Australia – Page 18 – Infinite Unknown

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has passport confiscated in Australia

May 17, 2010 by Infinite

The Australian founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks had his passport confiscated by police when he arrived in Melbourne last week.

Julian Assange, who does not have an official home base and travels every six weeks, told the Australian current affairs program Dateline that immigration officials had said his passport was going to be cancelled because it was looking worn.

However he then received a letter from the Australian Communication Minister Steven Conroy’s office stating that the recent disclosure on Wikileaks of a blacklist of websites the Australian government is preparing to ban had been referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Last year Wikileaks published a confidential list of websites that the Australian government is preparing to ban under a proposed internet filter – which in turn caused the whistleblower site to be placed on that list.

Mr Assange, 37, told The Age newspaper that half an hour after his passport was returned to him an AFP officer searched one of his bags and questioned him about a previous criminal record for computer hacking offences when he was a teenager.

Pharma Backed Australian of the Year Psychiatrist Wants Millions in Government Funding for Brave New World of “Pre-Drugging” Kids

March 17, 2010 by Infinite

Who is Patrick McGorry and what does he promote? He’s a psychiatrist just named Australian of the Year for his work in “youth mental health reform.” What does that reform consist of? What he calls a “new form of climate change.” It sure is.

[See TIME Magazine Article “Drugs Before Diagnosis?”]

He not only promotes youths being put on antipsychotics and antidepressants, cited by international drug regulatory agencies as causing hallucinations, hostility, personality change, life-threatening diabetes, strokes, suicide and death, McGorry goes a giant step further-drug them before they’ve even developed a “psychiatric” disorder.

The Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AHRPP) likens such concepts to “performing mastectomies on women who are at risk of-but do not have-breast cancer.”[i]

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed “serious concerns” about child drugging and Senate investigations in the United States have found high profile psychiatrists who were pharmaceutically funded and using fraudulent research being among the heaviest promoters of psychiatric drug use on children. While the rest of the world is experiencing serious alarm at the rampant use of deadly psychiatric drugs on children, McGorry pushes full steam ahead to increase the amount of children being needlessly subjected to psychiatry’s most powerful drugs-antidepressants and antipsychotics.

His theory and practices are so controversial that even his colleagues in the United States have backed away from it. And a parallel study done in the United States based on the same theory that McGorry uses was considered an abject failure-even by the investigators themselves. Other psychiatrists have criticized McGorry’s pre-drugging practice as unethical and harmful to adolescents. More on that later.

This is especially so as the “symptoms” McGorry and cohorts invented to “pre-label” youths as potential candidates for psychosis and “schizophrenia” (to start with) are, according to one U.S. psychiatrist, “remarkably common…adolescence is a period of life that is normally marked by tumultuous changes in personality.”

And what was the first thing he did to capitalize on his winning his “Australian of the Year” award? He demanded the Australian government hand over another $200 million to fund more of his centers where he can drug more children. Worse, the government is entertaining the idea.

Australian Government Requests Google To Censor YouTube

February 17, 2010 by Infinite

Not that we already have more than enough censorship!

Google says it will not “voluntarily” comply with the government’s request that it censor YouTube videos in accordance with broad “refused classification” (RC) content rules.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy referred to Google’s censorship on behalf of the Chinese and Thai governments in making his case for the company to impose censorship locally.

Google warns this would lead to the removal of many politically controversial, but harmless, YouTube clips.

University of Sydney associate professor Bjorn Landfeldt, one of Australia’s top communications experts, said that to comply with Conroy’s request Google “would have to install a filter along the lines of what they actually have in China”.

As it prepares to introduce legislation within weeks forcing ISPs to block a blacklist of RC websites, the government says it is in talks with Google over blocking the same type of material from YouTube.

Australia: Economist Steve Keen Warns of Bubble in Nation’s Housing

February 16, 2010 by Infinite

Economist Steve Keen

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Australia’s seemingly bulletproof economy could soon face fallout from high debt levels and purportedly misguided policies designed to pump up asset prices, according to an outspoken skeptic of the nation’s housing boom.

Economist Steve Keen of the University of Western Sydney, who claims to have accurately foreseen the global financial crisis, said he’s been dismayed by what he sees as a growing nationwide housing bubble stoked by government efforts to forestall economic pain.

Keen points to a first-time homebuyer subsidy program, various other stimulus programs, and a 4-percentage-point reduction in interest rates — policies introduced in the wake of the 2008 crash and which he termed “The Boost” — as having helped fueled a new housing boom and a 6% rise in mortgage debt last year.

“The Boost has … given Australia a dubious distinction when compared to the rest of the OECD. Yes, we are the only country that avoided a technical recession; but we are also the only country where debt levels are rising once more compared to GDP, rather than falling,” Keen wrote in comments posted on his Web site, keenwalk.com.au.

Barnaby Joyce: Australia close to defaulting on debts

February 9, 2010 by Infinite

Debt warning: Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce (AAP: Alan Porritt, file photo)

Opposition finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce is courting controversy again, warning that Australia is getting to the point where it will not be able to repay its overseas debt.

Senator Joyce says the Federal Government is borrowing billions of dollars from overseas to fund stimulus spending and programs like the National Broadband Network.

And he has questioned whether the Government is in a position to repay those loans.

“We’re going into hock to our eyeballs to people overseas,” he said.

“You’ve got to ask the question: how far into debt do you want to go? We are getting to a point where we can’t repay it.

“Let’s look at exactly what they’re doing now and ask this very simple question: are you paying back your money, are you even meeting your interest component, and can you keep the debt stable?

“Or is the debt racing ahead by more than even the interest expense? And if it is, any household budget will tell you that’s a very dangerous place to be.”

Secret Summit of Top Central Bankers in Australia

February 6, 2010 by Infinite

* World’s top bankers fly in
* To meet at secret location
* Trouble on the horizon

The high-powered gathering coincides with a fresh meltdown on world sharemarkets (AP)

THE world’s top central bankers began arriving in Australia yesterday as renewed fears about the strength of the global economic recovery gripped world share markets.

Representatives from 24 central banks and monetary authorities including the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank landed in Sydney to meet tomorrow at a secret location, the Herald Sun reports.

Organised by the Bank for International Settlements last year, the two-day talks are shrouded in secrecy with high-level security believed to have been invoked by law enforcement agencies.

Speculation that the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Dr Ben Bernanke, would make an appearance could not be confirmed last night.

The event will be dominated by Asian delegations and is expected to include governors of the Peoples Bank of China, the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of India.

The arrival of the high-powered gathering coincided with a fresh meltdown on world sharemarkets, sparked by renewed concerns about global growth and sovereign debt.

Fears countries including Greece, Portugal, Spain and Dubai could default on debt repayments combined with disappointing US jobs data to spook investors.

Climategate: It’s all unravelling now!

December 16, 2009December 2, 2009 by Infinite

So many new developments: which story do we pick? Maybe best to summarise, instead. After all, it’s not like you’re going to find much of this reported in the MSM.

1. Australia’s Senate rejects Emissions Trading Scheme for a second time. Or: so turkeys don’t vote Christmas. Expect to see a lot more of this: politicians starting to become aware their party’s position on AGW is completely out of kilter with the public mood and economic reality. Kevin Rudd’s Emissions Trading Scheme – what Andrew Bolt calls “a $114 billion green tax on everything” – would have wreaked havoc on the coal-dependent Australian economy. That’s why several opposition Liberal frontbenchers resigned rather than vote with the Government on ETS; why Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull lost his job; and why the Senate voted down the ETS.

2. Danes caught fiddling their carbon credits. (Hat tip: Philip Stott) Carbon trading is the Emperor’s New Clothes of international finance. It was invented by none other than Ken Lay, whose Enron would currently be one of the prime beneficiaries in the global alternative energy market, if it hadn’t been shown to be (nearly) as fraudulent as the current AGW scam. It is a licence to fleece, cheat and rob. Still, jolly embarrassing for the Danes to get caught red handed, what with their hosting a conference shortly in which the world’s leaders will try, straight-faced, to persuade us that carbon emissions trading is the only viable way of defeating ManBearPig. ‘People don’t trade carbon because they are good people,’ exclaims Patrick Birley, the chief executive of the ICE European Climate Exchange

3. Hats off to The Daily Express – the first British newspaper to make the AGW scam its front page story.

The piece was inspired by another bravura performance by Professor Ian Plimer, the Aussie geologist who argues that climate change has been going on quite naturally, oblivious of human activity, for the last 4,567 million years.

Climategate scandal claims its first big political scalp

December 2, 2009 by Infinite

Australian conservatives have shown the way by dumping the party leader who was in favour of massive carbon taxes and replacing him with one who stated last month that AGW is “crap.”

This makes Malcolm Turnbull, the suddenly-ex-leader of Australia’s Liberal party, the first major political victim of the Climategate furore. And his replacement Tony Abbott, the first politician to reap the benefits of the world’s growing scepticism towards ManBearPig. Of the three candidates, he was the only one committed to delaying the Australian government’s proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

The trouble began last week when Australia’s opposition Liberal party began haemorrhaging frontbenchers, all of them preferring to lose their jobs than be railroaded by their leader into voting with the Government on Kevin Rudd’s new carbon tax.

Aussie blog hero Andrew Bolt has the blow-by-blow details. Particularly stirring is his description of how the Liberals’ newly elected leader Abbott – the Mad Monk as the libtard MSM is already calling him – takes the floor and tells like it is about the ETS (Australia’s equivalent to Cap And Trade).

Already the lines are potent – real fighting words from the Liberals at last: Rudd’s great green tax “is really an energy taxation scheme.” In fact, it is “a $120 billion tax on the Australian public, and that is just for starters.” Power prices will go up, for instance. “We just can’t wave that through the Parliament.”

To the public, Rudd’s scheme is “a great big tax to create a great big slush fund… run by a giant bureaucracy”. Already Rudd has overseen “a waste of money … worse than Whitlam”.

Too bloody right mate! (As they say in Australia where “bloody” isn’t a swear word s0 I’m allowed to use it as much as I like.)

Climate crunch: David Bellamy on global warming fraud

April 26, 2011November 29, 2009 by Infinite

November 25, 2009:

A Current Affair interviews three people about global warming and the emissions trading scheme, all of whom agree the public is being duped without the reporter or presenter suggesting these people are speaking anything other than plain sense.

It has been revealed Kevin Rudd’s Emissions Trading Scheme will send the average family’s bills soaring about $1100.

Asian leaders to pledge EU-style bloc

October 25, 2009 by Infinite

Graphic highlighting facts on the 10-member states of the ASEAN national grouping

HUA HIN, Thailand — Asian leaders will pledge to overcome their differences and push towards the formation of an EU-style community as they wrap up an annual summit in Thailand on Sunday.

Human rights issues, border disputes and signs of apathy over a meeting that was twice delayed by protests have at times marred the gathering of leaders from a region that contains more than half the world’s population.

But plans to increase the region’s global clout by building closer ties eventually dominated the three-day meeting of Southeast Asian nations along with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Heads of state at the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin will sign a raft of agreements Sunday on boosting economic and political integration and cooperating on subjects including climate change and disaster management.

Japan’s proposal for a so-called East Asian community will be up for further discussion, after Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said the region should “have the aspiration that East Asia is going to lead the world.”

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is also set to restate its commitment to create its own political and economic community by 2015.

Australia: Nationwide swine flu vaccination

September 30, 2009 by Infinite

PERTH (Reuters) – Australia rolled out a nationwide vaccination drive for H1N1 influenza on Wednesday in a bid to arm itself against a possible outbreak of the disease.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said 5.5 million doses of the vaccine have been delivered across the country, enough to vaccinate about 30 percent of the population, and two million doses each month will be made available until January.

The campaign is Australia’s biggest mass vaccination and is estimated to cost over A$100 million ($87.95 million). Vaccinations will start with those most at risk in the pandemic, including health care workers, pregnant women and the chronically ill.

Gold shines as China dumps US dollar

September 6, 2009September 6, 2009 by Infinite

From the article:
“We’ve been reading reports during the week that indicate the Chinese government is about to starting encouraging its 1.3 billion people to invest in gold and silver.”

“If you’re Chinese, you’ll soon be able to walk into any bank and buy, over the counter, those metals in four bars of various sizes (in the case of silver, the largest will be 5kg). The explanation — and it sounds plausible — is that China wants to convert more of its US currency holdings into gold and silver. It is working day and night to buy hard assets with its billions of US dollars before the greenback tanks.”

“Here’s another piece of the puzzle. On Friday the Hong Kong Monetary Authority was reportedly removing all its physical gold holdings from depositaries in London and transferring them to a new high-security facility close to Chek Lap Kok airport.”

China has already effectively written off its US dollar reserves and is now preparing its people for the collapse of the US dollar.

NOT before time — and great timing, at that. After problems in recent years with declining gold output — production fell by 4 per cent in the 2009 fiscal year — Australia is back on the growth path.

– Australia May Pass US, Become Second-Biggest Gold Producer (Bloomberg)

Melbourne-based Surbiton Associates, which produces quarterly statistics on the local gold sector, tells us production of the yellow metal not only turned around and rose in the June quarter (by two tonnes) after three quarters of decline but we’re on track to become the world’s second-largest producer within a year (behind China but ahead of present No.2, the US).

Surbiton’s Sandra Close says gold production should get a further boost in the present quarter from the startup of the Boddington mine in Western Australia and several other companies joining the list of producers over the next nine months.

Banned hyperlinks could cost you $11,000 a day

March 17, 2009 by Infinite

The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks.

Wikileaks was added to the blacklist for publishing a leaked document containing Denmark’s list of banned websites.

The move by the Australian Communications and Media Authority comes after it threatened the host of online broadband discussion forum Whirlpool last week with a $11,000-a-day fine over a link published in its forum to another page blacklisted by ACMA – an anti-abortion website.

ACMA’s blacklist does not have a significant impact on web browsing by Australians today but sites contained on it will be blocked for everyone if the Federal Government implements its mandatory internet filtering censorship scheme.

But even without the mandatory censorship scheme, as is evident in the Whirlpool case, ACMA can force sites hosted in Australia to remove “prohibited” pages and even links to prohibited pages.

Online civil liberties campaigners have seized on the move by ACMA as evidence of how casually the regulator adds to its list of blacklisted sites. It also confirmed fears that the scope of the Government’s censorship plan could easily be expanded to encompass sites that are not illegal.

“The first rule of censorship is that you cannot talk about censorship,” Wikileaks said on its website in response to the ACMA ban.

The site has also published Thailand’s internet censorship list and noted that, in both the Thai and Danish cases, the scope of the blacklist had been rapidly expanded from child porn to other material including political discussions.

Police get secret search powers and you won’t even know

March 4, 2009 by Infinite

NEW South Wales Police are to be given covert search warrants, allowing them to search a property without informing the owners for up to three years.

The warrants will be issued through the Supreme Court and limited to investigations of suspected serious offences punishable by at least seven years jail.

These offences include the manufacture of drugs, computer crimes, the sale of firearms, homicide and kidnapping.

Premier Nathan Rees said NSW would be the first jurisdiction in Australia to adopt the covert search warrants, and would be borrowing from Commonwealth anti-terrorism legislation.

“If you are a serious criminal in NSW you should not sleep easy,” Mr Rees said.

“These laws will enable our police force to inspect your home without you knowing.”

Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production

February 15, 2009 by Infinite

“Global food Catastrophe”

“The world is heading for a drop in agricultural production of 20 to 40 percent, depending on the severity and length of the current global droughts. Food producing nations are imposing food export restrictions. Food prices will soar, and, in poor countries with food deficits, millions will starve.”

This article is a must-read.

After reading about the droughts in two major agricultural countries, China and Argentina, I decided to research the extent other food producing nations were also experiencing droughts. This project ended up taking a lot longer than I thought. 2009 looks to be a humanitarian disaster around much of the world

To understand the depth of the food Catastrophe that faces the world this year, consider the graphic below depicting countries by USD value of their agricultural output, as of 2006.

Now, consider the same graphic with the countries experiencing droughts highlighted.

The countries that make up two thirds of the world’s agricultural output are experiencing drought conditions. Whether you watch a video of the drought in China, Australia, Africa, South America, or the US, the scene will be the same: misery, ruined crop, and dying cattle.

China

The drought in Northern China, the worst in 50 years, is worsening, and summer harvest is now threatened. The area of affected crops has expanded to 161 million mu (was 141 million last week), and 4.37 million people and 2.1 million livestock are facing drinking water shortage. The scarcity of rain in some parts of the north and central provinces is the worst in recorded history.

84 killed in deadliest-ever Australian wildfires

February 8, 2009 by Infinite

A fire truck moves away from out of control flames from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest near the township of Tonimbuk, 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country’s worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. (AP Photo)

HEALESVILLE, Australia (AP) – Towering flames razed entire towns in southeastern Australia and burned fleeing residents in their cars as the death toll rose to 84 on Sunday, making it the country’s deadliest fire disaster.

At least 700 homes were destroyed in Saturday’s inferno when searing temperatures and wind blasts produced a firestorm that swept across a swath of the country’s Victoria state, where all the deaths occurred.

“Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria,” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters as he toured the fire zone on Sunday. “It’s an appalling tragedy for the nation.”

Australia and Japan offer new stimulus plans

February 3, 2009 by Infinite

HONG KONG:Australia announced a $26.5 billion stimulus plan and a deep interest rate cut on Tuesday as the Japanese central bank said it would start buying shares held by financial institutions to try to ease the burden on lenders in efforts to shield their economies from the worsening downturn.

The announcements followed a flurry of economic data, job cuts and profit warnings in recent weeks that have shown the region is slowing faster than had been expected as demand in the United States and Europe withers.

Related article: Australia launches massive stimulus package (AFP):
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the massive stimulus package was aimed at nation building and supporting up to 90,000 jobs “in the face of the unfolding national and international economic emergency.”

“The weight of the global recession is now bearing down on the Australian economy,” said Wayne Swan, Australia’s treasurer, in a statement accompanying the stimulus announcement. “In the midst of this global recession it would be irresponsible not to act swiftly and decisively to support jobs.”

Once-in-century Australian heatwave claims almost 30 lives

January 31, 2009 by Infinite

Spectators seek shade at the Australian Open in Melbourne

MELBOURNE (AFP) – Australia’s second-largest city Melbourne ground to a halt Saturday, crippled by a once-in-a-century heatwave that has claimed almost 30 lives and razed at least 17 homes.

Wildfires raged through the southeastern state of Victoria, where authorities said flames had come dangerously close to major electricity transmission lines which supplied power to Melbourne on Saturday.

More than 500,000 homes and businesses in Melbourne were left without power on Friday night after an electrical substation exploded in the heat, bringing the city to a standstill.

Temperatures in Victoria topped 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) for a record-breaking third consecutive day on Friday, when 10 homes and a timber plantation were destroyed in a 6,500 hectare (16,000 acre) blaze.

Global Economic Crisis Accelerating

September 22, 2014January 23, 2009 by Infinite

– Icelandic government becomes first to be brought down by the credit crunch (Daily Mail)

– Iceland’s prime minister resigns (Financial Times)

– Obama Presses Lawmakers on Stimulus, Accountability (Bloomberg):
Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama pressed congressional leaders to reach a consensus on an $825 billion stimulus plan, warning the country may be facing an “unprecedented” economic crisis.

– Obama team accuses China of manipulating its currency (Guardian)

– Geithner Hints at Harder Line on China Trade (New York Times):
WASHINGTON — Timothy F. Geithner, who moved closer to confirmation as Treasury secretary on Thursday, told senators that President Obama believed China was “manipulating” its currency, suggesting a more confrontational stance toward that country than under the Bush administration. (More change!)

– Good bank, bad bank all adds up to nationalization (Reuters)

– China prepares for the Year of the Slump (Guardian)

– Sterling plunges to record lows (Financial Times – 23 Jan 2009)

– Recession figures heighten the gloom (Independent)

– Financial crisis: It’s impossible to get any hard facts and figures from British banks (Telegraph)

– Just The Early Stages of Economic and Financial Collapse (The International Forecaster)

– Boston Scientific Founders Bash Baby on Lehman Bets (Bloomberg):
Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — The men who built Boston Scientific Corp. into the world’s biggest seller of heart stents have dumped $484 million in shares to repay loans after other assets were frozen by the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bankruptcy.

– Bank deposits at ECB drop sharply (Financial Times):
Deposits have now fallen by €171.5bn over the past two days and are almost two-thirds down from the record €315.3bn reached less than a fortnight ago.

– Where You Won’t Shop In 2009 (Forbes)

– Microsoft’s days as an unstoppable force are over (Telegraph)

– Samsung suffers its first quarterly loss (Financial Times)

– GE profit falls 43% to $3.9bn (Financial Times)

– Australian wine exports collapse (Telegraph)

Hard-up billionaire forced to sell his toys

January 19, 2009 by Infinite

The Mangusta 165, the world’s largest open yacht, which Mr Packer is selling

Even multibillionaires are feeling the pinch. James Packer, once Australia’s richest man, has reportedly put his $50m (£23m) yacht up for sale, postponed delivery of a $60m private jet and left a swimming pool complex at his family property half-built.

Mr Packer, 41, who inherited a fortune from his father, the media tycoon Kerry Packer, has seen the value of his assets halve in the past year, from $6bn to less than $3bn, according to the Sydney Sunday Telegraph. As a result, he is dismantling his playboy lifestyle. A three-level Mayfair apartment is also up for sale.

He launched his Mangusta 165 yacht, the Z Ellerston, in July, after a two-year wait for delivery. The world’s largest model of open yacht, at 165ft, it is sold with a complimentary Aston Martin and features nine bedrooms. Mr Packer has also deferred delivery of a Boeing Business Jet to 2010 to release some capital, the paper said. Mr Packer, who has divested himself of his father’s media interests and is focusing on creating a global casino empire, was listed as Australia’s third richest man last year. That marked the first time in 21 years that he or his father had not sat on top of the rich list.

Australians warned their budget is ‘buggered’

January 19, 2009 by Infinite

Australia’s budget is “buggered”, the nation’s economic boom will “unwind scarily fast” and the outlook for the next year is “ugly”, a leading economic forecaster has warned.

Wayne Swan: Wayne Swan disagreed, but admitted the government was facing ‘very difficult’ global economic conditions. Photo: GETTY

Access Economics dispensed with financial jargon and opted for painfully frank language in order to paint a clear picture of the state of the country’s economy, which it predicts will slide into a deep recession in the next 12 months.

“Batten the hatches. This is not just a recession. This is the sharpest deceleration Australia’s economy has ever seen,” the company’s quarterly report said.

Thanks to its strong export ties to China, Australia – once dubbed the “miracle economy” – managed to escape the downturn that hit the US and British economies last year.

Dry South Australia buys in water

December 8, 2008 by Infinite

The dry bed of the Hume Weir, Murray-Darling basin

Australia is facing its worst drought in a century

Australia’s driest state has decided to buy in water supplies amid fears it will run out next year.

South Australia said it had spent tens of millions of dollars to ensure Adelaide, Australia’s fifth-largest city, and the state had enough water.

State Premier Mike Rann described it as a “prudent and sensible” measure.

Drought has become a regular occurrence in South Australia, which already receives the least rainfall of any Australian state.

Lack of rainfall and a sharp reduction in the amount of water flowing into the Murray River meant the state could not guarantee water levels for 2009.

The state’s water security minister, Karlene Maywald, said she had purchased 61 billion gallons (231 gigalitres) of extra water for 2009.

Australia cuts interest rates to seven year low; “The economy is on a knife-edge”

December 2, 2008 by Infinite

Australia’s interest rate was cut by a surprise 100 basis points today, taking the cash rate to the lowest it has been in seven years

The fourth cut in as many months, a full 25 basis points larger than economists predicted, is seen as further proof that Australia will struggle to avoid recession over the next 12 months.

“The economy is on a knife-edge,” said Macquarie economist Brian Redican.

The Reserve Bank cited the state of the global economy and a big downturn in domestic demand for the cut to 4.25%, with Glenn Stevens, the governor of the RBA, saying that ti was time to take monetary policy to an expansionist setting.

Analysts warned that the interest rate cut would not stop the economy from slowing further in line with the downturn in the US and China and predicted further rate cuts in 2009.

“This will help, but the headwinds coming off-shore are so large that the Australian economy will slow aggressivley next year,” Stephen Halmarck, a senior analyst for Citgroup told The Times. “Data out of the US and especially China has surprised everyone.

150 whales die off Tasmanian coast

December 2, 2008 by Infinite

More than 150 whales have died after becoming stranded off Tasmania’s west coast, Australian authorities have said, despite the efforts of rescuers who managed to shepherd a small number back to the ocean.

More than 150 whales have died after becoming stranded off the west coast of Tasmania despite the efforts of rescuers, Australian authorities have said
A number of whales were rescued and put back out to sea Photo: AFP

The state government said the number of long-finned pilot whales that had perished had climbed to 150 after a body count on Sunday, almost double the earlier estimate of 80.

The stranded whales were discovered on Saturday and members of the local community and government officials worked to rescue them, but the whales had been badly injured by the rocks.

Mint suspends orders amid rush to buy bullion; One European client purchased 30,000 ounces for $33 million

November 21, 2008 by Infinite

FEARS of the unknown long-term effects from the global financial crisis have sparked a new gold rush.

With retail and wholesale clients around the world stocking up on the precious metal, the Perth Mint has been forced to suspend orders.

As the World Gold Council reported that the dollar demand for gold reached a quarterly record of $US32 billion ($50.73 billion) in the third quarter, industry insiders said the race to secure physical gold had reached an intensity that had never been witnessed before.

Perth Mint sales and marketing director Ron Currie said the unprecedented demand had forced the Mint to cease orders until January, with staff working seven days a week, 24-hour days, over three shifts to meet orders.

He said Europe was leading the demand, with Russia, Ukraine, Middle East and US all buying — making up 80 per cent of its sales. One European client purchased 30,000 ounces for $33 million.

“We have never seen this before and are working right at capacity. And we are seeing it from clients in the shop buying one ounce, right up to 30,000 ounces from overseas clients,” Mr Currie said.