May 08, 2010

Wild trading shows we haven't seen the end of the global financial crisis

TheAustralian.com.au


AUSTRALIAN fund managers used the Wall Street swoon as a buying opportunity, but those expecting a big rebound will be disappointed.

Amid all the conspiracies around the Wall Street fall, including alleged financial terrorism, the wild trading in the US was a timely reminder that the global financial crisis is still with us and risk is real.

The Australian sharemarket has its own issues, which explains the 9 per cent fall since it hit a recent high of 5025 points on April 15.

Macquarie's Neale Goldston-Morris describes the Rudd super-profits tax as the factor plunging the Australian market into its worst sovereign risk crisis for more than three decades, and indeed the cost to the mining market is so far some $21 billion.

Wiser heads will see their way through the issue, because the concept of a resources rent tax is widely supported. It's just the fine details that are causing the angst.

When you change the rules midstream, uncertainty is maximised, but the superannuation levy means new money is pouring into the Australian stockmarket every day.

In fact, capital management is actually back on the agenda just a year after corporate Australia raised some $100bn in discounted equity.

The investment banks are doing the rounds testing interest in buybacks.

News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch said this week that he was looking at capital management options.

The contrast is extraordinary between the wild swings in the US and the fear that led Australian companies to issue new stock at bargain basement prices.

The wild swings, of course, were made worse by algorithmic trading, which generates fast order flows searching through different markets for the best deal.

The end result is companies like Accenture falling from $US40 a share to a few cents in minutes.

This issue will be watched by the ASX when Chi-X begins a rival exchange in Australia.

Then there are exchange-traded funds, which proxy a wide range of physical stocks. That means any wild trading in the ETF can send the physical stocks lower.

Beyond this, corporate Australia is relatively lowly geared, with Macquarie figures showing net debt to equity has fallen to 30.5 per cent, or 20 per cent, below June 2008 levels. Goldman figures show interest cover will increase from 5.6 times to 8.3 times in the 2011 financial year.

The big banks have an estimated $15bn in surplus funds, but won't be handing any back soon because regulatory changes will require they hang on to more cash.

The wild Wall Street trading will underline the regulatory zeal.

Australian fund managers have been sitting on their hands amid the recent sell-off in stocks, in part because there was no reason to buy shares after they had acquired stock in last year's $100bn stock giveaway.

The giveaway was the discounted rights issues, which netted the likes of UBS some $60 million in underwriting fees alone.

The capital raisings also trashed earnings per share, which explains why UBS was told any buybacks would be limited when it did the rounds of corporate Australia recently.

It's a bit tough to buy back shares at $20 one year after issuing them at $10.

After $12.6bn worth of buybacks and special dividends in 2007 there were just $1.7bn worth last year, according to UBS figures.

The same investment banks that warned corporate Australia it needed to stock up on cash will be passing on concerns that cash levels are too high and need to be handed back to shareholders.

What's more, planned changed to off-market share buybacks will be considered an incentive for some to move earlier.

Just as the early signs of increased merger and acquisition activity are appearing, capital management activity will also slowly but surely re-emerge on the agenda.

Graeme Samuel's ACCC cartel push in Australia

http://www.theaustralian.com.au

GRAEME Samuel has returned from an international cartel conference hell bent on securing a long sought-after change to the anti-cartel laws to outlaw so-called facilitated practices.

The amendment to the anti-cartel laws is doing the rounds of Treasury, but the need for any change is hotly disputed by practioners, who fear any change to close an alleged gap in the law will result in overkill.

So far, Samuel is short of the blockbuster cartel case he may want in his last year in office, but he has won a steady string of cartel cases, including last month's $9m penalty against participants in an airconditioning cartel in Western Australia. What Samuel sees as a gaping hole was revealed a couple of years back in two Victorian petrol station cases in which the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleged station owners in Ballarat and Geelong had manipulated prices.

The Geelong case was factually more difficult for the ACCC because it was based on a series of phone calls, rather than meetings in smoke-filled rooms, as in the Ballarat case.

In both, however, one or more operators escaped because there was no evidence that they took any notice of calls notifying intended price movements, even though they received them.

The ACCC's favourite silk, Julian Burnside, proposed an amendment to the law, which was howled down by the trade practices mafia, but now Samuel is pushing the government harder for the change.

He is citing successful prosecution by his Israeli comrades last year against five banks for sharing pricing information, and the recent fine handed down against RBS in Britain for advising fee changes to its rival, Barclays.

The debate centres on what Judge Lord Diplock said in the British Slag case in 1962, defining a "meeting of minds". This implies a commitment or an expectation that having told someone of intended price moves, you would expect they would play the game and follow.

Separately, Toll's Paul Little has to get ACCC approval to scratch his head, and so it happens his proposed acquisition of Melbourne trucker Concord Park is before the commission for consideration.



Tax breaks to blame for rising house prices

TheAustralian.com.au


The government has ignored Ken Henry's prescription for more affordable housing

EVERY time the Reserve Bank of Australia raises interest rates, Wayne Swan expresses his deepest sympathy for hard-pressed Australians with mortgages. For example, when they went up by another 0.25 percentage points this week, he said: "That's tough, that's difficult and unfortunate for many families and small businesses."

His concern is touching, to be sure. But it would sound more convincing if he did more to address booming house prices, which is one of the factors feeding into higher rates.

Of course, you'll never catch politicians criticising rising house prices. They would look too much like party poopers, given that higher prices are a cause for celebration for the 68 per cent of Australians who already own houses or are paying them off. Rather, they announce measures that pretend to do something about housing affordability, such as first-home buyers grants that feed directly into higher prices.

The Henry tax review thought it was better to get to the root of the problem. Its report says favourable tax and transfer provisions increase overall demand, particularly for owner-occupied housing. That is, exempting the family home from capital gains and land taxes means we tie up too much of the nation's income in housing compared with more productive areas and we drive up house prices.

But the report also acknowledges that no government is going to start taxing the family home. Rather, it suggests addressing the bias in investment housing towards negatively geared investment, which it describes as "a major distortion in the rental property market".

Another way of putting it is that it has become a national sport, or is that rort. The Australian Taxation Office says losses declared from negatively geared property grew by 35 per cent in 2007-08 to $8.6 billion. The losses, which are the differences between rental income and deductions, mainly interest payments, do not send too many property investors broke, otherwise 1.2 million Australians and rising wouldn't be plunging so eagerly into negative gearing.

Instead, they make a profit from rising property prices with the help of another tax break, the 50 per cent discount on capital gains.

While negative gearing and concessional capital gains taxes are by no means the only factors, they are hard to ignore as contributors to Australia's extraordinary property boom.

If negatively geared investment went mainly into new housing, you could argue that it was helping keep down prices, as well as rents, by adding to supply. Instead, 90 per cent goes into existing houses, meaning it is competing with people buying their own homes.

Since the restoration of negative gearing in 1987, there has been an increase from 8 per cent to 40 per cent in the proportion of finance for existing homes that is taken by investors.

The Henry review says median house prices have risen from three times to five times average household earnings in the past two decades. Figures collated by Macquarie Bank's Rory Robertson show house prices rising by 40 per cent in the past five years, compared with a fall of almost 20 per cent in the US.

We wouldn't want to wish the subprime debacle in the US on us but that's only part of the story. While house prices in Australia have tripled since 1996, in the US they increased by 70 per cent.

Comparing house prices with incomes, Australia has 12 of the 20 least affordable urban areas in a Demographia survey covering the US, Britain, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Vancouver comes top with a home price to income ratio of 9.3, with Sydney second on 9.1, followed immediately by the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast. Melbourne is in seventh place, Adelaide 10th, Darwin 13th, Perth 19th and Hobart 20th.

The Henry review proposes a 40 per cent discount on net residential rental income for tax purposes, which means the discount also would apply to deductible expenses such as interest. So those declaring a loss from a rented property would receive a deduction from their tax bills 40 per cent smaller than at present. Those nominating a profit would see their tax on their property income fall by 40 per cent. The present 50 per cent discount for capital gains would be reduced to the same 40 per cent figure, meaning a little more tax would be paid on the proceeds of sales. Interest on bank savings, which attracts no tax deduction, also would benefit from the 40 per cent discount.

Putting it all together, borrowing to negatively gear would become less attractive and saving more attractive. According to the Henry report, this "would largely remove the current bias towards negatively geared investment in rental properties and shares and so reduce a major distortion in the rental property market".

There will be much debate on the precise merits of this proposal. It is a milder alternative than the practice in countries such as the US of limiting deductions to the income from the asset itself, rather than from the individual's total income: that is, no negative gearing at all. But it is the product of considered and logical thinking by an expert inquiry conducted for 18 months, one, by the way, commissioned by the government. So how did the government react to the birth of the inquiry's labours? Not at all like a proud parent: it disowned it quicker than you can take a baby to the orphanage. Ken Henry's 40 per cent discount idea was on the long list of proposals that the government announced on Sunday would not be implemented "at any stage".

Perhaps we should not be surprised in an election year, though Swan certainly sounded as though he meant "never ever". When Melbourne ABC radio 774 host Jon Faine put it to him that negative gearing had a distorting effect on the housing market and the tax system -- which is no more than what Henry says -- Swan responded: "Well, I've never accepted that view and I think it would be economically disastrous to do anything on negative gearing and, indeed, that's what the review says."

Well, not quite. Henry certainly wants to do something about it, although he does suggest other measure should be taken first to improve the supply of housing, including removing stamp duties on home sales and reforms to land tax, and a significant increase in rental assistance to low-income earners.

The government has buck-passed these proposals to the states or ignored them. Considering it is lower-income earners who suffer most from high housing prices and high rents, this does not look much like the actions of a Labor government. As Reserve Bank economist Tony Richards argued last year: "As a nation we are not really any richer when the price of housing rises but the more vulnerable tend to be hurt."

In theory, an increased supply of land and homes will solve all the problems of the housing market. In practice, it is not as simple as releasing more land. For one, developers have to be willing to use it, rather than waiting for its value to go up further or for interest rates to fall. As well, much of the activity in the housing market involves competing for a limited supply of existing properties in desirable locations.

There is another constraint: if governments were really successful at increasing the supply of land and housing, it might bring down prices. No politician would be caught dead taking responsibility for that. But with the International Monetary Fund warning of the risk of a housing bubble and Australia a world leader in household debt and unaffordable housing, perhaps rising interest rates or other economic stresses will find their own drastic solution to the problem sooner or later.


Telstra looks to alternate plan from NBN deal: report

http://www.businessspectator.com.au


Telecommunications giant Telstra Ltd is preparing an alternative plan should it be unable to strike a deal with the Natioanl Broadband Network (NBN) within the next few weeks, involving an upgraded cable broadband network for millions of subscribers, according to The Australian newspaper.

According to the newspaper, Telstra has well advanced plans to upgrade its cable network to speeds of up to 100 megabits per second, as it currently offers in Melbourne, for homes in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

The demand for the service in Melbourne is low, but Telstra plans to cut its prices significantly to gain a foothold in the market before the NBN is rolled out.

The telco will also separate the service from the Foxtel premium service customers are currently required to sign up to in order to get the speeds

The Australian also reports that the federal government may introduce a levy on Tesltra and other telcos should they choose to compete with the NBN and build their own fibre networks.

The levy is one of the 84 recommendations made in the NBN implementation study by McKinsey & Company and KPMG, which also advises the extension of fibre coverage to 93 per cent of the population, from 90 per cent under the government's plan.

The report warns that a vertically integrated company could pick the most attractive areas in the country and deploy its own network there, reducing the viability of the NBN as well as competition.

"The simplest disincentive against cherry-picking would be to impose a levy on cherry-pickers, payable to the government, with proceeds to be directed towards telecommunications subsidy programs," the report says.



Australia - The great farm investment scam

http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk


Gresham Partners has been appointed by Great Southern receiver McGrathNicol to conduct a scoping study on the best way to sell the land assets of the failed managed investment scheme operator.

According to The Australian Financial Review, in order for McGrathNicol to push ahead with a formal sales process of 271,000 hectares of freehold forestry land, it needs approval from the secured creditors.

The "club" banking syndicate includes Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ, Japan's Mizuho and CBA-owned Bankwest (owed about $336 million) and a second, smaller facility of $195 million that includes ANZ, Bank of Scotland, United Overseas Bank and GE.

The majority of the land is located in Western Australia and the Green Triangle region in South Australia/Victoria. In Great Southern's 2008 accounts, the land was valued at around $725 million.

But given the deluge of forestry assets on the market (and based on the Timbercorp land sale) some timber industry players say Great Southern's land could sell for closer to $500 million.


US Dollar Set for Further Gains Against Euro, Australian Dollar

http://www.dailyfx.com

The US Dollar finished the week sharply higher against all major counterparts except the Japanese Yen, rallying on similarly dramatic declines in the US S&P 500 and other key financial risk barometers. Forex traders were especially aggressive in pushing the Greenback to fresh 14-month highs against the downtrodden Euro. Continued Euro Zone fiscal crises led to incredible single currency losses against the safe haven US Dollar and similarly risk-friendly Japanese Yen. Noteworthy surprises in US economic data likewise supported the case for Greenback strength, and short-term momentum plainly remains in the US Dollar's favor.

Limited US economic event risk suggests that financial market risk dynamics will continue to dominate US Dollar trading, and downward momentum in the S&P 500 and other key asset classes support the case for USD strength. Noteworthy fundamental data releases will be limited to US Trade Balance, Advance Retail Sales, and University of Michigan Consumer Confidence reports. The first rarely forces substantive reactions out of US Dollar pairs, and it will arguably be more significant to watch for surprises in Advance Retail Sales and U Michigan numbers.

Recent US Nonfarm Payrolls data showed that employers added a net 290k jobs in the month of April. Combined with strong upward revisions to previously-released numbers, NFP results helped build the case for a sustainable recovery in hiring and relief for the US consumer. Whether that will translate into increased expenditures remains to be seen, however; consumer spending accounts for approximately 70 percent of US Gross Domestic Product and a recovery is critical for economic growth. We will subsequently watch upcoming Consumer Confidence and Advance Retail Sales data with special interest.

US Dollar traders should otherwise keep a close eye on any and all developments out of the Euro Zone and recently-skittish financial markets. The Dow Jones Industrials Average lost nearly 1000 points through Thursday afternoon and finished the week sharply lower despite a noteworthy bounce. Market news sources blame the almost-inexplicably violent decline on a broad array of potential culprits—ranging from rioters in Greece to a mysterious botched order to sell S&P futures contracts. Whatever the root cause, we saw exactly how skittish markets can become at the first sign of trouble. If we see any similar flare-ups in the week ahead, the US Dollar could almost certainly set new highs against most except the Japanese Yen.

Households hit by rising rates ahead of tight Federal Budget

CourierMail.com.au


QUEENSLAND households are being squeezed, with the cost of living likely to continue to rise on the back of the re-emerging mining boom.

But while struggling families will be looking to next week's Federal Budget for help, Treasurer Wayne Swan has indicated there will be no spendathon, with the Government opting for long-term measures.

Latest Consumer Price Index figures show Queenslanders have had to weather double-digit growth in electricity prices, a nearly 5 per cent hike in the cost of some foods and a 15 per cent spike in fuel bills.

It comes on top of a string of interest rate rises which have added $48 to monthly payments on an average $300,000 loan and more global financial turmoil which this week stripped billions of dollars from superannuation funds.

But the re-emerging mining boom is likely to fuel inflation – which translates to higher living costs – prompting the Reserve Bank of Australia to warn families to prepare for even more increases in official interest rates. Inflation is expected to exceed the target band of 2-3 per cent by midway through the year, rising to 3.25 per cent .

The latest CPI figures show Queenslanders already have endured fuel and utilities price rises topping 14 per cent.


Pest bees could cost millions in Australia

ABC.net.au


ELIZABETH JACKSON: A new report has found an incursion of Asian honey bees in Australia could cost millions of dollars if it spreads. The bees were first found in Cairns in Far North Queensland three years ago and so far they've been contained to that region.

Now a report by the Federal Government's Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation has put a figure on the price of exterminating the Asian honey bee colonies.

Melinda Howells reports from Brisbane.

MELINDA HOWELLS: Three years ago an unwanted cargo arrived undetected in Cairns. Asian honey bees are common in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. They're smaller and less hairy than European bees, with distinctive yellow stripes and they're a pest.

TERRY RYAN: It can't do the managed pollination. It robs the honey and destroys the hives of the domesticated bees so there are problems in honey production, pollination. And because it's warm so often and likes to live around what we call disturbed ground - our houses and buildings and post boxes - it can become a real pest

MELINDA HOWELLS: Terry Ryan has authored a report on the public costs of a widespread incursion, such as removing hives and treating stings.

TERRY RYAN: We're looking at numbers in the millions of dollars, you know, for every million people affected you're looking a range on the public health impacts of, you know, around the $800,000 mark. And the public nuisance costs can rise between $50,000 and $300,000 odd per million people.

MELINDA HOWELLS: Trevor Weatherhead is the president of the Queensland Beekeepers Association. He says a nationwide infestation would have an even greater cost to the honey and beeswax industries and to horticulture and agriculture.

TREVOR WEATHERHEAD: In Australia alone there's something like about $4 billion to $6 billion worth of crops that rely on honey bees for pollination. If they're not available to do that pollination job because these other Asian bees have displaced them, then there would be a big loss to agriculture

MELINDA HOWELLS: The insects can also carry a mite that could wipe out European bees, but the mite hasn't yet been detected in Australia.

Terry Ryan says Queensland authorities have so far managed to control the incursion.

TERRY RYAN: We don't know how far it'll go, but some of the scientists say it could get down as far as Victoria and even into South Australia. So we are talking in the millions of people.

MELINDA HOWELLS: A spokesman for Queensland's Department of Primary Industries says a cost-sharing agreement with other states and territories and the Commonwealth is in place until the end of the year. It's focused on surveillance, eradication and establishing the extent of the Asian honey bee infestation to determine whether the pests can be eradicated.


ELIZABETH JACKSON: Melinda Howells reporting from Brisbane.

Westpac Phishing Scam Hits Queensland Residents

http://www.spamfighter.com


The residents of Darling Downs and Toowoomba (Queensland, Australia) have been advised to be wary of a scam e-mail detected by the researchers. The e-mail claims to have been sent from Westpac Bank.

In the e-mail, the Bank addresses its users and says that it desires to protect their accounts and assets. To meet the mandates of the Financial Services Authority, the Bank asks all its customers to confirm their account details and provide their account an additional protection layer.

To add a protective layer to the account, people need to click on a link provided within the e-mail.

The official website of the Bank has tagged the e-mail as a scam, rather a phishing scam.

Phishing attack can be described as an attack wherein scammers try to procure critical users' details, like the account number, credit card number, passwords, by impersonating as a reliable organization, such as the Bank in the said case.

As stated by the Bank's website, Westpac's customers will never be asked to verify, update, or modify their online banking details, as reported by thechronicle.com.au on April 28, 2010.

The website urges its customers to think upon three questions if they come across this email: One, are they being asked to click some particular link or contact someone over phone? Two, do they need to provide their account information? And three, is the grammar and punctuation used in the e-mail up to the mark or not?

The website says that if answer to any of these questions is "yes", then it might be a scam.

The official website of the Bank asks users to first verify the legitimacy of the e-mail and then respond. They can cross check the details by calling the Bank on its hotline number or by just viewing it at its website. If the users come to know of a transaction that was not made by them or if they believe that someone has compromised their security, they must immediately contact the Bank.

The only way advised by the security experts to avoid being a victim of such scams is to install security software to block such e-mails from entering the inbox.


Southeast Queensland boom puts health services at risk

CourierMail.com.au

mason stevenson

HEALTH ALARM: AMA Queensland president Dr Mason
Stevenson has warned about the lack of medical facilities
in southeast Queensland's growth areas.


SOUTHEAST Queensland's premier growth corridor will buckle under the strain of insufficient health resources, the Australian Medical Association has warned.

After a two-day tour of the western corridor, AMAQ president Dr Mason Stevenson said plans to ramp up medical facilities through Springfield, Ipswich and Toowoomba were "grossly inadequate".

Yesterday, Ipswich Hospital was on capacity alert, and Dr Stevenson said waiting and treatment times were likely to soar as population in the corridor continued to grow.

Ipswich alone is predicted to be home to more than 435,000 people in the next 21 years, up from 170,000 today.

By 2031, Toowoomba will be home to 228,000 and Springfield 100,000 people.

Health Minister Paul Lucas said the Government had committed to a $128.7 million upgrade of the Ipswich Hospital.

He said he recognised the growth of the western corridor and had hired more than 300 extra clinical staff in the past five years.

But Dr Stevenson said planning, which offered an extra 90 beds and six short-stay beds, was insufficient.

Toowoomba has only been promised a $2 million upgrade for emergency facilities.

Dr Stevenson said the "cascading effect" of the strain on Toowoomba and Springfield medical infrastructure meant the system was destined to fail, with Ipswich and Brisbane resources set to be stretched beyond limits trying to cope.

He described Toowoomba as the "poorest cousin" of the hospital redevelopment program, with cancer care, trauma surgery and coronary care insufficient.

Dr Stevenson noted that Ipswich Hospital was "more substantive" than Toowoomba, but was on capacity alert on a weekly basis and couldn't handle Toowoomba's overflow. "We welcome the planned upgrades, but after walking the wards we've seen that they are not adequate," he said.

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale said the region was crying out for more medical resources.

"If we're going to be smart we need to share the load," Cr Pisasale said.

Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Peter Taylor said the centre's health facilities were under pressure because they serviced such a wide area.

"We service double our population because people in other centres see Toowoomba as their nearest city," he said.


1991 Goodna Murder: Leanne Holland case review criticised by Council for Civil Liberties

The President of the Australian Council of Civil Liberties Terry O'Gorman says the review of the 19 year old Leanne Holland murder should not be conducted by Queensland Police.

He told ABC News it should be undertaken by independent interstate investigators supervised by a judicial officer.

The police are saying the review will take 4 months.

Flash: Queensland Police to review Leanne Holland 19 year old murder case


The Queensland Police Service has just announced a full review of the murder of Goodna schoolgirl Leanne Holland who was found murdered at Redbank Plains in September 1991.

Graham Stafford served 15 years for the murder but his conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal in Brisbane on 24 December 2009.

Three detectives not involved in the original case will review the matter with peer review oversight by an experienced NSW police investigator.

Breaking News: Apple sets Australian iPad launch date as May 28

Herald Sun


APPLE says its iPad touchscreen portable tablet computer will go on sale in nine countries, including Australia, on May 28.

The much-anticipated consumer gadget was launched on the US domestic market on April 3, but such was demand that the Californian firm was forced to delay deliveries to international consumers.

Now, fans in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland can look forward to seeing them in the shops before the end of the month, Apple's statement said.

"Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple's online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, May 10," it said.

The firm plans to launch the iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July.

Apple gave no details on prices in the new markets, but versions of the device with different storage capacities and connection options are available in the United States for between $US499 ($562) and $US829 ($935).

Although not yet officially available through Apple-licensed vendors outside the United States, impatient consumers in many areas have been buying imported models from the so-called "grey market".

The firm boasts that it has already sold more than one million iPads in the United States and that customers have downloaded over 12 million software applications from its online store.


Apple Rip-off: iPad to cost 25% more in the UK than it does in US stores - Ausutralians likely to be slugged too

http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au


British consumers will have to pay far more than their U.S. counterparts for Apple's latest must-have gadget, the iPad.

Apple has announced that the starting price in the UK will be £429 for the 16GB model with a wi-fi link to the internet - around 25 per cent more than in America.

The equivalent price for the same device there is around £340.

British consumers will have to pay around 25 per cent more than  their US counterparts for Apple's new iPad

British consumers will have to pay around 25 per cent more than their US counterparts for Apple's new iPad

Apple will charge £499 for the 32GB model and £599 for the 64GB device. Again, these are around £90 more expensive than they are in America.

The U.S. company also said yesterday that the iPad will be available in the UK and some other countries on May 28. It can be pre-ordered from May 10.

 Apple also announced prices for the high-spec versions, which will be able to connect to the web via a 3G mobile phone signal.

It said these will start at £529 for the 16GB model, £599 for the 32GB and £699 for the 64GB.

In an effort to explain the price difference between America and Britain, Apple pointed to the fact that there are different, and higher, taxes in Europe, as well as higher transport and other costs.

The international release was postponed after the company decided to meet huge demand in the U.S. where it has already sold around 1.5million iPads.

The iPad, touted as a replacement for lap-top and netbook computers, lets users browse the web, email, share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, and read ebooks.

It is just half an inch thick and delivers up to ten hours of battery life.

More importantly it is able to download tens of thousands of software apps, or applications, previously devised for the iTouch and iPhone.

To date, U.S. consumers have already downloaded 12million apps as well as more than 1.5million ebooks from Apple's iBookstore.

In the UK, the mobile phone networks Vodafone, O2 and Orange have all signed up to supply the iPad to customers.

However, there are no details of the prices they will charge for connection to the internet over their networks.

The other countries getting the iPad from May 28 are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.

The decision by Apple to charge more in Britain will add to concerns that multi-national companies see this country as a Treasure Island where they can get away with imposing higher prices.

Apple imposes strict controls over how and where its products are sold, consequently there is little or no value in shopping around.

When Apple launched the new iPod nano in 2008, UK prices were some 30 per cent higher than in America.

A similar pattern has been seen with sought-after games consoles from other manufacturers. Sony charged UK shoppers more for its PlayStation and PSP, while Nintendo marked up the price of the Wii.

U.S. fashion chains such as Gap, Banana Republic, and Abercrombie & Fitch also charge British consumers far more than their counterparts in America.

The companies blame the greater cost of doing business in this country.


Cheatin' hearts are made of gold: Online dating scams exposed

TheAustralian.com.au

INFIDELITY has been in the news a lot lately. In Western Australia, spin staff continue mopping up after the unauthorised and X-rated bipartisanship between ex-treasurer Troy Sniffwell and Green MP Adele Carles.

In Hollywood, Sandra Bullock is selling the family home and adopting a baby after her husband got jiggy with tattoo model and alleged former Nazi Amish cheerleader Michelle "Bombshell" McGee.

As for the wilds of Tiger Woodsland, the tabloid that broke the story of the swingmeister's serial infidelity has just put the pro-golfer's mistress count during his five-year marriage at a backbreaking 121.

Ah yes, infidelity has been in the news a lot lately, but then again infidelity is always in the news. This is because - despite consistently telling phone surveyors we think cheating is A Very Bad Thing To Do - most of us can't get enough of it, either as practitioners or media voyeurs.

As a result, capitalism is working its magic and transforming this contentious trend into a bunch of brand spanking new businesses.

The most blatant pin-ups for Infidelity Inc are the new breed of online dating services for people in relationships who want to cheat on their partners: ashleymadison.com and gleeden.com are two such portals that have been launched in Australia in the past month.

The former uses a (presumably ironic) wedding ring as the "o" in its title and boasts the catchy slogan: "Life is Short. Have an Affair." Its commonsense advice to members includes not coming out with "hey, do you like giving oral sex?" as an opening line, thinking twice before disseminating nude photos and getting real if you are a fat 57-year-old hoping to get down and adulterous with a spunk rat 30 years your junior.

The website was started in Canada in 2001 by Noel Biderman, a 38-year-old former sports lawyer who - despite his Kingpin of Infidelity nickname - is apparently a happily married father of two. Biderman routinely defends his multimillion dollar business from a range of accusations, including that it uses scam-bot software to prey on lonely male subscribers and that it increases rather than simply provides a safe outlet for marital indiscretions.

"[M]onogamy is surely not in our DNA," he told the Australian media during a visit here last month. "I wouldn't have 5.5 million members if I wasn't doing something right." In fact, based on preliminary subscription numbers, Biderman reckons this nation is shaping up to be one of the most unfaithful in the world.

The site's Down Under department contains about two chaps for every woman, which means Australian ladies prepared to pay between $49 and $249 for membership can enjoy excellent odds with eligible non-bachelors such as Manowarfan, a self-confessed Viking God whose photo shows him wearing shiny black pants and wielding a very large sword, The 33-year-old Sydney-based Gemini says he likes nature, long drives and spanking, and is disease free.

If none of Ashley Madison's hanky-pankerers pop your cork, you could try the other newcomer to the Australian clandestine net sex scene: the slick, European-based Gleeden. This site frames infidelity as a girl-power issue and claims sleeping round is the key to women's matrimonial bliss, particularly during next month's FIFA World Cup.

"[One] in three men cheat, leaving their spouses to feel unattractive, lonely, depressed and trapped," a press release reads. "We believe that the key to happiness for these victims of adultery is adultery!"

Given that 72 per cent of its members are executives, Gleeden's PR team also suggests that extracurricular coitus could psychologically rehabilitate finance sector types left unnerved by the global financial crisis. By "taking the risks out of the boardroom and into the bedroom", apparently everyone's bottom line will come out a winner.

If this still doesn't sound like your cup of philandery, other cyber options for Australia's unhappily hitched include affairsclub.com ("the Largest Collection of Unfaithful and Desperate Wives Online"), marriedcafe.com (home of "horny housewives" such as CutyCurves004 and WorkthisBody) and meet2cheat.com which offers men an unlimited subscription for a low, low $1399.

Lifetime membership to a cheaters club, now there's an attractive attribute in a partner.

Once you've progressed from online interactivity to the real-life variety, you may then wish to secure the services of companies such as the Alibi Network (www.alibinetwork.com) which offers customised "alibis and excuses for attached adults involved in discreet relationships". These include fake 24-hour hotel receptionists who'll answer in the accent of your choice, as well as actors who'll help convince your better half you're in Pittsburgh when you're actually in Paris (a common extramarital dilemma).

Two-timers should also invest in a phone able to run applications such as Tiger Text, which deletes risque text messages 60 seconds after consumption. It's terrifically James Bond, not just in the technology but in the implication that users are likely to proposition anything with a pulse.

At this point, it's tempting to conclude that capitalism is conspiring to drain what little sanctity remains in marriage and long-term defacto-ism. Monogamy, however, is also using free enterprise to strike back.

Like the symbiotic relationship between the junk food and dieting empires, equal but opposite industries designed to finger illicit fornicators are also flourishing. Cheater-busting goods and services include computer keystroke recorders, GPS vehicle trackers, DNA paternity labs and private detective agencies such as Sydney's Lipstick Investigations, which charges $95 an hour to spy on and "fidelity test" targets with flirtatious human decoys.

Other market sectors benefiting from infidelity include marriage counsellors, self-help book publishers, divorce lawyers and TV shows such as Cheaters and The Jerry Springer Show.

And let's not forget those of us in the mainstream print media who publish - blow by salacious blow - the sordid SMS exposures, the scandalous kiss-and-tells and the tearful confessions of sex-a-holism while self-righteously decrying all the salacious media interest.

It's this sort of hypocrisy that makes Infidelity Inc so fascinating. Like unfaithfulness itself, it thrives on our embrace - and simultaneous disavowal of our embrace - of sexual transgression. Obviously its emergence as a money spinner does not automatically make it ethically OK. But (once again, like unfaithfulness itself) the commercialisation of infidelity is worthy of deeper consideration rather than kneejerk condemnation.


Resident warns: Beware of SMS scammers with fraudulent claims

http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au

ONE South Grafton woman who is concerned residents may be the  target of Indonesian credit card scammers after receiving a strange text  and phone call.

South Grafton woman Pat McDonald received a text
message saying she had won $100,000, which was a scam.


AN unsolicited text and a strange phone call have set off alarm bells for one South Grafton woman who is concerned residents may be the target of Indonesian credit card scammers.

Pat McDonald said she received a text message on her mobile phone about a week ago congratulating her on winning $100,000.

"I did have a lottery ticket and wondered if it was the lottery department," said the 64-year-old pensioner.

Pat went and checked her ticket against the latest lottery numbers on the appropriate website and realised she hadn't won so she rang Optus, her mobile supplier.

"They said the number the text had come from was Indonesian," Pat said.

"Then, two nights ago I got a phone call – I said hello about four times before this person said 'Miss McDonald you used your credit card in Grafton shopping centre last week'.

"I said 'No I didn't' but he just kept on saying 'yes – you used a Mastercard or credit card in a Grafton shopping centre'.

"Finally he asked 'Why, have you not got a credit card?' – when I said that I didn't he hung up straight away."

Pat said she only reflected on the strangeness and potential fraudulent nature of the call after it ended.

"In my ignorance, if I did have a credit card I would have gone along with it," she said.

She said the man, who spoke with strong accent she could not identify, provided his name and said he was from Sydney but gave no other credentials.

"I rang the police assistance line and they put me through to Grafton police but they didn't want to do anything," she said.

Pat said she wanted to warn people about the potential scam.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released a Little Black Book of Scams which outlines the many and varied ways unscrupulous fraudsters will try to get hold of people's money. There are 15 chapters dedicated to different types of scams.

The book can be picked up for free from the Department of Fair Trading's Grafton office or downloaded at http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/TheLittleBlackBookOfScams08.


Queensland top cop's contract renewed early, despite force's string of scandals as CMC and QLD police at loggerheads

TheAustralian.com.au

Queensland's crime watchdog is about to turn up the heat on Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson

FEW outside the backrooms of the Bligh government's offices could fathom the February announcement that Bob Atkinson would stay on as Queensland police commissioner for another three years.

It came out of the blue, months before his contract expires in November and when the 10-year boss of Queensland's most powerful bloc of public servants is more vulnerable than any other police chief since the Fitzgerald inquiry exposed the rampant corruption of former commissioner Terry Lewis 20 years ago.

In the Fortitude Valley headquarters of the Crime and Misconduct Commission -- Queensland's corruption watchdog -- the premature extension of Atkinson's career stunned investigators preparing for the bloodiest of exchanges with the police hierarchy in a bitter war that has raged between the two crime-fighting bodies in recent years.

Senior members of the legal community and indigenous leaders also expressed surprise at the government going out on limb for one of its departmental heads, knowing scandals involving police are set to explode this year.

There is no suggestion of a return to the "brown paper bag" days of Lewis. Atkinson -- himself a lauded investigator -- has overseen a 26 per cent reduction in crime during his time in the job.

But there is little doubt of the return of the "old mates" network, eroding standards and fermenting a culture of "protecting their own".

"There are problems; however, he is viewed by the government as having honour and integrity, and there is no one else in the force who is regarded as being ready to take over just yet," a senior adviser in the Bligh government tells Inquirer.

In the next few weeks and months, Atkinson will feel the heat of a series of CMC probes.

There is the ongoing "star chamber" hearings into misconduct among the ranks on the Gold Coast, and the looming, long-awaited release of the watchdog's damning report into the discredited investigation of the 2004 death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee.

Leaks of the CMC Palm Island report claim it will allege a whitewash, involving the tailoring of evidence, by two senior officers of the elite Ethical Standards Command, picked by Atkinson to review the original death-in-custody investigation, condemned in 2006 by deputy coroner Christine Clements as lacking "transparency, objectivity and independence". In effect, an alleged cover-up of the cover-up.

This month's release of the CMC's report -- which recommends disciplinary action against the two officers, as well as four of the original investigators -- will return to a recurring theme of failing supervision, self-protection and a refusal of the 10,000-strong force to learn from its mistakes.

Last year, then CMC chairman Robert Needham slammed police over the Tasering -- revealed by The Weekend Australian -- of an unarmed 16-year-old girl.

The incident occurred only days after a year-long trial of Tasers was aborted, with then police minister Judy Spence approving the rollout of the new weapons to general duties officers.

Police had tried to put a legal stop to this newspaper investigating the incident, the only "Taser deployment" not detailed with a police media release.

After the subsequent CMC probe, Needham said not only did the girl's Tasering show a "concerning pattern" of poor policing, it also confirmed the force was refusing to "learn from its mistakes".

"The commission expected the QPS to use the incident as a learning opportunity for the officer involved and for Taser training generally, but there is no evidence to show this has occurred," Needham said in March.

"My observations of QPS failure to learn from mistakes are not limited to this case."

Several months later, Needham's warning proved to be prophetic.

In June, north Queensland man Antonio Galeano, 39, died after he was shot 28 times, according to the Taser's built-in recorder.

A day after the death, Atkinson told the media Galeano had been Tasered just three times.

Again, it took this newspaper to reveal what Ethical Standards Command had gleaned from the Taser's systems about the death, now under investigation by the coroner.

But the most pointed insight into the Queensland police -- save for the six-year scandal over Doomadgee's death -- was the CMC's Dangerous Liaisons report into illegal and improper dealings between officers and prisoners.

Atkinson tried to block the release of the report and later accused the CMC of "showboating" by releasing it on the eve of an anti-corruption conference it was hosting in Brisbane.

The report implicated 25 officers for taking illegal payments, confecting charges and passing on confidential information to informants.

The CMC pointed the blame for the misconduct at senior police who "showed contempt for QPS policies and procedures".

"Without the pressure for public exposure, the CMC is not confident that the attitude of these officers will change . . . This is one of the reasons I have publicly released our investigative report," Needham said.

Atkinson appeared genuinely disgusted by the activities of police and said reforms had been introduced, although he could not guarantee it would never happen again.

"There is always that need for vigilance and alertness and awareness," he said.

Within days, Atkinson and Needham were brawling again, after it emerged that two deputy commissioners had opted to impose "managerial guidance" instead of disciplining five officers caught up in the prisoner scandal.

The CMC called for an overhaul of the police disciplinary system -- which Atkinson has said is bogged down in legal constraints -- and a review is under way.

The healthy tension between the two bodies first turned toxic in December 2005, when Atkinson produced a report that helped then premier Peter Beattie out of a political crisis.

The CMC had concluded former cabinet minister Gordon Nuttall had misled a state parliament estimates committee and could be prosecuted. Atkinson, at the request of the Beattie government, prepared an 11-page report at short notice in which he rejected the CMC's findings.

It was an act without precedent and drew condemnation from lawyers, then opposition leader Lawrence Springborg and ethicists who raised questions about whether Atkinson had became a political agent for the government.

But the CMC is not squeaky clean.

Blame for the ongoing scandal of the Doomadgee case, unresolved after almost six years, can also be put on the CMC.

With indigenous hatred of police so high after the death in the Palm Island watchhouse, the CMC should have taken over the investigation from the beginning.

Instead, CMC officers were the first to flee the island as the community rioted, leaving police to stand their ground and later investigate the death.

Again, after deputy coroner Clements slammed the investigation in 2006, the CMC allowed the police Ethical Standards Command to run the new probe.

In 2007, the police handed its 250-page report -- vetted by independent counsel -- to the CMC, which rejected it.

The CMC then began its own investigation, three years too late.

It is not known whether the CMC's new report attacks Atkinson or whether the fallout from it will force him from office.

It is possible. As one government insider tells Inquirer, the contract for his three-year extension has yet to be signed.


Queensland Rugby League says hands off our $8 million

TheAustralian.com.au

THE Queensland Rugby League has refused to dip into its multi-million-dollar war chest to help appease the game's frustrated playing ranks even though its bulging bank balance owes much to the elite footballers who have transformed the State of Origin series into a money-spinning machine.

The game's leading players, including those hailing from north of the border, have spent recent days pleading with the NRL and ARL to find money to fight off the threat of rugby union and the AFL. The QRL has money, up to $8 million if reports are to be believed. Yet it won't be using that money to assuage the players or the clubs, with chairman John McDonald insisting his body is more than satisfied the game's elite are being paid what they are worth.

Origin players receive $12,500 per game - a healthy increase on what they were two years ago but nowhere near the $30,000 figure put forward by North Queensland, Maroons and Australia halfback Johnathan Thurston.

"We're happy about what they get," McDonald said. "We believe that what's generated within that particularly series is what should be considered. It was only last year, or the year before that, we actually upped the ante to the current rate, which is quite a sizeable amount of money. We would like to think there is a fair payment for what they do. I know the players want to get rewarded and I think they're being rewarded very well.

"Don't forget they get all their outfits, there's thousands of dollars worth of gear they get as well. It's not is if they're not looked after. They stay in the best accommodation and what have you. When I was playing we stayed in a one-star hotel rather than the five or six star they're in now.

"But I am happy about that."

The QRL isn't the only body holding on to significant funds. The NSW and Australian Rugby Leagues also have considerable savings stashed away, with the "RLs" believed to have more than $12m in their keeping.

At a time when the game and its clubs are crying poor, and the players are screaming for more rewards, it represents a significant amount of money. Officials, however, are giving mixed messages over whether they will increase pay for representative games.

ARL chairman Colin Love has indicated he believes payments should go up while his chief executive Geoff Carr has been more circumspect.

Player payments aren't the only issue confronting the QRL. Queensland officials are believed to have spoken to board member John Ribot at last night's Test in Melbourne about the salary cap scandal at the Storm.

Ribot, the former Storm chief executive, negotiated the contract between Cameron Smith and Fox Sports which led to the club's rorting being exposed. Disgraced chief executive Brian Waldron, who replaced Ribot also revealed late last year that Ribot remained a consultant to the club. When the salary cap investigation first emerged all parties denied any wrongdoing.

However, News Limited is currently completing a forensic investigation of the rorting at the club and the Smith deal is central to that. Former ARL chairman Ken Arthurson, while stressing he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by Ribot, questioned why a man regarded as the architect of the Super League war was added to the QRL board. Ribot has declined to answer phone calls or reply to text messages since the Storm scandal broke.

"I must say I was astounded that he was appointed to the board of the QRL," Arthurson said.

"As a matter of fact, when it happened I spoke to John McDonald. I said, 'You're not serious about putting this bloke on the board - you must be kidding'.

"I have nothing against John Ribot personally. Naturally, I fell out with his views in relation to the Super League war. We were diametrically opposed to each other in every way. I have to say I was absolutely flabbergasted when Queensland appointed him to the board.

"To put a bloke on the Queensland board that was involved in that was just unbelievable."



Climate Change: The benefit of the doubt

SMH.com.au


Climate change sceptics are scenting victory in the battle for public opinion, write Ben Cubby and Antony Lawes


In the Queensland village of Maleny, best known for its folk festival, organic food and flourishing cottage industry in various hemp products, Jon Woodlands is a familiar face.

The veteran environmental campaigner has joined protest camps to halt logging in rainforests and uranium mining at Jabiluka, and even been arrested for diving in front of a cement truck in an attempt to stop Woolworths building a supermarket in his home town.

But when Woodlands decided to write an article for a local newsletter outing himself as a climate change sceptic, he says the goodwill of his fellow greenies evaporated instantly.

What followed were legal threats, the severing of friendships, ostracism and abuse - as well as a fair amount of support, both public and private.

''I've had people go off the Richter scale even if you suggest there's any doubt [about climate change science],'' the former TAFE teacher says. ''It's like a religion.''

Jon Woodlands has never met John Roskam, but the two men have travelled very different paths to arrive at the same point: a firmly held belief that the science behind climate change is shaky.

From his office in Melbourne's Collins Street, 1400 kilometres from laid-back Maleny, Roskam has done more to fuel doubt about climate change than almost anyone in Australia. As executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs, a think tank that exists to promote free-market ideologies, Roskam has helped finance and give structure to Australia's often self-contradictory band of climate sceptics.

''Of all the serious sceptics in Australia, we have helped and supported just about all of them in their work one way or another,'' he says, listing some prominent figures on the local circuit. ''Ian Plimer - we launched his book - Bob Carter, Jo Nova, William Kininmonth.''

The IPA's operating budget is small but its influence in nurturing climate scepticism in the wider community is large. About a quarter of its $2 million in annual funding comes from corporations with a direct stake in the climate change debate, not including contributions from its 1000 individual members, some of whom also have a personal interest in climate change.

The money is used to pay for sceptic research and extend patronage to prominent sceptics by giving them a platform for publication and media exposure. The IPA is a key part of Australia's small labyrinth of think tanks, foundations and internet-based communities attempting to undermine public confidence in climate science.

The network was instrumental in nurturing the deluge of climate sceptic emails that helped to convince Liberal MPs to dump Malcolm Turnbull, and their influence is likely to have had an effect on the internal ALP polling that convinced it to shelve the emissions trading scheme until at least 2013.

But it is the spontaneous rejection of the mainstream view from unexpected quarters, like Jon Woodlands in Maleny, that the IPA finds especially welcome.

''I truly believe that the Australian people are waking up and it's a victory for liberal democracy,'' Roskam says.

In the battle for public opinion, Roskam is finally scenting victory. He cites a poll commissioned by his organisation since the federal government decided to postpone its ETS, which showed 26 per cent of the 1000 people surveyed thought "The variation in global temperature is just part of the natural cycle of nature," with another 38 per cent not sure what the truth is.

Other polls are less clear cut, and suggest that public support for working to solve climate change remains strong, although sceptics are represented in most communities and age groups. The Lowy Institute for International Policy has been polling changing public attitudes to climate change for several years, and allows for more nuanced responses than the IPA's Galaxy survey.

Although often cited as evidence of waning public support for climate change action, the most recent Lowy findings show that interest in the issue peaked with the election of the Rudd government and quickly declined thereafter to its current level, with about half the population wanting immediate greenhouse gas cuts, and the proportion who think nothing should be done ''until we are sure global warming is a problem'' steady for the past two years at 13 per cent.

''In a sense, the support was probably inflated a lot by the publicity around Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and the Stern report in the UK,'' says the Lowy research fellow Fergus Hanson. ''That was coupled with what people may have perceived as a lack of understanding of climate change by John Howard.''

The interesting feature of the Lowy polls is that they show little or no impact on public attitudes resulting from the sceptic coups such as the Copenhagen conference or the much-publicised tour of Australia by the English sceptic Christopher Monckton. The data gathered after Viscount Monckton's lecture series showed few statistically significant differences from 2008. This means the popularity of climate scepticism in Australia may have already reached its zenith.

Either way, the groups pushing for action to cut greenhouse gas emissions have taken a battering in the past few months. The director of the Climate Institute, John Connor, said the green movement had adopted a ''rope-a-dope'' strategy since Copenhagen - absorbing punishment, minimising damage, and trying to keep its strength in reserve for the next round.

The blows came thick and fast. First came the theft and publication of emails at East Anglia University's climatic research unit in November - a perfectly timed public relations coup for sceptics - then a vague outcome at the UN's Copenhagen climate conference, followed by the feverish hunt for errors like the so-called ''glaciergate'' in the UN's Fourth Assessment report. The fact that most of the alleged errors turned out to be mistakes themselves, Copenhagen still represented a modest milestone, and the East Anglian researchers have since been cleared of wrongdoing had little impact.

''We tried to react at the time but it was like spitting into the wind,'' Connor says. ''The various 'gates' were front-page news and then when things turned out to have no substance it was reported on page 13.''

The various science organisations and environment groups are now dusting themselves off and the first signs of the fight back have begun.

In this week's issue of the prestigious journal Science, the US National Academy of Sciences published a letter from 255 members, including 11 Nobel laureates, defending climate science. The tone is designed to put mainstream scientists back on the front foot. It attacks the ''dogma'' of climate sceptics and challenges them to come up with an ''honest effort to provide an alternative theory that credibly satisfies the evidence''.

The views are being echoed in Australia by climate researchers who are increasingly tired of being called ''alarmist'' when they have spent their lives being painstakingly neutral - and professionally sceptical, in the scientific sense.

They point out that, despite the ferocious public relations battle around global warming since Copenhagen, the science underpinning the theory of man-made climate change has emerged unscathed.

Some of that feeling was expressed in a carefully worded public statement released on Thursday by the Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett.

She said Australia and the rest of the world were moving too slowly to curb its carbon emissions in order to avoid a 2 degree global temperature rise, considered a critical ''guardrail'' beyond which lies dangerous climate change.

''In the face of slow changes at national levels, it is all the more important that forward-looking industries, states, individual cities and towns, community groups and family groups continue to network together to reduce their carbon footprints and assess the impact of climate change on their activities,'' the Chief Scientist said.

The one age group where the polls say support for climate change action is still clearly growing is people under 30. The Australian Youth Climate Coalition, which has 50,000 nominal members and managed to get 4000 of them to attend a conference in Sydney last July, saw another surge in membership when the government shelved the ETS.

''I don't really know about the polls,'' said the organisation's co-director Amanda McKenzie, as a handful of members faced the public handing out ''climate reality'' pamphlets outside Town Hall on Thursday evening.

''It sounds pretty basic but the best barometer I use is talking to taxi drivers. When I started out a few years ago they usually used to think it was pretty strange when I said I was working on climate change, now they know what I'm talking about and they're usually positive.''

Consumer Warning: Know your rights when treating mum this Mother's Day

Minister for Tourism and Fair Trading

The Honourable Peter Lawlor

08/05/2010

Know your rights when treating mum this Mother's Day

Queensland consumers searching for a last minute Mother's Day gift have been encouraged to check their refund rights before making a purchase.

Minister for Fair Trading Peter Lawlor said the rules on warranties and refunds still applied even when products were on sale or had been discounted.

"Many retailers hold special sales leading up to celebrations such as Mother's Day but this doesn't mean the normal rules go out the window," he said.

"It is illegal for traders to have a 'no refund' policy, or to not allow refunds on sale items that prove to be faulty.

"Equally, consumers should be aware of refund rules when they purchase a gift for someone else.

"Particularly for items such as clothing, it's important to know that retailers aren't required to offer a refund if a purchase is the wrong size.

"Check with the trader before you go ahead with a purchase to see if you can exchange goods if they are the wrong size or aren't suitable.

"Some stores try to generate goodwill and return business by offering a refund or exchange if a gift is not suitable, however they do not legally have to do this."

Mr Lawlor also encouraged shoppers to budget wisely to ensure they didn't end up spending more than they could afford on a gift for mum.

"Mother's Day is a time when people want to spoil their mum, but I'm sure no mother would want a loved one to get themselves into financial trouble by buying a gift which is beyond their budget," he said.

"Beauty products are particularly popular gifts and there are always many offers of free 'gifts with purchase' or items which you can purchase at a 'special' price once you spend a certain amount.

"I would encourage people to set a budget before they set off to do their gift shopping as these deals often induce people to spend more than they had originally intended.

"Shoppers should also pay cash for their gifts where possible rather than using credit cards."

"If you have problems with a purchase speak to the trader in the first instance. If you are unsatisfied with the response contact the Office of Fair Trading for advice on 13 13 04."

May 07, 2010

A growing risk in cannabis: A review of the Queensland drug trade



http://city-news.whereilive.com.au



Brad Pitt, John Mayer, Charlize Theron and even "Californian Barbie" Jennifer Aniston all have more than just their A-list star status in common: they're all cannabis advocates.

So if gorgeous, svelte and uber successful celebrities can be linked with the drug and still retain their star power, it mustn't be that harmful, right?

Wrong, say community drug experts, who say the drug has been so glamorised in popular culture that it's often mistakenly viewed as a "soft" drug, and a fashionable and subversive one at that.

Indeed, cannabis was one of cornerstones of the hippie, alternative movement.

But with cannabis potency at a reported all-time high and users in their 20s-40s smoking it more dangerously when combined with a host of other drugs such as heroin and amphetamines is it time we rethink our attitudes towards the drug?

The Crime and Misconduct Commission, an independent law enforcement body set up to combat major crime in Queensland, released the report Illicit Drug Markets in Queensland in February.

It detected significant changes in Queensland's illicit drug market over the past five years, particularly in the production, supply and use of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy.

It found that recent cannabis use in Queensland (9.5 per cent) is slightly higher than the national average (9.1 per cent).

This represents about 323,000 Queensland residents using cannabis in the past 12 months.

And it reflects an above-average rate of recent use by both Queensland females and young people (both sexes) aged 14-29.

CMC director of intelligence Chris Keen said the damning figures (see fact box, right) were of grave concern because the health risks of cannabis are high and the dangers and illicit nature of the drug have been vastly underestimated by the public.

"The traditional view of cannabis as a soft drug fails to recognise the high level of criminality involved in the supply side of the market," he said.

"There are significant health and community harms associated with cannabis use, including a growing body of evidence on the relationship between mental health problems and cannabis use.

"There is also strong evidence of the adverse impact of cannabis on driving performance."

The CMC report also found cannabis continues to dominate drug-related policing activity in Queensland. Almost 70 per cent of drug-related arrests in 2007-08 involved cannabis, although almost 90 per cent of those were for consumer offences.

And in 2007-08 almost two in five alcohol and drug-related treatment episodes in Queensland were cannabis-related.

Dr Dennis Young, executive director of Bowen Hills' Drug Arm Australasia and Centre for Addiction Research and Education, says cannabis is the second most commonly used drug in Brisbane by young people, after alcohol.

He also abhors the misconception that cannabis is harmless.

"I don't think any illegal drug should be deemed as soft," Dr Young says.

"The use of any drug can cause harm.

"The community hasn't given enough attention to cannabis use we've been focusing much more heavily on heroin or amphetamines use. Heavy cannabis use is very dangerous. And don't forget, it you smoke cannabis, you run the risk of all the cancers attached to smoking nicotine lung cancer, throat cancer.

"Drug-driving is also a huge problem. Police reports show there are significantly more people driving around on our roads under the influence of drugs than there are those under the influence of alcohol."

Dr Young says while he believes recent media reports that cannabis potency is 30 times stronger nowadays are "exaggerations", cannabis is at least 10-20 per cent stronger than in the past.

"The strength of cannabis has increased over the past 20 years, no doubt. To what extent, I'm not sure there's no conclusive evidence," he says.

"What's also changed is that young people are using cannabis more dangerously than in the past. They seldom use just one drug by itself."

Dr Young said many cannabis users didn't understand that they'd crossed the line to dependence until it was too late.

"A good way to assess if you have a cannabis addiction is to ask yourself if it's interfering with your day-to-day life and your health," he says.

"If it's crippling your relationships or your employment prospects, you've got to stop."

Meanwhile, about 10,000 people from around Australia swarmed to the annual cannabis love-in that is the Nimbin MardiGrass Festival 2010 on May 1 and 2.

I spoke to Michael Balderstone, president of pro-cannabis decriminalisation lobby group Nimbin Hemp Embassy, on the phone late last week, amid his preparations for the event.

Held since 1993, MardiGrass is "dedicated to ending the ridiculous war on weed", Balderstone says.

"It's MardiGrass you should come down!" he urged.

"Cannabis users want cheaper prices, better quality and not to be viewed as criminals.

"I think the drug should be legalised and America is showing us the way. It's got to be regulated and taxed, and that way you'd have quality control.

"I'm not saying it's harmless. Cannabis, for some people, doesn't work at all, just like alcohol doesn't work for some.

"If you have a predisposition to, or family history of, psychosis (mental illness) I think you've got to very careful. But I think under a cloud of fear, which prohibition creates, cannabis is much more harmful as people don't respect the law and it becomes more of a forbidden fruit; attractive.

"I'm not surprised it's so popular in Brisbane. It's probably the safest of all the illegal drugs out there and people enjoy it.

"It's relaxing and stirs a lot of creative juices: it's manure for the imagination."

But even Balderstone's concerned about young people's dangerous cannabis habits.

"Pot is not addictive, I find. I can smoke every day for a week and then not smoke and I won't notice it. But smoke cannabis with tobacco, and you're crawling up the walls," he says.

"I just think prohibition has created so many societal problems. I see so many young people who have criminal records, from being busted with cannabis, and they can't get jobs."


Australian Teenage eBay, PayPal Alleged Fraud: Bank error revealed $2m teen mastermind Philip John Heggie

BrisbaneTimes.com.au

INTERNET FRAUD ON A GRAND NATIONAL SCALE

A $2 million bank error led to the detection of a series of online frauds allegedly committed by a Brisbane teenager, a court has heard.

University of Queensland student Philip John Heggie, 19, was banned from using the internet from New Year's Day this year when he faced court following his arrest on fraud charges.

The charges were laid after the Suncorp Bank erroneously deposited $2 million into an account allegedly held and operated by Mr Heggie using a false name.

A suspicious bank teller alerted police after Mr Heggie allegedly transferred the entire sum before trying to withdraw $5000 at Garden City Shopping Centre, south of Brisbane, on New Year's Eve.

But ongoing investigations into his online banking affairs led to further charges and, in March this year, the discovery that he was allegedly continuing his internet fraud while on bail.

This morning the business student was back in court on a further 54 charges relating to him allegedly committing more online fraud by hacking computers.

Prosecutor Rebecca Marks told the court police had found Mr Heggie had set up 38 accounts - a mixture of bank, eBay and PayPal accounts - all in fake names and used the accounts to sell non-existent goods online, then keeping the cash transferred through the bogus accounts by the consumer.

In opposing an application for his bail, Ms Marks said Mr Heggie had committed some of the offences while on bail with a condition not to use the internet.

The investigation into his affairs was continuing as his computer had been seized and was being examined by police, she said.

"If he's released there's an unacceptable risk he will continue to defraud the public," she said.

But solicitor Emily O'Hagan, for Mr Heggie, said her client had been in Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre for the past two months after he was charged with the latest set of charges.

She said if released, he could re-commence his university course and secure a job as a pizza deliverer.

This, along with a move to live with his mother on a farm in Toowoomba, would would give him "structure, support and supervision".

Ms O'Hagan said her client's mother was prepared to provide a $5000 surety and Mr Heggie understood if he breached any condition of his bail - including an order he not use the internet - his mother would lose the surety.

But Magistrate John Costello refused to allow bail for Mr Heggie, who faces a total of 57 charges including fraud, attempted fraud and uttering a false document.

The teenager also faces 39 charges of obtaining and or dealing with identification information, 10 counts of computer hacking and or misuse and five counts of receiving tainted property.

"The evidence is strong," Mr Costello said.

Mr Heggie was remanded in custody.

His case will be back in court in June.

.............................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENT: Under our legal system, individuals are regarded as innocent until proven guilty.
But if this teenager is eventually found guilty of these alleged crimes, nothing but a long stint
in a state penitentiary will suffice as a deterrent to others contemplating such online fraud.
Heggie would get all the "structure, support and supervision" he would ever need in the loving
comfort of a Queensland prison cell.



Former Queensland state candidate Robert Paul Mcjannett could be free in weeks after Bali drug conviction

BrisbaneTimes.com.au

Former Queensland Parliament candidate Robert Paul Mcjannett is  arrested in Bali.

Former Queensland Parliament candidate Robert Paul Mcjannett
is arrested in Bali.

A former Queensland election candidate who brought marijuana into Bali last year has been sentenced to five months' jail.

Robert Paul Mcjannett, of Perth, was arrested at Denpasar airport on December 28 with 1.7 grams of marijuana in his luggage.

Mcjannett, 48, initially claimed he was the victim of a set-up but later admitted the drugs were his.

Authorities initially charged him with importing a "group one" narcotic - which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years' jail - and drug possession.

But prosecutors eventually dropped those charges and asked the Denpasar District Court to jail Mcjannett for seven months for the less serious charge of drug use.

The court on Friday sentenced him to five months' jail. With time already served in Bali's Kerobokan Prison, he is expected to be eligible for release later this month.

Mcjannett refused to answer the Australian media's questions after his sentencing and covered his face to prevent being photographed.

"You tried to make it worse, you bastards," he told journalists.

"Get lost."

Mcjannett's lawyer Pande Made Sugiartha told the court during the trial that Mcjannett had been using drugs for more than 30 years because it relieved stress and helped him sleep.

"The defendant was stressed because of his domestic life, because of his divorce and separation from his children," he told the court earlier this week.

"This was a huge burden for the defendant that made him feel anxious, depressed and unable to sleep.

"But after using hashish the defendant felt his anxiety disappear, he could forget his problems and get some sleep."

Mcjannett, a crane operator and leading trade unionist, travelled to Bali for a five-day holiday with his son.

He was a regular candidate in Redcliffe City Council elections and most recently appeared on the ballot during the 2005 Redcliffe by-election for State Parliament.


AUstralian Tax System: The Henry tax review: where have we come to?

http://www.thenewlawyer.com.au


By Andrew Clements and Kai-Chen Chang, Mallesons Stephen Jaques

The long awaited report of the Henry tax review (Report) and the Government's response to it was released last Sunday with much fanfare. Evocatively titled Australia's Future Tax System, preceded by media lockdowns and at the colossal size of over 1,309 pages, the Report and the Government's response to it promised much, not only for Australia's tax community, but all Australian individuals, families and businesses.

It seems an opportune time to reflect and consider: What will change? What will the Report mean for lawyers generally or tax lawyers in particular?

Based on the Government's response, the answer for many appears to be, in the short term, "not much". The Report does provide a clear indication of a Treasury "blueprint" for tax reform in the future.

Although the Report makes approximately 138 recommendations for reform, the Government's response appears to adopt only around 10 of the recommendations made in the Report.

The Government's response does not appear to be the "root and branch" approach that was advocated in the Report. The Government has adopted a number of the important recommendations from the Report, but has largely eschewed adopting some of the more controversial recommendations.

The Report's and the Government's response to it, necessarily operate on a high level, policy-based plane. Businesses and individuals are, at this stage, likely to be performing preliminary assessments of how the proposed changes are likely to impact on their affairs. But as always, the "devil" for tax reform lies in the detail.

It will take some time for the Government to determine how its response will be implemented and drafted. We would not expect Australian businesses and individuals to be immediately making significant changes to their operations and activities until further certainty and detail is available regarding the measures.

The Report does offer some useful guidance to Australian tax lawyers and practitioners regarding the direction for future tax reform, development and administration.

One of the areas of focus of the Report was the governance on the Australian tax system. The Report emphasises the need for greater community consultation prior to making significant tax reforms. It recommends an expansion of the existing roles of review and oversight bodies that are independent from the ATO in the Australian tax system, such as the Board of Taxation, Inspector-General of Taxation, the Australian National Audit Office and the Commonwealth Ombudsman. It also recommends a new body be established to advise the ATO on the general organisation and management of the ATO.

It is hoped that the Report's consideration and scrutiny of these issues will raise awareness of the importance of the governance aspects of the Australian tax system.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the Report is that it now essentially acts as a potential "shopping list" for future reforms over the coming years. It is hard to anticipate that any significant amendments to the overall policy design of the Australian tax system to be made without consulting or relying on the comprehensive recommendations made in the Report.

This raises questions regarding previous reviews of the Australian tax system that have been undertaken, to the extent they are inconsistent with the Henry recommendations. For example, the status of the recommendations made in the Johnson report, regarding Australia as a financial centre, is uncertain, as it is not clear whether the Government intends to pursue the Henry reforms in preference to the Johnson recommendations.

BREAKING NEWS: Australian Immigration Minister suspends Offshore General Skilled Visa applications from midnight tonight


The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Senator Chris Evans has today announced a temporary suspension of certain general skilled migration visas.

The move hopes to ensure that all offshore general skilled applications made after today are in accordance with the occupations included on the new Skilled Occupation List (SOL), to be released later this month.

The Minister has not indicated when the suspension will be lifted, however it will be no earlier than the announcement of the new SOL.

The Minister has announced that his Department will not accept applications for the following visa subclasses from 8 May 2010 until further notice:

  • Subclass 175 – Skilled Independent;
  • Subclass 176 – Skilled Sponsored; and
  • Subclass 475 – Skilled Regional Sponsored.

Therefore, any applications received by the Department after 8 May 2010 for one of the above visa subclasses will be returned and the visa application charge refunded.

Queensland 'Cancer cure' man appeals legal order in Federal Court of Australia

SMH.com.au


A Queensland man claiming he can cure cancer with diet and exercise wants to appeal a court order shutting down his business and website.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) won an interim injunction in March against Darryl Peter Jones, the founder of The Darryl Jones Health Resolution Centre.

In the Full Court of the Federal Court in Brisbane on Friday, Mr Jones sought permission to appeal the court order.

The ACCC alleges Mr Jones' medical treatment claims are misleading or deceptive under the Trade Practices Act.

Before it was shut down, Mr Jones' website advertised a cancer treatment program involving an exercise regime, the consumption of vitamin B17 and restriction of glucose in the diet.

The injunction stopped Nambour-based Mr Jones from promoting his treatments without first obtaining written medical or scientific advice in support of his treatment from a registered medical practitioner.

His website was blocked with a court notice from the ACCC, but his Facebook page remains operational with 46 members.

The court order also forced Mr Jones to surrender his list of clients and provide each of them with a copy of the court order.

Mr Jones' lawyer Bruce Levet argued that the court did not have the power to restrict the website because Mr Jones was not a corporation but a sole trader and not engaging in interstate commerce and trade.

Mr Levet told the court his client had been forced to close his business because of the court order not to make any representations about his treatments.

"At a large cost to Mr Jones ... and at the cost possibly to the patients who rely on him for treatment," he said.

Mr Levet asked for an extension of time for his appeal due to special circumstances. The court was told Mr Jones had moved out of his home and out of his business premises.

Mr Levet said Mr Jones had cash flow problems and was not eligible for Centrelink or Legal Aid.

The lawyer for the ACCC, Matthew Brady, said Mr Jones did not have to close his business if he could get medical and scientific evidence to back up his medical claims.

"This man is not a doctor and has no medical qualifications at all," he said.

"There is no substantial injustice."

Justice Berna Collier reserved her decision and will decide whether Mr Jones can appeal the court order in the next two weeks.

.....................................................................................
COMMENT: Is Darryl Peter Jones a cancer quack like
Milan Brych in Queensland over 20 years ago or is he
a genuine cancer therapist? You be the judge.

NBN Australia : analysts miss the point

http://www.abc.net.au

File photo: Overhead cables (ABC News: Giulio Saggin)

NBN: analysts miss the point

Stilgherrian

As you read the emerging analyses of the National Broadband Network (NBN) Implementation Study ask yourself three questions.

One, does the analyst realise that the NBN isn't an internet service provider (ISP)? Two, are they demanding that the NBN gives the government a direct financial return on investment at commercial rates? Three, are they understanding the difference between now, the year 2010, and a decade from now?

The NBN isn't just about providing your home with a faster internet connection - although certainly ISPs can use it to do just that. The NBN Company has quite rightly decided to build what network engineers call a Layer 2 network, installing what's an Ethernet port in nearly every Australian home and business. It's up to other companies, wholesale and retail, to buy capacity from the NBN and deliver Layer 3 services that plug into that port.

Open an account with an ISP and plug in a router, et viola, high-speed internet. Plug in a set-top box for pay TV or movies on demand. Plug in different black boxes for voice or video telephony - or for video conferencing, medical diagnostics, security monitoring and other private-network services.

The NBN will replace the ageing copper network (or remote analog radio telephones) with a fibre-optic cable network (or remote wireless, or even more remote satellite links). Any analysis of the NBN solely on the basis of internet connectivity and "faster downloads" is automatically wrong.

Nor is the NBN about direct profit. It's infrastructure - something we expect governments to provide so we can build our society and economy.

"Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner admitted yesterday that a 6 to 7 per cent investment return was not 'in the zone that triggers an ordinary, commercial investment' … and other scenarios in the broadband implementation report produce even lower returns," writes Fairfax's Malcolm Maiden, for example. "The worst-case return is just 3.6 per cent."

However the NBN Implementation Study only looks at direct benefits. "Explicitly, it does not … [u]ndertake a cost-benefit analysis of the macro-economic and social benefits that would result from the implementation of a superfast broadband network," it says.

When such broader analysis has been done, for example in the OECD report Network Developments in Support of Innovation and User Needs from December 2009, it shows that a fibre-to-the-home network like the NBN could pay for itself in 10 years, even if fully government-funded. It requires spill over savings of between 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent in just four key sectors - electricity, health, transport and education - as I've written about elsewhere.

There's plenty of things we don't expect to be profitable. Public schools. Public hospitals. Street lighting. Police. Sewers and storm water drains. Defence forces. Vaccination programmes. Symphony orchestras. Restaurant health inspectors. Search and rescue. Public libraries. Rape crisis centres. Parliament.

Demanding that the NBN turns a profit is like demanding that every highway, road and track in Australia becomes a profitable tollway.

Most people don't "need" an all-weather asphalt road capable of supporting vehicle speeds of 100 kilometres an hour by a 50-tonne B-double semi-trailer - or, for that matter, by an SUV the size of Venezuela laden with an eight-year-old child, 10kg of shopping and a soccer ball. Nevertheless we provide such roads at taxpayers' expense for those who do need them, such as freight companies, or those who imagine they do. Any analysis that looks solely at individual home usage is automatically wrong.

Nor is the NBN about providing what individuals need today. It's about building for the future.

"The reality is most people don't think they need that speed," writes Jennifer Hewett in The Australian. But most people aren't very good at imagining what might be possible and desirable a decade or more from now.

Mike Quigley, CEO of NBN Co, has noted that the demand for bandwidth has increased exponentially since we first had dial-up modems. He reckons that by 2020 people will want 1 Gigabit per second, not the NBN's initial 100 Mb/s.

A 100Mb/s link is soon filled up once Dad is watching high-definition streaming video, Mum is remotely operating a mining robot in Charters Towers, Mister 15 is working on a class presentation via a videoconference with three classmates and Miss 12 is killing animated zombies. Any analysis that doesn't factor in these future possibilities is automatically wrong.

Now all that said, there are plenty of reasons to keep a close eye on the NBN.

Even at "only" $38 billion instead of $43 billion, or "only" $26 billion of government funding over the first seven years, there are countless opportunities for pork-barrelling, nest-feathering, double-dipping, waste, incompetence and straight-up corruption.

The government has chosen to build and manage the NBN via the separate NBN Company, where all sorts of mischief can be concealed under the rubric of "commercial in confidence". The Implementation Study report explicitly did not evaluate the wisdom of this decision, either for efficiency or for accountability.

The NBN Implementation Study had one aim: to prove it's possible to build the NBN for $43 billion. It is indeed possible, it seems. But there are "many risks to manage and many challenges to overcome" and it will require "sustained, focused and accurate execution over many years by NBN Co, Government, and the ecosystem of vendors, carriers and end users involved."

The report recommends that the NBN remain wholesale only, yet the government's draft legislation leaves the door open for retail offerings. Where else will the government's actions diverge from this 500-page plan?

Stilgherrian is an opinionated and irreverent writer, broadcaster and consultant based in Sydney, Australia.