Clarification 1:

Ric Shadforth, senior corporate affairs manager MLC & NAB Wealth, National Australia Bank, writes: Re. “Paper trail of Serco’s detention centre millions raises accountability questions” (Monday, item 5). In response to a recent Crikey story by Paul Farrell and Antony Loewenstein, I wanted to correct a couple of inaccuracies regarding JBWere.

JBWere Pty Ltd is a private wealth management company formed through a strategic alliance between National Australia Bank (80.1%) and Goldman Sachs & Partners (19.9%). It is not a private equity firm and it is not a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs.

The Hauraki Private Equity No.2 fund was a vehicle created by Goldman Sachs & Partners (formerly known as Goldman Sachs JBWere), not JBWere.

The Hauraki Private Equity No.2 fund exited the Norfolk Group in 2007 when Norfolk was listed on the stock exchange (ASX Code NFK) and the units of the Hauraki fund were sold down and returns distributed to unit holders in early 2010.

Clarification 2 :

Noel Turnbull writes: Re. “Come in Spinner: PR, David Jones and ethics” (yesterday, item 5). I have spoken to Sue Cato about my piece yesterday (which mentioned in passing the David Jones case). She informs me she was representing Mark McInnes and not David Jones and did not brief against the complainant.

Banks:

David Hand writes: Re. “Sorry, but there are bigger issues than residential mortgages” (yesterday, item 1). The big four have clearly decided that the reduced competition in Australia allows them to increase prices.  They are carrying out what I call “because they can” pricing.  By this, I mean that prices are set to the benefit of the banks, not their customers.

I sent $6000 to New Zealand last week and it cost me about $300. This is out of all proportion to the actual cost of doing the transaction. Five years ago I went into Westpac and said “I want NZ$1100 to arrive in this NZ bank account. How much will it cost?  They worked it out, charged me a fee and gave me a not friendly exchange rate, then did the transaction but only $1080 arrived. This was because an “intermediary bank” took a fee. The name of that bank? Westpac NZ. I kid you not.

It is this usurious attitude to customers that p-ss us off so much. The problem with them is that they have got the idea that returns to shareholders need to be at a level of speculative conditions, rather than the staid, boring, safe investment that banking should have. This is what undid banking around the world in the GFC. Risk policies failed and banks did not know or divulge the risks they were taking in order to get the returns. Our lot have simply found themselves in an environment of soft targets who can do stuff all about it so they treat us with contempt “because they can”.

But what are we to do? Gillard’s helpful suggestion that we change banks fully deserves the derisive laughter it is getting. More competition would help and this is where Wayne Swan has so much to answer for. He may well bleat about evil banks and slap them over the wrist with a wet bus ticket today but it was him who gave St George to Westpac and Bank West to CBA, as well as allowing the big 4 to swallow all the non-bank lenders during the GFC.

His failure is depressing, compounded by his complete inability to take any responsibility for the incompetent decisions that have occurred on his watch. It’s not just the poor decisions but the sleazy and slippery way he does his job.  Whenever he speaks to the media it’s clear he doesn’t believe his words himself, let alone the rest of us.  He is the single biggest threat to the future wellbeing of our country.

Clover Moore and the Transport Workers Union:

Garth Mulholland, Transport Workers Union, writes:  Re. “Tips and rumours” (Tuesday, item 8). As one of the so-called union heavies, I would like to put our case in response to the story entitled “Union Heavies Sydney Mayor”.  Rather than deal in spin or water down my affiliations I provide the following factual response.

This story is not a political beat up. The workers are real people, with real families and financial responsibilities.  The TWU has sought and received support from the general public and some ALP members.  We need to gather all the support we can to get our message into the public domain.

The Transport Workers’ Union first approached Clover Moore six months ago about the plight of our workers who lost $200 per week under her watch, when council contracts changed on 9 March this year. We have held demonstrations at Town Hall, attended council meetings and delivered a petition to Clover which outlined the support amongst the community for our workers.  We felt that that the fundraiser would be an opportunity to put our case to Clover in way that would embarrass and mobilise her into action.  Guess what; the silence from her office on this issue is still deafening.

We purchased tickets to the fundraiser and we were given the microphone to speak. We didn’t lie to get the microphone as we weren’t even asked where we were from or what we wanted to say. Clover was not “berated” by a group of men. I was the only member of the TWU who spoke.

As I started to give my speech I was “set upon” by Clover supporters with one elderly gentleman courageously tackling me, ripping my speech out of my hand and then he got the microphone back too.  I did not stop there but continued with my speech until security asked me to leave.  At that point I quietly left.

With regard to Clover being in a wheelchair, I did question whether we should cancel our action, until she expressly said please do not have sympathy for me; it is only a broken femur.  Furthermore, so as not to intimidate I gave my speech from the floor while Clover was on the stage.

On the topic of sympathy, I wonder if Clover will think about the 40 workers who lost their jobs and were then offered them back at $200 a week less, in a world of rising interest rates and prices.

On the night our ask was simple, given the plight of our waste workers, that Clover direct the funds raised from the night to the workers who have lost so much. It’s un-Australian; what’s happened to them.

Not all of us can donate one salary to our own personal charity called “The Clover Moore MP Salary Trust” because we have a second income and job. Of course, a question I would like to pose to Clover is whether she gets a whopping tax deduction for the donation of the mayoral salary into the trust for which she can then offset against her MP salary? Somehow I don’t think she will return my calls.

We wonder whether the trust might be interested in the plight of some “wronged” workers who have been finding hard to make ends meet since they had their pay cut by $200 per week which is $10,400 per annum.

We had two t-shirts to present; one to Clover who refused to take it and the other to a representative of URM.  I did not get the chance to call out to see if a URM representative was there.  Maybe Clover can clarify? What we can confirm is that before the decision to change contractors to URM 2 councillors attended their Christmas Party on a boat on the harbour.
The t-shirts are limited edition and say on the front “Clover gets more” and on the back “We get $200 less”.

All we ask Clover to do is call upon URM to negotiate with the TWU to put in place an enterprise agreement for the workers on the City of Sydney contract. Other councils have called upon their waste contractors to do just that with great results for the workers, the council and local residents.

We have evidence which shows City of Sydney and other councils are getting what they are paying for from URM; a second rate service.  Not only are workers worse off but so are the residents due to late and missed services, traffic delay and reports of trashed recycling on one of their contracts.

The NBN:

Gabriel McGrath writes: Re. Keith Thomas (Monday, comments) who wrote: “we have an official estimate, please, of the extent to which the NBN — if implemented as planned — will be used by gamers?”

Hear hear, Keith!

It’s about time we swung NBN debate around to the needs of decent, mainstream Australians.

Like Marion Lancaster, a resident of Bribie Island Retirement Village, in North Queensland. She’s one of many retirees there who aren’t as mobile as they used to be, but still need some physical — and social — activity. Each week, they play Wii bowling. They’ve found it to be a fantastic social event, and as their physiotherapist Vera Fullerton notes, it improves their fine motor skills.

What could an NBN — with high speed internet to metro, rural and regional Australia do for them? It could mean elderly residents in Bribie Island playing games against new friends, in Perth or Launceston. They could start and end each game with full-screen videochat, so we have both physical and social stimulation for our growing aging population, overcoming their inability to do stronger physical activities – and the tyranny of distance.

Of course, it’s not just retirees who comprise Australia’s decent mainstream gamers.  With 88% of Australian homes having one or more gaming devices, it’s your next-door neighbour, the bank manager and the woman who drives the 514 bus each morning.

Finally Keith, you mentioned the NBN’s ability to improve health & education. You’ll be glad to hear of the fantastic potential of games, and an NBN, to do even more, to improve the lives of decent mainstream Australians across the country. People like the design students from Swinburne’s Faculty of Design, who just won the 2010 Premier’s Recognition Award.  Their series of website games help autistic children learn life skills, like coping with change, recognising emotions and non-verbal communication.

Can you imagine, how good it will be when families with Autistic kids — in the most remote regions of Australia — can access that? And then there’s the children’s burns units in hospitals, that use a game called SnowWorld, that’s been found to be a very effective anaesthesia for pain management.  Wouldn’t it be great for even more interactive games and further studies into their benefits, that are more easily achieved with widespread highspeed internet?

PS:  Keith, teachers in Mosman and doctors in South Melbourne may be fine, but I’m not sure their counterparts in rural areas have “sufficient high-speed connections for their purposes”. Well, they would tell you so in an email, but the broadband’s really slow at this time of day in the back of Bourke, when more than a few people try to use it.

Crikey:

Jackie French writes: Kim Lockwood (yesterday, comments) wrote: “Yes, we are interested in the US mid-terms, but not to the extent of Guy Rundle’s (well-written) thousands and thousands of words.”

Some readers have attention spans. Please continue to give us in depth pieces, but a little more eclectic diet.

John Horsley writes: Kim Lockwood’s comment is timely and succinct.  Even the Comments Corrections etc section seems to have been high-jacked by the long-winded …