"Transformative wealth redistribution"? or are some of Labor / Green’s welfare recipients too wealthy?

Carbon tax compo being gambled away

Daily Telegraph
July 18, 2012 8:24AM
Pokie revenues surge in May and June
Increase coincides with carbon compo payments

HANDOUTS to low-income workers under the carbon tax scheme have led to a surge in pokie revenues in May and June, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Pokie revenues in Queensland rose more than 7 per cent in May and 12 per cent in June which coincided with the Federal Government’s handout of more than $15 billion in carbon tax compensation to pensioners and low-income earners.
Although other states have yet to release official gaming machine revenues for June, the AFR reports that in lower socio-economic areas of Victoria such as Bendigo they rose by 8.6 per cent, which is 7 per cent above the state average.
Other poker machine operators such as Coles and Echo Entertainment have also seen a jump in pokie revenues since the carbon cash injection was given.
The new figures have led to calls by anti-gambling campaigners for carbon compensation to be given in a different form other than cash.

Stephen Mayne, an independent candidate for the Melbourne by-election this weekend, said it would be better to give the carbon tax compensation in the form of credits at a consumer’s power company.
Nomura gaming and retail analyst Nick Berry said carbon tax payments would continue to the end of July, boosting retail sales and gaming revenue. But when the first power bills arrive at the end of September, most of the carbon compensation will have been spent.
Keith DeLacy, chairman of the compliance, audit and risk committee at the Reef Hotel casino in Cairns, told the AFR that casino revenues have always increased when cash handouts were delivered.
"All it is showing is that people have increased disposable income and that’s what they’re spending it on,” he said.
“Governments have got to accept if they give straight cash handouts to the population at large they can’t dictate how it must be spent as well. I mean, how far can you take the nanny state?”

Costco to open in Australia.

US giant Costco takes on Coles, Woolies with first Australian store at Docklands

By Kellee Nolan
News.com.au
March 13, 2009 01:36pm

SUPERMARKET giants Coles and Woolworths will have have a new kid on the block to go up against later this year with cut-price international grocery warehouse Costco set to open in Melbourne.

Costco will open its first Australian outlet at Melbourne's central Docklands precinct in July, offering everything from greenhouses to diamond rings and fresh strawberries to toilet paper, at discount prices to both wholesale and retail customers.

The store will create 225 new full-time and part-time jobs which Victorian Industry and Trade Minister Martin Pakula said was a "statement of confidence" in Victoria's economy.

The US-based Costco also planned to open a store in Sydney, and was looking "all over" the city for a suitable site, Costco Australian manager Patrick Noone said today.

The $60 million Melbourne store will be Australia's first, joining a stable of 535 Costco outlets across the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

Following the inroads made by no-frills grocery chain Aldi in Australia, Costco warehouses will offer wholesale prices to small and medium enterprises and also allow retail consumers to buy goods at wholesale prices, for an annual $60 membership fee.

Commenting on the new central Melbourne Costco site, Mr Noone said he hoped people would travel "a long way" to shop there.

"We think they will take to it like ducks to water," he said.

Australian Retailers Association executive director Richard Evans said consumers would take some time to come around to the Costco way of shopping, but the wholesaler was a welcome addition to the retailing mix.

"Australian consumers are very set in the their ways, it's very difficult to get them to change their style of shopping," Mr Evans said.

"Retailing is very competitive but the more competition, the better it is for consumers."

Last year the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) ran an inquiry into the competitiveness of grocery prices in Australia, amid public concern over a perceived stranglehold on the market between Coles and Woolworths.

In its July 2008 report, it found price competition between Coles and Woolworths was limited by high barriers to entry for new competitors combined with limited incentive for Coles and Woolworths to compete aggressively.

But it found Aldi had been a "vigorous price competitor", forcing Coles and Woolworths to lower prices on many products.

Docklands retail and restaurant owners, still reeling from the closure of the heat-buckled Southern Star Observation Wheel, welcomed the announcement, saying it would attract people and bring good flow-on business.
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