Ian Hodge | On July 9, 2013

Photo: Gary Ramage

It’s been a a week since the Australian Labor Party dumped Prime Minister Julia Gillard as party leader and replaced her with Kevin Rudd. And already the polls are speaking.

Kevin Rudd is suddenly showing as the preferred Prime Minister versus Liberal-National Party (LNP) leader Tony Abbott, 51% ahead of Abbott’s 49%.  And that was the best result.  Other polls have Abbott as low as the mid-thirties.

While politicians will tell you they are not concerned about polls, someone obviously is.  Enough to keep the pollsters in business.  If the politicians are not swayed by the polls, perhaps the voters are.  No one likes to back a loser.

What does this mean for Australian business?  In a land where workers can often get more money while they are on vacation than while they are at work, Australian businesses have good reason to worry.  They are not competitive by world standards in many areas.

For example, I can buy quality clothes in the USA and air-freight them to Australia cheaper than I can buy similar quality in Australia.  Even though the clothing may have been made in the same place: Honduras, Philippines, or even Vietnam.  In a recent government enquiry against Microsoft and Adobe, whose products are more expensive in Australia than they are in, say, the USA, it became evident that these companies charged higher prices “because they could.”  By refusing to ship to Australia from USA online purchase sites, Australians have no choice but to pay higher prices.  Or go without.

New home prices in the capital cities of all the states start at around $350-400,000.  In a city such as Sydney, it is higher, and first home buyers are pretty much excluded from the market place unless they have an extraordinary income level, or have family wealth.

This helps to make it rather obvious that Australia’s “wealth” is inherently tied up with its physical resources – iron ore and coal, especially.  But even these industries are not immune to global economic events.

And so, Australians who invest watch with great interest what is going on in China, USA, and Europe.  Given the inability of economists on public payroll in these places to “solve” the economic “crisis,” it is certain that we live in interesting times.

But the question remains, how does a person protect his assets in “interesting times”?  And can either Labor or LNP lead Australia out of the global economic crisis, or will they instead bury Australians in a mass of government and private debt?  It’s a race between the two parties.  And they both appear to be firmly headed in the same direction.

Maybe it’s time someone changed course.

Ian Hodge

Ian Hodge is an accomplished musician and music teacher, an executive manager and a management consultant to business owners.

Dr. Hodge began his working career as a professional musician. His interest in Christian economic theory, however, led to a move into the investment industry, where he made his way to the ranks of executive management. His first position as a CEO outside of his own company was a turnaround situation, and he found this was “his” place in the business world. For the past 16 years has been a business consultant to help turn around struggling businesses. He has clients in USA, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

He actively uses his consulting skills to help train church pastors, elders and deacons in leadership and church growth practices.

As a musician, he worked with several singers around Australia and the South Pacific as their accompanist and music director.

A current project is the development of SonCross Academy, an online school that starts with the Bible, providing lessons in music theory and piano, economics, business, history, philosophy and theology for ages 8+. www.soncrossacademy.org.
 
Ian Hodge received his Ph.D. degree from Whitefield Seminary in “Christian Intellectual Thought – Economics”. He has written over 500 articles on topics such as business management, economics, education, law, finance, health, philosophy, politics, theology, and music as he explores the application of a biblical world view. He runs his own blog at www.biblicallandmarks.com.
 
He is the author of:
 
· Why Would Anyone In Their Right Mind Believe the Bible? An introduction to the Christian Faith.
· Baptized Inflation: A Critique of “Christian” Keynesianism.
· Is This The End of Religious Liberty? The Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief.
· Making Sense of Your Dollars: A Biblical View of Wealth.
· How To Be Diabetes Free . . . For Life. An analysis of the biology of diabetes, and how this disease can be prevented and even halted.
· Ian Hodge’s Read, Write & Play Music, a self-teaching program that instructs young students on how to write (compose) music.
· Powerhouse Piano, online video and live lessons in classical piano.
· Publisher, editor, William the Baptist. A classic in Christian literature, reissued with an introduction by Dr. Hodge.
 
In his spare time, Ian can be found actively debating atheists on his city streets and elsewhere (anywhere) whenever the opportunity arises.