10 September 2013: Cost of gambling and AU most desirable place to live

Egg industry stats

• Australian Egg industry turns over $445 million per year.
• The Australian Egg Corporation directors are appointed by a one-hen, one-vote policy, weighting control to the three biggest egg producers: Pace Farm, Sunny Queen Farms, and Farm Pride. The three control 54% of the egg market (IBISWorld report).
• Costs in the egg industry increasing due to new rules for mandating larger cages and consumer preferences for free range eggs, pushing smaller players out of business. 
• Consumption has also risen due to the popularity of cooking shows.
• In July, Federal Court agreed with the ACCC that Baida (owns Steggles and Lilydale) misled customers when it claimed its hens were "free to roam in large barns", when in fact the chickens were unable to move more than a metre.
• [CR: Increased regulation to address a social concern making it hard for smaller business to compete. The higher price of the free range eggs is passing the cost of our conscience back to the consumer.]

 Australia most desirable place to live

• Boston Consulting group survey of 28,000 people living in 11 countries.
• 34% picked Australia as the country they most would like to live, followed by Canada, the US, and Switzerland.
• Key reasons were economic opportunity, education, and standard of living.
• 84% of Australians say they have more positive experiences in an average day, more than the OECD average of 80%.
• [CR: We have it so good.]

Abbott government councils

• Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council
  Chaired by Maurice Newman, AC. To include representatives from the manufacturing, agriculture, services, resources, and information sectors.
• Ministerial Advisory Councils
  Consists of business, non-profit organisations and other industry stakeholders to: advise on cutting red and green tape, improve the administration of grants and procurement, aand provide broader consultation on policy matters
• Australian Tax Office
  To appoint four part-time commissioners from the private sector, based outside Canberra and ideally from regional areas and small business.
• Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council
  Comprise indigenous and non-indigenous Australians from the public sector and business community with a deep understanding of indigenous culture.
• Agriculture and Forestry Advisory Councils
  Co-chaired by industry experts and the minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
• Child Care Advisory Council
  Co-chaired by an expert and the minister.
• Community Business Partnership
  Chaired by the Prime Minister, to include prominent individuals from the business sector to advise on transferring oversight of the welfare system to the community sector.
• Energy and resources Sector Advisory Council
  Meet twice a year to advise on industry consultation on policy and legislation.
• Gambling Sector Advisory Council
  Comprises club and gaming venue representatives, meet with government four times a year.

Cost of problem gambling in Victoria

• Annual costs in Victoria 2010 to 2011 associated with problem gambling between $1.5 billion and $2.8 billion, borne by around 30,000 Victorians (findings from Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission).
• Costs from two areas: costs associated with "excess gambling expenditure" by problem gamblers ($1 billion to $1.4 billion); and intangible costs associated with impacts on mental well-being for problem gamblers and their families ($400 million to $1.2 billion)
• Costs to Victorian government, including costs of treatment services and costs to health, human service and justice systems between $74 million and $147 million.
• [CR: If we are looking for a place for savings, that looks like a place to start. But are those gross costs, meaning do they account for the revenue gained from income from the problem gamblers? Perhaps that is another question to ask.]

Coles pursuing banking licence

• Coles pursuing an ADI license which would allow them to take deposits under its own name rather than in partnership with a bank.
• Parent Wesfarmers will hold the license, requires $50 million in Tier 1 capital.
• Process could take 3 to 12 months.
• 171 ADIs operating as of June 2013.
• Partially mirrors approach by British supermarket chain Tesco.
• Wesfarmers has a market capitalisation of $47 billion, already issues car insurance.

New Wentworth Holdings investment company

• New activist investment company created, billionaire investor Alex Waislitz raised $30 million from high-profile investors.  
• Wentworth Holdings to be renamed to Thorney Opportunities.
• New entity to target listed Australian companies where long-term value can be unlocked. Looking at four or five investments, but not ten at one time.

New surf brand from ex-Billabong CEO

• Former Billabong CEO Derek O'Neill setting up new rival surfwear brand. Took a $2.5 million payout 16 months ago after 20 years with Billabong.
• Teaming up with Paul Naude, also previously 20 years at Billabong, previously head of American business, now signed up as master licensee in Europe for O'Neill's rival brand.
•  O'Neill also took around six former senior Billabong executives, including Terry Strumpf (former VP of merchandising and design and president of Xcel brand), Rob McCarty (senior design director), Vince de la Pena (VonZipper VP), and Karen Sarver (VP of administration).
• [CR: The start up culture is attractive, particularly when the current culture is poor.]

Banking system upgrades update

• Commonwealth Bank recently completed a mammoth rip-and-replace.
• NAB positioned core upgrades as part of a 10-year tech-led transformation plan.
• Westpac CIO Clive Whincup says core upgrade lower priority, focus first to complete an online transformation, build the infrastructure required for Asia expansion, and overhaul the core investment platform in its BT Wealth division (will replace eight existing legacy systems with a platform from Swiss vendor Avaloq).
• Westpac mobile strategy cross platform. Used to follow Apple first strategy, now looks to head where the handset market is leading. Surging popularity of Google Android led to changing priorities, also developing on Windows mobile and tablet. Agrees with recent reports suggesting Windows could soon have enough of a market to be relevant.

9 September 2013: Election recap, farmer sentiment, and gender grad imbalance stats

The elections are over and I have moved to a new career. Feels like a good time to re-start the Fin Review Review to keep with the "fresh start" theme. 

The election

• Abbott's promises for scrapping carbon and mining taxes will likely wait until June when the new Senate sits.
• Green's leader Christine Milne "everyone elected has an obligation to uphold the policies they were elected on." [CR: not sure how that holds up to the sport and motoring enthusiasts who squeaked in on preferences.]
• Coalition beat Labor 53% to 47%. Coalition secured 81 seats (could be 87), Labor 51 (could be 57). Labor's primary vote of 35% was lowest in the century.
• In the senate as of current count, Coalition lost one seat to hold 33 spots, Labor lost six spots to hold 25. Greens picked up one to reach 10. Potential 8 independents and minor party Senators.
• When voters dumped Labor on Saturday but opted in droves to give their votes to minor parties instead of the Coalition, they created a nightmare for then new government beyond July 2014. [CR: I am sure there is a life lesson in here about knowing what you don't want but not necessarily getting what you do want.]
• Clive Palmer of the Palmer United Party: registered with the electoral commission two months ago, spent close to $20 million on then campaign, $12 million in advertising, won 5.6% of then primary votes, 11.3% support in Qld. Does not plan on giving up his business interests as an MP. [CR: Apart from potential conflicts of interest, I am just thinking about the time involved. Usually, I stop doing my old job when I get a new one... but that may just be me.]

Rabobank farming sentiment survey shows confidence higher

• Survey of 1,000 primary producers across varying geographies and commodities: 21% had a negative view, 46% positive.
• Confidence at 15-month high, 75% of farmers expect agriculture economy to improve or remain steady after five quarters of negative sentiment.
• Rabobank CEO Thos Gieskes, speaks of the need for flows, incoming from foreign investment, outgoing from exports.
• Geiskes says to help feed exploding world population, amount of food produced needs to double but productivity is lagging. Year-on-year productivity growth was about 1.3%, needs 1.7% to realise opportunity.
• R&D spending needs to increase, farming needs to become less labour-reliant and more capital intensive. Challenge to double production with less land, less water, and less fertiliser.

Telco mobile customer count statistics by year, in millions of customers

• Telstra: 2011 (12.20), 2012 (13.80), 2013 (15.10)
• SingTel-Optus: 2011(9.10), 2012 (9.51), 2013 (9.53)
• Vodaphone Hutchison Australia: 2011 (7.20), 2012 (6.84), 2013 (6.03)
• There are 31 million active mobile subscribers in Australia (for perspective, the population of Australia is 23 million)

Coalition education promises

• Schools
• Match Better Schools funding over four years - $2.8bn plus "secret deals"
• $70m for independent public schools
• $22m for reading and writing in remote primary schools
• $10m trial of online language learning for pre-school children
• 40% of year 12 students studying a foreign language within a decade
• More science, technology, engineering, maths (STEM) study for year 12 students
• MBA-style executive education for principles
• Vocational education and training
• Income-contingent loans up to $20,000 for apprentices
• Higher education
• $100m New Columbo Plan to send Australian students to Asia
• $100m boost to medical research by cutting grants to 'fringe' research areas.

MOOC on the walking dead

• University of California Irving to launch a cross-disciplinary MOOC based on The Walking Dead TV show.
• Course to cover topics including post-disaster nutrition, human survival, and stereotypes in Darwinian environment.
• Experiment to see if tying pop culture to traditional academic ideas improves learning.
• [CR: Cool, make it relevant. Will have to try Zombifying grade 5 math to see if it takes.]

Gender imbalance in education

• 60% of domestic undergraduate completions in Australian universities in 2012 were women. 50% more women than men complete bachelor's degrees.
• 59% of students from Australian universities studying abroad in 2012 were women. 44% more women than men studies abroad.
• 70% of Australia's indigenous undergraduates in 2012 were women.
• Julia Gillard set a target of 40% of 25 to 34 year olds holding a bachelor's degree by 2025. By 2012, 36.8% of 25 to 34 year olds held a bachelor's degree (40.5% women, 33.1% men).
• In 2012, undergraduate completions increased 13%, and the population of those aged 25 to 34 years old also increased 13%.
•  [CR: Yes, but in what courses? And are the opportunities the same for the graduates? Interesting to see the extent that the leadership imbalance towards men is driving the imbalance in education.  Will be interesting to see the impact in tow to three generations.]

Fewer Americans seeking jobs

• Participation rate 63.2% lowest since 1978, blamed on baby  boomers entering retirement and jobseekers giving up.
• Unemployment at a four-year low of 7.3%, but if adjusted for participation rate of 2008 would be 11%.

Yahoo!7 returns to Google

• Decision last week by Australian Yahoo!7 to align with Google and move away from Microsoft's Bing. Yahoo!7 not tied up with global agreements due to joint venture with Seven West Media.
• $1.8 billion spent on search advertising annually
• Google used for around 92% of searches in Australia (about 65% in the States). Australia is one of the best performing markets in terms of share.
• Yahoo!7 used for 2% to 3% of searches, Bing used for about 5%.