27 April 2012

Wages stagnating, costs rising

| johnboy
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The Liberals’ Brendan Smyth is taking no joy at all from new CommSec data on the dreaded cost of living:

The latest CommSec economic report confirms that the ACT has the lowest wage growth and the highest increase in consumer prices in the country, showing that Canberra is becoming an even more expensive place to live, ACT Shadow Treasurer Brendan Smyth said today.

“According to the report, ACT wage growth was only 2.9 per cent, 0.4 per cent behind the next worst jurisdiction of South Australia, while the ACT joined South Australia at the top of the pile for growth in consumer prices, at 3.6 per cent,” Mr Smyth said today.

“Both the ACT and South Australia were the only jurisdictions in Australia to have a slower wage growth than consumer prices.

“These worrying figures are an integral part of the report and are what ACT Labor should be discussing.

“Katy Gallagher and ACT Labor should no longer refuse to release cost of living statements with the government’s Budget proposals, or simply tell Canberrans under financial strain to ‘cancel their Foxtel for a while.’

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Tetranitrate6:31 pm 28 Apr 12

2604 said :

JC said :

EvanJames said :

davo101 said :

Good to see the Liberals consider Foxtel to be a basic human right 🙂

Bread and circuses. People can have “their foxtel” while sitting in their rented flats, because they can’t afford to buy their own place.

Yep and we can blame the liberals, Howard in particular for that.

The same house price bubble inflated in the UK, Spain, NZ, the US and elsewhere at the same time. Was John Howard to blame for all that, as well?

Nope, just ours. I’m sure we’d have seen a continuation of the ramp up that occurred in the late 90s, but the utter mania that occurred from 2001-2003 can reasonably be pinned on the first home buyers grants.
It’s not as though it was inevitable either, there was no such bubble in Germany or Switzerland for instance.

Tetranitrate6:23 pm 28 Apr 12

dungfungus said :

JC said :

EvanJames said :

davo101 said :

Good to see the Liberals consider Foxtel to be a basic human right 🙂

Bread and circuses. People can have “their foxtel” while sitting in their rented flats, because they can’t afford to buy their own place.

Yep and we can blame the liberals, Howard in particular for that.

Yep, I guess Howard did make a lot of people proud home owners and he doesn’t have to apologize for that. Now Labor are turning the tables without even trying. In a few months time housing will be a buyers’ market with the qualifications that prospective purchasers will have to have a full time job, 50% deposit and find a bank with some money to lend.

also:

dungfungus said :

In a few months time housing will be a buyers’ market

– we’ve already been hearing the ‘prices have reached a permanent plateau’ line for the past year and a half or so, looks we’re moving on to the next stage of grieving/denial.

But anyway, you do realize that if banks actually did require a 50% deposit, the average house price would be lucky to break $250,000 right?
Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for it, but without jumbo mortgages (helpfully enabled by negative gearing and ‘first home buyers’ grants of course), we’d never have reached the dizzying heights at all.

2604 said :

JC said :

EvanJames said :

Bread and circuses. People can have “their foxtel” while sitting in their rented flats, because they can’t afford to buy their own place.

Yep and we can blame the liberals, Howard in particular for that.

The same house price bubble inflated in the UK, Spain, NZ, the US and elsewhere at the same time. Was John Howard to blame for all that, as well?

Sort of, along with the previous Hawke-Keating government.

They all succumbed to the idea of making credit easier to get through financial deregulation. Howard’s change to the capital gains tax and a few other measures helped too. Cheap global credit also helped.

Of course, Australia wasn’t alone in some of these things, but we didn’t try too hard to see how it could all end.

JC said :

EvanJames said :

davo101 said :

Good to see the Liberals consider Foxtel to be a basic human right 🙂

Bread and circuses. People can have “their foxtel” while sitting in their rented flats, because they can’t afford to buy their own place.

Yep and we can blame the liberals, Howard in particular for that.

The same house price bubble inflated in the UK, Spain, NZ, the US and elsewhere at the same time. Was John Howard to blame for all that, as well?

JC said :

EvanJames said :

davo101 said :

Good to see the Liberals consider Foxtel to be a basic human right 🙂

Bread and circuses. People can have “their foxtel” while sitting in their rented flats, because they can’t afford to buy their own place.

Yep and we can blame the liberals, Howard in particular for that.

Yep, I guess Howard did make a lot of people proud home owners and he doesn’t have to apologize for that. Now Labor are turning the tables without even trying. In a few months time housing will be a buyers’ market with the qualifications that prospective purchasers will have to have a full time job, 50% deposit and find a bank with some money to lend.

EvanJames said :

davo101 said :

Good to see the Liberals consider Foxtel to be a basic human right 🙂

Bread and circuses. People can have “their foxtel” while sitting in their rented flats, because they can’t afford to buy their own place.

Yep and we can blame the liberals, Howard in particular for that.

davo101 said :

Good to see the Liberals consider Foxtel to be a basic human right 🙂

Bread and circuses. People can have “their foxtel” while sitting in their rented flats, because they can’t afford to buy their own place.

wildturkeycanoe4:07 pm 27 Apr 12

Try telling Foxtel you want a break from the 2 year contract and see what happens. I guarantee you won’t be financially better off. Try and get Foxtel, or indeed any other service, without at least a 6 or 12 month contract!

davo101 said :

Good to see the Liberals consider Foxtel to be a basic human right 🙂

If one does not like Foxtel there is the Spanish language service on UBI World TV. Some news channels can be selected in English and there is a “bonus” of 50 odd Arabic channels as well. I think this has something to do with “diversity”
Pensioners and CSHC holders get an “internet” benefit which can be diverted to subsidise their sattelite TV services so they won’t have to “switch off” for a while.

Holden Caulfield2:08 pm 27 Apr 12

davo101 said :

Good to see the Liberals consider Foxtel to be a basic human right 🙂

Well it is if you want anything approaching decent coverage for any of the football codes.

Good to see the Liberals consider Foxtel to be a basic human right 🙂

Gotta look after rupert!

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