Cheaper Petrol

Xstrata Suspends A$ 586 million of Expenditure.

03/06/2010. Xstrata, which last month halted some copper exploration in Queensland, said it was now also immediately suspending A$586 million of expenditure to develop both the A$6 billion Wandoan thermal coal project and a A$600 million project, to extend the life of the Ernest Henry copper mine.
The company says the two projects would have created 3,250 new jobs which have now been put at risk.

The difference between this announcement and the Fortescue suspended iron ore projects is that Xstrata projects are projects where spending had already been approved.

Fortescue Metals puts $17.5bn projects on hold to review super tax

19/05/2010. Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group has reacted to the Federal Government’s proposed Resource Super Profits Tax with a statement that up to 30,000 jobs could be at risk if the tax is introduced.

The company cited the uncertainty in the financial markets caused by the proposed tax.
• Solomon Hub - US$9 billion proposed investment with 6,000 people employed in operations and 15,000 through construction.
• Western Hub - Estimated US$6 billion proposed investment with 4,000 people employed in operations and 7,500 through construction.
• Chichester Hub expansion – US$4.5 billion invested to date with 2,700 people employed in operations and 7,500 during construction - proceeding

Rio Tinto to review new Australia investment over tax

12/05/2010. Mining giant Rio Tinto Wednesday said it was reviewing all new Australian capital projects in response to "shocking" plans for a 40 percent tax on resources "super profits".
Rio chief Tom Albanese condemned the tax as a danger to investment. Albanese added that Rio had been "shocked" at the tax plan, and criticised the government for rattling mining investors and sending the sector's stocks plunging.
"Unfortunately Australian policy makers will risk de-rating their mining industry if they're not careful," he said.

Xstrata suspends $30 million exploration in light of the Government’s super profits tax

11/05/2010. Xstrata's chief operating officer for North Queensland Copper, Steve de Kruijff, said that it was not possible to justify Xstrata's funding of additional exploration activities when the "fundamental economics of the industry in Australia are being challenged".
Last year Xstrata's copper mining, smelting and refining operations in north Queensland contributed over $1.3 billion to the Queensland economy and are employing over 3500 people.

Backflip on "the Greatest Moral Challenge of our time"

28/04/2010. Before the 2007 election, Mr Rudd mocked then PM Mr Howard as a climate change sceptic, someone unwilling to even ratify the Kyoto Protocol; someone who didn't take the profound effects of global warming seriously.

As late as October 28, 2009, Mr Rudd declared: "Perhaps the most wicked problem facing us as a nation and the world at the moment is climate change. It is one of the greatest scientific, economic and moral challenges of our time."

Today the Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong stated the government would not try to legislate the ETS even by its new delayed start year of 2013 unless there is "credible action" by the end of 2012 from countries such as China, India and the US.

When the Coalition proposed the same “wait and see” policy before Copenhagen, the Mr Rudd described it as an “absolute failure of leadership”. Yesterday he said it was “a reasonable … and responsible course of action”.

In the meantime, taxpayers continue to fork out $90 million a year to keep 408 public servants, employed within the Federal Climate Change Department - despite most of them now having nothing to do until 2013.

That is on top of the millions of dollars already spent, including $13.9 million on advertising, the 114 public servants the Government took to Copenhagen and the $80,000 on establishing a call centre.

It seems that Mr Rudd’s convictions of the past were little more than rhetoric designed to win votes on an issue that was popular at the time but has lost some of its lustre.

One thing that worries us: Last year’s budget projections expected $15 billion from the CPRS.

How will he fill that enormous hole?

Caltex Australia agrees to purchase Mobil service stations

27/05/2009. Caltex Australia has entered into an agreement to acquire 302 Mobil service station sites.
Caltex Managing Director and CEO Des King: “Today, Caltex is primarily a wholesaler of fuel but a relatively small player in the retail fuel market when compared with Coles Express, Woolworths and BP. This acquisition will allow us to better compete in the retail fuel market with these major players.”

The Cheaper Petrol Party wants more players in the market, not less.

If Caltex took over Mobil's 302 service stations, the Caltex-Woolworths joint operation would own 44 per cent of retail outlets.

Today the average price of unleaded in Sydney is $1.136, crude oil is 48.4 AU cents/litre (taking into account the US/AU exchange rate) add 48.5 cents in tax, leaving a margin of 16.7 cents per litre, up from 10.6 cents per litre before the election and before the introduction of the Petrol Commissioner.

We urge the ACCC and the Petrol Commissioner to stand up for consumers who are being ripped off by the big oil companies. Stop the merger going ahead.

Do something about global warming?

Without it affecting your pocket or your lifestyle?

Gross Domestic Product shows first negative result in 8 years

04/03/2009. Against expectations, the Australian economy declined in the final three months of 2008 by 0.5%. However, this does not indicate we are in a (technical) recession.
A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

The economy runs on expectation, fear or confidence.

If people have confidence in keeping their homes and their jobs, they will go out and spend. If not, they save.
If business has confidence in the future, it will invest in people, equipment and stock. If not, it will reduce staff and inventory.
If an investor believes the market will move up, he buys. If he worries it may go down, he sells.

Markets and economies move, based on psychology; proven right, or wrong, by history.

When our treasurer warned us “the inflation genie is out of the bottle”, homeowners assumed interest rates would rise even further and locked in their mortgage rates.
When the treasurer informed us, Australia was heading for a recession and rising unemployment; people started to cut back their spending and saved for the inevitable.
When the prime minister announced a $10 Billion dollar stimulus package, people regarded this as confirmation and saved their “bonus” by paying of debt.
Household savings rate rose to 8.5 per cent from 3.4 per cent, suggesting 80 per cent of the Rudd Government’s $8.7 billion handout in December had been saved

Running around in alarm, handing out large sums of money left right and centre, in the hope that some of it will stick and produce a desired effect, will only contribute to a recession.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The recession we had to have.

Victoria: No power, No Trains, No Water

31/01/2009. Victorian Premier John Brumby -- “We're in uncharted waters, unprecedented conditions”.

"You would never, ever ... no government, no business would ever make the investment for an event that occurs on one day every 100 years because it's a waste of money," the Premier said.

Victorian Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor said there was nothing the Government could have done to prevent the huge power blackout.
“These events are unprecedented, in some respects they are not unlike a natural disaster, impacting on a community like a flood or tornado”.

Hardly unprecedented and not once every 100 years.

A quick Google search shows back in January 2007 “A massive power blackout across Victoria today left 200,0000 homes without electricity and threw Melbourne's public transport system and road network into chaos.” The Age - January 2007

This time all Melbourne train services were canceled and about 500,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in the city's west, some parts of the CBD and western Victoria.
Traffic lights in the city stopped working and signals on the rail network failed.

It is alarming to hear the premier and the minister state that there was nothing the Government could have done to prevent the huge power blackout. Governing is about looking ahead. If this government is incapable of that, it is time for a government that can; before people start dying.

The government cannot be blamed for the heat wave; they can be blamed for a failing infrastructure.

No power, no trains, no water.
Victorians have every right to be angry.

Update 2 February 2009: More than 30 Victorians have died in the record heatwave
A shell-shocked Premier John Brumby: “I know it has not been a perfect week”.

Shell profit 2009

30/01/2009. BBC News 30 Jan 2009: Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has posted a sharp fall in quarterly profits. But annual profits at the Anglo-Dutch company rose 14%, to $31.4bn, helped by record oil prices over the summer. This represents a record annual profit for any UK or European company. ($48.16 billion Australian) "All in all, despite enviable cash flows and low borrowing levels, Shell, as with industry in general, is suffering under the weight of global economic decline." (Keith Bowman)

Today:
Average Unleaded Petrol = $1.200
Crude Oil: (Nymex) US $73.93 per barrel
That's 51 AU cents per litre.
So who gets the rest?

Keep up-to-date
with the Road Rules

High and Low petrol price for today
(MotorMouth - New Window)

Volunteer Sacked For Swearing

10/03/2009. John Willis lost his job as captain of a Gippsland brigade for swearing on emergency radio during the Black Saturday bushfire crisis.
John was battling a fire that had already claimed 50% of his own dairy farm and was threatening a house.

The CFA said the firefighter, who has 40 years experience, (has travelled on his own time to hundreds of fires - in Victoria and interstate - and worked at car accidents, storms and other emergencies, saving countless lives) was stripped of his rank after at least two outbursts during last month's tragic inferno.

"He wasn't a suitable person to represent his brigade, let alone CFA in a senior role," Mr Hogan said. "He's got a history of that sort of behaviour."

In our opinion, when John is willing to put his own life on the line to save someone else or their property, he may swear to his heart’s content.

This volunteer was fighting fires, some deliberately lit, where flames four storeys high, raced across the land like a speeding train, wiping out towns within an hour and where so far 210 people died.

And he swore.

It is not as if he was doing a cooking show on national television.

Victorian Bushfires

13/02/2009. Many lives lost, many families left with nothing.

People who have lost everything are helping each other.
Neighbours helping neighbours.
Over $65 million has so far been raised.
All over the world there is coverage.

Queenslanders, after two thirds of their State was (and still is) flooded, receiving Government assistance, have donated part or all of it to Victorians.

Companies like Coles, DJ and others are donating a full day’s profit.

Dairy farmers who lost their stock make their equipment available to those who lost their equipment.
Volunteer fire-fighters were saving lives and property, while their own home burnt to the ground.
Truckies, delivering donated food, blankets and clothing, are donating their time and part of their pay.

Our cricket team has given up time to raise the spirits of the survivors.

And so it goes on and on and on.

The generosity is overwhelming.

It’s good to be Australian.

Tax Cut for Small Business - Smoke and Mirrors

12/12/2008. "Small business will get an 'effective' tax cut by deferring part of their next tax installment", PM Kevin Rudd says.
Businesses with an annual turnover under $2 million will be allowed to postpone 20 per cent of their next Pay As You Go (PAYG) tax installment - due in January and February - until annual tax returns fall due in July.
This is not a tax cut. It's a deferral, and not a reduction, of tax liabilities.
Typically, businesses estimate in advance how much tax they will pay each quarter. These estimates can be varied downwards each quarter but most business operators do not bother, preferring to reconcile their return at the end of the financial year.

FuelWatch dead and buried

12/11/2008. The Federal Government's stalled FuelWatch plan to regulate petrol prices has finally been killed in the Senate with the upper house voting against the legislation this morning.
Independent Nick Xenophon was the crucial vote.
The scheme was to start on the 15th of December and would have cost $20.9 million over 4 years.

Changes to NSW Road Rules

26/06/2008. New road rules come into effect on the 1st of July 2008.
Main Changes
Full List of Changes (pdf)

Labor's $70 million hybrid gift to Toyota

11/06/2008. PM Kevin Rudd yesterday pledged $35 million to Toyota from Labor's new Green Car Innovation Fund as an incentive to assemble the Hybrid Camry at the Altona facility in Victoria.
Victoria matched the $35 million.
To us this sounds like policy on the run. No inquiry and no HCC (Hybrid Car Commissioner). Also, according to last month's budget, the Green Car Innovation Fund (for which guidelines have not yet been developed) does not start operating until 2011.
Toyota announced it would have build the cars here "with or without assistance".

Rates blamed for house price dive

07/06/2008. A SUCCESSION of interest rate rises is blamed for the greatest single drop in Australian house prices on record.
The national median house price lost nearly $13,000 in the first quarter of this year.
Home prices may slide further this year after housing affordability deteriorated in the first quarter to the worst on record, according to a separate report by the real estate institute published May 28.

Member calls for investigation into benefits and risks associated with genetically modified orgasms.

03/06/2008. We're not touching this one.

Wages, House Prices and Petrol

16/05/2008. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that Adult average wage has increased by 4.8 % over the 12 months to Feb 2008.
The Capital Cities House price Index rose 13.8% over 12 months to Mar 2008.
In the 12 months to Feb 2008 petrol has increased from $1.06 to $1.46.
An increase of 40 cents or 37.7 %.

BUDGET SPEECH 2008‑09

13/05/2008. Read the full text of the Budget Speech delivered on the 13th May 2008.

RBA lifts rates to 7.25%

05/03/2008. As predicted, yesterday the Reserve Bank of Australia has raised its official interest rate by 0.25 of a per cent to 7.25 per cent. Government response: Mr Rudd said the Government was focused on fighting rates rises by tackling inflation. But did he not say earlier he was raising rates to fight inflation?
Inflation in Australia is not a big problem. A big risk is that the interest rate rises will cause a slowdown in our economy and possibly a recession.

Another rate rise - to cut inflation??

05/02/2008. The RBA increased rates by yet another .25%. This marks the bank's 11th increase since May 2002, which has lifted the rate from 4.25 percent to now 7.0%. But isn't the increase in interest rates contributing to inflation? Lifting rates did not work the last 10 times, why would it work now? Can we look forward to another rate rise in March?