I'm off overseas for a few weeks and I doubt I'll post.
Thanks to all those who read this blog; both of you!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Petrol Prices
The other night (Wednesday May 21st) I drove along a major suburban road in the outer Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. There are 3 petrol stations in a row, within about 100m of each other, all on the same side of the road.
Petrol station # 1 - ULP 138.8 cents
Petrol station # 2 - ULP 159.9 cents (4c less with docket)
Petrol station # 3 - ULP 159.9 cents (4c less if you buy $5 of stuff from the shop)
Petrol stations 2 & 3 both had cars in them. Filling up.
If people want something done about petrol prices, the first thing that needs to happen is for consumers to exercise their right of freedom of choice. Unless you are lucky enough to live in the parts of Melbourne with barely adequate public transport you are forced to have a car. You are therefore forced to by fuel even if you minimise your driving and buy a 1.3litre 2 seater car. But please think about your purchase. Even with a docket or having bought a couple of chocolate bars and the paper in the shop, someone buying 50 litres of petrol on Wednesday could have saved $8.50. That's $400 a year. Handy money.
Think; decide; act.
Petrol station # 1 - ULP 138.8 cents
Petrol station # 2 - ULP 159.9 cents (4c less with docket)
Petrol station # 3 - ULP 159.9 cents (4c less if you buy $5 of stuff from the shop)
Petrol stations 2 & 3 both had cars in them. Filling up.
If people want something done about petrol prices, the first thing that needs to happen is for consumers to exercise their right of freedom of choice. Unless you are lucky enough to live in the parts of Melbourne with barely adequate public transport you are forced to have a car. You are therefore forced to by fuel even if you minimise your driving and buy a 1.3litre 2 seater car. But please think about your purchase. Even with a docket or having bought a couple of chocolate bars and the paper in the shop, someone buying 50 litres of petrol on Wednesday could have saved $8.50. That's $400 a year. Handy money.
Think; decide; act.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Banking Merger continued...
Practicing what I was preaching, I have written to my local Federal Member of Parliament about the banking merger. All Victorian Senators are next, followed by the State guys.
A copy of the letter:
"Dear Mr Billson,
As a resident of Frankston and a voter in Dunkley I respectfully request that you and your fellow Parliamentarians do whatever is required to block the takeover of the St George Bank by Westpac.
Megacorporations are not good for competition and they are not good for the consumer. Australian retail and business banking is dominated by a small number of megabanks between whom there is no competition whatsoever. Each bank puts its interest rates on lending up, safe in the knowledge that all other banks will follow suit. Each bank charges exorbitant penalty fees confident that none of its "competitors" will undercut the lucrative fees market by reducing their own fees.
This merger will further reduce choice and result in higher fees and interest rates from the banks and subsequent financial pain on the community.
It is these banks that after borrowing heavily overseas at discounted interest rates and making substantial profits now have the cheek to put up their interest rates under the pretext of increased costs. They were not passing on the savings previously! Mr Billson I am a champion of the free market, but large international corporations have no soul and are not part of the free market. They are exclusively profit driven. Any lip service given to "communities" and charity is simply PR spin to try and make them look nice. There can be no doubt that a merged Westpac / St George Bank will further restrict choice to consumers and will continue to drain money from the economy. The banks are protected and operate within a regulated structure, but at the same time have the ability and wherewithal to do as they please.
Dunkley is a diverse electorate and although there are plenty of people with the education and inclination to make informed banking choices, there is also a large percentage of the population who are locked into the Big 4 with mortgages and credit cards. These people will continue to suffer at the hands of the MegaBanks until such time as we are able to do something about them.
We voted for you, Mr Billson, because you care about us. We chose to have you as our representative. We chose you to look out for us and to put our welfare first. Please do not let us down on this one. Block the takeover.
yours sincerely, etc etc."
I'm doing all this via email, I'll let you know if I get any responses.
A copy of the letter:
"Dear Mr Billson,
As a resident of Frankston and a voter in Dunkley I respectfully request that you and your fellow Parliamentarians do whatever is required to block the takeover of the St George Bank by Westpac.
Megacorporations are not good for competition and they are not good for the consumer. Australian retail and business banking is dominated by a small number of megabanks between whom there is no competition whatsoever. Each bank puts its interest rates on lending up, safe in the knowledge that all other banks will follow suit. Each bank charges exorbitant penalty fees confident that none of its "competitors" will undercut the lucrative fees market by reducing their own fees.
This merger will further reduce choice and result in higher fees and interest rates from the banks and subsequent financial pain on the community.
It is these banks that after borrowing heavily overseas at discounted interest rates and making substantial profits now have the cheek to put up their interest rates under the pretext of increased costs. They were not passing on the savings previously! Mr Billson I am a champion of the free market, but large international corporations have no soul and are not part of the free market. They are exclusively profit driven. Any lip service given to "communities" and charity is simply PR spin to try and make them look nice. There can be no doubt that a merged Westpac / St George Bank will further restrict choice to consumers and will continue to drain money from the economy. The banks are protected and operate within a regulated structure, but at the same time have the ability and wherewithal to do as they please.
Dunkley is a diverse electorate and although there are plenty of people with the education and inclination to make informed banking choices, there is also a large percentage of the population who are locked into the Big 4 with mortgages and credit cards. These people will continue to suffer at the hands of the MegaBanks until such time as we are able to do something about them.
We voted for you, Mr Billson, because you care about us. We chose to have you as our representative. We chose you to look out for us and to put our welfare first. Please do not let us down on this one. Block the takeover.
yours sincerely, etc etc."
I'm doing all this via email, I'll let you know if I get any responses.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Sports News - not...
With the absolute saturation coverage sport gets in the media it's becoming increasingly apparent that there is not enough sport to go around.
I love sport. Most sport. Not golf. Golf is a game. I could watch or participate in sport all day everyday. Sport can be exciting and can get the blood pumping. Sport is good for kids and good for adults.
But sport news has almost ceased to be sport news. Sport news should be "Essendon won by 12 goals" or "Man United drew 2-2 with Liverpool". This is news because news is information that you didn't know previously. News is new! "Wow, I was unaware that Justine Henin retired, thanks for that piece of news!"
Nowadays opinion and belief and absolutely boring no-brainer cliches and catchphrases have replaced sports news. Truly blatantly obvious facts have become sports news. Let me present some examples:
"Sydney FC will be working on their accuracy in front of goal prior to this weekend's game."
"Player (whomever) from club (whichever) believes that the opposition (are you still with me?) cannot be taken lightly this weekend."
or rubbish like this:
"Coach of ... denies speculation that he is considering signing a contract extension for the 2012-2013 season".
Is there a team in sport that does not consider accuracy something worth working on? If a player said "well this weekend we're going to smash the opposition because they are useless" - that would be news! And the old chestnut of asking a question in a news conference, having it denied and then making that the story is pretty amateur journalism. (Buckingham Palace denies rumours that Prince Charles has been abducted by aliens).
So, sports journalists - come on! Go and find a real story. Get away from the pack and do some investigating. Ask a question to which you don't already know the answer!
You can do it!
I love sport. Most sport. Not golf. Golf is a game. I could watch or participate in sport all day everyday. Sport can be exciting and can get the blood pumping. Sport is good for kids and good for adults.
But sport news has almost ceased to be sport news. Sport news should be "Essendon won by 12 goals" or "Man United drew 2-2 with Liverpool". This is news because news is information that you didn't know previously. News is new! "Wow, I was unaware that Justine Henin retired, thanks for that piece of news!"
Nowadays opinion and belief and absolutely boring no-brainer cliches and catchphrases have replaced sports news. Truly blatantly obvious facts have become sports news. Let me present some examples:
"Sydney FC will be working on their accuracy in front of goal prior to this weekend's game."
"Player (whomever) from club (whichever) believes that the opposition (are you still with me?) cannot be taken lightly this weekend."
or rubbish like this:
"Coach of ... denies speculation that he is considering signing a contract extension for the 2012-2013 season".
Is there a team in sport that does not consider accuracy something worth working on? If a player said "well this weekend we're going to smash the opposition because they are useless" - that would be news! And the old chestnut of asking a question in a news conference, having it denied and then making that the story is pretty amateur journalism. (Buckingham Palace denies rumours that Prince Charles has been abducted by aliens).
So, sports journalists - come on! Go and find a real story. Get away from the pack and do some investigating. Ask a question to which you don't already know the answer!
You can do it!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Bank Merger
The author does not own any banking shares...
So 2 of the 5 biggest banks in Australia are proposing to merge (or 1 is taking over the other 1, depending on your point of view). A representative of Westpac yesterday said that the merger will not result in the closure of branches and will not result in a reduction of services.
Well, I don't believe them.
In the Frankston C.A.D. (Central Activities District) there is a Westpac branch and a St George branch. They are less than 100 metres from each other. One will go. I know this because once upon a time there was a Westpac Branch and a Bank of Melbourne branch. Now there is no Bank of Melbourne branch...
The reduction of services argument is amusing; not least of which because it is always amusing to see the words "service" and "bank" on the same page. Too simplify the argument, let's say that right now Westpac has 25 lending options and St George has 25 lending options. If the two banks merge there will not be 50 lending options. In order to provide us with better service and to avoid confusing options the combined bank will remove the lending options that are similar as well as those that are not profitable.
If Westpac had a long term plan of retaining all the St George Bank branches, products and services they wouldn't bother buying it. It doesn't make any business sense to do so.
The only people who will possibly benefit from this are shareholders in the banking sector, but any gains made there will probably be torn up by increases in fees and interest rates anyway.
Megacorporations are not good for competition and they are not good for the consumer. Australian retail and business banking is dominated by a small number of megabanks between whom there is no competition whatsoever. Each bank puts its interest rates on lending up safe in the knowledge that all other banks will follow suit. Each bank charges exorbitant penalty fees confident that none of its "competitors" will undercut the lucrative fees market by reducing their fees.
This merger will probably have to be cleared by the Federal Government. The Federal Government works for us. Regardless of which Party your local representative is from he or she will have an influence on the decision. It's going to be up to us to influence this decision. Write to your local members and tell them that you are against the decision. Politicians work on a theory that for every letter they receive, 100 people feel strongly about the issue. If all the readers of this blog write in, we will have the pull of 800 people!
If you don't know who your local member is, here's the AEC website with the details:
http://apps.aec.gov.au/esearch/
follow the prompts and it will take you to your electorate and then to your local member.
Banks in Australia are absolutely protected. Banks in Australia have free reign to do what they will to whom they wish. In the name of a free and fair market in Australia, I urge you to stand up to them, and give your Members of Parliament the support enabling them to block this takeover. In fact I urge you to demand that your Members of Parliament do this.
So 2 of the 5 biggest banks in Australia are proposing to merge (or 1 is taking over the other 1, depending on your point of view). A representative of Westpac yesterday said that the merger will not result in the closure of branches and will not result in a reduction of services.
Well, I don't believe them.
In the Frankston C.A.D. (Central Activities District) there is a Westpac branch and a St George branch. They are less than 100 metres from each other. One will go. I know this because once upon a time there was a Westpac Branch and a Bank of Melbourne branch. Now there is no Bank of Melbourne branch...
The reduction of services argument is amusing; not least of which because it is always amusing to see the words "service" and "bank" on the same page. Too simplify the argument, let's say that right now Westpac has 25 lending options and St George has 25 lending options. If the two banks merge there will not be 50 lending options. In order to provide us with better service and to avoid confusing options the combined bank will remove the lending options that are similar as well as those that are not profitable.
If Westpac had a long term plan of retaining all the St George Bank branches, products and services they wouldn't bother buying it. It doesn't make any business sense to do so.
The only people who will possibly benefit from this are shareholders in the banking sector, but any gains made there will probably be torn up by increases in fees and interest rates anyway.
Megacorporations are not good for competition and they are not good for the consumer. Australian retail and business banking is dominated by a small number of megabanks between whom there is no competition whatsoever. Each bank puts its interest rates on lending up safe in the knowledge that all other banks will follow suit. Each bank charges exorbitant penalty fees confident that none of its "competitors" will undercut the lucrative fees market by reducing their fees.
This merger will probably have to be cleared by the Federal Government. The Federal Government works for us. Regardless of which Party your local representative is from he or she will have an influence on the decision. It's going to be up to us to influence this decision. Write to your local members and tell them that you are against the decision. Politicians work on a theory that for every letter they receive, 100 people feel strongly about the issue. If all the readers of this blog write in, we will have the pull of 800 people!
If you don't know who your local member is, here's the AEC website with the details:
http://apps.aec.gov.au/esearch/
follow the prompts and it will take you to your electorate and then to your local member.
Banks in Australia are absolutely protected. Banks in Australia have free reign to do what they will to whom they wish. In the name of a free and fair market in Australia, I urge you to stand up to them, and give your Members of Parliament the support enabling them to block this takeover. In fact I urge you to demand that your Members of Parliament do this.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
The Burmese Disaster
The cyclone in Burma is becoming a disaster on a catastrophic scale. This is further complicated by the Military Regime of the country. The people of Burma are not responsible for their government and need our help. I urge you all to donate to any charity that is assisting the people in Burma. I have listed a couple here, but this is by no means an exhaustive list.
World Vision: www.worldvision.com.au
Care Australia: www.careaustralia.org.au
Caritas: www.caritas.org.au
Red Cross: www.redcross.org.au
World Vision: www.worldvision.com.au
Care Australia: www.careaustralia.org.au
Caritas: www.caritas.org.au
Red Cross: www.redcross.org.au
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Official Government request to drivers on Eastlink - Do your civic duty and speed
As if it wasn't enough that our once-promised freeway is now a tollway, the State Government of Victoria has budgeted for an increase in fines revenue in the coming financial year; specifically once Eastlink opens. May I quote from the State Budget handed down today:
"Fines revenue is expected to increase by 14.5 per cent between the 2007-08 revised estimate and 2008-09 to $492 million. This is principally due to an expected increase in traffic camera and on-the-spot speeding fines arising from the planned opening of the EastLink Tollway which will begin to contribute fine revenue in early 2008-09 and the annual CPI indexation of fines."
http://www.budget.vic.gov.au/CA257401000ED28B/WebObj/BP4Ch4/$File/BP4Ch4.pdf
As good Victorian citizens, please do your bit for the State's finances and speed when Eastlink opens. Otherwise the government will be unable to fund it's future needs and use:
"...these increased surpluses to manage future risks and to invest in vital infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, roads and public transport..."
http://www.budget.vic.gov.au/CA257401000ED28B/WebObj/BP1/$File/BP1.pdf
"Fines revenue is expected to increase by 14.5 per cent between the 2007-08 revised estimate and 2008-09 to $492 million. This is principally due to an expected increase in traffic camera and on-the-spot speeding fines arising from the planned opening of the EastLink Tollway which will begin to contribute fine revenue in early 2008-09 and the annual CPI indexation of fines."
http://www.budget.vic.gov.au/CA257401000ED28B/WebObj/BP4Ch4/$File/BP4Ch4.pdf
As good Victorian citizens, please do your bit for the State's finances and speed when Eastlink opens. Otherwise the government will be unable to fund it's future needs and use:
"...these increased surpluses to manage future risks and to invest in vital infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, roads and public transport..."
http://www.budget.vic.gov.au/CA257401000ED28B/WebObj/BP1/$File/BP1.pdf
Monday, May 5, 2008
New Format
In response to overwhelming demand, I have ditched the ink-intensive format of white text on a black background for a more environmentally friendly blue and black on white format.
I hope all those who love Frankston will appreciate the new seaside theme, and the 32 seconds it took me to change formats...
I hope all those who love Frankston will appreciate the new seaside theme, and the 32 seconds it took me to change formats...
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