getting these people into work are overwhelming.
People whose problems keep them out of work ... and whose problems are made worse by the lack of work.
All of them people who will be better off with work.
In today’s economy, inclusion through participation must be our central focus.
It’s not right to leave people on welfare and deny them access to opportunity.
And every Australian should pull his or her own weight.
It’s not fair for taxpayers to pay for someone who can support themselves.
There is much the Government has already done.
The Budget will provide another way to extend greater opportunity and to put more responsibility into the system.
Emerson: I would rather not do trade deals, but...
The government will press ahead with free trade deals with Korea, Japan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Gulf Cooperation Council despite criticism of such deals from the Productivity Commission and a plea they be subjected to independent analysis.
The Commission reported in December there was little evidence to suggest Australia's six existing free trade agreements had produced "substantial commercial benefits,” and found some may have actually cut trade.
It recommended that an independent body assess likely benefits before negotiations begin and also assess the final text before it is signed.
Trade Minister Craig Emerson rejected both recommendations in responding to the report yesterday saying as well as the six negotiations currently under way he would launch negotiations for a free trade agreement with India if it agreed.
The Council of Textile and Fashion Industries said the minister seemed more interested in negotiating new agreements than in fixing problems with the ones Australia has...
From January 1 new rules will allow men’s suits manufactured in New Zealand to come in come in without the payment of duty on the imported cloth used to manufacture them. Australian suits manufactured in Melbourne by the Stafford Group under the Anthony Squires label will continue to have to pay the duty.
“We have written to the prime minister, Mr Emerson and industry minister Kim Carr and received nothing more than an acknowledgement,” said Jo Kellock, chief executive of the Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia. “We don’t know why they did it, it is as if with only two suit manufacturers left we are too small to matter.”
The new interpretation of the rules governing the New Zealand Australia Free Trade Agreement will mean that New Zealand manufacturers will no longer be required to pay an equivalent duty to Australian manufacturers on their imported cloth when their product arrives on Australian shores. Cloth can make up as much as 60 per cent of the value of a suit.
The Productivity Commission said such complex “rules of origin” could slice as much as 8 per cent of the value of trade in countries with Free Trade Agreements.
Mr Emerson yesterday refereed inquiries about the New Zealand rule change to Mr Carr whose office said pointed to “ support available for clothing manufacturers in Australia to innovate and be more competitive”.
The trade minister rejected suggestions he was negotiating new agreements for the sake of it saying he did not “want to collect ornaments for the national mantelpiece; saying it’s a free trade agreement when it is nothing of the sort”.
He accepted every Productivity Commission recommendation other than those for independent reviews.
The new trade principles approved by cabinet give priority to multilateral rather than country-by-country deals, require non-discrimination among countries in negotiations, transparency and “the seamless execution of trade policy and wider economic reform”.
In addition trade considerations will override foreign policy considerations in negotiating deals and Australia will break down trade barriers without waiting for other countries to move first.
The Business Council and Australian Industry Group broadly welcomed the principles while the Services Roundtable was disappointed the minister had decided not to subject free trade agreements to quantitative analysis.
The Fair Trade and Investment Network welcomed the focus on transparency saying in the past agreements had been ratified in secret by cabinet and only later sent to a parliamentary committee.
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. Productivity Commission tells the truth about free trade agreements
. Free Trade Agreements that are anti-trade
. What Australia signed up to in 2004
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Double the price of cask wine, do it now - Wine guru
A leading wine industry figure has broken ranks declaring it’s time to adopt a Henry Tax Review recommendation that would double the price of cask wine and cut more than $100 off the price of a bottle of Grange.
Treasurer Wayne Swan disowned the recommendation on the release of the review saying he would not change alcohol tax “in the middle of a wine glut and where there is an industry restructure underway.”
The confusing mish-mash of taxes described by the Henry Review as “incoherent” taxes most beer on the basis of alcohol content but taxes wine on price, leaving cheap cask wine almost untaxed and finer wine overtaxed unless it is made in a small winery which gets a rebate.
“It is not only illogical, it is destroying the Murray River and Indigenous lives,” says Philip White, editor of the wine industry website Drinkster.
“We have huge refineries and industrial grapeyards using up to 1200 litres of water to make one litre of wine which sells for less than the cost of good bottled water but is three times the alcoholic strength of your average beer,” he says in a post that has “whizzed around the wine industry like a grenade with the pin out”...
“Half of all wine sold in Australia is in bladder packs,” he told The Age. “Much of it is sold at very low price points with very little profit to Aborigines in places such as Alice Springs.”
“The big ethanol factories need the little guys for what we call colour and nuts and berries, the image that helps them lobby.”
Industry estimates suggest if the Henry Review recommendations were adopted the price of four litre cask wine would jump from $14.75 to $40.69, putting it beyond the reach of many in Indigenous communities.
The review says when the Northern Territory restricted the sale of casks in 2007 sales fell dramatically but sales of alcohol in other forms increased. It says a standard tax rate would function as an alcohol “floor price” that could not be escaped.
Melbourne economist John Marsden who reviewed alcohol tax for the New Zealand law commission said the two must vunerable alcohol consumers, teenagers and heavy drinkers would benefit the most from the changes recommended by Henry. In New Zealand he recommended an increase in alchol tax of between 50 and 100 per cent.
Mr White rejected the Treasurer’s argument that the changes could not be introduced while the industry was restructuring saying it was always restructuring as unwary conglomerates bought up unprofitable refineries and tried to make a profit on ever finer margins.
“It’s like a perpetual motion machine. Fosters is about to be dismantled if it can find a buyer. Whoever picks up the pieces will try to sell wine even cheaper and be broken up itself,” he said.
“It’ll only stop when ethanol is properly taxed. If you add up the health and environmental costs of what these guys are doing and set it against their profit it doesn’t make any sense.”
“The implications of taxing these factories out of existence are huge, I am aware of that. It would have to be phased in. Small wineries would suffer too, but many are essentially hobby farms making nothing of exception.”
Published in today's SMH and Age
AHA Henry price modelling April 2010
Related Posts
. Shock! Prices affect behaviour.
. The end of cheap wine, and other things to look for in the Henry Review
. What Swan won't do
Monday, April 11, 2011
Poorer by the week. Swan spins an ever-worse budget
A $1 billion hit to personal income tax collections and a widening $4 billion gap in business tax takings are helping push this year’s budget deeper into the red by the week, intensifying the search for savings in the leadup to the May 10 budget.
Updated figures released yesterday by the Finance Minister Penny Wong and pointed to by Treasurer Wayne Swan on Twitter have government income down $4.5 billion on what was expected in the November review, and well down on the $3 billion deficiency reported in Finance figures a mere fortnight ago.
“Losing big slabs of revenue like this makes it even tougher to get back to surplus as planned, but we’re determined to make the difficult decisions to meet that commitment,” Mr Swan said yesterday.
Senator Wong said the budget would be “tough,” with “hard decisions”. The government would meet its commitments to the rural independents.
A new five-year agreement with the pathology industry will save more than $550 million over its life - $400 million in the budget projections period... The industry has agreed to keep annual growth in Medicare pathology payments to strict limits that average 5 per cent per year. Although no slower the previous rate of increase the government regards the deal as an improvement because without it the ageing of population and the growing level of chronic disease would have pushed spending higher.
Government sources say income tax collections are being pushed down by weaker than expected capital gains rather than income or employment. Corporate takings are down in part because the massive boom in mining investment is allowing companies to write off more spending against tax.
The government also faces extra spending of 5.6 billion on reconstruction and support after the Queensland floods and cyclone, only partly offset by the $1.8 billion flood levy.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott said Mr Swan was using this year’s hit to revenue as ‘‘an excuse’’ to cut spending next financial year.
“It impacts on the current financial year, it doesn’t impact on the next financial year,” he said in Manly at the end of his “Polly Pedal” endurance bicycle fund raiser. ‘‘This has been a wasteful government and it’s because it’s been such a wasteful, extravagant and incompetent government that they now have to inflict unnecessary pain on the Australian public.”
Published in today's SMH
Related Posts
. Oh yes... Swan's Budget is under attack from all sides
. If it weren't for the floods... Growth miracle interrupted
. It's a small levy, but a daft idea - McKibbin
Don't borrow, don't save, don't spend. Advice for the stretched.
“If I am in town I bring my lunch and my thermos,” says ‘Anna,’ an aged pensioner in a survey released today by the Brotherhood of St Laurence.
“I just don’t go out, you don’t put yourself in a position where you know you’ll be in trouble,” says Luke, an apprentice living away from home.
The survey finds Australians on the edge are very good at separating needs from wants, even where that means enduring abuse and abandoning activities that give them support.
“These could be as simple as a coffee with a friend or a night out with mates. In some cases, people were coping with stressful situations and even with abuses because they believed that under their financial circumstances they did not have other options,” says the report, Money matters in times of change.
Almost all those interviewed shied away from borrowing. Some destroyed their credit cards, others used them reluctantly...
‘Michael’ faced the loss of his car unless he handed over more than he had been quoted to repair his car. “I had to put that on the credit card, like 900 bucks,” he says.
Although saving would help build financial resilience many found the government’s rules forced them not to. ‘Claire,’ a 20-year old Melbourne mother of two won’t save because the Centrelink liquid assets test might cut off her benefit. Her partner saves and she uses all of her income to pay bills.
Working is also regarded as risky. ‘Jo,’ a single mother worked extra hours to try to buy a fridge. When she told Centrelink of her extra income in a periodical report she ended up with no extra money and lived without a fridge for one year.
The report finds many of the coping mechanisms forced on vulnerable Australians by sudden loss of income and Centrelink rules increase vulnerablity rather than build defences against it. It recommends changes in the rules to reward encourage rather than discourage saving and work.
A second report to be released at a Brotherhood of St Laurence conference on financial risk in Melbourne today finds that face-to-face rather than computer or phone interaction is the best way to give advice to stressed Australians.
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. Gillard's back-to-work campaign set to achieve achive bugger all.
. Unemployment is about to become more painful. The minister doesn't seem to care
. NewStart is $231 and shrinking relative to other benefits. Can anyone else see a problem?
Friday, April 08, 2011
Get used to it. Unemployment starts with four
Victoria: 4.5%
NSW: 5.1%
South Australia: 5.4%
Queensland: 5.5%
Tasmania: 5.6%
Australia: 4.9%
An avalanche of new jobs piled on at the rate of 1200 per day has put a ‘4’ in front of Australia’s unemployment rate, returning the labour market to the golden days before the financial crisis took hold.
The March unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent is the lowest since January 2009, when cutbacks in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the United States ended 35 straight months of rates beginning with ‘4’.
“This is a really strong result,” said jobs minister Chris Evans. “It means we are now very close to full employment. We’ve created 32,000 full-time jobs in just the past month, more than 750,000 new jobs since Labor took office.”
The news sent the dollar to a new post-float high of 104.82 US cents and saw the futures all market but eliminate the previously priced in small probability of an interest rate cut.
Victoria’s unemployment rate is now the second lowest of any state at 4.5 per cent, beaten only by Western Australia at 4.2 per cent...
The NSW unemployment rate jumped from 4.8 per cent 5.1 per cent.
Newly-elected premier Premier Barry O’Farrell said the apparent loss of 7600 jobs demonstrated ‘‘the need for the Liberal-National government to stimulate the economy’’.
‘‘Our first plank was to restore economic growth,’’ he told reporters. “I’ve said time and time again unless we have a strong economy, fixing problems across the state is going to be made harder.”
But the unemployment figures jump around from month to month and the preceding month showed a gain of 22,400. The NSW rate of 5.1 per cent is well down on the 5.5 per cent recorded mid last year.
The dive in Victoria’s unemployment rate from 5.0 to 4.5 per cent was brought about by a jump of 6500 new job propelling the rate well below 5 per cent for the first time since 2008.
"I think what we saw over the December and February period was a weather-distorted lull,” he said.
"The distortion has abated and we're back on track.”
If the jobs growth continues as this rate, Mr Carr expects the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates by June.
"A lot depends on inflation and other data but the economy is strong, the underlying momentum is strong, and the jobs data shows that,” he said.
ANZ economist Riki Polygenis said from here on the unemployment rate could dive more quickly than had been expected.
“The available workforce is growing more slowly as population growth slows. On our estimates employment needs to grow by just 12,000 per month to keep the unemployment rate steady. A year ago it would have had to grow by 25,000 jobs per month. And jobs growth is reaccelerating.”
“The danger is upward pressure on wages, particularly as the mining investment boom ramps up. The Reserve Bank says there is no evidence yet of skills shortages spreading beyond the resources sector; but slower population growth will increases the risk.”
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Unless you're young, young, young
. Unemployment dips below 5% - 4.9823482 to be precise
. Low unemployment until 2025?
6202.0
Trusts: Hockey runs for cover
After a barrage of complaints from senior Liberals and Nationals and a telephone hookup with Nationals leader Warren Truss Mr Hockey backed down yesterday, telling a news agency the Coalition had “no plan to alter the tax treatment of trusts”.
He made himself unavailable to other outlets to elaborate further.
In his prepared speech delivered to 300 accountants and still available on his website Mr Hockey says the difference in tax rates according to the type of legal entity seemd to have “no basis in logic”.
He proposes taxing trusts “in their own right and at the same rate as companies”.
“That is likely to be contentious but is worthy of serious consideration,” he told the accountants.
Unaware of what was in his speech and not alerted until reports in The Age and other newspapers yesterday morning senior figures in both parties told him what he had proposed had not been discussed by shadow cabinet and was not Coalition policy. Nationals leader Warren Truss told him special tax treatment for trusts was a core commitment his party would not abandon...
The rules do not tax trusts in their own right but tax their earnings when paid out at the rate of the recipient allowing high-earning families to income split and profits to be taxed as if they were earned by children.
“Joe said the way the farmers and others have arranged their lives since Dad and Dave’s day had to stop,” said Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten. “I am assuming Bill Heffernan or Warren Truss or someone from the Nats took him into the milking shed, spoke to him gently until his ears were sore and he accepted the error of his ways.”
“He has to explain what happened. His comments were not off the cuff, not accidental and not confused. He is the Shadow Treasurer, not a one-man band”
A spokesman for opposition leader Tony Abbott confirmed Mr Hockey’s proposal was not Coalition policy and said the leader was pleased Mr Hockey had acknowledged that.
Briefly yesterday before the backflip Australian Council of Social Service president Cassandra Goldie welcomed the new approach saying “with Mr Hockey’s support, now might be the ideal time to reach a bi-partisan agreement to tackle this obstacle to a fair and efficient tax system”.
Greens leader Bob Brown said he would back any changes that closed “loopholes that allow for tax avoidance, including family trusts,”
After Mr Hockey recanted Ms Goldie she said she was “disappointed”.
“Actually, I am disappointed with both sides: with Mr Hockey, and also with Mr Shorten for so quickly defending what we have,” she said.
Mr Shorten said while he had been tightening the rules applying to trusts, “literally hundreds of thousands of businesses and families organise themselves this way - simply saying you are going to abolish their present status is not sustainable.”
“If you were going to declare war on an inefficient tax system, why you would pick trusts as a first beach to land on? Has Mr Hockey got modelling to back up his views? Has he got any figures?”
The 1999 Ralph review found tax avoidance through trusts cost $700 million a year - around $2 billion in today's money.
Former treasurer Peter Costello tried to change the rules surrounding trusts in 2001 but failed after a campaign by National and some Liberal MPs.
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. Trusts: Hockey shows courage
. That tirade against Joe Hockey at Menzies House
. Joe Hockey is right. It's time to talk banks
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Trusts: Hockey shows courage
The Shadow Treasurer’s declaration to a tax conference in Melbourne reopens a wound apparently closed after former prime minister John Howard backed down on a proposal to tax trusts in response to National Party pressure a decade ago.
Speaking to the Institute of Chartered Accountants Mr Hockey said despite decades of attempts to simplify tax it was more complex that ever with more than 7000 pages of laws.
“Currently we have a maximum personal income tax rate of 47.5 per cent including the Medicare levy and the Flood Tax; a corporate tax rate of 30%; and trusts which pay no tax in their own right but with income taxed in the hands of recipients,” he said.
“The difference in tax rates according to the type of legal entity seems to have no basis in logic... It would be simpler and more logical for all three types of legal entity to have the same or a similar tax rate.”
“Standardisation would involve taxing trusts in their own right and at the same rate as companies.”
Acknowledging the move would not be universally welcomed, Mr Hockey said it was “likely to be contentious but is worthy of serious consideration.”
In 2001 Mr Howard promised to tax trusts in return for Senate support for his business tax reforms. He shelved the idea after an avalanche of criticism from the National party and farmers in a decision estimated at the time to cost the budget $110 million.
Tax Institute general counsel Robert Jeremenko said that while it was good to have a shadow treasurer who spoke about tax, the concept of taxing trusts as companies had been rejected by the recent Henry tax review.
‘‘The horse has bolted on this idea and it bolted under the former Howard government,’’ Mr Jeremenko said.
He said it was more important to fix the existing trust law.
The Gillard Government has committed itself to retaining the tax status of trusts.
‘‘People want certainty in the tax system and Mr Hockey’s proposal just creates more uncertainty,’’ assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten said yesterday. ‘‘Used appropriately, trusts are a legitimate tax tool, not a form of tax avoidance.’’
Earnings made by trusts are untaxed within the trusts but taxed as apid out at the recipients' marginal rates of tax. Recipients can be children or low-earning partners in a marriage on low tax rates.
The Henry Review deemed this “flow through” treatment appropriate and recommended only that the rules governing it be simplified and rewritten.
Tax statistics released yesterday show only 27,000 of Australia’s 663,000 trusts are rural in nature. The most common service the real estate industry.
The office of Nationals leader Warren Truss was unaware of Mr Hockey’s comments when approached yesterday. Mr Truss was in North Queensland and uncontactable.
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. They're back - taxing trusts, estates and taxing the family home
. Joe Hockey - where angels fear to tread
. Trusts: Hockey runs for cover
Hundreds of thousands of us really, really hate doing tax
In the following tax year 2008-09 the number of personal returns submitted slipped 3 per cent as 349,000 fewer taxpayers bothered, despite a 2 per cent increase in the population.
Despite the drop more of us received deductions, the number climbing from 10.2 million to 10.3 million even as the number of forms submitted dived from 12.6 to 12.3 million.
An extra 165,000 of us claimed for gifts to charities despite the slide in the total number of returns, while the average size of the donations claimed slipped 13 per cent...
The highest declared incomes are in the postcodes representing Portsea in Victoria ($199,000 on average) and Darling Point and Edgecliff in Sydney ($176,000). Mosman, Bellevue Hill and Palm beach in Sydney follow and then Toorak in Melbourne, Watsons Bay in Sydney and Mosman Park in Perth.
The lowest declared incomes are in rural Victoria, South Australia and Queensland with Hexham near Warrnambool the lowest at $33,500 per head.
Taxable company income was flat in aggregate with reported mining income up 18 per cent, manufacturing income up 29 per cent, retail income up 11 per cent and financial services income down 34 per cent.
An ever greater proportion of us used our computers to submit tax returns with the number using e-tax climbing 76,500 and the number using tax agents slipping 425,500.
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. What is it with filling out tax returns?
. It's the Tax Stats - love them, get lost in them, have fun.
. Where the rich people live
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Fat, lazy, complacent. How the WTO sees Australia
 |
| The Age |
The mining boom and jobs all round have made us fat and lazy, according the World Trade Organisation. Its first examination of Australia since the financial crisis finds us complacent, with neither side of politics keen on the sort of economic reforms that drove prosperity in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Organisation says the labour market, infrastructure and tariff reforms of the 80s and 90s doubled our rate of productivity growth and pushed our ranking from twelfth to second in the OECD productivity tables, accounting for more than half our income growth.
Since the latest mining boom Australia’s growth in productivity has stopped and gone backwards, a matter of concern “given its importance in raising living standards in the longer term”.
“Soaring export prices and low unemployment seem to have reduced the appetite for further structural reforms,” the Organisation says... “possibly affecting the prospects for achieving sustained growth in the future”.
Although the Productivity Commission is expert at conducting cost-benefit analysis, “little of the nearly $17.5 billion of gross annual Commonwealth assistance to industry is regularly evaluated to determine whether it yields value for money”.
Launched by the Howard government in 2005 and relaunched by the Rudd government in 2008 after the 2020 Summit, moves the push for a seamless national economy “has been rather slow”.
If we were interested, “competitive reforms in coastal shipping and aviation, significant transport inputs, offer the potential to stimulate innovation and productivity more widely”.
If implemented scheduled tariff reductions for the automotive, textile, clothing and industries would deliver further benefits.
Trade Minister Craig Emerson said he welcomed the report, which vindicated “Australia’s enthusiastic embrace of free trade and our commitment to further reducing trade barriers around the world”.
It will be discussed at meetings of the WTO in Geneva over the next two days.
Separately-released figures show Australia’s run of trade surpluses coming to an end in February with a deficit of $205 million brought about by higher fuel prices and lower gold exports.
Westpac is forecasting a 0.2 per cent slide in economic growth in the March quarter on the basis of the news, backing a suggestion in a Treasury briefing that economic growth would be flat or negative in the March quarter int he wake of the floods and cyclone.
The Reserve Bank board left interest rates on hold at its Melbourne meeting yesterday (TUES) saying while the floods would boost inflation temporally, it would “look through” those effects in making decisions.
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. We think globally, don't act at all. The OECD on Australians
. Your mining tax is too low, your NBN is reckless - OECD tells it like it is
. Nice new mining tax. It's not enough - IMF
Where Gillard gets the Greens wrong
From July the Greens will decide which bills become law and which don’t. The prime minister says they "will never embrace Labor’s delight at sharing the values of every day Australians, in our cities, suburbs, towns and bush, who day after day do the right thing, leading purposeful and dignified lives, driven by love of family and nation”. Maybe, but that’s not what they will be called on to do.
They will be asked to vote on tax bills, on corporate regulation and on all manner of measures relating to economic management.
There are clues as to how they will vote, and if we are to believe her, the prime minister has missed every one.
Gillard thinks the Greens don’t get economics. They “wrongly reject the moral imperative to a strong economy,” she told the Whitlam Institute.
Her sidekick Anthony Albanese says they “tend to be a grab-bag of issues, tend not to have a coherent policy that adds up”.
Her resources minister Martin Ferguson says they want to “sit under the tree and weave baskets with no jobs”.
Its a forgivable impression until you examine what their supporters actually think...
Asked to rate issues in order of importance in an Essential Media poll in January more Greens rated economic management number one than rated protecting the environment number one.The gap was closer amongst Greens voters than other voters, but the point is there was a difference - Greens put the economy number one.
Polled in November about a specific issue - regulation of the banks, Greens voters were on every measure more closer to economic orthodoxy than Labor voters.
Asked if banks should be restricted to lifting rates only in line with Reserve Bank, 87 per cent of Labor voters said yes. Even amongst Coalition voters 82 per cent said yes. But amongst Greens voters the result was 73 per cent, suggesting they are more likely to have studied economics.
Asked if bank fees should be kept to the cost of providing the service, 93 per cent of Labor and also 93 per cent of Coalition voters agreed. Only 90 per cent of Greens voters thought so.
Asked about a cap on bank salaries 88 per cent of Labor voters were for it. Coalition voters were far less keen at 83 per cent. In the middle, less in favour of hobbling the market than Labor voters although more so than Coalition voters, were the Greens at 86 per cent.
The views of Greens supporters are not outside the mainstream, except that they are likely to be more in touch with orthodox economics than the mainstream.
Greens voters are far more likely than either Labor or the Coalition to support higher taxes on mining profits, a view in line with the International Monetary Fund, the Henry Review and the Australian Treasury.
They are less likely than the majors to be fussed about a return to a budget surplus by exactly 2012-13 (as are orthodox economists although interestingly slightly keener than labor voters on spending cuts in the budget to come.
They are more likely than Labor voters to act against self interest. Only 17 per cent of Labor voters would accept a tax on products purchased online form overseas. A higher 19 per cent of Greens voters would.
And they know more.
An astonishing 10 per cent of Labor voters and 12 per cent of Coalition votes are deluded enough to think half our migration intake is boat people. Only 6 per cent of Greens voters think so.
They are accepting of the mainstream scientific position on climate change - that it is happening and caused by human activity; far more accepting than supporters of either Labor or the Coalition.
And they believe market mechanisms rather than regulations are the best way to get emissions down.
Their tax policies echo those of the Henry Tax Review. Tax breaks for high income earners would go, fringe benefits tax concessions that encourage the needless driving of cars would be scrapped and capital gains would no longer be tax-preferred over other returns from saving.
All income received in whatever form would be taxed at the standard rate and the scales would be rejigged to remove the high effective rates faced by Australians trying to get off welfare.
Henry would do this by flattening the scales and making the first $25,000 earned tax-free.
The Greens aren’t so sure about that, but neither are Labor of the Coalition. The point is that on nearly every area where the Greens diverge from Henry, the Coalition and Labor do too.
On most of the areas where then Coalition and Labor are reluctant to embrace Henry the Greens are keen to.
The big parties won’t touch the Private Health Insurance Rebate. The Greens would kill it, as would Henry.
The big parties aren’t attracted to a death duty. The Henry Review is, and the Greens would bring it in with a threshold of $5 million and an exemption for the family home, farm and small business.
The big parties are grudging about making the mammoth superannuation tax concessions more progressive. Henry isn’t, and the Greens would do it, after a “full review”.
This isn’t an argument in favour of the Greens policies, although as it happens I find them attractive. It is an argument that they fit within the economic mainstream. They are coherent, readily available on the web, and far more than a grab-bag from a “party of protest” that sits “under the tree and weave baskets with no jobs”.
If the Greens have got it wrong on economics, then so too have the economics text books they seem to have read and so too has Ken Henry.
Their real position is important because it is their real position that will determine what gets passed into law in the two to three years ahead, not the misleading dumbed-down characterisations of a prime minister and ministers who should know better.
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. On the day of the Canberra carbon tax protest... some sense
. Carbon tax, your questions answered
. Memo to Julia: You don't have a carbon consensus
Tony Barrell, living legend. Memorial service tomorrow
Have you ever heard a radio documentary that seared itself into your brain and stayed with you for ever?
There's a good chance Tony Barrell made it.
Only the other day he was PM sharing his knowledge of Japan's nuclear reactors with Mark Colvin.
Then a week ago writing for The Drum about the appalling length of time it takes to decommission a nuclear reactor.
Then presenting a two hour masterclass on the secrets of broadcasting the day before he suddenly died.
Humble, humane, enthusiastic, electrifingly brilliant...
Two memories.. meeting him by the Shibuya railway station as he crossed the street with earphones around his neck in the manner of someone addicted to his Walkman. Actually he explained, he was using the earphones to record Tokyo street sounds as he walked - the best way to get the real thing in stereo.
Fifteen years earlier going to get a pie in Darlinghurst I told him the Background Briefing he had just broadcast had at last made me understand the divisions being created in Thatcher's Britain. The program was about what was happening in the North, forgotten with the focus on London. "I'm glad you liked it," he said. "I was going home for Christmas there, and I thought, how can I made a radio documentary out of this?"
And then there were the days around 2-JJJ in William Street as he and Rick Tanaka were tying to explain to me and to anyone else that cared that Japan'e economic miracle was numbing the Japanese psyche.
Their best, most fun book about the whole thing is Higher Than Heaven: Japan, War and Everything
Of course their best radio documentary was the horrific Tokyo's Burning, not about the atomic bomb, but about something worse.
Download it here.
Mark Colvin writes about him well.
There's a page dedicated to his memory here.
Friends are invited to attend his memorial service at Balmain Town Hall, 366 Darling Street, Balmain, commencing 1pm tomorrow Thursday, April 7.
Here's Doug Anderson's tribute.
Go well.
Related Posts
. Remembering Cathy Carey
. Rest in Peace Murray Sayle.
. John Vincent is dead. He can't be.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
ASX-SGX merger dead
From ASX:
ASX Limited (ASX) advises that Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) has today been notified by the Foreign Investment Review Board that the Federal Treasurer, the Honourable Wayne Swan is disposed to the view, under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act, that the proposed merger of ASX and SGX should be rejected as contrary to the national interest.
The ASX Board maintains an ongoing belief in the need for ASX participation in regional and global exchange consolidation. This, together with the business logic of the combination proposal announced with SGX on 25 October 2010, resulted in the ASX Board unanimously recommending the ASX-SGX merger proposal to ASX shareholders. ln this context ASX will continue to evaluate strategic growth opportunities (including further dialogue with SGX on other forms of combination and co-operation).
From Swan:
It is routine for FIRB to advise the applicant of any national interest concerns before a final decision is made - as this is an important part of the process to allow the parties to respond – but obviously I am still open to further representations or information from the parties before coming to a final decision.
FIRB informed SGX that I had serious concerns about the proposal and that, subject to further consideration, I intended to accept the unanimous FIRB advice that the takeover would not be in the national interest.
It’s important to note I have not made a final decision, and it would not be appropriate for me to make further public comments on an application that is still under consideration.
Okay so the ATO report is comprehensive. Can we see it?
Inspector General Ali Noroozi revealed yesterday the report is the only one of the five he prepared last year not to have seen the light of day.
Delivered to Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten on December 3, it was ordered as a pre-election quick fix to a problem that saw more than one million returns delayed, computers unable to talk to each other and refund letters sent out without refund cheques.
Punctilious about not revealing what is in the report, Mr Noroozi expressed frustration while unveiling his future work program, saying Mr Shorten could have released it when he received it...
The Assistant Treasurer can legally wait until July 6. In February his office said it would be out "in the not too distant future".
Yesterday in the first hint that the report was substantial a spokesman said it was a large and comprehensive and required further consideration.
Tax Commissioner Michael D'Ascenzo has already seen the report. At a Senate hearing earlier this year he declined to answer when asked whether the Inspector General had treated him fairly, saying that was "for others to judge".
A spokesman for the Assistant Treasurer said he would table the report "in the not too distant future".
The new program of inquiries will cover income tax self assessment, the ATO’s use of benchmarking to target the cash economy and the ATO’s e small and medium enterprise audit and risk review
procedures.
Mr Noroozi will hold off investigating Project Wickenby until he has seen the results of an Audit Office review.
Published in today's Age
Related Posts
. About those Tax Office computer problems...
. That investigation into the Tax Office computer meltdown?
. The Tax Office supercomputer that will never quite be
Monday, April 04, 2011
Oh yes... Swan's Budget is under attack from all sides
“With already patchy growth in some sectors, the impact could lead to flat or even negative growth in the March quarter, although there is likely to be a rebound in the June quarter,” the briefing note says.
The most recent national accounts have the economy growing at an annual rate of 2.7 per cent.
The Treasury forecast would cut Australia's 2010-11economic growth rate from the previously-forecast 3.25 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
Treasury has revised up the cost to the nation in lost production from $8 billion to around $9 billion, 6 billion being from lost coal production, with exports 22 million tonnes lower than previously expected...
“The flooding affected both mine production and rail infrastructure,” the briefing note says. “Mines in the Bowen Basin ceased production due to direct flooding while the Goonyella, West Moreton and Blackwater rail lines were flooded. While rail operations have been largely restored, it is yet to be determined when mine production will be restored to full capacity. Reports suggest that the de-watering process may take a few months.”
The floods will slice around $1 billion off rural production, mainly grains , sugar and cotton. Cyclone Yasi will cut production of tropical fruit and sugar by a further $700 million. Victoria is expected to lose $250, mainly in the production of grapes.
To the $9 billion hit to production will be added a $2 billion hit to export earnings resulting from the Japan earthquake and tsunami.
On the other side of the ledger the government will be spending an extra 5.6 billion on reconstruction and support in Queensland, only partly offset by the $1.8 billion flood levy.
Treasurer Swan said yesterday there would have to be “tough decisions” in the May budget if the government was to stick to its fiscal rules.
The November mid-year review forecast a budget deficit for the current financial year of $41.5 billion.
The monthly financial statement for January showed revenue tracking $3 billion lower than projected.
Published in today's SMH
Related Posts
. If it weren't for the floods... Growth miracle interrupted
. It's a small levy, but a daft idea - McKibbin
. The package as summarised by Gillard
Once we knew maths. A trainer's lament.
The Electro-Communications and Energy Utilities Industry Skills Council has been testing new apprentices on their starting skills for ten years.
Chief executive Bob Taylor said in the early tests they were not allowed to use a calculator and got an average score of 70 per cent. These says, with calculators permitted after pressure from schools, the average result if 58 per cent.
“These are the sort of things they should know after Year 10, but proper maths is no longer compulsory up to Year 10,” Mr Taylor said.
The questions deal with long division, algebra, trigonometry and units of electrical measurement.
“I have spoken to principals across Australia. Their general response is that it is our problem - we have to lower our expectations... They say they are providing a well-rounded curriculum. But we are being presented with Year 12 graduates unable to complete apprenticeships.”
“In other industries apprentices might get away with having studied vegiemaths as they call it in school, but vegiemaths doesn’t cut the mustard with us.”
Apprenticeships, unlike university courses are open to anyone sponsored by an employer.
“If for example I am an electrician and my next door neighbour’s son wants an apprenticeship, I can offer him a job and the vocational training authority is obliged to take him on, it has no choice.”
“When people drop out of apprenticehips because they can’t do the physics and maths, our system gets blamed, but it is the school system that is no longer doing what it did”
In order to meet the explosion of demand expected from the NBN the council has begun intensive remedial maths and physics courses lasting 8 to 12 months to bring would-be apprentices up to entry level.
“The cost will be paid by the contractor and ultimately passed on to NBNCo,” Mr Taylor said.
NBNCo wrote to 14 contracting firms last week them telling them that after five months and four rounds of tenders the process had been "suspended" indefinitely because all were overpriced.
Communications Minister Steven Conroy said yesterday although he hadn’t been briefed on the decision it was important the NBN get “value for money”
Mr Taylor said it was most unlikely the construction process would achieve the government’s stated aim of employing locals in the regions the NBN went through.
“You can’t pull somebody out of a pub and get them to build the NBN. They won’t know enough to begin. You are dealing with electricity, you need to understand it.”
Mr Taylor was speaking at the launch of a report prepared by eleven skills organisations No More Excuses, which contends seven million Australians have poor reading skills and eight million poor maths skills.
His remarks echo those of former Treasury secretary Ken Henry who lamented that schools had turned away from maths and physics, believing they “afford the luxury of the soft option”.
“Like the study of maths, physics and economics, policy discipline is hard,” he told teachers and students from his old high school. “But it is not too hard. Like those subjects, it is precisely as hard as it needs to be.”
Are standards slipping? Questions apprentices find hard
1. If F=(N x P)/120, what does N equal?
2. An electrician receives a discount of 6 per cent on an account for $1626. How much will the electrician pay?
3. A circular table top has a diameter of 10 metres. What is its circumference?
4. The units of heat and temperature are the same. True or false?
5. A capacitor stores energy in the form of a magnetic field. True or false?
1. If F=(N x P)/120, what does N equal?
2. An electrician receives a discount of 6 per cent on an account for $1626. How much will the electrician pay?
3. A circular table top has a diameter of 10 metres. What is its circumference?
4. The units of heat and temperature are the same. True or false?
5. A capacitor stores energy in the form of a magnetic field. True or false?
ANSWERS: 1. N=(F x 120)/P 2. $1528.44 3. 31.42 metres 4. False 5. False
SOURCE: ELECTRO INDUSTRY SKILLS COUNCIL PRE APPRENTICESHIP TEST
SOURCE: ELECTRO INDUSTRY SKILLS COUNCIL PRE APPRENTICESHIP TEST
Published in today's SMH and Age
Related Posts
. So you think you know about economics
. Andrew Leigh's maiden speech: What is it about education?
. Want a good investment? Get a degree - it's about the best there is
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)