Friday on My Mind Archives - Page 5 of 31

Carols and Christmas lights

Bob’s annual playlist of Christmas songs and a few things you never knew about the 12 Days of Christmas Take care on the roads, dear readers.

christmas-lights-carols — Photo by Laurel Wilson

We did a drive-by of Warwick’s Christmas lights last Saturday night. It would melt the Grinchiest heart. By that I mean even if you are deeply cynical about the nativity story, Santa, Elf on a Shelf and rampant consumerism, Christmas lights are a joy. Not at all energy-conserving but joyous without a doubt

She Who Took Pictures in the Dark (SWTPITD) came up with a couple of good ones. I drove and the passengers navigated, which was ‘interesting’

We had just finished two weeks of carol performances with East Street Singers. We are having a break from choir until January, so cruising the Christmas lights hotspots was the next best thing.

Lavish displays of Christmas lights cost multiple thousands, not to mention the additional burden on the household energy bill. The comparison website finder.com.au did a survey on Christmas spending which did not mention Christmas lights at all. Nevertheless, those surveyed said they were planning to spend around $1,361 on food, alcohol, presents, eating out and travel.

Two-thirds of Australians (72%), however, are slashing their spending, mindful of the impact of inflation and what the New Year may bring.

About 38% of respondents said they would start buying food and presents early to help control their spending. One quarter went shopping for bargains on Black Friday,(the US version of Boxing Day sales) with 25% implementing a gift-giving limit.

Almost a quarter of the 1,054 survey respondents said they would have to go into debt to cover their Christmas costs (up from 23% in 2021).

Inflation rose 6.9% in the year to October 2022 and there appears to be no signs of it easing. Inflationary pressures, particularly the steep rise in fuel and energy prices, prompted the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise the cash rate by 3.00% in 2022 (it’s now 3.10%). What this might mean for people with huge mortgages in 2023 is anyone’s guess.

Long-term FOMM followers will know I usually trot out a Christmas song playlist and this year is no exception. But I am swayed this year to include songs with a sentimental or even reverent message. This offsets the somewhat cynical tone of my contribution, ‘Christmas in Australia’ which can be found here.

Our five Christmas carol performances this month included a mix of traditional songs, a few which are rarely heard and that jolly old tune about figgy pudding and not going until we get some.

Number one on the 12-song FOMM Christmas playlist is the Sussex Carol with its clever counterpoint section where the men vocalise in a different time signature while the women sing the verse (then vice versa). ‘The Sussex Carol’ is performed by the choir of St Martin’s in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.

The Sussex Carol brings to mind the wry observation in Tim Minchin’s timeless ‘White Wine in the Sun’ (number 2).

I get freaked out by churches
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords
But the lyrics are dodgy.

Minchin released this song in 2012 as a tribute to his baby daughter. He released this 2022 live version, all the more poignant because his child has been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Minchin donates proceeds from this song over the Christmas period to Aspect (Autism Spectrum Australia). This is a touching, live rendition, just Tim and piano.

‘Once in Royal David’s City’ (3), is performed in folk style by The Seekers. This is a happy, lapsed-Methodist memory. I was given a harmonica in a Christmas stocking (I was 8) and was playing that carol by lunchtime. Later I found Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Next is the much-loved ‘How to Make Gravy’ (4) by Paul Kelly. Note for guitarists: Paul plays a guitar tuned to an open D. In ordinary tuning you need to span three or four frets to make those chords. Just saying.

‘O Holy Night’(5) is a classic Christian carol, favoured by sopranos who can hit the high note (A flat). My trusty editor Laurel Wilson is well capable of executing (ie singing, as opposed to ‘murdering’ Ed.) this song. Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Kate Miller-Heidke are among those who have recorded Adolphe Adam’s composition, based on a French poem. This version is by the honourable Luciano Pavarotti.

‘The Christians and the Pagans’ (6) takes me back a bit – Dar Williams singing about cousin Amber (and her friend), turning up unexpectedly for a traditional family lunch.

The food was great, the tree plugged in, the meal had gone without a hitch,
Til Timmy turned to Amber and said, “Is it true that you’re a witch?”
His Mom jumped up and said, “The pies are burning, ” and she hit the kitchen,
And it was Jane who spoke, she said, “It’s true, your cousin’s not a Christian, ”
“But we love trees, we love the snow, the friends we have, the world we share,
And you find magic from your God, and we find magic everywhere.“

Song 7 was recommended by the convenors of U3A Warwick’s Music Show; indigenous man Mitch Tambo singing ‘Silent Night’ in language. I shared this with my niece in New Zealand who is a big Marlon Williams fan. Mitch’s voice is equally impressive.

‘Carol of the Bells’(8) is an old Ukrainian folk tune. This version is from the soundtrack of the 1990 hit movie Home Alone.

As we think about Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and other countries which need peaceful thoughts, here is John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Happy Christmas/War is Over’ (9).

Macca is broadcasting his last Australia all Over for 2022 on Sunday so it’s a fair bet he’ll include ‘Carol of the Birds’. (10).

This delightful Australian song with authentic Down Under imagery is from the album Bucko and Champs (Colin Buchanan and Greg Champion).

I mentioned to my niece’s witty 15-year-old last month that I’d not heard the Mariah Carey Christmas song reportedly played to death at this time of year. He replied, “Oh yes, that’s the song you hear in shopping centres, giving their poor workers PTSD.”

I’m sparing you Mariah’s vocal gymnastics on ‘All I want for Christmas is You’ in favour of a traditional Irish folk song. This recording of the ‘Wexford Carol’ (11) features Alison Krauss, better known for collaborations with bluegrass band Union Station and duets with husband Robert Plant (Raising Sand). Here she is joined by master cellist YoYo Ma and an ensemble of class musicians.

Finally, the ‘Twelve Days Of Christmas’, an annoyingly repetitive song which in 1984 gave birth to a quirky set of economic indicators. The Christmas Price Index and the True Cost of Christmas measure the nominal and cumulative values of the gifts given by the True Love. In 2021, the commodity price index assessed the nominal value at $41,205 and the cumulative value at $179,454. An example is the four calling birds (they use canaries), which are mentioned nine times. Canaries go for around $300 in the US so the cumulative value of the gift from Ms True Love is $10,700. You follow?

Not that this would have occurred to Bing Crosby when he recorded the song with the Andrews Sisters in 1949. Bing’s been dead for 45 years but regardless has 25 million Spotify followers. Now that’s what I’d call a commodity.

Have a great Christmas and drive carefully.

Christmas cards or emails?

christmas-cards-emails — The world over, the mail must get through – image by Brazilian photographer Alexandre Fukugava www.pixabay.com

Last week I posted a handful of Christmas cards to New Zealand. The woman in the post office frowned and said I’d missed the deadline for international post.

“But it’s only New Zealand, so they will probably get there,” she added, with a slow, small country town smile.

I’m not so confident. The record time taken for mail exchanged between my sister and I was 17 days in 2020. Blimey, I could have flown over and hand-delivered it, enjoying a two-week holiday at the same time.

Those of you with family members living abroad know of the annual dilemma. Is it Christmas cards in the post and/or calendars, an animated ecard or an email with a word document of the family’s highlights through the year?

The problem with the annual epistle is that some years are just crap. Nothing good happened and you didn’t go anywhere, right?

I have more or less faithfully kept up the tradition of sending cards in the mail, not expecting one in return, since moving to Australia in the mid-1970s (stamps then cost 10c).

When we were both working, we’d shop for Australian calendars and post them to relatives in New Zealand, Canada and the UK. We stopped doing this once the cost of postage became more than the cost of the calendars.

Last month, I had a reminder email from animated ecard producer Jacquie Lawson, who offers cards for all occasions. The reminder was that my $20 subscription was about to lapse. It was a shock to find I had sent only five ecards in 12 months. I must be old school after all.

I’m not renewing, but if you decide (on December 23, after counting the unsolicited cards on the tree and mantel piece), that you should reciprocate, it’s easy to sign up and deliver an impressive ecard.

The first Christmas card was issued in 1843 by UK civil servant, inventor and entrepreneur Henry Cole, the first director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Cole was instrumental in reforming the British postal system, helping to set up the Uniform Penny Post. This system encouraged the sending of seasonal greetings on decorated letterheads and visiting cards. Struck by the idea of creating a greeting card of his own, Henry asked his friend, artist John Callcott Horsley, to illustrate it.

Horsley’s design depicts the Cole family raising a toast in a central, hand-coloured panel surrounded by a decorative trellis and black and white scenes depicting acts of giving.

Cole commissioned a printer to transfer the design onto cards, printing a thousand copies that could be personalised with a hand-written greeting. The issue (at a shilling each), was described as a commercial failure.

Cole would have been fascinated to see how his idea blossomed into a multi-billion-dollar business. The greetings card industry is in a spot of trouble now, as digital options make sending greetings cheaper and faster.

Marketing group researchandmarkets.com released projections that showed global greetings card sales would drop 17% from $23 billion in 2020 to $20.9 billion in 2026. Reasons for the decline include the popularity of social media platforms and messaging apps such as WhatsApp.

“Despite the challenges posed by the growing social media and e-cards, there still exists a niche consumer base for physical greeting cards,” a spokesman said.

“Giving and receiving these cards continues to matter to a set of consumers, albeit a shrinking one. For this niche group of consumers, a physical greeting card on special occasions means much more than a Facebook message or an e-card.”

Last year, the Australia Post network delivered around one million fewer letters every working day than prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

A spokesman told FOMM the network did not differentiate between Christmas mail and regular letters so could not produce meaningful statistics. But as a guide, the annual Santa Mail program last year received more than 118,000 letters bound for the North Pole!

Australia Post is one of Australia’s most successful companies, posting revenue of $8.3 billion for 2021 and pre-tax profit of $100.7 million.

“This is a strong result, with our domestic parcels business continuing to go from strength to strength, while we retained our position as a market leader with parcel and services revenue growth of 17.7%,” acting CEO Rodney Boys said in the 2021 annual report.

Revenue was driven by a record peak period, with more than 52 million parcels delivered in December alone. The organisation is continually finding new ways to take advantage of the growth in ecommerce (more than one million households now shop on-line each month). Australia Post has developed well beyond a simple service for mail delivery. The network supports banking and bill-paying services for major institutions.

My recent application to renew my Australian passport (at the post office), for example, cost $307.00 plus $27.95 for passport photos, taken by Australia Post.

(Ed: He has some spares if you’d like an autographed one).

The Australian Passport Office delivered my new passport by registered mail ($4.45) in just under four weeks so obviously the Passport Office/Australia Post collaboration is working well.

The strong growth in ecommerce and parcel home delivery has coincided with an ongoing decline in the volume of letters, however. Revenue dropped from $2.33 billion in 2017 to $1.77 billion in 2021.

As a trustee of a self managed super fund, I can vouch that all companies which issue shares promote electronic delivery of annual reports and other correspondence. All of the institutions and government agencies with which we have dealings also push hard to convert their clients to on-line interaction.

Despite my earlier observation about the time taken for mail to arrive in New Zealand, Australia Post boasts a 94% delivered on time record for letters and parcels. If the letter/parcel you are expecting is late, it is probably someone else’s fault.

There are 7,950 postal routes in Australia, some requiring a marathon effort to traverse. We should be grateful for the 10,000 ‘Posties’ who battle rain, hail, bushfire smoke, steaming hot days and aggressive dogs.

No laughing matter that, with Australia Post confirming that more than 1,000 posties have been attacked by household dogs in the past six months. Nibbler used to bark at the postie, or more accurately at the scooter as it whizzed past. I went out one day to introduce the dog, thinking it would make him less likely to bark and run along the fence. Our local postman said it was ‘traditional’ for dogs to bark at posties.

I hope this has inspired you to get out your address book and start writing in cards (buy a box of cards from a charity and do two good deeds in one).

A study by the University of Limerick concluded that the act of sending (and receiving) Christmas cards can help alleviate depression. Moreover, if someone who always sends you a card suddenly doesn’t, this can be a red flag.

“If you do not hear from someone who regularly sends you a Christmas card, it might be worth checking in with them to spread some Christmas cheer,” said Dr Jennifer McMahon, a lecturer in psychology at UL and study co-author.

You have seven days.

Postscript: I wrote an irony-laden Christmas song which has been described as ‘a bit dark’ by someone who saw a preview. Not suitable for children.

Some notes about the Christmas feast

christmas-feat-pavlova — Pavlova photo Kathysg www.pixabay.com

We were at the butcher shop, 18 days before Christmas, buying enough for this week’s meals and also a month’s supply of dog meat. Before he even knew what we wanted, Wayne the butcher asked – “How are you going for pet mince?” Since I’d just cooked the last one, this was most prescient of him.
Then I spotted a leg of ham in the display cabinet. I nudged She Who Organises Almost Everything.
“Have you ordered the Christmas ham?
“Ah, no, I haven’t. Thanks for reminding me.”
Then She and Wayne got into a technical discussion about the preferred size, did she want the leg end or the other end and, did we want it scored (scored?).
“Yes,” says SWOAE, “And put the flap back on it. Please.”

SWOAE ordered an organic leg of ham last year and was disappointed. As I recall it was a bit dry and a sort of drab grey colour. So yeh, this year we’re going with the standard 4kg leg of ham, a jolly pink colour, which, as you may gather, is artificially added.
Our small Christmas family gathering is a co-operative affair. Everyone brings something. We are bringing the ham and the pavlova. Son Number One doesn’t know it yet, but he’s bringing Bon Bons and those nuggety chocolates with a French name.
Our sister-in-law will no doubt cook up one or more of turkey, duck, pork and chicken and my brother-in-law and/or nephew will go on a quest for prawns. Salads will mysteriously appear, with ingredients from our combined gardens.
One thing about Wayne the butcher, he makes sure the legs of ham are produced locally. None of this ‘contains ingredients from Slovakia’ or whatever. When did that start happening? In case you did not know, 70% percent of processed ham and pork sold in Australia is made in other countries (source: Australian Pork).

This week’s FOMM was inspired by this encounter at the butcher’s shop and a classic movie we watched on Monday night –”Babette’s Feast”.
A French chef, exiled during the Franco-Prussian war, is taken in as a housekeeper by a pair of pious sisters who live in a remote village in Denmark. After winning 10,000 francs in the lottery, Babette determines to spend it all on a French banquet for the village’s small, cloistered community. The strictly religious villagers deduce from seeing Babette take delivery of a turtle, live quails and crates of wine, that the banquet will be the ‘devil’s work’. But they make a pact to say nothing about the food, in which case they won’t be struck by a bolt of holy lightning. Something like that.
That strange, allegorical movie got me to thinking about the Christmas lunch/dinner and why we go overboard on rich food, most of which we only eat at this time of year.

Take Christmas pudding, for example. In recent years my niece has turned out a traditional boiled pudding from a 1930s recipe handed down by Nana Ruby. She has a little stash of sixpences which are hidden in the mix and latched upon by the children (who swap the coins for real money).
According to various accounts, Christmas pudding evolved in the 14^th century in the UK, at that time, more of a porridge. In poorer parts of the UK it was regarded as the main Christmas meal.
Nutritionist Hazel Flight, writing in The Conversation, describes what was then known as ‘frumenty’. It was made with hulled wheat, boiled in milk, seasoned with cinnamon and coloured with saffron. It was associated with meatless days, lent and advent and was often served as a plain dish. Other recipes included beef, mutton, raisins, currants, prunes, wines and spices. Ms Flight says the Christmas pudding evolved further in the 17^th century, thickened with eggs, breadcrumbs, dried fruit and beer or spirits. The Victorians tweaked the recipe further to produce what we now know as the traditional Christmas pudding, usually served with brandy sauce, brandy butter or custard. (Ed: 21^st century additions include lactose-free cream and/or icecream).

Ms Flight’s research into Christmas pudding uncovered the religious connotations. A Christmas pudding should have 13 ingredients – representing Jesus and the 12 disciples. Traditional ingredients in modern times include: raisins, currants, suet, brown sugar, breadcrumbs, citron, lemon peel, orange peel, flour, mixed spices, eggs, milk and brandy. Brandy is poured over the pudding and set alight. The flaming brandy is said to represent the passion of Christ. Assuming you have not set fire to the tablecloth or decorations and the flames have fizzled out, this is the best time to say Amen.

My Dad the baker put a lot of work into turning out Christmas goodies, including his famous fruit mince tarts. He would make up a dried fruit mix at least a month before Christmas, steep it in alcohol and leave it to mature. One thing about Candyland (the family bakery), there was never any waste. Everyone in town knew about the old-school baker from Scotland who produced high-quality cakes and pastries. By 2pm on Christmas Eve, everything had been sold.
In Australia, Christmas lunches have veered away from the British tradition of roasted meats and vegetables. Aussies favour seafood, barbecue-prepared foods, cold meats and salads, followed by pavlova and fruit.
SWOAE says she is going to top the pavlova with kiwifruit, one of the four common fruit toppings (passionfruit, strawberries or blueberries). I would like to point out that the kiwifruit did not evolve in New Zealand, despite its name. The fruit was originally known as Chinese gooseberry and had been grown on China’s mainland for centuries. New Zealand has appropriated the small hairy fruit and made it a national treasure. It grows well in the north of the country and can evidently be exported to Australia at a price that competes with locally-grown produce.
The fruit has been known as kiwifruit since Auckland-based agricultural company Turner & Growers shipped its first consignment to the US in 1959.

This example of cultural appropriation is one thing, but what about pavlova, the origins of which are claimed by both Australia and New Zealand? The meringue cake dessert was named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured both countries in the 1920s.
New Zealander Dr Andrew Paul Wood and Australian Annabelle Utrecht met while debating pavlova’s origins on a mutual friend’s Facebook post. They started digging deeper and were surprised to find the history goes back a lot further.
They spent seven years piecing together what Utrecht described as a “culinary jigsaw puzzle”. A BBC travel feature said the pair originally planned to make a short documentary, but they realised the pavlova story was not just a trans-Tasman battle. They decided to write a book, Beat Until Stiff: The Secret History of the Pavlova and a Social History of Meringue Desserts.

This topic brings back a memory of Dad in the bakery performing his party trick. He’d take an egg in each hand, crack them and in one motion separate the white from the yolk – a perfect result every time. Egg whites are, of course, the classic ingredient to make meringue cake.
My contribution to Christmas lunch will be loading eskies in and out of the car and making sure I have a goodly supply of de-alcoholised wine.
Someone has to drive!

Footnote: It has come to my attention that some episodes of FOMM may be lurking in gmail’s promotions folder. If you manually transfer them to your inbox the email should then be delivered there.

All of a Twitter about social media

twitter-social-media — Chart of Twitter demographics courtesy of Genroe

If you have a Twitter account you may be a bit troubled by the disruption to the business model as the new owner, Elon Musk, flexes his considerable financial muscle. There are 5.8 million Twitter accounts in Australia, the eighth largest in the world. Still, of the 1.3 billion Twitter accounts worldwide, only 192 million are actively used. The stats were uncovered in an ABC discussion about how relevant Twitter is to people.

Twitter is a social networking service launched in March 2006. The San Francisco-based company hosts a microblogging site on which users post and interact with “tweets”. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters (one or two sentences). This was doubled to 280 characters in late 2017. The required brevity attracted writers, journalists, comedians and academics keen to demonstrate their skill in making a concise point. It also attracted minorities who otherwise had no voice.

As Twitter devotee Mr Shiraz said when I joined: ‘say something original, clever or witty.’ He added: “Be careful who you follow or they will make your life a misery!”

Over time Twitter became the ideal way to break news and all journalists found themselves inextricably tied to their ‘Twitter feed.’ Twitter also became the darling of propagandists (of the left and the right), the most obvious example being former US president Donald Trump. Posting under the handle, The Real Donald Trump, the US leader for a long while started conversations on policy with the public at large, bypassing the hierarchical chain of command.

In 2021, after the January 6 attacks on the Capitol building, Facebook banned Trump from posting and a day later Twitter issued a permanent ban, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

The Conversation last week wrote about the latest developments at Twitter, which was bought by Elon Musk for $44 billion. Writers Daniel Angus and Timothy Graham said it was clear that Musk was “intent on taking Twitter in a direction “at odds with the prevailing cultures of its diverse users”.

Amid reports of Twitter users quitting the platform for alternatives like Mastadon and Hive Social, Musk began reinstating high-profile users – including Donald Trump and Kanye West. Both had been banned for repeated violations of community standards. Trump in the meantime set up his own social media site (Truth Social).

Elon Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in late October, seven months after he first made a bid for the listed company. What quickly followed was a mass exodus of Twitter staff, including thousands that Musk fired via email. Those who remained were warned they would have to face hard working conditions. Not surprisingly, there is much angst about the future of the privatised Twitter.

Just this week Musk has removed the policy that stopped people posting Covid misinformation. Reasonable people everywhere said ‘why?’

Forbes magazine said many Twitter users are worried about degradation on both the technical and content moderation sides. This is a particular worry in light of Elon Musk allowing suspended accounts to rejoin, with fewer people left to police hateful content.

This week Musk complained about Apple removing its advertising from Twitter and accused Apple of threatening to ban the software from its App Store. Apple has said nothing public about this, although Musk now tells us the ban is off. It’s a good example of what we can now expect from Musk. He has taken the company private, which means he no longer has to make public disclosures, unless it is in his interest, that is.

Forbes reported on the sudden rush of support for a tech startup, Hive Social. In early November Hive announced it had reached a million users, broken through crowdfunding goals and was adding more than 100,000 users a day.

Writer Paul Stassi speculated that it was a matter of Twitter users opening a Hive Social account ‘just in case.”

Stassi points out that Hive Social is a new tech company run by just two people. While it appears to imitate Twitter to some extent, there are many things you can’t do on Hive that Twitter users take for granted.

Twitter’s enduring slogan is ‘don’t miss out – Twitter is the first to know what’s going on.’

A quick check on Saturday morning (the Victorian election), @PRGuy17 tweeted in Report from Mulgrave: “this is the first time I have ever felt unsafe while voting … they literally circled around me and blocked my path.” By 11.44am Victorian time, 1,995 people had ‘liked’ this and 399 retweeted the post, which meant it spread to the followers of more twitter accounts.

In the Twitterverse, other users comment and the original tweeter responds (or not). A conversation develops. If the interest is manifest, Twitter will declare that the topic is ‘trending’. That’s all fine and good and democratic unless you don’t want to be that up to date.

In short, a 74-year-old retired journalist has no real use for following a Twitter feed (all day and night as some people seem to do). I do post FOMM there every week but have no way of knowing which of my followers read it. The one exciting thing that happened to me on Twitter, a well-known Australian musician and songwriter tweeted: “@Bobwords48 is Bob Wilson, who wrote Underneath the Story Bridge. Who knew?”

Australians are in love with social media in general, but Twitter not so much. Marketing company Genroe says that as of February 2022, 21.45 million Australians were active users of social media (82.7% of the Australian population). That’s a 4.6% increase on 12 months before. Key statistics drawn from the research include

98% of Australian users access social media via a mobile device;
Australians spend an average of 1 hour 57 minutes per day on social media;
Australians have one of the lowest number of social media accounts per person in the world (7.2);
52% use Social Media as a source of news (the world average is 55%).
30.3% use Social Media when looking for information about a brand.

YouTube (78.2%) and Facebook (77.7%) are tied for the most popular social media platforms in Australia. A survey of people aged 13 and over declared Facebook (27.1%) as their most favoured social site platform. YouTube was excluded from this survey, which showed Instagram in second place (16.2%) followed by Messenger (9.0%), WhatsApp (6.1%), TikTok (6.0%), SnapChat (4.2%) and Twitter (2.8%). As for leaving the Twitter platform because you fear what kind of content may be permitted (or banned) under the new regime, here’s a few thoughts. There were many instances of fake news, fake accounts, flagged content, spam, harassment, trolling and mis-leading commentary under the old Twitter. Despite moderation, there is still a fair bit of aggro (Australian expression meaning aggression), defamatory comment and hate speak. I look at my semi-active Twitter account with its series of links to our website and think ‘what’s the worst that could happen?In terms of relevancy to “our” demographic, the over-50s comprise only 17.1% of Twitter accounts worldwide. As for @PRGuy17, by 3.39 on Saturday afternoon his 9.08am tweet about intimidation at a Victoria polling booth had been liked by 3,023 users and retweeted (shared) 580 times. As is the Twitter way, the story made its way into mainstream news bulletins. This one tiny example plucked from the Twitterverse is a good example of how free speech and democracy works. I can’t see regular Twitter users (of the left or the right) giving away the opportunity to engage in unfettered public discourse about things that matter.

@bobwords48

*Today is the 50^th anniversary of the Whitlam government’s historic election win. In case you missed my musical take on this era: https://thegoodwills.bandcamp.com/track/when-whitlam-took-his-turn-at-the-wheel

Keeping track of company directors

insolvency-phoenix-companies — Image: Locked gates, Jody Davis www.pixabay.com

It’s been nine years since someone suggested a way to stop company directors from avoiding creditors by creating a ‘Phoenix’ company.

‘Phoenixing’ describes the process when a new business arises from the ashes of a liquidated company. It’s a loophole that allows unscrupulous people to leave their debts behind with the liquidated company and start afresh (leaving creditors out in the cold).

The total cost of Phoenixing to the Australian economy is estimated to be between $2.9 billion and $5.1 billion annually, according to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). It is typically done by transferring assets to the new entity (leaving liabilities with the old company). ‘Dummy’ directors are used to set up the new company. Dummy directors play no actual role in the company. Liquidators and investigators have uncovered instances of people who had no idea they were a director of their spouse’s company. They have also found homeless people, distant relatives, fictitious names and variations on real names. (Donald Duck is apparently a director of several companies. Ed.)

The Phoenix Project, an academic investigation, has long been investigating this tactic and how people get away with it.

The project was initially set up by Professor Helen Anderson, then of the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with Monash University. She first suggested using a 12-point identity check in 2013 and it was one of the key recommendations in the 2017 Phoenix Project report.

The first problem for corporate enforcers is that setting up a new company while the other is in liquidation is technically legal. There have been many instances when a new company legitimately arises from the wreckage of an insolvent one (company restructures, buyouts, rescues etc).

These arrangements are usually supervised and strive to ensure creditors and employees are paid what they are owed.

The illegal Phoenix company, however, ignores creditors and allows the principals to continue in business unchallenged.

I’m sure we’ve all read about the more egregious examples. They usually happen in the construction industry. Subcontractors and tradies turn up to the building site as usual, only to find the gates locked and the ‘boss’ nowhere to be found. While liquidators take over the business, these unsecured creditors take their place at the end of the queue. Meanwhile, the principals have a new banner at a site elsewhere in town. This gives the media plenty to rant about, but it solves nothing.

Writing in The Conversation in 2016, Prof Anderson said the aim of illegal phoenix activity was to defraud taxation authorities, trade creditors and employees. She said the practice is widespread in Australia, with a Productivity Commission report in 2015 finding there were between 2,000 to 6,000 phoenix companies operating here. A Senate Economics References Committee inquiring into the Australian construction industry found illegal phoenix activity was a problem “throughout the economy”. The committee suggested it was “a significant culture of disregard for the law”.

The long-running exercise to stop this happening is being driven by the Australian Taxation Office, which is at the top of the creditor queue. In a new regime, the ATO is bringing 30 different business registries under the one entity, Australian Business Registry Services.

ABRS deputy registrar Karen Foat said this would allow regulators and advisors to obtain a more complete picture of a director’s corporate history. Ms Foat said it would also help authorities crack down on illegal phoenix firms.

“These are companies that time and time again wind up their firms leaving employees without salary, entitlements and superannuation, as well as leaving contractors, other businesses and government in the lurch,” she wrote in an Australian Financial Review feature.

Ah…so you didn’t know? The deadline is November 30 and if you don’t apply in time you are liable to a fine of up to $13,000.

There are 2.5 million company directors in Australia, with more than 1 million of them yet to apply for their unique, 15-digit Director ID number (DIN). An ABC item updated this week reported that more than 1.5 million directors had applied for (and had been issued with) a DIN since it was introduced in April last year. This leaves about one million directors who have just five days to apply.

A DIN is a unique identifier given to a director who has verified their identity with the ATO. It is much like the 12-point identity check we all endure to open a bank account.

Until this process began in 2021, company directors could be signed up without much in the way of verification.

She Who is Also a Director signed up for a DIN, as did I. It was a bit of a palaver as you had to use the Federal Government’s myGovID mobile phone app. I already had an account but had to go through several stringent steps to prove my identity. #wehatetechnology

Those who need to apply include company directors, corporate trustees (of an SMSF) and directors of charities and not-for-profit organisations. In short, anything registered under the Corporations Act, including directors of foreign companies registered with ASIC and carrying on business in Australia (no matter where they live).

The ATO acknowledges that the vast majority of company directors behave with ‘extreme probity’, which is consistent with the trust the Australian community places in them.

Yes indeed, we acted with said extreme probity when applying for our director ID last month. The one major problem with a 15-digit number is, how the hell do you remember it? Oh right. Log on to your ABRS account and voila. No hackers here.

We mentioned this topic briefly a few weeks back when investigating the flurry of data breaches and hacking going on within large organisations. Ironically, ASIC warned company directors last month that email and text scammers were posing as the ABRS. As always, do not click on links or divulge your personal details in these instances. It’s not called ‘phishing’ for nothing.

Prof Anderson, who has since retired from the University of Melbourne’s School of Law, said the issuing of a DIN would enable tracking of directors who have been involved in multiple failed companies. It would also reveal fictitious directors, the bane of credit rating agencies and the ATO.

“Requiring would-be directors to quote their DIN on applications to incorporate companies would let ASIC build a valuable database of directors’ corporate histories, helping it to identify repeat offenders and candidates for disqualification from managing corporations.”

I’ll admit this week’s FOMM is a little arcane, reporting on a topic you only ever read about in law and accountancy journals.

But we all ought to be concerned about rorts that potentially cheat the country of up to $5.1 billion a year. Almost everyone would know of a subbie or tradie who got burnt in circumstances just as outlined here.

I’m sure you will agree that everything would work better if we all acted with ‘extreme probity’.

I initially misread this as ‘extreme Proby’ which says a bit about my youthful musical obsessions. Probity means ‘complete and confirmed integrity, uprightness and honesty’. Proby (with a PJ) means a deep voiced pop singer whose best-known hits were songs from West Side Story.

Leaving you with an offering from DJ Probity.

‘Tis the season of charitable giving

charities-hunger-relief — Image: Hunger relief charity Foodbank Australia

When our internet landline rings (rarely), I know for certain it will be my sister in New Zealand or Guide Dogs Australia asking for “Mrs Wilson”. She Who Gives to Charity Sometimes is like most of us. If she feels inclined to donate to a charity, she likes to do it on her terms. Guide Dogs Australia is a worthy charity that we support in several small ways (calendars, Christmas cards and so on). In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Guide Dogs volunteers will offer gift wrapping at selected shopping centres. There is usually a dog to pat too.

If you have an email subscription to a charity like the Salvos, Lifeline or Red Cross, they do like to remind you that they’re there. On Monday I had an email from the CEO of Lifeline, Colin Seery. He began: “Christmas is upon us. People will need us. We have to be ready for what could be the busiest days we have ever faced.

“The festive season brings additional challenges to charities which support people in need. In 2021 Lifeline received over 98,000 calls in December, a record for that time of year.

“It’s sobering to think that of all the hardship we’ve faced over the past few years,” Mr Seery wrote, “The festive season remains overwhelming for so many.”

Lifeline says it needs to raise $328,000 to ensure people find the support they’re looking for when contacting Lifeline.

The major problem for fund-raisers – and who knew there are 57,5000 charities in Australia – is that there is a lot of competition for a limited pool of money set aside for ‘giving’. Organisations which offer similar services to Lifeline (The Salvation Army, St Vincents, The Smith Family, Beyond Blue etc), all have their collection tins out at this time of year.

On a global scale, there are the large charities like Red Cross, Save the Children and World Vision. They draw funding from affluent Australians and those who donate as their means dictate.

As the weeks roll by, you can expect to hear about the need for Christmas food hampers and why flooding in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia will make them difficult to deliver. The ABC reported on events unfolding in southern states as suppliers struggle to source food hampers.

Hunger relief charity Foodbank said it had “real challenges” supplying its 1,000 charity partners and schools in New South Wales and the ACT. Chief executive John Robertson said fresh produce and sources of protein were particularly hard to secure when the pressures of natural disasters were factored in.

Foodbank Australia, which organises food hampers for needy Australians on a regular basis, has a big demand this year for its Christmas appeal. Mr Robertson told the ABC that even though production had been lifted from 20,000 hampers last year to 30,000, it was still not going to be enough. Christmas hampers include canned leg ham, Christmas cake, pudding & custard, along with a range of staple foods such as pasta, cereal, canned fruit and vegetables. Foodbank also does this in other states and territories, along with organisations including Anglicare, The Salvation Army, OzHarvest and FoodAssist.

A Foodbank spokeswoman told FOMM the supply chain issues include the recent freight train derailment, which will cut off a main route. The floods in both Victoria and New South Wales in very rich food-producing areas have also disrupted operations, she said.

There is clearly a demonstrable need for charitable organisations to provide food, clothing and shelter for those whose needs are not being met. It is comforting to know the scale of the not-for-profit sector, as outlined by its regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). As of 2021, there were 57,500 registered charities in Australia and another 600,000 not-for-profits. The latter are commonly small community groups put together for a specific purpose and not all are charities. If they are incorporated they can raise funds if needed, but fund-raising is not usually their core business.

The difficulty for smaller charities is that when they do need to raise funds, for whatever reason, they are competing with the big end of town.

The ACNC report on Australian charities shows that 65% of them are rated small (annual revenue of $250,000 or less). Medium charities are ranked as those with annual revenue of $250,000 to $1 million (16%). Large charities (19% of the total), have annual revenue of $1 million or more. One-third of small not-for-profits are uber-small – revenue of $50,000 a year or less.

The charity sector in Australia overall employs 1.2 million people – 10% of the country’s workforce, the majority employed by large charities.

McCrindle Research says charitable giving is deeply ingrained in the Australian psyche, with 82% of people giving to not-for-profit organisations in some capacity. Of these, 61% believe that not-for-profits are an essential pathway for Australians to fulfil their human duty of providing hands-on-help to others in need.

David Crosbie, CEO of the Community Council for Australia (CCA) said the sector had been transformed in just two decades.

“A charity space shackled with red tape in 2000 and lacking even a legal definition of its powers and purpose has (been) transformed into a vibrant sector with an effective regulator and legally-enshrined advocacy rights.

“But as the number of charities has grown, so too has the sector’s reliance on government funding.

“This in turn has increased the scrutiny on charities to be effective, as more organisations are forced to compete for fewer resources.”

Mr Crosbie, writing in Pro Bono Australia’s annual report in 2020, said the biggest win for the sector was the establishment through the Charities Act 2013 of a clear legal definition of a charity. This definition included advocacy as a core activity for NFPs(Not For Profits).

Charities had fight again to protect their hard-won status in 2017. The Federal Government’s foreign donations bill threatened to curtail the sector’s advocacy rights, by broadening registration and disclosure requirements for non-party political actors including charities. (Could have been termed the ‘Anti ‘GetUP’ bill’. Ed)The sector successfully campaigned to amend the bill, arguing it would stifle advocacy and impose unnecessary red tape on many NFP organisations.

Flooding and subsequent clean-ups in NSW, Victoria and South Australia will make it difficult for families to regroup in time to celebrate Christmas. For those of us who live in places not affected by floods, look around and you’ll become aware of organisations that provide hunger relief for people who need it.

Foodbank, which is based in South Australia, operates nationally. The organisation sourced 48.1 million kilograms of food and groceries in 2021, equating to 86.7 million meals or 238,000 meals per day. Foodbank partners with farmers, growers and retailers including major supermarket chains to deliver food boxes to charities for distribution to those most in need.

A Foodbank report released in October showed that more than 2 million households in Australia ran out of food in the last year, due to limited finances. This meant sometimes skipping meals or going whole days without eating. About 1.3 million children lived in food insecure households during that time. Demand for hunger relief services is now higher than it was during the pandemic – much of it to do with the roll back of JobSeeker in early 2021.

Whether it’s with the aim of helping people right now or to lift spirits at Christmas, you can help. A donation of $50 can provide a hamper to a family in need.

The joy of short films

joy-short-films — Gympie’s Heart of Gold short film festival

The phrase most often heard during a four-day short film festival is that film-making, in particular short films, is a ‘labour of love‘.By that, the film-maker means he/she/they did not make a bean out of it – in fact probably lost money.

Gympie’s Heart of Gold International short film festival was held last weekend after a two-year hiatus through the Covid pandemic.

Festival director Jackson Lapsley Scott waded through 914 short movies from Australia and around the world to end up with a 170-film programme. We arrived at noon on Friday so despite the late start (the festival opened on Thursday night), we did well to sit through 32 movies, including two sessions under moonlight in an arena at the Gympie Showgrounds.

We’d been to this festival previously and found it most entertaining and absorbing. The joy of watching short films is, if you are not enjoying it, there’s only 10 or 15 minutes to sit through. Some of the films were really short. The endearing Irish animation, Gunter Falls in Love, runs for just two minutes. Gunter is a pudgy pug who falls in love on Christmas Day. The story is almost entirely conveyed with eye movements and sight gags. I’m not such a fan of animated movies, but at this festival there were some outstanding examples of the genre.

Some combine live action film with animated characters – this was first done to effect in 1988 with the acclaimed Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Who could forget the curvaceous character Jessica, who tells horny Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins): “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way!”

Wildebeest is a 20-minute film about a middle-aged couple who go on a trip of a lifetime safari only to be left behind with the wild animals in the South African savannah. This somewhat raunchy satire is darkly amusing. There were others that caught my attention – an Australian animation (Reboot), about an out of work skeleton actor whose famous old movie is being re-made using digital technology. Skel’s not giving up without a fight.

Festival director Jackson Lapsley Scott’s name cropped up in a couple of movies as ‘executive producer’. I asked him did that mean he put up the money?

He explained that he had worked with Screen Queensland to help produce the movies, Thea Goes To Town and The Moths Will Eat Them Up. His role was to help facilitate script development, oversee budgets and be involved in other producer roles. Each film was allocated $50,000, which is quite generous in that some independent shorts are made with a $500 catering budget and a team of volunteers,

“With that sort of budget you can pay people properly. Fifty thousand might sound like a lot of money for a 12-minute film, but it can disappear very quickly.”

The Heart of Gold Festival was staged this year with the help of a $180,000 Federal Government RISE grant.

The Federal Government invested $200 million in the RISE programme to help arts organisations rebuild after Covid setbacks.

Jackson said the grant was vital to organising this year’s festival at a time when local sponsorship had dwindled due to the negative effects of Covid and floods and volunteer interest needing to be rebuilt. The grant also meant the festival could stage some free events to engage the local community.

“We probably would have been dead in the water or a very different looking festival without it,” he said.

“The grant allowed us to appoint people to paid positions and start rebuilding the festival after two years off.”

Fortunately, audience numbers this year were higher than usual. So although the budget is yet to be finalised, safe to say HOG will be back in 2023.

“We were expecting numbers to be lower because of the way audiences responded to Covid,” Jackson said. “We were very heartened by the response.”

Heart of Gold took some short films on the road in late June to promote the festival, visiting Maryborough, Toowoomba, Pomona and Maleny. Jackson said the promotional tour was successful, so is planning to do it again next year and extend it to seven locations.

This year, the festival moved from its traditional home (the Gympie Civic Centre) to the showgrounds, making the most of the extra space, staging live music, an outdoor cinema, talks, workshops and podcasts.

The festival was not without some hiccups, including a savage storm on Thursday evening which brought strong winds, rain and hail. The storm damaged some of the festival’s outdoor tents and equipment and there was a blackout. But someone found a generator and a battery-powered PA, so the show went on!

The motivation for film-makers entering movies in a festival like Heart of Gold is that films are seen by a new audience and some are nominated for awards, judged by a panel of experts. Apart from cash prizes, winning awards brings street cred in the cinema business.

While there was a strong contingent of Australian films, there were worthy offerings from around the world. This year Heart of Gold introduced an audience’s choice award (won by The Invention).

This endearing 18-minute Irish film focuses on a Belfast lad who hatches a plan to steal cigarettes (for a good cause).

My favourite was Where is my Darling, a documentary about a homeless man, Lanz Priestley. Lanz organised distribution of bottled water during the drought to remote settlements in New South Wales. A charismatic character, he built up Dignity Water just using his mobile phone and a Facebook page.

Heart of Gold is one of 25 or more film festivals held in Australian cities and towns but is billed as the country’s biggest rural festival. It’s been going for 16 years, albeit with an absence during three of those years.

It’s plain to see there is no shortage of material. Heart of Gold’s brief is to find films that are positive and uplifting. But as Jackson said, post-Covid a lot of filmmakers focused on the darker side of life so it was difficult to find a balance.

The Best Short Film award was won by Like The Ones I Used To Know (Canada) directed by Annie St-Pierre. This is a bitter-sweet tale of a recently divorced man who visits his ex-in-laws on Christmas Eve to pick up his children.

Best Australian film, What Was It Like, was directed by Genevieve Clay-Smith. In this documentary, eight film-makers with intellectual disabilities interview their parents about what it was like when doctors delivered their diagnosis.

Which brings us to the question – where can you see movies like this if you don’t go to film festivals?

Many are available (free) on internet video platforms including YouTube and Vimeo. A link to the aforementioned Wildebeest is included here (don’t shoot the messenger!)

I’m wondering what it would take to convince the big cinema chains to reinstate the tradition of ‘shorts’ which used to precede feature films? It would be handy too if the big chains paid to screen the shorts, deriving much-needed income for independent film makers around the world.

Until that happens, the independent short film makers get by through applying for grants and asking sponsors and supporters for money. Many of the short films we saw stated in the credits that the film could not have been made without crowdfunding through the likes of Pozible, Go Fund Me and Kickstarter. As long-standing FOMM readers may remember, I canvassed the topic of crowdfunding back in 2015, as it was emerging. Good to see crowdfunding still supporting independent movies, art, theatre and music.

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Halloween, Guy Fawkes and other imports

As Halloween (and Guy Fawkes) is almost upon us, I decided to revisit a post from 2015, which, statistics suggest, most of you missed.

The prediction in 1940-something that Mother’s new bairn would be born in late October may have caused some angst. In Scotland, those of a superstitious nature would have been in a ‘swither’ (a state of nervous agitation). But “no worries” as we say in Australia, or ‘nae bother’ – I was born before Halloween.

One friend says that apart from it being her birthday, October 31 is a ‘non-event’. But her American friends are horrified, in a swither, even, because of the (pagan) tradition that deems the 31st to be the date departed spirits return to earth.

I have vague early childhood memories of Halloween in Scotland where bairns wear ghost costumes and go door knocking. You don’t get something for nothing in Scotland. You had to sing, dance or recite poetry to be rewarded with a sweetie.

Cultural invasion

Meanwhile, the traditions of Halloween, or to be more precise, the retail world’s version, have been imported to Australia, but is struggling to attract a new audience.

One in four Australians said they’d be celebrating Halloween in 2022, spending $430 million, according to the Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan.

McCrindle Research uncovered much the same in 2011. Of the 26% of Australians who planned to celebrate Halloween (in 2010), more than half were primary school aged children planning to ‘get spooky’.

As I write this, supermarkets in this town have stocked up on orange pumpkins – the ones most favoured to carve lanterns. The ‘Jack O’ Lantern’ and various witch and ghost costumes accompany ‘trick and treaters’ as they go door to door hoping for candy (lollies).

A former colleague, also an October 31 baby, says he was spared trick and treaters for years by virtue of living in an inner-city apartment, where door knockers rarely strayed. But since he moved to the country, it’s a different matter.

“I was quietly watching television on October 31 when I heard the doorbell ring and to my surprise there were children, escorted by a parent who cried out “trick or treat”. I did not chase these people away, but rummaged through my cupboard and found some lollies that I have for sweet tooth indulgences.”

He recalls stocking his country larder with fresh apples for next year’s trick and treaters.

“I think the spirit of giving is important, so if we are going to be dragged into another American cultural tradition, let us shape it and give children something that is good for them, rather than things that add to obesity and dental issues.”

Retail therapy for some

The hard facts are that the retail sector needs to cram its calendar with special days (e.g. Black Friday) that will boost turnover and present opportunities to sell unique stock. It starts with Australia Day and the related merchandise, which includes flags to fly from your car, real flags, Australian flag flip-flops, stubby holders and cigarette lighters, packs of cards, beach towels and sun hats. The upside for Australian retailers is that unsold stock can be stored away until next year.

Then comes Valentine’s Day – a big thing in Australia with almost 90% of people aged 18-24 said to mark the day of lovers in some significant way. The comparison website finder.com.au reckons we spend $1 billion on that one day alone, mainly on flowers and restaurant meals.

Except for Nine’s Ben Fordham who, upon finding that most eateries outside of Macca’s or a kebab shop wanted $144 for a set menu, decided to stay home and cook!

There are other imported anniversaries which cynics dub ‘Hallmark Holidays’, including Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day. While I’m a self-confessed Grinch about Halloween, I feel justified in ignoring Black Friday sales. The great thing about being old is that high fashion, gadgets and gimmicks no longer seem to matter.

In America, Black Friday is known as the ‘day of deals’ and marks the start of the pre-Christmas shopping spree in the US. It has nevertheless been gaining traction here since 2017. This year Black Friday falls on November 25. If you miss it, there’s always our traditional Boxing Day sales.

Penny for the Guy

Some of you Brits will notice how I skipped over Guy Fawkes (November 5), a macabre celebration which now barely registers in Australia. It was quite a thing when we were children and the custom is still big in New Zealand, albeit tightly regulated.

The sale of fireworks was banned in Australian states in the 1980s, partly because of injuries and burns, but also because of the risk of bush fires in November.

The custom is still popular in the UK, where people start building bonfires in October while children make ‘guys’ which are traditionally burned on Guy Fawkes’ night. For the benefit of readers under 40, a summary: The Brits foiled a plot to blow up the House of Lords on November 5, 1605. Spanish anarchist Guy Fawkes, who was found guarding a stock of explosives associated with the ‘Gunpowder Plot’, was arrested, tortured, and executed. Every year thereafter on November 5, effigies are ceremonially burned, with or without Guy Fawkes masks, while fireworks are let off.

You may have seen the stylised face mask designed by British artist David Lloyd as part of the 1988 book series V for Vendetta. The mask has become well-known through the movie of the same name. It has also been appropriated by the Hacktivist group Anonymous, worn at protests and rallies, including Occupy Wall Street.

The Pagans and the Christians

Some Christian families want to redeem Halloween from unsavoury associations (wearing scanty clothing to Halloween parties).

Mother of six Samantha curates the blog www.cultivatingcatholics.com in which she reclaims Halloween as a Catholic tradition.

Halloween is, after all, the evening before All Saints’ Day, which the Church celebrates on November 1st. All Souls’ Day follows on November 2nd, when Catholics pray for all the dead.

“All Saints’ Day (or All Hallows’ Day) is a major feast day on the Catholic Church’s calendar!” writes Samantha.

“On this day we honour not only the saints we know by name in Heaven, but also any saints whose names we don’t know! All Saints’ Day is a day dedicated to them”.

As for those orange pumpkins, those left unsold are unlikely to be a threat to the market favourites, Kent and Queensland Blue.

We keep a close watch on pumpkin prices here at FOMM HQ as our dog lives on a diet of cooked chicken mince and mashed up pumpkin and sweet potato. Those orange pumpkins are edible, if they have not already been carved or left outside for days. Just check the prices.

This week marks the start of a month-long subscriber campaign. Those on our email list would have received a message on Wednesday. WordPress followers please refer to the website page “FOMM Subscriber Drive 2022.”

Adopt a duck in mental health week

https://youtu.be/Lw8zTuC4sOg

It’s Mental Health Week, aptly coinciding with a self-diagnosed bout of post-viral depression. Those of you who suffer the ‘Black Dog’ will know that a flu or virus can tip you into a depressive cycle. She Who Also Gets It commonly says: “Don’t be depressed – it’s boring.” Fine for her to say if she’s OK.

(Read to the end then come back and watch this 43 second video by Bob)

As my Ma would have said (and maybe yours too), ‘misery loves company’. Statistically-speaking, about 40% of my readers will have suffered from some kind of mental health episode in their lifetime. The other 60% will probably let this FOMM go by (“Why doesn’t he write something nice and fluffy, grumble, grumble, or at least say what he thinks instead of quoting other people?”)

The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) tells us that more than 40% of Australians aged 16-85 years have experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life. One in five (21.4% or 4.2 million people), had a 12-month mental disorder. Anxiety was the most common group of 12-month mental disorders (16.8% or 3.3 million people). Young people were most at risk with 39.6% aged 16-24 years reporting a 12-month mental disorder.

Note: 12-month disorders are categorised as including anxiety, mood, impulse-control and substance use disorders.

The latest national study into mental health and well-being was released in July. Among its findings are that 3.4 million Australians aged 16-85 years (17.5%) saw a health professional for their mental health in 2020-2021. Of these, 57.4% had a 12-month mental disorder, 17.7% had experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life and 24.0% had no lifetime mental disorder. (To quote the quintessential Aussie singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers- ‘If you ain’t worried now, you’re not paying attention..’Ed)

That latter cohort (the 24%) are probably those referred to in this World Health Organisation (WHO) report. The WHO said that in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25%.

“The information we have now about the impact of COVID-19 on the world’s mental health is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “This is a wake-up call to all countries to pay more attention to mental health and do a better job of supporting their population’s mental health.”

The WHO’s Mental Health Atlas showed that in 2020, governments worldwide spent on average just over 2% of their health budgets on mental health. Many low-income countries reported having fewer than 1 mental health worker per 100,000 people.

Australia stands out from the crowd in terms of investment. Government spending on mental health-related services in 2019–20 was estimated to be around 7.6% of total government health expenditure.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says $11 billion was spent on mental health-related services in 2019-2020. Of the $11.0 billion, State and Territory governments spent 60.0% ($6.6 billion). The Australian Government’s $3.8 billion contribution covered Medicare-subsidised mental health services and prescriptions.

Australian Government spending on prescriptions equates to about $22 per person. Anti-psychotics (48.1%) and antidepressants (32.5%) accounted for the majority of mental health-related subsidised prescriptions.

That may well be, but I pay something close to full price for mine, mainly because my doctor told me not to accept the generic version. On the other hand, I paid $6.90 for the antiviral meds prescribed when I tested positive to Covid-19. The full price on the packet was $1,130, Now you see why Australia is so lucky to have Medicare.

Ah Covid, that was almost a month ago. I still have a cough and after walking the dog on the river circuit, I have to take some Ventolin and lie down. Multiple research reports have emerged which discuss the serious implications of ‘long Covid’ and lingering symptoms such as lung problems, fatigue and ‘brain fog’. Clearly there is much work yet to be done to establish the long-term risks of having had Covid-19.

And yet the collective Australian government response to Covid seems to be aligned to President Joe Biden’s recent claim that the pandemic is ‘over’. We shall find out after today, which is when Australian State and Territory governments agreed we should no longer be required to quarantine after testing positive. My view of it is simplistic. As of today, 10.3 million Australians have had Covid and 15,399 died with Covid – more than people killed on the roads in 2020.

Perhaps it was coincidence that the US health administration also eased its quarantine recommendations. The Center (US spelling) for Disease Control and Prevention said in August it was no longer recommending that adults and children quarantine at home after having been exposed to Covid-19. The CDC instead recommends those exposed wear a mask for 10 days and take a test on day five. The CDC is, however, saying that Covid is ‘here to stay’, recommending that people who have tested positive to the virus isolate for five days.

Greta Massetti, chief of the CDC’s Field Epidemiology and Prevention Branch, said the changes reflected data indicating 95% of the population has some protection, either from infection or vaccination.

On September 29, Australia’s National cabinet unanimously agreed to scrap the mandatory Covid isolation requirement, with exemptions for those working in high-risk settings such as health or aged care.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said (in the same breath) that disaster payments for workers diagnosed with Covid would end, with the same exemptions for high-risk workplaces.

As The Guardian reported, all State Premiers and Chief Ministers agreed to the change, claiming it was “not sustainable” for governments to keep paying workers to stay home.

Predictably, the Australian Business Council and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed the decision.

I was taken by surprise, not expecting a Labor Government to make what is clearly an economic decision, rather than support measures that lower the risk of the virus spreading in the community.

Chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly cautioned that quarantine measures may be re-introduced if pandemic conditions such as transmission rates dramatically changed. (Something reminds me about stable doors and horses bolting..Ed)

“We wanted to make sure that we have measures which are proportionate and that are targeted at the most vulnerable,” Mr Albanese said after the meeting. “We want to continue to promote vaccinations as being absolutely critical, including people getting booster shots.

“We want a policy that promotes resilience and capacity-building and reduces a reliance on government intervention.”

(Ed: Capacity building is ‘the improvement in an individual’s or organization’s facility to produce, perform or deploy’.

Mr Albanese was asked whether casual workers would now be forced to work while sick. His response was that the government could not keep paying for such financial supports, comparing the strategy to influenza.

“The flu has existed, and health issues have existed, for a long period of time, and the government hasn’t always stepped in to pay people’s wages while people have health concerns,” the Prime Minister said at a press conference.

While the advice here and in the US is (still) to wear a mask for 10 days after contracting or being exposed to Covid, the mask mandate for public transport was removed in all Australian jurisdictions last month. Apart from medical centres, hospitals and aged care centres, mask-wearing has become optional.

I wore mine while filming the short duck video (above). Avian flu – you can’t be too careful.

Cybersecurity, scams and data breaches

cybersecurity-scams-databreaches — Image of programming code by Lorenzo Cafara www.pixabay.com

Call it coincidence, but I was in the midst of a domestic internet security overhaul when news of the Optus hack broke. As we know, what the press is calling the biggest hack in Australian history left the private information of up to 10 million Optus customers open to potential abuse. Optus customers are clamouring to have their drivers’ licences and passports re-issued and there is talk of class actions.

Like most of us whose lives are largely lived online, we are, or should be, aware of the threat posed by scammers. Any day of the week you will hear of pensioners who lost their life savings, falling for some elaborate call centre scam. The sophisticated level of social engineering being employed by scammers is such that even savvy older people are falling victim to seemingly plausible communications via mobile phone, social media apps and email.

Just as we all lock doors and windows and turn on security systems before going on holidays, we should all be thinking about security for our electronic communications. My IT adviser swears by password managers – that is, subscribing to a company that will encrypt all of your online logins and passwords. You manage things at your end with a master password. But wait, I ask, isn’t this putting all of your eggs in one basket? If someone nabs your master password you’re screwed, right?

The best protection against electronic fraud is to use a two-step authentication system. This may be as simple as: login, password (now enter the four-digit code we just sent to your mobile phone).

Last time I went to do some internet banking, I was informed that my security token would soon expire. This is a small gadget (most people call them dongles) which display six constantly changing numbers). The process is: logon, password (dongle code).

In theory it is unhackable, as the security codes are constantly changing. I decided to order another ‘dongle’, only to be told that the bank preferred me to use their secure phone app. Send me a dongle, I replied, via secure email. After jumping through a few security hoops, I ordered a new physical dongle. The bank employee I dealt with (online) said the bank would waive the $20 fee as I had been a valued customer for many years (Melbourne Cup, here I come).

As a result of increasing data breaches and scams, we can expect government organisations and others to tighten security. After thoroughly checking it out first, I found that the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) now requires all company directors to apply for a ‘digital security ID number’.

The recommended method for applying for a director identification number is by using the MyGovID phone app. The app requires you to scan identification documents into a mobile phone app. They also want your date of birth, physical address, email address and mobile phone number. Then you have to scan any unique identifying marks (moles, birthmarks, tattoos) – no wait, I made that bit up.

It’s quite an exercise.

But what if some enterprising Black Hat (master hacker) breaks into MyGovId? In theory this will create a lot of work for people whose professions involves producing ID documents. Just as we are seeing now with the Optus hack, everyone who uses MyGovID would need to replace their ID documents,

This new requirement by ASIC (which only applies to company directors), will, as they say, “help prevent the use of false or fraudulent director identities”. Directors who were appointed prior to November 2021 have until November 30, 2022 to apply. ASIC adds, “it is a criminal offence if you do not apply on time”.

If you think about it, multiple government and non-government organisations hold all manner of confidential information on us. At the very least, many of them already have our date of birth, passport and driver’s licence numbers, credit card details, direct debit for bank accounts and so on. When was the last time you booked online for a concert? Credit card?

In August, I was required to fill in an online hospital admission form when signing up for elective surgery. They wanted to know everything about me – even my BMI. I had to ask Sister Dee to explain that one. It’s a number arrived at by squaring your weight with your height. Anaesthetists need to know.

“They’ve got my height and weight,” I said to the admitting nurse. “He can work it out.” (Ed: It’s 23.6)

Then they wanted a copy of my power of attorney. I didn’t have a copy so had to ask our lawyer to send me one, post haste. Now that’s online too.

But methinks I doth protest too much – I did after all wake up.

It’s a good thing I decided to sign up for the now-obligatory company director security number. In the process, I discovered my passport will expire next year. Since we have plans to go to New Zealand, Canada and maybe Japan, I’d best get on my bike and order a new one. I suppose how long it takes depends on the Optus backlog, eh?

In the meantime, everyone who reads this column on a regular basis should know about the Scamwatch website. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) keeps a running tally of internet scams, pesky robot phone calls and phishing scams (someone pretending to be your internet service provider, bank, tax office – whatever). Currently Scamwatch is alerting Australians that fraudsters will seek to exploit the Optus data breach. Last month the ACCC warned people who use WhatsApp to watch out for the ‘Hello Mum’ scam. Briefly, someone who apparently knows you have a son or daughter overseas will start a text conversation.

“Hi Mum, it’s me. I lost my phone and got locked out of my bank. Can you help?”

The correct answer should be something like – “If you are my daughter, what was the name of our cat when you were 12 and what was her favourite food?”

It’s no laughing matter. On August 3 Scamwatch reported that consumers lost $20 million to imposter bond investment scams. These scams impersonate real financial companies or banks and claim to offer government/Treasury bonds or fixed term deposits. People often fall victim after searching online for investment opportunities. Watch out for fake third-party comparison sites and too-good-to-be-true returns.

I have had a few interactions with our internet service provider over the years about phishing emails. They would often arrive in my inbox on iiNet letterhead (the sender’s email address is always dodgy). The gist is usually, “There is a problem with your invoice (which I just paid). Please click on this link and update your credit card details.” My arse!

The last time I complained, I forwarded the fake email to iiNet as requested. iiNet (second largest ISP in Australia), must have had some success since, as these rogue messages appear to have stopped. Their customers are not the only target. There are myriad instances of bogus emails purporting to be from banks, finance companies, telcos, e-commerce companies etc. The best response is block/blacklist/delete and keep doing it until they move on. And always report it to the company being impersonated. Oh, and always log out of Facebook and Messenger. But you knew that.