business

Australians face perils by doing business in China

Posted by Craig Hill ⋅ July 31, 2013 ⋅ Leave a comment

The perils of doing business in China have come into focus again recently, with allegations that staff from the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline paid $500 million in bribes over several years. Four executives from GlaxoSmithKline were arrested in July, while its British-born head of China operations has been prevented from leaving the country. There are … Continue reading →

Australian Aboriginals blast indigenous job scheme as “token gesture”

Posted by Craig Hill ⋅ July 16, 2013 ⋅ Leave a comment

Aboriginal elder Dennis Foley has blasted the federal government’s Indigenous Economic Development Strategy, claiming that employing indigenous people in the public sector is not indigenous economic development. The University of Newcastle professor told a national small business forum in Sydney Aboriginal entrepreneurs were the biggest employers of Aborigines and that government needed to move beyond … Continue reading →

Chinese companies claim they are ‘treated unfairly’ by Australia

Posted by Craig Hill ⋅ May 22, 2013 ⋅ 6 Comments

China‘s state-owned companies may be deterred from investing in Australia because they are being treated unfairly, a Chinese business leader says. Chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce in Australia, Hu Shanjun, said Australia was still a popular place for Chinese groups to invest, but that could change. Mr Hu, who also heads the Bank … Continue reading →

Australian industry groups and unions need oversight

Posted by Craig Hill ⋅ February 26, 2013 ⋅ 1 Comment

Through the years, I have written quite a lot about trade unions. From an economic point of view, trade unions can operate like monopolists, given their ability to institute collective boycotts against businesses by calling on workers to strike. Were it not for a specific law, such activity would be illegal. To be sure, economists … Continue reading →

Australia services sector contracts on consumer caution

Posted by Craig Hill ⋅ January 3, 2013 ⋅ 2 Comments

Australia’s services sector continued to contract in December even after the central bank lowered interest rates at the start of month, a performance gauge by an industry group published Friday showed. The Australian Industry Group-Commonwealth Bank Performance of Services Index fell 3.9 points in December from a month earlier to 43.2 points–well below the 50-point … Continue reading →

Australian stocks surge to 19-month high as US fiscal cliff averted

Posted by Craig Hill ⋅ January 2, 2013 ⋅ 2 Comments

THE sharemarket started 2013 with a bang as US lawmakers agreed a budget deal to avoid the worst of the so-called fiscal cliff that had threatened to derail the world’s biggest economy. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed up 1.2 per cent at a 19-month high of 4705.9, also after better Chinese manufacturing data helped lift commodity … Continue reading →

China Daily Mail – Invitation To Join

Posted by Craig Hill ⋅ April 7, 2012 ⋅ 3 Comments

Introducing my newest venture, China Daily Mail. I would like to invite all my followers to join me at this site, read the articles, and contribute original and reblogged stories. In recent times, I have been taking an interest in the business activities of some of the companies I trained or had associations with in … Continue reading →

Expert Panel’s Broadband Report (2009)

Posted by Craig Hill ⋅ January 22, 2009 ⋅ 1 Comment

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy today announced that the final report from the Panel of Experts on submissions to the National Broadband Network process has been received. The Minister stated that the receipt of this report marks a significant milestone in the NBN process: “The Government is now considering … Continue reading →

Are Banks Assisting Identity Fraud?

Posted by Craig Hill ⋅ April 1, 2008 ⋅ 5 Comments

In recent weeks, I have received several calls from persons claiming to be from my bank. They have told me that I have an account with them that is overdrawn. They have then gone on to instruct me, “for identification purposes,” to verify my account number, by telling them over the phone. This is exactly … Continue reading →

Westpac and National Home Interest Rates Rise (2008)

Posted by Craig Hill ⋅ March 20, 2008 ⋅ Leave a comment

Westpac have raised their interest rates yet again. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the bank had raised its rate to 9.37%, following the National bank’s rise to 9.36% on Wednesday. The fact that they went higher than the National seems to be an invitation for the other major banks to get on the bandwagon … Continue reading →