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By Les Scammell, November 30, 2009 11:57 pm

It seems that we Australians really are into upsizing. Latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) indicates we may be building the biggest homes in the world at present. The fact that Australia only faltered a little during the recent world economic meltdown has meant we have continued to grow whilst many other nations downsized their homes.

Free-standing homes in Australia are being built with floor plan measurements of 245.3sqm. This compares to the US whose new homes have shrunk a little to 201.5sqm. In Europe, Denmark leads the way with 137 sqm, followed by Greece (126 sqm), and the Netherlands (115.5 sqm). The UK chimes in with a pokey 76 sqm.

Considering some new homes are pretty small with bedrooms that barely fit a single bed let alone anything else, we must be building some fairly big homes to aver over 240sqm. We are seeing a huge shift in culture however with children staying on in the home well into their 20’s. In the past mum and dad would have downsized after the kids left home – now they are staying put. This has meant a shortage of larger homes forcing people to build larger homes.

We like to upsize everything here in Australia – it used to be cars but with the cost of fuel now, we are going for bigger plasma TV’s – and of course, we need bigger homes to house them, don’t we? You can see the news story here.

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By Les Scammell, November 29, 2009 5:37 pm

The Australian Liberal Party are rapidly going into melt down – a fairly typical scenario in Australian politics after the party in power loses at a general election. The role of leader really is a poisonous chalice especially when the defeat was as heavy as it was. In most cases, the losing party goes through a number of leaders, and often a number of losing elections, before finally finding some stability and really making a difference.

I am not sure what drives politicians to take on the leadership role in this situations. Perhaps it’s an over-inflated opinion of their own leadership skills, sometimes they are the last man standing when no one else wants the role.

The problem with the Liberal party at present is that they don’t want to be led. The only person strong enough to really bring some order to the party has left. Malcolm Turnbull has the strength of character but not the interpersonal skills. He seems to tend to rile people rather than unite them. Tony Abbot has no credibility and Kevin Andrews even less. That leaves Joe Hockey.

It would be interesting to see Hockey as Liberal leader. Australian’s may remember Joe Hockey and Kevin Rudd playing off against one another several years ago with regular appearances on a popular morning TV show. They also took part in one of our most arduous and meaningful walks – the Kokoda Trail. I am sure they build a little mate-ship in that exercise.

Becoming leader of the Liberals in this current environment is a recipe for political suicide. If the party doesn’t stand 100% behind whomever they appoint leader – the party will continue to slide. There is a real risk that, come the next election, the Liberal party are no longer the number two party in Australia – they could be at best number three – perhaps even worse.

The problem for the Liberal party is very simple – if Joe Hockey doesn’t want the top job – and I don’t blame him one bit if he refused it right now, then who is going to lead them?

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By Les Scammell, November 28, 2009 12:41 pm

It’s a sad day in politics when politicians start using Twitter and Facebook to help them make decisions. That is the case in Australia at present as one major political party goes into total melt down. Australia only has two major political parties, the ALP and the Liberal party. The ALP currently holds power and it seems will continue to do so for quite some time – at least until the Liberal party can get their act together.

Joe Hockey, a probable candidate to take over as leader of the party at some time in the near future, is now using Twitter and Facebook get feedback on climate change issues – specifically a bill before parliament that will bring in a carbon credit system together with a carbon emission reduction goal. This legislation has torn the Liberal party apart – hence Joe Hockey’s use of social media.

He has been a staunch supporter of current leader Malcolm Turnbull and the his efforts to broker a deal related to the new legislation. He is now trying to find an out for this support and is using Twitter and Facebook to help him. At the end of the day he will say that public support is not behind Malcolm Turnbull or the government so he is going to reverse his stance.

That’s pretty weak. First, Twitter and Facebook are not representative of the Australian population. Second, unless someone actually counts every response, we only have his word for the end results, and finally, people use situations like this to gain an advantage. I would love to know how many new followers he received over the last few days and how many of them offered the advice he wants to hear.

This is politics and we all know how two faced they can all be. Tony Abbott was one of the biggest supporters of this legislation a couple of months ago. In fact he was quite up front in promoting it and urging the Liberal party leadership to support it. Guess what, when things got tough he was the first to jump ship and swap sides – and then throw his hat into the ring for the job of party leader.

Am I cynical – you bet. This hasn’t nothing to do with the environment the new legislation – this has just been the issue used to create a disturbance in the party room to force the removal of Malcolm Turnbull. He is his own worst enemy. He is too aloof, too much of a control freak, and just not likable enough to get away with it like Kevin Rudd does (he is also a control freak).

As for Joe Hockey – surely he is not a political suicide freak. Anyone who takes on the leadership job now is on a hiding to nothing. The Liberals will get badly mauled at the next election – only a year away now. If I was Joe, I would step away and let Abbott take the job. Let him take the bruises, and, like every other losing party leader, lose his job after the next election. Then he can step in and rebuild the broken party. Turnbull needs to do a Howard. Howard lost the job of opposition leader and sat back and let everyone else do the hard work. When the time was right he stepped back into the limelight and the rest is history.

Where to know for the Liberals. I guess they will all be heading to Twitter and Facebook to find out who the public wants to see as leader. They may as well – they can’t make a decent decision themselves!

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By Les Scammell, November 27, 2009 11:31 pm

Here is a video from the FTC explaining what the new FTC Endorsement Guides mean for bloggers.  I will preface this post by acknowledging that these guides really only affect US residents. However, if you are from outside the US don’t become too complacent. The FTC may not be able to fine you, but if you use one of the free or cheap hosting options available, most are resident in the US. This means the FTC could probably have your site closed if you went too far.

The guides ultimately are to provide  better protection to users of the internet. In this case, the FTC is looking for honest reviews of products with some typ of acknowledgment that you have been paid to write the review. Check the video out for yourself. There are more in the series on the FTC site.