Today may be April 1st, but the current downturn in Australian property prices is no laughing matter. Data from CoreLogic has been released today showing the fall in prices over the March 2019 quarter. Sydney is down 3.2%; Melbourne down 3.4%; Brisbane 1.1%; Adelaide 0.5%; Perth 2.9%; Darwin had the highest percentage falls at 3.9%; where Canberra (0%) and Hobart (1.2%) were the only capitals not to fall over the quarter. That’s a national fall of 2.3%, or 2.7% if you just include the capital cities. Over the month of March, there was 0.6% fall in property prices across the nation. Tim Lawless, Head of Research at CoreLogic, stated: “Although the CoreLogic national hedonic index series trended lower in March, the actual rate of decline has been easing over the past three months. The 0.6% drop in March was actually the smallest of the month-on-month declines since values fell by 0.5% in October last year.” However, the international investment banking company, Morgan Stanley, have said that March is typically the seasonally strongest month for Australian house prices throughout the year. The recent slowdown in house price drops is likely due to seasonality, rather than the prospect that prices may soon bottom. They stated: “Price declines in February were less than the average decline over the past few months, but still faster than the average seen over the rest of 2018. This improvement is in line with the usual seasonal trends in house prices, with December and January typically significantly weaker.” In other words, there may be a long way to go yet. CoreLogic’s Mr Lawless said: “While the pace of falls has slowed in March, the scope of the downturn has become more geographically widespread.” He also talked of the impact of the upcoming federal election on property prices. He said: “Federal elections generally cause some uncertainty, which is amplified more so on this occasion considering the potential for a change of government which will also involve significant changes to taxation policies related to investment. No doubt some prospective buyers and sellers are delaying their housing decisions until after the election, however, there is no guarantee that certainty will improve post-election considering the impact of a wind-back to negative gearing and halving of the capital gains tax concession is largely unknown. It seems a reasonable assumption that removing an incentive from the market wold result in some downward pressure on activity and prices for a period of time.” As I’ve mentioned before, the Australian Labor Party, if elected (which recent polling suggests that they will), have promised to limit negative gearing from the start of 2020 to only include new housing, and halve the capital gains tax discount t ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPqqX9G8zBM

Merit is required to go to or work at a university, right? Well, not anymore at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. “Queensland University of Technology defends removing ‘merit’ from hiring policy”. Via an internal email, Vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil told staff that they would be moving away from “the merit principle” towards a “more inclusive suitability assessment”. I don’t know if she’s lost her mind, or perhaps I’m not understanding this fully, but this sounds completely insane in my opinion. She told ABC Radio, “The suitability assessment will consider factors such as gender and ethnic backgrounds. Women, for example, are under-represented in science and engineering at QUT, whereas men are under-represented in teaching and nursing. It will also consider the current demographic breakdown of their various schools and disciplines.” So basically she’s saying that instead of hiring people based on their merit, based on their ability to teach a subject, they’re instead going to focus on whether you fit the prescribed gender or ethnicity or any other arbitrary factor that the university decides. She actually dismissed suggestions that the hiring process should be colourblind, saying that was impossible in practice. “When people say things like ‘We do this on merit’, they're actually reflecting the bias of their own experience. There’s so much data on this around selection, whether it’s recruitment into orchestras or into universities.” I’m not sure if she fully understands how orchestras recruit, but they use blind auditions where musicians perform behind a screen to take away any bias from the hiring process. The only thing the musician is judged on is how well they play – their merit. It’s only merit they’re being recruited on! What is she trying to say here? Is she saying that we shouldn’t have blind auditions, and recruit solely on gender and ethnicity? What an absurd notion! It’s funny, these people call themselves progressives, but they’re doing the very opposite. They’re regressive. They’re returning to a former or less developed state. This is insanity. Professor Sheil continued, “We need to access the entire talent pool, and we don’t want everybody to look the same.” What does that mean? Is she implying that people of a certain ethnicity and gender all look the same? What an incredibly racist and sexist thing to say! Actually, on the radio, she did mention that she was the first female professor of chemistry in Australia and has subsequently spent her entire life trying to get more women into science. Well I would suggest that she believes that she earned her place as the first female chemistry professor, not because of her gender, but because of her merit. But now she wants to turn all that on its head and just choose people not based on their merit, but on arbitrary university-decreed factors. If we take this to its natural conclusion, will surgeons now not be chosen based on their merit? Is that what society wants? When you go in for heart surgery, you’re not quite sure whether this person earned their place, or just happened to be the right combination of gender, ethnicity, and sexuality? Surely surgeons would agree with me on this and be fully against such an absurd notion. Luckily, some academics at QUT have been speaking out against this. One academic, who did not wish to be named, stated, “The policy to get rid of merit is bordering on embarrassing. It’s completely disrespectful to tell students who will be charged thousands of dollars for a program that they will be taught by people chosen not on merit, but suitability.’’ Another academic said, “Every academic colleague I have spoken to about the proposed changes has been left appalled and flabbergasted. They think it is a terrible signal to students and university donors. To students, it is saying you will not necessarily get the best professors when you pay tens of thousands of dollars for this course, you will get who the university believes is the most suitable.” There’s only one good thing about this change that I can think of. At least they’re being honest. Perhaps previously they were trying to conceal their depraved plans, but now, it’s all out in the open. They want to openly discriminate against people, and I hope the students and the academics see through this and either go on strike and demand that the vice-chancellor is replaced, or quit the university and let the university fail. As it should. QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY DEFENDS REMOVING 'MERIT' FROM HIRING POLICY https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-17/qut-defends-removing-merit-from-hiring-policy/103114562 MUSIC Allégro by Emmit Fenn ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NIpAF-MQn4

Australians will require three Covid vaccine doses to be considered fully vaccinated. Australians will now need three Covid vaccine doses to be considered “up to date” with their shots, but it will be left to individual states to set their own rules on booster mandates. Rich Dad Poor Dad – What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money ▶ https://ebay.us/5rluUP “ATAGI recommends change to definition of COVID-19 vaccine status from 'fully vaccinated' to 'up to date'. Australia's definition of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 is set to change, with people aged over 16 years now only considered "up to date" with their vaccinations if they have had booster shots”. This is the Australian Government’s Department of Health website that states that the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) now defines being fully vaccinated as being “up to date”. “All individuals aged 16 years and over are recommended to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose to maintain an “up-to-date” status. This booster dose is now recommended from 3 months after the last primary dose. This is called the ‘due date’”. Hey Sally! When’s your due date? 3rd of March. Wow! Congratulations! When’s your baby due? I dunno. “A person will be considered ’overdue’ if a booster has not been received within 6 months of completing their primary schedule”. “Children and adolescents aged 5-15 years are up-to-date after completion of a primary course of vaccination. A booster dose is not currently recommended for this age group”. “Individuals who have had prior COVID-19, including asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, still require completion of the above vaccination schedule, but can defer receipt of the next dose for up to 4 months following their infection. This recommendation has changed from the previous 6-month interval. Some people may choose to be vaccinated prior to 4 months”.”Vaccine schedules using mixed or the same brand of COVID-19 vaccine are acceptable for being considered up-to-date”. Hello Sir! Would you like one of our new cocktails? What’s in it? A bit of Moderna, followed by a Pfizer, with a touch of Novavax on top. Is that safe? I dunno. Pfizer’s vaccine that targets omicron comes out in March. What does that mean for people who’ve already been boosted? Do they need this specialised fourth shot? Anybody? Woolworths sent me this email last night. “Love a booster… Boost now!”. It’s a bit of a play on words. Their Everyday Rewards program offers these so-called boosters to get bonus points or discounts on certain items. What about yourself? When’s your due date? Will you be getting the third shot followed closely by the Pfizer omicron specialised booster? You can never be too safe, right ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd3IS7wOCdw

I received an email from the Managing Director of Target Australia a couple of days ago. Target is Australia's largest department store chain by store number, but that’s soon to change. Target has just become the latest casualty in Australia's ailing retail sector. Owners of Target, Wesfarmers, announced that up to 75 stores will be closed across Australia, while about 90 stores will be converted to Kmart. Yes, Wesfarmers also own Kmart. It turns out that Target and Kmart, although competitors, are actually just sister companies. Whether you buy stuff from Target or Kmart, Wesfarmers certainly don’t care. They get your money either way. But as it turns out, Aussies prefer Kmart. It’s cheaper. It’s more affordable. And it’s prices are lower. Yes, Aussies love a bargain! And Kmart has successfully delivered that bargain. For example, looking at Lego, we can see that the Harry Potter Hogwarts Express is $139 at Target, but only $119 at Kmart. For this LEGO City Mars Research Shuttle, it’s $49 at Target, but only $39 at Kmart. Generally speaking, when it comes to retail, price wins. And when you’re selling the same product, of course price wins! I don’t know how Wesfarmers run their department store business, but I can’t believe for a second they believed that this sort of price differential could go on for much longer. Of course Target was going to fail if they’re selling exactly the same products at a significantly higher price. In the end, if you sell something for a higher price than Kmart, Kmart wins! AS CHEAP AS KMART LEGO PRICES ON AMAZON LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Great Hall 75954 Playset Toy ▶ https://amzn.to/3glBOnZ LEGO 75955 Harry Potter Hogwarts Express Playset Toy ▶ https://amzn.to/2yu5tue LEGO City Mars Research Shuttle 60226 Building Kit, Space Toy for 5+ Year Old Boys and Girls, 2019 ▶ https://amzn.to/3egzzAF CHANNEL MEMBERSHIP ▶ https://www.youtube.com/DailyRantAustralia/join ALTERNATIVE TO YOUTUBE ▶ https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DailyRantAustralia:d SOCIAL https://www.facebook.com/DailyRantAustralia/ https://twitter.com/RantAustralia MY GEAR Rode NT-USB Microphone ▶ https://amzn.to/3ampQWZ Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Laptop OUTRO MUSIC Fortress Europe by Dan Bodan (https://www.youtube.com/user/danbodan) #target #kmartaustralia #kmart ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5yJW9yQZUs