Thread: Consumer Confidence Low?

Originally Posted by woodPixel

..... This place is a socialist nirvana!
.... As a hardened capitalist its a miracle I don't self-combust from rage every day when I go outside.

(what? The rest of Australia doesn't live like this?....)

Probably true about Canberra .... Nearly busted my boiler laughing at the self induced conflagration Pixel!!

Originally Posted by woodPixel

The RBA will reduce rates on the 4th. They are aware of just how desperate it has become.

Expect negative interest rates, bail-outs, bail-ins and helicopter money.

When you see articles like this (from wealthy men, desperate to talk up the market), you know its bloody desperate! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-...ounts/11135362

They've already begun, with the 5% deposit first home buyer program coupled with scrapping the 7.25% serviceability requirement for home loan approvals - and as you say the impending interest rate cuts. So trying to get the people least able to afford a home loan to get into a falling market and try to arrest the decline - even if it crushes them and simply delays the inevitable. Not to mention the tax rebbates which are virtually helicopter money drops.

The situation and outlook is clearly worse than official statistics and media reports indicate.

Cheers, Dom

I worked for the public service when I was young. It was understood that we got about 20-30% less because of job security super etc. Now the public service gets significantly more on average and I for one think it's a blessed disgrace.

I was watching a show on parliament house some years back and as they detailed the number of people who "work" there and the running costs I got close to an estimate of a billion a year to maintain and run that building. And they wonder why we think they are out of touch...

Anyway...

Now the public service gets significantly more on average and I for one think it's a blessed disgrace.

Sadly it's near impossible to get a total of what it costs for governance, i.e Council, State & Federal wages, vehicles etc and the list goes on. One thing that does need to be introduced is means testing for superannuation payouts to politicians. The argument used to be that there was no real career opportunities for politicians when they get voted out hence the superannuation, that is now, obviously, complete BS.

Originally Posted by damian

I worked for the public service when I was young. It was understood that we got about 20-30% less because of job security super etc. Now the public service gets significantly more on average and I for one think it's a blessed disgrace.

I was watching a show on parliament house some years back and as they detailed the number of people who "work" there and the running costs I got close to an estimate of a billion a year to maintain and run that building. And they wonder why we think they are out of touch...

Anyway...

I think that a distinction needs to be made between "politicians' and 'public servants'. Public servants in many areas are paid significantly less than the equivalent engineers, project managers, lawyers etc in industry and pay rises, workloads, and conditions have been trending far worse vs industry in a lot of areas. I work as an engineering manager for Defence and I could easily make 50-100% more working in the private sector or as a contractor back to Defence. My area has only seen a 1 % pay rise each year for the last 6 years (so a real pay cut of about 8% vs inflation) vs well over 2-3% in private industry over the same time. During that time my team's workload has significantly increased and i have lost 30% of my staff.

Cheers, Dom

IMO the rivers of money flowing into the private sector through enforced savings (aka superannuation), immigration and China are the only things keeping the economy afloat. Labor had a good go at trying to convince us to swallow the bitter pill of reform but failed. Turnbull didn't have the nous to spend his huge political capital when he had it so the vipers got him.

So what's the plan now? We have a huge solar resource available to power secondary industries which can add value to the raw minerals we currently export. Cheap energy will put us into the box seat against cheap labour. We just need a visionary to run the joint and convince the constituency to back the strategy and ourselves. We really are the lucky country. It's just a matter of playing our strengths.

mick

Originally Posted by Glider

IMO the rivers of money flowing into the private sector through enforced savings (aka superannuation), immigration and China are the only things keeping the economy afloat. Labor had a good go at trying to convince us to swallow the bitter pill of reform but failed. Turnbull didn't have the nous to spend his huge political capital when he had it so the vipers got him.

So what's the plan now? We have a huge solar resource available to power secondary industries which can add value to the raw minerals we currently export. Cheap energy will put us into the box seat against cheap labour. We just need a visionary to run the joint and convince the constituency to back the strategy and ourselves. We really are the lucky country. It's just a matter of playing our strengths.

mick

Do you think cheap power would be a game changer for industry here? And do you think it would be cheap anyhow?

Originally Posted by Beardy

Do you think cheap power would be a game changer for industry here? And do you think it would be cheap anyhow?

Well it certainly has to help, particularly power intensive industries like steel milling etc. Maybe not cheap initially but renewables will be cheaper in the long run for industry, and that's what industry likes - the long run.

Originally Posted by Glider

We just need a visionary to run the joint and convince the constituency to back the strategy and ourselves.

Too late Mick, he turned up his toes on Thursday.

Originally Posted by Beardy

Do you think cheap power would be a game changer for industry here? And do you think it would be cheap anyhow?

Guaranteed. In any continuous automated process, energy is almost always the major variable cost. Smelting, building materials, plastics, cardboard; you name it. And our geographic position on the globe is a competitive advantage for the first time in my own life. When you crack an order from China, it's always huge. d

India, Indonesia, Philippines etc. all yet to come. And the sweetest of all might be a post Brexit U.K.

Agreed Brett! Vale Hawkie, we'll miss you mate.

mick

Originally Posted by Glider

And our geographic position on the globe is a competitive advantage for the first time in my own life.

That geographic position is what has kept us safe from invasion for what, 105 years? Black Fella would have a different and justifiable view of course. (I loved that meme about "Got a problem with Boat People? So do we..." with a pic of the Endeavour in the background).

We need that person of vision that Mick refers to so that we can develop the Solar Industry that we should have had bleeding ages ago. I just made the comment over dinner this evening that in 1970 there was a house near Woolaware Railway Station in southern Sydney that had solar hot water. (I used to see it every day on my way to school on the train). We are missing probably the opportunity of the century to not only get cracking in an enormous way with solar to reduce our emissions, but to develop and export the technology. Agreed that our emissions are minuscule compared to others, but we can be the world leaders, particularly as we have historically had energy intensive industries, and the mineral resources that they require (Iron ore and Aluminium ore in particular). Vertical integration. Stop growing cotton and start growing solar.

That would go a very long way to turning around consumer and country confidence.

Solar... solar EVERYWHERE.
Hemp (well, everything, its an incredible plant).
Timber for buildings (plyscrapers!)
Desalinisation (water!).
Pumped hydro (off-sun power!), Wind....

Process everything here, not China.

Huge huge huge opportunities. HUGE.

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loved that meme about "Got a problem with Boat People? So do we..." with a pic of the Endeavour in the background 


Yep, me too... it makes a strong point, including sending boats and invaders back, protecting borders etc

We need that person of vision that Mick refers to so that we can develop the Solar Industry that we should have had bleeding ages ago.

We sure do ... but its more than vision required against the resistance

We are missing probably the opportunity of the century to not only get cracking in an enormous way with solar to reduce our emissions, but to develop and export the technology. Agreed that our emissions are minuscule compared to others,

Miniscule, but per capita high because we are a small population in a large country.
BUT we export our pollution as coal (a LOT of it) for others to burn in manufacturing, in electricity and to fuel their growth at our expense.

but we can be the world leaders, particularly as we have historically had energy intensive industries, and the mineral resources that they require (Iron ore and Aluminium ore in particular). Vertical integration. Stop growing cotton and start growing solar.

Yes

We are called the "Lucky country" and we have made a number of inventions that gives us the name "the clever country" but I am afraid we are the "dumb country" because we are selling raw materials for a little over what it costs to dig out of the ground.

We should be value adding and exporting goods made from our raw materials rather than buying back what was our product to start with!!! I also fear our labour bill is too high to be competitive. Some high level thinking has to be done to get us back in the race

And imagine its cheaper to buy natural gas, delivered by tanker to Japan, than it is for us and our industries to buy it here. Is that smart or stupid?