Australian travel preferences and habits

There is an interesting story about Australian travel spending and international travel habits or preferences. It provides some insight into where people are spending their holidays. It appears Australia is out of favour; no doubt this is because of the greater budgetary pressures of the recession as well as the relatively high AUD. Mind you, the AUD is off 10% - down from 1.07 t0 97c to the USD. The general buoyancy of the AUD of course explains the foreign holidays for Australians. Spending big whilst the currency is high.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Australian property market - scary??

According to Harry Dent, the Australian property market 'could' halve in value - at least in overpriced areas like Sydney just like California because of the European debt crisis.

"In Sydney, the average house price is over nine times the average income, which is clearly unsustainable, Dent argues".

There are several problems with this story:

1. The probable correlation between a book sale and 'impending doom'....but I have not looked because I'm just cynical and its not a causal relationship anyway. You'd have to look at his arguments. Its possible that he's just ignorant.

2. Australia is in far better conditions than the United States

Australian debt is mostly private sector debt and its mostly underwritten by tangible assets - houses in areas where people want to live, and in a country which a great many people wish they could live. It is also a regulated property market, with government regulating land releases. The government is thus able to regulate prices by turning on the tap at two places - immigration or restriction of land supply. In contrast, Americans can move from a high demand centre like California to a low demand area like the fringes of Seattle or Sacramento and still keep a job. In Australia, you'd have to live 300km from Sydney to get cheap housing, i.e. Dunedoo or Taree. Yes, its extortion, but no one thinks of it like that.

The other big consideration is national income. Australia is well-positioned to supply commodities to the tiger nations of Asia, who are still growing at 5-10% per annum. We need to acknowledge that whilst the USA and Western nations are struggling, the developing world is undergoing an industrial revolution running at a faster pace than the one in the 1700s. The reason is clear - the absence or indifference to ineffectual regulation, and the impact of technology and structurally created cheap labour after decades of coercive statist government in this region. Look at Japan in the 1950s to 1970s; well China and India make a 20x bigger difference. US spending stimulated China; but rest assured that after an adjustment of say 5-7 years China will be making up for the foibles in the USA. Australia and Russia are in the best position to supply materials - relatively better than Brazil, Canada and South Africa. There are plans for mineral & energy investment in Australia of $750 billion - investments which could effectively double annual GDP. This is not going to occur overnight, but even if it takes 20 years, the capital inflows from China and elsewhere will be huge in itself, and for the 20mil people, it means more extortion. i.e. Immigrants will be ripped off as they pay full price for property. Except that will not care because they will have a job, and spare cash to send home to relatives in Asia.

This all means of course that Australia will have strong capital inflows and a strong dollar. Even if commodity prices or volumes come under some pressure, we need to appreciate that the Australian dollar will adjust accordingly. This market is secure. I think you can expect that governments will attempt to keep property prices stable, i.e. Expect property prices to move sideways for the next 10 years, or near so. With the Sydney market affordability index around 10x earnings - it is not going to fall, but with interest rates at low levels, I would not be expecting it to rise given the high levels of indebtedness and the return to conservative borrowing practices. This conservatism reflects foreign market factors rather than Australian considerations.

If you are considering buying a house in Australia; think again. You are buying into a political system based on extortion. If you do so, you simply need to find a rural town which is depopulating but finding work might be the greater concern. Try Taree, NSW or some of the wealthier rural towns based on cotton and beef. If you like beaches, try Grafton, maybe Kempsey (famous for its prison). Failing that; try NZ after renting for 5-10 years in Australia. In a decade, NZ will probably discover oil, and it will be as wealthy as Australia in relative terms. Of well, they live in hope, and its about as much as you can expect as well given the tyranny of majoritism.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

In Australia - size matters!

Never mind the housing boom in Australia; here is another angle. Australia is on average building the biggest homes in the world.

According to CommSec chief economist Craig James, the reason is:

"Certainly it makes sense that Australia builds bigger homes than in other countries, given that population density is far smaller than in other parts of the world".

Actually that is too much of a generalisation; and a very inaccurate one. There are plenty of countries with adequate space; the US being a prime example. I would suggest a different motivation:

1. Australia has more Greeks than most countries, and they have a liking for Colosseum and other such grandiose architectural features that adhore the facade of monumental displays of egotistical pretense.

2. Australia has a great many mining millionaires who got rich publishing false drilling results or false quarterly reports; and then let's not forget they have friends besting them in other industries. That is why they are called 'besties'.

Australia might have the lowest population density, but most of that land is tied up in reserves for the sake of aborigines and fauna. In fact, Australia has among the most restrictive zoning regulation in the world - despite the paradox of vast lands - which go some way towards explaining the ridiculously high prices for land in the country. i.e. 500m2 some 100km north of Sydney will cost $US220,000; then add another $150,000 for the house. You'd have to wonder why coastline is so valued given the 14,000 odd beaches in the country, but we are all compelled by our need for services, if not our desire to live near water.

I frankly can't believe that the Chief Economist at Commonwealth Bank said that our houses are bigger because of our low population density. No Craig, its because local government will not allow us to subdivide our land. i.e. We need to protect the trees to preserve the green credentials of Sydney. But then listen further and you will hear more gaffs from Craig:

"Gen Y places less importance in home ownership than past generations, preferring to maximise life experiences".

This is nonsense of course. Yes, apartments do have their advantages in terms of city proximity, easy of renting; but most Australians simply buy apartments because they can only afford the exorbitant $320-400K price tag for an apartment compared to $500-750K for a house & land. That is why many are moving 100kms to the Central or South Coast where they can still afford a house. This is pretty ignorant for a 'Chief economist' at a major bank. Aren't banks in the lending business? I guess he is in the securities department. But then aren't banks supposed to know something about the economy? Apparently credentials at Comsec don't include an education. But then I gathered that when I used to trade securities with them. Serious acts of incompetence cost me a great deal of money.

I guess the last time the size of Australian houses was so large was during the 1880s gold boom.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Extortion in Australia - applied pragmatism

The Australian economy is of course faring well; but that is not to say a moral crisis is not impacting on Australia, as in other democracies. The popular resentment in of course against the major parties. There is of course a lot of angst with business. And to be fair, a great deal of 'big business' does involve some form of extortion. I cannot however bring myself to blame them for their pragmatic idiocy because they don't to be the 'moral agents' that politicians profess to be. After all, politics is 'applied morality'. Politicians enact laws; they decide the relationship between you and your neighbour; and they have a collectivised monopoly on the 'legitimate' use of force. There are types of applied force:

1. Initiation of force - such as forced taxation, subsidies using extorted wealth, unfair imprisonment without trial.

2. Force in defense or as a custodial measure, i.e. When the police protect people, or when govt regulation is intended to protect, as opposed to distorting markets to achieve some desired outcome.

The moral crisis becomes evident in the following article. About 10 years ago, Pat Corrigan and the National Farmers Federation used their collective financial muscle to break the unions who were using their labour union organisation to extort wealth from the shippers and taxpayers. Today, we have a different form of thuggery. We have a group of thugs 'encircling' Canberra. You might say they are there to protest. Well I say, why does a minority or majority matter? The debate should be not about physical extortion, but about the quality of ideas. Why does this become about 'numbers' or 'sacrifice' (as in the case of the protesters time, or the Indian currently on a hunger strike in that failing democracy). The problem with democracy is that its all about the wrong things. Its not about objectivity or ideas; its about the power of money and 'numbers'. We ought to be vetting the ideas of genius; not the thuggery of the mindless extorters who could bother less whether principles apply. They have concrete interests, and its mostly about protecting their previous privileges. Some of them might well be legitimate, but extortion doesn't make them any more righteous.

Globally about 10 democracies are currently in a state of crisis, whether central bank crises, debt crises, civil unrest. The one's I can think of are: UK, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, USA, Japan and the Middle East. This is quite an array of democracies and authoritarian regimes. I would actually argue that democracy is an authoritarian regime. Why? Two reasons:

1. No objective standard of value - 'numbers, not reason'

2. No personal sovereignty - you are a means to some public (i.e. non-self end)

Any system developed on those terms is a tyranny because you have no choice, and you have no basis to achieve justice or accountability.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Wake up Australia! Gillard must go.

Have you noticed how quickly government goes off track when you have a collectivist running government. Picture this story:

1. Climate change is bad - so need to invest in solar. Huge sums given to fund programs, a great deal of misdirect of money, overpriced panels and installation, and unsustainable subsidies driving taxpayers into the ditch

2. Humanity intrinsic - Need to treat all people with dignity, even if they don't act with dignity. Need to encourage illegal immigration so not to offend sensitive humans with an intrinsic concept of human worth.

3. Climate change is bad - Killing of wild camels to reduce carbon (i.e. methane) emissions.

There is a value system here Australia. But do you think this is a good one. Do you think this is life affirming public policy? I don't think so for several reasons.

1. There is no clear evidence that humanity is detrimentally impacting the climate. This is conjecture at this point, and I'd say the arguments would quickly evaporate if more than 5% of the scientific population used their deductive, critical thinking capacity. Unfortunately, most of them are empiricists, who studied science because they could not make it into economics, or their values were corrupted by a poor education system, or their parents. We are sabotaging the economy, i.e. distorting human decision-making in order to preserve a lie; just as occurred with Vietnam, Iraq, children overboard, etc. Now we are being fed a rationalisation of climate change to kill camels. Next, expect a Liberal govt to use climate change as justification for nuclear. Frankly, I support nuclear, but for the right reasons.

2. The debate is populism: There is no informed debate on these issues. The mob is being manipulated by a Labor government in concert with lobbyists; probably some group inside the ABC who thought this is an issue to drive decision-making. It does not require a conspiracy; it requires an alliance of ignorance.

3. There is no accountability: Smart people are being alienated by a mob who controls government.

The intellectual decay in Australia is remarkable. The Liberals are just better; they are far from satisfactory. Australia - please start electing some Libertarians to at least control the balance of power. Just 10-15 of them, least we descend into anarchy. Frankly, that is probably a good thing. We need civil war as even the Libertarians cannot think. People might need to see the implications of stupidity. I might stay in the Philippines for the next decade. Australia's populism is reaching a new level of stupidity. The same type of stupidity that impacted Europe prior to WWII. Watch a nation be destroyed. It is no paradox that the nation never had it so good. Just 5% of the population produces 75% of exports. The nation never had it so easy. This is why you are all going to hell....well not hell...but a bad place. The looters and thugs are taking over. Gillard is the principal of their school of 'non-thought'.

Great rationalisation. Hopefully the animal & climate greens will cancel each other out. More worrisome is that they might mutate/breed. Fortunately they are so anti-conceptual, they will destroy each other over this concrete political issue, just like the Muslims and Christians in the Middle East. Ok, so they survived. The strategic question is whether they will be sufficiently weakened by their destructive actions. Unfortunately, objective intellectuals are a bit thin on the ground because of our crap education system.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Australian housing ok guys

Australian home owners are the most indebted in the world, but you need not worry. There is no evidence to suggest a collapse in prices any time soon. A survey suggests they are comfortably paying off more than they need to, and there is no reason to expect any interest rate advance with such a strong currency. This is of course in accordance with our view that the economy is doing well, and there is no problems on the near-horizon, unless you factor in a bird flu, plague, etc.

That is not to say Australian property is cheap. Its well-overpriced, but it will stay so, and might even put on modest gains in coming years, with some softness as interest rates rise. It is more probable that yields will rise faster than housing prices fall.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Tiger Airlines on the back foot in Australia

It comes as no surprise to me that Tiger Airlines is on the back foot with respect to its ambitious expansion plans. The marketing side of the airline is bad enough without even looking at other issues. The airline has a number of issues:

1. Poor capacity to allow seamless travel through Singapore with a hopeless booking system

2. Misleading promotional campaigns which leave prospective customers snubbing their emails

In this respect, Jetstar has the right idea, though they have hopeless customer service. The good news is that Jetstar is showing signs of improving things. Air Asia X is another airline which is making the same mistake on marketing; though it probably has a lower cost operation given that KL is likely to be a lower cost hub. It is at an earlier stage in its expansion plans. It made the sensible decision to service the Christchurch market, which previously had no low-cost offerings to Asia. KL is a great hub because you can get a cheap hotel there for commuters.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Extortion in the Australian building trade

Years ago I was in a group of Australians studying the philosophy of Ayn Rand. We would get together every Sunday and listen to taped lecture courses. These courses were very good. You can probably still get them from the Ayn Rand Institute.

One guy who turned up to one of the club meetings was a previously successful demolisher in the building trade. The guy was impressive in several respects. He was a big fellow with a great deal of confidence and he just radiated charisma. Sadly, he was not terribly intellectual. He was however interested in taking some political action.

He often talked about how he was making a lot of money in the building trade; that he employed a lot of people, until he was forced out of the business, and faced a union black-ban. The guy's name was John Companion. He shot himself in the head as a result of the stress, family breakdown that resulted from these events. He impressed a lot of people; and I think if he had the greater intellect to develop or advance a better strategy, he would have had a very different life. He went off the rails at this time. The signs of imminent suicide was the decision to change his name to 'John Galt' - the character in the best-selling fictional novel by Ayn Rand 'Atlas Shrugged'. Of course the book was recently made into a movie. The trailer is on YouTube.

All this of course is important because at the moment there is a big trial attracting a lot of attention in Australia between the unions and Multiplex, the construction company. The trial is raising news of kickbacks and so forth. There were people around John who could say a great deal in this trial I suspect.

Anyway, the fact that such extortion can go on for the 2 decades that I have known about it; the fact that people feel compelled to take their lives rather than seek justice, I think it says something, not just about the quality of our society, but the institutions which drive it. The legacy of this of course will not be justice. Justice is never done. It is always some half-measure. The half-measure arises from the huge cost of taking action, the people lost in the process, the settlements out of court, the lack of accountability, the incidental issues which seem to undermine compelling evidence. The problem of course is the nature of our government.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

The future of Qantas

The future of Qantas. What does one make of the current problems in Qantas. The airline appears to be having a lot of mechanical troubles on flights...running at about one problem a month. The unions attribute the problem to the outsourcing of jobs to Singapore. I am inclined to agree. There is of course the possibility of union staff sabotaging the reputation of Qantas in order to get the airline to resume maintenance in Australia. Would airline unions resort to extortion to protect their position in the industry? I think so ...particularly if it was merely to change perceptions rather than actually 'down an aircraft'.

The reality was always that this was always bad policy for Qantas. It should not have outsourced to Asia. This is fine for 'discount airline' Jetstar, but it was bad policy for Qantas. The problem is also that Qantas probably had no experience handling the cultural shift to Asia, and its track record is suffering as a result.

Oil fire may have caused engine failure on Qantas jet nydailynews.com

It seems only a matter of time before there is a serious accident. Then I think we can expect the government to buy back into Qantas to restore 'Australian jobs'. The problem was probably that it never really lost its 'public sector' culture after privatisation...like Commonwealth Bank.

The Qantas A380 passenger jet after it was forced to make an emergency ...guardian.co.uk

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Discount airlines flying to Australia

There are a number of discount airlines servicing Australia. I just found a new one - so I thought I would provide a list of the discount airlines now that I am aware of:

1. China Southern Airlines - See their website. They fly to Sydney, Brisbane, and soon to Auckland (NZ). Looking at their website, its a shocker. A sign that Chinese companies just have no idea about customer service. They are expensive too, but more importantly, it would be a nightmare to compare prices. I'd hate to think about the actual flight expensive. I am having flashbacks of a Garuda flight years ago...when they lost my luggage for 4 days. I went to a conference in Goa (India) in my Bali shorts.

2. Tiger Airways - see website. They are Singapore based, they fly to Melbourne and Perth only. I get bombarded with admails from this group, but their offers are always poor, and their routes are limited.

3. Air Asia X Airlines - See website. They are based in Kuala Lumpur, so this will most likely be your transit point. The positive aspects about KL is that its a pretty attractive city, far cheaper than Singapore, just as beautiful, without being as clinical, or broadly as authoritarian...just tight on the social values, so you probably shouldn't feel your GF's legs at the dinner table. They fly to Gold Coast, Perth, Sydney I think, as well as Christchurch (NZ).

4. Jetstar - Jetstar is a Qantas subsidiary, so they fly out of all Australian cities, as well as Auckland and Christchurch. They probably represent the best value, but the service is often dodgy. I've had many issues. i.e. Like telling my family they can't fly through Sydney when they knew we could. They refused to listen until the nth hour. Yes, that's you Page in Christchurch. Problem with Australian immigration as well. They didn't know the rules.

5. Pacific Blue - see website. They fly out of most Australian cities to NZ, Asia, etc. I always find them more pricey than Jetstar.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Sydney - the best place in Australia?

Reading this story I am inclined to agree with the author. Sydney would have to be one of the best places to live in the world....if not the best. I must say though there are a few issues I thought he missed:

1. Intellectual pursuits - Sydney offers philosophy groups which hang out in pubs and bars, so you can always have an interesting chat. This is not of course the typical way of spending an everything, but for some, they will be pleased with the opportunity. There are of course political parties you can join, but I found those non-participatory, i.e. Basically it matters little what you say, these people are not interested and offer no logical process of review/analysis.

2. Physical attributes - Sydney has one of the best locations in terms of physical assets, i.e. The harbour is actually three harbours/river systems all in one basin. It means you were unlucky not to grow up without a beach/harbour view. Great mountain (really valley) vistas are not far away, i.e. Blue Mountains and Fitzroy Falls

3. National parks - Sydney is surrounded by national parks. The Royal National Park, in the south, is the world's 2nd national park (after Yellowstone NP), and it is viewable as you fly into Sydbney. The Qantas pilots like to show it off. The Blue Mountains national park to the West is spectacular, along with Jenolan Caves. There are also national parks in the NW and north, as well as the city centre. Yes, the Sydney Harbour National Park protects fauna and flora in the city centre, i.e. Along the harbour and coastal foreshores and harbour islands. If you have the good fortune to live in the city, great if you are close to harbour, river or coastal walks.

4. Climate - Sydney has a very nice climate. Unlike Brisbane its not too hot in Sydney. In the last 20 years, its hardly ever gone above 32degC, and in winter it does not get below 5-8degC, depending on which part of the city you live in. If you live in the West you might get to 2degC. The rainfall is great at 1280mm, just enough to keep the city green, and its not intrusive into your lifestyle. The city experiences a range of climatic conditions, i.e. It is silent rain, or eventful storms...not boring depressing, overcast like Japan. Most days are cloudless, deep blue sky. When I stay in Sydney, there is just 1-2 months when I am not wearing a T-shirt.

5. The space - I love the 'space' of Australia. The ease with which you can get away from people. The lack of traffic congestion. Admittedly, I have not been living in Sydney much for the last few years.

6. The sounds and smells - You will think we weird - but I love the sounds and smells of Sydney, or Australia. The Sydney Blue Gum is a magnificent tree. These trees in windy weather produce a 'rustling' sound which is very peaceful. The same can be said of the sound of wave action on Sydney beaches. The wildness of that Pacific surf is unmatched...not in NZ or Japan. The smells are also special, as well as the sounds of the wild bird life.

7. Safety - Sydney is a pretty safe place. There are some youth gangs in certain parts of the city, but its otherwise a pretty safe place away from certain precincts. I feel it is more dangerous in NZ than Australia.

The bad news about Sydney, and indeed Australia, is:

1. The fascist government. No worse perhaps than the US government, but certainly little better. Perhaps Australians are just enjoying themselves too much to care. For me, its a deal breaker. I'd prefer to live in another country than finance political tyranny.

2. Poisonous snakes, spiders. The good news is that little else will kill you and snakes find you coming. If you don't pick up ground objects you will probably avoid spiders. But there is a certain appeal to NZ, which has none of these issues. Except politicians of course.

3. The sun - Australia's sun is very strong. The good news is that if you are in the shade its very pleasant because its very dry air. The direct sun is very strong, so take care in summer.

4. Remote - It will be argued by some that Australia is remote from other places. Sydney is close to New Zealand, which ranks highly as a place to live as well, or to holiday, and the two countries have a Closer Economic Relationship (CER) which makes integration easy. Sydney is 9 hours flight from Tokyo. But who's want to leave.

5. Sydney is expensive. The government strictly regulates land subdivision, so the cost of land is very high, and there are a lot of international investors buying in Sydney, because it is a nice place to live. Many Australians abroad buy in Australia with the intent of eventually retiring here...as do many foreigners like Chinese, Koreans and Japanese.

You do not necessarily have to live right in Sydney to enjoy these benefits.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Australian Murray-Darling water rights conflict

Australia, the Federal Australian Labor government is preparing to destroy the Australian farming industry with water policies which are based on bad politics, bad science and deluded environmental values. Read further here and watch this well-researched presentation. This is your country, and Labor is appealing to green groups with no thought for the implications of its policies.

The Murray-Darling River has a volatile flow regime. Paradoxically, its life depends upon the regulating role of the dams and diversion schemes to ensure an optimal flow of water for the environment and farmers.

There is one question I have about this video. Does it consider the allocation of water for hydro-electricity, which can ultimately be used for farmer's allocations. This might be a political football. The presentation does not deal with that issue, or the issue of water efficiency.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Australians call for a new flag

What a silly issue to raise now? This is what small-minded Australians do when they get a title. They invest in small-minded issues which will be their legacy. "Yeh...see that flag! We did that! We are great Australians!".

I would have thought people were more interested in changing our hopeless system of government which cannot even settle such an inconsequential issue as changing a flag. How many decades has it been? How many millions wasted? Why don't we just let Oprah decide?

The problem with flags is that they are empty symbols. Do we need a new flag. Most certainly for the following reasons:

1. We are not terribly British any more, but we are significantly so that that is not even a very compelling issue. Do we like being British? Well, I don't much like their values, but then most of you love mateship, democracy and other things you don't understand or define.

2. It doesn't distinctly define our values...but then any abstract value is hard to depict on a simple flag. Which flag does?

3. Identify a nation - most certainly this is the most important - people ought to think of Australia when they see it. The number one candidate would have to be some depiction of the kangaroo because it is uniquely Australia. Everyone knows that kangaroos come from Australia...even some Ethiopian who will never come here.

When I am in a bar in Japan, and I tell them I'm Australian...they go "Australia..hehe..kangaroo, koala". Then I say "Stuff it up your XXXX and give me another beer".

That's right the rest of the world knows nothing either....so but at least they will know you're Australia....for all the good it will do you...you will still pay Y600 for a beer!

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Political correctness gone mad?

Political correctness gone mad? There was a news item on TV3 last night about a tennis player at the Melbourne-based Australian Open. She ended up apologising and retracting a story she told about being accosted by a koala. Apparently she made up the story to add some excitement to her press release, which she earlier stated were a rather boring affair.

It makes you think that some person from Tourism Australia, or maybe Tennis Australia has asked her to retract the statement because it paints koalas in a bad light. This is all my speculation of course because these things are not talked about. But, it would surprise no one.

Is there anything wrong with this. Not really. But as a side issue it is not an issue of factual correctness....its about money. The money of tourist operators. Not that they are likely to be consulted. Its would be the executive decision of a government agency.

There is - no question - great value in creating the perception that koalas are cute animals; and that they would never hurt anyone. The reality however is that they can be dangerous. But the reality is more dangerous. My issue however is with the lack of respect for facts. We would have people believe certain things about Australia so they come here as tourism. Why are we so invested in the opinions of a tennis champ? Does anyone care about her 'koala experience'?

I just think, watching the Oprah special on Australia, that they will fly in & out thinking Australia is a beautiful place. Well, it is. But how real will the experience be for anyone else because anyone taking their advice might struggle absorbing the cost of a fantasy adventure which only Oprah and a few others can afford and get the same access to. i.e. Don't expect anyone to be offering a 'barbie' on the beach when you arrive in Sydney. Oh, but you know that right! Just wanted to make sure because there is no tennis player to tell you. :)

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Extent of Brisbane flooding

There is no better way to observe the extent of flooding than by looking at aerial photos of an area before and after. Here the ABC provides such photos for a multitude of suburbs which are affected by flooding. By passing your cursor over the photo, you can see the before and after photos.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Drinking beer under-rated

The latest statistics suggest that Australians are drinking far less. Beer consumption has fallen considerably, however wine consumption has picked up some absolute sales, and a large share of the alcohol market. There are likely two reasons for this:

1. The positive health reinforcements about wine

2. The over-supply of wine keeping prices down

I personally love my wine, and am pissed off that I can't drink it. The problem is that for people like myself beer contains high purine levels which is destined to give me gout if I consume it. The reasons for the lost market share of beer are:

1. The appeal of pre-mixed drinks

2. Probably the greater policing with breathalisers

3. Recession-induced cultural change. The party is over....long live the party!

4. Global warming has caused beer temperatures to increase....Aussies are rightly miffed!

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Rainfall in Queensland causes flooding disaster

Queensland is struggling to cope with record floood waters after being swamped by high rainfalls over the last week. The Bureau of Meteorology service offers very good statistics to gauge the impact. Looking at the map, it is apparent that most of the Brisbane River Basin (Qld) and parts of the Clarence-Moreton Basin (NSW) have received over 0.5 metres of water. When you appreciate that there is 0.5m of water entering these rivers across a basin, and that this water is scarcely regulated by reservoir catchments, then you must wonder how high the water level is going to rise. The river has so far risen to 6 metres, and the flooding is not over.

Apparently Australia relies on the general insurance market to cover risks from flooding, though Senator Boswell has advanced the idea of establishing a nationwide flood levy.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

The Australian people

What a job - to characterise the Australian people. I might get accused of over-generalising, but here goes. First of all, there is a personal context in every person's life. I have met Australians who I very much liked. I am reminded of an Australian I met in Tokyo. He must have thought I was gay. I say to him "How come I don't meet any Australians like you in Australia". He said: "I wouldn't have any friends if he discussed the subject matter at hand"...anyway, words to those effect. I couldn't argue with that. But then...did he need to be liked by everyone...why not an 'interesting minority. This is my loathing of practical people...they are defined by others. It kind of makes him two-faced. But I understand we all hold back to achieve goals. But then the extent to which he is defining himself as something other than he is, just makes my think, to what end? What new low does a society have to descend to before it stands up and says 'enough!'. So clearly there are expatriates who are as disappointed by the state of the Australian psyche as me...but they are more practical than me....or maybe that just reflects the fact that I live off investments in mining stocks. Mind you, it got a little hairy last year when two of my stocks went broke because of the corruption in mining. The problem is that stocks can be low for two reasons:

1. They are under-valued

2. ASIC is not doing its job - and at the low end of the market, unless you listen to rumours in WA, because you drink with mining executives, you are not likely to know. Maybe I ought to go live in WA.

So back to the Australian people. We tend to think Australians are easy-going people, and this is certainly true. I love that aspects about them. I think they have a lot of personal pride, and also a pride in their country, which I could care less about. Its as much a pride in their lifestyle as anything else. Not really an attribute to take pride in - like the climate - but they manage to do it. I think the reason is - they are proud of retaining the best secret in the world - their country - without getting on the internet and bleating about it.

The problem in Australian is the liberal or social democratic values which dominate the country. There is this collectivist pride in nation, whether it be its lifestyle, values, 'the empire', which make me sick, but which makes them think they are pretty good, when in fact its not their achievement at all, but notionally the fact that they live in a country with immense mineral & energy resources, little competition (because its a small, isolated market) and because are just 21 million people sharing this bounty.

These liberal values mean that despite these advantages, they are 'pilfered away' like they are in Norway or Brunei. They are wasted on the poor and subsidising corporations, at a huge opportunity cost to them and everyone else.

There is a divide in the country. A great many Australians are outward looking and aspirational. This aspirational nature, is no question, underpinned by a commonsense, practicality, however I would describe them as intellectually, under-developed, to the point of insecurity. These people are goal-orientated, and sadly this comes at a price of psychological repression. This is a worldwide phenomenon, so maybe you can relate.

Australians are among the most well-travelled people in the world, despite being the most remote (aside from NZ), though arguably that is why you travel. Australia in my youth did feel like a 'poorer cousin', but that is no longer the case. Maybe that is reflected in the currency. In the 1970s to 1980s the currency fell from $1.20 to $0.50...today its back to $1.01 against the USD, and it will probably get up to $1.35 in the next 10 years.

Educational standards are comparable to other countries....that is bad. Friendships are pretty superficial in the upper and lower class. Intrinsic love from the lower class, social climbing from the aspirational middle and upper classes, regardless of whether the value is wealth or pretensions of such.

I seldom meet real people in Australia. It is manly to be psychologically repressed, and women might well be judged by the same standard. Sadly women confused altruism with empathy, so when they became career-orientated, they sadly set aside their better nature.

In contrast to Australians, I think I would prefer the company of expatriate Western men and aspirational Filipino women. Why? Standards of value are richer when compared between countries, and I have met a number of Filipino women who have impressed me....fewer men...but then I was not really mixing.

In comparison with NZ, I would say NZ men are even more repressed, psychologically less developed, i.e. Subjects of tough love. NZ is far more of a welfare state, and the aspirational class is less developed, and enslaved by the state. A great many might well understand that on some level because there are probably 700,000 of them in Australia, with a further 30,000 coming to Australia each year.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Best place in the world

There is no question in my mind that Australia is one of the best countries to live, but it does have some very unappealing elements. The problem I have come to realise is that there is no perfect place, and that you really have to 'create your own paradise'. In a sense, you kind of have to live a life in 'transience' to get what you want. For me, living the life as an expatriate is ultimately the way to live, spending time in each of the best places. The modern creates those opportunities, but sadly the world is not entirely a pleasant place. There are several sordid elements, and it relates to people's values. Those elements are:

1. Arbitrary statutory law - unlike common law its a collectivist tyranny divorced from context, and the government which imposes them; whether we are talking social standards, tax laws (to extort as governments do) or self-serving corruption.

2. Narrow minded, unthinking people with low self esteem, low education who engage in proclamations of their intrinsic or socially-defined worth, irrespective of the facts, which convey a different 'reality' to the rationalisation or feelings they conjure up in their own minds, or which social liberals create for them to spare them any guilt for imposing their arbitrary needs on others.

Australia, and for that matter NZ, have those elements, and of course every country has them. One has to acknowledge that its pretty bad in Australia. My solution is to live in Australia, but to not base your business there if you can. You can set up a company in NZ, as Australia, and get a number of the same benefits, but save the cost. Operating a company in NZ is half the cost as Australia, you don't need a local director (like Australia), then just pay yourself a base-line salary in Australia below the desired tax threshold.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com