Hugo Boss for kids

I couldn't believe it, I was wandering through a major department store in Liege on my way to the toilets on the second floor when I noticed what they had for sale.

This was the children’s clothing floor when I noticed Hugo Boss for babies, my interest was aroused and I then saw Tommy Hilfiger, Timberland, ESprit, United Colors of Benetton and Calvin Klein brands for babies, toddlers and young children too.

I didn't check the prices but I wouldn't expect this style of clothing to be cheap. Seriously, people have way too much money to waste, yes waste on Hugo Boss clothes on babies and young children. They grow so quickly at that age, why would any reasonable person throw money away in such a manner?

A Bali Polo shirt

I am checking out the Polo Ralph Lauren branded stores in Ubud, Bali. This is my annual pre-Christmas trip to Bali as I have earned an extra week of paid leave on top of normal entitlements.

I don’t know if they are really genuine or not but the quality of their merchandise is good. So I decided to wander in and check  What I see is a bunch of retail outlets with similar shop fronts, styling and layouts.

Even checking their social media links, they all run the same Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds. The cost of a Polo shirt in Bali is outrageous, $120 AUD, they have a 30% sale on bringing the price down to $84 AUD but I still think it is excessive.

There is some room to negotiate on price, there are list price and reduced sale prices. A further discount may be applied for cash but I tend to feel they are fixed and staff don’t have much latitude to discount further than standard rates.

The quality is good, but let’s face it, production has been outsourced to Asia for a long time. That being said, what you get with a genuine Polo shirt is quality and I don’t mind handing over a certain premium to genuine retailers.

After all, it was Ralph who came up with the Polo shirt design, I prefer to reward the innovators and not the clones. Bali is going upmarket, name branded shops now dominate the smaller retailers.

The Polo Ralph Lauren retail outlet is a brand well regarded, the number of outlets in Ubud in Bali is intriguing, there is no shortage of Polo retail shops in such a small area. They appear to be genuine retailers with similar shop fronts, merchandising and a standardised social media profile.

What happened?

We had an amazing election result on the weekend insofar as nobody, and I mean nobody picked the result. We had the Liberals trailing in every opinion poll for the past three years, the Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull show with Peter Dutton slipping in and nearly destroying the Liberal party.

The washout from the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd infighting has been largely forgotten about; however, we all know the chief protagonist was now their leader. The Liberals should have been punished at the polls for the very dysfunction that plagued the Labor party and ruined their government.

Even when John Hewson blew the 93 election against the abominable Paul Keating, the Prime Minister we apparently had to have that gave us our last recession. The result was pretty much assured well before polling day – we already knew. Strangely, Keating deposed the popular Bob Hawke that really started the whole notion of swapping PMs.

Abbott was able to win an election, he did so by an amazingly large margin, despite his poor judgement and decision-making, he should have stayed as leader. Turnbull, a more likeable guy was a disaster and never gained traction with the public.

Although I didn’t think he was as bad as Abbott, people never took to him and only managed to fall over the line at the next election. It goes to show you don’t need a popular leader to win an election so Shorten’s lack of likeability is not the real cause of this election result.

So how did this come about? Firstly, I believe the two sides have changed supporters, the Liberal party has the aspirational voter and the Labor party attracts the inner city elite. Lawyers and doctor’s wives are more likely to support Labor than a bonafide blue collar worker clutching a trade certificate.

Labor now attracts university graduates who follow a specific viewpoint such as climate change. Nobody seems worried about plastics in the ocean, this I believe is a greater threat to humanity with plastic now spotted on the seafloor at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Labor has to stop this big end of town envy, the Liberal party is about small business and entrepreneurship. The un-costed policies were immediately seen through by the voting public, they knew the promises didn’t add up.

Scott Morrison on the other hand promised very little, people were more inclined to believe him. The trick is to target the issues that concerns voters, don’t dictate to them but do your research and address their needs.

Blue collar workers such as tradies are the new entrepreneurs, they are mostly non-unionised and setting up as contractors. The public sector is the last bastion of union influence and that won’t change anytime soon.

I think people are sick of being dictated to by a perceived left wing media and these so called celebrities, people form their own opinions and this politically correct posturing is driving people away. Who wants to be told how they should vote, how they should think and what causes they should support.

I logged on my computer first thing in the morning, the east coast of Australia was eight hours ahead. Exit polls were still picking a Labor win – as was expected. When I got home from work, Abbott was expected to lose his seat as I expected as GetUp threw huge resources at his electorate.

Whilst they dumped Abbott, they neglected to target the marginal seats that could have got better results. This helped the Liberal party, all this infighting was the result of Abbott and Turnbull and now both of them are gone, I would expect Dutton to now pull his head in now if he had any sense.

On the Labor side, Bill Shorten may have stood down as leader but he is still looking for a front bench gig, Tanya Plibersek and Chris Bowen are both architects of this loss with some terrible policy.

Anthony Albanese, better knwn as Albo is a genuine guy who is the only guy capable of taking on the highly approachable Morrison and he stated he stated he will dump the franking credit debacle if elected leader.

With Bill Shorten still hanging around, there won’t be any change in policy or direction and they really need to bring in a whole new team and change direction. Shorten blew what most would perceive as the unlosable election and may be viewed by many as the new Billary.

The end of the franking credits debate

Hopefully this election loss has defined the issue of franking credits for perpetuity, no future Labor government would ever risk taking this to an election again. However, the Labor party will one day be returned to government, hopefully the Labor party will never try to reintroduce this horrible legislation.

Australians who have worked and saved hard for their retirements were to be disadvantaged. The younger generation who watched their parents work hard and save for their retirements were now taking a major hit. This attitude of wealth redistribution didn't sit well with them.

Whilst the Labor party had envisioned a class war between the have and have nots, it didn't eventuate because the younger generation related to the baby boomer generation. Then throw the inheritance tax argument into the mix and people were not having a bar of this. 

Unfortunately, the Labor party has lost site of their core demographic, they now pander to minority groups who on most occasions aren't even union members. Unions are organised to represent their members through higher wages and improved conditions, they need to remember who they represent. 

The arrogance of the Labor party who were so far ahead in the polls was that they believed they could not be defeated. It was inconceivable to them that they could even remotely lose - the best part was they never saw it coming. 

The Australian election miracle

The federal election threw up a surprise, nobody and I mean nobody expected this outcome. For three years, the Liberal party never won one opinion poll. Even heading into polling day, nobody was expecting a liberal win, that included the Liberal party and every political commentator.

Australian Labor Party leader Bill Shorten was never going to be a popular leader, he had no charisma pretty much reading off cue cards written by speechwriters for the last three years. Scott Morrison on the other hand came across as a genuine guy, he could speak to people and articulate a clear message.

Despite the turmoil in the Liberal party over the past six years; somehow, ScoMo was able to snatch victory away from an inept Labor party who campaigned on a policy of envy, class warfare and wealth redistribution based on higher taxes. Even on election day, exit polls were indicating a Labor win.

As the night rolled on, we could slowly feel the change and all of a sudden a victory seemed possible. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott lost his seat yet this wasn't a problem. With Malcolm Turnbull now out of parliament and now Tony Abbott gone, the disharmony in the Liberal party had evaporated.

On the other hand, Bill Shorten, now known as Billary has managed to turn a solid polls lead into a humiliating loss, but it was not just his personal popularity that cost them the election. The Labor party had 6 years to form solid policies in opposition, the architects need to be reassigned to the back bench.

But instead, through arrogance came up with divisive policies that alienated the electorate because they thought they couldn't lose and the electorate punished them. This was an absolute disaster for the Australian Labor party, they totally misread the community and rubbish policies assigned them to another three years in opposition.  

Public transport in Perth, why bother?

It's the same problem every Friday night, you do what is right and leave your car at home and catch public transport if you plan to drink. There is little incentive to catch public transport when the schedules are so poorly designed.

I am drinking with my father so I leave my vehicle at home and take a combination of buses and trains to work, two buses to my parents house and a bus and a train home. Transperth, in various forms has been operating for a very long time. After all this time operating, they still, can't seem to coordinate a bus and train connection.

So every Friday night, I am standing up at the bus stop on time waiting for the bus to arrive. At the very best, I can jump from the bus and run through the train station to just make the train - that is if every connection aligns. What really happens is that when the bus pulls into the station, we see the train pulling away and I have another 30 minutes to wait.

So I ask, after all this time of scheduling and coordinating buses and trains, why is Transperth unable to align a bus to a train with any degree of consistency? Patronage on public transport is down, more people elect to drive a motor vehicle than catch public transport.

This is despite a bus or train running to the same destination to where you need  to drive. The senior managers need to ask why, what can they do to reverse public opinion regarding bus and train patronage.

The service is lousy, the costs of running a vehicle are similar, the schedules except during peak period are lousy, safety is an issue and connections are worse. The question is, why would a person choose public transport instead of a private vehicle?

Really, there is no incentive and the system will be mostly utilised by people who do not have the means to afford a private vehicle, those too young to drive or those attempting to avoid a booze bus.

Ubud coffee houses

As we wander around Ubud, I see a proliferation of small but quality coffee houses. For me, this is a great development for local producers and retailers, it makes for a great experience for foreign tourists.

I am seeing single origin coffee beans for sale in these coffee shops. Sumatran coffee is world famous, Bali has their own coffee bean industry and it is great to see retailers support and promote local product and suppliers. I am enjoying both their ambiance, service and their product, above all else, I enjoy supporting small business entrepreneurs with my tourist dollars.