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The Australian Ananclal Review Thursday 28 June 2007 www.afr.com
LETTERS
Sanctions easy, outcomes harder The Prime Minister compares the remote-community Aboriginal crisis as similar to Hurricane Katrina. This is wrong, in large part because Kamna was sudden and swift with almost no warning, correct in that George Bush stuffed up badly in his response and John Howard is doing the same in the Northern Territory. Associate professor Helen Milroy gave an invaluable indigenous perspective full of real understanding of what's needed to address the trauma-loss-grief cycle, on ABC Radio National's program Life Mal/erson June 25.1 encourage people to track down the podcast and have a listen. Sanctions are easy. The difficult bit is to build the social, medical, education and hard infrastructure while respecting country and culture. And while we're at it. can the A BC forget the military metaphors such as "farewelling federal police from Canberra Airport"? There might be a war, but the diseases of Europeanisation like drugs and alcohol are the enemy.
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.. Cut-price tax agents"* h CGT may em on agrl -proJec t S'짜 offer inferior service Jonathan Barrett points out that investors have just one more year to invest around $500 million annually in non-forestry managed investment scheme (NF-MIS)joint venture projects ("CGT may cause an agribusiness deluge", June 25). If the Australian Taxation Office
winsitstestcasein court,it will
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simultaneously inflict on itself and the government a massive loss of tax revenue and a loss of water efficiency in contravention of the flagship $10 billion Murray-Darling basin project. Because of these policy consequences, the A TO's actions and the government's support of those actions indicate the direst of outcomes for both parties.
The government deliberately refuses to make a statutory proviSion that would protect the tax regime for NF-MIS projects in 17 rura1 industries and is therefore accountable for the foDowing very harmful consequences: o Investors in companies dependent on NF-MIS projects have and will suffer capital losses of more than $900 million. with ,. consequent immediate losses to the federal budget of more than $200 million in capital gains tax receipts. o Most of the estimated $500 million that taxpayers seeking upfront tax deductions would have invested in NF-MIS projects will switch to forestry, with some leakage to nIms and also to
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negatively geared property and compan)'oShares. On average the federal budget receives a substantially greater surplus of net
tax revenue from MIS projects than from forestry. DAfter 10y~ of switching, total incurred and prospective losses in tax revenue will be in excess of $3 billion, with more losses to come. New highly water-efficient MIS projects, which are net buyers of water rights from much lessefficient users of water in the MurrayDarling basin, willcease. o Thousands of rural families will lose their livelihoods. Lawrenc:e CumtnInp, Gymea Bay, NSW.
qualifications.
It's a bit of a worry that Australia has become another nation that sends out its army and its police force to fix a social problem. Allan J. Williams, St Ives, NSW.
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Ads portray a double standard Collective bargaining enables you to "work together co-operatively". It means you" can benefit by joining togetherto negotiatc;". "Businesses can find it more efficient to negotiate directly with a group". . Which mad leftie is responsible for such a glowing endorsement of collective bargaining, I hear you ask? Why, these are the words of the federal government that appear in a series of advertisements promoting collective bargaining by small businesses when dealing with big business. Ab, the hypocrisy. Why is it acceptable for small business to bargain collectively, but not workers? Stephen Smith, Cremorne, NSW.
David Dalun, Chief executive officer, Health & Ufe Ply Lt<!<~ Adelaide, SA.
My blackboard experience Keith Parsons (' 'Don't preach real students. Sadly, it wasn't available to me at the time. What I did instead world to teachers", Letters, June 25) was run a relatively unique and suggested I should "experience a few weeks in a class of.adolescent ferais" innovative guest speaker program for five years, inviting to the scbool before I am qualified to say anything about teachers. Actually, my past eacb term up to balf a dozen people from all walks of life who were able work experience includes 10 years working in education nine years as to offer a different perspective on a high school maths and science .the world. The program, which most teacher, two of those years as a high students really enjoyed, won a school deputy principal, and I even federal government grant after spent some time working as an about a year in operation. education department adviser Now, as a parent of three kids in assisting teachers while based in the primary school, I believe we should Kimberley region of Western be supporting our hard-working Australia. teachers in every way we can, and As a teacher, I would have . thiS could include offering them welcomed the opportunity to spend . opportunities to broaden theil: slcills a little time out of the classroom, and experience outside of the classroom. enhancing my knowledge and slcills by doing some work experience JimPaparo, every couple of years so that I could Floreat, WA. offer more relevant education to my
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NZ retail fight rolls on.. From back page provide in Australia. Warehouse shareholders probably don't really care. Courtesy of the acquisition manoeuvring, their shares have rocketed from $NZ3.90 in June 2006 to $NZ5.99 yesterday although they were as high as $NZ7.32 two months ago. While the appeals over the NZCC's rejection ofWoolworths and Foodstuffs are important. the real key to the company's future remains Stephen Tindall who, together with a charitable foundation he established, owns about half the company. Even if Woolworths and Foodstuffs get green-lighted, their bids mean nothing if Tindall doesn't like them. Tindall approached the company's board last September seeking access for him and PEP to undertake due diligence with a view to privatising the company. Two weeks later, after W oolworths bought 10 per cent, he reiterated that his clear preference was to privatise the company because he believed this was the best approach for it to implement its strategy, but that he '"",..,
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The role of a tax agent is to educate the taxpayer and not just process returns. Only then will taxpayers appreciate and pay a fair price for their tax retu,mS to be prepared. The reckless discount kings are making it barder for those that are trying to do the right thing. I congratulate the Australian Taxation Office on its initiative.
Peter Andren, Independent member for Calare, Millthorpe, NSW.
Social overkill
All I can say about your "Overhaul tough on taxation agents" (June 19) is that it is about time. For far too long, some tax agents have been cutting comers and not charging an appropriate fee for researching, preparing and providing the correct advice to taxpayers. Those agents who, at great and unrewarded expense, attempt to do the right thing, only to lose clients, face ridicule for being too expensive. . I welcome the changes and only hope they will result in higher fees and reverse the declining trend in tax agents. It is not fmancially attractive for those trying to do the job properly while the 10w-ba1ling agents continue to exist irrespective of their continuing educational
and PEP would analyse market developments and assess the implications. One month later, their consortium withdrew citing Warehouse's cbanged shareholding structure and markedly higher share price.
~~~ Othing has changed, and nothing will in the short term. Not only does the High Court chaDenge need to play out, but Tmda1l is nrmly ensconced in Valencia cheering on Team New Zealand against the other Kiwis in the America's Cup. When he returns, however, he will have a few options to consider. It should be remembered that he actually started this ball roning with a privatisation proposal, which, among other things, may suggest he has tired of public listed life. With Warehouse's shares back in the ballpark envisaged by his initial privatisation, he may dedde to try again either with his original partner or new ones. After all, eight private equity players are mown to have formally looked at Coles, along with Wesfarmers and Macquarie Bank.
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For that matter, there are a number of similarities between Wesfarmers' Bunnings operation and
that ofWarebouse
- big-box
si!e$outside traditionaJ high-rent retail precincts operating on a nofrills basis with minimal window dressing. Bunnings does have a NZ foothold. It is also significant that Coles, unlike Woolworths, has not as yet ventured across the Tasman an option its prospective new owners may fmd appealing. Especially if they can do so before W oolworths gets too mucb of a head start. A Coles/Foodstuffs . consortium is not beyond the rea1ms of possibility nor, for that matter, are various combinations of Foodstuffs and private equity. Tmdall could also decide to simply cash out. although this is thought unlikely by those wbo know him. They point to his carefully chosen words when, on aband0nin8 his planned privatisation, be said he would "assess future options In a considered manner and ensure all stakeholder Interests were contemplated". Alan JUI)' ajury@afr.r:om.au
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At a stroke, ultimate greenhouse plan Though it would be unpalatable for business and consumers alike ("The worrisome emissions of a coal. guzzling giant", June 22), Australia together with the rest of the world should ban all manufactured imports from China and cut exports of raw materials to them too. Admittedly, China's own domestic energy consumption is prodigious, but at a stroke this could help reduce worldwide greenhouse emissions dramatically. If we don't do so, we are simply fuelling our own demise, and Third World here we come. Peter Foster-Bunch, Avalon Beach, NSW.
Checkout can drive you off your trolley From back pa&8 Normandy on D-Day, That soap opera mag can start looking pretty good when you've got two or three people abead of you who appear as though tbey've stocked up for Meals On Wheels routes. So It was with some bope that I read recently of an American supermarket ehaln. Whole Foods, that bas devised a four-minute walt system for c\leckout llnesln Its New York City stores. Whole Foods is one of those upscale chains tbat not only carries tbe basics but also semlprepared food you can Just heat up, such as, say, stuffed pork chops or even an entire ThanksiPvlng dinner If you order In advance. Importantly, the strin& beans are reUably placed. Anywa)', what thc)' do II blve tile cbeckout customers form one Une (as you'd sedn a bank), whleh moves quickly because the store bas someone dlrectlnl: them, apparenlly strikln& a balance between those with heavy and those with light loads. All the regl.ters are open plu.
they bave "noaten" who ImmediatelyJump In wben an employee takes a break. What had happened was tbe stores got worried when they saw people taking one look at the long lines at the checkout and couldn't be botbered golnl: In. This Is, after ,II, New Yorlc,where patience Is considered a character Oaw. ' The chain obviously did the numbers and figured out the addltfonal expense of keeping all registers open, bavlng a traffic director and hiring tbe Ooaters would payoff in terms oflncreased buslnes., They probably were also aware thatlncreaslnl:ly people are shopping for their fruit and vel:otables In produce shops and I:ettlng tbelr meats from butcbers, as tbe trend here Is also sbowlng. Wbole Foodl, unlike mlny otber American and Au..le . supermarkets, has superior produce and meats, but why lo.e customers becau.e they can't get In andout in, as tbe saying goes; a New York minute. Peter Ruehl
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