Disclosure today is the same as consultation with "users" was and is. Fraud. Pretence. Disclose some and not what the consumer needs.

Disclosure of what our government is planning is what we need.

Disclosure of all plans, current or future. Not vague, never kept promises at Budget and election time. Nor should any elctionplatfrorm. These two areas should be an enforcable contract with those who make the statements. AWA's for politicians. Why not? Anybody?

No Budget should hold anything we don't expect or know about as it should be what we want and need, not what suits a Political Agenda.

For God's sake just tell us the truth about something. Today I can only see the truth in one area. That is when each of the major Parties taks about the other. They call each other liars, cheats, rorters, bastards, BS'ers, every bad thing they can get away with. That's the only honesty we get.

pegasus, I was thinking the other day that I'd like to see independant coverage of the major political parties, their election promises and how well they have been kept when in office.

That would include major changes which should have been predictable at the lead up to an election but which were not announced.

The point made in the article is a good one though, some of these things are best done outside of government as long as some mechanism exists to keep them honest.

The authors idea about real estate agents listing quotes and achieved prices post sale is good as long as there is a mechanism to ensure that if an agent was on the list they had to list all quotes including those on properties which were put on the market and did not sell and those where the price was way below the quoted figure. Not just the success stories.

R0bert

I think the article is a very pertinent comment. Regulation of information often turns out to be useless. One of the reasons is that practitioners of whatever type take note of the regulations and thoughtfully adjust their ways to maximise their self interest. Very rational and why not? To stick with the real-estate examples. What would stop an agent estimating, to the best of his skill, say 500,000, and then adding "but you never know, I have seen places like that go for $420,000 if the bidders don't turn out, or if it is a rainy day, etc". The point is that performance parameters are often easy to fudge. I can imagine the doc saying, "sorry your condition is serious, I don't want to muck up my stats of success, so why don't you go along and consult with ....." Or, a school princ "sorry why don't you enrol your son at .... we are not specialists in handling that kind of behavioural/learning problem" I agree entirely with the writer of the article but I am pessimistic about the possibility of informed choice.

Its a real dilemma to specify what you will deliver clearly, without making misleading claims and without omitting important information. I find that people err on the side of excess which can cloud or obscure the key message.

In defense of real estate agents I watched an auction where the property sold for $100,000 more than the reserve. The property was advertised at $515,000, the reserve was $550,000 but sold for $650,000. As the auction time drew close we [the peanut gallery] identified 8 keen nervous buyers [who we would be happy to welcome to the street]. As the auction unfolded there were at least 6 bidders and there were strange bids at $631,000 and $641,000 - possibly dummy bids. That said I have watched many an auction where there weren't 2 strong bidders competing for the property but that wasn't in this current housing boom.

Just been wading through 3 inches of reports for my superannuation fund. Much of the pulped trees are disclaimers and fiduciary disclaimers. In my circumstances a key factor in increasing my wealth would be the timing of my actions. These reports don't include a timeline for actions. Doing actions at the wrong time or in the wrong sequence will leave me with a huge tax bill. And in the case of financial planners you need to take every recommendation, calculate the actual value down to the last red cent then download the relevant bits of the Tax Act. Turning every retiree into a DIY bush lawyer.