Australian Politics

"Divestiture" craziness

Coles and Woolworths are big because they are good at what they do. Nobody forces anybody to walk through their doors. And there is plenty of competition to keep them on their toes in the form of Aldi, IGA, Harris Farms etc

And a split would require two management teams instead of one -- with an increase in costs and a reduction in competence. How is that a win for anyone?

One hopes that these proposals are just hot air. Any political party trying to implement them would make enemies of two very large companies with stores and a voice all over the place. No wonder the ALP is shying away from the idea

Coles and Woolworths would not even have to pay for advertising to voice any concerns they may have. They could just put up signs in their stores! They could reach (say) 90% of voters that way

Peter Dutton and David Littleproud have flicked the switch to the kind of junk policy you’ll usually only find in the Greens’ box of free-market atrocities.

Divestiture – allowing the courts to forcibly break up large corporations or forcing them to sell parts of their business – is really a last-resort option for the worst offences under competition law. Sure, it may grab the headlines and scream “we feel your pain” at the checkout, but it is regulatory overkill and weird for the alleged friends of business.

Last term the Coalition flirted with the populist “big stick” to bring energy companies to heel. The nation needs effective competition policy, not look-at-me populism and big swinging sticks that should be beneath parties that want to form government.

Even those supposedly crazy interventionists in Labor, wanting to pick industry winners and increase the size of Canberra’s footprint in the economy, have been wise to steer clear of such heavy-handed measures.

In this season of persistent high inflation and living-cost squeezes, big retailers, especially Coles and Woolworths, are on the nose, and have been accused of price gouging. Their chief executives have been dragged before show-trial parliamentary inquiries that have been little more than grandstanding opportunities for antagonists such as Greens senator Nick McKim. He has pushed hard for divestiture powers and has even garnered expert opinion and trade unionists to support his case. At the Greens-instigated inquiry into supermarkets in April, former prices and competition tsar Allan Fels backed the introduction of divestiture laws as “sensible” to stop powerful companies misusing market power.

The Coalition has proposed legislation to break up major supermarkets if they seriously break competition laws, according to Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood.
“Felsie”, who still loves a camera as much as he adores a stoush with Big Anything, had conducted an inquiry for the ACTU on price gouging and unfair pricing practices. In his report, the former Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chief recommended a power to force divestiture to address market power issues. And it’s true our supermarket sector, with Aldi and Metcash making up the big four, is not as competitive as in larger US and British markets.

But the ACCC is conducting a far-reaching inquiry into the sector and it would have been prudent for the Coalition to wait to see what current trading tsarina Gina Cass-Gottlieb’s troops had recommended.

Labor’s hand-picked expert to review the grocery code of conduct Craig Emerson argued that forced divestiture in the supermarket sector would bring a range of other problems, including even greater market concentration and store closures. The former Labor minister said forced closures could see workers having to find new jobs and lead to inconvenience for shoppers.

For forced divestiture to work as an effective deterrent to anti-competitive behaviour by supermarket chains, the threat would need to be credible.

The pitfalls, as outlined by Emerson, mean divestiture would lack credibility.

Which is the danger Dutton and Littleproud, too, now face with this policy overreach.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/coalition-dips-into-greens-populist-junk-policy-bag/news-story/6879c8e8cbc1b615c65297ff35b1905d

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The hidden story behind strong job numbers

Robert Gottliebsen

There is a hidden story behind the surprisingly strong 2024 employment numbers — the driving force behind the vast majority of jobs created is government money rather than private capital.

As I pointed out yesterday, in the US the one constant in the Trump-Biden clash is the days of small government appear to be over — whoever emerges victorious in November.

We might be seeing the same trend developing in Australia and may be looking at the beginning of a fundamental change in western democracies.

I checked the employment trends with one of Australia’s leading employment economists Callam Pickering, the Asia Pacific economist for job site Indeed.

Pickering tells me the number of jobs in Australia has increased by 2.4 per cent over the past year, which is a really strong number at this point in the economic cycle.

The problem is government-aligned industries — namely, healthcare and social assistance; education and training; and public administration and safety — account for around 83 per cent of the increase.

Government-aligned industries aren’t necessarily the public sector, but they all tend to benefit greatly from public spending. It often leaves them less sensitive to market forces than privately funded industries.

And this can make some participants much less motivated by productivity.

Pickering says private sector trading conditions have deteriorated but the deterioration is being hidden to some extent by ongoing strength in government-aligned industries.

To illustrate, the ANZ-Indeed job advertisements index fell 2.2 per cent in June and is down 17.6 per cent over the year.

Job advertisements dropped in June on the back of lower demand for cleaners, tradies and food service workers — all occupations dominated by the private sector.

Large and small corporations around Australia have been looking very hard at their cost structures and many have started, or are planning, major restructures to reduce costs.

In the private sector there is still widespread ignorance about the enormous changes required to implement the industrial relations act, which comes into operation on August 26.

Given the looming Federal election, unions may restrain their greatly increased powers until after the polls

One of the biggest changes to the rules covers casual labour and will impact both employers and employees.

Pickering says around three-quarters of the jobs which make up the rise in employment over the past year have involved part-time employment. In 2022, the jobs boom was full-time driven.

So, while the Australian economy continues to create a lot of jobs and overall employment growth is still strong, it isn’t necessarily creating the same high-quality jobs as earlier in the pandemic recovery.

The figures do not differentiate between casual work and part-time employment.

In the case of casual work, employees do not get holiday pay and a number of other benefits, but to compensate they receive a 25 per cent premium on their take-home pay.

With so many Australians under mortgage and rent stress the 25 per cent cash premium has caused many to shift to casual work — it’s the only way they can meet their rent and mortgage obligations. And, of course, many have taken on a second job on a casual basis.

The industrial relations act has a long, complex definition setting out the circumstances which give rise to a person being entitled to take casual work.

After August 26 most employers will continue the casual employment relationship because it boosts productivity by providing flexibility — and employees need the cash.

But, employers are taking a big risk because if it is found their employee did not fit the complex definition to gain a casual employment entitlement, there will be employer penalties.

At this stage it is not known what those penalties will be and how the courts will interpret the act. But, employing people on a casual basis after August 26 will be a very high risk activity. Those who are struggling to pay their mortgage or rent will not be happy if they discover an ALP Prime Minister has forced them to take less cash each week.

They will probably blame their employer.

Some of the anger may erupt before the election and it may even impact the result, although in this area the Coalition are asleep at the wheel.

Meanwhile, in the US and Australia, we are watching a society unfold which has a much greater government sector and the sector might be a lot less productive than in previous generations.

It will mean interest rates are likely to stay higher longer than many economists are forecasting.

The potential game changer is, of course, artificial intelligence, which if developed correctly will create skills which replace large areas of ‘white collar’ jobs.

Artificial intelligence is not there yet, but it has the potential to reverse the current employment trend and lower inflation and interest rates. But, this will come with a nasty impact on many parts of the population.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-a-hidden-story-behind-strong-job-numbers/news-story/d6d2739ae845d681e6e59869e2e1a10c

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Unvaccinated Police In Australia Fired Two Years After Covid Mandates Dropped

Two years after the Covid mandates ended, the West Australian Police Force has fired nearly 20 unvaccinated police officers and public servants for refusing to get the jabs.

A legal challenge against the mandates, brought by WA Police officer Ben Falconer and staff member Les Finlay, had previously secured an injunction preventing the force from firing unvaccinated staff until the matter had been settled in the courts.

However, a Supreme Court ruling that then-WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson’s Covid vaccination directive was “valid and lawful” brought an end to the injunction in April. WA Police announced the resumption of disciplinary action against 17 affected employees immediately after the hearing, with all 12 police officers and five staff having now been sacked.

Falconer was the last to be formally notified of his dismissal on Friday, for disobeying the Commissioner’s vaccination directive. Despite no prior history of disobedience, Falconer refused the jabs due to his concerns over the safety and efficacy of the Covid vaccines and the way in which mandates violated the bodily integrity of officers and staff.

While Deputy Commissioner Allan Adams said that Falconer’s dismissal was “regretful”, Falconer maintains that refusing Covid vaccination is the “best decision I’ve ever made”. Falconer, a Senior Constable who served in the force for 15 years, says that the sacked police officers had over 150 years of policing experience combined.

The firings come amid staffing shortages and low morale, with WA Police turning to overseas recruitment to prop up its frontline forces.

In April this year it was reported that WA Police was well short of its target of recruiting 950 new frontline officers by mid-year, with only 450-500 having signed on.

Opposition leader Libby Mettam (Liberal) said that in the past four years, there has been a “mass exodus of police with nearly 1,000 officers resigning” from the roughly 7,000 strong force.

Police Commissioner Col Blanch admitted that the force saw a “significant” reduction in police numbers after the Covid pandemic, with 570 officers leaving the force in 2022, of which 473 were resignations and 97 retirements.

WA Police was asked to provide comment along with up-to-date recruitment, resignation and retirement figures, but did not respond prior to publication deadline.

The Labour Government has blamed market forces for WA Police’s struggles with retention and recruitment. However survey data collected by the WA Police Union in 2022 showed that 77% of staff exiting the force claim poor work culture and dissatisfaction with management as their reasons for quitting.

Another union survey of members conducted in 2022 found that morale in the force is at an “all-time-low”, with almost two thirds (64.6%) of respondents describing morale as “poor”. This is more than double 28.2% who said the same in the last poll in 2017. None of the 1,966 respondents described morale as “excellent”.

A majority of respondents complained that their workload had increased, and half or more complained of fatigue, management problems, unpaid overtime and rostering issues.

Nearly three quarters (71.4%) of respondents said they’d used the WA Police mental health services, with 36.6% of service users reporting their experience was “very negative” or “negative”.

Public sector census data obtained under Freedom of Information by the Liberal opposition showed that in 2023, less than half (47.1%) would recommend their agency as a workplace, compared to almost 70% for the public sector overall.

Some of this discontent appears to be driven by the force’s Covid response. In an unauthorised survey of WA Police staff initiated by former officer Jordan McDonald, who resigned over vaccine mandates, employees said they felt “bullied” into getting vaccinated and complained about resources being diverted away from traditional policing towards the state’s Covid response.

In 2022, WA Police began an international recruitment drive to fill vacant frontline positions, with the aim of recruiting 750 officers from the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand over a five-year period. WA Police has also been creative with its recruitment campaign at home, appealing to lonely hearts on hookup app Tinder.

The WA Police Union said it supports the overseas recruitment drive but characterised it as a “band-aid solution”.
“It’s only a matter of time before these new recruits obtain permanent residency and become familiar with the many cultural and organisational issues in WA Police,” the union said in a media statement.

The WA Police Union was approached by unvaccinated members for assistance with their industrial action resisting the mandates, but Falconer, who was a member, says the union’s response was “hostile”. The union also declined to provide information and comment for this article.

Unvaccinated WA Police staff had been on paid leave since the Covid vaccine mandate came into effect in December 2021 until their recent dismissals, an arrangement that Falconer has called “fiscally irresponsible”.

In an essay posted to social media platform X, Falconer said that the South Australian Police Force responded to the situation better. Unvaccinated SA Police officers were allowed to use accrued leave until the mandates dropped, after which they were allowed back to work “without ever being stood down and no disciplinary action taken whatsoever”, he said.

“I could have been back at work from June 2022 [when the mandates were dropped] and there were plenty of administrative tasks that could have been done with remote access to police systems if allowed to work from home,” said Falconer, who said he informed WA Police more than 30 times of his willingness to return to work.

Former police officer of 27 years Lance French, who was also fired this month for not complying with the Police Commissioner’s 2021 Covid vaccination directive, said that he too had informed WA Police numerous times that he wanted to return to work since the mandates were dropped.

Now that his two-and-a-half year legal fight has come to an end, Falconer said that he will take some time out to consider his next career move.

French expressed gratitude for the support of his wife, family and colleagues, opining on social media that while “the trajectory we are heading (as a society) is not good,” he was appreciative for “the legislative and judicial structures enabling our lawful challenge of Commissioner Dawson’s… draconian order to undergo a medical procedure”.

WA Police officers and staff are not the only Australian workers still experiencing repercussions from the Covid mandates, even after most of the public have well and truly moved on.

In January of this year, Queensland Health was criticised for continuing to discipline and fire healthcare workers for failing to comply with vaccination directives issued in late 2021.

More than 50 unvaccinated firefighters remain banned from returning to work in Victoria despite critical staffing shortages, and mandates remain in place for some nurses, midwives and doctors around the country.

The Australian state and territory governments’ coercive Covid vaccination mandates have come under fire recently with AstraZeneca’s admission that its vaccine can cause deadly blood clots, and with mounting vaccine injury claims.

https://principia-scientific.com/unvaccinated-police-in-australia-fired-two-years-after-covid-mandates-dropped/

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Young Australians Even More Unenthusiastic About Going to School: Research

As anxiety and psychological distress levels are increasing among young people, which was accelerated by COVID-19 lockdown measures, a phenomenon of school refusal has also become more prevalent.

Data collected by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority shows the national attendance rate for students in Years 1 to 10 had dropped from 91.4 percent in 2019 to 86.5 percent in 2022.

The figures for attendance level—percentage of students whose attendance rate was 90 percent or higher—saw an even more dramatic drop from 71.2 percent in 2021 to 50 percent in 2022.

However, rather than going to class less often, Australia is seeing an increasing number of children and teenagers distressed at the mere thought of attending school—called school refusal.

Shannon Clark, senior researcher at the Department of Parliamentary Services, explained that school refusal was difference to truancy and exclusion.

“It differs from other forms of school attendance problems in terms of the distress experienced, and in that parents and carers typically know about their child’s absence from school and have tried to get them to attend,” she wrote in a 2023 parliamentary paper on the issue.

“Young people with school refusal are often diagnosed with anxiety disorders.”

Students who experience school refusal are at higher risk of dropping out of school early, and it can also negatively impact their social and emotional development into adulthood.

A spokesperson from the Department of Education told The Epoch Times in an email that every day of school missed, is a day of learning lost.

“Regular school attendance is critical to successful student outcomes and engagement,” the spokesperson said.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

Professor Marie Yap from Monash University’s Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health said student mental health and coping skills, parent-child relationship, supportive teaching staff, and bullying all have an effect on school attendance.
“The COVID pandemic impacted many of these factors for children across the world, with some being disproportionately affected,” she told The Epoch Times in an email.

In particular, neurodivergent children are more sensitive to routine disruption, so switching between online and face-to-face schooling may have tarnished their school experience.

Ms. Yap said the switch may have overwhelmed the coping capacity of neurodivergent children, increasing their distress about attending school.

Additionally, parents whose jobs and financial security were impacted by the pandemic may have struggled to also support their child’s mental health and learning.

The ongoing teacher shortage and high turnover rates are also causing disruptions to the supportive teaching environment students thrive in.

Advice for Parents

Ms. Yap said parents should look for early signs of their child not wanting to attend school and respond as promptly and supportively as possible. She recommends that parents validate their child’s distress about attending school, even if they don’t understand it.

Ms. Yap said parents should try creative ways to help their children express themselves such as drawing or writing.

“Parents need a good understanding of the reasons behind their child’s distress about school—this is important for identifying what types of support and responses would be most helpful for their child.”

Parents should also assure their child that they will help them overcome issues about school.

Meanwhile, Matthew Bach, teacher and former Victorian shadow education minister, believes school refusers need more “tough love” from parents.

“It may ruffle some feathers to say so, but it is the responsibility of parents, not governments, to fix [school refusal],” Mr. Bach wrote in an opinion piece in 2023.
He noted that he saw an increasing number of parents who wanted to be their child’s friend, rather than their guide and corrector.

“School refusal stems from anxiety, which—as we know—is a serious mental health condition. And because of this, parents naturally empathise deeply with their children,” he said.

“Yet what the growing number of children who refuse to attend school need most is tough love. Going to school must simply be non-negotiable.”

Getting Support

Meanwhile, Ms. Yap said parents should record concerns and absences, and communicate these with the school to understand non-attendance patterns, for example, a common day or time of absence.

She said that once they better understand the underlying causes of their child’s distress, parents can work with their child, the school, and other involved professionals to develop a supportive plan.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/young-australians-are-increasingly-refusing-to-attend-school-5670452

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Battery baloney, hydrogen hype, and green fairy tales

Viv Forbes is is usual incisive self below

How low Australia has fallen… Our once-great BHP now has a ‘Vice President for Sustainability and Climate Change’, the number of Australian students choosing physics at high school is collapsing, and our government opposes nuclear energy while pretending we can build and operate nuclear submarines.

Our Green politicians want: ‘No Coal, No Gas, No Nuclear!’ while Our ABC, Our CSIRO, and Our Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) are telling us that wind and solar energy (plus a bit of standby gas, heaps of batteries, and new power lines) can power our homes, industries and the mass electrification of our vehicle fleet. This sounds like Australia’s very own great leap backwards.

There are two troublesome Green Energy Unions: the Solar Workers down tools every night and cloudy day, and the Turbine Crews stop work if winds are too weak or too strong. And wind droughts can last for days. The reliable Coal and Gas Crews spend sunny days playing cards, but are expected to keep their turbines revving up and down to keep stable power in the lines.

Magical things are also expected from more rooftop solar. But panel-power has four huge problems:

Zero solar energy is generated to meet peak demand at breakfast and dinner times.

Piddling solar power is produced from many poorly oriented roof panels or from the weak sunshine anywhere south of Sydney.

If too much solar energy pours into the network (say at noon on a quiet sunny Sunday), the grid becomes unstable. Our green engineers have the solution – be ready to charge people for unwanted power they export to the grid, or just use ‘smart meters’ to turn them off.

More rooftop solar means less income and more instability for power utilities so they have to raise electricity charges. This cost falls heaviest on those with no solar panels, or no homes.

Magical things are also expected from batteries.

When I was a kid on a dairy farm in Queensland, I saw our kerosene lamps and beeswax candles replaced by electric lights. We had 16 X 2 volt batteries on the verandah and a big thumping diesel generator in the dairy.

It was a huge relief, years later, when power poles bringing reliable electricity marched up the lane to our house. All those batteries disappeared with the introduction of 24/7 coal power.

Batteries are never a net generator of power – they store energy generated elsewhere, incurring losses on charging and discharging.

There has to be sufficient generating capacity to meet current demand while also recharging those batteries. What provides electricity to power homes, lifts, hospitals, and trains and to recharge all those vehicle batteries after sundown on a still winter night? (Hint: Call the reliable coal/gas/nuclear crews.)

The same remorseless equations apply to all the pumped hydro schemes being dreamed up – everyone is a net consumer of power once losses are covered and the water is pumped back up the hill.

Yet AEMO hopes we will install 16 times our current capacity of batteries and pumped hydro by 2050 – sounds like the backyard steel plans of Chairman Mao or the Soviet Gosplan that constipated initiative in USSR for 70 years. Who needs several Snowy 2 fiascos running simultaneously?

Mother Nature has created the perfect solar battery which holds the energy of sunlight for millions of years. When it releases that energy for enterprising humans, it returns CO2 for plants to the atmosphere from whence it came. It is called ‘Coal’.

‘Hydrogen’ gets a lot of hype, but it is an elusive and dangerous gas that is rarely found naturally. To use solar energy to generate hydrogen and to then use that hydrogen as a power source is just another silly scheme to waste water and solar energy. It always takes more energy to produce hydrogen than it gives back. Let green billionaires, not taxpayers, spend their money on this merry-go-round.

Who is counting the energy and capital consumed, and the emissions generated, to manufacture, transport, and install a continent being covered by ugly solar panels, bird slicers, high voltage power lines, access roads, and hydro schemes? Now they want to invade our shallow seas. Who is going to clean up this mess in a few years’ time?

As Jo Nova says:

‘No one wants industrial plants in their backyard, but when we have to build 10,000 km of high voltage towers, 40 million solar panels, and 2,500 bird-killing turbines – it’s in everyone’s backyard.’

With all of this planned and managed by the same people who gave us Pink Batts, Snowy 2 hydro, and the NBN/NDIS fiascoes, what could possibly go wrong?

Another big problem is emerging – country people don’t want power lines across their paddocks, whining wind turbines on their hills, and glittering solar panels smothering their flats. And seaside dwellers don’t want to hear or see wind turbines off their beaches. Even whales are confused.

The solution is obvious – build all wind and solar facilities in electorates that vote Green, Teal, and Labor. Those good citizens can then listen to the turbines turning in the night breezes and look out their windows to see shiny solar panels on every roof. This will make them feel good that they are preventing man-made global warming. Those electorates who oppose this silly green agenda should get their electricity from local coal, gas or nuclear plants.

What about the Net Zero targets?

At the same time as Australia struggles to generate enough reliable power for today, governments keep welcoming more migrants, more tourists, more foreign students and planning yet more stadiums, games, and circuses. None of this is compatible with their demand for Net Zero emissions.

Unlike Europe, the Americas, and Asia, Australia has no extension cords to neighbours with reliable power from nuclear, hydro, coal, or gas – we are on our own.

Australia has abundant resources of coal and uranium – we mine and export these energy minerals but Mr Bowen, our Minister for Blackouts, says we may not use our own coal and uranium to generate future electricity here. Someone needs to tell him that no country in the world relies solely on wind, solar, and pumped hydro. Germany tried but soon found they needed French nuclear, Scandinavian hydro, imported gas, and at least 20 coal-fired German power plants are being resurrected or extended past their closing dates to ensure Germans have enough energy to get through the winter.

Australia is the only G20 country in which nuclear power is illegal (maybe no one has told green regulators that we have had a nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney since 1958). Australia is prepared to lock navy personnel beside nuclear power plants in our new nuclear-powered submarines but our politicians forbid nuclear power stations in our wide open countryside.

More CO2 in the atmosphere brings great benefits to life on Earth. If man adds to it, the oceans dissolve a swag of it, and what stays in the atmosphere is gratefully welcomed by all plant life.

In 2023, Australia added just 0.025 ppm to the 420 ppm in today’s atmosphere. Most of this probably dissolved in the oceans. If we in Australia turned everything off tomorrow, the climate wouldn’t notice, but our plant life would, especially those growing near power stations burning coal or gas and spreading plant food.

Climate has always changed and a warm climate has never been a problem on Earth.

It is cold that kills. Especially during blackouts.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/07/battery-baloney-hydrogen-hype-and-green-fairy-tales/