What’s in the water?

Chris Davis writes: Re. “Something’s in the water, literally: contamination and secrecy in the NT” (yesterday). I’d suggest swimming in any creek in the Top End is unsafe due to crocodiles!

Sic ’em, ASIC

Greg Poropat writes: Re. “Government banking package fails on corporate policing” (yesterday). When announcing the levy to be imposed on the banks as part of ASIC’s revised funding arrangements, Treasurer Scott Morrison fulminated that he would be “furious” at any hint the banks tried to recover this cost from consumers. The most rudimentary analysis of his outrage reveals the Treasurer’s confected hot air and/or commercial and financial illiteracy. The funding imposition on the banks is $120 million over four years, or $30 million per annum. The combined annual net profit of the big four banks is almost $30 billion, meaning the cost is a “trivial” 0.1% of net profit and a vastly smaller share of revenue. Just how does Morrison think he would ever know if any bank gouged consumers to recover this cost?