- By Sunrise host David Koch

 >> Mel's blog | Simon's blog |  Beretts's blog |  Nat's blog | Kochie’s blog

++ UPDATED 11.28pm September 38

It's time for me to tell it straight on this US financial crisis.

Certainly the US has got to reregulate their banking system but luckily, our system is streets ahead of the US, plus ours is more regulated and better regulated.

The US is suffering the consequences of saying to the banks, "Look, you do whatever whatever you like."

The whole reason they deregulated was to allow more finance into disadvantaged communities! But what you’re seeing now is the mortgages went so far they were lending to people who never should have been loaned money.

“If there was not a bailout, there would be a depression. That’s depression with a D not R.”

 

I agree with the bailout – if there was not a bailout, there would be a depression. That’s depression with a D not R. No doubt at all.

To the taxpayer considering this trillion dollar cheque - they want accountability. If a firm takes advantage of the bailout, the taxpayers gets a stake…

If a crisis like this happened in Australia - hypothetically – our government would, of course, have to do the same.

It always boils down to the banks – who are encouraged by politicians, mind you – they are are too free and easy lending money to people who shouldn’t be borrowing.

Remember, Westpac in the early 90’s came very close to going broke – you had a crisis in the building societies and with credit unions also.

Even the Bank of SA went close to the brink and was forced into mergers.

Now, even though we are not nearly as bad off, we’ve still overdone it.
Home equity loans, how stupid is that? To convert an investment equity in your house into a depreciating consumable?

All of those will now go. The ripple effect here is that banks will become very conservative. We might go back to the old days when you could only get a loan if the– repayments equals no more than 30% of your income – and that’s the man’s salary – and only half of a woman’s – because she might get pregnant.
You also need to start with 20-25% deposit.
If there is a threat to our economy it will be a shift to this conservativeness and frugality.

There won’t be as many loans given out and that will effect the property process. Personal loans too will suffer – people won’t be adding five grand onto their home loan for that new plasma TV, so plasma sales will go down..  small businesses; it won’t be as easy to get credit.

If you find this all a bit daunting, talk to your grandmother - because that’s what she grew up with.


 ---------------------

 

++ UPDATED 12.27pm July 29

There’s great excitement for Mel and I right now.

I have only been to Hong Kong – never the mainland.

I am looking forward to seeing the Great Wall … immersing myself in the culture of this exotic land.

As for food, I am game to eat some of the unique cuisine on offer. Not as brave as Mel, though.

Anything goes with her - in the food stakes - and she is trying to find a cheeky Chinese chardonnay.

I don’t know if China are known for wine, but I know only one person will be able to find  out – that would be one Melissa Doyle

Am also planning my attack on local souvenirs.

I am thinking of bringing home one of those pandas in a shaker snow-dome thing for the grandaughter.

That would be quite good.

Really, our biggest issue is trying to find a bar that will have the Bledisloe Cup – we have our people onto that.

I have packed my bags already. We packed cool because it’s the middle of summer there and even at 4 in the morning it’s still 28 degrees.

Brrrr

DK

++ UPDATED 12.29pm 

 

++ UPDATED 19 June 9.12am 

Despite the blowout in the performance of superannuation funds, I don’t recommend changing.

Your return will be down it won't go below zero.

Even though this could be the biggest drop since the ‘87 crash, if you take into account the five year trend, it’s been one of the best performing periods ever!

This was really 4 sensational years, then a horrible fifth year.

The situation is, markets have tanked, America and parts of Europe are headed into recession…

What it’s time to do is use the opportunity to measure how your fund has gone against similar funds.

Blind Freddy can make money in a boom market - the real test is how you perform in a downturn.

For my money, I would much prefer a solid performer in boom-times and star performer during bad times

I couldn’t care if it’s not the best in boom times.

As long as it produces the smallest loss in bad times.

It’s also a good time to assess what sort of asset class your super is.

For example, if you’re in super with your boss’s fund, you usually have a few options –

• a balanced fund
• a share fund
• an income fund that is just income investments, or
• a property fund.

In a boom everyone sees the flashing lights of the big returns in the share market funds, but they also have highest risk in the downturn.

It may be time to reassess and go to a balanced fund, it includes a bit of of property, bit of fixed interest.

So in summary;

• Don’t panic
• It’s a good time to test the fund manager you are with
• Asses the style of fund  you are with.
• Does it suit your wealth and age profile?

 

 

Kochie takes us back to the day he started on Sunrise, getting to know Mel and how he sees their relationship now...

(read Mel's blog | Simon's blog | Beretts's blog | Nat's blog)

First week/memories

I filled in for three months to start with.

Back then,  I didn’t expected to stay, so my view was ‘I’ll give it ago’.

We always got on well, Mel and I. She was always my sort of… my sort of person. We have a very similar sense of humour, values.

At that stage, it was a straight newsreading-type show.

This was around the time Adam Boland started. (He was just a young go-getter. Still is. I am three months older than his mother!)

He's at Mel and I down and said that he was making changes - it would be a bit chattier, less formal.

And I had just been the finance nerd, doing segments. So I said I’d give it a go if I could be myself.

My take on TV is that it’s extraordinarily, highly manufactured. Hosts,especially, tend to be manufactured. They tend to act a certain way, if that’s then or not.

Our view was that if we’re on for three hours, we can’t be someone we’re not

And with that, I was really excited about it. It was terrific, Just Adam, Mel, Yoko [a producer] and I.

“Our office was a demountable tin shed in the back of Channel 7’s Epping studios. We were being thrashed by Today – no one cared, noexecutives watched us…”

Sowe used to amuse ourselves. Then we found other people wanted to be amused to!

Hiring the team

One of the great things about no one liking us and being in the car park was that they really didn’t care who we hired.

So we hired people we liked - what we call ‘our sort of people’, nice people, no pretenses.

Adam, Mel and I sat down and we thought someone else should read the news.

There’s only one person we thought was suitable. Nat.

Then Adam suggested we get a Sports presenter.

Berrets was just fired from 6pm and we said - he’s our guy

Nat and Berretts were the two ideal people to join us. I cannot imagine doing Sunrise with anyone else

 ------------------------

Kochie on Mel

Mel’s smile – you just can’t help but smile back at her.

 

“… Another Communications class in Queensland contacted us to say they had analysed us and they were certain we were having an affair! Neither were remotely correct.”

When you get up at four a.m., you want to work with people you like. And Mel, she keeps me under control, I admit that I maybe go over the line sometimes, and she pulls me back when she thinks I’m pushing it too far.

We have a wonderful working relationship.

I look forward to going in every day - primarily to sit next to her.

We spend more time with each other than with our spouses and it’s been going for five years. But don’t read into that. I could be her father.

It reminds me of a time when a Communications Class in Victoria contacted us saying said they had been examining our body language and they had determined,through this investigation, that Mel and I hated each other!

Now,another Communications class in Queensland contacted us not long after to say they had analysed us and they were certain we were having an affair!

Neither were remotely correct.

We’re often amused at how people are so concerned if we get on as well outside the show as we do on the show.

The funniest thing is, no one believed we could get on as well as we do. But we do.  We spend half our time saying that to people.

TV is so manufactured, it’s usually so artificial, that people don’t believe two people from different generations, could get on this well.

Kochie on Berretts

We’re both sports nuts.

He’s a terrific dad a family bloke as well. Apart from being water skiing champion,he’s so dedicated as a dad as well. That real blokey sense of humour.

We all gel because we seriously like each other.

We don’t hang out much because we see each other enough and while Berretts’s kids are young, my baby is in third year uni.

Kochie on Nat

Nat has a wicked sense of humour… a dry sense of humour but similar values and she’s just gorgeous.

I love how Mel and Nat support each other.

They have great husbands and I admire how they juggle motherhood and are such dedicated mothers

They are mums with old-fashioned values

They don’t have any live-in nanny, they both have people come and look after the kids at home, but they do all the cooking and everything.

DK.

 

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

Kochie on his AFL upbringing 

(See Simon Reeve's AFL blog here)

It's one of my earliest memories as a kid ... watching Port Adelaide at Alberton Oval. With the great Geoff Motley's number on my back, Alberton was a winter ritual.

You see I grew up in Largs North just a block from the Police Academy and in the heart of Port Adelaide territory. My dad played for Semaphore Centrals in the amateur league and played a couple of seasons in Port's reserve team.

“I reckon it's the working class background that provides the magic of the club... and the fact that every other team's supporters hate you.”

As the eldest of three kids dad was still playing when I was born and apparently he'd push me in the pram to Semaphore Oval before every game and we'd be on the bus to Alberton for Port Adelaide.
Both sets of grandparents lived in Larg's Bay. Mum and her brother and sisters grew up Port fans.

Today my 80-year-old aunt and her husband are still members.

My uncle is patron of the club.

We're a Port Adelaide family.

The history, the success, the culture... once you become a Port Adelaide fan it's for life.
I reckon it's the working class background of the Port Adelaide tribe that provides the magic of the club... and the fact that every other team's supporters hate you.

It's always been that way.

In the SAFL, every other supporter would always barrack for whoever was playing the Magpies. Just last week in the Plaza outside the Sunrise studios, two Crows supporters came to say hello dressed in the club's jackets.

They were such nice ladies and asked for an autograph.

I jokingly said only if they supported Port Adelaide when we weren't playing the Crows. They hesitated and had to think about it... they seriously had to consider the consequences and I reckon, even then, only agreed to be polite.

The passion of Port Adelaide supporters, that seige mentality, has been at the core of every Port Adelaide team on the field. That pride, that never-say-die commitment.

It was there in the era of Peter Obst, of Geoff Motley, of John Cahill, of Russel Ebert... as it is today in the Cornes', Tredrea and the rest of the team.

It was there when they won their record breaking six consecutive premierships. Growing up there was just a natural expectation we'd be at Adelaide Oval every September taking on Sturt or Woodville or Souths, or whoever.

One of my fondest memories was a home game ritual of Grandpa Koch taking me to the window outside the Port dressing room at half time to listen in to super coach Fos Williams barking instructions to the team...

I reckon I learnt my first swear word at that window.

Even today I close my eyes in the dressing rooms before a match and listen to Choco doing the same thing and think, 'like father like son'.

Port Adelaide has always been a family and always will be... it's what tradition is made from.
Those great Port Adelaide surnames just keep coming back with new generations of players.
It's the magic of Port Adelaide.

DK