Hundreds of millions believed laundered at Crown Casino

Australia’s success in curbing Covid-19 infections is allowing it to slowly ease some restrictions even as it remains largely closed off from the rest of the world, taking its economy back to the pre-globalization era.
Mining and agriculture continue to support exports and a government-sponsored group is looking at ways to revive manufacturing. But the flow of foreign tourists, students and immigrants has been frozen, pinning hopes for a rebound on local consumption.
The closed borders and domestic reliance has the economy harking back to the 1980s, before the lifting of tariffs opened up trade and Paul Hogan offered to put another shrimp on the Barbie for international visitors.
Services Driven Nearly two-thirds of economic output from service industries
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Nominal gross value added, 2018-19
The capacity of services to quickly turnaround and the fact Aussies aren’t blowing savings on holidays abroad could help the nation fare better than many developed-world peers. Much will depend on the mood of households as unemployment rises, with a poor construction outlook adding to headwinds.
What Bloomberg’s Economists Say “Close to 1 million Australians per month traveled overseas in 2019. They will now be looking for a change of destination, heading to Noosa instead of Nusa Dua; Port Douglas, not Penang; and catching up with friends at bars in Melbourne Laneways, instead of Hong Kong’s mid levels. Containment measures change the economics of international travel.”
James McIntyre, economist
Household consumption, which makes up around 55% of the economy, has been boosted on the one hand by people stocking up on essentials during the lockdown, but hammered on the other as they couldn’t eat out or go to the movies. Shops and restaurants are gradually reopening but, for consumption to drive any rebound, households must put aside concerns over job security and debt to drive spending. That may be tough.
Wesfarmers Ltd. is seeing shift in consumer behavior across its retail portfolio. Home improvement and office products stores, Bunnings and Officeworks, have seen significant uplift in sales, while general merchandise stores, Target and Kmart, have seen sales slow.
Pessimistic households have consumption outlook seeming bleak Even before Covid-19, Australian households were among the most indebted in the developed world, with debt almost double disposable income. The threat of unemployment to people’s ability to meet their debts is now key, and the Reserve Bank of Australia has long acknowledged it as a major risk facing the economy.
The unemployment rate is currently 6.2%, with the central bank expecting it to peak at around 10%. Banks are offering repayment holidays to help tide homeowners over and have quadrupled provisions for an expected surge in bad debts.
Australia Passes Massive Stimulus Measures as Virus Spreads People wait in line outside a Centrelink office in the Bondi Junction suburb of Sydney, March 2020.Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg The absence of skilled migration due to closed national borders will also hit pause on what had been steady stream of profitable mortgage lending for the banks. That could flow through to housing prices if sustained.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia said its base case is for an 11% fall in home prices, though in a prolonged downturn a cumulative 32% slump is possible. National Australia Bank Ltd. said in a severe downturn, prices could plummet 21% this year.
Uncertainty and job insecurity impacting property market Residential construction typically closely follows house price movements, and the sector was already scaling back activity following the previous flood of new stock still working its way into the market.
The RBA earlier this month said that indications from the initial stages of the development process suggests demand for new housing “has deteriorated significantly.” It expects dwelling investment to plunge 17% in the 12 months through June and remain a drag on growth until 2021.
Property investors have been hit by the six month moratorium on tenancy evictions during coronavirus. Without renewed interest from investors, it’s challenging to get a new apartment development, particularly of any size, into construction.
The same holds for business investment. Unless the project was already underway, or is related to creating a covid-safe environment, capital expenditure plans have been parked until demand returns.
Natural Endowment Things look brighter as you leave the cities. Internationally, Australia is known as a commodity powerhouse. While it accounts for just 10% of output, it is a key source of export income and prosperity in the country.
Iron ore shipments from Port Hedland, a key export hub, hit a record for April, while gold sales from Perth Mint -- the main refiner -- also surged. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. lifted its projected annual iron ore shipments in a wager on China’s recovery. “We are selling everything we can possibly produce,” Chairman Andrew Forrest says.
Net exports important source of economic growth It’s less rosy for the liquefied natural gas producers. Just as the coronavirus sent the global economy into lockdown, Russia and Saudi Arabia began a standoff that sent oil prices tumbling below zero.
Top producers Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and Santos Ltd. have slashed spending plans and deferred flagship growth projects -- worth over $15 billion -- in line with drastic steps by energy majors worldwide to hunker down during the pandemic.
On The Sheep’s Back Virus Fears Grow In Sydney As Growing GDP Expected To Be Hit Rolls of toilet papers sit in an empty section of a supermarket in Sydney, March 2020..Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg As supermarket shelves were stripped bare, a panicked nation was reminded of the sheer mass of food the country’s farmers produce. Domestic food production services more than 90% of fresh produce sold in supermarkets and still is able to more than match that amount in exports.
The industry could also become an unexpected source of employment. Backpackers and workers from Pacific Islands flock to rural areas to pick up work with seasonal tasks, but with borders shut and jobs being lost across the economy, farmers are likely turn to the local community for the extra labor.
Other producers have greater worries. Barley and meat exporters have been caught in China’s crosshairs in retaliation for Australia’s public call for an independent investigation of the coronavirus outbreak, while the wine industry is looking on nervously.
It’s been a tough year for wine, even before the virus. Clonakilla winery in New South Wales, north of Canberra, decided against producing a 2020 vintage after analysis showed unacceptably high levels of smoke taint from wildfires over the summer.
Exploring Our Own Backyard Australia's China Reliance Backfires as Virus Fallout Spreads Students sit on the grass at the University of Sydney, Feb. 2020.Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg The education industry was one of the first to feel the pinch from coronavirus restrictions. When the government imposed travel bans on flights from China in February, around 100,000 international students were unable to enter Australia to begin the academic year and left universities bracing for a costly fallout.
The University of Sydney, where students from China represented nearly one-quarter of the total student body, projected a A$470 million loss this year. Other institutions, including the University of Melbourne and Monash University, are bracing for similar hits. Even smaller regional institutions that don’t attract nearly the same level of international students have been affected.
With a lot of money at stake, there could be a relaxation of international border restrictions for students to study in Australia, before leisure travelers are allowed. But for businesses catering toward an offshore audience, demand is unlikely to snap back.
Qantas Airways Ltd. is currently operating just 1% of its network and has canceled overseas fights until at least the end of July. Its main competitor, Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd., collapsed into administration in April.
Virgin Australia Collapses After Pandemic Halts Air Travel Virgin Australia check-in kiosks inside a deserted Sydney Airport, April 2020. Photographer Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg Crown Resorts Ltd. and Star Entertainment Group Ltd., which both target big-spending visitors from Asia, were forced to close their casinos in Australia as the country locked down. Crown is just months away from completing a A$2.2 billion luxury gaming resort in Sydney.
The tourism industry was already reeling from the wave of cancellations following the December and January wildfires. The silver lining is that Australians will have no option but to spend holidays on home soil once inter-state travel is allowed again.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-19/australia-goes-back-to-the-1980s-with-economy-closed-to-world?sref=s0L1qQ1H

So me (M 21), my sister (F 17) and my mum and dad are at a pretty fancy hotel/restaurant/casino here called Crown (Perth). We hadn't even ordered when my sister sees two waiters serving tables. She calls them hot to our mother and leaves it that, but they both giggled and joked about them pretty sultrily. Old man wasn't too pleased about that, not gonna lie.
I really didn't see the appeal of those dudes but I'm not a woman or gay so I can't comment, truthfully. If you want to picture what they look like, they were light haired, blue eyed, tanned and well, looked pretty much like smaller, teenaged Chris Hemsworths. I hope that narrowed it down for you, mate, but I don't know how effective that'll prove.
After we'd ordered (with a waitress), my sister sees the same blokes serving another table with what looked like 5 teenage girls. Now, Perth has some pretty unruly folks in terms of how they express their attraction for either gender. But I really didn't expect the amount of pant-pissing over two regular dudes that I'd see from this table. They all looked pretty much like dolled up high schoolers and they were really giving these blokes a hard time, grabbing them on their sleeves and on their trousers, calling them "fit" and hot and pretty much touching them in places no person wants to be touched unless indicated. Simply put, they were sexually harassing these poor bastards. And if they were pissed off, it didn't seem like it, although they did seem uncomfortable. So I told my family this and that it looked like they (the guys) could handle some girls half their size, or just call for help.
My sister, being the person she is though, rushes to the table with the girls and tells them to leave the boys alone. They turned to her for a bit, called my sis a "fucking cheap skank", but eventually, they relent and are escorted out of Crown after the security eventually arrived. All those gawking people managed to achieve something thankfully!
I have to admit, although the guys did thank my sister, she did sound disappointed to not receive the praise she was looking for from them. So I told her as such. I said:
"[Sis's name], you only helped those fellas because you wanted to get their favour, and it didn't work, so clearly your Superwoman act didn't get you what you want. If you want to help someone, help them without ulterior motives, period."
My mum and sister are all really upset at me for saying this, surprise surprise my old man doesn't give a hoot. Mum thinks it "indicates a lack of respect for my sister and how hard-line she is about stopping harassment, against either blokes or gals". I'm simply calling it like I see it. She and my mum were clearly eyeing those guys up, like those girls. And Sis said I'm "unsympathetic toward male victims of abuse" (they tend to throw around big words when they want to win a debate).
Sis hasn't spoken to me for a few days now. I know we'll hash it out eventually, but tell me, AITA for what I said?

Hi i have recently became aware of the Mosman Park hostage siege in which Daniel Ashley was shot by police and will spend the rest of his life in a wheel chair.
To the average public this sad story looks like a crazed individual has snapped and gone on a rampage. However there is a darker side to this story and Daniel Ashley could very well be a victim himself. As i have experienced myself due to complaining about police corruption, i became a victim of sick, rogue ex army intelligence officers and a network of undesirables who have the means and the power to destroy a persons life and tear their family apart.
This group that is disguised as community policing is trafficking meth in Perth and committing extortion and blackmail also.
Their intelligence officers and case managers who are unstable sadistic ex army people have the power to direct their drug fuelled informants on the ground to destroy a persons life one bogus investigation at a time.
I noticed that Daniel was working as security at the vile Crown Casino, perhaps he was targeted at his work or in my case he might have upset a well known Perth gangsta and in retaliation has copped a force of evil where if you dont work out where it is coming from you are a goner.
Police wont help out as they will label you a crazy and while they take a back foot and watch this criminal group posing as community policing provokes you until you finally snap and commit a bad offence.
These people know what they are doing as they are trained in psychological operations. This is a concern considering the latest reports of soldiers being mentally unstable and abusing ice.
With the power of the national security laws once you are under investigation they have the power to monitor you 24/7. They can enter your home and listen in and watch your every moment. In my case they also recruited the bloke next door to me to join in the harassment campaign.
Daniel Ashley needs to find out if he was under an investigation before and during these events by way of a freedom of information check.
He is a victim of sick, sadistic ex army intelligence officers and case managers who direct there drug fuelled informants on the ground to destroy lives one bogus investigation at a time.
This is called gangstalking.

Hi i have recently became aware of the Mosman Park hostage siege in which Daniel Ashley was shot by police and will spend the rest of his life in a wheel chair.
To the average public this sad story looks like a crazed individual has snapped and gone on a rampage. However there is a darker side to this story and Daniel Ashley could very well be a victim himself. As i have experienced myself due to complaining about police corruption, i became a victim of sick, rogue ex army intelligence officers and a network of undesirables who have the means and the power to destroy a persons life and tear their family apart.
This group that is disguised as community policing is trafficking meth in Perth and committing extortion and blackmail also. Their intelligence officers and case managers who are unstable sadistic ex army people have the power to direct their drug fuelled informants on the ground to destroy a persons life one bogus investigation at a time.
I noticed that Daniel was working as security at the vile Crown Casino, perhaps he was targeted at his work or in my case he might have upset a well known Perth gangsta and in retaliation has copped a force of evil where if you dont work out where it is coming from you are a goner.
Police wont help out as they will label you a crazy and while they take a back foot and watch this criminal group posing as community policing provokes you until you finally snap and commit a bad offence.
These people know what they are doing as they are trained in psychological operations. This is a concern considering the latest reports of soldiers being mentally unstable and abusing ice. With the power of the national security laws once you are under investigation they have the power to monitor you 24/7. They can enter your home and listen in and watch your every moment. In my case they also recruited the bloke next door to me to join in the harassment campaign.
Daniel Ashley needs to find out if he was under an investigation before and during these events by way of a freedom of information check.
He is a victim of sick, sadistic ex army intelligence officers and case managers who direct there drug fuelled informants on the ground to destroy lives one bogus investigation at a time.
This is called gangstalking.