All Activity

I've had a smart meter for a few years. I love it. I can log into my acccount with my supplier at any time, and get data like this.

Of those completion figures, I'd guess most of that is in the cities and larger regional areas.

So far, Victoria is the only state that's achieved almost 100% roll out of smart meters. Here's the state figures for smart meter roll out completion: Victoria 99%, W.A. 90%, Tasmania 78%, N.T. 50%, S.A. 46%, Qld. 42%, ACT 40%, NSW 39%. I think there's a lot of factors in the mix. It's the retailers who are doing it, so depending how many customers they have and where they're located, it's a staged roll out. If the roll out becomes available in your district, it's free for the consumer. If you apply for one before that, I think there's a fee involved.

A lot of truth in that. Smaller rural councils generally are a lot more in touch with the community and there's only a few bad eggs among those councils. A lot of the bigger councils have totally lost the concept of being there to serve the community and a lot think they are our masters rather than our servants. I've never been one for party politics in councils like they have in the city councils, but taking into account the inept rabble we have posing as our local council, it makes me wonder whether party alligned councilors would make it easier to turf the lot out at an election. As it stands, some councillors lose their jobs at election time and some major offenders remain, so things don't get any better. If it was party based, would it make them perform any better. Maybe it would if they thought the whole bunch was at risk or at least a majority of them. Another factor is that it's not only the elected councillors that are the problem. The council bureaucrats have a lot to answer for as well. My advice to anyone who has a good, well performing and honest council is to appreciate what you have because a lot of people don't have that.

I was taught that all the Christian flavours are Catholic, just not Roman.

Takes a grubby type to destroy the only worldly possessions of people with nothing.

Not around here. We don't even have that many smart people, let alone meters.

I dunno. I was happy enough to tick "no religion", I didn't care that they didn't break that down into "agnostic", "never thought about it", "atheist", or "cult survivor atheist".

The concept of Local Government, as I see it, is the means by which communities organise for the provision of facilities and services required by that community. People offer their time to gather and make decisions that it is hoped will solve local problems and/or plan for future improvement which benefit the community. Local Government s we have it is a formalisation of community management that human communities have employed since the time when three or four families decided to pitch their tents together in the same place. In modern times in Australia, each State has created some sort of law to give the various Local Governments the same framework to follow. How each Local Government unit uses that framework depends either on community involvement, or the integrity of those who get elected to form the Council. I would say that the closer the local council is to its community, the better it works. Local Governments in urban areas reflect the lack of 'community' typical of the anonymous nature of the inhabitants. Rural Local Governments are often more in tune with their communities due to the social interactions of those communities.

I have used red for a long time now, all of the comparison people who ring up always come back with the same result when they check and agree that they have the best deal. since 2008 I have only had ducted AC in the old house and the new one. Found less dust, less work than wood heating, and the house is even throughout, not boiling in the fire room and freeing everywhere else. costs a lot less than bought firewood to run also.

It seems to be the elephant in the room when it comes to politics. It's only my opinion, but in our three tiered system of government I consider local government the weak link in the chain. There are good local governments (unfortunately mine has never been in that category), but there are are lot of bad ones. They can be either corrupt, wasteful, inefficient, incompetent, arrogant, bullying or a combination of any or all of those things. My state over time has handed local government too much autonomy in my opinion, and I'd like to see more oversight by the state local government department. I don't have statistics on hand, but I've read in the past that other states have retained more control over local government than ours has. There was always a problem with some councils, but the amalgation several years ago led to super councils and made the whole issue a lot worse. Inconsistencies between councils is another issue. As an example, on the news today the Moreton Bay council announced they are dedicating a local park to rough sleepers and homeless people and letting them use the council toilet and shower facilities there. Their idea is to have the homeless in a more manageable situation regarding facilities and support services. On the other hand, the Gold Coast council is issuing heavy fines to rough sleepers, and confiscating and destroying their gear.

She was/is exceptionally good at her job of defending the indefensible and attacking the press. You have to admire her talent and confidence. She's only 28.

Getting a bit off topic, but on that subject of outsourcing tech support, a couple of companies I deal with outsource customer and tech support to the Phillipines and their support has always been good. I think one of them uses work from home staff as you can often hear village or urban noises in the background like roosters crowing, babies crying and motorbikes riding past.

She has training in what she does.. Everyone who works for Trump ends up Fired. "You're FIRED" is his favourite saying. Being fired will help her get re employed. You can wear it as a badge of Honor.. Nev

Did yiou take any notice of the question in the Census regarding religious affiliation? Did you notice that one was able to indicate which stream of the main Protestant styles one followed, or if one as Catholic. As well one could indicate one of the other Christian styles in the box provided. However, for Moslems there was only that one choice. We all know that there are two main styles of Isalm. Come to think of it, I think a person could only indicate that the followed Judaism, not one of its variants. It's not important enough to go ranting about, but I just felt that it was disciminatory to most people, regardless of their reilgious affiliation.

Do it .The system is designed for it.. I thought just about everybody had. Nev

Today I rang Red Energy and arranged swapping to them after my next Origin bill due in a couple of weeks. It was very refreshing to talk to Australian based customer support. Everything worked well and went great just like it used to with Origin before they outsourced their customer support overseas. Sub standard customer support is the number one reason I'm leaving Origin; the data breach incident is just another contributing factor. At the end of this month it's good riddance Origin. Price wise, they're fairly close. Based on my useage, Red Energy is about $100 per year cheaper than Origin. When I get settled in to Red Energy, the next step is to get a smart meter installed and that will remove the problem of the contract meter readers who don't like going off the bitumen on to rural properties. I could deal with estimated bills if the meter readers were honest about their reasons given for not accessing the property but they're not. It's another case of good service going to the pack when things get contracted out. When Energex (the primary supplier/wholesaler) employed their own people to read the meters they quite happily accessed the property for 30+ years without a problem. I think the roll out date here for smart meters ends in 2030, so sometime in the next couple of years I would be compelled to swap to a smart meter anyway.

She definitely has a quick mind, being able to jump from topic to topic instantly. I'll not get into a discussion about her beliefs. I'm hoping that my comment will be accepted as being a polite congratulation about a skill she has but I do not. Could she reenter politics after her children have grown a little? I don't think so because her reputation has been blackened by her association with Trump.

Karoline Leavitt is leaving the White House at the end of the month to look after her two children but she will continue to advise Trump from the sidelines. I could never decide whether she was very smart or incredibly naive or both but she was certainly articulate, which is more than could be said for her boss.

You are not permitted to criticise da King. who is "RIGHT about EVERYTHING". Nev

What's the diffeence between in-laws and outlaws? Outlaws are wanted.

Trumps mates will get you. Nev

Well we gotta find some use for all that pesky excess CO2! And nowadays it's easier to find than H2O.

You are sounding more like you have a closed mind and aren't receptive to other peoples opinions and new technologies. No wonder a lot of people have a go at you. Maybe a common denominator.