News Summary 2

Week 6

Title of Article: Budget 2014: Motorists to pay more with Coalition poised to reintroduce indexation of fuel excise

URL: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-08/government-poised-to-increase-fuel-excise-tax/5438056

1.     Briefly summarize the issue. Include a link to the article if it is available online.

This article talks about how the Australian government, on Tuesday, will enforce a fuel excise that will increase the amount motorists will have to pay for gas. The government is receiving a lot of flak for their new budget but Mr. Hockey said,"if left unchecked there will be $123 billion of deficits and $667 billion of debt." This budget is going to make many people unhappy.

2.     Relate the issue to one or more of the economic concepts we have discussed in class.

Raising the taxes on gas will send out ripples to businesses and families. The economic concept of transportation relates to this issue for the obvious reason of increasing the cost for businesses to transport goods. Also, increasing the costs of traveling for tourists by car, boat, and plane. For businesses, the transportation of the goods to the consumers will have an increased cost, which in turn will increase the price of their goods potentially hurting business. In addition, the costs of machinery that runs on fuel will increase also increasing the costs of products. All these increased costs will feed to the consumer who will have less buying power. This leads to the potential for decreased consumer spending, leading to a lower GDP.

3.     What led to this situation? Can you suggest a resolution to this problem? Are there politics that could improve the situation?

The proposed paid parental leave (PPL) led to this situation because the government couldn’t pay for it. They had to find a way to pay for it, and they chose a tax on fuel.

There isn’t a simple solution to this problem that I can think of besides cut spending in one or multiple other areas as to obtain the money for PPL but that creates other problems with the areas that had the funds cut. Junior minister Jamie Briggs had this to say about the new budget, "there'll be a range of things… that people won't particularly like, and we have no joy in doing much of what we have to do, but we have to do it."

Australia Profile: Part Five Transportation

1.     Water transportation

a.     Closest major ocean port (size)

Fremantle Harbor is a harbor in Perth. It’s the largest port in Western Australia.

b.     Other ports in country

Port of Botany (largest), Newcastle Port, Port Samson, Ulladulla Harbor, Port of Yamba, Port of Eden, and Batemans Bay.

2.     Land transportation

a.     Railroad (freight)

The operators include Genesee and Wyoming Australia, QRNational, and Pacific National.

b.     Railroad (passenger)

The major stops for long distance is Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane.

c.      Highway and road network

The highway system interlocks all the major cities. Australians drive on the left side of the road.

3.     Air transportation

a.     International airports

Adelaide. Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney.

b.     Other Airports

Avalon, Canberra, Alice Springs, Rockhampton, Tindal, Gold Coast, and Port Hedland.

Australia Profile: Part Four International

1.     International Trade (What? How much? To whom? From whom?)

a.     Exports

The top 5 exports are iron ore & concentrates (A$57,000 million), coal (A$38,000 million), gold (A$15,000 million), education-related travel services (A$14,000 million), and natural gas (A$14,000 million). The top export countries are China, Japan, Republic of Korea, United States, and India.

b.     Imports

The top 5 imports are personal travel services (A$22,000 million), crude petroleum (A$20,000 million), passenger motor vehicles (A$17,000), refined petroleum (A$16,000 million), freight transport services (A$9,000 million). The top import countries include China, United States, Japan, Singapore, and Thailand.

2.     Exchange rate (current value, recent history)

1 Australian dollar= 0.94 US dollars

Over the year, the Australian dollar has been increasing.

3.     Immigration/emigration (From where? To where? How much?)

Immigration: 5,993,945 people in mid 2010 were born outside Australia. This was 26.8% of the population. Top countries include United Kingdom, New Zealand, China, India, and Italy.

Emigration: 43,423 people emigrated in 2012-13 to United Kingdom, US, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and United Arab Emirates.

4.     Relations with other countries (recent or historical conflicts, allies)

Australia is part of the United Nations and Commonwealth nations.

Some recent conflicts in Australia include 2012 Sydney anti-Islam film protests, 2005 Macquarie Fields riots, 2005 Cronulla riots, and 2004 Redfern riots.

Some Historical riots include 1942 North Western Area Campaign, 1942 Townsville Mutiny, 1939-1945 WWII, 1924 Bedford Downs massacre, and Mistake Creek massacre.

A Fez for the Heart Response

a.     Choose one passage from the reading that you found particularly interesting.  Why was this interesting?

First paragraph on page 5.

I thought it was interesting because the people that live in that town do not think much of the ruins. Visitors come to see the ruins even on the hottest days. I just find it interesting how the locals don’t think much of the beauty and ruins. Also, hearing that locals never undressed on the beach and the narration of people undressing on the beach was funny.

b.    Use examples from this reading to illustrate the interaction between economics and culture.

The Muslim population in Pomegranate did not like when the visitors would come into town in their bathing suits, so they put of signs to not do it. Then more and more tourists came in to the town, the locals noticed wanted there business. So some of the locals took down the “No Bikini” signs and used them for advertising. They eventually sold postcards with topless women saying, “No Problem in Turkery”.

The locals said, “Life used to be fun. Now it’s just business.” Their old way of living was over and they had to adapt to the modern, liberal way of doing things.

The food they now sold included foreign foods while displaying their food as “authentic Turkish cuisine”.

           

In order for the locals to keep up with the business with the tourists, they had to conform to modern Europe. This includes the ideals of the Western world. They did resist however. They put up the signs to stop women from walking around in bikinis, but that was short lived. Also, wearing the fez was legal if you were dealing with tourists and tourists were allowed to wear the fez even when it was illegal for locals to wear it in any other circumstance. The entire towns way of life changed within 20 years due to the overwhelming demand from tourists.

c.     Beyond the specific example of this town in Turkey, what connections or conflicts do you see between tourism and economics or tourism and culture?

Tourism brings in the demand for certain businesses to come up. In towns with a lot of tourism, the streets are filled with businesses that accommodate their needs. It’s very obvious when you walk through one of these streets that the businesses are meant for tourists. The tourists shape the economy of the town to meet their demands.

Large influxes of tourism can also change the culture in a town, as it did in Pomegranate. The cultural ideals had to change in Pomegranate because the culture the tourists brought with them was overwhelming and unstoppable, but that doesn’t mean there is no resistance. Pomegranate’s culture did try to resist or hold on to some of its “old” culture but eventually they had to conform.