Seniors becoming savvy about digital technology

Early PC, complete with floppy disk drives source Wikipedia

During a frustrating hour or two updating our websites, I realised I am more savvy than the average 74-year-old when it comes to digital technology. Or so I thought. Later, you will read about how Covid-19 prompted many older Australians to start interacting with Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp and other communications systems.

In what has been a busy month (editing the U3A newsletter, updating three websites, updating our self managed super fund and writing a new song), I am finding time to create a short course in basic computer skills for U3A members. Most of our members are in the over-70s age group and a few do not have access to the Internet. I am hoping some will find a use for U3A’s laptops, which have been in hibernation since Covid broke out in early 2020. In preparation to run the computer course, I took these laptops home and updated them.

It wasn’t too difficult, but these laptops were a reminder of how quickly digital technology becomes obsolete. I was reminded of that last Friday when the WordPress website which hosts this weekly essay “broke”. That’s WordPress community geek-speak for not doing what it’s programmed to do. Therefore, WordPress followers who had subscribed to the blog did not get last week’s email with a link to the website. The blog was still posted to the website, but the electronic sharing didn’t happen. It turned out I’d been ignoring reminders to ‘update your PHP’, which is the software within WordPress that interacts with plugins (or apps) that make the website work efficiently.

(That sound you hear is me snoring, having fallen asleep. Ed)

I am convinced that everyone who uses a computer has a ‘blind spot’, that is, a technological advance with which they cannot cope.

My blind spot would be anything to do with coding, editing the registry, updating drivers or any one of a dozen under-the-bonnet programming tasks. In this case, I asked Craig P from Inmotion Hosting to do the hard work updating PHP (the older versions are ‘deprecated’), and I’d take care of the detail.

Computer hardware and software companies are continually updating their products, to fix glitches in the system and to improve security. They also do it to sustain cashflow. There was a time when you could buy the complete Microsoft Office programme at a retail store and use it seemingly forever at no extra cost. Now they want an annual subscription (which includes updates and support).

I’ve been using a computer at home since the mid-1990s and came into daily newspapers at a time when they were leaving the old technology behind. I learned a lot, but don’t ask me about programming.

She Who Sometimes Shouts at her Computer told me the other day she studied Base 2 in grade seven. Base 2 is a field of mathematics that is particularly germane to computers.

As Wikipedia explains, the base-2 numeral system is that in which each digit is referred to as a bit, or binary digit. Because of its straightforward implementation in digital electronic circuitry, the binary system is used by almost all modern computers and computer-based devices.

Got that? You can log back into Facebook now and carry on regardless.

While kids are learning computer science and coding at school, we of the older cohort rely on the ever-changing versions of Microsoft Windows to make it easy. There have been 11 versions of Windows since 1985. Some, like Windows ME, 2000, Vista and Windows 8, were not perfect, so Windows moved on to 7, 10 and now 11.

One of my contacts in information technology tells me that Windows 11 is the best operating system yet because Microsoft has looked at security first and everything else second.

I haven’t upgraded from 10 yet. I limped along with Windows 7 until it got the point where Microsoft wouldn’t support it at all. As of this month, people with Windows 7 won’t even get security updates.

I set off with this idea of teaching older people how to take control of their computer because the conventional wisdom is that older people struggle with new technology. Our reflexes have slowed and we have leathery fingers – ask anyone.

But maybe not so much in Australia. A recent study by The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) set the record straight.

While older people have trouble navigating touch screen gadgets like smart phones and tablets, in the four years from 2017 to 2020, many were on an IT learning curve and probably still are. ACMA’s report, produced in May 2021, noted changes in the way older people engage with the online world.

While most use the internet at home, they also used a mobile phone to go online when out and about. Their adoption of other digital devices like smart phones, tablets and fitbits is also on the rise.

In mid-2020, ACMA found that 93% of older people had internet access in their home, up from 68% in 2017.

In 2017, only 6% of older people used apps and digital devices to go online. In June 2020, 26% of older people used five or more types of devices to go online.

ACMA says that parallel with their uptake of digital devices, more older people are using the internet for a wider variety of activities and tasks.

“Almost all older people now use email, while banking, viewing video content, and buying goods and services online have increased substantially over the previous 4 years, to become relatively common behaviours for this age-group.”

There was also a quantum leap in the numbers of older people who use apps like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to make voice calls, video calls and send texts. In 2019 the figure was 33% – a year later it was 55%.

The Pew Research Centre, which keeps tabs on this topic in the US, also noticed growth during the pandemic but observed that 7% of Americans aged over 65 are not online at all.

The Pew Centre said there were notable differences between age groups when measuring the frequency of internet use. Some 48% of those ages 18 to 29 said they were online “almost constantly”.,compared with 22% of those 50 to 64 and 8% of those 65 and older.

Joelle Renstrom, writing in ‘Slate’, an online magazine, said computer and digital technology companies are not designing devices that older people want. Renstrom cited research by Bran Knowles who studies how older people use technology.

Knowles says tech companies don’t see older people as valid stakeholders.

“That’s evident in how they fail to consider seniors’ needs, even when manufacturing products like the Jitterbug, a phone with extra-big buttons.

“Button size doesn’t dictate seniors’ decisions about tech use, and such presumptions highlight Silicon Valley’s bias toward youth.”

The people who drive tech development “can’t imagine what it’s like to be 80”, said Knowles.

Meanwhile, big organisations and governments continue to drive their customers/clients (young and old) to online accounts and digital apps.

RACQ’s Road Ahead magazine reports in its latest edition that drivers will have access to a ‘digital licence app’ in 2023. Queensland’s Department of Transport has been conducting trials since legislation was passed in 2020 to allow development of a digital licence (which will have equal weight to a physical licence). Drivers can store their digital licence on their mobile phone and use it for ID purposes as they travel. The Road Ahead article notes that the new digital licence will be ‘opt-in’ and not compulsory. Phew, we all said.

So, WordPress readers – did you get it?

A message for WordPress followers of Bobwords

January 15, 2023

Sunday on My Mind – a message for WordPress subscribers

I have been updating the back end of my website bobwords.com.au after encountering some issues. It seems none of you received an email with a link to my Friday blog. Nor was it posted to social media. I have been doing some serious upgrading today on this site and thegoodwills.com. Please bear with us as we may have ongoing issues for a while on both websites. For those of you conversant with website management, the problem was software which is ‘deprecated’ – that is, no longer supported.

You can read Friday’s blog here https://bobwords.com.au/record-stores-future/ but I apologise for the no-show to subscribers. It would be handy if a couple of my email subscribers or WP followers let me know they received this by email.

Let me know by email waikareiti<at>gmail.com if you have any issues in the future.

Bob Wilson

The future for record stores

future-record-stores
Image: A selection from the B’s. How many of these do you have?

While my friends in New Zealand were still at school, I was making apprentice wages, spending almost all of it on records. Our small town didn’t have a record store as such, but the local department store stocked the latest pop records. At the time, LPs were pressed at a factory in Wellington owned by His Master’s Voice (HMV). My copy of ‘Please Please Me’ (The Beatles), for example, was issued by Parlophone in Mono. It still plays OK but it sounds thin compared to the sophisticated sounds of Pink Floyd or the Moody Blues.

New Zealand’s music fans had the jump on most other countries when the latest Beatles album became a ‘must have now’ item. The masters were shipped to Wellington and the presses were set to work. Other countries usually had to wait for a shipment of imported records.

‘Please Please Me’ was rushed out by Parlophone in March 1963 (I was 14), so maybe I bought it with money from my paper run. Parlophone was eager to cash in on the title track, the group’s first No 1 hit in the UK.

Roll forward to 2023 and my LP collection is stacked neatly in two cupboards, very rarely played. I have a good quality record player hooked up to my stereo with a pre-amp, so I’m not sure why they don’t get more of a playing. Ah yes, it’s the getting up and flipping the record over to the six or seven tracks on side two.

The big change between my teenage consumption of music and now is that, for the most part, we listened to music in one room. We would typically lie on the floor (parents were out, obviously), and crank up the volume. There may have been alcohol.

By comparison, today’s music listener can stream an endless Spotify playlist from their phone to a Bluetooth speaker at home or in the car (or through earbuds). It might be inferior quality, but it’s easy.

What set me off on this tangent was reading about the imminent closure of the Sanity record chain. Our town has one of their outlets. I didn’t shop there often but bought a few CDs – Kasey Chambers, Troy Casser-Daley. Now, as stocks starts to dwindle, I’m having a look for bargains. They sell DVDs too.

Sanity is closing all 50 stores as leases expire and moving to an online business model. Sanity is not the first retail chain to retire from shopping centres, where so many retailers have found that the foot traffic doesn’t always translate to turnover to offset higher rents.

This is not an isolated development, with a couple of Brisbane record stores closing their doors and Melbourne’s iconic Basement Discs set to do the same. Co-owner Suzanne Bennett told The Age that the impact of Covid and a drop in foot traffic reduced revenue. The CBD store was established for 28 years and famous for its in-store performances by musicians including The Teskey Brothers, Paul Kelly, Billy Bragg and Justin Townes Earle. This is not to say Basement Discs is going out of business. Suzanne and partner Rod Jacobs will continue to operate online and have a dream of opening another shop in the suburbs.

As I discovered, after chatting online with former colleague Noel Mengel, there are still some funky record stores around in Brisbane. But the independents have mostly moved to the suburbs to find cheaper rents.

Noel, who was chief music writer at The Courier-Mail for 15 years, said that most shopping centres had an independent record store. In recent years most have closed or moved to the suburbs.

“Every shopping centre had one, usually as well as Sanity or HMV, for example Sounds at Chermside, Brookside Music Centre and Toombul Music. Rockaway Records is a groovy store still going at Carindale Shopping Centre. It used to be near the Paddington shops before that.

“There are lots of Indie record stores now in Brisbane, but rents are too high in shopping centres. The independents include Sonic Sherpa at Stones Corner, Stash Records at Camp Hill, Dutch Vinyl in Paddington and Jet Black Cat in West End. So that niche market, import vinyl thing is going OK.

“But those shops really used to add something to the shopping centres.”

Rockaway, established in 1992, is one of the last indie stores in Brisbane shopping centres. Long-established Rocking Horse Records and Record Exchange continue to trade in the CBD.

As music production formats and distribution began to change, famous record stores like Harlequin and Skinny’s disappeared. Even with Sanity moving out, there are still big retail chains in shopping centres like JB Hi Fi that sell CDs and vinyl albums.

We old school music listeners grew up browsing record stores, from the days of vinyl in the 1960s, through the transition to cassettes (1970s) and CDs (the 1990s) and into the brave new world of downloading and streaming music. This arguably began with Apple Itunes in 2001, although the original Napster found a way in 1999 for users to share music through peer-to-peer file sharing.

Although it was shut down in 2002 after a plethora of legal actions, you may be aware that Napster re-emerged later under new owners and is now a legitimate alternative to Spotify.

The best and most popular physical record stores are those that specialise in rare and second-hand vinyl. They are not always easy to find, as they need to find a shop in the suburbs where rents are viable.

Long-time reader Franky’s Dad (aka Lyn Nuttall) is someone who has a history of browsing in such shops. These days though he confesses to preferring streaming services like Spotify.

“Platforms like this are made for me. They seem to have every track in the universe. They don’t of course, but lately my bowerbird approach is served by YouTube, where numerous collectors seem to have posted their entire collections.
“These days I can find even the most obscure or lost tracks from the 50s and 60s”.

Lyn, who hosts the website poparchives began collecting vinyl 45s via mail order in the 1980s & 1990s, mostly through record auctioneers – “I think I paid the rent of one bloke in Sydney.”
“I do miss combing through the racks for the physical object. Even at the time I used to say that half the pleasure was the hunt and the item in your hand after you’d paid for it.”

Noel Mengel, now a freelance journalist who also plays in his own band, The Trams, says Brisbane is well served by independent, suburban record stores.

As the figures below show, there has been rapid growth in demand for vinyl records. Noel welcomed the recent addition of a vinyl pressing factory in Brisbane as there were previously huge delays for those pressing vinyl.

“The community radio station 4ZZZ does a great job playing Queensland music and the independent stores sell their records.”

Figures from ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) show that vinyl album sales ($28.51 million) outsold CD albums ($23.90 million) for calendar year 2021. Vinyl sales have increased steadily since 2012 (then just $1.85 million) compared to CD sales in that year ($193.49 million).

All of which reminds me I promised my niece I would bring some of my old jazz records when we visit NZ next month. She and her husband only listen to vinyl. I reckon they are on to something.

Last week: It was Wirth’s Circus.

New Year rolling relentlessly along

My friend Joy sent one of Jacquie Lawson’s life-affirming animated cards for New Year, a positive message delivered as a calendar, pages flipping to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. It was a northern hemisphere theme, but the message was universal – the wonders of nature.

As for last week’s flippant item about fluffy news, the opening days of 2023 delivered anything but. At New Year drinks, assembled guests inevitably began talking about the bad news of preceding days and weeks. The Tara shooting is still (and probably always will be), bewilderingly pointless. There are Court cases to come involving a traffic accident in which three people died. There’s the home invasion which left a young mother dead and her husband injured. There were drownings, fatal car accidents and a helicopter crash that killed four people.

Where’s a cat up a tree story when you need one?

For my part, I’ve been quite busy as one of my pro bono jobs is editing the U3A Warwick newsletter, an 18-page publication (due today). I was chasing up sponsors who booked advertising space. I made up an ad in Publisher and sent it for approval, quietly invigorated by finding that I can be multi-skilled at my age.

Mind you, race walker Heather Lee (96), could teach me a thing or two. ABC Breakfast interviewed Heather (a lone, good news contribution). She was lamenting that she can no longer compete in her age group – because she’s the only one.

Watching Heather briskly walking, arms swinging, made me prise myself out of the recliner, stretch my hammies and vow to return to the gym. If you make New Year resolutions, that should be Number 1, really. If we’re not fit and active, chances are we’ll soon be on a wheelie walker or in a wheelchair.

Neither of these options appeal to me, but at 70+ with diagnosed brittle bones, I have made getting fitter than I am a priority.

It’s all about exercise, stretching, lunging, eating good food and drinking lots of water; it’s also about brisk walking, not quite the Heather Lee standard but not dog-walking pace either.

The realisation that I was not as fit as I have been came while trudging around the Woodford Folk Festival site, up hill and down, on roads which had been knocked about by rain. I had not been to Woodford for some years. It was always tiring, no matter how fit you were. One year at Woodford, realising that the tiredness comes from the endless walking from one venue to another, I took up residence at one venue and stayed there for the duration. It sure was better than catching the last song of John Butler’s set or not being able to get into the tent when you wanted to be in the front row.

Woodford, with its teeming thousands milling about, is a place where you might meet someone you know and then again, not. In previous years, it seemed as if our age group (the over-60s) was well represented. This year, it was like being at Splendour in the Grass. Most attendees seemed to be in the 18-29 age group and of course there were kids and babies everywhere.

I was one of the few men I spotted wearing jeans. Most were clad in shorts, long hippy pants or on occasions, sarongs. Hardly anyone wore a hat (Albo did), and I guess they will pay for it later.

We were there for the 9am tribute to the extraordinary folk singer, comedian and writer John Thompson, who died in February 2021, aged 56. His widow Nicole Murray put the show together with the help of friends Fred Smith and Ian Dearden. They covered a lot of territory in just 50 minutes; there were performances from singers who’d been in bands with John, a special Morris Dance to the tune of his song ‘Brisbane River’ and a spooky rendition of The Parting Glass by the Spooky Men’s Chorale. As director Stephen Taberner told the full-house crowd, John had at one point joined the Spookies for a tour of the UK. If you did not know of John, you might have seen him as the Songman in the stage production Warhorse, which toured Australia and New Zealand.

A cheerful highlight of the tribute was a rendition of John’s song ‘Bill and the Bear’, about a Maleny man who wrestled a bear at Wirth’s Circus, back in the day. A scratch orchestra led by brass player Mal Webb marched in from the back of the venue to play the extended instrumental.

It was an appropriately sombre, hilarious, cheerful and tearful event. John would have been incredulous that he could draw a full house at a 9am festival gig.

From there, I wandered off to catch Jem Casser-Daley at one of her first Woodford gigs. Jem played piano and was backed by a drummer and bass player. She’s young and her songs are mostly about feeling young and vulnerable, broken relationships or being stood up for a date. She’s confident, natural, has a beautiful voice and showed her musical pedigree by including two covers. First came Neil Young’s ‘Harvest Moon’, maybe inspired by A.J. Lee and maybe not, and then delving into her Dad’s record collection to come up with Carole King’s ‘It’s Too Late’, Baby. Jem Casser-Daley, star of the future.

I found my way back to the 9am venue in time for Eric Bogle’s sound check in which the pithy Scotsman sang ‘For nearly 60 years I’ve been a jockey’. Later, he sang the real song with great heart, as he always does. As a songwriter who is always asked to sing the same one or two songs at gigs, I felt for Eric once again working through ‘No Man’s Land’ (also known as ‘The Green Fields of France’), which was a huge hit for the Fureys and set Eric off on the life of a touring musician. At 77, he’s still in good voice, quipping away between songs and bantering with fellow musicians, Emma Luker (fiddle) and Pete Titchener (guitar and vocals). I feel tired just writing this, but Eric went from a tour of New Zealand in October to a 13-concert tour here in November and a few gigs in December before the tour bus rolled into Woodford. As the quote goes on his tour posters: ‘A mixture of loquacious Scottish humour and exceptionally heartfelt folk songs’. (The Irish Times).

Songwriters tend to become identified with a certain type of song – in Bogle’s case songs about World War I. He told his Woodford audience that he had published 230 songs, of which only 12 are about WWI. He also revealed he had registered ‘No Man’s Land’ under both titles!

Eric is one of three songwriters who wrote a tribute for John Thompson, ‘Catching the Wave’, which is on his latest album, Source of Light.

Fred Smith, better known for songs about the conflict in Afghanistan, penned the as-yet unreleased ‘Sweet Ever After’, watching John’s funeral on Zoom from his room in Kabul. Brisbane folk singer Ian Dearden, a long-time friend and associate, wrote ‘Song for John’ which can be found on Bandcamp.

I like to remember John Thompson as he was – a warm fellow with a brilliant mind, feverish sense of humour, a grand voice, clever writer, sometimes impatient but always with good intentions.

It’s so hard to refer to him in the past tense.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cat up a tree time of year

cat-up-a-tree-journalism
Photo from www.pixabay.com No, it’s not a Jarrah, but there’s a cat in there!

Here’s a heart-warming story, filed this morning by our intrepid reporter, Abigail Featherweight, on location at Jumpinup Downs, WA.

(Video shows a fire truck pulled up next to a very tall tree where a shirtless fireman in the basket of a cherry picker is rescuing a cat, which, having not only got stuck at the top of the tree, gave birth there to seven kittens).

Morning show host Gavin Brighteeth: Hi Abbey – tell us what’s going on.

Abigail, breathlessly brushing back tendrils of thin blonde hair from an angular face, nodding, as they teach television reporters to do.

“Hi Gavin, good of you to give this story a spin. As you may have heard in the voice-over, a missing neighbourhood cat, Charlize, was found this morning perched in the branches of this 25m Jarrah tree. (Telephoto closeup of Charlize nestled in a pocket of branches where she’s nurturing the seven kittens she gave birth to this morning).

Abigail: It was fireman Vince Colloseum to the rescue, after first taking off his shirt, as it is a steamy 42 degrees this morning at Jumpinup Downs, where this magnificent old tree stands alone at an intersection. Environmental activists who campaigned to save the tree amid urban development dubbed it “Last Jarrah Standing”.

“I see Vince is coming down with yet another two kittens, his muscular torso glistening with sweat.

“Vince is not only a fireman, he is a dedicated body builder and was Mr September in last year’s Firies Calendar. (close up of Vince’s glistening torso).

Abigail, thrusting her mike in Vince’s face: Vince, this is awesome – how many kittens have you rescued now?

Vince: Six, Abbey, so there is one more and Mum, which will be the last load.

Abigail: I see you have been scratched numerous times, Vince?

Vince: “Just a flesh wound or two, hahaha. You have to expect that with cat up a tree rescues. I’ve saved dozens over the years but this is the first one that gave birth way up there.”

Producer in Abigail’s earbud: “Can you find the cat’s owner and interview her now before we go to the next story?”

Vince climbs back into the cherry picker basket and is lofted high into the canopy. The small crowd of locals cheer.

Gavin: Leaving Abigail Featherweight at Jumpinup Downs and crossing to a breaking story where six rusting drums thought to contain pesticide have washed up on Buggerup Beach.

If you haven’t encountered a fluffy news story like that over Christmas, trust me, you will. There are 23 more days of this sort of bumf before school goes back and industry and commerce resumes.

Most news organisations assign reporters to assemble what is known in news parlance as the Yearender. Typically, it will remind us of all the awful things that happened since January 1, 2022, things most of us would rather forget.

If you want to quick snapshot of what the media concentrated on, online media and marketing specialist Mumbrella ran a feature from media-monitoring group Streem.

As Streem’s communications director Jack McClintock said, despite hopes that we had put the pandemic behind us, “Wall-to-wall COVID coverage in the opening months of 2022 ensured it would be the top story of the year.”

“As the year unfolded, numerous other major news events took place, including the War in Ukraine, the 2022 Federal Election and the death of The Queen. Add to these significant events strong undercurrents of cost of living pressures, including inflation and energy prices, and 2022 was as big a news year as they come.”

Covid dominated media discussions for seven months this year, interrupted only by big stories including Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, the March Federal election, the death of Queen Elizabeth and massive flooding in parts of eastern Australia.

Queen Elizabeth II’s death on September 9 was the most prominent story on one single day, Streem observed. Other big single-story days included the COVID wave in early January, Ukraine’s initial invasion and Shane Warne’s death on March 4.

As for the media ‘Person’ of the year, honours were shared (in Australia) between Vladimir Putin, Scott Morrison, and Anthony Albanese. All had very high peaks in prominence, and a strong level of sustained media attention. The exception was in January, when tennis player and prominent anti-vaxxer Novak Djokovic claimed headlines by his arrival (and subsequent expulsion) for the 2022 Australian Open.

https://mumbrella.com.au/streem-insights-reveal-the-biggest-news-stories-of-2022-769537

All is forgiven, apparently, as Novak is scheduled to play in Adelaide and Melbourne next month. Also in the forgiven category was Premier Daniel Andrews, an emphatic winner of the Victorian election in November.

As we know the mainstream media (MSM) allots the biggest headlines and pictures and the longest radio or TV coverage to the ‘if it bleeds it leads’ category of news story. These days television is aided and abetted by amateur reporters who file breaking news videos for broadcast to live television. The most recent example was the fuel tanker explosion near the South African town of Boksburg which killed at least 15 people. The actual explosion was caught on a smart phone and broadcast by international media. Reports like this have led to many news broadcast warnings that ‘some people may find this footage distressing’. You reckon?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64086051

Most television channels now have a section devoted to ‘good news stories’, although I don’t always agree with their definition.

For example, in November there was a frantic search going on to find a man who bought a winning Powerball (lottery) ticket in Forster (NSW). This angle was spun until the man was contacted and notified days later he had won $50 million. And much was made of the Australian soccer team making its way to the World Cup quarter finals. No! We lost!

My definition of a good news story was when Shayla Phillips (4) and her dog went missing in dense Tasmanian bushland. We were in Tassie at the time (March) and could appreciate the concern as night temperatures plummeted. Shayla was found safe, dehydrated but well after two nights alone in the bush.

Earlier this month, grave fears we held for four teenagers on paddleboards who drifted into rough seas off the Mornington Peninsula. They were found safe the following day, but stranded on a remote island .

Good news from FOMM’s perspective included the Federal Government’s commitment to a 43% reduction in CO2 emissions and the first group of refugees leaving Nauru, bound for New Zealand.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese kept an election promise to quickly resolve the long-running saga of the Tamil refugees. The Nadesalingam family were released from years of detention, granted permanent visas and allowed to return to Biloela, where they had formed a community bond.

I’ll get off my soap box now and let you start the countdown to January 1, 2023. I imagine almost all of you (at a party) will form a circle and sing Robert Burns’ ‘Auld Lang Syne’, whether you know the words or not.

Maybe this can be a year when we who are most fortunate reflect on those who are not. As Burns said:

“Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit.”

 

Carols and Christmas lights

Bob’s annual playlist of Christmas songs and a few things you never knew about the 12 Days of Christmas Take care on the roads, dear readers.

christmas-lights-carols
Photo by Laurel Wilson

We did a drive-by of Warwick’s Christmas lights last Saturday night. It would melt the Grinchiest heart. By that I mean even if you are deeply cynical about the nativity story, Santa, Elf on a Shelf and rampant consumerism, Christmas lights are a joy. Not at all energy-conserving but joyous without a doubt

She Who Took Pictures in the Dark (SWTPITD) came up with a couple of good ones. I drove and the passengers navigated, which was ‘interesting’

We had just finished two weeks of carol performances with East Street Singers. We are having a break from choir until January, so cruising the Christmas lights hotspots was the next best thing.

Lavish displays of Christmas lights cost multiple thousands, not to mention the additional burden on the household energy bill. The comparison website finder.com.au did a survey on Christmas spending which did not mention Christmas lights at all. Nevertheless, those surveyed said they were planning to spend around $1,361 on food, alcohol, presents, eating out and travel.

Two-thirds of Australians (72%), however, are slashing their spending, mindful of the impact of inflation and what the New Year may bring.

About 38% of respondents said they would start buying food and presents early to help control their spending. One quarter went shopping for bargains on Black Friday,(the US version of Boxing Day sales) with 25% implementing a gift-giving limit.

Almost a quarter of the 1,054 survey respondents said they would have to go into debt to cover their Christmas costs (up from 23% in 2021).

Inflation rose 6.9% in the year to October 2022 and there appears to be no signs of it easing. Inflationary pressures, particularly the steep rise in fuel and energy prices, prompted the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise the cash rate by 3.00% in 2022 (it’s now 3.10%). What this might mean for people with huge mortgages in 2023 is anyone’s guess.

Long-term FOMM followers will know I usually trot out a Christmas song playlist and this year is no exception. But I am swayed this year to include songs with a sentimental or even reverent message. This offsets the somewhat cynical tone of my contribution, ‘Christmas in Australia’ which can be found here.

Our five Christmas carol performances this month included a mix of traditional songs, a few which are rarely heard and that jolly old tune about figgy pudding and not going until we get some.

Number one on the 12-song FOMM Christmas playlist is the Sussex Carol with its clever counterpoint section where the men vocalise in a different time signature while the women sing the verse (then vice versa). ‘The Sussex Carol’ is performed by the choir of St Martin’s in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.

The Sussex Carol brings to mind the wry observation in Tim Minchin’s timeless ‘White Wine in the Sun’ (number 2).

I get freaked out by churches
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords
But the lyrics are dodgy.

Minchin released this song in 2012 as a tribute to his baby daughter. He released this 2022 live version, all the more poignant because his child has been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Minchin donates proceeds from this song over the Christmas period to Aspect (Autism Spectrum Australia). This is a touching, live rendition, just Tim and piano.

‘Once in Royal David’s City’ (3), is performed in folk style by The Seekers. This is a happy, lapsed-Methodist memory. I was given a harmonica in a Christmas stocking (I was 8) and was playing that carol by lunchtime. Later I found Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Next is the much-loved ‘How to Make Gravy’ (4) by Paul Kelly. Note for guitarists: Paul plays a guitar tuned to an open D. In ordinary tuning you need to span three or four frets to make those chords. Just saying.

‘O Holy Night’(5) is a classic Christian carol, favoured by sopranos who can hit the high note (A flat). My trusty editor Laurel Wilson is well capable of executing (ie singing, as opposed to ‘murdering’ Ed.) this song. Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Kate Miller-Heidke are among those who have recorded Adolphe Adam’s composition, based on a French poem. This version is by the honourable Luciano Pavarotti.

‘The Christians and the Pagans’ (6) takes me back a bit – Dar Williams singing about cousin Amber (and her friend), turning up unexpectedly for a traditional family lunch.

The food was great, the tree plugged in, the meal had gone without a hitch,
Til Timmy turned to Amber and said, “Is it true that you’re a witch?”
His Mom jumped up and said, “The pies are burning, ” and she hit the kitchen,
And it was Jane who spoke, she said, “It’s true, your cousin’s not a Christian, ”
“But we love trees, we love the snow, the friends we have, the world we share,
And you find magic from your God, and we find magic everywhere.“

Song 7 was recommended by the convenors of U3A Warwick’s Music Show; indigenous man Mitch Tambo singing ‘Silent Night’ in language. I shared this with my niece in New Zealand who is a big Marlon Williams fan. Mitch’s voice is equally impressive.

‘Carol of the Bells’(8)  is an old Ukrainian folk tune. This version is from the soundtrack of the 1990 hit movie Home Alone.

As we think about Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and other countries which need peaceful thoughts, here is John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Happy Christmas/War is Over’ (9).

Macca is broadcasting his last Australia all Over for 2022 on Sunday so it’s a fair bet he’ll include ‘Carol of the Birds’. (10).

This delightful Australian song with authentic Down Under imagery is from the album Bucko and Champs (Colin Buchanan and Greg Champion).

I mentioned to my niece’s witty 15-year-old last month that I’d not heard the Mariah Carey Christmas song reportedly played to death at this time of year. He replied, “Oh yes, that’s the song you hear in shopping centres, giving their poor workers PTSD.”

I’m sparing you Mariah’s vocal gymnastics on ‘All I want for Christmas is You’ in favour of a traditional Irish folk song. This recording of the ‘Wexford Carol’ (11) features Alison Krauss, better known for collaborations with bluegrass band Union Station and duets with husband Robert Plant (Raising Sand). Here she is joined by master cellist YoYo Ma and an ensemble of class musicians.

Finally, the ‘Twelve Days Of Christmas’, an annoyingly repetitive song which in 1984 gave birth to a quirky set of economic indicators. The Christmas Price Index and the True Cost of Christmas measure the nominal and cumulative values of the gifts given by the True Love. In 2021, the commodity price index assessed the nominal value at $41,205 and the cumulative value at $179,454. An example is the four calling birds (they use canaries), which are mentioned nine times. Canaries go for around $300 in the US so the cumulative value of the gift from Ms True Love is $10,700. You follow?

Not that this would have occurred to Bing Crosby when he recorded the song with the Andrews Sisters in 1949. Bing’s been dead for 45 years but regardless has 25 million Spotify followers. Now that’s what I’d call a commodity.

Have a great Christmas and drive carefully.

Christmas cards or emails?

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The world over, the mail must get through – image by Brazilian photographer Alexandre Fukugava www.pixabay.com

Last week I posted a handful of Christmas cards to New Zealand. The woman in the post office frowned and said I’d missed the deadline for international post.

“But it’s only New Zealand, so they will probably get there,” she added, with a slow, small country town smile.

I’m not so confident. The record time taken for mail exchanged between my sister and I was 17 days in 2020. Blimey, I could have flown over and hand-delivered it, enjoying a two-week holiday at the same time.

Those of you with family members living abroad know of the annual dilemma. Is it Christmas cards in the post and/or calendars, an animated ecard or an email with a word document of the family’s highlights through the year?

The problem with the annual epistle is that some years are just crap. Nothing good happened and you didn’t go anywhere, right?

I have more or less faithfully kept up the tradition of sending cards in the mail, not expecting one in return, since moving to Australia in the mid-1970s (stamps then cost 10c).

When we were both working, we’d shop for Australian calendars and post them to relatives in New Zealand, Canada and the UK. We stopped doing this once the cost of postage became more than the cost of the calendars.

Last month, I had a reminder email from animated ecard producer Jacquie Lawson, who offers cards for all occasions. The reminder was that my $20 subscription was about to lapse. It was a shock to find I had sent only five ecards in 12 months. I must be old school after all.

I’m not renewing, but if you decide (on December 23, after counting the unsolicited cards on the tree and mantel piece), that you should reciprocate, it’s easy to sign up and deliver an impressive ecard.

The first Christmas card was issued in 1843 by UK civil servant, inventor and entrepreneur Henry Cole, the first director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Cole was instrumental in reforming the British postal system, helping to set up the Uniform Penny Post. This system encouraged the sending of seasonal greetings on decorated letterheads and visiting cards. Struck by the idea of creating a greeting card of his own, Henry asked his friend, artist John Callcott Horsley, to illustrate it.

Horsley’s design depicts the Cole family raising a toast in a central, hand-coloured panel surrounded by a decorative trellis and black and white scenes depicting acts of giving.

Cole commissioned a printer to transfer the design onto cards, printing a thousand copies that could be personalised with a hand-written greeting. The issue (at a shilling each), was described as a commercial failure.

Cole would have been fascinated to see how his idea blossomed into a multi-billion-dollar business. The greetings card industry is in a spot of trouble now, as digital options make sending greetings cheaper and faster.

Marketing group researchandmarkets.com released projections that showed global greetings card sales would drop 17% from $23 billion in 2020 to $20.9 billion in 2026. Reasons for the decline include the popularity of social media platforms and messaging apps such as WhatsApp.

“Despite the challenges posed by the growing social media and e-cards, there still exists a niche consumer base for physical greeting cards,” a spokesman said.

“Giving and receiving these cards continues to matter to a set of consumers, albeit a shrinking one. For this niche group of consumers, a physical greeting card on special occasions means much more than a Facebook message or an e-card.”

Last year, the Australia Post network delivered around one million fewer letters every working day than prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

A spokesman told FOMM the network did not differentiate between Christmas mail and regular letters so could not produce meaningful statistics. But as a guide, the annual Santa Mail program last year received more than 118,000 letters bound for the North Pole!

Australia Post is one of Australia’s most successful companies, posting revenue of $8.3 billion for 2021 and pre-tax profit of $100.7 million.

“This is a strong result, with our domestic parcels business continuing to go from strength to strength, while we retained our position as a market leader with parcel and services revenue growth of 17.7%,” acting CEO Rodney Boys said in the 2021 annual report.

Revenue was driven by a record peak period, with more than 52 million parcels delivered in December alone. The organisation is continually finding new ways to take advantage of the growth in ecommerce (more than one million households now shop on-line each month). Australia Post has developed well beyond a simple service for mail delivery. The network supports banking and bill-paying services for major institutions.

My recent application to renew my Australian passport (at the post office), for example, cost $307.00 plus $27.95 for passport photos, taken by Australia Post.

(Ed: He has some spares if you’d like an autographed one).

The Australian Passport Office delivered my new passport by registered mail ($4.45) in just under four weeks so obviously the Passport Office/Australia Post collaboration is working well.

The strong growth in ecommerce and parcel home delivery has coincided with an ongoing decline in the volume of letters, however. Revenue dropped from $2.33 billion in 2017 to $1.77 billion in 2021.

As a trustee of a self managed super fund, I can vouch that all companies which issue shares promote electronic delivery of annual reports and other correspondence. All of the institutions and government agencies with which we have dealings also push hard to convert their clients to on-line interaction.

Despite my earlier observation about the time taken for mail to arrive in New Zealand, Australia Post boasts a 94% delivered on time record for letters and parcels. If the letter/parcel you are expecting is late, it is probably someone else’s fault.

There are 7,950 postal routes in Australia, some requiring a marathon effort to traverse. We should be grateful for the 10,000 ‘Posties’ who battle rain, hail, bushfire smoke, steaming hot days and aggressive dogs.

No laughing matter that, with Australia Post confirming that more than 1,000 posties have been attacked by household dogs in the past six months. Nibbler used to bark at the postie, or more accurately at the scooter as it whizzed past. I went out one day to introduce the dog, thinking it would make him less likely to bark and run along the fence. Our local postman said it was ‘traditional’ for dogs to bark at posties.

I hope this has inspired you to get out your address book and start writing in cards (buy a box of cards from a charity and do two good deeds in one).

A study by the University of Limerick concluded that the act of sending (and receiving) Christmas cards can help alleviate depression. Moreover, if someone who always sends you a card suddenly doesn’t, this can be a red flag.

“If you do not hear from someone who regularly sends you a Christmas card, it might be worth checking in with them to spread some Christmas cheer,” said Dr Jennifer McMahon, a lecturer in psychology at UL and study co-author.

You have seven days.

Postscript: I wrote an irony-laden Christmas song which has been described as ‘a bit dark’ by someone who saw a preview. Not suitable for children.

Some notes about the Christmas feast

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Pavlova photo Kathysg www.pixabay.com

We were at the butcher shop, 18 days before Christmas, buying enough for this week’s meals and also a month’s supply of dog meat. Before he even knew what we wanted, Wayne the butcher asked – “How are you going for pet mince?” Since I’d just cooked the last one, this was most prescient of him.
Then I spotted a leg of ham in the display cabinet. I nudged She Who Organises Almost Everything.
“Have you ordered the Christmas ham?
“Ah, no, I haven’t. Thanks for reminding me.”
Then She and Wayne got into a technical discussion about the preferred size, did she want the leg end or the other end and, did we want it scored (scored?).
“Yes,” says SWOAE, “And put the flap back on it. Please.”

SWOAE ordered an organic leg of ham last year and was disappointed. As I recall it was a bit dry and a sort of drab grey colour. So yeh, this year we’re going with the standard 4kg leg of ham, a jolly pink colour, which, as you may gather, is artificially added.
Our small Christmas family gathering is a co-operative affair. Everyone brings something. We are bringing the ham and the pavlova. Son Number One doesn’t know it yet, but he’s bringing Bon Bons and those nuggety chocolates with a French name.
Our sister-in-law will no doubt cook up one or more of turkey, duck, pork and chicken and my brother-in-law and/or nephew will go on a quest for prawns. Salads will mysteriously appear, with ingredients from our combined gardens.
One thing about Wayne the butcher, he makes sure the legs of ham are produced locally. None of this ‘contains ingredients from Slovakia’ or whatever. When did that start happening? In case you did not know, 70% percent of processed ham and pork sold in Australia is made in other countries (source: Australian Pork).

This week’s FOMM was inspired by this encounter at the butcher’s shop and a classic movie we watched on Monday night –”Babette’s Feast”.
A French chef, exiled during the Franco-Prussian war, is taken in as a housekeeper by a pair of pious sisters who live in a remote village in Denmark. After winning 10,000 francs in the lottery, Babette determines to spend it all on a French banquet for the village’s small, cloistered community. The strictly religious villagers deduce from seeing Babette take delivery of a turtle, live quails and crates of wine, that the banquet will be the ‘devil’s work’. But they make a pact to say nothing about the food, in which case they won’t be struck by a bolt of holy lightning. Something like that.
That strange, allegorical movie got me to thinking about the Christmas lunch/dinner and why we go overboard on rich food, most of which we only eat at this time of year.

Take Christmas pudding, for example. In recent years my niece has turned out a traditional boiled pudding from a 1930s recipe handed down by Nana Ruby. She has a little stash of sixpences which are hidden in the mix and latched upon by the children (who swap the coins for real money).
According to various accounts, Christmas pudding evolved in the 14th century in the UK, at that time, more of a porridge. In poorer parts of the UK it was regarded as the main Christmas meal.
Nutritionist Hazel Flight, writing in The Conversation, describes what was then known as ‘frumenty’. It was made with hulled wheat, boiled in milk, seasoned with cinnamon and coloured with saffron. It was associated with meatless days, lent and advent and was often served as a plain dish. Other recipes included beef, mutton, raisins, currants, prunes, wines and spices. Ms Flight says the Christmas pudding evolved further in the 17th century, thickened with eggs, breadcrumbs, dried fruit and beer or spirits. The Victorians tweaked the recipe further to produce what we now know as the traditional Christmas pudding, usually served with brandy sauce, brandy butter or custard. (Ed: 21st century additions include lactose-free cream and/or icecream).

Ms Flight’s research into Christmas pudding uncovered the religious connotations. A Christmas pudding should have 13 ingredients – representing Jesus and the 12 disciples. Traditional ingredients in modern times include: raisins, currants, suet, brown sugar, breadcrumbs, citron, lemon peel, orange peel, flour, mixed spices, eggs, milk and brandy. Brandy is poured over the pudding and set alight. The flaming brandy is said to represent the passion of Christ. Assuming you have not set fire to the tablecloth or decorations and the flames have fizzled out, this is the best time to say Amen.

My Dad the baker put a lot of work into turning out Christmas goodies, including his famous fruit mince tarts. He would make up a dried fruit mix at least a month before Christmas, steep it in alcohol and leave it to mature. One thing about Candyland (the family bakery), there was never any waste. Everyone in town knew about the old-school baker from Scotland who produced high-quality cakes and pastries. By 2pm on Christmas Eve, everything had been sold.
In Australia, Christmas lunches have veered away from the British tradition of roasted meats and vegetables. Aussies favour seafood, barbecue-prepared foods, cold meats and salads, followed by pavlova and fruit.
SWOAE says she is going to top the pavlova with kiwifruit, one of the four common fruit toppings (passionfruit, strawberries or blueberries). I would like to point out that the kiwifruit did not evolve in New Zealand, despite its name. The fruit was originally known as Chinese gooseberry and had been grown on China’s mainland for centuries. New Zealand has appropriated the small hairy fruit and made it a national treasure. It grows well in the north of the country and can evidently be exported to Australia at a price that competes with locally-grown produce.
The fruit has been known as kiwifruit since Auckland-based agricultural company Turner & Growers shipped its first consignment to the US in 1959.

This example of cultural appropriation is one thing, but what about pavlova, the origins of which are claimed by both Australia and New Zealand? The meringue cake dessert was named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured both countries in the 1920s.
New Zealander Dr Andrew Paul Wood and Australian Annabelle Utrecht met while debating pavlova’s origins on a mutual friend’s Facebook post. They started digging deeper and were surprised to find the history goes back a lot further.
They spent seven years piecing together what Utrecht described as a “culinary jigsaw puzzle”. A BBC travel feature said the pair originally planned to make a short documentary, but they realised the pavlova story was not just a trans-Tasman battle. They decided to write a book, Beat Until Stiff: The Secret History of the Pavlova and a Social History of Meringue Desserts.

This topic brings back a memory of Dad in the bakery performing his party trick. He’d take an egg in each hand, crack them and in one motion separate the white from the yolk – a perfect result every time. Egg whites are, of course, the classic ingredient to make meringue cake.
My contribution to Christmas lunch will be loading eskies in and out of the car and making sure I have a goodly supply of de-alcoholised wine.
Someone has to drive!

Footnote: It has come to my attention that some episodes of FOMM may be lurking in gmail’s promotions folder. If you manually transfer them to your inbox the email should then be delivered there.

All of a Twitter about social media

twitter-social-media
Chart of Twitter demographics courtesy of Genroe

If you have a Twitter account you may be a bit troubled by the disruption to the business model as the new owner, Elon Musk, flexes his considerable financial muscle. There are 5.8 million Twitter accounts in Australia, the eighth largest in the world. Still, of the 1.3 billion Twitter accounts worldwide, only 192 million are actively used. The stats were uncovered in an ABC discussion about how relevant Twitter is to people.

Twitter is a social networking service launched in March 2006. The San Francisco-based company hosts a microblogging site on which users post and interact with “tweets”. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters (one or two sentences). This was doubled to 280 characters in late 2017. The required brevity attracted writers, journalists, comedians and academics keen to demonstrate their skill in making a concise point. It also attracted minorities who otherwise had no voice.

As Twitter devotee Mr Shiraz said when I joined: ‘say something original, clever or witty.’ He added: “Be careful who you follow or they will make your life a misery!”

Over time Twitter became the ideal way to break news and all journalists found themselves inextricably tied to their ‘Twitter feed.’ Twitter also became the darling of propagandists (of the left and the right), the most obvious example being former US president Donald Trump. Posting under the handle, The Real Donald Trump, the US leader for a long while started conversations on policy with the public at large, bypassing the hierarchical chain of command.

In 2021, after the January 6 attacks on the Capitol building, Facebook banned Trump from posting and a day later Twitter issued a permanent ban, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

The Conversation last week wrote about the latest developments at Twitter, which was bought by Elon Musk for $44 billion. Writers Daniel Angus and Timothy Graham said it was clear that Musk was “intent on taking Twitter in a direction “at odds with the prevailing cultures of its diverse users”.

Amid reports of Twitter users quitting the platform for alternatives like Mastadon and Hive Social, Musk began reinstating high-profile users – including Donald Trump and Kanye West. Both had been banned for repeated violations of community standards. Trump in the meantime set up his own social media site (Truth Social).

Elon Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in late October, seven months after he first made a bid for the listed company. What quickly followed was a mass exodus of Twitter staff, including thousands that Musk fired via email. Those who remained were warned they would have to face hard working conditions. Not surprisingly, there is much angst about the future of the privatised Twitter.

Just this week Musk has removed the policy that stopped people posting Covid misinformation. Reasonable people everywhere said ‘why?’

Forbes magazine said many Twitter users are worried about degradation on both the technical and content moderation sides. This is a particular worry in light of Elon Musk allowing suspended accounts to rejoin, with fewer people left to police hateful content.

This week Musk complained about Apple removing its advertising from Twitter and accused Apple of threatening to ban the software from its App Store. Apple has said nothing public about this, although Musk now tells us the ban is off. It’s a good example of what we can now expect from Musk. He has taken the company private, which means he no longer has to make public disclosures, unless it is in his interest, that is.

Forbes reported on the sudden rush of support for a tech startup, Hive Social. In early November Hive announced it had reached a million users, broken through crowdfunding goals and was adding more than 100,000 users a day.

Writer Paul Stassi speculated that it was a matter of Twitter users opening a Hive Social account ‘just in case.”

Stassi points out that Hive Social is a new tech company run by just two people. While it appears to imitate Twitter to some extent, there are many things you can’t do on Hive that Twitter users take for granted.

Twitter’s enduring slogan is ‘don’t miss out – Twitter is the first to know what’s going on.’

A quick check on Saturday morning (the Victorian election), @PRGuy17 tweeted in Report from Mulgrave: “this is the first time I have ever felt unsafe while voting … they literally circled around me and blocked my path.” By 11.44am Victorian time, 1,995 people had ‘liked’ this and 399 retweeted the post, which meant it spread to the followers of more twitter accounts.

In the Twitterverse, other users comment and the original tweeter responds (or not). A conversation develops. If the interest is manifest, Twitter will declare that the topic is ‘trending’. That’s all fine and good and democratic unless you don’t want to be that up to date.

In short, a 74-year-old retired journalist has no real use for following a Twitter feed (all day and night as some people seem to do). I do post FOMM there every week but have no way of knowing which of my followers read it. The one exciting thing that happened to me on Twitter, a well-known Australian musician and songwriter tweeted: “@Bobwords48 is Bob Wilson, who wrote Underneath the Story Bridge. Who knew?”

Australians are in love with social media in general, but Twitter not so much. Marketing company Genroe says that as of February 2022, 21.45 million Australians were active users of social media (82.7% of the Australian population). That’s a 4.6% increase on 12 months before. Key statistics drawn from the research include

  • 98% of Australian users access social media via a mobile device;
  • Australians spend an average of 1 hour 57 minutes per day on social media;
  • Australians have one of the lowest number of social media accounts per person in the world (7.2);
  • 52% use Social Media as a source of news (the world average is 55%).
  • 30.3% use Social Media when looking for information about a brand.

YouTube (78.2%) and Facebook (77.7%) are tied for the most popular social media platforms in Australia. A survey of people aged 13 and over declared Facebook (27.1%) as their most favoured social site platform. YouTube was excluded from this survey, which showed Instagram in second place (16.2%) followed by Messenger (9.0%), WhatsApp (6.1%), TikTok (6.0%), SnapChat (4.2%) and Twitter (2.8%). As for leaving the Twitter platform because you fear what kind of content may be permitted (or banned) under the new regime, here’s a few thoughts. There were many instances of fake news, fake accounts, flagged content, spam, harassment, trolling and mis-leading commentary under the old Twitter. Despite moderation, there is still a fair bit of aggro (Australian expression meaning aggression), defamatory comment and hate speak. I look at my semi-active Twitter account with its series of links to our website and think ‘what’s the worst that could happen?In terms of relevancy to “our” demographic, the over-50s comprise only 17.1% of Twitter accounts worldwide. As for @PRGuy17, by 3.39 on Saturday afternoon his 9.08am tweet about intimidation at a Victoria polling booth had been liked by 3,023 users and retweeted (shared) 580 times. As is the Twitter way, the story made its way into mainstream news bulletins. This one tiny example plucked from the Twitterverse is a good example of how free speech and democracy works. I can’t see regular Twitter users (of the left or the right) giving away the opportunity to engage in unfettered public discourse about things that matter.

@bobwords48

*Today is the 50th anniversary of the Whitlam government’s historic election win. In case you missed my musical take on this era: https://thegoodwills.bandcamp.com/track/when-whitlam-took-his-turn-at-the-wheel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping track of company directors

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Image: Locked gates, Jody Davis www.pixabay.com

It’s been nine years since someone suggested a way to stop company directors from avoiding creditors by creating a ‘Phoenix’ company.

‘Phoenixing’ describes the process when a new business arises from the ashes of a liquidated company. It’s a loophole that allows unscrupulous people to leave their debts behind with the liquidated company and start afresh (leaving creditors out in the cold).

The total cost of Phoenixing to the Australian economy is estimated to be between $2.9 billion and $5.1 billion annually, according to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). It is typically done by transferring assets to the new entity (leaving liabilities with the old company). ‘Dummy’ directors are used to set up the new company. Dummy directors play no actual role in the company. Liquidators and investigators have uncovered instances of people who had no idea they were a director of their spouse’s company. They have also found homeless people, distant relatives, fictitious names and variations on real names. (Donald Duck is apparently a director of several companies. Ed.)

The Phoenix Project, an academic investigation, has long been investigating this tactic and how people get away with it.

The project was initially set up by Professor Helen Anderson, then of the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with Monash University. She first suggested using a 12-point identity check in 2013 and it was one of the key recommendations in the 2017 Phoenix Project report.

The first problem for corporate enforcers is that setting up a new company while the other is in liquidation is technically legal. There have been many instances when a new company legitimately arises from the wreckage of an insolvent one (company restructures, buyouts, rescues etc).

These arrangements are usually supervised and strive to ensure creditors and employees are paid what they are owed.

The illegal Phoenix company, however, ignores creditors and allows the principals to continue in business unchallenged.

I’m sure we’ve all read about the more egregious examples. They usually happen in the construction industry. Subcontractors and tradies turn up to the building site as usual, only to find the gates locked and the ‘boss’ nowhere to be found. While liquidators take over the business, these unsecured creditors take their place at the end of the queue. Meanwhile, the principals have a new banner at a site elsewhere in town. This gives the media plenty to rant about, but it solves nothing.

Writing in The Conversation in 2016, Prof Anderson said the aim of illegal phoenix activity was to defraud taxation authorities, trade creditors and employees. She said the practice is widespread in Australia, with a Productivity Commission report in 2015 finding there were between 2,000 to 6,000 phoenix companies operating here. A Senate Economics References Committee inquiring into the Australian construction industry found illegal phoenix activity was a problem “throughout the economy”. The committee suggested it was “a significant culture of disregard for the law”.

The long-running exercise to stop this happening is being driven by the Australian Taxation Office, which is at the top of the creditor queue. In a new regime, the ATO is bringing 30 different business registries under the one entity, Australian Business Registry Services.

ABRS deputy registrar Karen Foat said this would allow regulators and advisors to obtain a more complete picture of a director’s corporate history. Ms Foat said it would also help authorities crack down on illegal phoenix firms.

“These are companies that time and time again wind up their firms leaving employees without salary, entitlements and superannuation, as well as leaving contractors, other businesses and government in the lurch,” she wrote in an Australian Financial Review feature.

Ah…so you didn’t know? The deadline is November 30 and if you don’t apply in time you are liable to a fine of up to $13,000.

There are 2.5 million company directors in Australia, with more than 1 million of them yet to apply for their unique, 15-digit Director ID number (DIN). An ABC item updated this week reported that more than 1.5 million directors had applied for (and had been issued with) a DIN since it was introduced in April last year. This leaves about one million directors who have just five days to apply.

A DIN is a unique identifier given to a director who has verified their identity with the ATO. It is much like the 12-point identity check we all endure to open a bank account.

Until this process began in 2021, company directors could be signed up without much in the way of verification.

She Who is Also a Director signed up for a DIN, as did I. It was a bit of a palaver as you had to use the Federal Government’s myGovID mobile phone app. I already had an account but had to go through several stringent steps to prove my identity. #wehatetechnology

Those who need to apply include company directors, corporate trustees (of an SMSF) and directors of charities and not-for-profit organisations. In short, anything registered under the Corporations Act, including directors of foreign companies registered with ASIC and carrying on business in Australia (no matter where they live).

The ATO acknowledges that the vast majority of company directors behave with ‘extreme probity’, which is consistent with the trust the Australian community places in them.

Yes indeed, we acted with said extreme probity when applying for our director ID last month. The one major problem with a 15-digit number is, how the hell do you remember it? Oh right. Log on to your ABRS account and voila. No hackers here.

We mentioned this topic briefly a few weeks back when investigating the flurry of data breaches and hacking going on within large organisations. Ironically, ASIC warned company directors last month that email and text scammers were posing as the ABRS. As always, do not click on links or divulge your personal details in these instances. It’s not called ‘phishing’ for nothing.

Prof Anderson, who has since retired from the University of Melbourne’s School of Law, said the issuing of a DIN would enable tracking of directors who have been involved in multiple failed companies. It would also reveal fictitious directors, the bane of credit rating agencies and the ATO.

“Requiring would-be directors to quote their DIN on applications to incorporate companies would let ASIC build a valuable database of directors’ corporate histories, helping it to identify repeat offenders and candidates for disqualification from managing corporations.”

I’ll admit this week’s FOMM is a little arcane, reporting on a topic you only ever read about in law and accountancy journals.

But we all ought to be concerned about rorts that potentially cheat the country of up to $5.1 billion a year. Almost everyone would know of a subbie or tradie who got burnt in circumstances just as outlined here.

I’m sure you will agree that everything would work better if we all acted with ‘extreme probity’.

I initially misread this as ‘extreme Proby’ which says a bit about my youthful musical obsessions. Probity means ‘complete and confirmed integrity, uprightness and honesty’.  Proby (with a PJ) means a deep voiced pop singer whose best-known hits were songs from West Side Story.

Leaving you with an offering from DJ Probity.