Australian

Australian stock market and new IPO & Floats

April 22, 2013 by Reporter Leave a Comment

Companies that have listed on ASX in the previous two months. Click the Company asx code in 2nd column in table below to check out the current price on Australian markets

Initial public offering (IPO)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An initial public offering (IPO) or stock market launch is a type of public offering where shares of stock in a company are sold to the general public, on a securities exchange, for the first time. Through this process, a private company transforms into a public company. Initial public offerings are used by companies to raise expansion capital, to possibly monetize the investments of early private investors, and to become publicly traded enterprises.

IPO and recent floats on the australian stock market

Company name	ASX code	Listing date	1st day’s trading
Company name	ASX code	Listing date	Open	Close
CHINA INTEGRATED MEDIA CORPORATION LIMITED	CIK	25/02/2013	0	0
LION SELECTION GROUP LIMITED.	LSX	13/03/2013	0.65	0.69
MALABAR COAL LIMITED	MBC	28/03/2013	1.04	0.84
NAOS EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES COMPANY LIMITED	NCC	26/02/2013	0.98	1
NATIONAL RMBS TRUST 2012-2 SERIES 2012-2	NAH	15/03/2013	N/A	N/A
PERPETUAL RESOURCES LIMITED	PEC	28/02/2013	0	0
SERIES 2012-1E REDS TRUST	RFB	14/03/2013	N/A	N/A
SERIES 2013-1 WST TRUST	WSQ	03/04/2013	N/A	N/A
SPDR S&P WORLD EX AUSTRALIA FUND	WXO	19/03/2013	N/A	N/A
STRATA-X ENERGY LIMITED	SXA	12/03/2013	0.33	0.35
SWALA ENERGY LIMITED	SWE	18/04/2013	0.2	0.19
TALON PETROLEUM LIMITED	TPD	28/02/2013	0.1	0.105
TLOU ENERGY LIMITED	TOU	09/04/2013	0.5	0.53
TORRENS SERIES 2013-1 TRUST	TNB	14/03/2013	N/A	N/A
US SELECT PRIVATE OPPORTUNITIES FUND II	USG	09/04/2013	1.6	1.6

Reasons for listing as an ipo

When a company lists its securities on a public exchange, the money paid by the investing public for the newly issued shares goes directly to the company (primary offering) as well as to any early private investors who opt to sell all or a portion of their holdings (secondary offering) as part of the larger IPO. An IPO, therefore, allows a company to tap into a wide pool of potential investors to provide itself with capital for future growth, repayment of debt, or working capital

Upcoming new floats on the australian market

The entities listed below have made application for admission to the official list of ASX Australian shares. Part of this application process includes the allocation of a provisional ASX code.

It is advisable to obtain investment advice before making any investment decisions relying on information provided on a third party site, and the entity’s offer document should be read in its entirety before any decision to invest in the entity’s securities is made.

Company	Proposed ASX code *	Proposed listing date/time
Austral Resources Limited	AZW	24 April 2013 #
Classic Minerals Ltd	CLZ	TBA
Coke Resources Limited	CKE	TBA
IPB Petroleum Limited	IPB	30 April 2013
Kin Mining NL	KIN	TBA
Laramide Resources Ltd	LAM	TBA
Longreach Resources Limited	LOR	22 April 2013 #
Macquarie Gold Limited	MQX	24 April 2013 ##
Mighty River Power Limited	MYT	10 May 2013 #
Perth Resources Limited	PRD	TBA
Priority One Network Group Limited	POR	Application Withdrawn
Rental Management Investment Trust	RTI	TBA
Shine Corporate Ltd	SHJ	15 May 2013 #
Sino Australia Oil & Gas Limited	SAO	28 June 2013 #
Tropicana Gold Limited	TPO	TBA

*Listing dates are anticipated dates for first quotation of securities set by ASX following completion of admission procedures and proposed dates for first quotation of securities set out in the entity’s prospectus or information memorandum. However, they are subject to change without notice and you may not rely on this information in any way

Public offering
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A public offering is the offering of securities of a company or a similar corporation to the public. Generally, the securities are to be listed on a stock exchange. In most jurisdictions, a public offering requires the issuing company to publish a prospectus detailing the terms and rights attached to the offered security, as well as information on the company itself and its finances. Many other regulatory requirements surround any public offering and they vary according to jurisdiction.

Public offering without listing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A public offering without listing, often called a POWL deal or a POWL, is a form of public equity offering by non-Japanese firms in the Japanese market, without the previously required simultaneous listing on a local exchange. Equity offerings via POWL have been a common part of Asia regional public offerings since the early 1990s, with Japanese investors often taking more than 20% of the offering through this format

if you need more stock tips on the australian stock market you can visit australianstockwatch.com or www.australianpennystocks.com for penny stocks tips and hot shares

Is Australia getting ripped off with Technology , software and gadget Buys

March 5, 2013 by Reporter Leave a Comment

IT corporations including Apple, Microsoft and Adobe will become the first companies in Australia to be forced to appear before a federal parliamentary inquiry after and enquiry was launched as to why Australians have to pay high prices paid for tech products in comparison to their other counterparts around the world.

The investigation into the companies and their pricing has come about as a result of a push by Labor backbencher Ed Husic, who says that the three are “ripping off” customers in Australia. Last week Husic pointed to the fact that in 2011 Apple made $6 billion in revenue in Australia, but only paid a mere $40 million in tax (that’s less than 1%).

The House Committee on Infrastructure and Communications has summonsed the three big technology companies for a public hearing on March 22, which means they will be compelled to appear and provide explanations for what some say is price gouging.

These IT firms in and Australian first are now being called by the Australian Parliament to explain why they price their products so much higher in Australia compared to the US

Adobe said it would cooperate with the committee while Apple and Microsoft declined to comment. The committee has alleged that these IT companies have failed to answer key questions and so have been summoned

Consumer group Choice provided evidence showing Australians pay around 50 per cent more than US consumers for identical music, software, games and hardware. The website and consumer group Choice found that for one Microsoft software development product you could fly to Los Angeles return to buy the software and still save thousands of dollars.

Australia is complaining that although their currency is stronger than the dollar, the three tech companies are charging far more for their devices (and software) in Australia than they are in America Example:

Apple 16GB iPad – in the U.S. For $500, in Australia for $540 – from ( http://www.dailyflux.com )

"We welcome the move by the committee to force these companies to front the Australian public and explain why they think it is okay to charge Australians more," said Choice CEO Alan Kirkland.

"Australians are waking up to the fact that we are being ripped off. We believe it’s time that these companies realise this and start pricing fairly in the Australian market."

Assange Arrest– Has british police broken International Law.

August 16, 2012 by Reporter 2 Comments

The Australian JULIAN ASSANGE , wanted by British authorities for breaching bail conditions after a court ordered his extradition to Sweden, is just hours from learning if Ecuador will protect him. If not, he faces being ejected from the embassy into the arms of police.

WikiLeaks tweeted this morning that police in two large vans had arrived ‘‘to surround the Ecuadorian embassy in London’’ about midnight, local time.

The Ecuadorian government will announce it decision on Assange’s bid at 10pm today(AEST).

Two Metropolitan Police vans have parked directly outside the entrance of the Ecuador embassy in the west London building. Several police vans are outside the embassy, police have been seen entering through a side door and uniformed officers are standing guard at the front entrance.

According to an Australian law expert., Any incursion by the British at the embassy would be ‘‘without modern precedent’’ and could end up before the international courts.

"The Ecuadorian embassy enjoys protection under Article 22 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which precludes the United Kingdom authorities from entering the embassy without consent.

"If the United Kingdom revoked the Embassy’s diplomatic protection and entered the Embassy to arrest Assange, Ecuador could rightly view this as a significant violation of international law which may find its way before an international court.”

Mr Patino told a news conference that Ecuador had received a written threat on Wednesday from Britain that "it could assault our embassy" if Assange was nothanded over.

Why would UK take this extreme step ( with possible international law beingbroken)

Some possible reasons

Pressure from Other countries( mainly US and Sweden) to get Assange extradited
UK Considers Ecuador a small and powerless country with low risk in taking this bold step for this reasons.
Poor decision making process by some London authorities.

This increasingly it seems as a a matter between Ecuador and the United Kingdom” though it could have international conseqences

Police have clashed with a Huge protests at the Ecuadorian embassy in London as tension mounts over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s bid for political asylum. Media Commentators have said that US is putting pressure on other governments to make the extradition of Julian assange to Sweden and then the US successful.

A "citizen journalist" with the twitter account https://twitter.com/alburyj, was streaming the ongoing activity at the site , but the feed has since stopped.

Guest post by Sheldon

Get your own Publicity and start up your business

August 5, 2012 by Reporter 2 Comments

We often hear stories of people who set up their business with no start up funds, reinvest the income in the business and grow organically. Small business

Enter the two women who run DIY publicity

Founders, Jules Brooke and Simone Heydon, started Handle Your Own PR in Australia three years ago. And now they are a global business! In 2010 they opened an office in the US and recently started operating in the UK. Handle Your Own PR: Jules Brooke and Simone Heydon. Set up for small businesses and individuals who want or need publicity but don’t have the funds to pay an agency

“We truly have a passion for small business” founding partner Jules Brooke says. “We have a full service PR agency and felt awful turning away potential clients who simply didn’t have the funds to pay for a campaign when we were aware that the media would probably love their story.”

Small business Publicity

Now running in three countries, Australia, the USA and England, (www.handleyourownpr.com.au, www.handleyourownpr.com and www.handleyourownpr.co.uk) Handle Your Own PR is one-of-a-kind. Nowhere else in the world has someone set out to inform and facilitate how to get publicity for small businesses. These two women saw a niche and went for it.

HYOPR is a do-it-yourself publicity business, helping small businesses and entrepreneurs generate publicity without the use of a PR agency. The Australian, UK and US websites are particularly useful for those businesses selling online and are able to post internationally.

Jules and Simone are entrepreneurs with an Australian online business success story. They found a gap in the market and a solution when it was at its lowest. Consequently, Handle Your Own PR was born.

Guest article part of the “new small business start up series”

Kick start your Start-ups in Australia

June 20, 2012 by Reporter Leave a Comment

The “start up scene in Australia” is being noticed by the big players in US , judging by the big Amounts of funding some of the luckier start-ups in Australia have received recently.

Aussie start- ups Bringing in investor’s

While start-up companies and new businesses coming into the news are quite Normal, most of the recent media news and releases recently has been more partial to the “ technology start ups” as the preferred favoured sector, which is actually booming and garnering a lot of attention.

The start up scene in Australia has been quite slack since a long time , but suddenly there are million dollar takeover happening in small aussie start ups , possibly due to US investors taking advantage of our dollar as well as the weak economic activity in the US

Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar (pictured) from software tools maker and start up Atlassian, that received a $68 million cash injection recently.

Start up helpers and angel investors

There are now more easier methods for getting cash injection for tech start ups. While traditionally this was done by banks( which was quite difficult to get finance sometimes for start ups), nowadays its easier to get a venture capitalist , angel investors or a private investment bank or even crowd sourcing helping out your start up monetarily.

If your start-up is a promising new tech start up it can just be bought up or taken over by a major organisation as well, which is proven by the wallmart buy out of local start up company (grabble ). some of the cash injection investment helpers for tech start ups are listed below

Pollenizer

Key people: Mick Liubinskas and Phil Morle

Pollenizer transforms ideas into global web businesses. They invest team, process and capital and collaborate with gutsy entrepreneurs to launch startups.

http://pollenizer.com/

Future Capital

Key people: Domenic Carosa, Andrew Fiori-Dea, Danny Wallis, Tony Stephen, Irwin Saunders and Bill Kyriacou.

Future Capital has 14 businesses in its portfolio — five in Sydney and five in Melbourne, with the others spread across different parts of the country.

PushStart

Key people: Kim Heras and Roger Kermode

Start up Mentoring network PushStart recently unveiled eight start-ups that will take part in its first accelerator program.

Startmate

Key people: Co-founders David Jones and Nicki Scevak.

Startmate has been a very integral part of promoting Australia’s most promising tech businesses. Their four start-ups last year managed to attract external funding, with one, Grabble, even being acquired by US retail behemoth Wal Mart.

AngelCube

Key people: Andrew Birt, Andrew Stone and Richie Khoo.

AngelCube is a newer start-up incubator in Australia, who recently chose its first four start-ups, each getting $20,000 each in seed capital.

Their recent start ups are RentWant.com, Lexim.com.au, TestPilot.me and Goodfil.ms

Kickstarter – Your Investment banker / Venture capitalist Alternative

This site first began as a way for people to raise money for quirky projects like pop-up wedding chapels, around-the-world boating trips and offbeat documentaries, it quickly expanded to include video game production, feature films and innovative new gadgets.

They have now also backed up projects like the Elevation dock, a sleek stand for the iPhone, or Brydge, which turns an iPad into a laptop resembling the MacBook Air.

Kickstarter has raised more than $200 million for 20,000 projects

http://www.kickstarter.com/

When Eric Migicovsky, an engineer, wanted to develop a wristwatch that could display information from an iPhone – like caller ID and text messages – he went the traditional route of asking venture capitalists to finance his company. He failed to get any interest from them to develop his this product now called “the Pebble watch”.

He gave Kickstarter a go, a site where ordinary people back creative projects. Backers could pledge $99 and were promised a Pebble watch in return. Less than two hours after the project went up on the site, Mr. Migicovsky and his partners hit their goal of $100,000.

This project got so much interest from “KICKSTARTER” It was not before long they managed to get $600,0000 and then a record million dollars in funding.

Other sites offering Crowd funding or financing through a crowd

Other sites for financing through a crowd have appeared. There’s CROWDTILT, a service that lets friends contribute money for outings like a beach vacation; Zokos, a start-up that gives guests a way to pitch in for a dinner party; and Gambitious, a financing site devoted to indie game developers,

Wide range of sectors including Aviation, Construction, Property, Energy, Film, Finance, Food, Medical, Retail, Telecoms and Tourism have still to rely on the traditional banks form of investment while tech start-ups are the new darlings of the venture capitalists and angel investors.

The Australian government have also been pro-active with new business entrepreneurs over the past few years, with moves such as the “Entrepreneur Tax Discount” reducing the amounts of taxes for small business start-ups as they get established. But with recent changes, there is no guarantee these rebates will stay.

Can solar energy Solve Australia’s Electricity needs

June 14, 2012 by Reporter Leave a Comment

Every hour of every day the amazingly the sun warms the earth with enough energy to meet world demand for a whole year. And this constant power source available to us – the sun. Solar energy now is getting more popular with governments due to scarcity and price of electricity generation in different countries.

Ancient Greeks and Romans long time ago tried to benefit from the sun by covering south facing building openings with glass or mica to hold in the heat of the winter sun.

Photo credit : wikipedia

Around 500 companies—the largest polluters in our economy—will be required to purchase a permit for every tonne of pollution they produce.

Through Clean Energy Future, the Australian Government encourages businesses to reduce their carbon footprint through a carbon tax.

Legal obligations for businesses

A small number of companies will have direct legal obligations, but for most businesses the most significant change will be the introduction of a carbon price through Clean Energy Future

The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) System developed by the government will measure and monitor corporate greenhouse gas emissions, energy production and energy consumption.

Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute solar energy

Australian Solar Government Schemes

SOLAR CREDITS SCHEME

Solar Credits is a mechanism within the RET scheme that provides additional support to households, businesses and community groups that install small-scale solar PV, wind and hydro electricity systems by multiplying the number of RECs able to be created for eligible installations.

Solar Credits apply to the first 1.5 kilowatts (kW) of capacity installed; generation from capacity above 1.5 kW will still be eligible for the standard 1:1 rate of RECs creation.

For more information view the Solar Credits for small generation units fact sheet.

NEW SOUTH WALES

SOLAR BONUS SCHEME

NSW has effectively scrapped the Solar Bonus Scheme, as of 27th October 2010.

For more information, visit:

http://www.dtiris.nsw.gov.au/energy/

QUEENSLAND

SOLAR BONUS SCHEME

Customers participating in the Scheme will be paid 44 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) for surplus electricity fed into the grid—more than double the current general domestic use tariff of 18.84c/kWh (inc GST as at 1 July 2009).

For more information, visit:

http://www.cleanenergy.qld.gov.au/solar_scheme.cfm

SOUTH AUSTRALIA Govt solar schemes

SOLAR FEED IN SCHEME

The Electricity (Feed-In Scheme-Solar Systems) Amendment Act 2008 was the first solar feed-in law in Australia and pays a premium guaranteed tariff of 44 cents per unit of electricity (kilowatt-hour, kWh), to households and small customers who feed solar electricity into the grid. For updated info on this scheme visit :
http://www.renewablessa.sa.gov.au/solar

VICTORIA Solar schemes

FEED IN TARIFFS

Victoria has two programs that allow consumers to be credited for renewable electricity they feed into the state’s grid – a premium feed-in tariff for solar and standard feed-in tariff for other small-scale renewable energy systems.

For more information, visit:
http://new.dpi.vic.gov.au/energy/energy-policy/greenhouse-challenge/feed-in-tariffs

WESTERN AUSTRALIA Goverment Solar schemes Grants

FEED IN TARIFFS

A residential net feed-in tariff scheme will commence in Western Australia from 1 August 2010. The tariff will be paid per unit of net electricity exported to the electricity grid from eligible systems.

For more information, visit:
http://www.energy.wa.gov.au/1/3652/64/feedin.pm

Solar Conference – Australia

One of the key events this year is the East Solar Expo & Conference to be presented by AuSES and international partner AUPVSEE at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre from the 21-22^nd of August. www.eastsolar2012.com

In the United States, Swedish-born John Ericsson led efforts to harness solar power. He designed the “parabolic trough collector,” a technology which functions more than a hundred years later on the same basic design.In 1953, Bell Laboratories (now AT&T labs) scientists Gerald Pearson, Daryl Chapin and Calvin Fuller developed the first silicon solar cell capable of generating a measurable electric current.

The U.S.-China photovoltaic trade war is on despite china getting booming trade from US for its cheap solar technologies and exports.

Research papers in solar

SAFETY ISSUES, ARCING AND FUSING IN PV ARRAYS – Edward D Spooner, Nigel Wilmot (Senior Lecturer, The University of New South Wales, Australia)

COMPARISON OF SOLAR, NUCLEAR AND WIND OPTIONS FOR LARGE SCALE IMPLEMENTATION – David Mills (Solar Heat and Power Pty Ltd)

Climate Change Action Fund

The Climate Change Action Fund (PDF 142 kB) will help local government prepare for a low pollution future

Assistance for eligible renewable energy power stations

Technorati Tags: BUSINESS,CLIMATE,FINANCE,INDUSTRY,NEWS,POLITICS,SCIENCE · TAGGED: CLIMATE CHANGE,CLIME,ENERGY,GREENHOUSE GAS,RENEWABLE ENERGY,SOLAR,SOLAR ENERGY

Australian WIFI ( WLAN ) inventor wins patent battle against Microsoft , Toshiba

April 2, 2012 by Reporter Leave a Comment

Not many people know it , but one of the biggest inventions in the technology ( WIFI ) used all over the world in millions of devices was invented in Australia.

Wifi – An Australian Invention

WIFI or WLAN as it was known when it was invented by a group of scientists John O’sullivan , Terry Percival, Diet Ostry, Graham Daniels, John Deane working for the CSIRO.

In 2009, it received A$205 million after reaching settlements with 14 companies. The latest settlement is worth more than $220 million with lap-top makers, mobile carriers and wireless chip makers which represent around 90 percent of the Tech industry including companies including Lenovo, Acer, Sony and AT&T. The CSIRO has license agreements with 23 companies with these new settlements.

(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is Australia’s national science agency )

This invention was patented in the US in 1996 and the first products using the wireless WLAN technology entered the market in 2001.

WIFI WLAN Patent War

Major big technology companies like Microsoft , Hewlett-Packard, Intel , Toshiba started using this technology but ignored the patent until CSIRO took legal action to defend its patent and invention

The Australian government-run Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) said the settlement for the Wireless local area networking (WLAN) patent was worth more than A$220 million ($229 million).

About Wifi from wikipedia

Wi-Fi ( /ˈ w aɪ f aɪ /, sometimes spelled Wifi or WiFi) is a popular technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data wirelessly (using radio waves) over a computer network, including high-speed Internet connections.

Ref-img:http://www.bestnetbooksreview.com/wi-fi-bluetooth-information-and-advice.html

The Wi-Fi Alliance defines Wi-Fi as any “wireless local area network (WLAN) products that are based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) 802.11 standards”.^[1] However, since most modern WLANs are based on these standards, the term “Wi-Fi” is used in general English as a synonym for “WLAN”.

Links for Wi-Fi Info:

Australia settles patent suit in U.S. wi-fi case

How wifi Works

War of the Pc Tablets reaches Australia

December 12, 2011 by Reporter Leave a Comment

Apple started the tablet war In the US and the court cases soon reached global corners with APPLE and SAMSUNG filing multiple cases in different countries apparently to protect their copyrights. Apart from the US where they are ongoing cases , these two companies are also fighting cases in Japan, France, Italy and Australia

With Samsung now getting a decision in their favour in Australia they will be laughing all the way to the bank by being able to sell their SAMSUNG TABLETS in Australia which apple was trying to block. The market for smartphones and tablets are hot and there is a lot of money involved in sales of these latest hot products and now companies are willing to file court cases just to get their fair share of this pie. with sales in smartphones and tablets booming Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in some 30 legal cases in 10 countries since April

Samsung galaxy tablet and Apple ipad are fighting it out to become the markets leaders in the tablet market

Samsung Electronics Co won this round of its global patent fight with Apple Inc on Friday when an Australian court lifted a ban on the sale of its Galaxy tablet computer just in time for the busy Christmas shopping season.

Samsung’s bid to block iPhone 4s sales in France was also recently rejected allowing Apple to sell its new iPhone 4s range of smartphones.

Now Amazon.com has also entered the fray with its Kindle Fire tablet joining the tablet wars

Article provided by pctablets-reviews.com

Carbon Tax Reporting from Australia

July 13, 2011 by Reporter Leave a Comment

Like it or not, the carbon tax is here to stay. At least the Australian government is made it much easier for the people to accept the carbon tax with compensating people with tax cuts to make up for the rsie in some expenses due to the carbon tax.

Reform done good is definitely much more acceptable as can be seen by the way the Australian people and economists and analysts have received the new carbon tax. Much more reforms are promised by the Julia Gillard government whereby it will encourage stay at home moms to come take part in the workforce without getting penalized by more taxes.

How the World is reporting out initiative on the New carbon tax

Snippets from different online websites from different countries reporting the new Australian carbon tax

– CBC News – Australia unveils carbon tax

Australia has unveiled a new carbon tax that will force its 500 biggest polluters to pay for emissions — the country’s biggest economic reform in a generation. More..

– Australia carbon tax plans spark protests

Rallies have taken place in Australia in protest at plans by the Labor government to bring in a carbon tax. More..

– www.trust.org – SINGAPORE, – Funny thing, Australians thought they were going to get a carbon tax aimed at reducing emissions, but what they ended up with is a welfare scheme being paid for by polluters and households deemed wealthy. More…

– Australia carbon tax unlikely to impact Indian cos –Australia carbon tax- a green initiative: Australia announced yesterday its carbon tax plan in an effort to help fight climate change. More..

– How mining and media distort Australia’s carbon tax debate. Mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s influence is being felt in Australia’s carbon tax battle through TV and newspapers. More…

TAX-NEWS.COM – Carbon Tax In Australia Starts In July 2012 – The Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced this week that the government will be putting a price on Australia’s carbon emissions, starting in July next year. More..

– Australia’shistoricLabor-Greenscarbontaxagreement

You could feel the increased energy in Parliament House yesterday after the historic carbon tax agreement between the Labor Government and the Australian Greens. More..

– Australia sets carbon tax to fight climate change

Australia announced plans on Sunday to tax carbon pollution at Aus$23 (US$24.74) per tonne to help battle climate change, as it moved towards creating the region’s biggest emissions trading scheme. More..

– Australia PM unveils carbon tax targeting biggest 500 polluters – Australia will force its 500 worst polluters to pay AU$23 (US$25) for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit, with the government promising to compensate households hit with higher power bills under a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions unveiled Sunday. More..

What is a carbon tax and why is it being proposed?
The government plans to tax the carbon pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels, including coal and petroleum. A carbon tax puts a price on the carbon released when fossil fuels are burned. It is designed to include in the price of fossil fuel use the cost of the environmental damage it causes.

Info Links

http://www.aph.gov.au/li/economic/carbontax.htm

Credit card statistics 2011

June 19, 2011 by Reporter 1 Comment

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) this week just released their latest credit and “debit card statistics” which made for some interesting reading.

Consumers have continued their caution in spending and borrowing, despite strong growth in national income, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Credit Card Sales slow down in australia

The report says that, the number of credit card accounts has increased by just 1.9% for the year to April 2011. The average credit card had an outstanding balance of $3,326 while the number of transactions has increased by 4.4% over the year. Surprisingly enough in comparison to this, the number of debit card accounts has increased by 7.8% over the year and purchase only transactions are also up by 22.2%.

This definitely shows a new trend forming that consumers are less inclined to spend up big on credit cards and are more focused on savings now and are going back to using their own money to make purchases with 49% more purchase transactions made on debit cards than credit cards during the month.

Links:

http://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/tables/xls/additional-credit-card.xls?accessed=1906-10:21:31

http://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/tables/xls/c01hist.xls?accessed=1906-10:21:31

http://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/tables/xls/c02hist.xls?accessed=1906-10:21:31