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If you have solar, smart meters are essential as standard meters are unable to deal with feed in tariffs. I am a VPP (virtual power plant) & buy sell electricity on the wholesale market. My monthly average buy price at the moment is 18.3 cents/kWh & my average FIT is 20.3c/kWh. I have a 18.64kWh battery & sell power to the grid usually from 5pm to 7pm when the price is high. This is all managed by my system provider as the spot price is checked every 5 minutes and my system is told what to do. It even curtails my solar production when the battery is full and the spot FIT goes negative so I do not pay for exporting to the grid.

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.

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

Trump goes to his doctor and takes off his hat to reveal a huge toad on the top of his head. “When did you notice that?” asked the doctor. And the toad answers: “It began as a boil on my ass.”

Nowadays I am forced to use the only tool that reduces that pain. It's called a debit card.

Do you mean a out standing Comedian? I know, No prize for second place....... I'll get my hat.

That is her problem. She is a Trump Yes woman, though everyone who works for him has to be that or they are fired. Getting out before that happens is pretty rare. Anyone with a conscience wouldn't work for the orange man but her salary would have been better than she would ever get anywhere else I imagine, plus of course being in the limelight is something very attractive to some people.

Is he a Stand up Comedian? Nev

Creating a questionnaire in order to get the correct sort of information it aims to get is a very difficult thing. Questions have to be carefully worded so that they cannot be misinterpreted. That is one of the problems of the written word. How many time here amongst ourselves has someone posted what appears to be a very clear comment or statment and it has been taken the wrong way by someone? That is the cause of most of the arguments here, or the missing of jokes.

A guy hears a noise outside at his shed. He looks out the window and sees a burglar trying to break into the shed. He quickly calls 000 and explains the situation. The operator says "Sorry sir, we have no resources to send." The guy looks out again, and says, "You have to come. He's stealing my mower." The operator again says," I told you sir, we have no resources to send." Then the guy says, "Oh, don't worry about it, I just shot the twat. He's dead on the lawn.' Within five minutes, there were two helicopters, six police cars and fourteen police swarming around his house. There was no body on the lawn. The police said, "Sir, you lied to us. You didn't shoot anyone." The guy said, "You started it by saying you had no resources."

I know the feeling. Arthritis in the knees means normal knee propulsion to get up off the ground is long gone. I end up like a beetle on my back, then have to roll over on all fours and get up that way.

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.

David Clayton-Thomas, the unmistakable voice behind some of the biggest hits from Blood, Sweat & Tears, has died at age 84, marking the end of an era for one of classic rock’s most distinctive frontmen. According to his publicist, the singer died peacefully in a Toronto hospital. No cause of death has been publicly disclosed.

Former Young Talent Time host Johnny Young has died aged 79, his family announced on Friday morning, following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.

Cannot work . There is no perpetual motion machine possible let alone one with spare power. Nev

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.

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.

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

I worked on that project in the 1990s. It takes a while to get mines going.

You might have heard about USA's critical shortage of Air Traffic Controllers. Fret not, the problem is solved. (Air traffic controllers who are easily bored and seek instant gratification, and have a game over - restart button, yeah that'll work.)

Yes they are. That would provide perhaps 10% of what they need, same as Australia.

You would have thought these countries would be perfect fits for solar + batteries?

"roads were made for horse and cart, but now you want to ditch them for these newfangled automobiles... It'll never work..."

Logic dictates that we should move with the times. A long time ago, burning coal was a great step forward. Times change and new less toxic methods of making energy are developed. No need to stay locked into the old era of the industrial revolution, powered by burning fossil fuels. Every system has its drawbacks, and its solutions. Let go of the old. Move on.

IF Nuclear is so good More of it would be being ordered. It NEEDS lots of Water and with the Climate changing that water cannot be guaranteed. Things that Need cooling are adding heat to the equation. The heat energy that solar uses comes here anyhow reliably,safely and free.. OF all Places on earth, Australia Has to be one of the best Places for it. Nev

We used to have empires, run by emporers. Then we had kingdoms, run by kings. Now we just have countries, .........

He can have the Largest most Gaudy Cript and Buildings and airports etc named after him. He's doing that Now. He wants to be remembered " More than any person in History". See HE has this Superiority Complex and Giant EGO problem. He WILL be remembered but not the way HE wishes. Nev

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! I didn't record the various sources that I found when I was researching the question, so I can't post them here. Needless to say that I did find the references in order to satisfy my curiosity. The following is an extract from this Wikipedia entry summarises what I found. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Valley_cannabis_infestation Cannabis sativa seeds first arrived in Australia in 1788 on the First Fleet at the request of Sir Joseph Banks. The blueprint for the New South Wales colony, approved by the British Cabinet in 1786, envisaged Australia as a commercial colony producing hemp. The blueprint for the New South Wales colony was created for the British parliament in 1786. Banks provided a supply of seed. However, the British were too optomistic about the rate of establishment ot teh colony which would have failed due to starvation had Governor Phillip not done all he could to keep everyone alive, but on meagre rations until replenishment occured. Settle yourself down and watch this video which will enlighten you as to the first ten years of the colony. The video is an Australian prodcution aand one of a series dealing with early British colonisation of Australia.

I helped a friend pull the engine out of his car yesterday. The problem for both of us was getting up again after we got down underneath to undo bolts.

Annoying, isn't it!

Under $1000 a year? I wouldn't be complaining about that. Ours is somewhere around $1500 with no water, sewage or rubbish collection. Not sure what cockatoos have to do with your rates. @willedoo- your council sounds like a pack of useless c**ts. My sympathy.

More and more fact-lacking stuff. We are drowning in it. Nev

I can certainly relate to that. I had a 30% increase last year, not quite so much this year. Main reason is our council has got themselves one billion dollars in debt trying to compete with the Gold Coast. The shire rates income goes almost entirely to paying council staff salaries; they have around 1,800 employees all up, 1,000 of them in office jobs. My rates are currently around $2,200 per year. No services with that, no water, sewerage or wheelie bins. I could opt for wheelie bins but for two bins, a rubbish bin and recycle bin, the fees are several hundred dollars per year so it would bring my rates bill closer to $3,000 per year if I had them. The small amount of rubbish I make, it's way cheaper to do the occasional trip to the dump. They slash the road verge twice a year - usually two weeks before the six monthly rates bills are due, so we always know when we see council slashers about, we'll get a rates bill in the next couple of weeks. I'd be a lot happier with them if they'd just treat the local residents with a bit of respect. On the subject of council land zonings, you would think in a normal world the local council would have the decency to notify residents of an intention to rezone their land, but this council doesn't. I've had my block rezoned twice and never heard anything from council about it. It started off as Rural A, then was rezoned to Rural Residential and now to one called Limited Development - Sustainable Landscape which is a heavily restricted green zone. I'm quite happy with that zoning as I love the environment on my place, and think the more protection, the better, but it's the principle of rezoning without notifying a landowner that I think is wrong. In my mind it's just common manners to do so. With septic tanks being banned, some people opt for a pump-out tank. In days gone by, people could hire a licensed contractor to do the pump out and the charge was quite reasonable and only needed the cost incurred on a by use basis, ie: you were only out of pocket if the tank was near full and needed emptying. Council saw that as another cash cow and banned the use of contractors, allowing only council to do the service. Problem is it's not on an as needed basis. They put a levy on top of the rates bill so you have to pay several hundred dollars per year for the service whether you need it or not. The Mafia has nothing on this mob.

My rates went up 30% this year, out here in the bush would you believe. Nearly a thousand dollars a year and we're still driving on dusty dirt roads in my village. And kangaroos are in plague proportions. Cockatoos gnaw the wooden parts of my house. I'm charged for sewage, but I don't have sewage - go figure. My land is zoned Commercial and Residential at the same time - go figure again.

I call BS on that. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

France was one is the first to go nuclear and did a good Job of it. That was then. This is NOW. Water is in short supply in most parts of the world.. Anyone who thinks the world climate ISN'T changing is a smaller and smaller minority by the day. Fossil fuels are now unreliable and cause Wars Predictably. Nev

What do you grease Palms with? Nev

But... but.... you should be grateful. I see lots of full page ads and billboards telling me how the great mining industry invests into our communites and builds our roads!

The system knows that and is built to cope. It's NOT built to cope with a Massive failure like this situation Causes. There's none so blind as those who will NOT see.. This IS a Catastrophe that will cost a fortune in Lost Productivity.. There's also a safety risk. Nev

I don't think DJT can comprehend your statement. and 'tis unlikely that Bezo, Musk, Gina, Cliveetc could, either.

Yeah but then has to pay them $130k to keep it quiet. Guess they don't call it the "money shot" for nothing.

He means a BUBALUS (Latin for gazelle)

I never knew they had gazelles in Scotland until now.