November unemployment

Statistical gyrations of the last few months up, then down, returned to somewhere in the middle in the latest ABS Labour Force numbers for FNQ released this morning. The official unemployment stat returns to double digits at 10.3%.

The gender divide remains the notable feature. In the 2 years since the series commenced in November 2007 total male employment has fallen by 2.4k while total female employment has risen by 4.7k. The female participation rate has also increased over that period to a new high. Spouses seeking work to fill the income gap from unemployed partners or just more statistical noise in low sample numbers?

Regional stats table has been updated down at Far North Unemployment Debacle.

Ex Hedley pub fund still in the news

What used to be Tom Hedley's ASX listed HLG has now been renamed Redcape (RPL) but is still making some interesting news. The Sydney Morning Herald reported last Wednesday that "The chairman and chief executive of the debt-stricken pub property trust Redcape could pocket up to $8 million in bonuses between them as reward for the sale of the funds' hotels."

This report included apparent direct quotations from chairman Colin Henson that the banking syndicate involved in debt restructuring negotiations was ''keen for the management team to be properly remunerated''. Really?

The only other report I can find on this is a response which appeared in the Compost on Friday under the headline "Redcape denies bonuses claim". Redcape has relocated fropm Cairns to Melbourne to distance itself from Hedley and most of Tom's former holding is in the hands of the receivers. This report quoted Henson as saying:

"I don’t want to talk about it, but (the report) got it all wrong," he said.

"We’re ignoring it (the report). There is nothing like that on the table."

However the Compost then goes on to say that 'It is understood that management has been talking to banks about moving to a "performance-based" arrangement for senior executives.'

Most interesting however are references to comments from a 'Cairns financial analyst, who asked not to be named, (who) accused management of being "disingenuous" with shareholders' and went on to say:

"They are hiding behind a performance bonus that really just involves them selling properties at heavily written down values," he said. He said the board should "resign or be sacked over this arrangement".

How curious, and I cant help but wonder on who the analyst could be? Could they even be associated with the previous Cairns based management we wonder? KS is off out for Christmas drinks but will fill more in on this later along with some comments on the recent Redscape AGM ........

A Lemonade Tree

Lemonade Tree has now been open a few weeks at the previous location of Chapter One / Ti Adora and after a visit last Saturday is a welcome small boutiquey addition to the scene worthy of support. The same operators as the previous Star Apple at Yorkey’s Knob which has some good feedback.

Menu is small but has interesting selections reasonably priced and on the Saturday night they also had 3 or 4 additional specials. Can recommend the pork belly curry for those into their pork bellies!

It is BYO and they may stay that way so bring your vino as the nearest bottle shop at the Holiday Inn is expensive with limited range (note: there will be a Woolies bottle shop opening around the corner in Aplin next to the IGA)

Service was good for Cairns and they also indicated they would stay open for post show patrons from the CoCA centre next door when there is something on .......

Hedley Bankrupt?

The SMH has reported that Tom Hedley "has appointed a trustee who will hold a meeting of his personal creditors before Christmas to nut out a personal insolvency agreement under the Bankruptcy Act."

The story, filed by Eliabeth Knight, contains some interesting references including that "Hedley is the stuff of legend in his home town of Cairns, where he apparently lives most of his life in a lean-to attached to one of his pubs." I presume the pub is the Red Beret but hadn't noted the "lean-to". Perhaps this is the perception of Queenslander architecture from the perspective of the Sydney McMansion?

Knight comments that "A formal statement of his financial affairs to be produced by the trustee will outline just how little he has left in the tin, how much he owes and to whom it is owed. Typically, these kinds of documents make for fascinating reading because businesses like airlines, hire car companies, florists and credit card providers tend to feature."

Kitchenslut is still curious about his partner Jeanine Cooke popping up on the HLG (now RPF) register at June 30 as the 3rd largest shareholder. He also notes that Tom would appear to have been in breach of the Corporations Act by not disclosing a change in substantial holding in RPF for some time, although this has become almost standard for Hedley.

Sex in the City

The Compost has reported today that one of the two legal brothels in town is on the market! Interesting that the $300k indicated price for 5 brothel rooms corresponds closely with the price of each room similar to a poker machine under current Qld legislation and prices!

Pants Off Salmon

Browsing the food supplement of today's Courier Mail (no link available) KitchenSlut discovered a review of a new food book, "Pants Off Salmon".

The book is $19.95 for only 20 recipes so presumably the value is in the 'panty-drop' rating for each dish?

"It's not a politically correct book - the title suggests that - but in my defence I think girls get a good deal out of it if the guy cooks for them" author Alec Bragg told the CM. Bragg is an Airlie Beach physiotherapist with no culinary training.

:Each dish has been tested at least 10 times by his mates to "idiot-proof" them". There is no indication whether this "idiot-proofing" relates just to the food or includes the panty-dropping?

Braggs own response: " You mean - how much action am I getting? Let's just say I'm a lot happier guy now I'm cooking, but you don't cook and tell"

Curiously for a book aimed at pleasing women there are no desserts .....

More comings Less goings ....

Disappointing to see that one of our faves, Sacred Spice at Stratford, has gone ... to be replaced by Amaru Jay's. Sacred Spice brought welcome diversity with spicey flavours beyond the typical Asian offerings. Kitchenslut will miss his West Indian goat curry! A quick look at the new lunch menu offering is not inspiring but we will refrain from judgement until some feedback arrives from the suburbs.

More promising the Chapter One / Ti Adora site next to the jelly babies is to be reborn this week as 'A Lemonade Tree'. KS bumped into one of the new owners while peering in the window this afternoon and understands the kitchen will be run by the chef previously at Star Apple in Yorkeys Knob. Diversified Asian influences are intended and a prompt visit is planned to suss this out.

Cocoa Amour, which emerged from the ashes of the old Chocolat with it's HQ down on Grafton St, has opened on The Esplanade where Jamaica Joes was, beneath the Chapel. Some much needed diversity of style on the 'narde and we can only hope it drives away the likes of Gloria Jean's next door. It appears that Jamaica Joes will be moving upstairs to replace the Chapel bar(wrong will be a new Thai like we need another one?). KS doubts he will bother climbing the stairs after his only previous experience with a lamb shank that was more like a ball of mutton fat on a bone.

The old Mangostin's which has been dead about a year is now posted with signage promising an 'exciting new concept' from Rattle & Hum next door. Hmmmmm? Work continues down Shields St at the old Verdi's and Red Apple as the franchises move in. There was a report of a previous Masterchef contestant opening a seafood cafe down Shields also, presumably where the Liquid Bar is now defunct.

I'm sure there are more ..... but thats enough for now .....

Hanuman Numero Uno?

The only question is by how far is Hanuman, inside the Hilton, the best in Cairns just now? Excluding Palm Cove and PD ...... but then again value adjusted maybe not and that it deserves to be rated with the salubrious award winners such as Nu Nu etc? Hanuman is exceptional value for quality which makes diners downstairs at Mondo's look like mugs!

Hey, go to Mondo's for a drink and the waterside, but slip upstairs for the food! Too many Hanuman oysters can not be enough! The tasting entree for 2 at $32 is simply exceptional value for comparable quality and quantity against anything in town (maybe Bay Leaf risstafel?). The crispy Thai fish was a standout at a previous visit. The waiters are informed to guide you on what's 'hot'! The spicey aromas wafting around are almost enough to make a visit worthwhile on its own!

The key competitor here is Tamarind at the Casino which is more expensive for a lower ambience location and a recent shocker feedback report to KS of yet another appalling Cairns service experience. Service at Hanuman on two visits equals the best experienced in Cairns ever.

The website link above includes signature recipes but Kitchenslut still just can't get those oysters right .......

Cairns unemployment stats update

Detailed ABS unemployment data released this morning shows a big turnaround with the ‘official’ unemployment rate for FNQ falling from 13.8% to 8.1%. Again the action is all in male employment stats. Would have to expect greater data volatility and statistical error I guess in smaller regional samples relative to national data, obviously in the real world unemployment hasn't fluctuated that wildly within a month and perhaps last months was overstated? More detail on the population benchmark for the data would be of some interest.

However some of these stats reverse not just last month but some months prior. Points to note in the data:

1) A substantial increase in the total number employed back to levels last seen earlier in the year (Feb & April).

2) A sharp fall in the measured unemployment rate especially male unemployment.

3) However, an offsetting slump in the male participation rate ie people left the workforce, gave up or didn’t bother to look for work.

My techie attempts to embed a new google spreadsheet have been an abysmal failure however the monthly employment stats for FNQ since 2007 compiled from ABS data have been updated down at Far North Unemployment Debacle ......


Update: Reporting and commentary on Cairns unemployment and commentary in the Compost and the Weekend Oz.

The Cairns Communique?

Prolific demographer and columninst for The Australian, Bernard Salt, proposes some ideas on how to market a city which could possibly be applied to Cairns? Ukelele's and V8 races are just so mundane and temporary!

Maybe there should be a special unit down at TTNQ working on 'The Cairns Comminique'?

Salt was in Cairns last year for an excellent presentation to a Cairns Chamber lunch.

Update: I am reminded that the Cairns Group of agricultural trading nations still exists although no longer has the media profile it has in the past.

the story of the australian economy

Peter Martin has posted six graphs ... ok one is a table ... to explain the australian economy in recent years from the RBA quarterly statement released on friday. The story really is pretty clear.

I will only post the international arrivals and departures trend for recent years as the one most directly applicable to Cairns perhaps. Departures swamp arrivals .......

What observations can be made from this?

1) Both arrivals and departures during the GFC have been much more resilient than in recent past shocks such as 9/11, the Asia crisis, the mild early noughties US recession, Iraq, internet bubble collapse and 2003 bear market.

2) The trend turnaround between arrivals and departures, correlate with other key trends such as currency, commodities and terms of trade related to China and emerging economies etc etc. Although any small impact from boosted immigration arrivals doesn't show up in the arrivals.

3) International arrivals were stalling long BEFORE the GFC!

Note here that the international arrivals for Cairns in the more recent past, at least as shown in the most recent graph in Cairnswatch from Rick Carr at HTW, show a far more severe downturn on internatinal arrivals in Cairns (ex transits) than apparent in arrivals nationally. Some events very specific to Cairns have impacted locally.

P.S. Amateur economists and chart addicts should also always keep an eye on the excellent monthly RBA chartpack.

Vote AGAINST Entsch

CEC performance with Wazza as a director. He is the only director up for re-election at this months AGM.


Former Liberal pollies have a lousy record as directors and you can almost slap a sell on as soon as they announce the appointment. CEC lost its Chairman Rob Borbidge, ex coalition premier, and our mate Greg Kern also resigned. The board positions haven't been replaced leaving a rather small and not particularly well structured board.
The outlook from current chairman Tony Hartnell is actually quite upbeat on forward work flowing mostly from infrastructure.

service cairns front and centre at salt house

As a ciy dweller tonight I did a little bar crawl. The salubrious newish Salt House was on the agenda. The serving barman managed to sucessfully pour and present my vino and simultaneously during the entire service period engage in a conversation on his mobile! No kidding!!

Aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi?

Kitchenslut Rationalist Economics is highly disposed to open borders and migration however the externality of migration impacts has become interesting as the Copenhagen driven ETS climate hype intensifies!

Australia has now achieved numero uno per capita carbon emmitter status! Aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi oi!

So! What happens for each low emitting Tamil or Afghan imported into a high carbon lifestyle? Have you noticed that with recent upgrades to currently record immigration and population numbers that policymakers have been dead keen to fully inform us on this, NOT? Yes, for every migrant our carbon targets get harder!

The laws of unintended consequences remain immutable .....

geography of a daylight saving stimulus

The Compost has published an article on the proposition that daylight saving could be an economic stimulus and report the notion has been rejected by local industry leaders. The basis of the research does seem to yet again be based on temperate rather than tropical zones.

A simple explanation of some of the latitudinal geographic differences relevant to daylight saving cam a few years ago now at olineopinion.com.au

Vote AGAINST Kern

Here I was all set to post on the upcoming HLG, Hedley Leisure & Gaming, AGM when I flipped through today's Compost Business Week to find a headline 'Kern to stay on board' (no link available).The Compost has reported in typical journalistic style full of naivety, ignorance and error, but more on that later......

For those who haven't kept up, when Tom's house of cards collapsed his 52.72% holding held within TWH (Qld) Pty Ltd ended up in the hands of the receivers where it remains. HLG was structured on the now discredited external manager model with Tom's private interests providing management services to the public entity for a fee. That arrangement was ended when Hedley collpased and management internalised and the office moved to Melbourne.

HLG announced last week that their AGM will be held this year in Melbourne on November 26. That's the same day as the BHP and Woolies AGM, and also the CEC AGM will be held here in Cairns that day. This will almost certainly ensure that any reporting gets buried. I had hoped to get prominent Melbourne based shareholder activist (and Crikey founder) Stephen Mayne along this year but given the clashes he will be in Sydney for the Woolies AGM. He has however indicated that he should be able to get a proxy along to maybe ask some questions.

There are three motions on the agenda for this years AGM the biggest being to re-elect Greg Kern as a director. Kern is his own 'mini-mini-mac' prominent local Cairns business identity. The theme of the Compost story today is just more of the typical sycophancy and spin surrounding Hedley that we always see from the Compost. Kern is among the most failed directors of ASX listed public companies going around. He has presided on the boards of three ASX listed companies in recent years and all have lost around 90% of value. Apart from HLG these are ELY where is is a substantial holder and founder who flogged shares to the public at $1 before they collapsed to around 10 cents. He was also a director of CEC before submitting his 'resignation' during the year. Most notably ALL of these companies languish and have not participated in the market recovery.

There are also questions surrounding his role on the audit committee. This years accounts revealed that HLG has written off a previously undisclosed $4million sunk in the collapse of Hedley Private. This was revealed in related party transaction in this years annual report. Last years accounts have been retstated because of an accounting change for gaming and liquor licenses as intangible assets They simply restated last years status in this years report to backdate its inclusion. There also remain questions re the unauthorised transaction between the public and private entities revealed in the half yearly report apparently discoved and reversed some months later. The unexplained departure of CFO Donnelly followed. I strongly advocates a vote against Kern as the only reasonable vote on any sane objective judgement.

As part of the separation from Hedley the company has to remove his name. The proposed new name is 'Redcape' which needs to be approved at the AGM. Redcape sounds more like a uranium explorer to me? Am I just too cynical but is this an appropriate name for a pub fund seeking investors or is it designed to ensure obscurity and distance itself as far as possible from the past? The remaining motion is to approve the remuneration report where I also have some queries and objections which I will publish prior to the AGM along with a scroll of questions.

There is no doubt all three motions will be approved as is the norm for company meetings, especially with interests such as the receiver, Hedley, and his partner Jeanine holding more than 60%. Given the support for Tom Hedley in the local mania of the initial float and a share scheme for Hedley employees I would guess the smaller shareholding remain heavily weighted to the Cairns region. Kitchenslut has a modest holding recently acquired principally to agitate the board and entertainment value, and will be voting against all three!

This year online voting is enabled making a vote from small shareholders easier. This is worthwhile as an objection vote, even if the result is almost certain, and should be encouraged. Alternatively I will be ticking the boxes against all motions and returning the proxy to Stephen Mayne if and when he lines up a proxy attendee.

There are too many issues surrounding this group that require answers and at present I have a scroll to be formulated into a formal ASIC complaint. Still it goes on with this week with an apparent failure by some parties in HLG to submit formal statutory change of substantial holder notices as required by Corporations Law and ASX listing rules?



Appendix: Compost Corrections.

1) "The board will also ask directors to approve a name change, dropping the "Hedley" tag in favour of "Redspace Property Fund Ltd"

Umm, the board IS the directors! The board of directors will be asking the SHAREHOLDERS to approve the name change!

The proposed name is "Redcape" not "Redspace". Perhaps "Redspace" has something to do with reporter David Sexton's nocturnal habits?

2) "Mr Hedley ... the major shareholder ..... had his shares in the listed entity seized by creditors after the collapse of his private empire last June"

It collpased and receivers were called in July but thats a quibble. Hedley has not had ALL his shares placed with the receivers and remains with holdings through the HLG management company subsequently removed as manager. This was 4.18% at June 30 and he has since received a further payment of approximately 3% of the group as a final management fee payment. More on that also with objections to the remuneration report.

3) " ... the fund has announced it will vote to re-elect Cairns businessman Greg Kern as a director"

It has announced no such thing. It has announced that Kern has nominated to stand again subject to a vote from the shareholders to approve this. Most of this story from Sexton is cut & paste filler of standard statements from any company AGM documents. Much is made of Kern's recommendation by other board members. This is always the case and also part of the unfortunate corporate governance problem .....

We deserve better!

KitchenSlut Global Markets

The muscular Australian dollar has grown as a topic of conversation almost to the extent of almost becoming the proverbial BBQ stopper. The conversation used to be property values and now it's currency and potential international travel destinations. While the $AUD is not back to pre-crisis levels against many major currencies it is well above where could have been expected and closing in on previous highs.

So, just on currency which are the countries we most strongly resemble. There has been some comment on the comparison with Canada which as a fellow 'developed nation' has a substantial commodity based economy also, but with a higher manufacturing exposure and a large exposure to the USA. Even there though as against the anything from the $US, the impoverished pound sterling, the euro and on to the Indian Rupee and the Chinese Renmimbi / Yuan, the hegemony of the $AUD has been complete!

But no, the countries we have most strongly tracked over the last year are ....

Brazil, where the stock market is a global best performer and back to 2007 levels.

and South Africa

Yes there were some volatile moves a year ago when the shit hit the fan but otherwise these are the two we track most closely in recent months! So Carnivale, in Rio not Port Douglas, is off the travel agenda for next year anyway with Europe, UK and most others cheap as chips. It was a year ago now that economics nobel laureate Paul Krugman coined the phrase "we are all brazillians now" in a different context.

Well KS Global Markets may not seem to have a local theme, but with currency the theme du jour we noted extensive advertising on Sea FM promoting get rich schemes from an obscure currency trading promoter with the prestigious web address www.makegreatmoney.com.au/

Oh dear, does this still work or has not the average Sea FM punter out there not worked out that what will be most heavily promoted will be the current themes and headlines? We may look into and post further on this.

Update: No sooner do we post than Brazil whacks a surprise 2% tax on all capital inflows to try and stem the rising real with consequences for markets and exchange rates. This Bloomberg report with comments on consquences of a 'currency bubble' in Brazil as the exodus from $US assets continues is also interesting. Meanwhile, The Australian has reported on currency related impacts on overseas student numbers .....  

cutlery supremacy denialism

Australia reigns supreme! The $AUD now confirms our moral and cultural superiority!

This would have always been obvious to anyone who bothered to look at our clear superiority in cutlery engineering! Yes! The most brilliant cutlery invention of recent generations, the splayd, is all ours! Disregarded globally as a mere fad for a decade or two now and consequently ignored by undeserving subsequent generations around the world!?

Kitchenslut cringes here as his dear old Mum still sometimes drags the splayds out as the ideal implement to tackle a somewhat sweet and and less than punchy chicken curry! Actually KS is on a current diet of cultural self-masochism and will next weekend be subjecting himself to self imposed torture at the promising 'needle and the damage done' at the Civic, which threatens to be equally shocking!

What? No chopsticks? What sort of culturally biased diagram is that?

"I murdered the state"?

As a consequence of not owning a television KitchenSlut missed the entire first series of Masterchef as well as the celibrity version this week featuring Anna Bligh. Apparently Bligh's contribution to the Far North was, in tune with KS, an attempt to highlight our magnificent local vanilla beans! Although it would seem the vanilla bean featured in a less than cameo role being tossed in whole in a blink with scant regard and no theatrical slicing to arromatically excite the senses!?

But did Anna really mumble the line "I murdered the state" ...... errrr or was that steak(?) as she presented her downfall meat dish? Was the detraction of a flawed main from a "cracking" fnq vanilla enhanced dessert an ironic metaphor for the state's political economy?

Far North Unemployment Debacle

Kitchenslut is struggling somewhat here with his google docs embeddedment into blogger but will persist and, perhaps, one day triumph! Although a retreat into the culinary uses of vanilla beans may also be an option?

Whatever! These are the percentage unemployment percentages from the ABS for the Far North statistical region since the series commenced in 2007. Total numbers of unemplyed have risen to around 20,000. The participation rate, the percentage of working age people actually seeking work, has been quite stable generally throughout this period. I will try to update and improve the table and add graphics if possible!

These numbers are still little reported even in Cairns, let alone beyond, but should be regarded as unacceptable. When i stop dabbling with techie issues will try to update with further comment .....