Maybe I am a bit old Fashioned But I dont reckon the Pollys Have the right to sell our assets Without our permission only result Will be increased costs and reduced
Benefits for all members
dING, I cant agree with you entirely. Firstly I want to make it clear my response is not meant to be political, which we all know is against the Forum rules. I realize I might be skating on thin ice, but lets go. The points I will raise is about running a business by private enterprise compared to being run by Government.
The Government are hopeless trying to run the Country, how can you expect them to run a business. For example, you cant privatize our Armed Forces or Centrelink to name two. I believe the Govt. is looking at outsourcing some Centrelink services and payments. If that is more efficient, and saves money, our tax money, go for it. Most Govt. controlled businesses become inefficient and run at a loss because they dont have the experienced personnel to run them.
There are no doubt some Govt. businesses that should stay in Govt. hands. Some Members may want to point them out.
Lets take Australia Post as an example. For the past 3 years they guy running AP has been telling the Govt. that the letter side of the business is losing money. Why ? Because business is now using the Internet and e-mail, not buying stamps and sending letters. How do you receive your Bank Statements, Electric bill, etc. Think about it. The Pollies sitting on their fat asses for 3 years, now think the solution to the problem is increase the price of postage stamps and cut mail delivery to 3 days a week. Now if AP was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), the Directors would look at the problem, come up with a solution within days and put the solution into effect. AP cant hike their prices for parcels and other services coz there is too much competition from other parcel delivery companies..
Look at Telstra how efficient it became. Mums and Dads who bought shares enjoyed good capital growth and regular dividends. Optus and Vodafone compete with Telstra, so Telstra have to be competitive.
Commonwealth Bank (CBA). Mums and Dads bought shares at $1.00 each. Friday they closed at $74.80. Imagine if you bought a couple of thousand at $1.00. They also pay a handsome dividend. CBA has to compete with three other major Banks and several International and smaller Banks.
Finally, because I dont want to write a book !!Take the airlines. Qantas was a Govt. owned International Airline. TAA was a Govt. owned domestic airline. Both were highly inefficient. I worked with TAA so I know how money was just squandered. The Govt. sold Qantas and it became an ASX listed public company. Then Qantas purchased TAA from the Govt. and it became Qantas domestic. Now the financial position Qantas is in today is highly complex and another story for another day. But at the outset, Qantas was very profitable. Once again, buyers were Mums and Dads, and they benefitted from capital gains on the share price and dividends. Qantas also has aggressive competitors in Virgin domestically and several International Carriers Internationally.
I hope of made my point of view clear.
You also state dING that the Govt. should seek our permission to sell Govt. owned Companies. I disagree in that we cant hold a Referendum every time the Govt. decides to sell off a Company.Further, if the Company is loss making, get rid of it. The Companies I mentioned are in a highly competitive environment, so they cant afford to raise prices above competitive levels.
Regarding Medibank, I just dont know. Lets see what is offered in the Prospectus and go from there.
__________________
Retired Airline Pilot and Electrician..
I'm not old, I've just been young a long time....Ken
Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
I agree BG, also government run business's are always overstaffed and full of 'lifetime retirees' that just have their job for lifetime security so have no real reason to be keen or forward thinking and progressive. So many of them are just 'making up' the numbers.
-- Edited by Wizardofoz on Saturday 11th of October 2014 08:58:15 AM
BG if you want to invest money, can I suggest a very good place is down a wombat hole in WA
Note: not any hole, it has to be MY wombat hole, or you will not get any return, no gurantee that you will get any of your money returned down my hole but I'll do my best.
I'm just wondering how many grey nomads who are also on the pension can afford to speculate on the stock exchange.
And if we take the privatisation theme to its end point, we can outsource our politicians - China seems to have the best record in the last 10 years for GDP growth and some of those Arab states have nil crime so we just hire them to run the country.
No more elections ...whoopee!
BG if you want to invest money, can I suggest a very good place is down a wombat hole in WA
Note: not any hole, it has to be MY wombat hole, or you will not get any return, no gurantee that you will get any of your money returned down my hole but I'll do my best.
Sounds like a great offer Mr. Wombat. Just send me your bank account details and I'll attend to it......Ohh don't forget the PIN number !!
__________________
Retired Airline Pilot and Electrician..
I'm not old, I've just been young a long time....Ken
Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
BG if you want to invest money, can I suggest a very good place is down a wombat hole in WA
Note: not any hole, it has to be MY wombat hole, or you will not get any return, no gurantee that you will get any of your money returned down my hole but I'll do my best.
Sounds like a great offer Mr. Wombat. Just send me your bank account details and I'll attend to it......Ohh don't forget the PIN number !!
no need for bank account no or pins, just shove it down my hole.
-- Edited by _wombat_ on Saturday 11th of October 2014 11:36:57 AM
