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Am I missing something here, isn't GST basically a transaction tax for commoners? i.e. a way to exempt the big players from the transaction tax regime (GST) that's imposed on the financially captive public?

Yes.. Of course they have consulting arms.. Which means the government could throw them money to consult on how to reign in the casr from the black market, to which those firms could consult to the big black market operators on how to get around the new ways of doing things.. just like what happens now in tax. 🙂

If the new system reduces fees to the large, politically connected accounting firms, it will never happen.

There's a lot to be said for a very major reform of our taxation system, one that ensures taxes are paid according to the rules, and which system would not allow "creative accounting" or "loophole exploitation", as practised by many global corporations today, and who have done so, for many years. When the GST was introduced, it was supposed to result in a fairer and simpler system. It has turned out to be anything but that.

I quite like the idea of, I think it was @nomadpete's from some time ago about introducing a transaction tax - that is basically every transaction is taxed a percentage.. So, I did something not necessarily statistically valid and haven't yet validated any of it; and I think the idea would have to be refined (e.g. not to price us out of export markets, etc). I asked ChatGPT if we removed all taxes from Australians and replaced it with a flat transaction tax that is not able to be offset like CGT, and the transaction tax is applied at all levels in the Supply Chain, what would be the % required to replace the existing revenues of the government. To ChatGPT's credit, it did also inform me there are many variables and it needed refinement itself, but settled on 10%. I asked it what would be the cumulative impact on consumer prices (so not house transfers, financial investments, loans, etc), to narrow it down. I asked chat as I couldn't be bothered doing the compound math myself, and it said for a 3 stage supply chain process, 33%; 4 stage 47% an d 5 stage 63%. Ouch, but that is a raw value and it doesn't take into account some reduced costs on the way, but businesses would probably take these into profit for a time before competition started to take effect - as per the Whitlam years when he removed a lot of import duties. Also, note, you take roughly 10% off for CGT from those (not entirely accurate but for these purposes will do), as well as for some products (e.g. wine) the baked in taxes that are already there. Next I asked what would be the impact on net disposable income in quartiles from the lowest income earners (minimum wage) to the highest reported income earner. As expected, this would be regressive, but not by as much as I thought, with the lowest quartile being between 5% and 10% worse off, the next being between 3% and 4% worse off the third being between 3% a 12% better off and the top 25% of earners being between 15% and 55% better off. I didn't go into comparing to how much disposable income each quartile has against some average cost of living for a comparison as that was not the purpose of the exercise. And note, this does not include state and council stand alone revenue and I have not validated how Chat came to its answers. But it leaves some food for thought for a complete tax overhaul along these lines. The obvious risk is an increase in black market activity to circumvent the taxes. Leaving that aside, I asked Chat what non deductible tax to apply on a proportional basis to the 3rd and 4th quartile to allow the government to distribute income to the 1st and second quartile to ensure that the bottom two quartiles can be directly distributed the money such that they will be no worse off - i.e. net disposable income is the same as the current process. It was 0.55% for the third quartile and up to 2.0% on the 4th quartile. Of course, there will be lots of statistical error in these numbers, but it gives a guide that for no other than a consumption tax, the bottom two quartiles cost of living will not change, yet the top tier will be better off and with a much smaller PAYG tax rate. Of course, it leaves room to move a little more income to those on lower income and according to Chat, around 4.5% applied to both tiers would make the bottom two tiers 10% better off than they were. This would leave the third tier up to 7.5% better off and the top tier up to 49% better off.. and the government still gets the same money. It would probably be in large corporate taxation. They would now have to pay the tax where a lot don't pay anywhere near where they should be. And then you can factor in additional taxes that we should be charging like the fossil fuel export royalties to the correct level, and you have a far more fairer, flexible, and targetable taxation system. Of course, this is rudimentary modelling.. There are second and third order factors that have to be addressed. For example, the cost of compliance (accounting, legal, etc) will drop massively as there aren't complex accounting rules required for taxation. This will result is a lower level of transactions and therefore, tax. It may result in increased unemployment as you need less para finance and para legals as well as less tax compliance people in ATO, and if we went federal for all funding (local and state), less public servants at that level collecting, keeping track of, etc. Also, less transactions to billing providers, software, etc. Which can increase government costs (welfare) and reduce taxation, which can increase the transaction tax required, or increase other taxes such as fossil fuel royalties, etc. But,if we are looking at fairer taxation, then surely the whole system needs reform. (Sorry for the long post.. first day off for ages.. and I am in a boring meeting).

I've only ever known one bloke in that category. He never knew what party was in power state or federally, and could never once in his life name who the PM was. He used to go along every election and vote Labor. He was a funny character, he had cut a couple of holes in his beanie to use it as a teapot warmer. When he'd finished the pot of tea, he'd take it off the teapot and have a nice warm beanie to put on his head.

I wonder how many of us know who the local candidates are when we vote in State or Federal Elections. How many of us simply vote for the Party we have always voted for? Here, when I say "we" I mean the unwashed masses, not the politically astute members here.

I have to admit; I am struggling to see what the issue us, except that a property that has been used to reduce your normal tax liability is now assessable - and still at under the marginal rate they would have used the property to reduce from. It is in effect still a deferment of tax. Yes, I know that the reduction of your assessable income during the negative gearing years are a loss made thanks to the interest payment and rather generous depreciation rules, but the reality is, you can't offset the costs of establishing any other investment against your PAYG income - although happy to be corrected in the case of sole proprietorship or partnership - so why housing? What leaves a sour taste is the excuse of the fairness of the tax system when the government still allows transfer pricing and does not tax our fossil fuels and other assets for big corps properly.

This is classic, check out the detail in the cartoon, even down to the instructions on the kneecaps...... The cartoonist is David Rowe.

Yep - no skills, but she wants to fly the plane.......

I had the same problem until I changed it to a male voice. Problem solved.

Can't you just select one of the many other available voices?

I guess at some stage a passenger will complain that it is too hot or too cold. Also, personally, I find that on a hot day, when I get in a boiling car, I crank the AC up to max. Then I guess that there are issues such as demisting the window. To me, reaching out without looking for an enormous screen and shifting a little up or down is certainly easier than in my present car.

My howl of rage about several politicians lying yo get voted in and there being no consequences. Do we just accept this now. Why bother having elections then. We dont know what we are going to get anyway.

Regarding cabin temperature control, wouldn't one simply set a desired temperature before starting a journey as one would to set the temperature in a house?

Howard started the "Invest in Houses and you can't go wrong " thing. Most of us spend half of our Lives Paying it OFF. There HAS to be MORE to life than Just "owning" a House. Then you have to look after it. Pay the rates. Insure it. Keep the white ants and vermin out of it Fix the Roof, Chimney, Wiring and Plumbing if you're there long enough.. Worry about Bushfires Floods and storm damage. Pay a Monty when you move in taxes and costs. When you rent the Owner has to worry about all THAT. IN Europe Most never expect to OWN their own home unless they Inherit it. The Australian DREAM of owning your home can also be a nightmare, if you get stuck with Neighbours from HELL. Nev

I have enough trouble trying to get my new Samsung phone to work properly with a screen swipe. It often fails to respond to a finger swipe. It's the most dubious activation of any operation you can devise - as compared to the accuracy and positivity of a switch. As regards voice commands - they are also on a par with screen swipes. I never use them, because I have poor hearing, and verbal communication is always a hassle for me. I don't use sat nav because I can't hear the womans instruction. I have great difficulty in understanding women speaking, due to the pitch of womens voices, which pitch is where I have greatest hearing loss. In addition, I do not trust any global corporation taking a record of my voice, and doing all sorts of things with it, in that they refuse to tell me what they are doing with it. Then there's the problem of several people talking, while you're trying to talk to a voice-activated screen, and the screen microphone picks up activation commands that weren't directed at it. I often hear SWMBO talking to our smart TV, trying to get it to carry out some action, and then she resorts to the remote control. AFAIC, touchscreens in cars are anathema to what driving is all about. It means distraction from the road, and other vehicles around you, and safety authorities have long treated screens inside vehicles as a major road safety problem.

Essentially, the near collapse of the Liberal Party and its dubious and deficient policies has seen disaffected right wing voters vote for ON and Teals in the hope of getting rid of Labor from positions of power. But not one of the parties currently vying for leadership of the nation is addressing the elephant in the room - rocketing house prices that are unjustly enriching property investors, and which prices are making housing unaffordable for the younger generation who missed the property/housing gravy train. At least Federal Labor has recognised the problem and is trying to do something about it by tackling CGT rules and negative gearing rules. But of course, that brings howls of outrage and bitterness from those property owners who do not want to see ANY downturn in housing or property prices. That large cohort are nearly all conservative voters. Unfortunately, history tells us property bubbles have a way of exploding by themselves in a very hurtful and shocking manner, if Govts don't take measures to rein in property investment exuberance. Just like the shock kids get, when a party balloon explodes, a lot of property investors who are sitting on millions in gains, are going to get a nasty shock, when there's a sudden and severe economic downturn, and the property bubble does go bang.

If you want to literally see the actual temp in degrees, then I suppose yes, however, I think most of us would think, "it is too cold" and then give it a swipe upwards, perhaps a small swipe or perhaps a big swipe. Compare this with the Ford Focus switches. Three identical switches are relatively low down near the gear stick. Then there is the voice command "Hey BYD, increase heating" nbo need to take eyes off the road even for a second, and both hands can stay on the wheel.

Kia has already issued a worldwide recall notice for a wide range of their models, whereby a software error causes the screen in these vehicles to go blank. The old Windows problem recurring? 😄 As Kia and Hyundai use a lot of common design and components, I would expect Hyundai to start having similar problems soon. Give it a year or three, and I'll wager we'll see quite a number of reports of screen failures in Chinese cars. As parts supply is poor for most Chinese cars, I can see major issues, and customer dissatisfaction, looming in this area.

In your example, Octave, the driver still has to focus on the screen popup temp. Certainly not something that a non BYD driver could accomplish easily. Unlike conventional controls, there is no tactile feedback to confirm the desired action has occurred.

Announced Policies are generally not believed anyway. The public has lost trust in what politicians and speechwriters say.

I think there is a perception that on-screen controls are like going through a seemingly endless series of menu options. The reality is that these things are often better thought through than that. On the BYD vehicles, adjusting the heater or aircon is as simple as swiping 3 thingers accross the screen for fan speed or straight up and down for temperature. This does not require looking at the screen. You can also use voice controls. On my trusty old Ford Focus the heater and aircon controls are set quite low and there are 3 identical knobs. Not using these regularly, I can never remember which one is which without looking. I think there are valid questions about new methods, but I think often people who have never driven an EV tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I am sure there are valid criticisms of the layout and method of operating controls in both older and newer cars.

Does that mean that ON can quickly adapt its policies to changing circumstances?

Rule No. 1 for safe driving: Keep your eyes outside the vehicle. That doesn't simply mean looking a car length ahead. It means looking as far as the eye can see In that 120 degree arc in front of you. You should not divert your eyes from that view ino the vehicle for more than a split second. That's why it is safer design to place controls where muscle memory lets us find them. A driver should not have to seek visual clues to locate and operate controls while operating the vehicle.