Wages inflation is not driving interest rates up.The price of fuel food,rent and housing are out stripping wages.This coupled with toll roads,State taxes/charges has really hurt the average punter.The RBA reacts by increasing interest rates and John Howard is suffering the consequences.

Rightfully the battler feels worse off even though the share market booms and the Govt boasts record surpluses.Over the last 10 yrs food inflation in Aust is 50% higher than countries like Canada or Germany.The same trend is happening with fuel.The reasons for this is that we do not have regulation to stop preditory pricing by the likes of Woolies or Coles.Competition policy is not premoting competition and the Coalition is denial about the regulation needed to stop these anti-competitive practises.

Decades ago we were promised a new nervana with the lowering of tarrifs so each country would specialise and produce cheaper products.Eventually their living standards would meet ours.It hasn't and won't happen since countries like China and India will have cheap labor for decades to come and with diminishing resources and energy supplies all living standards must fall.

So why are we playing this game called Globalisation with no level playing fields,with a downward pressure on real living standards so we can compete with 80c an hour.There needs to be a re-evaluation of our tarrif policies in the light of Global energy/environment constraints since our present polices deny the reality.

You're quite right Arjay. Globalisation has become a nightmare for the battler, but that was only to be expected. Globalisation was set up by huge and greedy corporations to increase their wealth at the expense of the ordinary worker, but mind you, some of those 'ordinary' workers/tax payers are equally to blame. The Western World has become a playground for the "mum & dad" investors who continue to pour funds into the share and property markets. Many of these people have gone out on the limb of debt to do so and it won't take a lot to bring their dreams crashing down.

Most educated people are beginning to realise that this situation can't last forever. The housing market is starting to wobble, as is the US financial markets. Yes, they've recovered for the time being, but only because of massive injections of Government printed cash, particularly from France and the US, but there's no guarantee that they will continue to regain their lost revenue. Add to that the looming prospect of the end of cheap fossil fuels and a market crash will occur that will easily eclipse the Great Depression, but this time the World won't be able to dig it's way out of the hole it's created through the overuse of cheap energy.
The rich moguls now seem to believe that they'll be impervious to the horrors of a World without cheap and abundant energy, but they'll be just like the rest of the commoners when the starving repressed masses begin tearing down the walls of their castles, so don't worry Arjay, the battler will obtain some sort of triumph during the depletion wars. Every dog has it's day.

Aime
We need a Government to step in and over ride the councils who allow the developers to buy up huge area on land in each suberb andknock out the private buyers.
There is plenty of cheap cheap land still out there in Australia for battlers.
Problem is the councils are doing their sweet heart deals with developers.
Its a total sham.
It MUST be stopped.
The Government MUST made land available DIRECT to the public just like they used to years ago.

The way many families got a start was anybody could attend a public auction of land and houses being sold through the Government
All you had to do was turn up on the day of auction which ten percent and bid.

If a girl was sixteen and eighteen for a boy. You did not have to show you were working as the land was cheap. You had to at least put up a fence within six years. Nearly everybody built a home and lived there. All my counsins started out that way buying government land. Now The Government and councils do it through delelopers. Its Wrong and unfair.

They buy whole town up and sit on them. They have even got most of the farms for subs. Just last night I missed three blocks at twenty two thousand I wanted for a battler.

I missed them by four days. The developer who got them now wants two hundred and seventy five thousand.

They even had very low Government finance. As for food we need gardening taught in schools like maths.

Wipe out this Council bi- law people cant have a couple of chooks for fresh eggs and teach the kids where they come from.

Not to mention the cruel intensive cages where they keep them and pump them with anti biotics and force us to eat and feed our kids with.

This is still a good country but councils have TOO much power.

I often wonder Arjay why people seem to ignore State Governments Taxation and Levy’s as also the precursor to ridicules levels of Inflation; For if some have not noticed the massive increases in Electricity charges- Levies on Insurance policies as well as the other 700 odd increases of State Tax and charges levied From July 2007 etc; but that aside, then we have the N S W housing crisis, - Where State Government-( Include Local Government) charges on new developments is near 90% of the actual cost of construction and development, and in turn has artificially inflated the Housing market in N S W- I wonder what calculations have been made to include this into inflationary figures of late; and where the Tax money that was to fund these Initiatives- why has it been depleted? -
Throw in the odd Toll Way and Tunnel in there also, and someone should have to ask the hard question of; Our Taxes are only funding the Leviathan of Bureaucrats and Consultants who produce nothing but misery and Debt, and we have to surrender our actual Private Property rights to fund the Leviathan of Bureaucrats and their own depraved existence.
That’s what I would define as Inflation Pressure.
Welcome to the new world order of Disorder and new age thievery.

Yes All,it is a fact that has escaped both sides of Politics.The Coalition has really dropped the ball particularily with IR reform.Belatedly Joe Hockey admits he got it wrong.Well it was huge mistake.

I really worry about where Labor will take us.Neither of the parties have attempted to address the above mentioned problems.Labor has it's foundations in a union movement that has 85% of its power base in the Public service.We have seen the growth of bureaucracy and taxes that have crippled NSW,what will Labor do nationally when the PS Unions call in all their favours?Taxes go through the roof to pay for their excesses?Govt waste and the debacles of the Whitlam era?Neither of the major parties truely represent the majority.The Coalition has a definite bias towards big business and Labor the PS Unions.

Time for a new mainstream Party.

Arjay, a couple of years ago it was pointed out by the NFF (from memory), that Australia had some of the cheapest food in the world. Canada was quoted as an example of how much more expensive food could be. It therefore doesnt surprise me to see that our food expenses have increased at a higher rate, as they will only be starting to catchup with other developed nations. Our drought has also put a major squeeze on food prices, and with the southern season again looking dismal, expect further price squeezes as supply tightens further.

The housing crisis is real, but the individuals being hurt are as much to blame as any land developer. People are just not prepared to start small anymore. First buy a small house. Live with it for several years. Your wage will increase over time and you'll find out that you'll be able to pay the thing off much faster than when you first bought. That coupled with natural rises in prices will see you be able to upgrade once the kids at in highschool (and need a bit more space to run amok). Too many people want everything now, and feel that they deserve to reward themselves simply for living (ie working hard to provide for themselves).