we will see I take anything printed (anit labor ) in the austrlian with a grain of salt But if true the numbers will be an interesting read.
All of the press have unacceptable biases and muddy the water, I guess time will tell. Whatever happens it is going to be a very rough ride for Australian businesses and hence Australian employment prospects. The public service does not generate wealth, the private sector does that, hiding rising unemployment by creating more public service jobs is not a viable way to maintain an economy. Whichever party gets in had better remove red tape from the private sector or the private sector will shed jobs and move operations offshore.
I have both a retail brick & mortar store and another job. Retail is struggling badly. The rent is too high and hiring more staff is too costly for the businesses. With overseas online competition, there really is very little hope for the retailers selling products that can be easily imported. We are trying to sell the business now because once we realise there is no growth, a business just dies. Just in my area alone i see so many businesses setting up and just to close down after 6 months. Its only gonna get worse unless rent comes down.
Not the property speculators driven by agents looking for commissions, a government looking for stamp duty, banks looking for interest and the meme that "property always goes up, you have to get a foot in the door"?
nope considering the vast majority of shopping centers are controlled by a couple of players that artificially st and keep the rents high.
Personally I love Westfields. They're not the be all and end all, but they are successful for many good reasons. They don't artificially keep the rents high, they charge a high rent but retailers historically had significant trading advantages by locating within them centres. As retailers find it harder or impossible to continue to pay the high rents Westfield etc won't be able to continue with the same business model and rents will fall or the centre offering will change.
Westfield shopping centres are a tiny part of Australian retail. They do not dictate prices outside their own doors.
It really is pointless talking about if this or that is wrong or if the retail sectors collapse is going to bring down the economy. The fact is these things are happening wether we like it or not. The Internet has made large parts of the retail industry largely obsolete sorry to say. As the population gets older and more tech savvy young-uns fill the Australian population bell curve this is only going to get worse. It's pointless saying "what is the retail sector going to so about it" because I highly doubt the effected areas can do anything. Just like I'm sure a few cart builders tried to spruce up their designs when the car came out, so will large parts of the retail sector bleed a slow and painful death. Anything the government does will only prolong the agony and cost us more money/taxes/jobs. Best thing the government can do is get out of the way of the productive sectors in the economy to allow them to absorb the now largely redundant retail workforce to fill the voids in their expansion. The best thing retailers can do is realise they are the cart builder and not to try to get the government to restrict the car builder. As much as we love retail shopping, it essentially is a service towards consumption. Production is what we need to focus on.
