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The so called 'premier state' of New South Wales is in long term economic and social decline, dragged down by a permanent state of political and financial crisis.
The NSW branch of the Australian Labor Party, which has ruled NSW almost continuously since federation, has created a self serving culture of corruption and nepotism in Sydney.
The current premier, Nathan Rees, is just the latest in a long line of Labor leaders to be completely powerless to act against government and business corruption. He owes the money men.
The economy and social fabric of the state is propped up by a long standing grog cutlure that dates back to the Rum Rebellion and the early days of British settlement in Sydney.
Good honest people are herded away from politics in NSW by the Labor machine while those who are willing to play the game are promoted.
The number of people taking out debt agreements surged twenty nine per cent last financial year, while total bankruptcy activity as reported by the government’s insolvency trustee was up eleven per cent.
Even after the Rudd government’s generous economic stimulus payments to families were delivered earlier this year, the number of new debt agreements continued to grow by thirteen per cent.
Under a debt agreement, an indebted consumer typically repays about 76 cents in every dollar they owe, plus they have to pay thousands of dollars to a ‘debt agreement administrator’ who collects their repayments and distributes them to creditors.
Often a debt administrator’s fees can take about forty per cent of an insolvent consumer’s repayments.
Many people are sold debt agreements when they should really be declaring themselves bankrupt says Richard Foster, executive director of the Financial and Consumer Rights Council.
“Financial counselors see a lot of people who have entered into debt agreements on illogical and unviable terms to begin with,” says Foster “The repayments are set too high and are often unrealistic.”
“There are a lot of debt agreements that fail and the debtor ends up as bankrupt anyway.”
Now new laws proposed by the federal attorney general Robert McClelland seeks to encourage debt agreements over bankruptcy.
“Debtor agreements recover about 76 cents in the dollar whereas bankruptcy only recovers about 1.6 cents in the dollar,” said McClelland last week “So it can be a better outcome all round.”
Debt agreements are certainly a better outcome for creditors and for the companies that administer them like Fox Symes, the dominant player in the debt industry, with 54 per cent of the market.
Fox Symes profit jumped up 229 per cent in the year to June 09 on revenue growth of forty per cent.
The Victorian Consumer Action Law Centre has real concerns about Robert McClelland’s reforms.
“We don’t think they should be expanding access or funneling more people into debt agreements,” says Nicole Rich a solicitor at the consumer centre.
“We have a lot of concerns about this industry, including the fact that the single largest amount of money paid by a person on a debt agreement goes to the administrator.
“They are often marketed or sold to the debtor as a way to avoid the stigma of bankruptcy.
“But they are still an act of bankruptcy that stays on your credit file for seven years,” says Rich.
“At least with a bankruptcy you clean the slate and can start again.”
Richard Foster also expresses some doubt that debt agreements can be classified as good for everyone.
“I wonder how many people who entered into debt agreements profited by it as much as Fox Symes did?”
Are you heavily in debt and struggling with repayments? Have you ever thought about declaring yourself bankrupt to escape from creditors?
Don’t think about it for a moment longer, do it now, escape your debts and start your life afresh.
That is the controversial advice from bankruptcy advisor Fred Appleton who says bankruptcy saves lives.
“If someone asks me ‘Do you think I should go bankrupt?’ I immediately say yes,” says Appleton.
“I recommend bankruptcy to everyone who says to me, ‘I can’t afford my repayments.
“If you think you are insolvent, you are. And I say ‘don’t wait’, go bankrupt and start your life, and your financial life too, all over again.”
“The best thing most bankrupts do in their life is go bankrupt.”
Appleton is a former chartered accountant and a former bankrupt himself who now actively encourages heavily indebted consumers to declare themselves bankrupt.
“Without going to court bankruptcy quickly enables ordinary people to get out of debt, so you won't owe anything more on your credit cards, tax, unsecured personal loans, and things like that.
“As far as you are concerned, these debts get cancelled. You’ll virtually be debt free, quite often completely, absolutely debt free, in about a week.”
A typical bankrupt repays less than two cents in the dollar to their creditors.
That sounds like an appealing strategy for people who can’t repay their debts, but more and more of those people are being redirected into the highly profitable and expensive debt agreement industry.
Debt agreements are marketed heavily on daytime television, the internet and in local newspapers as debt solutions by companies who rake in big profits administering them.
Over the next 18 months, hundreds, even thousands, of new banking and payments products and applications will appear, designed by the online generation themselves, for the online generation.
It is a development that is truly frightening for the banks - users designing and making their own financial products
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Australian banks are losing the battle for the hearts, minds and wallets of today’s online generation.
Belatedly they are trying to address the problem, but the opportunity may already be lost. A new breed of financial institutions, led by PayPal, have a big headstart and apparently a much better understanding of how young people view and use money.
Traditionally banks use market research to work out what people want and then develop new products and advertising campaigns to meet those needs. However that approach isn’t working so well anymore
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by Jason Bryce
The Football Federation of Australia's decision to approve a bid for a second A League team from Melbourne could be the moment Australain football fans will come to regret for a long time
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By Jason Bryce
Three of the big four Australian banks are ripping off customers they have lured from their competitors with the traps in their tricky post christmas zero interest rate credit card balance transfer offers. Often these offers come 'pre-approved' unsolicited in the mail in January and February
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Zero Rate Credit Card Balance Transfer offers are generally a rip off with most consumers paying more, not less interest when they take up a so called low rate card with zero interest on balance transfers from other cards. However used properly the best deals in the market can save consumer thousands of dollars.
Statistics from the Reserve Bank of Australia analysed by research company Infochoice, indicate that people with a card debt of $10,000 can save up to $4300 by using the balance transfer offers now in the marketplace
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The A League grand final, played before a sell out crowd at Melbourne's Docklands Stadium, should have been the showpiece game of the year, but soccer in this country keeps shotting itself in the foot. Never has a sport been so good at snatching defaet from the jaws of victory of its rival codes.
On Saturday night, there was no violence or crowd disturbances of any kind, yet an unwllingness by the bosses that run the game to show replays of controversial incidents on the big screen at the ground has cost fans the chance of the contest in the grand final and Adelaide the chance for redemption against a cocky Melbourne outfit.
With no help from technology at all, the referee Matthew Breeze was talked into two red cards during the match by players from both sides, the first in the tenth minute was against Adealaide's Christiano. The second, deep into the decond half saw Allsop marched after nothing mpore than a gentle shoulder bump in the goal square.
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Melbourne Victory have emerged this year as the pre-eminent force in Australian soccer, despite Adelaide's brave run to the grand final of the Asian Champions League. No other team in Autralia's A League has the depoth or the attacking and deending class of the powerhouse club from Victoria.
Before the biggest club soccer crowds in Australia, the Victory have been almost unbeatable at the Telstra Dome.
It is time to take the salary cap shackles off the Victory and let them bid ont he open international market for players.
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