Metro News - Newspaper Online - formerly Toorak Metro News Victoria au newspaper Melbourne south eastern Bayside Melbourne

When the Consumer Price Index (CPI) jumped to four per cent in July, Peter Costello claimed that the extraordinarily high figure was a one-off. Costello said that it was caused by things the government had no control over- namely high petrol prices and bananas. What a whopper! Is the Treasurer admitting that he has achieved what Paul Keating warned us would happen under the Liberals? Have we finally become a Banana Republic?

Bananas may be $12 a kilo, but so are cherries. Brussels sprouts were $8 a kilo earlier this year, but Costello didn’t mention them. Does he think that we are stupid or is he using the bananas as a red herring to blur the truth as governments often like to do? After all, if we’re arguing about bananas we might not notice the real reason why inflation is breaking out during John and Peter’s watch. So what is really driving inflation?

High petrol prices have been coming for a long time. You don’t have to be a brain to know the Chinese and Indians might like to have a bit of petrol, too. Yet in 10 years of government, Howard has made not one step towards developing alternative fuels. In fact they have taken away incentives to produce renewable resources such as biodiesel and ethanol. And when Costello says international issues are something the Australian Government has no control over, I would like to point out that they have had every opportunity at every step of the way in the Iraq invasion, and the recent actions in Palestine and Lebanon to add their voice to those calling for diplomacy and peace instead of war and oppression. The silence has been stunning. Get used to high petrol prices, they are here to stay.

The other inflationary factor, which Costello does not want to talk about, is the Howard Government’s schizophrenic deregulation/over-regulation of the labour market.

Howard’s AWAs (Australian Workplace Agreements) are designed to drive wages down. But skilled workers, who no longer see themselves as workers but businesspeople, are able to ask whatever price they wish to name. Under the old system where the employer looked after tax, super payments, holiday and sick pay, work safety and insurance, skilled workers were happy to receive a living wage. No longer. With all the extra costs and responsibilities the skilled worker is going to demand to be paid a premium price for everything he or she does, and rightly so. My advice to skilled workers is to screw employers for every cent you can. Anything less and you’re selling yourself short.

Also although wages for unskilled workers will go down because of the AWA’s, paradoxically what we’ll find is that the cost of employing unskilled people will actually go up. This is because such workers will be increasingly encouraged to turn away from Centrelink and instead use parasitic commercial labour supply companies who charge fees to find them jobs.

Commercial labour companies aren’t the only parasites feeding on the Australian economy, though. Increasingly shareholders also have to be fed. Creditors are sucking record amounts out of our pockets too. Soon there will be record defaults on loans as interest rates are driven up.

And then there are the drones who will add their bit to the economy. These are the people who do surveys and write reports. They are the bane of modern life. If you are incapable of original thought or lack the courage to make decisions, do a survey or ask for a report, then no one will notice that you’re really a moron. If the Australian economy were a living vertebrate, surveys and reports would be the cholesterol clogging the arteries, impeding the free flow of nutritious blood to the productive parts of the body. The insurance industry, share traders and banks would be aggressive parasites, which will kill the host if left unchecked.

And don’t forget the GST. In times of plenty, the GST is just trimming the fat but when times are tight, it cuts to the bone. The Howard Government is driven by a radical economic rationalist agenda. It wishes to turn Australia into a capitalist’s paradise that professionalises, commercialises, corporatises, desocialises, decommunitises and dehumanises. Capitalist or cattle, user pays.

The trouble is, it all relies upon high consumption. The cycles of shortage and glut become more pronounced. Each time the interest rates go up a couple of points, hundreds, possibly thousands, of people across Melbourne lose their homes. I’m tipping there will be a lot of cancelled holidays this year. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe we should all stay home and do something for our local community.

Sporting matters

I applied my 10- point lie detector test to two American athletes accused recently of taking the male sex hormone testosterone to gain an unfair advantage.

I tip that the Tour de France winner Floyd Landis will be found innocent of the charge. I was impressed by the way Landis called a press conference, looked down the barrel of the camera and categorically denied the charges.

Readers may recall that Landis tested positive for unusual levels of testosterone and requested a counter analysis (B Sample) to prove that his result has come about from naturally occurring high levels of the hormone in his body.

On the other hand, my bet is that Justin Gatlin will be found guilty. The world and Olympic 100m sprint champion announced that he tested positive for testosterone after a race in Kansas City in April and denied knowing that he had taken performance- enhancing drugs.