These surely are desperate times. Malcolm Turnbull trying desperately to draw a link between the alcopops tax and a rise in inflation by 0.3% for the quarter ended June 2008. That's despite the fact that while the alcopops tax may well be regulation based, the legislation hasn't passed 'go' yet. Never the less, it seems scads of binge-drinking teenie-boppers are splurging the money they don't have on bottles of spirits as opposed to bottles of lollie-water. Malcolm is completely certain of it. Despite not being able to produce any categorical evidence. Yes, a definite flow-on impact which is costing us all dearly!

He goes on to claim ...

"How can you be fighting inflation when you're putting up the price of alcohol, putting up the price of health insurance, putting up the price of motor cars?"

Desperate straits, for sure and certain. Still, I don't recall the price of alcohol going up across the board, health insurance premiums increasing, or rampant rises in the price of cars? Am I missing something? Is the alcopops tax causing these destructive CPI impacts? Bloody teeny binge drinkers!!!

Meanwhile in other news, no economist interviewed by any player in the mainstream media has expressed any fears of the Reserve Bank taking drastic action - like raising interest rates further. It's okay people! Nothing to see here. Just a crazy man trying to get some attention. Move along! Move along!

Oh .... before I forget. Word in the marketplace is that the NAB are about to announce a home loan product launch sans early repayment penalties. Very big move for one of the four pillars not known for being a leader. I wonder if there's any connection between this snippet, last week's across-the-board rise in rates from the Big Four of between 0.15% and 0.20%, and a fall in the 90 day bank bill swap rate over the past quarter of nine basis points? Oh, and there's the House Standing Committee inquiry into competition in the banking and non-banking sectors, which closed to submissions 11 July. I reckon I can draw a better parallel between the NAB's 'new' product, last weeks rate rises and the Parliamentary inquiry than Turnbull can to alcopops and inflation.

Posted by Niall Cook at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm on Federal Labor's E-list

Continue reading "Thanks, But No Thanks" »

Posted by Niall Cook at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been a while since I drew attention to the latest in news from the V8 Supercar paddock, so given yesterday's race was such a boon to Ford fans, I thought it best to tell you that the sport's administrators consider the 'Red-v-Blue' rivalry to be all but dead.

Continue reading "News and Views" »

Posted by Niall Cook at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are rumblings running through the circus at the moment about parity.

Continue reading "V8 Supercars, Round Seven - Queensland Raceway, Willowbank" »

Posted by Niall Cook at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I received the email over the fold this evening, and thought it best to publicise it for the benefit of anyone out there in desperate job straits. I know I've been there.

Continue reading "Here's The New Scam, Same As The Old Scam" »

Posted by Niall Cook at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Twelve months ago today, I wrote this post as an attention-getter, in a bid to have the author of the example nuisance email pay attention to my requests, which have since become complaints, to have my email address removed from his mindless mailing lists. To the best of my knowledge, he still has not removed said email address, given that he continues to haunt my mail client. Some people just don't know when to quit.

It's a simple exercise, when using content management software, to discover the IP address and root source of commenters. The numerous derogatory, insulting comments on the above post from persons purporting to be Joshua D, not concerned, overly concerned and extremely concerned all originate from the same IP address, generated by Telstra Bigpond via a server in Western Australia. It's clear to me that these commenters are the same antagonist who refuses to cease stalking my inbox. It transpires that Robert McJannett has vacated the Sunshine State for the boom state of Western Australia. Doubtless he's pestering the Carpenter government these days about monorails being the safest form of transport on the planet. Another Labor government, and doubtless another bitter disappointment for the monorail cause. How do I know this? Various sources, including the registered mail he took the time and money to send, in a bid to bully me into removing the aforementioned post from my blog. Something I have absolutely no intention of ever doing, I have to say. That's MY blog, Robert, not my wife's blog. I own and pay for the domain, she simply registered it for me and has long since changed the registration to my name. I don't like bullies, and I don't take prisoners. Neither do I intentionally defame people. Something poor Robert insists has happened because his name appears in print. News Flash, Robert!! Your name isn't copyright, and you certainly haven't been defamed. Made to look a complete goose, more likely, but certainly not defamed.

McJannett has been threatening litigation for months now, yet I've not been visited by a process server, nor do I expect to be. He's also called our telephone number in the middle of the night in a bid to insult, abuse and otherwise harass either my wife or myself ... whoever happened to answer the phone, I suppose. He has called and caught my wife unawares on one occasion, abusing her needlessly, given his beef appears to be with me. Something which we both found quite revealing, from someone who claims to know the law. McJannett, you see, is a poor man's Timmy Blair. All of the vitriol, but none of the wit, snide or otherwise. He's not at all cognisant of how the internet works, nor the blog world. He clearly doesn't understand the law, or even common decency. He is an ideologue. A hard right-wing conservative sympathiser, labor-hater ... call it what you will. One need only google the man's name to discover that he's ruffled more than his share of feathers, and supports some of the more radical causes around. He and Piers Akerman are well suited, in that both still believe the Heiner Inquiry has something to cough up. The 'sphere is populated with such types. Like the men in Tennyson's 'The Brook', they come and go.

So, thanks for the thoughts and the expense of using registered mail, Robert! Thanks also for the evidence. Stalking is still an offence, as far as I'm aware. Even if it is by long distance snail-mail. All donations gratefully received.

Posted by Niall Cook at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is ironic that governmental advisory reports on climate change are produced on paper, the production of which in and of itself consumes huge amounts of bleached dead trees. Surely the carbon minimised footprint is well in the red before any mitigation of carbon production actually begins.

Continue reading "Political Irony" »

Posted by Niall Cook at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't really blame QANTAS for attempting to garner every consumer dollar they can. QANTAS is a business. A consumer-oriented business. Consumers smoke, drink, wear scent, read books, wear jewellery, so why shouldn't a consumer-oriented business make those items available as a part of it's offerings? So what if QANTAS provides cigarettes on the duty free trolley?

Mind you, if I wanted to buy cigarettes duty free, I dare say I'd do so at a duty free outlet, not on board an aircraft. It is a little bemusing also that QANTAS should want to carry cigarettes, and undoubtedly a plethora of other duty free products, on board an aircraft which operates to strict weight and balance parameters. One would think that every kilo of esoteric, and some might say, non-essential weight which isn't paying its way, is actually a cost penalty to the airline, not a profit generator. Do I smell the stink of desperation?

Posted by Niall Cook at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The mob I work for at the moment isn't really up the pointy end of marketing and promotion in the age of high technology. The people I work with, amazingly, have no concept of the blogosphere. Rather, they didn't, until I showed them today.

Continue reading "Blogging For Business" »

Posted by Niall Cook at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is the 92nd birthday of Edward Gough Whitlam.

Continue reading "Happy Birthday, Gough!" »

Posted by Niall Cook at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)