Ausbuy

2020 Summit

April 24th, 2008

 The 2020 Summit has come and gone and Ausbuy has analysed the results. We realise that the Government has given no undertaking that any of the suggestions will be translated into legislation. This is wise as many of the ideas put forward are contradictory or will cost more than the country can afford. Despite this, the Summit offered an example of democracy in action and as a PR exercise it highlighted long term problems. As we understood, the Government will use some of the suggestions in arriving at a long term strategy. The problems which demand immediate action will be tackled in the normal course of running the country. This effort to plan for the next 12 years highlighted the problems of the three year electoral cycle. 2020 is four elections away and it is very difficult for any government to bind its successors.Many of the ideas which made it through to the final report represented the pleading of special interest groups and ideas which were already out in the public arena. Some were obviously impractical. An example of this is the one of connecting primary teachers to our scientists on the assumption that as well as doing their own jobs they can deal with primary school queries. We also had the normal conflict where big business wants to pay less tax and other interests want to spend more.

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National Foods Seeks Permission To Acquire Dairy Farmers

April 23rd, 2008

Japanese owned National Foods has approached the ACCC for permission to acquire Australian owned co-op Dairy Farmers.

National Foods is owned by beer maker Kirin Brewery and has recently been strengthening their overseas presence. National Foods was Australia’s largest dairy company until being bought, originally by Philippine-owned Miguel Corp who then sold to Kirin last year.

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Foreign Investment In Australia

April 15th, 2008

Recent investments by foreign interests (in some cases government controlled) in companies like BHP and Rio have brought this subject to the fore. I would like to start this article by stating Ausbuy’s position as follows:

Ausbuy does not oppose foreign investment in Australia that meets all or most of the following criteria:

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The Impact Of The Credit Crunch In Australia

April 15th, 2008

When the sub prime mortgage problem started to show itself in the USA various respected media commentators stated that, since most of our exports went to Asia, it didn’t matter. We had decoupled from the USA. Ausbuy felt that this was a load of rubbish and wrote an article to this effect, but even we have been surprised how rapidly the problems have spread round the world. The two largest banks in the world - UBS of Switzerland and Citibank of the USA - have both written off many billions of dollars and the contagion has spread to such countries as Britain, France, Germany and Japan. Given this scenario, it is not surprising that some of the fall out has landed in Australia.

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Investing In The Stock Exchange

April 3rd, 2008

People who invest in the stock exchange realise that shares can go down as well as up but continue to do so supported by the following beliefs:

• They have to do something with their savings. If they put it in the bank they go backward. Assume the following: Rate - 6%; Inflation - 4%; Tax - 30%. This gives the following:

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Members Letter to GlaxoSmithKline

April 1st, 2008

This letter was recently forwarded to Ausbuy by a member. We encourage all members of the public to voice your questions and concerns to the relevant organisations.

To GlaxoSmithKline,

I purchased a Lucozade Energy (300ml Lemon) from a Melbourne city 7-11 outlet on the weekend. I am writing to express my disappointment that after purchasing the product I read the fine print that it is Made in China.

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