Links 17 April 2018

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  2. rj2k000MEMBER

    The Liberals’ immigration plan is working all too well
    http://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/the-liberals-immigration-plan-is-working-all-too-well-20180416-h0ytp6
    [Big business loves big population growth because with a population growing by around 2 per cent a year, the fastest in the OECD, customer numbers grow by around 2 per cent a year without even trying. For our big banks, retailers, airlines, telcos and petrol companies high levels of immigration growth mean high levels of profit growth.

    Governments love rapid population growth as well as they have come to treat new arrivals more as new taxpayers rather than as new citizens who deserve the level of public services and amenities Australians once took for granted. Put simply, successive governments, state and federal, have used rapid population growth as an opportunity to cut government spending per person while bragging, year after year, about record levels of total spending. It’s a cynical trick, but not nearly as cynical as blaming Australia’s crowded cities on those fleeing the wars we were fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    While big business and governments love all the revenue that comes from all those extra wallets entering the country, the Australian community has never been as keen. Not because they are all racist, although some clearly are, but because with long waits to get into hospitals, clogged roads, crowded trains and dwindling amounts of public space they simply couldn’t see the plan to accommodate even more.]
    A little sense creeping into the media 😉

    • flawse

      I hear a bloke on the radio this morning whose daughter ? (I think) got taken to hospital with a burst appendix. After the op she was stored in a hallway for three days!!! There were no toilets or showers anywhere at hand. She didn’t get showered for two days.
      My grand daughter went in with a smashed thumb. She spent two days sitting in a waiting room before she received ANY attention at all.
      Treasury thinks this is a wonderful thing. I wonder what they reckon is the ideal time for a little kid to sit waiting for even the slightest bit of assistance – a week? two weeks? Perhaps they just think she should just f..k off and allow them to get on with creating a bigger Australia with higher GDP!!!!
      I’m getting really really really seriously sick of this stupid stupid stupid nasty country.

      • DouglasMEMBER

        Flawse You are right on it. I have a friend whose son spent 2 days in emergency waiting with a broken arm. What I think is that the Canberra mentality is that GDP is all that counts not amenity of population, or property prices, or equity. Now it has reached such epic proportions that if it is brought back to earth there is the risk of a financial calamity.

      • Freddy

        The problem will be solved as per the USA. If you cannot afford the $30k health insurance premiums, and have no assets to sell, you die.

      • flawse

        PeterI don’t know about the bloke with his daughter – if its important I’ll see if I can check somehow. My grand daughter was Randwick Childrens
        Oh Freddy reminds me – the appendix lady had private health insurance – still could not get a room with a shower and toilet – and that doesn’t mean private – one per room.

      • Al

        Wifey had a baby last mont at Lismore base hospital, new facility, huge birthing pools/spa baths in every room. Top notch service and when she bled out 6 doctors and 10 staff. I don’t know what the other places are like and I heard they were real bad but this place was like a fancy hotel, minus the awful food.

      • Freddy

        flawse, that is because healthcare is still too cheap. Keep on increasing the price until people choose to die instead of clogging up hospitals.

  3. Hugh PavletichMEMBER

    … NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT EXPLAINS FOCUS AND COMMITMENT TO SOUND INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCING …

    Mondays fresh focus and commitment to sound infrastructure financing …

    The Minister of Transport Phil Twyford says there is a “great deal of interest” from private capital providers when it comes to investing in New Zealand’s transport infrastructure – he is welcoming their interest | interest.co.nz

    https://www.interest.co.nz/business/93209/minister-transport-phil-twyford-says-there-%E2%80%9Cgreat-deal-interest%E2%80%9D-private-capital

    … following months of confusion and Friday’s interview of Housing & Transport Minister Phil Twyford by Newstalk ZB Christchurch Chris Lynch …

    https://www.facebook.com/chrislynchzb/videos/1768362633223469/
    .
    .
    Access recent postings …

    https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/04/links-16-april-2018/#comment-3087642

    https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/04/mortgage-standards-panic-seeps-into-msm/#comment-3087048

  5. Hill Billy 55MEMBER

    Nice little numberwang from the Treasury in the assumption that a skilled migrant automatically gets a job and contributes the requisite tax take to the Canberra pile. Wonder if the reality of significant migrant unemployment among even the skilled migrant intake will filter through to the Budget next month.

    • Wiley Wolf

      I once saw some numbers which showed a migrant takes 17 years here to break even on the cost of immigration and support,
      17 years in the future is a major throw of the dice???
      look back 17 years for a comparison,

  6. Locus of ControlMEMBER

    Game of Mates in the Northern Territory.
    NT Labor Government lifts fracking moratorium: http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/fracking-given-green-light-by-nt-government/news-story/e6c02f2e0e0eeb837be33154b41a299c
    This after two consecutive falls in GST allocations from the Feds since NT Labor came to power.
    http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/northern-territory-loses-cash-in-gst-distribution/news-story/568b8e9f8d277695a1f0215ebee987fb
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-29/whos-right-and-whos-wrong-on-the-nt-govts-2b-gst-shortfall/8397344
    Some very large resource companies and identities holding key tracts of what is currently pastoral land stand to profit.
    Sure, the NT Govt might be able to levy their own taxes on this new sector, but resource companies and tax minimization – we know the record…