Customs rostered off. There is also an ongoing problem with Customs rosters. Staff want to change to the same rosters as AQIS. Customs has now called in outside consultants, who, according to staff, can’t see why there is a problem with changing to the AQIS rosters.

MMA crashes on claims. It seems the NSW Motor Accident Authority (MAA) may not have claims data from the CTP insurers that is required to justify increases in CTP premiums. In the case of motorcycles, it looks like the insurers have been feeding the MAA information based on crash statistics and not claims statistics, therefore getting inaccurate data and artificially pushing up the price of CTP premiums for vehicle owners. The NSW government would benefit from increased premiums as it gets a cut via the MCIS levy. The words “the MAA are sh-tting themselves” have been heard.

NAB compromise too little. The undertakings being negotiated by the National Australia Bank and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over the AXA transaction are an absolute nonsense. The purchase of AXA APH’s Australian and NZ businesses is about a $A4,000 million deal for NAB. The ACCC said this was plainly anti-competitive and opposed it. Yet the remedy being negotiated, being the divestment of an outsource licenced IT platform to IOOF, amounts to a circa $A40 million trifle. How can anyone pretend that a 1% fiddle at the edge will remedy the asserted competition issues?

Sydney airport’s shopping scam. Sydney travelers are aware that when you meet arrivals at the international terminal, you go to one of two arrivals areas — A or C. It WAS the same when you departed: check-in at Qantas, British Airlines and other One World airlines and you went to the left-hand side of the terminal (A); Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Air New Zealand you went to the right-hand departure terminal.

Well, not any more. There is only one Customs and immigration hub now and that is the revamped (A) entrance. So you end up in the left-hand side terminal and if you are travelling Singapore, Emirates, etc, you are off on a big walk to the other side of the building where those (now second-class) airlines depart from. Why? So there is only one set of upmarket expensive duty-free shops to slalom as you enter. Pretty simple really: get everyone to enter via one departure area and double the clientèle for the duty-free shops. Forget about the inconvenience of the extra 10-minute walk to the “other side”.