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My unexpert summary is this:- Although we wish that the government can control the big economic picture, they really can't. With the unlikely exception of major politico/economic suicide. Mostly our economy is largely influenced by the world economy, of which we are a minor part. All we can do is tinker around the edges with details. I don't see the complainers coming up with examples of great ways to 'fix' the perceived problems. Just saying 'chuck em out!' is not an answer.

No such thing as an illegitimate child. They are Legit. The problem is related to the Parents situation.. It's the fault of the Church Wowsers and holier that thou, types. Nev

Storm clouds on the Darling Downs on Thursday.

I actually did touch CGT, and implied in it was the negative gearing (as it is part of a tax package that was disproportionately creating demand in an asset class against all other asset classes considered for investment). I suggest you read my post. I am prepared to stand behind what I say and provide references accordingly when required (which I am sure other forumites sometimes loathe the extents I will go to). It equalises treatment of one investment asset class.. and guess what. although the fundamentals would still include investment residential property in a portfolio for stability and growth, people (investors) are going knee jerk. And also, unlike other investment classes, residential property is for people to live in and build some security, The way it was being treated through preferential tax treatment was to artifically inflate the price denying millions of Aussies who aren't as cash rich as others a chance of financial security. A lot of young (and increasingly older) can't rely on the bank of mum and dad. To me, it is a positive step forward and it is not socialist. In fact the regime was in effect wealth socialism - artificially funnelling asset (or redistributing) to the more wealthy and already secure in society using tax incentives to inflate demand. You;re against socialism, but in a perverted way, it is redistributing the wealth - which is what socialism is about. It took a lot of balls to do the right thing as the backlash was always going to be huge. That to me, is the definition of leadership and one of the reasons why Albo has earned my respect as a leader. I still think he can do a lot better, but compared to the competition and many of his predecessors of both colours, he is not doing bad.

Why don't you spend time convincing us just how bad he has been for Australians. The inflation you have at the moment is largely globally driven and Australia, which is heavily dependent on imports of fuel thanks to decisions made way back in the Howard era where Japan and China buys gas off us at knock down prices and on-sells for the profits. This denies Australians accessing their own resources at what should be these knock down prices, but also results is massively lost profits locally as a result and also increased input costs as we have to buy our energy at global rates. Sadly, your issue at the moment should be with Chump. The CGT reform - yep can be argued as a bit overboard for some asset classes and it will depend on where you sit in terms of the housing market. If you are a house owner in the cities, yep you are probably spitting a bit as the prices return to a more natural normal rather than the artificially high prices resulting from a disproportionate incentive to invest (and create unnatural demand) in an investment asset class because it was treated more favourable from a tax perspective than other asset classes. However, longer term, the prices will stabilise and those who recently purchased or use leverage to fund investment will be back in the black. But at the same time, it makes housing affordable for people.. who need housing.. Also, as I said unless you owe money on your house wyere you have seen your equity fall a bit, or you are using it as leverage, it will make no real difference as the price relative to other properties will be in synch... Pursuing net 0 is absolutely the right policy for both longer term energy security and a simple fact - it will be over the same amortisation period as fossils, be a lot cheaper. So, for the future of the country, this is vital and people who are wedded for short term pricing are just kicking the can down the road. And that is before the environmental costs kick in. There is only one developed and not too many major emerging markets that aren't pursuing renewables as a, if not the major source of generation. Yes, China is building fossil plants still; its demeand is insatiable, but its is building renewables at a much bigger rate. I am not sure where this sits, but at least a policy promise of the Albo government is to buy Australian. i.e. use public money to channel into Australian rather than foreign interests. As I said, I am not sure where it is. In the fuel crisis, Albos was far quicker than most other nations to reduce tax to reduce the burden on the consumer; many countries (such as the UK) didn't do that at all. If you compare the above to the previous conservative government (and I did a fuller analysis somewhere else), then largely Australia is better off than pursuing the LNP policies, and good luck to you if you think PHON's policies are going to result in an economic nirvana. There are some things that Albo needs to get a grip on.. definitely: Sovereign debit has increased past $1TN. Australia still retains it's AAA+ status with all major agencies, but this is something that needs to be reigned in. The Gas Excise should be applied. Look at Norway and Qatar to understand why. AUKUS is a joke - we could use that same amount to build a locally owned and controlled defence industry pumping out weapons that would really be of use to us. The Fair Work Act, I think is overly onerouos - not so much on the pay and conditions, but all of the other obligations it imposes. There was a case where an award was won under the fair work act because, as I recall, the employer didn't take appropriate steps to protect an employee from domestic abuse... I have to look it up, but it was along those lines. That is, to me anyway, clearly beyond the responsibility of the employer (maybe with some narrow exceptions). AI is coming and it is going to bite faster than people realise. Provision and structural changes are needed to insulate Australia from the worst. I am sure I have missed from both sides of the argument. Labor could do a lot better, but if we had LNP or PHON, they would also need to do a lot better if they implemented what they said they would... and they would have to do a lot more to even catch up to Labor. I am not a "socialist" by any any stretch of the word except one... I do think that people have to work for the economy, but the economy also has to work for the people. And I do believe in a fair reward for risk..Capitalism so far has the most effective allocation of resources. Of course, the fully competitive market can only ever be a theory, and I think you are mixing up true socialism with ensuring fairness in the markets. The disproportionate rewards compared to the risks taken especially at the multinational or large corporate level is currently obscene.

Many of the adopted children have gaps in their history as they grow older. Did they love me? Why was I given away? Was I not wanted? What happened to my birth parents? Were they married? Was I the result of a one-night stand? Are they still alive? Did I have any siblings or half-siblings? It's very hard for someone to discover that their parents were married and they had older and younger siblings. Why would parents give away a middle child? The reasons for giving up a child are many. The mother may only have been 15 or 16 and too young to care for a child. Casual relationships that broke up, with no support for the child. Strict parents not wanting the shame. Religious attitudes to unmarried mothers. Mixed races or religions (Catholic and Protestant in Ireland). Relationships with foreign servicemen reposted to their home country. Even for married couples, if the father is out of work or in prison. And the list goes on. Another consideration is genetic disorders passed from generation to generation. There was a couple who had to surrender their child because they couldn't afford to feed themselves, let alone a baby. They stayed married for a couple of years, then divorced. The father suffered a heart condition and then discovered it was a genetic disorder. The race was on to locate the son. The parents searched together, through the program, and located the son. He was tested and found he had the disorder. He was only months away from a heart attack, but was treated in time and saved. Mothers forced to give up their child `through parental pressure, social stigma or economic circumstances pine for their lost child for the rest of their lives, wanting to know if they had a good life, loving adoptive parents, and have made good as they grew up.

Just like IRAN? I want Freedom FROM Religion. Keep it OUT of Politics. Nev

I must say that I don't find Bush Barbie's style of comedy comes anywhere near the standard our earlier comics (non-gender term used deliberately). From the videos I've seen of her, she uses her physical appearance to attract ateention, which it sure does. However, having grown up enjoying the witty use of language and irony, both in the English and Australian styles, I think she just doesn't come up to standard.

It's not aimed at Indonesia. I haven't looked at Peter's link, but I've seen news articles about poor people in Indonesia and other countries who have learned to turn a dollar by posting AI generated shit, usually aimed at the more gullible right wingers. The more outrage and reposting it gets, the more they earn, so they pick divisive figures like Pauline. They don't give a shit about Australia's internal politics, it's just a way to make a living.

Help!!!! I'm drenched. Clouds passed over and deposited 8mm of water on me.

Yay

I assume that every party compiles a shit list on anyone not in their party, and probably many in their party too. Not a good look, but judging by what everyone is saying about her, it wouldn't be a big list anyway.

I can't keep up with the bikes. I've tried leaning the Rodeo into corners but it doesn't seem to work for some reason.

It is a shame that Sir Patrick's memory is being hung on only one of his roles. Why Sir Patrick? He was knighted in 2007 for his services to drama. He had a long career as a Shakesperian actor. Also, one of his movie roles was in the X-Men franchise. The movie role I remember is as King Richard in Mel Brooke's Robin Hood - Men in Tights. He also was held in high esteem for his series of readings of Shakspeare's Sonnets during the COVID lockdown.

Brendan, this is what you need: https://www.ustraveldocs.com/au/en/immigrant-visa

Should answer your question.. My comparison with SFM is tp show he ain't worse (nor better) than the next one. Am I accepting it? In so much as there isn't anyone too much better to lead at the moment, IMHO. It's not great for me to admit it, but, as you say because of a lack of quality political leaders, is a sad state of affairs and cutting one's nose off to spite their face seems counterproductive given the benefit the change has already had. In terms of picking and choosing promises - I am not sure what you're referring to; all I did was regurgitate stats and I did qualify by saying by itself is not a good comparator. It is meant to be illustrative to Brenden mostly that not only Albo lies. I have to admit, I don't quite understand this comment.. Who was referring to the last government. Didn't Albo take action to stabilise (and return to normal levels) the housing market.. for now and in the future? What have I missed. Yep, he did like - well I believe he did.. And yes, he is paying for it politically at the moment. He timed it so (for him) the correction was swift and more people could afford homes and by the time the next election came around they would be thanking him in the ballot box resulting in a notching up of the price so those affected by the price correction could see the upside. I have to admit, he is not the master of political timing and trying it when there were geopolitical tensions that were likely to spill over and result in a global fuel price shock was not the smartest thing to do, politically. Is that the best you can do. Let me stoop to your level.. if you think the others are better, then your head is firmly wedged in a place where your torso has to form a semi-circle to get your head to. Quite, tightly wedged, too.. And part of my job is to research economies and economic performance. So, here is a graph for you.. It's the 10 year Aussie Federal Government Bond Futures Index: What it is saying is that basically, that 10 year bonds issued by the Federal government are likely to increase in price, meaning a lower yield (interest rate). This is the Standard & Poors index, which is an industry benchmark: https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/indices/fixed-income/sp-asx-australian-10-year-treasury-bond-futures-index/#overview In other words, a lot of highly qualified people who are much better than your and I put together at assessing current and likely future economic performance are putting bets on Australia as they think the current government and the RBA are doing a pretty good job managing the finances and economy. These are futures contracts rather than the bonds themselves and they represent an agreement to deliver a certain number of 10 year Aussie bonds for the stated price at the maturity of the futures contract. These are exchange traded and there is a very liquid market in 10 year Aussie bond futures. The markets are effectively saying, at the moment, we think the cost of borrowing for Australia will come down. That will be predicated by good economic management; otherwise, the riskier the loan, the more interest you will pay. The fixed income market (bonds) is the canary in the coal mine of economic performance- it responds much earlier to economic activity than the stock markets. And the futures market is the early warning system of that canary. At the moment, Australia is looking very good, indeed. Sorry to rain on your parade. Ironically, you may want to bet against the Aussie dollar because as the price rises, the yield drops and investors will look for better returns.. However, the RBA always intervenes to ensure Australia remains competitive in the investor market. What would happen to the curve if any of the others got in? The reality is I don't know. But, as the election gets closer, we should take a look at the curve against who is the favourites and see what it has to show us. Just remember that.. the people who are risking large sums of their money (for many, their livelihoods) are banking on the Australian government and RBA doing a good job managing the economy. Futures are a zero sum game; you bet the wrong way, and you lose it all; they're not like equities where unless the company goes broke, you can extract some value from each share you hold. And, it's not the only thing we could use to measure performance, but it is a good first cut.

How could anyone say he is a good prime Minister. He has no interest in helping Australians . I have to stop before I get in trouble again. Too many left wing socialists here.

All true Peter. It's all very sad. Nev

Well Marty, in my opinion it's nothing to do with parties or one side or the other. I look at it purely from the point of view of the position of prime minister and the certain amount of decorum and basic manners the holder of that office should have. What he did has nothing to do with what party he's from. My concern about what happened is that any prime minister of Australia would behave like that. I'd be pounding on him exactly the same if he was a Liberal prime minister or from any other party. Sure, a lot of them have done some crazy things over the years, like Gorton falling asleep pissed on a plane, waking up and spewing on the floor. And like that other time he was full as a boot at a function and made some very crude remarks about an African diplomat's wife when he was introduced to her. The point is, Albo, through his job position shamed the office of prime minister of Australia. When he (or anyone else in the position) does something like that, I couldn't give two hoots what party they're from. Just because other PM's have done bad stuff doesn't lessen what he's done. I can't see how whataboutism should apply here. No amount of yeah but's will lessen it

While it is fantastic that AI can conjure female versions of male celebrities, and no doubt male versions of female celebrities (I wonder if they will come with man-boobs), this is a storm in a teacup. Last weekend, I decided to put the lesser reputed "vibe coding" AI between the titans to the test - ChatGPT (Claude is reputedly far better). I asked it how do I go about establishing an online travel agent aka the likes of expedia et al. It went through everything - the current and future known regulatory issues, as a start up the options to take with least investment and recommendations, and with a simple prompt, built me a functioning web site. And when I say simple, the prompt was: "Build a private interactive website for my travel disruption-support business concept. Let me model a booking containing flights, hotels, car hire, and other suppliers; vary who contracts with the customer and how payment and commission flow; and compare when the arrangement is likely to remain separate bookings versus become a package in the UK and Australia. Include clear assumptions and regulatory caveats, and make the tool useful for exploring an OTA (Online Travel Agent) model that owns disruption support without promising supplier-controlled outcomes. Validate the key interactions, host it privately using Sites, and give me the working deployed URL. Do not publish it publicly without my approval." Well, that wasn't quite my prompt as it corrected my prompt to clearly articulate what I meant. The only think it left off was some cybersecurity requirements I specifically wanted so I added them in a later prompt. It built the whole website, release pipelines, testing using different agents. You could see the agents interacting with each other - the test agent failing something, the development agent fixing it or in a couple of cases correctly stating why it was designed that way. In less than two hours, I had a functional website with all the features I asked for ready to test. I will use AI to generate Selenium scripts to test the website. Selenium is an open source website testing tool used throughout the industry. I imagine it will take 1/2 hour to generate all the requisite tests. The vast majority of my time will be validating everything, but that will be 1/10th of the time if that of what would be a normal development cycle. BTW, Chat also included the integration to the wholesalers and affiliate agents - full account management - and a separate UI for "employees" if they are ever needed; not just the look and feel of the site. I need to tweak a couple of user interface elements as it has built it with too much artistic licence, but in theory could release the lot in a few weeks - with no developer or QA resource.

In most of Australia people drive on the left. In Victoria they drive on what's left.

You'd hate it worse if you were the bloke nearest Hopoate in the scrum.

If you define success by batting away consequences of being quite active in the Epstein files, it was quite successful

The naming difference between the two forms of football came from what might be classed as social class sources. The Rugby Football Union was established in London in 1871, uniting 21 clubs and officially standardizing the laws of the sport. So it was a joining together of a group of clubs, no doubt to enable a competition to be run. In 1895, the sport split into two separate codes—rugby union and rugby league—over a dispute regarding "broken-time payments" (compensating working-class players for missing work to play). There's your social class factor. Very much a similar thing happened with cricket, with the non-paid players called The Gentlemen, and the professionals.

Has Trump realised she is not blonde nor white? Granted she is dumb, so thats a start.

Rugby is not a sport, it's a brawl with goal posts. A quote from Midsomer Murders.

I recall crawling under the house with a car jack, and slipping a bigger bit of brick under a bearer to get rid of a dip in the floor. When the place was sold, the building inspector didn't look under the house. Building and pest inspections are a big rort. I once paid for a pest inspection that didn't notice big holes in the panelling where the cockroached had eaten through the plasterboard under the kitchen sink. I put it down to inexperience (because I hadn't looked there either). But learnt to do my own thorough inspecting.

The fire stopped just short of a big tract of plantation pine. Couple of k the other side of Ranelagh.There were more (paid) Forestry Firefighters on the fireground than Tas Fire Service. We would usually spend a week walking the ground to black out the remnants but much of this ground is inacessible. There will be stumps smouldering for days or weeks that rain can't extinguish. Which means there is a risk that a strong wind might restart the fire. Safe for now though

Get ready for an interesting fortnight for Trump. His best mate in the Middle East could be out on his ear. We'll know prety well by Wednesday. Serbians also look like ditching their authoriterian leader. We'll know if the Ynaks have come to their senses by 4th November.

Back to 'Crikey it's Wet'. Yesterday the wind dropped, and the fire died down a lot. Maybe the 4 choppers waterbombing helped there. And still a dozen appliances and crews. Then it rained last night. Temps down to ten, humidity up to 80%, nil wind. Crikey it's wet 🙂

With the modern day 24 hour news cycle, mud doesn't stick like it used to. The pollies are lucky we have a voting population with ADHD.

Rush on wise guy, hell ain't full yet. The speed limit doesn't say you have to travel that fast, it's the maximum you are allowed to travel at.

That was probably me. When I'm driving my wife's car.

A low resolution photo of Allan Millyard's Pratt & Whitney V-twin, probably taken before he put it in the Flying Millyard.

If you can't see the road surface through the water, how do you know the road hasn't been washed away like this? One of the worst locations in the Melbourne area is York St South Melbourne. The building with the diamond roofline is the South Melbourne Market. After every decent rain this is a common scene.

Geez, mate. It wasn't a BYO.

Got a better pic of the old Richardson drill today. It's a heavy old thing, a lot of cast iron and heavy steel plate where the mount has been modified. This is the way I'll mount it as a horizontal drive if the gearbox lube works out.

Who mentioned the libs. I expect a lot from politicians and the last 30 years or so they have been below par. Albo is in power at the moment so he is the one that needs to lead by example. We are also told how good the unemployment figures are at the moment. From the ABS- employed persons (aged 15 and over) during the reference week as employed persons (aged 15 and over) during the reference week as those in paid work for at least one hour, unpaid family workers working one hour or more, or individuals temporarily away from their job or business under specific conditions. What a joke and misleading.

If you mean people who like facts not lies, your right. Us "lefties" don't respect people who make shit up to try push their opinion.

My fault I know, but this is thread drift. I have started a new thread to continue the topic.

A question you would not ask if Labor were in the lead.

Thanks.. It certainly is more than I bargained for + contingency + Some more. The interesting thing is the original structures - except for pointing and some of the slate roofing - are in great nic. And fixing what is deteriorated is a pure joy. It's what they did since about the 1980's which is a pain and most commonly fails. Most of it is shoddy to the core.. What pisses me off is that the surveys didn't uncover the major stuff you would expect them to. They disclaim so much, it is pointless contesting it and would take years through the courts anyway. The next property I buy in Aus, I will get a land survey )of the type of property I am looking for), but do the building check out myself. As an example, about a year before we bought the house, a tree fell on the house. Half the room was repaired. We are in a contractual dispute with the insurer and the builder. The builder says we can;t enforce the contract as it is with the insurer. I point out he has a 25 year warranty that is transferable, the Contract (Rights of Third Party) Act specifically covers this situation, and he could end up going broke if I pursue it. And he agreed.. He would simply dissolve the company as being broke and there would be nothing for him to pay. Its £20 to start a new company and as long as he acted within the law, there is no restriction for him to take further directorships. So, I am pursuing with the insurer, who bats me off to the builder. That is a less probable course of action and the costs are prohibitive to do, which you have to find and can maybe claw back if you win. So, I have to suck it up. Because I am tackling this as it should be tackled - by using the correct materials, the house has surprisingly little damp. In fact the only known damp we have is a leak on part of the roof that wasn't fixed... The problem wasn't the leaky bit of the roof but because some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to use spray foam insulation. The same spray foam that you use to fill holes. There are two problems with that that blind Freddy could see.. One, it holds the moisture... for a loooong time.. it doesn't breathe. 2. It bonds to everything it touches.. So the rafters (rotting) and the tiles (can't remove them without breaking them). Again, the damp is caused not by the age of the building itself nor the materials that should have been used. But by idiots using the wrong materials taking the cheap way out. I have previously gone through the front cement render on the outer front wall.. put up by the builder that did the roof as part of the tree damage. A plasterer noticed and asked if we had damp in the front room, of which there was. Not long after he replaced it, no more damp there. The last set of phitos One of the things about these old buildings is draughtiness. In this house, the floor between the ground floor and the hasement does not go all the way to the walls - there is about a 5mm gap . at some points and there is an open (grated) coal chute to the basement. We have a cover over it that can breathe so it has reduced the breeziness by about 95%, but you do feel it. In the study, which is an ex private chapel, we replaced what as at the time of listing, a grotty PVC window that was double glazed. The guidance for listed buildings is that they are to reflect their passage of time, so in theory, we could have replaced it with another cheap UPVC double glazed windows. But that was crap and we found the original windows (not frames, which were lead-lined single glazed. We applied to have them replicated into a wooden frame but with ultra-thin double glazing at quite a lot more expense that refurbing the ortiginal windows and inserting them into the wooden frame. Given listing guidance is to reflect the evolution of the property, you would have thought it, especially being an improvement entirely sympathetic with the building and the looming environmental crisis, it was a no brainer. Nope; it was asserted because the originals are still there (one thing the previous owners didn't get to sell), it was their intention to install them as is, so we had to stick with it. We appealed as far as we could without getting lawyers involved and decided not to pursue it. You could not make this stuff up. Thankfully global warming is here as I don#t need to heat the room all day at the moment (it is 7:48 and 15 degrees c on the 25th October - absolutely nuts; there is a second storm brewing though, and i have to get the gutters cleaned in between and try and unblock a drain). So, it is draughty but not because it cannot be fixed. BTW, that window cost me £6K; it would have been $8k to do it properly and no one would be the wiser. Re light, apparently there was a window tax from the late 1600s to around mid 1800s. Our extensions must have gone up just after that period as the windows (seen from the photos published) are quite big and we do get a lot of light. I replaced c. 20 windows. Either that, or when they were bricked in, windows were subsequently reinstalled. But you do see a lot of older buildings with bricked in windows today and I always wondered why. Apparently that is the main reason. Of course, in the older days when heating systems weren't quite as efficient, brick and lime were better at keeping the cold out than windows. The tradies thinking you;re rich and pricing accordingly; absolutely. The easiest way to find out is ask for an itemised quote - not down to the nut and bolt, either major deliverables or even just labour and materials. When they refuse, you know you;re getting shafted. On the plumbing this was the case because despite the lure of a lot of work and what I knew was easy money. only two plumbers invited quoted despite the other 15-ish (can't remember exactly how many) saying they would he happy to. When the mate of a gardner heard the cost, he said it was around right, until he heard there was no boiler replacement and we weren#t replacing all the piping. Unf, I didn#t have the tools, the experience, nor the time, and I felt being impaled from behind with every day that passed. Other tradies were the same, but builders are easier to come by. At the moment, I have a decent builder who is experienced with old building, charges normal rates and makes good progress. I have a decorator who is a retired teacher and keeps himself busy; also good rates. The sparky is a little more expensive and totally by the book (commercially), so is the most expensive. But, he is a perfectionist, which I like and does get it done (i.e. not try and fit too many clients in). Still I am all in at the moment. I won't make money on it. Hopefully I won#t lose on it, either. However, if I count the opportunity cost of what else I could have done with the money, I would have retired comfortably by now.

Their Tolls pay for it. They are great freedom machines and are fun to drive. They gave People Personal Mobility and they got to Know what the World 30 kms and more beyond their Home was like.. Protected you from the elements. Helped Bank robbers escape. Make Babies at the Drive-In. Nev

Wouldn't be such a problem if we just banned all those crazy motorcars.

Interesting article about AI and how it's probably not the best idea to be an early adopter. What's this got to do with old house reno's? The example they used was Greece being the first to develop flushing toilets. However, in Greece now there's warning signs not to flush paper down the loo, because it'll stuff the plumbing. Why? Because for some historical reason they use 50mm drains which is half the diameter of Australian sewage drains. Original is not always the best.

The Australian Jillaroos defeated England 78–0 in their Women's Rugby League World Cup Pool A match at HBF Park in Perth on October 24, 2026. Did the Lionesess take to the field? A team wouldn't cross the try line that often during training.

I used that term to indicate that fording water is not 'normal' use of a vehicle. Therefore it requires skill an judgement (risk management) that is not taught in the normal road training syllabus. Nothing magical or crazy if approached responsibly. Responsibly includes saying no when appropriate, which is frequently.

Not that I am aware of. Road closures are usually made by the local government for a number of reasons - flooded roads, processions like ANZAC Day or even severe damage. The creek which runs through my place crosses the local road nearby. The local council has erected a Road Closed sign when the creek is in flood. If a person drives around the sign, they are on their own as to consequences. It's pretty clear that closing a road is done for safety reasons, which is a duty of care that a local council bears.