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I was thinking more applying for new credit - such as a store card or another credit card. I have to admit, I don't know how the Aussie retail credit market works, but it wouldn't take a too bright criminal to work out the rest needed to impersonate you on an online of phone application in the UK. I find it astounding that today there are organisations that don't appear to use multi-layered encryption to avoid this sort of stuff.

The EV sales here are well up.

Takes me back to my holiday in Scotland.

I understand this point of view, but that is not what life insurance is for. It is not an investment (although admittedly, it is often sold as an investment or, I think in Aus, term life policies have an investment component - but even then, it is not really a good investment). It is designed to cover your lost ones in your younger periods of life, when you have debt and possibly a young family, should you aas the income earner die (usually unexpectedly). It is designed to provide the cash benefit for them to pay off the debt and maybe live off an annuity to approximate lost income. Again, it is a premium on the risk they have to payout; in the same way you pay your car insurance but if you never have a crash, you don't get the market value of your car when you hang up you licence, nor do you get some payout at the end. In itself, it is not a scam, but it is fair to say they way it is marketed to become a scam. And that is because it is marketed as an investment to payout on a foreseeable death when it is likely no one needs the money, rather than the unforeseen risk of an early death. From your perspective, Peter, the above is good advice if it guarantees a payout on your reasonably foreseeable death (ie. not accidental).. May want to check the policy to be sure.. because it will be a big disappointment if the policy excludes non-accidental death. Although too late for yourself, the normal advice would be to set up a diminishing value insurance policy that reduces over time in accordance with your reduction in debt (mortgage) over time.. If you remortgage or take on more debt your policy should allow you to adjust the payout (and the premium will adjust accordingly). In theory, as the payout reduces, the premium reduces as well... and when the mortgage is paid off, there may be a residual payout available to cover creating an annuity for income. You should use the reducing premiums to sink into proper investments where you can allocate to funds that more meet your investment needs. That has no of the exclusions of a life insurance policy and its payout is usually guaranteed (if its performance isn't - i.e. there is usually something left even if it was a bad investment).

I think they are Allan allies, so not that unexpected. They may well be resigning before they get fired, as well. I wouldn't read it as an implosion just yet.. But, Caroll has a hell of a job ahead of himself.. I wonder when they asked for volunteers to step forward, he was too slow stepping back.

Good idea. They pay for what will ultimately benefit them and you keep your pension money.

Or, give your kids the choice. If they want to keep the policy going, they pay the premiums.

Jerry? Is that you?

If the payout is only payable on your death, your kids are adults now and presumably looking after themselves, and your wife has passed away, then I can't see the point of continuing to spending 25% of your pension on this product anymore. Far better to walk away, accept the loss of a payout you will never benefit from, keep the money and spend it on yourself now while you're alive.

Now that I have cut them to ground level, igure thf I keep cuttick theill not flower and that will get rid of them over time. Because they are so leafy, cutting them down will let the light get to the grasses and clover that I don't mind having.

I have always considered life insurance a scam. As you say Peter, if you've been paying premiums for 45 years and you've worked out you could still save the amount of the payout in 7 years, imagine how much you would have now if you'd never paid them anything.

Yep. Glad we've got ours. Nice to drive too, although sometimes tries to be a bit smart for its own good.

You have had the benefit of the cover and that's NOT nothing. It would not be reasonable to expect a refund of payments. That's how insurance works. Nev

Having Batteries anywhere helps everyone. Currently it's about $400 to be on the grid. That's about what it costs to have Oxy and acetylene bottles. In the Big scheme of things that is NOT a lot.. I still run a LPG Gas Falcon. It's my cheapest vehicle to run at the Moment. Australia has plenty of GAS. You can easily convert a big diesel engine to run on gas. It IS putting CO 2 into the air though and some NOx. That's not a long term problem out side of big Cities' Nev

What is happening in the ME will give a real Impetus to EV sales. People don't want to be hung out to dry every time someone does silly things with supply.. Nev

We will see. It is going to get harder as the penetration of renewables increase. There will be more machine contrained during the windy and sunny days meaning that prices will go up to pay for these machines. Underutilised plant cost $$$$$. The fact that labour has subsidised batterys has taken customers away from paying for grid infrastructure. People can off set there whole bill meaning other people who cant afford batterys or rent accomodation have to subsidise these peoplesbills as well as the batterys. I think we will end up paying a subscription type cost like we do for phones. (after everyone is sucked in to get batterys)

Weeds are the last to die and the first to burst forth when rain falls. Stop bad things seeding. Cultivate and it will be worse. Pull them out when the soil is wet. Nev

After the rain finally came a month or so ago, the earth burst forth with mallow weed which took over where I would have liked to have had a lawn, save for two years of drought. It had grown to shin-deep in thick patches, and I knew I had to cut it down. Unfortunately, my lawn mower hasn't been used for two years, either. I pulled it out of the shed, and put in some fuel, which had been in the can for two years as well. You knop already that teh mower would not start. So I had been thinking for a while that the mower had probably had it, and I done some looking around at the price of a new one - about $400. As a last resort, I tipped out the old fuel and oput in some freash stuff. I rejoiced when the mower fired up. I set about attacking one section of my yard and will knock over teh rest of it tomorrow. Eight bucks worth of fresh fuel save me a coulple of hundred bucks, abd gave me a bit of satisfaction for finally starting a job that was high on the To Do list.

The fact that Labor have subsidised installing batteries, solar panels heat Pumps would have Made a big a difference , NP costs are out there if you want the Facts. Might work better in a Cold place where People live densely populated situation. Nev

Jerry, I'm not sure how my credit card security works these days. The card was originally branded in my bank's name but was administered by Citibank. They were good; if there was any unusual transactions they would put a hold on it and make contact. My bank eventually gave up on credit cards and it somehow migrated to one run by NAB, which is not my bank. I don't know how good the security is with the new entity. My bank doesn't do much anymore. The only loans they deal in are housing and business loans, no credit cards, most of the physical branches shut down, third world country outsourced customer support.

Vic Labor is destructing faster than the Libs. Two ministers have quit effective immediately, leaving not only the Cabinet, but politics entirely. And the Suburban Rail Loop might be cancelled.

Things keep moving faster and faster. I got a call this afternoon saying the tentative date for my cochlear implant surgery is Sept 19.

There may well be enough there to commit identity theft to get credit in your name. Do they offer to pay for services to prevent this (usually paying the credit reference agencies a fee to validate any applications are authentic).

Manufacturing accounts for around 20% of electricity consumption. It's drop in electricity consumption, according to AI, is due to structural issues and reduction in production outputs; not efficiency gains, so that needs to be addressed - but that is outside the scope of this thread, unless you are somehow asserting the transition to renewables is inhibiting manufacturing output. Of course, one can argue that the cost of the transition has to be borne and this flows into higher input costs for manufacturers, which makes them less competitive. But, that would be an argument more that the longer term planning of our manufacturers and government was deficient as the world's largest manufacturing country, China, is going hell for leather into renewables and surely they would be having similar transition costs. Be that as it may, if we stay with relatively high fossil fuel costs or move to expensive nuclear costs, we will, by the next generation or so, have much higher input energy costs. Not to mention the increasing cost of geopolitical and civil unrest by staying with fossil fuels and further accelerating the earth heating up, drying out, and food and other resources (such as wood) becoming more and more scarce. The one saving grace on resource demand is in the western world, the birth rates are declining and in some cases, dramatically, but the rest of the world will fill that hole. Also, other environmental impacts such as ocean warming, jetstream and gulfstream disruption will have a profound impact and cost far in excess of economic costs. Algal blooms; microrganisms dying which are causing starvation up the food chain are very worrying because of the impact they will have on the ecology and life on earth - ironically which sustains human life. It looks like there will be an "I told you so" moment able to be delivered by Greta. But I digress.. The cost of not doing it is far bigger than the cost of doing it.

At least I've got plenty of company; about 900,000 customers were involved.