Finally The Dudd agrees what I've been saying all along

Its funny how Labor Politicians are able to lie on your face again and again. On 9th March 2009, I wrote here (see below) that we are already in recession. In fact, I was late myself to write that as we have been recession for over one year (but I can be excused because I'm not the PM of Australia).

Finally, in the last few days Kevin "The Dudd" Rudd has started agreeing with me more. Some commentators are saying that Duddy boy is trying to shift the focus from the recent failure of his government in relation to boat people but whatever be the case, the truth is Australia is going through worst economic phase in a long time and this problem has quadrapled because we have an inefficient Labor government at helm.

Clearly, the stimulus package is NOT working. Few days ago, we heard Qantas Boss declaring job cuts and before it was Pacific Brands, Lands lease and many others.

Despite all this Labor kept lying to public. A case in point would be Tanya Plibersek, Minister for Housing and Women's affair in Rudd's ministry. She appeared on Q & A about 2-3 weeks ago and lied openly about increase in jobs in retail sector.

I've considerable experience in Retail sector and have been following it's job trends for last 12 months and I can say safely that the jobs have gone down in that period. It is absolutely ludicrous to say that there has been any growth in Retail.

I've just read a newspaper report on Sydney Morning Herald which states that even the RBA Chief agrees that we are in recession.

Now, that finally Kevin Rudd and his cronies have accepted that we are in recession ( more that one month after I said it) then the question for Kevin Rudd is that what has changed in that period?

Why didnt he declare this before Queensland Elections? Does he accept his Stimulus Package has failed?

Wasn't the stimulus package meant for saving us from rcession?

These are just some of few questions that tax payer's of Australia want to know from "The Dudd"

http://strathfieldvoice.blogspot.com/2009/04/kevin-rudd-and-q-and-on-thursday-night.html

Check out the other Blog about my experience @ Q & A

Fall in online job ads - We are in Recession

I don't understand why pollies are wasting crucial time in debating whether we are in recession or not. You don't have to be genius to figure out that we are already in recession and we have been in recession for past 6 months.

What we are seeing now is fall out of recession. The recent media coverage about drop in online job ads is one such fall out. The Oliver job index which claims to record the number of jobs advertised online states that there have been big falls in advertisement numbers for jobs in the trades, services, transport, engineering, building and construction sectors.

I'm not an expert like Oliver Group but I've been checking online jobs for past 6 months in retail sector in which I've considerable experience and I can tell you that the situation there is pretty bad. We all know that Retail employs most Australians and it also happens to be one of the low income sectors.

Now do your own calculations. We are in a situation where the lowest paid are loosing jobs and the number of new jobs that are coming up are far less then what it use to be.

I clearly remember Mid 2007 when I was looking to recruit people and it was bloody hard as there were so many opportunities that employees were hopping from one job to another because they were not scared. They knew that even if they leave one job they can find the next easily. I also clearly remember that seek.com.au which is considered one of the biggest online job search website had its profit and share prices up.

But look what is happening now? You don't have to believe in what I'm saying. Just search seek or mycareer or whatever else you use and you will know what I'm talking about.

Sydney's west enjoys property boom

Some media outlets are reporting a mini property boom in Sydney's west despite financial crisis. According to the NSW Treasurer it is happening because of surge in first home buyers in areas like Campbelltown, Penrith and Liverpool.

"We're seeing people take advantage of the NSW Government stamp duty concessions and the first home-owners grant to move from rental accommodation into their first home," he told ABC Radio on Saturday.

Read more @ Sydney Morning Herald

Sign a simple online petition

I urge everyone to spare 2 minutes to sign this important petition. If we don't do anything now then it's only time before everything will be lost. Our future is at stake, Sign the petition and bring the change. There is no point in just thinking about it..it's time to do something.

http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/25902.html

*Reduce Business Tax from 30% to 20%
*Give Relief to small Business so they can maintain their cash flow
*Government grants should be increased for small business
*More jobs should be created to fight increasing unemployment

Tax Relief is what we really need

It seems federal governments stimulus packages are really not working. As Peter Costello said last night on Q and A that this whole global economic meltdown started because some people were spending a lot of money which they didn’t really own and the Rudd government is trying to fix this problem by actually doing the same thing. Government handed billions in payments last year which had little impact on the economy and it wants to hand out more money now. Almost on a daily basis we are hearing news about people loosing jobs and companies moving offshore. I’ve lived in Australia for about 7 years and in that whole time I only heard news about boom and more jobs. I agree we are in a huge financial crisis but I believe the present government is making it worse by actually handing out free cash. Government is handing out this cash believing that people will spend it thereby creating more work but people are so scared of times ahead that almost everyone will and is trying to save it for rainy days. This is why these packages won’t work.

Instead of free cash, the government should provide tax relief to both the business sector and families. Tax relief is more likely to help in stimulating the economy as it will give an incentive to work more. More work with less tax = More money in everyone’s pocket.

Especially for the small business sector, tax relief will help long way. It will keep the cash flow going and this is what businesses really need.

Finally, a couple of days ago some good news came in. Small businesses struggling with the economic crisis will get tax relief through a 20 per cent reduction in their pay-as-you-go (PAYG) obligations. This tax relief is just one initiative; the government must definitely reduce the corporate tax rates and cut many other different kinds of taxes.

No stimulus package will take us anywhere. All we need is three things

1.) tax relief

2.) tax relief and

3.) tax relief

Australia should emulate Singapore

In the whole Asia-Pacific region there is no more pro business country then Singapore. Not only it encourages free trade and commerce it provides lower taxes which is helping its economy in many ways. Even though its such a Tiny country but despite that it is home to some of the biggest companies in the world. I think SingTel is one such example. Singtel owns mobile networks in many countries including Australia with its OPTUS brand. India, which is emerging no.1 market in mobile communications also has SingTel connections. Largest mobile operator of India is Bharti Airtel with more than 82 million subscribers is partially owned by SingTel.

Singapore

* Zero tax for new Singapore companies on the first 100K annual profits for the first 3 years
* All companies to enjoy approx. 9% corporate tax rate for profits up to 300K
* Overall company tax rate lowered to flat 18%

The corporate tax rate for all new and existing companies with tax filing from 2008 onwards year has been reduced to flat 18% with the following additional tax exemptions and incentives designed for small-to-midsize companies:

Full Tax Exemption
Full corporate tax exemption will be granted on normal chargeable income of a qualifying company up to $100,000, for each of its first three consecutive tax filing years.



I believe Australian govt. should also do the same and reduce business taxes in Australia.

With some information from :- AsiaBiz

Pacific Brand cuts 1800 and Lend Lease 1700 Jobs :(

Property developer Lend Lease is cutting 2,000 jobs globally over the next six months, with about 400 of those in Australia.

The company has reported a net first-half loss of almost $600 million after writing down the value of its assets.

Lend Lease chief executive Steve McCann says the company needs to shed jobs.

"Our total work force of over 12,000 people is expected to reduce to just under 10,000, as we right-size for current market conditions," he said.

Full Article from Source @ ABC

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Aussie Businesses are becoming less competitive and with recession this problem has worsened. Its no surprise that Businesses are shutting down and scaling down operations. Unless Government takes some important action inclduing a reduction in Business Tax from 30% to between 20% to 25% these bad news will keep coming.

Aussie Dollar is Falling

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian and New Zealand dollars traded near two-week lows on concern slumping eastern European economies will exacerbate the global recession, raising speculation investors will dump riskier assets.

The currencies declined as commodities slipped the most in a month and crude oil, Australia’s fourth most valuable raw material export, fell below $35 a barrel in New York. A gauge of future economic growth in Australia declined for a second month in December and New Zealand’s Finance Minister said his country’s economy was shrinking for a fifth straight quarter.

Read more from original article here : Bloomberg

What can you do to support?

I’m totally committed to making this campaign and “Reduce Tax Australia Tour” a grand success. But apart from obvious logistic problems the biggest problem that I’m going to face is Finances. I’m not a very rich guy, nor do I have some huge organization to back my campaign to fix Australia’s economic problems.

Apart from huge traveling costs (Air, Road, Rail and Water) I’d need money for accommodation, food, Internet, stationery, Video Camera, leaflets and spend whole of my time (almost 24/7) for the cause of Reducing taxes. Keeping all these factors in mind I believe I’d need at least $150,000 (average of $1000 per electorate) I know some constituencies are not very far off but at the same time there many which are and not to forget I will still have to pay my bills and would have no other source of Income to support myself.

$150,000 might look like a big figure but if every business in Australia chips in little bit then we can easily cross the line and I can set sail.

Every year businesses spend millions of dollars to make themselves heard on Television, radio, newspapers and through other lobby groups yet it can not provide the kind of Public awareness that my campaign can for a relatively small amount of money.

Apart from the tour, I’d love to have a proper website to support the cause and film the entire tour on Video camera and still camera so that it can be uploaded on internet for viewing by others and provided to Media groups for more publicity.

Once this campaign gets started, I’d like to spend time in contacting various newspapers, radio stations, news networks and inform them about the success of the campaign between each tour.

If this campaign really takes off and I’m well supported by the Industry then I’d like to continue it for a long period of time and I'm confident that eventually Australian Businesses will get a fair go in the community.

Reduce Business Tax Australia Tour

I’ve come up with a great idea to promote the cause of reducing business taxes in Australia. There are about 150 elected representatives in the Australian Parliament who are suppose to put our views in the parliament and so what better then to visit each one of them at their offices and present them with an open letter to reduce Business Taxes in Australia. This would mean more businesses can flourish and Australian economy can be back on its feet.

Yes, I’d like to visit each one of 150 MP’s at their electoral office thereby symbolically visiting every part of Australia. Australia is a huge country with miles and miles of never ending land but I’m confident that I can do it. I don’t think any one has ever done anything like this before and especially not for the cause of Reducing Business Taxes.

But I’m confident that if I’m able to achieve this feat it will go long way in reducing grossly high Business Taxes in Australia.

This unique adventure is sure to attract a lot of interest in Press and thereby create awareness among ordinary Australians.

Australia in Recession : Unemployment increasing

The lastest ANZ jobs advertisement data shows that jobs advertisement fell by 6.3% in January which obviously points to less jobs available in the market for companies to advertise. You dont have to be an economist to understand that if fewer new jobs are being created then obviously it will hit some people and the unemployment will rise which is exactly what is happening.

I remember in early 2007, when all was good I was in-charge of a small company's marketing activities in Sydney and it was bloody hard to find new staff as the websites were full of new jobs and jobseekers had so many opportunities to consider but now it is impossible to find one decent job let alone have a choice?

Did you know?

Australian businesses are slugged with some of the highest Tax rates in the world. Australia has a flat business tax rate of 30% which is much higher than following countries:-

UK - 21% (starting)China- 25%Austria-25%Bulgaria-10%Uzbekistan-12%Slovenia-22%Belarus-24%Spain-25%Russia-20%Slovakia-19%Switzerland-13%Cyprus-10%Croatia-20%Czech Republic-21%Denmark -25%Estonia-21%Finland-26%Greece-22%Hong Kong-16.5%Iceland-18%Hungary 16%South Korea-13%Malaysia-26%Netherlands-25.5%Poland-19%

We should specially be worried about Singapore (18%- to be reduced to 17% next year), Malaysia (26%), China (25%), Hong Kong (16.5%) and Korea a mere 13% (starting tax)

These countries are Australia’s nearest competitor in Asia-Pacific and their reduced tax rates will affect Australian companies especially now that we are in worst recession of all times.

Similarly, Australian Government should learn something from Russia which is getting stronger day by day with a mere 20% tax rate thereby becoming an attractive destination for FDI’s. Why would people invest in Australia or build bigger businesses if close to 1/3rd of their profits are going to government?

Why is that Hong kong doing so well as compared to say a city like Melbourne?

Reduce Business Tax in Australia

Australia is going through worst crisis ever. Businesses are closing down, families are loosing their houses, students can’t find jobs and government has already reached deficit.

In every developed country, it is the businesses that play leading role in Nation building but unfortunately in Australia businesses have been sidelined by imposition of high taxes.When a Business is made to pay high tax it invariably passes onto consumers so in the end it is people like us who end up paying that Amount.We in this group call on all Political Parties, Consumer groups, Businesses Associations, Media networks and common everyday Australians to join hands and demand that Business Taxes should be reduced to save Australian economy from collapsing.