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IT MAY BE the smallest-denominated Australian dollar banknote, but a new design for the Aus$5 bill attracted an outsized amount of criticism when it was unveiled earlier today, with detractors calling it “hideous” and “like vomit”.
The note, which will replace its more bland predecessor from September 1, features a yellow Prickly Moses wattle flower and a colourful Eastern Spinebill native bird.
“Each banknote in the new series will depict a different species of Australian wattle and a native bird within a number of the elements,” Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens said in a statement.
“The designs are the culmination of a process of extensive consultation with subject-matter experts and the cash-handling industry, as well as qualitative research involving focus groups.”
But critics – from social media users to bird-lovers – were quick to express their disdain.
“Our new fivers look like vomit,” one user wrote on Twitter, while another quipped: “A thousand monkeys with a thousand versions of Photoshop could never come up with something as hideous as the new Australian $5 note.”
Some questioned why the same portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, which was drawn from photographs commissioned by the central bank in 1984, was used rather than a recent image of Australia’s head of state.
“New Australian $5 note really knocks years off the Queen,” tweeted Joanna Hall.
The bill even managed to raise the ire of bird lovers.
“It’s way off in terms of colouration,” Birdlife Australia’s migratory shorebird programme manager Dan Weller told AFP, although the bird’s shape and markings were fairly accurate.
“The way it’s been shown on the note, the only two colours that are right on there are the black and the white.”
Eastern Spinebills – found on Australia’s east coast – have red eyes, black heads, grey wings and tails, white throats, and chestnut-coloured undersides.
But the new bill gives them a bluish underside with a bright blue, yellow, purple and pink wing.
One Twitter user tried to cash in on the lack of support for the new note, tweeting: “I like the new Australian $5 note. For those who hate it, feel free to hand the notes over to me #altruistic.”
The bill is being introduced to mark the 50th anniversary of the nation’s conversion to decimal currency.
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If These parasitic agencies had their contribution to the global financial crisis rated it would be a triple A +.it is extraordinary that these dregs of morality ,along with the likes of Goldman Sachs can still hold sway in the the financial system and I say this as a firm believer in capitalism ! Great article Btw
Set up a Eurozone based Rating Agency.
Well Fitch are run by a french company
Joint headquartered in New York and London.
S&p had Lehmans at AAA up into the week that they actually went bust and left millions of creditors high and dry!!!!!
True. And why are we still hearing about their pronouncements on the news? Laziness from journalists, governments and bankers? If they were any good they’d be called “Excellent & Loaded” anyway
Only because the credit agencies base their ratings on factual information rather than government propaganda and governments can’t stand anyone who isn’t playing ball.
I assume you are looking for a reaction with that moronic comment , well you suceeded, troll!
No, the US was downgraded by S&P based on sound monetary data, whereas your comments are based on your ignorance.
Yes, they “eventually” started doing their Job, after playing their part in wrecking the world’s economy. Where was their “Data” when they gave triple A ratings to Billions of Dollars of subprime mortgages wrapped other good loans in the US. Of course this was insured by AIG in the form CDS’ that brought the biggest insurer on the planet to its knees, 85 billion to bail out Bear sterns ,200 Billion to bail out Fannie Mae /Freddie Mac , all because of subprime. Yes the banks were reckless but I wonder what their rating had been??? mmm. I suppose you heard there excuse in the congressional hearings, well of course you didn’t, anyway, it was that “we only give advice/guidance, it’s really up the institution what they do with it.
This is a country where there is now nearly a million people living in tents. And the behaviour off the Rating agencies, Financial was morally repugnant. Then we have monkey talk from the likes of you !
No McManus, you are displaying +your+ ignorance.
In contrast to member countries of the Eurozone, the US remains the sovereign issuer of its own (free floating) currency and because of this fact can never go bankrupt or default on debt denominated in US$.
When S&P downgraded US gov debt, thru’ some combination of political ideology & stupidity, the market interest rate did precisely nothing – +nada+. Indeed, given the even low rate of inflation the US gov can sell every $ of its debt, still, at an even lower rate of interest. Yes, buyers of US gov debt are actually +paying+ to hold it when inflation is taken into account.
Whilst the variously fraudulent, corrupt & ideologically motivated behaviour of the ratings agencies is a key (& unaddressed) part of the cause of the financial meltdown, it is only the tip of the iceberg.
Besides the control fraud (cf former US regulator William K Black) of the financial institutions, both in the US and Europe, we should also be demanding examination of the endemically flawed macro economics thinking that still ignores the effect of debt – indeed the function of banking itself – in its modelling of national economies. Ever wondered why the mainstream of economics had no clue the crisis was coming mere weeks before the crash? Or why the Eurozone is getting worse not better 5 years later?
Irish economists & commentators (with the exception of Dublin based writer Philip Pilkington) continue to be absolutely lamentable on these vital issues. Of course, with secure 6 figure salaries & guaranteed fat pensions, +they+ are not suffering are they?
If you want to find the facts of the intellectual bankruptcy endemic in mainstream macro economics (macro, because national economics is profoundly not like your household or business, despite all the BS from media etc. implying it is) you need to look outside Ireland. Readily available practical solutions are also discussed. (Yes, there are solutions that do not involve massive unemployment for decades & beyond.)
See Prof Bill Mitchell here:
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/
Good articles here:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/
And Prof Steve Keen here;
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/
It takes a little time and study to discover the truth in macro economics. But surely we owe it to our children to find out, if not for ourselves. We will not be gifted the solutions that are readily available. The present system is a lie from start to finish, that serves to enrich the top few percent, at the expense of the rest of us, thru’ the creation of both booms & busts.
A good article by Hugh O’Connell here, but there is so much more needs fundamental examination & reform including the Euro structure itself.
S&P are number crunchers that’s all, they do what they do for their clients. Governments oversee financial regulation and dictate financial policy, so stop shooting the messenger! It’s beginning to sound like late Weimar Germany around here with the level of wingnut economic theory being flung about. Corruption and cronyism in politics, get-rich-quick economic policy, war mongering abroad, all must be paid for at the end and the chickens have come home to roost for America.
I know something about the “Pillars of Society’ that you don’t. Further details by searching in Google for ‘ Devrajan Hanna Butler Foley’
Cheers
The Common Informer
People need to understand that Ratings Agencies use historical data (good or bad) so they are after-the-fact telling us what is wrong. They cannot predict. The reason they are still viewed as important is that the prospectuses of funds tends to state that the funds cannot invest in shares/stocks etc less than X or Y rating which is purely a marketing exercise. They serve no real purpose other than marketing/political purposes and anyone who uses them as a benchmark is crazy/delusional.
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