This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to theechidna.com.au
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
There's one announcement many Australians will be waiting for today and it won't be the winner of the Melbourne Cup.
It will be that other afternoon event, the Reserve Bank's announcement on the cash rate. Punters with skin in the financial game - mainly mortgage-holders but also anyone in debt - are wondering whether the RBA will lift the cash rate by 25 or 50 basis points. Either way, it's going to hurt.
But wait, there's more.
More inflation. More interest rate hikes too.
We know energy prices are set to increase by up to 56 per cent over the next two years, thanks largely to the war in Ukraine. Add to this inflationary mix, Russia's withdrawal from its agreement to allow wheat shipments out of Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea and the price of food is heading north as well.
Wheat futures are surging, followed by corn and soybean oil. At midday yesterday, Graincorp shares were up almost 9 per cent.
Watching the market yesterday, I had just one sandwich at lunchtime, not the customary two. Good for the bottom line and good for that line in the middle, which still needs straightening.
Of course, it won't just be the price of bread that adds to the pain at the supermarket. It will be pasta as well. And pizza, cake, pastries, noodles, those pallid wheat beers - just about everything we're told is not good for us. Even stuff that is good for us, like eggs, will go up too. After all, the chooks have to eat and a good portion of their diet is wheat.
So here's the thing.
I've resolved to harness the inflation dragon and put it to good work. To eat less and eat better.
Sounds heroic but it's been happening anyway since the pandemic lockdowns and the shift to working from home. Those irresistible crispy pork belly in black pepper sauce lunches offered by the Thai restaurant near the old office are a distant memory now. So, too, the other temptations - the burgers, the muffins, the avocado toast, the lattes loaded up with milk.
"Look at you!" exclaimed a dairy farmer friend who dropped in the other day. We hadn't seen each other for three years. "You look so fit. What have you been eating?"
I said it was what I wasn't eating.
So rather than railing against rising food prices - with the lastest warning they could rise by 8 per cent in the wake of flooding in south-eastern Australia - I'm watching what I eat and how much of it.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, two in three Australians over 18, or 67 per cent, are overweight - and despite shedding some kilos since COVID arrived, I still am.
So if there's one positive to come from inflation, it's the incentive to tighten the belt - and not just figuratively.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Have your eating habits changed in line with rising food prices? Are you eating less? More? Are you cutting back back on expensive foodstuffs like meat? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- The ACT's top prosecutor has confirmed his office intends to proceed with a retrial of former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann, who is accused of raping Brittany Higgins. Chief Justice Lucy McCallum was forced last Thursday to abort Lehrmann's first trial after a juror disobeyed repeated warnings about not doing independent research on the case.
- A royal commission will seek to find out whether the Commonwealth government was "recklessly indifferent" to the legality of the robodebt scheme. The first block of public hearings have begun in Brisbane, with senior counsel Justin Greggery outlining questions the commission will seek to answer. This will include examining the development of the scheme, its legality and how departmental checks and balances went so wrong. Hundreds of thousands of Australians were caught up in the robodebt debacle, which recovered more than $750 million from nearly 400,000 people.
- Firefighters and air-traffic controllers are being tested after high levels of toxic PFAS chemicals were found in drinking water at a major Victorian airport. The contamination has forced the closure of the fire station at Avalon Airport. United Firefighters Union aviation branch secretary Wes Garrett says about 30 firefighters are anxiously waiting for blood test results after PFAS was detected at levels well beyond safe drinking limits.
THEY SAID IT: "I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand." - Benjamin Franklin
YOU SAID IT: Poor parliamentary behaviour and whether televising question time encourages pollies to behave like school kids.
Julian says: "It is so very disappointing to see the 'grown-ups' falling back on the same old shouty zingers and high-pitched confected outrage in question time, so it's definitely a good idea to remove television from QT, again. Televising offers no discernible advantage other than offering networks some occasional easy raw material, and the very real disadvantage of preventing debate and encouraging dysfunctional behaviour."
David says of question time: "Send it back to the Parliamentary News Network (now NewsRadio). Shining a light on this bunch of wallies has had the opposite effect of what was intended."
Arthur says, "Paul Keating was right. Question time should not be televised. I agree totally with the comments in Echidna. It is childish behaviour. The media should refuse to report on this idiotic behaviour rather than rewarding it by allocating television time to it."
Heather asks whether Echidna is turning right wing by not condemning the coalition stunt - the accusation of bullying. "The video footage shows very clearly what happened. Dutton is so incompetent, he doesn't even know his own state. Landry was laughing. After the last three years of Dutton's 'I move that the member be no longer heard' bullshit, Albo does let him have a say. Dutton, being not too bright, then puts his foot in it." Heather, that was the point. We condemned them all because they were all behaving poorly.
Alan says, "I was hoping this Labor government would raise the standard of question time in both chambers and not descend into sniping and point-scoring and baying like animals. Alas it appears the daily ritual is bigger than all the best intentions of responsible governments. Question time is a purely theatrical exercise like any number of 'reality' (not) TV shows currently cramming for attention on our screens. It's well past its use by date and ought to be dispensed with altogether."