COVID-19 Poor business behaviour

Evans as well as the countless shock jocks have lucrative incomes by creating an image and amorally ‘selling’ themselves and their wares. That enough people succumb to them to make it as worthwhile for their pockets as it appears to is an indictment on the consumers more than the self promoters who simply learnt how to cynically make a dollar, no integrity required.

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I think that was already rather obvious from the name of it!

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The Federal Govt has been leaving concerns over Residential tenancies to the State Govts. Although the PM was quick to take action on large businesses and commercial leases, which are also State responsibilities.

NSW has announced it’s response for residential tenancies. There is a 60 day moratorium on evictions (conditional) and a requirement for tenants to negotiate with the landlord/agent. Unpaid rents will be added as arrears.

Only half of the funds $220M are to be directed to supporting the residential sector. The other is for the small retail/commercial tenants.

It applies to tenants who have lost 25 per cent or more of their income.

Under the scheme, a landlord or managing agent must enter into negotiations with a tenant who is struggling to make rental payments.

With not all agents reported to be acting in the best interests of tenants, has NSW gone far enough?
Or will it see stressed tenants caving into unreasonable demands from agents. Ultimately there is QCAT. Although with the NSW Govt saying,

Tenants will be protected from eviction until the tribunal is satisfied that negotiations have been finalised.

But they will have to repay the rent eventually, as anything unpaid will accrue as arrears during this period.

Some might see this weighted one way?
Tenants fear of being homeless vs Owners fear of not having income from a tenant.

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Isn’t this the capitalism Australians are known to embrace (as evidenced by their votes at elections)? The landlord takes the risk, probably has the property geared, and is having their own negotiations with their lender?

… as well as landlords fearing they will lose their properties as well as also having to pay arrears that is accruing interest.

As Scotty from Marketing put it ‘we are all in this together’ but he stopped short of saying ‘we need to share the load’. Some are more able to share loads than others but addressing that aspect was and admittedly is really hard since the piper needs to be paid eventually and everyone is not going to recover ‘whole’ from pre COVID-19 days. Some billionaires are sure they should be the last to take a hit since their supposedly wealthy (or less wealthy) tenants need to bankrupt first. Such is the way of life.

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IE compromise and the middle ground?

Leveraging property has or was the path for many to wealth in Australia.

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What is in it for a landlord to compromise? That is the question. He is between his tenant and his lender ( and highly geared in cases). Thus it is between the lender and the landlord and then the tenant. The lender is a public company beholden to shareholders and regulations; the landlord could be a company or individual; the tenant also can be a company, sole trader/mum & pop, or individual.

Which of them will agree to lose out now in the hopes they might be right someday. And if they are not all right someday how does it go for the next up the chain of dollars?

The only workable edict seems like legislating no evictions, rent to be paid at a negotiated level not to exceed say 15% of tenants income, balance to accrue interest at the RBA money rate + 1% (?), and at some point the government(s) then legislate the arrears will start being repaid at 115% of the pre-COVID-19 amount until all paid up.

Maybe an overstep and one can debate my example and details, but anything less is not going to work well in practice IME since it is every man and woman and business for themselves, may the best negotiators survive.

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Lender = bank (mostly)

RBA cash rate = 0.25%

There may be a lot more that the banks could do?
They have a choice to take more of the load short term? A choice carrying forward accrued interest debt into the post virus future or holding large losses of value from failed customers.

Bank Shareholders aren’t bound by moral obligation, referenced to the recent Royal Commission.

It’s not a choice they are being compelled to make, either way?

No debate. I’d simply add a similar mutual obligation on the banks to apply interest at the RBA + 1% where landlords have acted accordingly, or better still agreed to reduced rents temporarily by a set margin?

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It does not and don’t spruik such falsehoods on here. This deserves its own thread on lies told about dairy practises.

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Don’t forget that banks don’t necessarily borrow money themselves at the RBA cash rate. It depends on their lending source…and there have been media reports that foreign borrowings (which are needed due to lack of equity in Australia) are generally at higher than RBA rates to generate lending interest.

The other is they use cash held in the bank as well. The interest they pay to hold others (investor) cash is higher than RBA rates to prevent cash outflow, pushing the banks for higher external borrowings.

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I’m not taking a side here but perhaps asking for citation would be a more constructive way to question what someone has posted. @postulative can you provide citation to your claim?

Perhaps even starting a new thread on this under MythDefied - Community even.

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Apologies, I did not do my research before posting that raw milk is likely to contain urine. It was a casual throw-away line which ignores the actual health benefits of pasteurisation.

Accordingly, I turned to the Internet as the arbiter of common sense and reason (when read extremely carefully). Dairy Food Safety Victoria is a statutory authority that has posted information about what illnesses are likely to be found in raw milk. I will stick to the key part:

A recent article by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that raw milk was over 150 times more likely to cause health problems than pasteurised milk.

The US Food and Drug Administration is also rather ‘down’ on raw milk; similarly, its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In summary, my very brief research found no reliable source stating that cow urine finds its way into milk, and I apologise if my off-hand remark caused confusion or misled.

I realise that this is taking the thread in an unintended direction, @Peterchu, but I do not think there is sufficient controversy about raw milk to warrant a separate thread in MythDefied.

To take another milky turn, the most recent episode of No Such Thing as a Fish (a podcast) mentions the dangers of milk in the 19th century, and the development of condensed milk - commencing some time after the 8 minute mark. Interestingly, those dangers align with the reason Australian supermarkets a few years ago had to move powdered baby formula behind the counter to stop it getting shipped off to China - which was experiencing many of the contamination issues that the US experienced in the 19th century.

In positive COVID-19-related news, I was able to buy eight litres of milk today when I went shopping - restrictions have been lifted on that at least (and I consume a lot of milk).

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Let me clarify. Milk in Australia does not contain urine. Milk does need to be pasteurised before consuming, not necessarily for cheese making.

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Hopefully that is all we need to add for now.

Back on topic - COVID-19 Poor Business Behaviour.

This sentiment was a response to the pressures on renters and landlords.

Renters, note that approx one third of Australia rents.
And
Landlords, some mum and dad investors trying to pay off that one and only investment, and others with multiple properties who are serious property investors.

The problem remains.
Who should shoulder the burden?
The tenants, the Landlords, Or should the banks and governments also share some of the burden.

We can’t have large additional numbers of homeless nor masses of bankrupt Property investors.

Italy which has had far more pain than Australia, froze all rental and mortgages for 6 months.

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Hi - i checked with a toxicologist and a GP. Can use methylated spirits, or denatured/denat. alcohol as it is listed on many commercial hand sanitisers. The WHO formula also has an alternative option using isopropyl alcohol, which is foul.

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Going by recent media articles, that certainly isn’t working.

The supermarkets have put a limit on 2 per transaction. This just means the customer keeps going back in the supermarket and each time purchases another 2 tins. This just slows down the depletion of store stock.

The Covid-19 issue over rent being paid by tenants both retail and residential is complex. As mentioned Banks borrow money from many sources, including bank deposits so the average interest rate a bank pays will be higher than the RBA interest rate of 0.25% then there is the costs associated with operating a bank to which a portion is added to all loans. Also I think dividends need to be paid as this will help the sharemarket and people living off superannuation. Don’t forget Banks also have to repay their loans. The big point for all landlords at the moment is if they evict their tenant who will then rent the property? I think it would be much better to have a tenant than an empty property. Also we don’t want shanty towns being established with families and children as this would only increase the risk of spreading Covid-19 and it would stifle the economies recovery. I think the more a tenant can afford to pay in rent the better for tenant and landlord, the property remains with a tenant and both the tenant and landlord keeps their debt level growing at a slower rate. The tenants will have to start repaying the rent not paid when they have employed income coming in again or when the Government removes the no eviction rule. The important question is when will tenants have to start repaying their accrued rent debt and at what level?

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Just on that point, APRA last week came out with guidance for banks and insurers, namely recommendations for deferrals or prudent reductions in dividends.

Such guidance was given to ensure babks/insurers have sufficient working capital to cover any future unforeseen events, and to protect the integrity and stability of the banking and insurance sector. …especially in light of some government policies relating to real estate and borrowings.

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There was an article a few days ago which had a photo of an Asian woman guarding several trolleys filled with tins of baby formula outside a supermarket whilst her accomplices went back and forth, with each buying 2 tins.

Poor business behaviour by a “shopping gang” in South Australia. I applaud the manager’s response. For those who may not have seen the report…