Author: media

The stigma of buying in a flood-prone suburb after the 2011 Brisbane floods was short-lived for middle and high-value homes with property prices rebounding within 12-months, a QUT study has found.

Property economics expert Professor Chris Eves, from QUT’s Science and Engineering Faculty, studied the short-term impact of the 2011 flood on the Brisbane residential housing market and found flood fear had a minimal on-going effect on property prices, with low-value suburbs being the exception.

“What we found was that because people in the higher-value suburbs (St Lucia, Bulimba) had the means to repair immediately, the market didn’t see flooding as much of a detriment compared to low-value suburbs (Goodna, Oxley), because the visual impact of damaged homes was removed,” Professor Eves said.

“So the stigma of the flood wore off very quickly.”

Professor Eves’ study looked at residential sales and rental listings as well as property prices immediately following the 2011 Brisbane floods and his findings have been published in Natural Hazards.

“The only sector that did not show a decrease in median house prices three months after the flood, was the flood-affected medium-value suburbs (Fairfield, Graceville), which actually saw an increase of about $23,000 in the median house price,” he said.

“This can in part be explained by the fact that most of the medium-value properties experienced overland flood, with only limited in-house flooding which was more of a nuisance than costly, and the physical evidence was more quickly able to be removed.”

Professor Eves said the biggest drop in property prices after the 2011 floods was in the lower-value suburbs where buyers, mostly investors, saw an opportunity to grab a bargain.

“The median house price in the low-value flood-affected suburbs dropped 22.7 per cent in the three months immediately following the flood with a greater number of flood damaged homes sold,” he said.

“This is most likely because in the low-value suburbs, owners may not have had the means to repair their properties so selling at a reduced price was the only option.

“And for buyers, who were mostly investors, the lower price even with adding on the repair bills made good economic sense given the potential future rental returns.”

Professor Eves said in some of the low-value suburbs, to this day there were still many properties unrepaired.

“This unrepaired damage continues to have a visible impact on these low-value suburbs such as Goodna and an effect on property prices,” he said.

Professor Eves said while there was an immediate spike in rental prices after the floods due to an increase in demand from flood-affected residents wanting to remain close to their properties, within six months the rents and demand had returned to normal trends.

“Within the first week after the floods there was a significant drop in availability for rental accommodation, with a reduction of about 50 house rentals alone in both non-flood and flood-affected lower value suburbs,” he said.

Professor Eves said previous long-term studies had found disasters such as major floods had resulted in up to a 35 per cent difference in value between flood and non-flood affected properties.

“This was not the case in post the 2011 Brisbane flood,” he said.

Professor Eves said the study showed the floods had an immediate impact on the number of properties being offered for sale after the flood but after two to three months the number of listings for sale in the flood-affected suburbs increased in a similar trend to non-flooded suburbs, although volumes were lower.

Key findings of the study:Sales listings: Flood and non-flood affected suburbs showed decreased sales listings between January 2011 and September 2011, at which point both saw an increasing trend in sales listings.

Rental listings: There was an immediate decrease in rental availability after the flood. From September/October 2011 rental availability increased for medium to high value flood and non-flood affected homes. Listings for low-value flood-affected properties spiked faster in June 2011.

Prices: Prices in flood and non-flood affected suburbs dipped immediately after in the first quarter after the floods, but continued to steadily rise for the following three quarters. The exception was in the medium-value flood affected properties which saw an increase in value in the first three months.

The paper titled Assessing the immediate and short-term impact of flooding on residential property participant behaviour is available at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11069-013-0961-y

Professor Eves is with QUT’s School of Civil Engineering and The Built Environment.

Businesses in 4101 are both blessed and cursed by the major events that take place in our midst.

While these events bring thousands of people into the postcode, they do not always have a positive impact on our business. If they drag people off the street and away from the existing shopping precincts and do not promote the area generally they can significantly dampen trade.

It is up to you to think creatively about how you can take advantage of all the people on your doorstep uring Regional Flavours this month. The official opportunities are limited. Basically you buy a stall and/or pay a sponsorship fee, or not.

Advertisers in Westender get some foothold, as well will be handing out magazines to visitors from time to time during the festival. If you are interested in participating in a special Regional Flavours flyer, please let us know at advertising@westender.com.au

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said Regional Flavours was a must-do Brisbane event this winter.

“One of the greatest elements of Regional Flavours is its focus on creating awareness of the amazing fresh produce here in Queensland. The event gives locals and visitors of all ages the opportunity to celebrate food – whether it’s cheese, chocolate, wine – it’s all readily available right on our doorstep,” Cr Quirk said.

“This free annual festival continues to grow from strength to strength and is now considered one of the city’s most loved food and lifestyle events, attracting big names such as this year’s special guest, Matt Preston from Network TEN’s MasterChef Australia.

“The beautiful Brisbane weather also means we can enjoy alfresco dining throughout the year, so what better way to celebrate our food and lifestyle than in the stunning Parklands. This truly is an event for the people, and it’s free!”

The 2014 event program is available online at regionalflavours.com.au. Headline activities are highlighted below:

Producer Market

Little Stanley Street

Taste-test free samples from over 100 of Queensland’s finest regional producers at a food trail of market stalls along Little Stanley Street. Producers travel from across Brisbane, South East Queensland and tropical North Queensland to showcase their unique local produce over two days.

The Grove

Little Stanley Street (northern end)

A must-visit for all wine connoisseurs, The Grove is a fully-licensed area dedicated to local makers, free tastings and live music.

EAT-SHOW-TELL

The Courier-Mail Piazza

This year’s main stage, EAT-SHOW-TELL, will be hosted by Miguel Maestre from Network TEN’s The Living Room and will feature live cooking presentations from celebrity chefs and industry experts.  Popular names appearing at EAT-SHOW-TELL include special guest Matt Preston from Network TEN’s MasterChef Australia, Annabel Langbein, The Free Range Cook on Foxtel’s LifeStyle FOOD; and Paul West from River Cottage Australia on Foxtel’s The LifeStyle Channel. V-ZUG’s Executive Chef, Felix Halter, is also returning to the event for a second year to showcase the health and taste benefits of cooking with steam.

The Hunting Club

Little Stanley Street lawns (southern end)

The Hunting Club Bar and BBQ, presented by South Bank Surf Club, will be decked out hacienda-style and will be serving up diverse and powerful flavours, with craft beer tasting paddles and barbecue beef with a South American twist.  The Hunting Club Stage, presented by Nothing beats Beef and Target 100, will be hosted by beer guru Matt Kirkegaard and will offer slow-cooked barbecue beef and craft beer demonstrations from brew experts and high-profile chefs such as Alastair McLeod, ambassador and advocate of the Lockyer Valley Region produce, and Darren Robertson, Target 100’s Ambassador.

Eat Fleet Food Trucks

Little Stanley Street

A fleet of pop-up gourmet food trucks, the Eat Fleet Food Trucks, will be run by Little Stanley Street’s restaurants and cafes, with menus items available for purchase.

South Bank Kids Club

Central Café lawns & Arbour View lawns

The South Bank Kids Club will keep the children entertained with a range of free food-themed activities to ignite their creativity and love of food.

All Day Breakfast

Little Stanley Street lawns

All Day Breakfast presented by Di Bella Coffee will be serving up gourmet breakfast delights, specialty coffee and cooking demonstrations all weekend.

Savour at River Quay

River Quay Green

Savour an afternoon with great friends, high-end food and delicious cocktails while overlooking the Brisbane River and listening to live lounge music.  

For a weekend full of food, wine, lifestyle and leisure, head along to Regional Flavours in the South Bank Parklands on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 July from 10am to 5pm.

Pick up a copy of the 2014 event program at Regional Flavours, or visit regionalflavours.com.au to plan your foodie weekend.

 

With only 24 hours left until the end of the financial year, now is the ideal time to add your support to our access to justice campaign for environmental legal matters.

To ensure big business and mining interests don’t go unchallenged please support the Environmental Defenders Office Queensland and make a tax-deductible donation today.

Is it ok to build a new coal mine that will damage the environment if it brings jobs and prosperity? What if a proposed development that will provide houses for an expanding population is opposed by a community group trying to protect habitat for koalas?

There are always two sides to every argument and most often there are many different views on an issue. Yet any rational person will accept that all of the arguments need to be heard and, especially when they are legal matters, that both sides are able to access adequate support and legal representation. Indeed, access to justice is the cornerstone of a fair and just society like ours.

As ordinary people try to participate in the legal system, they are often overwhelmed and struggle to have their voices heard. So when I see an individual, community group or farmer confronted by a big company and their well-resourced legal team, I know exactly how I feel, and maybe you can guess!

Fortunately there is a solution. For over 20 years I’ve worked at the Environmental Defenders Office Queensland, the one place that anyone in the community can contact to seek advice and support for environmental legal matters. We help ordinary people gain access to justice and assist with their legal representation in court.

Almost every day we receive emails and calls from people seeking advice and support. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening we staff our community legal advice line and the phone rings constantly. Through providing this essential service we’ve helped thousands of individuals and community organisations and yet, this very service is now in jeopardy.

The Environmental Defenders Office Queensland has had all of our State and Federal government funding cut without warning and if we are to continue to provide access to justice, we need your support.

If I can’t raise a minimum of $120,000 by 30 June, I’ll need to make tough decisions on the continuation of our access to justice services for environmental legal matters.

Over the past six months we’ve managed to keep things going, but this cannot continue beyond early July, when the decision on the future of our access to justice services needs to happen.

Will you help the Environmental Defenders Office continue to provide access to justice.

Please, will you make a tax-deductible donation today to keep the Environmental Defenders Office alive?

Right now the Queensland mining industry is booming at an unprecedented rate with over 30 proposed coal mines, 30,000 proposed coal seam gas wells and new and expanded ports on the Great Barrier Reef. Uranium mining is also now permitted.

Our support helps landholders, individuals and community groups to understand and act on their legal rights. This in turn protects the natural environment and communities against the impacts of major coal mines and massive coastal developments.

We’re committed to keep providing these services for free in the interests of access to justice; however, without government funding our hands are severely tied. Your support is essential if we are to provide this vital legal service which is relied on by individuals and communities.

To keep operating, we need funds for staff wages, rent, internet, and telephone – the basic essential costs to keep the access to justice service alive. This will ensure we can keep the community legal advice line operational, provide our free legal information seminars and advocate on urgent law reform such as protecting long-standing community legal rights to object to proposed mines, and much more.

Please, will you make a tax-deductible donation today to help the Environmental Defenders Office continue to provide access to justice.

In the next 12 months, will big business and mining interests have their way and go unchallenged? In this David and Goliath struggle, will we hear but a squeak from the little guy?

Please join me in supporting access to justice by making a tax-deductible donation to this special end of financial year appeal.

Yours sincerely

Jo-Anne Bragg
Principal Solicitor
Environmental Defenders Office (Qld) Inc

PS.  This really is a time of big decisions. Before 30 June, please choose to support the Environmental Defenders Office Queensland in our mission to provide access to justice by making a donation online today.

 

 

Jo

Access to Justice: Some things are not negotiable

Leading experts on how walking can help bolster a city’s health and sustainability are set to descend on Sydney for Walk21 – a three-day event to share policies, research and initiatives shaping walkable cities.

Co-hosted by the City of Sydney and the NSW Government, the event has attracted an impressive line-up of global policymakers, researchers and campaigners.

More than 500 delegates from the US, Asia, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia will discuss the importance of walking to individuals and communities worldwide.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore welcomed Walk21 to Sydney, saying it was the perfect location for this major event.

“Sydney is a global city made for walking, evidenced by the fact that in our city centre, more than 90 per cent of trips are made on foot,” the Lord Mayor said.

“Our world-famous harbour, landmark tourist attractions and great climate encourage Sydneysiders and visitors to get out in the fresh air and walk, whether they’re working, relaxing, shopping or exploring.

“The City is helping to encourage more people to walk more often by investing millions of dollars in developing a liveable green network of streets, paths and other infrastructure.”

As part of the City’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 vision, safe and attractive walking and cycling routes are being created to provide a liveable green network linking the City’s streets, parks and open spaces.

The Sydney Walk21 Conference will be staged at Luna Park from 21-23 October. Sydney is the 15th city to host the conference on walking and liveable communities, which launched in London in 2000.

International keynote speakers include respected planning and design experts Brent Toderian and Don Miskell, and transport management pioneer Rose McArthur.

They will join prominent local experts, including sustainability expert Professor Paul Newman, Professor Corrine Mulley and Professor Adrian Bauman, a leader in physical activity and health.

“Whether you are an architect, an engineer, work in the health sector or are a business owner, all of us can gain from Walk21,” the Lord Mayor said.

“This is a perfect opportunity to learn from one another and help make Sydney a world-class walking city.”

Public Warning- Richard Kiely and various aliases, the latest being Darren O’Donoghue

This is a warning by the Commissioner of the QBCC to the public under section 20J(1)(h) of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991

It is an updated version of warnings issued by the QBCC on 12 February and 7 April 2014.

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) has issued a warning about unlicensed individual Richard Kiel, who has been performing unlawful building work in Brisbane.

QBCC Commissioner, Steve Griffin, said Mr Kiely had been conducting the work in Mitchelton, Everton Park, Kallangur, Albany Creek, Aspley and Chermside.

“Anyone dealing with Mr Kiely should exercise extreme caution and seek legal advice before making any payments, to protect their interests,” Mr Griffin said.

He urged consumers, contractors and suppliers to be cautious in their dealings with Mr Kiely, who is also known as Darren O’Donoghue, Joseph Kiely, John Kiely, Cody Kiely, Darren Kiely, Shane Murphy and Richard Murphy.

Described as being of Irish descent with red hair and about 1.89m tall, he uses local signs and pamphlets dropped in letter boxes to advertise to carry out building work.

Mr Kiely does not hold QBCC licences and is therefore not able to carry out, or enter into contracts to carry out, building work, (including roof restorations such as ridge pointing, tiling and painting), concreting, boulder walls, pergola construction, paving and retaining walls, in Queensland at a value of more than $3,300.

The QBCC has received complaints about Mr Keily relating to unlicensed contracting, no written contracts, excessive deposits, incomplete work, defective work and taking deposits but not returning to complete the work.

Mr Griffin said Mr Kiely changes his mobile phone number on a regular basis so customers are unable to contact him about their complaints of defective and incomplete work.

The QBCC warns that the Queensland Home Warranty Insurance Scheme may not be available to all consumers if unlicensed contractors are engaged.

The QBCC urges homeowners to conduct research before engaging contractors, and to engage a licensed contractor even for small jobs.

If you are in doubt as to whether the entity you are contracting with is licensed or holds the correct licence to do the work, conduct an online licence search at www.qbcc.qld.gov.au or contact the QBCC on 1300 272 272.

Steve Griffin
Commissioner
Queensland Building and Construction Commission

Out-of-control Central Banks are on a global buying spree, says Ellen Brown.

“Finance is the new form of warfare – without the expense of a military overhead and an occupation against unwilling hosts. It is a competition in credit creation to buy foreign resources, real estate, public and privatized infrastructure, bonds and corporate stock ownership. Who needs an army when you can obtain the usual objective (monetary wealth and asset appropriation) simply by financial means?” Dr. Michael Hudson, Counterpunch, October 2010

When the US Federal Reserve bought an 80% stake in American International Group (AIG) in September 2008, the unprecedented $85 billion outlay was justified as necessary to bail out the world’s largest insurance company. Today, however, central banks are on a global corporate buying spree not to bail out bankrupt corporations but simply as an investment, to compensate for the loss of bond income due to record-low interest rates. Indeed, central banks have become some of the world’s largest stock investors.

This is a rather alarming development. Central banks have the power to create national currencies with accounting entries, and they are traditionally very secretive. We are not allowed to peer into their books. It took a major lawsuit by Reuters and a congressional investigation to get the Fed to reveal the $16-plus trillion in loans it made to bail out giant banks and corporations after 2008.

What is to stop a foreign bank from simply printing its own currency and trading it on the currency market for dollars, to be invested in the US stock market or US real estate market?  What is to stop central banks from printing up money competitively, in a mad rush to own the world’s largest companies?

Apparently not much. Central banks are for the most part unregulated, even by their own governments. As the Federal Reserve observes on its website:

[The Fed] is considered an independent central bank because its monetary policy decisions do not have to be approved by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branches of government, it does not receive funding appropriated by the Congress, and the terms of the members of the Board of Governors span multiple presidential and congressional terms.

As former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan quipped, “Quite frankly it does not matter who is president as far as the Fed is concerned. There are no other agencies that can overrule the action we take.”

The Central Bank Buying Spree

That is how “independent” central banks operate, but it evidently not the US central bank that is gambling in the stock market. After extensive quantitative easing, the Fed has a $4.5 trillion balance sheet; but this sum is accounted for as being invested conservatively in Treasuries and agency debt (although QE may have allowed Wall Street banks to invest the proceeds in the stock market by devious means).

Which central banks, then, are investing in stocks? The biggest player turns out to be the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the Chinese central bank.

According to a June 15th article in USA Today:

Evidence of equity-buying by central banks and other public sector investors has emerged from a large-scale survey compiled by Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), a global research and advisory group. The OMFIF research publication Global Public Investor (GPI) 2014, launched on June 17 is the first comprehensive survey of $29.1 trillion worth of investments held by 400 public sector institutions in 162 countries. The report focuses on investments by 157 central banks, 156 public pension funds and 87 sovereign funds, underlines growing similarities among different categories of public entities owning assets equivalent to 40% of world output.

The assets of these 400 Global Public Investors comprise $13.2 trillion (including gold) at central banks, $9.4 trillion at public pension funds and $6.5 trillion at sovereign wealth funds.

Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are well known to be large holders of shares on international stock markets. But it seems they now have rivals from unexpected sources:

One is China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), part of the People’s Bank of China, the biggest overall public sector investor, with $3.9 trillion under management, well ahead of the Bank of Japan and Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), each with $1.3 trillion.

SAFE’s investments include significant holdings in Europe. The PBoC itself has been directly buying minority equity stakes in important European companies.

Another large public sector equity owner is Swiss National Bank, with $480 billion under management. The Swiss central bank had 15% of its foreign exchange assets – or $72 billion – in equities at the end of 2013.

Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds invest their pension contributions and exchange reserves earned in foreign trade, which is fair enough. The justification for central banks to be playing the stock market is less obvious. Their stock purchases are justified as compensating for lost revenue caused by sharp drops in interest rates. But those drops were driven by central banks themselves; and the broad powers delegated to central banks were supposed to be for conducting “monetary policy,” not for generating investment returns. According to the OMFIF, central banks collectively now have $13.2 trillion in assets (including gold). That is nearly 20% of the value of all of the stock markets in the world, which comes to $62 trillion.

From Monetary Policy to Asset Grabs

Central banks are allowed to create money out of nothing in order to conduct the monetary policies necessary to “regulate the value of the currency” and “maintain price stability.”  Traditionally, this has been done with “open market operations,” in which money was either created by the central bank and used to buy federal securities (thereby adding money to the money supply) or federal securities were sold in exchange for currency (shrinking the money supply).

“Quantitative easing” is open market operations on steroids, to the tune of trillions of dollars. But the purpose is allegedly the same—to augment a money supply that shrank by trillions of dollars when the shadow banking system collapsed after 2008. The purpose is not supposed to be to earn an income for the central bank itself. Indeed, the U.S. central bank is required to return the interest earned on federal securities to the federal government, which paid the interest in the first place.

Further, as noted earlier, it is not the US Federal Reserve that has been massively investing in the stock market.  It is the PBoC, which arguably is in a different position than the US Fed. It cannot print dollars or Euros. Rather, it acquires them from local merchants who have earned them legitimately in foreign trade.

However, the PBoC has done nothing to earn these dollars or Euros beyond printing yuan. It trades the yuan for the dollars earned by Chinese sellers, who need local currency to pay their workers and suppliers. The money involved in these transactions has thus doubled. The merchants have been paid in yuan and the central bank has an equivalent sum in dollars or Euros. That means the Chinese central bank’s holdings are created out of thin air no less than the Federal Reserve’s dollars are.

Battle of the Central Banks?

Western central banks have generally worked this scheme discreetly. Not so much the Chinese, whose blatant gaming of the system points up its flaws for all to see.

Georgetown University historian Professor Carroll Quigley styled himself the librarian of the international bankers. In his 1966 book Tragedy and Hope, he wrote that their aim was “nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.” This system was to be controlled “in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements,” central banks that “were themselves private corporations.”

It may be the Chinese, not acting in concert, who break up this cartel. The PBoC is no more transparent than the US Fed, but it is not an “independent” central bank. It is a government agency accountable to the Chinese government and acting on its behalf.

The Chinese have evidently figured out the game of the “independent” central bankers, and to be using it to their own advantage. If the Fed can do quantitative easing, so can the Chinese – and buy up our assets with the proceeds. Owning our corporations rather than our Treasuries helps the Chinese break up US dollar hegemony.

Whatever power plays are going on behind the scenes, it is increasingly clear that they are not serving we-the-people. The global central banking scheme is systemically flawed and needs to be radically overhauled.

Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute and the author of twelve books, including the best-selling Web of Debt. Her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, explores successful public banking models historically and globally.

www.globalresearch.ca/buying-up-the-planet-out-of-control-central-banks-on-a-corporate-buying-spree/5387973″