Category: Archive

Industry price gouging or rising world oil prices causing high Easter petrol prices this year?

admin /6 April, 2006

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello believes that the rising cost of petrol is most likely to be the result of rising world oil
prices. However, the Prime Minister, John Howard, will ask the Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate allegations that petrol
prices have been deliberately raised for the Easter holiday period.

The Opposition has called on the Government to
give the
ACCC permission to investigate whether there is any evidence of price
gouging or collusion in the industry. The ACCC is stressing that it can
only monitor prices and has no power to influence how the cost of
petrol is set.

Dubai Islamic Bank to create $7 billion family of global private-equity funds

admin /6 April, 2006

Dubai Islamic Bank said it would work with the government of Dubai to
create a $US5 billion ($A7 billion) family of global private-equity
funds, according to The Australian Financial Review (6/4/2006, p.21).

Fund family members: The funds would focus on energy, financial
institutions, infrastructure, real estate, health and education,
industrials and media and telecommunications.

Hey, big spender: Sultan bin Sulayem, chairman of the
government-owned Dubai World holding company, said the funds would be
leveraged to complete transactions in excess of $US10 billion.

Japan proposes giant Asian free trade zone by 2010

admin /6 April, 2006

Japan wants Australia, New Zealand, China, India, and South-East Asia
to join in an economic community that would eclipse one-to-one free
trade pacts, reported The Age (5/4/2006, p.B1).

Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry
Minister, Toshihiro Nikai, said he wanted talks on a region-wide trade
agreement to start in 2008 and conclude by 2010.

“Trying to launch such
negotiations as well as trying to conclude them might be considered
ambitious,” said Takeshi Fujimoto, a ministry official.

Australian trade
officials have expressed scepticism about the Japanese proposal. “It
would be very complicated to negotiate a free trade agreement with all
those countries,” said a spokeswoman for Trade Minister Mark Vaile.
“The Japanese haven’t spoken to us about this. We look forward to
speaking about it in the lead up to the east Asia summit later this
year.”

Last year Foreign Minister Alexander Downer floated plans for the ASEAN group to form a single-east Asian community.

Expanded IT capacity was key to quickly restoring power after Larry

admin /5 April, 2006

Ergon Energy moved about 400 additional staff, mainly field
technicians, into Far North Queensland in the immediate aftermath of
cyclone Larry to start repairs, the distributor’s regional Services
Manager, Geoff Bowes, told The Australian (4 April 2006).

Bowes said IT systems were critical to restoring
power to the estimated 130,000 homes blacked out, and about 40
administrative staff were quickly moved into Ergon depots in Innisfail
and Atherton. The IT infrastructure in the depots, which are critical
for running the asset management systems that control deployment of
resources, needed to be quickly expanded to cope with the new work
requirements.

China’s record on nuclear non-proliferation should ring alarm bells

admin /5 April, 2006

The Chinese are believed to have previously breached international
nuclear non-proliferation treaties by supplying nuclear technology to
Pakistan, reported The Australian (4 April 2006).

The deal China has now
signed with Australia means they will have to open any nuclear facility
using Australian uranium to international inspectors. But given China’s
status as a declared nuclear weapon state, Australian uranium will be
able to be used only in a jointly-agreed list of facilities.

War on terror a mere distraction compared to environmental collapses, warns UN Millennium director

admin /5 April, 2006

The cataclysmic consequences of unsustainable development posed a
challenge to the world that would make the war on terror seem a mere
distraction, a global environmental conference heard.

In a keynote speech opening the fourth
biennial State of the Planet conference at New York’s Columbia
University, Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN Millennium Project, said
ignorance, misplaced priorities and indifference were keeping the world
firmly on a path to disaster, reported Agence France-Presse.

“Everything we think is at the
core of our geopolitics – the war on terror, Islamic fundamentalism –
have almost nothing to do with the real challenges we face on this
planet,” Sachs said. “They are a distraction and a misunderstanding.”