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Whoa.. There were a few spicy pages I just caught up on. 🙂 I think it is fair to say the two party system is in transition. To what - who knows? I will leave the performance of Albo and his crew to the appropriate thread. However, it is clear that there is a perception that neither of the two majors are truly representing the majority of Aussies at the moment. And, from the polls, it is clear the libs at least (and possibly the Nats) aren't thought to be at all representing their traditional base. Labor, at least federally, seem to be not too far off their normal primary vote; I read it was somewhere around the 28% mark; not too much lower than the last federal election of, from memory, about 32%. At the same time, there is a perception (real or otherwise) that the gap is ever widening between the haves and have nots and that blame is being successfully laid at the feet immigration, which plays into both fear and bigotry. This is because more and more of what was the middle class is being squeezed more and more. For various reasons, which would take a book to go through, blame has successfully been laid at the feet of immigration. This results in a perception the immigrants are taking away previous little resources that the majority of the population have to fight for, and along comes Pauline with her silver bullet fixes to everyone's problems. The Libs had their time and between Morrison and Dutton (with a little Littleproud thrown in), screwed things up so royally, they were booted out (Albo technically won, but in the famous words of Bill Hayden - a drover's dog would have won that election). To his credit, he took an early lump in the form of the Voice, licked his wounds, and then did a reasonable job. But hubris seems to be setting in (early) as it inevitably does, and he is no longer looking like he is really looking after the majority of the people he purports to represent. Having said that, the loss of primary vote is probably not much more than a protest vote - yet. The Libs seem to be so far removed from reality, that all but their most ardent supporters seem to have jumped ship. It's hard to understand precisely what they stand for. If I was a betting person, I would suggest in 5 - 10 years, without a complete about-face, they will fade into oblivion. Which may leave a two party system - Labor and Phon.. Or more likely, some other party will spring up as the Greens seem to be marginalising themselves (or at least no one is covering them much anymore). Or there may be more parties, in which case it is likely to become lie some European countries where coalitions are formed and broken. Whilst I support the key budget changes on economic grounds, there is a lot more that can be done. And, people like David Pocock are using social media effectively to get a message across of what is wrong with Labor and the LNP. Just google or youtube him and you will see what I mean.

From the Shovel (a satirical mag, in case you had to ask) .....

I had a closer look at the old headlight that was bolted to that Ural frame. A small trademark on the lens identified it as an Everwing brand which was the brand of headlights supplied to Datsun. Googling Datsun photos pins the age down to anywhere between the early thirties and early fifties, either from a Datsun car or Datsun light truck. It's a nice old headlight and quite big, about 200mm wide across the front and around 180mm centre of lens to the rear.

Yes, John Howard found that out the hard way. He finally got a majority in the Senate allowing them to pass legislation at will, brought in work choices and got walloped for it. At least that's the way I remember it if someone can correct me.

In karate there's a short punch - not sure how it's spelled, but they pronounce it "shitozuki". I commented to another student tonight that I used to own a shit Suzuki, and that was also a short stroke (GS750F). Man that was a crap bike.

If they interview the bird, maybe it can answer that age-old question of why it was crossing the road...

Minority government has been fairly common until Labor's big seat haul. In some ways I think it works better, they have to negotiate to get things done. The problem is of course that if the LNP is in power they negotiate first with the far right parties. If Labor is in they usually negotiate with the Greens first which gives better outcomes. While having a majority does give them the ability to make good reform, like these CGT discount changes, it can lead to complacency which then gets punished at the next election.

It seems like most of the political journos are writing and saying that the rise of One Nation has meant the end of the two party system as we've known it. It might come to that, where we have three main parties for a period of time. Or One Nation could flame out, the coalition eventually rebuilds, and we're back to the old two party system. I don't follow European politics much, but some of those countries seem to have multi parties and they try to cobble together a coalition of parties after the election to get a governing majority. It makes me wonder if that's the direction we're heading here in Australia.

The amalgamation of councils by the then state government made it a lot worse here. Small, well run councils thet were in the black and cashed up were swallowed up by the larger councils that were heavily in debt. The supercouncils it created was like handing kids the keys to the lolly shop. Higher rates, more potholes for most places. It increased the bureaucracy a lot; our council now has 1,800 staff and 1,000 of them work in the office behind a desk. Things worked a lot better under the old system of smaller, leaner councils. In our three tier system of government, local government is far and away the weak link in my opinion. They are the most wasteful of the three and the worst for caring about the people that voted them in. There would be good councils around the country and anyone who lives in those council districts is very fortunate indeed as it's not the norm.

The Urals like that M-63 frame I posted above, were made by IMZ-Ural who had a plant in the Ural Mountains. They moved there from Moscow during the war when a lot of manufacturing moved east. Their sister bike was the Dnepr brand made in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR. A lot of the frames and engines were identical and in the early days IMZ supplied engines to them. I think after that they were probably license built engines.

The new ones are a handy thing but certainly a bit expensive. For the last two or three years the ones imported here with left hand sidecars have the gear up option, which is 2WD on demand with the sidecar wheel driving for dirt road/off road use. It's a straight drive, non differential. Before that it was only the Russian/European/U.S. models with the right hand sidecar that had the 2WD option due to the drive shaft being on the right hand side. The new ones drive a lot better with a sidecar compared to the old ones that had telescopic fork front ends. The newer leading link setup pushes the front wheel as far forward as legal and makes them behave a lot better. They're headquarted in the U.S. now and have moved production from Russia to Kazakhstan to get around the war sanctions.

Yes there were three models. Each was $1 per cc of capacity. They were called Cossacks where I lived. A mate bought one with mild steel valves. Apparently they had to produce a certain number each month or the factory manager fell out a window.

Thats the point. ON getting attention because of quality of the major players, weather it is right or wrong

If you are going to knock it, show me a realistic better option.

I rather think that is because America didn't plan their logistics properly. They designed and sold a product they couldn't supply in a required timeframe. Also the Australian government didn't look ahead enough. And was silly enough to accept a trade-off deal of an obsolete product. When China takes over Taiwan, the only difference for us will be a likely rise in prices of prrmium silicon chips.

Rash or gangrene

That's all negative, Nev. Clouds are beautiful...... so long as you are not trying to fly through them.

Even when new they were not worth the asking price. No idea why they are collectable now.

In Sydney they were called Voskod. A 650cc was $650. So I bought a Yamaha for half that. It went faster, stopped better and went around corners faster.

In my opinion although many people go on about federal or state government corruption, it is local government (councils) that are by far the most corrupt level of government

It appears as if quite a number of councils are really badly run, regardless of the State of Australia they're in. Here on the left coast, we've had quite a few councillors suspended, and their council placed under administration. The suspensions usually come about because of council infighting that makes the council dysfunctional. So the W.A. Govt steps in and appoints an Adminstrator for the Council until new elections are held. In some cases, the council is placed into Administration due to essentially becoming bankrupt due to poor financial planning, bad management, and gold-plated local projects. The Coolgardie Shire Council is typical, they went and built a massive mining accommodation camp, then COVID hit, and they ended up with a half-empty camp and a huge debt. I think the Camp cost around $45M, and there was still about $25M owing on it, when the Govt stepped in with a Strict Monitoring Plan, whereby the Council has to show it can regain proper financial and management control of its operations. The Coogardie Council Primary problems included: Financial Distress: The Shire recorded significant multi-million-dollar budget deficits and incurred liabilities exceeding assets, casting doubt on its viability. This resulted in deferred infrastructure projects, ratepayer protests, and community-led overhaul initiatives. Administrative Mismanagement: The Auditor-General’s audit highlighted that the council used restricted funds to cover shortfalls, failed to follow purchasing policies for a $1-million housing project, and paid out $150,000 to settle two unfair dismissal claims. Remote Work Controversy: The audit exposed that a senior employee was permitted to work remotely from the Caribbean island of Montserrat for almost a year, improperly drawing a council salary. Executive Turmoil: Long-serving Chief Executive James Trail was suspended following workplace culture investigations and subsequently left the council. The Chief Financial Officer was also suspended, requiring the Shire to implement an ongoing Financial Recovery Plan. I am very fortunate to live in the City of Stirling, which is well-run, has minimal debt, no "councillor-enhancing" projects, and has only very modest increases in rates, year on year. The City of Stirling rate increases have ranged from 2.95% to 4.9% annually over the last few years, with this year being the biggest at 4.9%. The City had to cope with a major Auditor-Generals upwards revaluation of Gross Rental Values right across the entire City in 2025, and they reduced the "rate-in-the-dollar" charges to reduce any major impact on residents rate bills. They're the biggest Council in W.A., with 254,000 residents, and they have to look after around 105 sq kms of very intensely developed surburbia. I read an article earlier today, where Albury is looking at a 42% increase in rates over the next 2 years! That is unbelievable! Either the residents have been getting dirt-cheap rates for too long, or the council has been too exuberant with its spending. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-16/albury-council-looks-to-steeply-increase-rates/106802924

Maybe, they are pretty bad at the moment😆

The ABC radio has just issued a traffic warning of a rooster on the loose in the vicinity of the big pineapple. They're on to it. It's usually something like a ladder on the road or an escaped cow or horse, but this is the first rooster warning I've heard.

On that rate topic, I also heard the Gold Coast mayor on the radio saying they're keeping the rate increase this year to a 4% average. I'm not looking forward to my next bill after our council recently announced they're a billion dollars in the red on their budget.

I might have to stop complaining about my 30% council rate increase last year. I was listening to a grazier speaking on the ABC radio country hour talking about his latest rate bill from the Cassowary Coast Regional Council. He's had a 60% increase this time around. Combined with big increases preceding that, he's now handing over a third of his income to council in rates. Or as he put it another way, for every three cows he sells, one goes to paying rates.