News That's Fit To Punt - 14/Dec/2016

In Case You Missed It, They Really Suck

What can you say? Our Federal Government under the Coalition truly suck at this governing thing.:

Yesterday’s quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) growth numbers reveal two things with crystal clarity. First, that the international recovery following the global financial crisis (GFC) is well underway and gathering pace. Second, that Australia is the one stand-out economy in the developed world missing out on the strengthening tailwinds.

That bit we knew. If you care to work through the article, you'll see comparisons of just how bad our government has been handling the economy at least since 2013, which happens to be when they took over form Labor.

The take home bit is this bit:

GDP growth — quarterly and annual — are not the only indicators on which Australia is lagging among developed countries. Most countries are also recording steady growth in employment. Australia’s job numbers appear stable, but hours worked per person are declining. 

Australia is one of only seven countries now recording lower real wages, and one of just 13 still increasing gross debt. It is the only OECD economy with the quadrella of declining GDP growth, worsening employment, declining wages and deepening debt. 

There can now be no doubt that, as Crikey tentatively proposed in October, Australians in 2013 exchanged arguably the best economic administrators in the developed world for unarguably the worst.

Yup. They'e doing a terrible job. Who would have guessed? Who?

Did Leanne Call You?

I got a robocall from Leanne today. I picked up the phone and off she went, railing on like some old school friend you never wanted to hear from again, banging on about the pension and her dad who worked hard all his life. Turns out a lot of people got the call.

The robo-call is anonymous, with no authorisation or hint of its origin, but Fairfax Media has confirmed it is the work of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, which has launched an 11th-hour campaign against the January 1 changes.

The Abbott-era reforms, passed with the help of the Greens in 2015, will redistribute some income to needier pensioners while saving $2.4 billion over four years from the wealthy. 

The asset limit will increase substantially, meaning those underneath it will gain an average of $30 a fortnight. But those above the threshold - about 330,000 people - will lose part or all of their pension.

Labor opposed the measure in 2015, but this year pledged not to wind it back. In recent weeks, pensioners have received letters from Centrelink informing them of the imminent changes.
Acting social services minister Mitch Fifield said the changes made the pension more sustainable and the family home would continue to be excluded from the assets test.

"Pensioners and their families should not believe the scare campaign from an organisation not even willing to put their name to their robo-calls," he said.

I don't know. I get that it's an important issue but Leanne was hardly persuasive. 

WasteCONnex Woes

Here's a truly sucky moment. 

A Sydney man whose home was compulsorily acquired by the state government for the WestConnex motorway project is facing Christmas in jail after he was refused bail for allegedly breaking into his former house. 

Van Ngo, 68, was charged with damaging property and entering a premises without a lawful excuse after he allegedly broke into his former home at 84 Campbell Street, in St Peters in Sydney's inner west, hours after being evicted.

Until his eviction and arrest on Friday, Mr Ngo was the last remaining home owner along a strip of houses in Campbell Street that have been acquired by the state government for the $16.8 billion WestConnex motorway project.

On Tuesday, Mr Ngo's bail application was refused in Central Local Court, leaving him facing up to a month in Silverwater prison while his lawyers prepare another bail application in the Supreme Court.

You have to feel for the guy. He probably spent his whole working life paying off that mortgage and in comes the NSW Government building a tollway exchange nobody wants to keep their lobbyists happy. Out on the street got Mr. Ngo for not-enough-on-the-dollar. The people building the White Elephant Tollway are making a killing just on the real estate values even though there's a Bubble going on. These people getting evicted are not getting fair value. You wonder how the Tollway builders and lobbyists live with themselves kicking out other people from their homes.