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Don't get me started, OT.. those big consultancies are the biggest scams on earth (Except, that I started with my earlier post - I think it was PWC that was consulting to the ATO on how to make changes to reduce the loopholes and were at the same time consulting to private corps on how to beat them).

The minerals and elements in the soil definitely affect the taste of the fruit or nuts. In my neck of the woods, the gravelly ironstone soils of the Darling Range produce superb-tasting citrus and stonefruits. Your Pacific Ocean-facing slopes are possibly mineral deficient, after millions of years of increased rainfall causing soil leaching, as compared to the lower rainfall, Western slopes of the GDR. The water in the Perth Hills is highly mineralised, with dams having a blue water colour, due to the mineralised water. The minerals are generally calcium, magnesium and silica, and they are leached out of the weathered granite and dolerite rocks, the pipe clays (kaolin) and the lateritic (ironstone) gravels, that are the common rocks and soils of the Perth Hills. This water is used to irrigate the orchards and provides additional beneficial minerals to the fruit and nut trees. "Cracker dust" (fine dust from dolerite or granitic rock crushing for roads and ballast) is often used as a fertilising agent, which dust acts as a slow-release provider of calcium, magnesium, silica, and other beneficial minerals to plants, as it breaks down over time. Elsewhere in W.A. where "light" sandy and sandy gravel soils proliferate, there is a need to apply trace elements to enable the plants to take up the nutrients in the soil. Failure to apply trace elements means poor crops and trees, and plants that struggle to thrive - even if you have applied other fertilisers such as nitrogen, phosphate or sulphate fertilisers. The primary trace elements needed are copper, zinc, manganese, and molybdenum. As indicated, only "trace levels" are needed in the application, but the results are impressive when carried out. For many decades, "light" sandy soils were regarded as useless in W.A., especially for grain cropping, until an ag researcher at the UWA in the early 1930's, found that trace elements were needed on the sandy soils to enable the plants to uptake the nutrients in the soils. Once this was done on a broadacre farming scale, the yields of wheat, barley, and oats multiplied enormously, and large areas of light land were then cleared for agricultural use. Trace element application is generally only needed every 5-10 years, it is a long-lasting soil beneficiation treatment.

The difference to what I wrote is that the transaction tax would not be able to be offset by firms on the tax paid by them by them on their inputs. What happens today is that if I am BAS registered, I charge GST on my accounts receivable invoices (output). However, I am also paying GST to BAS registered suppliers on my accounts payable invoices from the supplies I buy. These are the inputs. At BAS statement and GST payment time (commonly quarterly, but sometimes monthly and on low revenue companies, can be annually), I deduct the value of GST I paid on inputs/to my suppliers from the GST I collected on my outputs and remit only the difference to the ATO. Also there are many GST free items - mostly around staples health, school fees, and domestic rent, etc. Unlike the UK, where a firm can charge VAT (same as GST) on its products and not all input taxes are reclaimable - e.g. VAT on vehicles, Australia permits all of the input taxes to be claimable for such companies. The offset tax model is open to abuse, because once you allow the tax to be offset, people will find ways of doing it (as opposed to avoiding it altogether as in the case of the black market). The most common way is to route as many private purchases through the company as you can. Pre GST, there was a wholesale sales tax and if a company had a VS number, they could claim it to the supplier, who would not charge the tax. The family of a school friend of mine back in the day bought as much as they could through the company quoting their VS number to get stuff cheaper. I am sure that continues today across the board. There is also invoice fixing and all sorts of stuff. If you get rid of the ability to offset or deduct- and apply it to transactions across the board, it will work better. The thing you have to worry about is the shift to the black market. All those resources dedicated to investigating taxation compliance can be shifted to a simpler function of investigating black market activity. Andf, I don't think it will be much more than it is today - well at least in the UK, where VAT is 20%. How many people, ahem, already slip their tradespeople cash because the VAT/GST Man doesn't need to know everything? I don't because of the money involved in my reno (still going) is such that should a dispute be required to go to court, not paying VAT makes the contract illegal, which is then unenforceable. Also, a transaction tax that replaces all other taxes would have very few exemptions - as I mentioned earlier it could be exports, possibly rent and of course mortgage payments. The tax on investing I would argue would be on the brokerage and other fees as most assets are already second hand (i.e. shares). As I said earlier, a non deductible income tax for the wealthy to distribute to the less wealthy to offset the regressive nature could be used - and the tax would be nominal - nothing like today's income taxes.

I always thought there was just bunya nuts, but have since found out there's bunya nuts and there's bunya nuts. This year was a bumber season for the nuts in S.E. Queensland with trees bearing well above average crops. A mate of mine lives up on the Darling Downs and recently bought some nuts down from his area that he'd collected. They were noticeably much sweeter than the nuts from my area, and you would think they'd had sugar added to the water, but they hadn't, only salt added. There's a difference in climate that might be part of the equation, but we also have much more acidic soil down here. Where he comes from a lot of the soil is naturally alkaline. I'm wondering whether that's a factor in the taste difference.

WOW All so irritatingly polite. Have you turned to drink yet?

I reckon there's a few here who would NEVER vote Labor, no Matter what the situation was. At one time or other. I've voted for Most of the Parties. It depends on the Local candidate a lot, The More you know about them the More value you vote will Be. The OLD Country Party had the Most rusted on adherents. The days of Ian Sinclaire. (Sinkers) He used to ride with TAA a bit. to Mt ISA if I recall correctly. I get stuff from quite a few Politicians. Listen to it on the radio and watch Parliamentary Question time.(Which can be a bit disappointing with some of the rudeness). I can Pretty much assure People here that I won't be voting ever for Hanson. Nev

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?

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).

Bumper season that should read.

Sugar affects the taste the Most. Unripe fruits are Bitter tasting. The Plant MAKES the sugar. Of course soils will alter the Fruit taste but not the sweetness which was my Point. High acid or alkaline figures will Kill Plants but Lime (alkaline) is considered to "sweeten" the soil but not in the way putting sugar in it would. Neutral Ph makes More Nutrient available to the Plants. Microbes and Worms Help the soil provide more nutrient and Urea (nitrogen) makes leaves greener.. Soil testing is a Must with Farming and knowing where the water table is. Nev

It always amazes me what they can do in that light soil. A cousin of mine farms around 11,000 hectares in the Tammin area and they get into a fair bit of high tech stuff. At that scale a lot of it is about minimising costs so a lot of their decision making is data based. It's another world from where he grew up with black soil metres deep.

These are some of the most infuriating "progressive developments" of our time...... 1. Intrusive and annoying ads or pop-ups, that pop up ceaselessly, when you're trying to read an article on a news feed website. I click the site off, I don't need that kind of constant crap. 2. Indians on help desks, who speak English with an accent that sounds like they're speaking with a mouthful of thick custard. Why do businesses do this? Everyone I speak to, has the same complaint. 3. The pop-ups that Willie speak of - the ones that carry on about how Joe Bloggs from Outer Dumbsville has purchased a gimmicky product. Who cares? I don't, and I don't need the annoying distraction. 4. "Help desks" that are no help at all. They provide FAQ's that never answer your question. Then, when you're asked if you want to speak about a problem, you're handed over to a chatbot. If you get to the point where the chatbot actually hands you over to a real person, you get a recorded message saying you're 4th in the queue, and the wait time to speak to the "help" person is 13 minutes. 5. The sites with pre-programmed forms to fill in that refuse to recognise legit records. Every time I change my phone plan, I go through the ID quizzing, and the forms refuse to recognise my MDL, saying "there's a problem" with that type of ID. I don't have any way of getting around this "problem" unless I try a different form of ID, usually my passport, which is then accepted. But if I go into my Telstra store, talk to a real person in the form of a Telstra employee, and present my MDL - their system accepts it, as he/she types in the details, no problem at all. 6. The websites that refuse to give you the freight cost of an item, until you've put the item in your cart, filled in all your personal and shipping details, and gone through to the "payment" page. I fill in a lot of gobbledegook, such [email protected] for email address, and some spurious basic address such as 1 xxx st. - with a correct postcode, of course. I'm starting to simply avoid these sites, and look for ones that show freight charges upfront.

Sugar increases More with ripened fruit where there's more sunshine. Early picked crops are More Acid (Sour) Passionfruit are a good example. . Soils can affect taste but I've Never heard of it related to soil acidity. Alkaline soils are easier to farm. Extremes of Ph make some nutrients unavailable to the Plant and soils may be Nutrient deficient in some areas requiring correction. IF you keep taking stuff out you have to replace it or your yield and quality will suffer. Nev

It would be good if some websites could make the chatbot less intrusive. I guess it depends on your particular device or OS, but on mine the chatbot pop-ups tends to cover content. A bit similar to those retail sites that have continual annoying pop-ups covering content and being an eye distraction just to tell you someone else has just bought something. The problem with it is that if you turn javascript off, the rest of the site loses function.

Rock around the clock tonight.

I have been thinking about how our world has turned to crap. Thirty years ago, I could ring Qantas Help or Westpac help and get straight through. Now we have technology and the internet and no one in business cares what the customer thinks. Its after 4pm, I'm reaching for the Shiraz.

I won't ever vote for the ALP or the Coalition. A Labor party is like Hitler's Nazi party, it never changes it's mind, and we get things like the attempted beheading of a helpful white guy, by a Sudanese blackie in the UK the other day, Labor sticks up for these murderous creeps and allows it to happen time and again. The white guy was only trying to help the blackie. He lost an eye and nearly his life - this is the UK Labor for you, they keep importing murderous ratbags. Albanese goes on about "rightwing" parties being divisive, yet Albanese and the Labor party are the biggest dividers of all. They've split our population into 200 parts, each with their own national flag. And their favorite part seems to be the muslim drug dealers. It's a wonder they don't attend the funerals of slain drug lords.

How I spent an hour of my time today: This chat may be recorded. By using this chat, you agree to its terms of use. To read our privacy statement, type 'Learn about privacy'. Connecting you with Red - Westpac's Virtual Assistant Hi Peter, I'm here to help with general banking questions. I provide generic, factual information only and don’t take into account any personal information you tell us or have previously told us. Feel free to pick a topic from the list below, or ask me your question in a short, simple sentence: 1:28 PM Message says my card has been blocked 1:28 PM Are you able to confirm the type of card you're having issues with? 1:28 PM Credit Card issue 1:28 PM Have you received a fraud notification that your card's been suspended? 1:28 PM Yes 1:28 PM This activity sounds concerning. You may need to chat to our Card Fraud team. 1:28 PM Our Card Fraud team can only support enquiries where you have not supplied your card details to a business. Have you provided your card details to this business before? 1:28 PM Yes 1:28 PM If you've provided your details to a business in the past, any charges you receive that you don't recognise or may not agree with need to be resolved via a dispute. 1:29 PM If there's an issue or something you'd like to dispute, first contact the merchant to check if they're able to help. If you're unable to resolve the issue with the merchant, you can dispute the card transaction online within 150 days of the payment being processed. 1:29 PM Select the transaction in your transaction list and then select the 'Report the transaction' button. Complete the form and we'll investigate for you. 1:29 PM Were you able to dispute the transaction? 1:29 PM No 1:31 PM I'll need to transfer you to a banker to help with you with your transaction dispute/query. 1:31 PM Our chat bankers can help you with most general enquiries on your accounts. 1:31 PM Please let me know if your enquiry relates to Personal or Business Banking and I'll check if there's a banker that's available to help. Personal Banking 1:31 PM Personal Banking 1:31 PM Thanks Peter, I'll connect you to the next available banker. You can come back to your conversation anytime. The banker provides factual information only, and no product advice. Please let them know if you're not ok to proceed on this basis. There'll be a short survey at the end of this conversation. You can minimise this chat and one of our bankers will get back to you as soon as possible. We apologise that our wait times are longer than normal and thank you for your patience. Please feel free to message us your enquiry below and the next available banker will be with you as soon as possible. 1:31 PM I have received a notification that my card has been blocked. But there is no transaction on my account that I can query. 1:33 PM We apologise that our wait times are longer than normal and thank you for your patience. Please feel free to message us your enquiry below and the next available banker will be with you as soon as possible. Hi there, Peter! Thank you for contacting Westpac Virtual Banking and thank you for your patience while waiting. My name is Rejie, I'm here to help, and I hope I can make your day a little better. Please allow me to assist you. 1:36 PM Hello 1:38 PM I have received a notification that my card has been blocked. But there is no transaction on my account that I can query. 1:38 PM Hello Rejie are you there? 1:39 PM Hello? 1:41 PM I understand that seeing your card blocked without any visible transaction can be confusing. Let me take a closer look at what’s triggered this and help get everything sorted for you. 1:42 PM Can you please provide the last four digits of the card? 1:48 PM **** 1:50 PM I can confirm that your card ending in**** has been temporarily restricted due to a transaction from Amazon Prime Membership for $0. 1:51 PM And you need to speak with the card fraud team to lift the restriction on your card. 1:52 PM how do i speak to them? 1:52 PM I can transfer you directly to them. 1:54 PM Shall I go ahead and transfer you over to them? 1:54 PM Please do 1:54 PM Okay, please allow me to leave a note first on your account. 1:54 PM Transferring you now. 1:59 PM Sorry our wait times are longer than expected. You will be connected to an agent shortly. Welcome to live chat with Gianell from card fraud. Can I please start with your full name and date of birth? 2:05 PM **** 2:05 PM Reading back on chat. 2:07 PM Last 4 digits of card? 2:11 PM **** 2:11 PM Let me check. 2:14 PM 2:05 PM Reading back on chat. 2:07 PM Last 4 digits of card? 2:11 PM **** 2:11 PM Let me check. 2:14 PM Card blocked due to alerted transaction. 2:20 PM So what are you doing to unblock it? 2:20 PM AMAZON PRIME MEMBERSHIP $0. 2:20 PM Did you try to use it? 2:20 PM No 2:20 PM I do subscribe to Amazon Prime so they have my card number. 2:21 PM I see, please give me a moment to lift block. 2:22 PM Done. 2:23 PM Have I answered all your questions today? 2:23 PM Yes

GST takes no account of your ability to afford to Pay. The RICH want to Increase it. That should be all you need to know. It's a dead arm on everything and Makes a lot of Paperwork. Nev

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 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.......

Yeah, old George was certainly the caravan flogger. But he died in 2013 and Apollo Motorhomes, a publically listed company bought his business as a going concern in 2017, and bought the rights to use his name as well. Then in 2022, George Day Caravans was merged into THL (Tourism Holdings Ltd), originally NZ's biggest RV rental operation - but the merger with Apollo, an Australian company, sent them global, and they operate in a multitude of countries. They are huge, and own all the major well-known RV rental brand names. So Georges name has gone global, thanks to the corporate global aims.

Wanna bet she'll pull the chute on the Cirrus at some Point.? Ashby has 457 Hours on a Jabiru 230... Nev

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. 🙂