SHE was called “Angel of the Outback” and sometimes “Queen of the Sky”. Nancy Bird-Walton is clearly entitled to these distinctions as she was the first woman ever to become a pilot in Australia in an era when a woman’s place was supposed to be in the kitchen.
But she broke the tradition and actually flew an aircraft at 17. Then she had to wait two more years before she got her commercial pilot licence.
Nancy: Lived a life full of adventure. In 1997, she was named a “Living Treasure” by the National Trust for being an inspiration to generations of female pilots.
At her state funeral in Sydney last week, Nancy – as she was affectionately known – was described as having guided her family with “the grace of a glider and the determination of a jet fighter”.
Quite appropriately, a Qantas passenger jet bearing her name paid the highest tribute to her with a flyover at St Andrews Cathedral just before hundreds of mourners there bowed their head in memory of a pioneer and legend in aviation history.
Later in the afternoon, three Tiger Moths – the type of aircraft Nancy used at the beginning of her career – flew over Sydney Harbour in her honour.
In a eulogy, her long-time friend and fellow aviator Dick Smith said Nancy, 93, who died 12 days ago, always had an eye on the future of aviation.
“Whenever I appeared on television or I was quoted about my frustrations and the lack of reform and the way it was damaging general aviation, Nancy would be on the phone (saying): “Dick, what can I do? Who can I write to?” he recalled.
“Nancy had led a fantastic life, in a wonderful spirit of adventure. But despite blazing a trail in a man’s world, she was always a lady, wearing a hat, gloves and normally a pink pearl necklace.”
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said ever since Nancy’s first flight, she had helped dispel the myth that flying was a man’s domain. Her achievements on the ground and in the air had inspired generations of women in all walks of life to forge careers in the aviation industry and reach for the skies.
As a commercial pilot, Nancy often surprised many passengers when they saw a tiny woman remove her pilot helmet to climb out of the aircraft’s cockpit and realised that she had flown them to their destinations.
So tiny was her stature (about 150cm tall) that she had to have two cushions to see out of the cockpit and reach the foot pedals.
Nancy first became interested in aviation when she was four, inspired by the Great England-Australia Air Race of 1919.
While kids her age were playing hop, skip and jump or other children’s games in those non-computer days, she often jumped off the fence of her home backyard with her arms stretched out, pretending to be an aeroplane.
At 13, she had saved enough pocket money to pay for a joy ride in a Gypsy Moth. It strengthened her desire and determination to become a pilot.
Four years later, she was the only girl to attend a flying course at a school founded by one of Australia’s aviation pioneers Charles Kingsford Smith, who didn’t quite approve of women flying but, nonetheless, agreed to teach her.
It was years later, in a television interview, that she publicly revealed her thrills and exhilaration of flying.
“It’s the freedom of the air; the freedom of flight,” she told an ABC programme excitedly. “And you completely remove yourself from the world. And you voluntarily remove yourself from all those … everything that’s near and dear to you. And you voluntarily return.”
It took her only seven weeks to become the first woman to successfully complete her flying course. But she had to wait until she was 19 before she was granted a commercial pilot licence.
Her first job was to fly nurses and patients in the far western New South Wales. One of the patients was a prematurely-born baby who was not expected to live. However, the baby, Jack Stanmore, survived and grew up. He met Nancy years later and said to her: “Remember me? You saved my life when you flew me out of the bush into a hospital.”
In effect, Nancy laid the foundation of what is now known as the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Australia’s remote country towns.
She also pioneered an air ambulance service for the outback and was appointed commandant of the Women’s Air Training Corps during World War II.
In 1950, she founded the Australian Women Pilots’ Association, which literally produced a proud generation of female pilots who now fly alongside men. Its motto was “Skies Unlimited”. She remained its president for 40 years.
Nancy was awarded an OBE in 1966 and made an officer of the Order of Australia in 1990.
Last week, New South Wales Governor Marie Bashir paid tribute to her, saying Nancy was a “soaring spirit in every way … and belongs to Australian history without a doubt”.
HOW will the worst global recession now hovering over Australia – and possibly Malaysia – affect the ordinary workers in both countries?
Researchers and labour market analysts examining this issue, which is the biggest worry for most Australians today, have identified a variety of jobs that are at most risk in tough 2009 and those in “safe haven”, as they call it, when the recession hits the nation in one way or another.
Sectors at risk
Apart from mining jobs, which are already being scaled down due to reduced exports of iron ore and energy resources, the first to be affected in the other categories is the banking sector.
This is understandable because of the financial crisis, which has caused the major Australian banks to lose billions of dollars – although their losses are not as much as those in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.
Banks here are restructuring their entire organisations and networks and are retrenching workers to cut costs.
Next will be the car industry. Fewer people are now buying new cars, putting car salesmen at risk of losing their jobs.
At risk also are workers in the tyre manufacturing sector, which rely heavily on the local car industry that’s now struggling to maintain its market share against imported brands.
Since petrol prices at the browsers have not come down to the level before the escalation early last year, coupled with the downturn in the economy, motorists are reducing their outings to save money. Workers at petrol browsers and truck drivers will be affected.
Despite the removal of fuel surcharge by airlines, the number of people travelling overseas or interstate has reduced considerably, and the airline industry and its related tourism industry will face a difficult year and shed jobs.
Real estate agents are also worried as fewer people can afford to buy homes and the number of properties under repossession is increasing in all Australian capital cities.
No estimated figures of these specific job losses or of those at great risk this year are available. However, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for December showed that 44,000 workers were sacked last month as the global recession began to grip the Australian economy. Economists believe that the figures were collected in early December and do not reflect the full extent of lay-offs in the mining sector announced recently.
The figures show that while Australia has yet to experience the substantial rise in unemployment seen in other developed countries, the small rise in jobless rate to 4.5% is worrying government and union officials.
Australian Congress of Trade Unions secretary Jeff Lawrence says the sacking of 14,000 workers worldwide by Rio Tinto, Australia’s big iron producer, shows the worst could be on the way.
The latest statistics also show that job advertisements plunged by 52% last year, with online job advertisements at their lowest ever.
The sharp fall, according to ANZ Bank monthly report, was the weakest annual rate of growth since the bank began its survey of job ads in 1975, and was worse than the drop during the 1982 and 1991 recessions.
This provides further evidence that demand for workforce across the Australian economy is now at recession levels. The Australian economy is forecast to record zero growth this year from an estimated 1.9% last year.
But the economy is expected to rebound to 1% growth next year, according to the Dun & Bradstreet’s Economic and Risk Outlook report released last week.
Exporters hit
D&B chief executive Christine Christian said the slowdown in emerging markets would be felt most among Australia’s exporters, which send about 40% of their goods to the Asia-Pacific region.
“Demand from Asia is critical to Australia’s economic prosperity,” she added. “However, with this demand expected to decrease markedly and default risks likely to rise, Australia’s exporters will be hit hard in 2009.”
The report pointed out that, among other factors, loss of trade partners, slowing productivity gains and a worsening business climate could lower the long-term growth potential of emerging markets.
While the report also predicts that world economic growth would fall to 1% in 2009 – the lowest level in more than 20 years – amid deteriorating trade conditions and decreasing demand, the IBIS World study released last week says traffic from key markets such as China, Japan, the US and most of Europe will fall dramatically.
“While the vulnerabilities vary across the globe, no region will escape the fallout completely,” the study adds.
Most surprisingly, however, the consensus in most reports is that the top 10 “safe haven” jobs include those in the biotechnology and online information services sectors.
Other categories are jobs in childcare, community health care and nursing homes, where the number of over-70s will grow and will keep radiographers and other workers in diagnostic imaging busy as more tests are needed for their health.
Online shopping has shown strong growth among the 25- to 44-year-olds and will create employment opportunities in the sector for technology developers, technical support and supply chain staff and marketing personnel.
With consumers tightening their belts, women especially will buy alternatives to their more expensive fashion items as long as they deliver “the feel good factor”.
This means that women will reduce their spending on clothes, shoes and handbags in favour of lipsticks, skin creams, perfumes and other beauty products.
IT’S a great dream that has turned into a nightmare for many Australian families whose debts are overtaking their earnings.
Some describe it as “the first wave of a tsunami” on Australian soil; others believe the situation is “just the tip of the iceberg”, with many low and middle-income people unable to pay their monthly home mortgages.
Consequently, the number of applications for property repossession in the Supreme Courts in all state capitals of Australia is leapfrogging between 55% and 76% over the previous year’s figures.
In Western Australia, there were 958 claims by banks or financial institutions before the court at the end of 2008, Queensland had more than 1,200 and New South Wales more than 5,000.
Most of the owners are young, who bought the homes at top prices during the property market boom in 2007, and are paying mortgage premiums as much as 40% of their income.
It was all right then as China and India were importing much of the iron ore, oil and gas supplies, especially from the northwest of Western Australia. The home buyers then were getting top wages working in the remote mines.
And the global property boom was particularly strong in Australia, which, at one stage, had the highest prices relative to rental levels, the third highest prices relative to incomes, and the fourth highest levels of household debt relative to incomes.
But by September last year, with property values falling at a rate faster than that of mortgages and the retrenchment of workers in the resources industry (which is still being threatened by the looming global recession), many home buyers began to default in their monthly payments.
Since the value of the property has dropped, they have come under financial pressure and could not sell their houses without incurring a huge loss or going into bankruptcy. Losing their jobs makes it even harder for them as they face financial ruin.
And with the current economy looking even more fragile than expected, non-bank lenders are repossessing homes for defaults of as low as A$1,000.
Not surprisingly, one stockbroker has warned that there is a one-in-three chance that the Australian economy would dip into a recession. What is worrying, however, is a recent government survey has shown that many people are using their credit cards to pay their home mortgages. This will push most of the 12.6 million credit cards into longer and deeper debts.
Many people are stretched to their financial limits and beyond, the study reveals, noting that they pay an all-time high of 21% of after-tax income on regular financial bills such as mortgage payments, insurance premiums and council rates.
As one financial adviser, Paul Gordon, commented: “Three quarters of the population are spending more than they earn ... they are going from week to week, month to month and surviving.”
The report points out that about 23% of households spent more than 30% of their income on housing in 2005-2006 compared with 19% in 1995-1996.
It estimates that there are now about 15,000 households whose housing loans are 90 days or more in arrears. “This is quite low for a country the size of Australia,” it says.
Some Australian families will hang on to their homes even at the expense of scrimping on other essential items, the survey says.
About 24% of the low-income households sometimes cut off their heater in winter and cooler in summer and 23% stopped their children from taking part in school excursions or sports. Some 18% of their children go without adequate health or dental care and about 10% of them sometimes go without meals for a day or so.
One million low-to-moderate income households are paying more than 30% of their disposable incomes on housing.
“The median house price is now 27 times greater than the annual income of the poorest Australians,” said Federal Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek.
“The likelihood of low-income people ever owning their home is now so remote that drastic measures are needed. It has become out of reach for many people.”
Australia’s population growth and lack of supply have driven prices to a level beyond the reach of many low-income families.
As such, she has called for cooperation between the public and private sectors to build a national affordable housing agenda.
The federal government plans to introduce a Housing Affordability Fund and National Housing Supply Council.
The First Home Saver Account scheme, which would allow prospective first home buyers to save for a deposit through superannuation-style accounts, is expected to be rolled out later this year.
Investors are advised to look at how this will impact them. This could have a significant effect on investment strategies depending upon the outcome.
IN a rich country like Australia, no one should go hungry or be without shelter.
Most people would like to believe it. But the reality is that more than 105,000 people have no home to go back to and many wander the streets every night in search of a place to sleep.
They sleep under road bridges, in their old cars, on park benches, abandoned buildings or even on footpaths of shops along the streets.
And there are also more than 10,000 children under the age of 12 who have nowhere to go and nothing to celebrate, even Christmas or New Year.
Rising figures
The number of homeless families and children has increased by 46% over the past 10 years, according to welfare agencies. This is expected to escalate if the prevailing worst global recession ever known hits Australia later this year.
“It’s a shame, a real shame,” remarked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who knew of the problem, but didn’t realise how bad it was until he visited the homeless.
It has touched his heart so much that he made a New Year resolution to tackle the problem – one which has been discussed by politicians for years but no government has, until now, resolved to tackle seriously.
“It’s time we have a decent solution to this problem,” Rudd vowed.
It is indeed a shame because of the sharp contrasts in a civilised society where “fair go” is the principle of the standard of living and community spirit.
The Australian economy has been booming since the mid-1990s with many people becoming wealthier. Yet, a breakdown of available figures shows a 16% jump in the number of homeless between 2001 and 2006.
It is estimated that on any given night, about 16,000 people are sleeping rough somewhere along the streets in the suburban areas across the nation. About 89,000 others are staying either with friends or relatives, in crisis accommodation or in insecure shelters such as boarding houses.
Rudd, who released an aptly named “Road Home” White Paper containing a bold and ambitious plan, wants the number of homeless families halved by 2020.
“After 16 years of economic growth, it is unacceptable that on any one night 100,000 Australians are homeless,” he said.
“We need a new approach that prevents homelessness, improves crisis services, helps people to get long-term secure housing and stops the cycle of homelessness.
“We must also work to better connect homeless shelters with mainstream services – housing, health and, most importantly, the world of work. This means government, business, community and charitable groups – a whole of community effort.”
He has committed A$1.2bil to kickstart the programme, in addition to A$6.1bil for affordable housing programme. Details of implementing the national action plan will be discussed with state and territory governments.
Some of the funding will help 9,000 children at risk of homelessness to stay with their families and provide early intervention services for 2,250 families.
A total of 2,700 additional homes will be built for people at risk of homelessness and 4,200 more homes will be built in remote indigenous communities. Some A$150mil will be spent on 600 new homes for crisis accommodation and A$2.8mil will go towards operating social and community programmes such as the renowned “Choir of Hard Knocks”.
The government’s 2020 plan aims to stop people from becoming homeless and support those at risk of losing their homes in a determined effort to break the cycle of life on the streets.
Overflowing shelters
Officials of Council for Homeless Persons and welfare agencies, who applauded the comprehensive plan, said many desperate people queuing up for shelters were being turned away simply because there were insufficient facilities to accommodate them.
About 98% of the homeless families who approached welfare agencies in 2008 had to be sent away. A Melbourne rooming house, which provides crisis accommodation for homeless families, says it has to reject between 70 and 90 people every day.
Rudd’s Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek believes that the number of homeless Australians is under-estimated. But the government is now researching to find the actual number of homeless people.
Plibersek also believes that the government’s ambitious goals can be achieved with sustained effort and extra investment.
The White paper, written by a group under the chairmanship of Tony Nicholson, executive director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence, warns that the problem of homelessness would continue to worsen if there was no intervention.
It points out that almost one in 57 Australian children under the age of five slept in a homeless shelter at some stage during 2005-2006 and that this impact of experience is often devastating.
Stressing that homelessness should not be regarded solely as a housing problem, the report says: “Homelessness has many drivers and causes, including the shortage of affordable housing, long-term unemployment, mental health issues, substance abuse and family and relationship breakdown.
“Among women, domestic and family violence is the main reason for seeking help from specialist homeless services.”
Nicholson, who has been appointed to lead a steering committee of experts to oversee the implementation of the plan, says it is “by far the most substantial commitment to tackling homelessness that we have ever seen in Australia”.