It’s an ill wind … The extent of the drubbing which non-banks are now getting in the home loan market is clear from October figures released this morning by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. For the banks the number of owner occupied dwellings financed by banks (seasonally adjusted) rose 1.3% in October 2008 compared with September 2008, after a revised decrease of 2.5% in September 2008. The trend series fell 0.8% in October 2008, the tenth consecutive monthly decrease.

Things were far worse for the non-banks. The number of owner-occupied dwellings financed by them was up 1.5% in October 2008 compared with September 2008, after a revised decrease of 1.6% in September 2008. The trend series in the number of owner occupied dwellings financed by non-banks decreased 2.6% in October 2008, the sixteenth consecutive monthly decrease.

When it comes to the value of loans the gap is now wide and getting wider:

The disappearing whale campaign. The Sydney Daily Telegraph under the control of David Penberthy pretended to be a great fighter on politial issues. One of his campaigns, run in conjunction with Greenpeace, was to try and shame Japan in to halting whaling. Under the new regime of Gary Linnell it seems that the save the whale cause has been abandoned and the Greenpeace alliance ditched as well for I can find no mention in the paper of the current international campaign to save two Greenpeace activists from a spell in a Japanese jail.

Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki , dubbed the ‘Tokyo Two’ in the Japanese press, are charged with taking a 23-kg box of whale meat from a delivery company warehouse. Greenpeace maintains their action was simply to prove large scale fraud by whalers. The Japan Times reported this week that it looks increasingly likely that Sato and Suzuki will be found guilty of trespassing and theft which will see them facing a maximum 10 years in prison.

Strange, then, that the Tele has gone so quiet on its anti-Japanese campaign. At the very least Greenpeace might have hoped its partner in the save the whales campaign would be putting in an editorial word urging Environment Minister Peter Garrett to be lobbying on their men’s behalf. Not that Minister Garrett has been showing much stomach for the anti-whaling crusade he promised when in opposition. The success of his so-called diplomatic efforts was shown this week when Japan started distributing for sale whale meat imported from Iceland.

A little Darwin detour. We see him here, we see him there, we see him everywhere. The only lure needed to catch our Prime Minister is a camera.

And so it was yesterday that he popped in to Darwin en route to the Bali Democracy Forum for a little photo opportunity.

Vanilla slices at 40 paces. The Victorian Mallee town of Ouyen, which boasts that it is the home of that great Australian contribution to the world’s cuisine the vanilla slice, has been split asunder by a bitter dispute between the Ouyen Bakery and the Mallee Café. My culinary informant learned of the ructions after making a lengthy detour last Sunday to purchase the original item, only to find the bakery shut. At the Mallee Café the only custard laden delicacy had been bought in from Robinvale. That is worse than taking coal to Newcastle — Premier John Brumby must insist that this dispute is settled!