Archive for Australia
January 25, 2010 at 8:33 am · Filed under Australia
Tomorrow is a public holiday in Australia. It’s our summer and the last week before school starts. Tomorrow is the “last gasp” of a wet, Claytons summer Down Under.
Tomorrow is Australia Day.
And in anticipation radio programs and politicians are talking about…immigration. Why is it patriotism can so easily be tipped over into xenophobia? Since when does flying the flag equate to borderline racism? One article in Queensland’s The Courier Mail recently centred on how the Australian flag was being commandeered by hooligans sporting Southern Cross tattoos.
Hooligan?
Yet one of the great cricket sports stars recently revealed his full back tattoo of the Southern Cross. And his inspiration was patriotism. Peter Siddle’s tattoo is impressive. I grew up with World War II veterans in my family. None of them had tattoos however it would never have been considered unpatriotic for sporting the US flag on their arm.
Patriot?
The concerns centre on people using their patriotism as rationale for disallowing change. Yet Australia was built by migrants. Other than the Aboriginal people, everyone else arrived by ship or plane. I am a new Australian and took up citizenship in 1995. I call Australia home and would never live elsewhere. Yet I believe it’s too good a country not to share. As we prosper we’ll need immigration to expand. And while I say this I’ll happily wave the flag.
As the film “Between the Flags” shows - it’s easy to get along, even if we have differences. The film answers the questions, “What if we threw a riot and no one came?”
January 19, 2010 at 8:01 am · Filed under Globalisation, Australia
Today the export of financial services from Australia accounts for merely 3% of that sector’s overall contribution to the economy. Perhaps that strong reliance on domestic business helped shelter Australia’s finance sector from the worst of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). In the world’s list of ten safest banks, four of them are in Australia. (Bizarrely enough we have a “four pillars” banking strategy and today have only four major banks.)
Yet compare us to London – one of the world’s leading finance centres. There the global rump of business contributes 50% of the sector’s contribution to the economy. Clearly Australia has room for growth.
Prior to the full impact of the GFC, the Ministry of Finance commissioned a report to examine Australia’s potential as a global financial centre. Also included was an examination of the regulatory framework that would be required. Are we headed the way of Lehman Brothers by unravelling our rules and regulations? Apparently not, according to Mark Johnson, former Macquarie Bank deputy chairman and architect of the report, “Australia As A Financial Centre.”
“We are not trying to build a financial system on steroids with artificial inducements,” Johnson said in today’s The Australian.
What we could expect was more banking competitiveness, an increase in financial products, and a boost to financial services jobs growth.
While it is some time before Sydney overtakes Hong Kong or Singapore as a financial centre the drive to boost our country’s importance can’t be a bad thing.
January 18, 2010 at 4:15 pm · Filed under Australia
Good luck Prime Minister Rudd. He’s required to call an election this year and timing couldn’t be worse.
Jobs growth in the last quarter was higher than expected. And for the first time, seasonal workers weren’t the cause – December saw unusually high ad placements for permanent roles. The Reserve Bank already raised interest rates three times last year. They meet again in early February and everyone sees a rate rise as an eventuality.
Then today reports were printed of our exports. Hold on to your seat – nationally they rose 23% last year over the previous year. In minerals-rich Western Australia the growth was highest. Even Queensland racked up a 48.3% increase. The only decline was in South Australia which suffered due to a slump in automotive sales and wine consumption. (Beware in Adelaide of car salesmen out commiserating on cheap wine.)
At the same time the drop in new house starts over the last year means rental units are all but gone. Some suburbs report vacancy rates of 1.2%. Ask an out-of-home renter how easy it is to secure lodgings.
Amidst all this froth and bubble the government goes up for re-election.
But wait – don’t people normally vote with their wallets? If we’re doing good we figure keep the power in place, right? But what if we’re doing too good? What if mortgage rates are rising – and fuel, grocery, utility and other bills are also on the rise? What then?
It will be a tough campaign year for both parties. Each has to show they can strategically apply the brakes – while keeping the good news coming. We’re all for good news. Just don’t give us too much, okay?
January 5, 2010 at 4:06 pm · Filed under Australia
I never talk to my Mother about sharks. She’s highly sensitive to news flashes from Australia. If a surfer in Maroochydore gets bitten, I get a call. When anyone is “taken” (that’s Australian for killed by a shark), she’s got all the details. Last month I responded to her “surfer boy bitten” update by telling her I was more concerned about the giant shark somewhere near Sydney. Seems they pulled up a four metre (12 foot) Great White only to find a giant bite taken out of his side. Tourists were warned to stay out of the water for fear of a six metre (20 foot) beast. Now that’s a shark!
Peter Benchley once said he regretted writing “Jaws” because of the impact the film had on shark numbers. Man eats shark a lot more often than shark eats man. It’s the white fish inside many fish & chips servings. In Asia only the fins are culled for soup, whereas the shark is sent spiralling to the ocean floor to drown. Shark numbers are decreasing globally.
Here in Sydney our fresh waters still attract a fair number. In today’s The Sydney Morning Herald surfer Glenn Orgias describes how he mustered the strength to swim to shore – minus a hand. He recounts how fortunate he was to be attacked by a Great White (fussy eaters, they’ll spit out what they can’t swallow right away). A Bull Shark just attacks and attacks and attacks again. The Bull and the Tiger are the two species I fear (Tigers are deep water sharks hence their ferocity towards boat and plane wreck survivors).
When I first arrived in Australia I was so freaked out by my 1975 experience watching “Jaws” that I feared entering the water. SCUBA diving and marine life courses largely cured me. Even the advanced course on “Shark Behaviour” filled me with facts (”Why are they worried,” I say watching TV shows. “It’s just a white tipped reef shark and it’s not even displaying aggressive behaviour!”).
Today I have a great time at our beautiful beaches here in Sydney. (Surfer Orgias and his wife named their daughter after my favourite beach, Bronte.)
But when I go there, I never tell my Mother. There are too many sharks – it would freak her out!
January 5, 2010 at 7:52 am · Filed under Public Relations, Australia
Australian employers are coming back from holidays to find the return of high employment. In December job advertisements spiked – in a trend unseen before. Traditionally job ads over Christmas are dominated by casual and seasonal roles (gift wrapping at the mall, anyone?). Yet this past December recruitment advertisements increased 2.5% with an 18.5% increase in advertising and media. (See The Sydney Morning Herald.)
Dial back three years and you’ll recall the pre-crisis period. At that stage I was in a similar role at another firm (they who shall not be mentioned). I received a CV from a recruiter who enthusiastically recommended this bright candidate. She was unique and very qualified. And with 18 months experience she wanted a base salary of $75,000.
Now recruiters are human so I called and suggested the 4 key is right below the 7 key on the numeric keypad. Wasn’t this a typo?
Turns out the young candidate wasn’t the only enthusiastic one. No, the recruiter assured me, that was the salary expectation and once I met the young woman I would understand. On principle I refused the meeting.
In public relations we walk a razor-thin line. We have an obligation to provide a fair and equitable salary to our professionals. Yet clients are demanding the best services for the most reasonable fees. And after the horror year of 2008-09, we need to re-build and re-invest in technology, training and more.
Australia is also a talent pool where Asian companies love to swim. Singapore for three years? Seoul for a posting? Hong Kong for a change? With the growth in Mandarin classes even an in-land China posting is attractive to new professionals.
2010 will be a competitive year as the economic growth of Australia is compounded by the increased demand for talented people. I plan to play and play hard – but it’s never going to be a place where I’ll over-pay for 18 months experience!
January 4, 2010 at 9:37 am · Filed under America, Australia
The Global Financial Crisis touched down in Sydney – and promptly left. In 2009 one quarter of economic activity experienced contraction – followed by a robust rebound. Already the Reserve Bank of Australia has increased interest rates to slow growth. Australia is faring well.
In the USA, signs of life are emerging. Yet the “green shoots” of economic growth promised by President Obama appear to be weeds in the lawns of foreclosed homes. The New York Times contains an exposé on real estate in Cape Coral Florida. There houses that once sold for $850,000 are available for under $300k. Of the 64,000 single family homes, more than 18,000 have been foreclosed. Today an entrepreneur drives an air conditioned van around with potential investors. The tour is of foreclosed homes.
Most striking in the article is the human element.
Kevin Jarrett seems a lot like me. He’d relocated for work and initially found selling real estate a good profession. (Change the name, change the city and change the profession and pretty soon you might relate, too.) He and his wife and daughter settled into a good life with a nice home and a few investment properties. But when the bottom fell out he was hit. Hard. After the three investment properties were taken by the bank, his wife left – taking their daughter. He tried to maintain his home. One day when washing his face the water was turned off. He lost his home and is on the move.
The Grapes of Wrath 2010.
Looking at the level of hardship in previously well-off communities like Cape Coral makes it apparent this recession will take a decade to heal – so long as a double dip doesn’t occur. The “floor” of this drop is a long, long way from the heights before the plunge. The way back up takes a lot longer than the drop.
Australia (again) was well sheltered. Even housing prices retained their gusto. Some outer-west suburbs in Sydney dropped by double digits. Yet by the September quarter 2009 housing starts had increased 10% nationally. Prices have increased in most Sydney suburbs. Of the major global economies, Australia was one of three to record growth (alongside Singapore and South Korea).
All that said, Australia has seen pockets of hardship – and for every Kevin Jarrett of Cape Coral there’s a similar hard luck story Down Under. Thankfully strong economic leadership and underlying demand for Australian products and services mean there are fewer of them.
December 31, 2009 at 10:53 am · Filed under Globalisation, Australia
I can’t get family to visit me. It’s not my hospitality. My partner and I are renowned hosts. We have a spare room always on the ready and a bevy of activities for newcomers and old hands alike.
What keeps family away is the journey. From the East Coast of the USA to Sydney is approximately 24 hours travel time (perhaps longer with the new security measures going into place). There’s the flight to LAX which is really a warm-up act to the 14.5 hour flight to Sydney (six movies! four meals!).
When you come to Australia you fly over the International Date Line. If you leave on a Monday you arrive on a Wednesday. What happened to Tuesday? Hell if I know. I think you lose it – forever. (Apparently you get it back when you fly to the USA as your plane lands in LAX several hours before your take-off time/day in Sydney.
Go figure.
Tonight is a lot like flying across the date line. With the tick of a clock hand we say farewell to a year – and a decade. Time Magazine called it the “Decade from Hell”. Reflect back. Enron, September 11, Paris Hilton, Lehman Brothers, George Bush (twice). Won’t go down as my favourite years.
New Year’s Eve is a bit like an Etch-A-Sketch or absolution after confession. Your slate is clean and you get to start again. Fresh starts! New thinking! Changes to the old me!
To me it’s like a flight across the Date Line. It all seems slightly artificial. I won’t drop 5 kilos tonight or have a refreshed bank balance. I’ll wake tomorrow in the same bed with the same family. And that’s really, really okay by me. It’s good.
What tonight is good for is promoting Australia. As New Yorkers freeze in winter we’ll showcase our beautiful city and its amazing displays of fireworks.
Get ready world – Sydney gets to dash first into the new year and the new decade. Feel free to follow!
December 30, 2009 at 1:22 pm · Filed under Australia
Just re-wrote the credentials document for Fleishman-Hillard Australia. The last one was filled with tons of useful information, but little separated it from the pack. What’s uniquely ours? How do you separate your own business, especially when there are 150+ public relations firms in Sydney alone.
Instead of traditional dialogue I used everyday language. And I added an Australian twist. Irreverence.
I remember, years ago, a Big Kahuna visiting the firm I worked for then. He’d flown from Hong Kong to Sydney and was used to being received in other offices in Asia. He didn’t understand the rudeness of the Australian staff! They were direct. Straight-forward. Not disrespectful but neither deferential. Australians are a world away when business leaders expect Asian manners. We’re not that refined. Sorry.
Here’s the section on our team:
WE’RE EACH RATHER CLEVER.
BUT WHEN YOU SEE US TOGETHER, WE’RE PRETTY SPECIAL
In a hot employment market we’ve attracted and retained the best people. And while we expect a lot from them, we give a lot, too. Like training every Wednesday afternoon. Or at a global conference – such as the Digital Immersion in Washington, DC in late 2009. Or the regional leadership conference in Tokyo in early 2010. We have an entire on-line curriculum that turns hard-won insights into practical lessons.
And we’re trying to build tomorrow’s leaders. So we keep inviting interns to work and learn. They seem to like it. They keep coming back.
Fleishman-Hillard is a great career choice. We host international colleagues who bring their skills Down Under for awhile. And we travel ourselves, too. Australia’s part of a great, big region and we’re constantly called on to help solve client issues in other cities, other countries.
Didn’t we say Australians are resourceful?
To give the text some real impact, I paired the words with images from James Brickwood, finalist for the inaugural Young Australian Journalist of the Year Award in 2008. See his portfolio at www.Oculi.com.au.
Whaddyathinkhuh?
December 7, 2009 at 8:24 am · Filed under America, Australia
Changes rocked Australian politics last week. The Leader of the Opposition last Monday was Malcolm Turnbull until Liberal party colleagues voted for a change. Media pundits backed Joe Hockey and, much like the Melbourne Cup, the favourite was nowhere near the finish line.
The new leader of the Opposition is Tony Abbott – conservative, anti-Emissions Trading, anti-union and a practicing Catholic. While religion rarely matters in politics, for a Catholic head of party it may make a difference as Australia has socialised medicine with a broad offering in reproductive medicine.
In August I wrote a post, “Facing an Election? Take Your Shirt Off!” Abbott is a fitness enthusiast known to bicycle 60 kms on the weekend for fun. There is no shortage of photos in the newspapers featuring Tony dashing across the finish line after an ocean swim. Of course he’s wearing the Australian standard – budgie smugglers (aka Speedos). If you’re not up on Aussie slang, a budgie is a type of bird. Put the two words together and you’ll probably get a visual. No? Look at this made-up campaign poster from today’s The Australian.
Later in the week the State of New South Wales (home to Sydney) also forced a change. This time it was the leader of the sitting government. Premier Nathan Rees was dumped in favour of Christina Keneally. Amazingly Christine is originally from Ohio and is the first female Premier in NSW. She still has a Yankee twang.
And like me, she fell in love and married an Australian – and fell in love all over again with Australia. It’s rare you get to choose your nationality!
Keneally shares a famous last name with Australian author Tom Keneally – best known for “Schindler’s Ark” which later became Speilberg’s film “Schindler’s List”. Christine is married to Tom’s nephew and they have two bi-national sons (Aussie-Yanks like my son).
Sad for Keneally is the view she’s a puppet to factional elements within the Labor Party – which was summed up neatly in The Sun Herald this weekend in their cartoon by David Rowe. I like the Yankee dress, the demure pose – and the numerous wingtips under the bustle of her dress.
November 26, 2009 at 6:33 am · Filed under America, Australia
In the land of November beach days, it’s not Thanksgiving today.
It’s just a Thursday in November and I am already at work.
There’s no steam in the kitchen as multiple pots come to boil. No one’s setting up the children’s table or ironing out Mimere’s lace tablecloth. There aren’t chores like shucking corn or stirring pearl onions or laying the fire. No one’s uncorking the wine or seeing if we remembered cranberry juice.
It’s all rather quiet.
I try to explain Thanksgiving but no one quite understands. What are Pilgrims? Didn’t you wind up killing Indians? Is it religious?
You can’t explain the conflicted thinking as you help yourself to a third serve of turkey - even though you were full after the first plate. You can’t explain the contentedness of being so squeezed onto a table three people need to pull out their chairs if you want to go to the bathroom. You can’t explain the wonderful incongruity of three generations together for one day a year - even if there are arguments. And you can’t explain why one woman…or two…or three…or some men…would cook for two days only to face a cavalcade of dirty pots.
No one understands Thanksgiving outside of America. And nowhere have I travelled that there’s been an equivalent holiday. It’s not like Christmas because you don’t have to buy gifts. It’s not like Easter because you don’t have to go to Church. It’s not like the Fourth of July because the weather keeps you indoors - all of you - and you have to wear nicer clothes. Plus they don’t televise football in summer!
Thanksgiving is a holiday completely unique in the world. And wherever I am I wish I was home.
Happy Thanksgiving. I miss you all!
Wally Down Undy
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