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I don't disagree, but ironically, prrivate enterprise is subject to much stricter rules than the government - and those rules are provided by the government - usually through tax disincentives, but also now conduct rules, etc. So unless private enterprise want to pay through the nose and the individuals through FBT, they have a much more sparlingly set of allowable expenses then your MPs (this is why the APS won't accept gifts - as well as the conduct rules. You will not believe the rules I had to navigate to accept a vendor dontaing £50 to an authorised charity in my name - in the end I asked them to donate it in their name - I don't need the accolade - and the rules are similar in Australia). The decision to travel is different to the cost of travel. The question of whether deliveing a 6 minute speech was value for money is not the same question as whether the cost of the travel and allowable expenses is accceptable or not. The minister won't usually unilaterally decide to trot off to the UN and make a speech; it will be done in consultation with the cabinet/PM office because there will be some political objective. Was it literally jump off the plane, walk in, give a 6 minute speech, walk out and jump on a plane back? Or was there some sort of unofficial meetings taking place. We tend to look at these things in isolation, but often there are tactics in play to reach an objective - one of the many battles to win the war. Even if it were literally off the plane, speak, on the plane and nothing else, it may have been part of some tactics to demonstrate to allies or partners a commitment to further negotiate for the benefit. It will all depend on the objective and whether or not that contibuted to/achieved the objective. Those questions will determine whether the trip - regardless of the cost, which has to include the minister and their staffers' time that could be spent doing something else productive was value for money. But once it is decided a trip is requied, then the quetion of cost/allowable expenses of the trip being excessive comes into play. Apart from obviosuly excessive cases, that is a subjective matter of judgement. I personally didn't think the $100K (was it) for Wells to go to NY with however many staffers given the nature of the work, etc was excessive Yes, it could have been cheaper, but these are not jollies and they should be afforded the facilities that allows them to be effective working in almost diametrcially opposed timezones where they don't have the luxury of time to adjust for jet lag. On the assertion that they are paid enough for their families, I have two points to make. Firstly when pollies have to suffer the lurks of the job - harassment, houding by the press, public admonishment, threats to life, etc,. we all say that is part and parcel of the job, they knew it before they entered it, and we have no sympathy. The perks are also part and parcel of the job - so why are we criticising them for utilising them? Maybe if you can't take your family with you, on the salary you can get, it may dissuade those that have a modicum of competence and you will only be left with the SFMs of the world. Of course we know most pollies at the top aren't the best, but to be honest, compared to the last lot, I will take these ones any day. Secondly, to you or I, $400K is a lot of money. But don't forget, these are really CEOs of large national organisations. If we are going to compare the expenses to large national private enterprises, how much do CEOs of equivlnet sized with equivalent responsibilites in the private side earn? Maybe we should just bump up ministers' salaries accordingly and not let their families travel be on the public purse? As I recall the APS scoundrel who was in charge of one of the government department (Human Services, I think) at the time of Robodebt was on something like $900K/year... And that person reports to a minister! If that were private enterprise, the minister would be earaning more than the officer reporting to them - normally. Sincerely, Devil's Advocate, Esq.

My good friend Chatty gave me the following answer: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance argues that the deepest satisfaction in life comes from caring engagement with what we do, rather than from chasing abstract goals or rigid ideologies: by reconciling the “classical” mindset (logic, analysis, technology) with the “romantic” mindset (intuition, aesthetics, immediate experience), Robert Pirsig proposes that Quality—an unnameable but real sense of what is good—arises when we pay attentive, responsible care to both our inner lives and the practical tasks before us, whether maintaining a motorcycle or living thoughtfully in the modern world.

Make sure the oil hasn't spread onto the flywheel and coil. Take the engine cowling off and clean the outside surface of the flywheel and magnet and the section of the coil that sits close to the flywheel. Use some emery cloth to clean up the flywheel outer surface and check the coil to flywheel gap. Install a new spark plug (90% of starting problems). Use some "Carburettor & Throttle Body Cleaner" (spray can) to clean out the carburettor passageways. No sorry, all that above is made-up BS. What actually happened is, you killed the little hamster inside the engine that makes it go, when you tipped it over and left it. You need a new engine hamster.

Two men walk into a pet shop in Dingle, they walk over to the bird section and Gerry says to Joe, 'Dat's dem.' The owner comes over and asks if he can help them. 'Yeah, we'll take four of dem dere little budgies in dat cage up dere,' says Gerry. The owner puts the budgies in a cardboard box. Joe and Gerry pay for the birds, leave the shop and get into Gerry's truck to drive to the top of the Connor Pass. At the Connor Pass , Gerry looks down at the 1000 foot drop and says, 'Dis looks like a grand place.' He takes two birds out of the box, puts one on each shoulder and jumps off the cliff. Joe watches as the budgies fly off and Gerry falls all the way to the bottom, killing himself stone dead! Looking down at the remains of his best pal, Joe shakes his head and says, 'Fook dat. Dis budgie jumping is too fook'n dangerous for me!'

The first ones that should be investigated and jailed or deported are the Imams and other clerics at the mosques, sprouting and advocating this vile propaganda.

I don't expect the employer (taxpayers) to pay for family airfares, etc. When I spent 20yrs travelling for work, my wage was somewhat higher than city based equivalents. Sometimes I delayed my return at the end of a project. I paid my wife's airfare to join me for the weekend. I paid the extra couple of days at the hotel. I was a mere technician but I did this to maintain some work/life balance, to make up a bit for my absence from home. I didn't think it fair to expect my employer to pay for that. Many jobs put stress on home life. Politician or bureaucrat is just one such job.

There was no co-ordination between the States licencing authorities for decades, due to parochial interests, and "jurisdictional claims and interests". Then, in late January 2006, a rapist/double murderer, who raped and murdered two sisters, one after the other in Melbourne, stole one of the womens cars and took off to the North of Australia. The murderer was intercepted on a lonely section of the NW Coastal Hwy, many kms from Karratha, about 3 days after the murders, by a lone police officer, Sgt Gray, who was looking for him, for driving off without paying for fuel. The murderer (a giant of a man) jumped out of the stolen car and launched a massive king hit attack on the policeman, breaking 13 bones in his face in the one hit. The policeman went down, but came back up again, and the murderer came at him again. The policeman drew his firearm and killed the murderer on the spot, with one accurate shot (he just happened to be a firearms trainer in the W.A. Police). But for over 6 hrs, no-one knew who the murderer was, who the car belonged to, and what the murderer had done. This was all due to a lack of a national database of vehicle registrations and a lack of information-sharing between State Police forces. Within a very short time after this disturbing event, a national database of vehicle registrations was initiated, accessible to any police officer anywhere in Australia, and other important information-sharing on fleeing felons and violent crimes was established. If it took just one murderous attack on a lone police officer in the Outback to galvanise the States into action to produce real-time violent crime information-sharing, and a vehicle registration database to be set up - then I'm sure Australia's worst terrorist attack on our soil, should ensure that everything that is needed, to standardise firearms laws and requirements across Australia, and to set up a national database of firearm owners, and those on terrorism watch, is rapidly carried out.

Spoken by a person who has not the slightest knowledge of policing. 1. the guy seems he did your jobs for you Prior to Sunday, all the local police command would have known about the event at Bondi Beach was that it would be occuring, and there would be a crowd, as well as the usual numbers enjoying the beach. No doubt extra police were engaged for general crowd control as would be normal for any large gathering. Refer to the gathering of people to march across the Harbour Bridge for political purpose earlier this year. Given the anonimity of the shooters, who could have known beforehand whart the shooters were planning? In rostering police for duty on that day, the first requirement of the commander would be to have staff to meet those day-to-day calls for service. I would imaging that a lot of the police at Bondi Beach were supernumerary. In other words, they were police who otherwise would have been on regular days off and were offered a bit of overtime. It takes time for the situation to be identified and this information relayed through radio communication channels to commanders for orders to be created, delivered and acted upon. Even if specialist SWAT police were on standby, it would have taken some time for them to reach the scene. 2. seems he did your jobs for you During the shooting the police present would have been occupied with locating the shooters. It is a big area with many high rise buildings surrounding it. Do yu tnk that you could positivley locate a shooter's position in the shock and awe of an unexpected attack. Just consider what would be going through your mind if you were witness to a motor vehicle collision. What would be your first positive action? 3. wth then don't they send marksmen out with rifles, The police rostered for duty at the event would have been all on foot, moving about amongst the crowd to deal with minor incidents. A police command is not supplied with unlimited motor vehicles. Vehicles attached to the local command would normally be kept availale for the normal general police duties, like domestics, shoplifters, motor vehicle collsions etc. The press reports show lots of police vehicles ate teh scene, but thos pictures would have been taken in the aftermath of teh actual shootings. 4. wth don't the cops have rifles in their car You watch too many American TV shows and movies. Policing in Australia is not approached on a Wild West basis. That's because the public does not have a gun culture. How many people do you kow who do not have a firearm? Many, many more than those who do. There is no need for police performing typical day-to-day duties to have access to rifles. In my career, I only discharged my hand gun three times - once to euthanise a kangaroo at the request of a distressed lady who had hit it with her car; another time to euthanise at the request of the owner a horse which had disemboweled itself in a steel fence post, and a third time I took a pot shot at a fox. 5. be trained with them as well as useless pee shooters I have doubts that you have ever received firearms training, because a statement like that indicates that you have no experience in either simulated firearms training nor actual combat firarms training. One day per year to do a refresher course on the use of a pistol does not make a person a Dead-eye Dick. Likewise, the effectiv use of a rifle is far more complicated. Perhaps GON can tell us how long it took a Nasho to qualify to use a rifle. 6. And still it goes on. Remember the Lindt Cafe seige? The investigation and Coroner's Inquest into that took a very long time. How would you cope with the mental stress of being involved in something like that? Don't forget that the police at Bondi at the time of the shootings would have been junior police with not many years' experience. How would you cope with a traumatic situation of being in a field of fire without knowing where the firing was coming from, and seeing the dead and wounded laying bleeding around you? All I can say is, do not make statements such as you have until you have walked a mile in the shoes of someone who has.

I think he took the gun when the shooter had emptied the magazine, so he wouldn't have been able to. Pity he didn't smack him in the head with the butt though. Still, damn good job and I hope Mr El-Ahmed is given our highest medal.

I agree with most of what you have said except this. At the Palestinian protests, at campuses, in Sydney, Melbourne, etc, people were openly chanting kill the jews and gas the jews. This was not protesting for Palestine, but protesting against Jews.. anywhere.. and calling for their murder. The response from the governments? Tepid. Did anyone get charged with incitement or racial vilifcation? Crickets. In the UK it was nuch the same, except apparently you can be charged with a hate offence calling a horse gay or something. Surprise, surprise, the same thing happened, although more weren't killed because of logistics and it was a long gunman as I recall. Just imagine the response had it been Jews protesting to kill and behead the Muslims...

Thanks Peter. Will try to drop in from time to time to make sure you're all behaving yourselves. I've tried to cut down on screen time but it's easier said than done. Have been co-administering an inyourfacebook group so that's taken a bit of effort and tended to drag oneself back online. So all good, still breathing in and breathing out and wearing my trousers the right way round.

I don't own any firearms. I don't want to own any firearms. But I can see that in the wake of Bondi there are cries for stricter firearm controls. The controls that have been mentioned often sound like knee-jerk reaction of people with little knowledge of firearm ownership in Australia. Let me say that I see ideas like restricting the total number of fireams held by an individual as being dificult to manage. Don't forget that the authroities only know about the registered firearms held by the community. We know that there are very many unregistered firearms in the community. Once again, any restriction on total number of firearms owned will only impinge on owners who are following current laws. How many is too many? A person might reasonably own several different types of firearms. Maybe one shotgun for hunting and another for target shooting. Maybe a centrefire rifle for kangaroos and another for pigs. And don't forget the .22 for rabbits and foxes. The first step that I fully agree with is the unification of records kept by States and Territories relating to licensed persons and registered guns. In this digital age unifying those records might only require the transfer of existing records from one database to another. It might need a bit of program development, but for years fingerprint records have been linked across States and Territories. Firearms licences only for Australian citizens???? Look at the ages of young Middle Eastern men using firearms in the drug and illicit tobacco wars. They are no doubt Australian citizens, having been born here. Here's the criteria: a child born in Australia gains citizenship if at least one parent is an Australian citizen or permanent resident at the time of birth; otherwise, they aren't automatically a citizen, but can acquire it on their 10th birthday if they've lived in Australia for their first 10 years. Protecting society from the misuse of firearms is an impossibility through laws, be they equitable or restrictive. Before slamming down on firearm ownership, careful consideration must be made of the consequences of any regulations proposed.

He had a mental and physical breakdown which he describes in the book.

But, there are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world and 10% are radical, thats 180 million who want all the bad stuff, beheadings, sharia, wolrd domination, so are we wrong to want to stamp out these cowards and scum, the Israelis have it right starting at the head exterminate the head of the cowardly terrorists,and all western countries should deport ALL muslim s preaching thier foul hate and spew

Ah, 14hp means 14 Hamster Power? Thanks gents!

Its "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance". Riding is incidental.

Shortly after Gerry met his demise, Paddy also turned up at the cliff with a cardboard box. He walked to the edge of the cliff, opened the box and took out a hen, He grabbed hold of the hen's legs, and leapt off the cliff. Unfortunately, he suffered the same outcome as Gerry. Joe looked down, shook his head, and said, "Oi ain't goin' fook'n hen-glidin' neither."

Brass cases, so I'd say solids. They're a 2.5" case so they'd hold a fair bit of powder to push the slug a reasonable distance. I haven't seen all the footage so I don't know if they had a 12G as well, but the bolt action gun the young bloke was firing was a .410 ejecting brass cases

These people know they will be away from their family's before they take the jobs, just as ever FIFO miners does. It's a decision/ compromise they have to make.

What Hamas did is no worse than what the Japanese army did in Manchuria and Borneo, or what the Nazis did to the Jews. But once done, you can't fight a war against a segment of society. There were good Germans and good Japanese, but the bombs rained down on them all. There is no other way to fight against evil in wartime. And war is the only way to sanitise the evil. Each society, worldwide, is responsible for the actions of the groups within it.

America has never acted out of the goodness of its heart, towards anyone. It has always acted in the best interests of America, American corporations, and American people. Americans believe all other nations and cultures are inferior to them. Even as far as Australia is concerned, the Americans never acted out of the goodness of their heart to save Australia and Australians, they used Australia as a convenient base, from which they needed to stop the Japanese attacks on America and its commercial interests, and to wrest control of the Pacific region from the Japanese. The ugliest part of the Americans behaviour in WW2 was using 60,000 Australian troops and all our best military forces, to carry out the unnecessary and costly Borneo invasion campaign in May 1945 - Operation Oboe. We lost nearly 600 good men in three operations to take out the remaining Japanese soldiers on Borneo, who were all basically stuffed, anyway, with no logistics left - but the Japanese fought to the death, and often carried out suicide missions. Operation Oboe was an operation designed to cater to MacArthurs overweening arrogance and self-aggrandisement, and to promote American strength. https://www.awmlondon.gov.au/battles/borneo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borneo_campaign

A cuppa? I made a thermos and it still wasn’t enough!

Ahmed el-Ahmed showed incredible self control in not firing on the gunman when he had the gun, at least in the legs to prevent him from running away.

Deserves the highest honour. To disarm a gunman with no weapon yourself, plus have the presence of mind to put the weapon down afterwards so the cops don't shoot you.

In the arm, I believe. With Luck He will get a Bravery award. Nev

It must be time for another chuckle, the current news is all bad. I guess it's also a bad time to tell any jokes involving Jews and Palestinians, but here's a good religious chuckle. A Biblical Story: And on the third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. And it came to pass that all the wine was drunk. And the mother of the bride came to Jesus and said unto the Lord, they have no more wine. And Jesus said unto the servants: "Fill six waterpots with water." And they did so. And when the steward of the feast did taste from the water of the pots, it had become wine. And they knew not whence it had come. But the servants did know, so they applauded loudly in the kitchen. And they said unto the Lord: "How the hell did you do that?" And inquired of him: "Do you do children's parties? And the Lord said: "No." But the servants did press him, saying; "Go on, give us another one!" And so he brought forth a carrot, and said: "Behold this, for it is a carrot." And all about him knew that it was so. For it was orange, with a green top. And he did place a large red cloth over the carrot, and then removed it, and lo, he held in his hand a white rabbit. And all were amazed, and said: "This guy is really good! He should turn professional." And they brought him on a stretcher, a man who was sick of the palsy. And they cried unto him: "Maestro, this man is sick of the palsy." And the Lord said: "If I had to spend my whole life on a stretcher, I'd be pretty sick of the palsy, too!" And they were filled with joy, and cried out: "Lord, thy one-liners are as good as thy tricks. Thou art indeed an all-round family entertainer." And there came unto him a woman called Mary, who had seen the Lord and believed, and Jesus said unto her: "Put on a tutu, and lie down in this box." And then took he forth a saw, and cleft her in twain. And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But Jesus said: "Oh ye of little faith!" And he threw open the box and lo, Mary was whole. And the crowd went absolutely bananas. And Jesus and Mary took a big bow. And he said unto her: "From now on you shall be known as Trixie, for that is a good name for an assistant." And the people said unto him: "We've never seen anything like this. You shouldn't be wasting your time in a one camel town like Cana. You should be playing in the big arenas in Jerusalem!" And Jesus did harken to their words. And he did go on to Jerusalem, and he did his full act before the scribes, the Jews, and the Romans. But alas, it did not please them in their hearts. In fact, they crucified him. Here endeth the lesson. Amen. By Rowan Atkinson

NSW Police Commissioner's public announcement: The gunmen were a 50yo father and his 24yo son. The father had 6 guns licenced to him, and the police say they recovered 6 guns from the scene. The father was killed and the son is in critical but stable condition in hospital. The father had held gun licences for 10 years. The brave citizen who attacked the gunman and saved countless lives was a suburban fruiterer and father of two.

I wish their porky arsehole would quietly expire and definitely not be exported.

I think it's normally called Fate. If you're destined to die that moment as an innocent victim, that's it. Had my share of narrow squeaks with the Grim Reaper, and rarely due to anything I'd done wrong.

Nature bounces back so quickly! I've been bitching for months about the lack of rain at my place and how the pastures have been drying up. A couple of days ago I was thinking of posting a photo of the almost bare paddocks whick looked like they had been mown like a bowling green. Then on the same day a very strong thunderstorm came right overhead and doused the ground. I don't have a rain guage, but I hear that some nearby places recorded more than 25 mm. The next day there was another, more steady fall of rain. This morning, a couple of days later, there is a distinct green tinge across the paddocks. If it does not get too hot and there is no strong wind, the plants might be able to put on a few centimetres of growth and things will be better for grazing.

Haven't seen these in Woollies lately. Have you?

Me mum's one of them.

A former farmer client of mine turns 105 on the 20th of this month, and he's as fit as Dick Van Dyke. But did anyone see Colin Wagener, the South Australian WW2 veteran, who turned 108 recently? He still runs a 60 acre (24ha) property in the Adelaide Hills, and still drives his mower, and rides his motorbike! His advice for a long life? Steer clear of alcohol, don't smoke, and keep up an active lifestyle. https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-oldest-wwii-veteran-108-birthday/2d8381cf-2c85-409e-a685-47e03cd2ef49

It really shouldn't be the UNITED States Of America. THAT it definitely is NOT. What do they say? A house divided against Itself shall surely fall. Nev

The most thought-provoking bit was when his mate refused to let him use a piece of a coke can to shim his brake lever (as I recall). Because his mate rode a BMW and expected everything on it to be perfect.

Doesn't sound like navigating London is very Zen-like.

Albanese was giving a press conference outlining his visit to the hospitals with the Governor General. I can't believe that, mid speech, Channel 7 cut in and said, "We'll have to leave the Prime Minister there, the cricket is about to start." This was at 9:30! The cricket didn't start till around 10:30.

People in prison have been killed with a rock in a sock. If that weapon becomes popular, will Albanian ban rocks or ban socks?

No excesses in Gaza. Don’t believe the propaganda. War is war, particularly urban war. Don’t let the anti Semites win the propaganda war.

There's some low hanging fruit. As mentioned in another thread, there should be data matching between state firearm registers and ASIO, and restrictions on people and their families/ close associates who have ever been linked to extremism.

I think randomx might not have measured too precisely on those shooting distances. I've shot a lot of bunnies, and even being able to hit one at 100M is outstanding markmanship. Hitting a bunny at 500M is in the realm of fantasy, you'd need tele sights to even see the bunny, and the amount of bullet trajectory drop over 500M, even in a high-powered centre fire, long barrelled rifle, is huge, and it would need a substantial setup for steadying the weapon, and an excellent knowledge of the wind factor. Even a good steady breeze seriously affects bullet trajectory, and at 500M, that effect is huge.

Oct 7th comes to Australia. Congratulations Albo.

Tradition, or they just haven't caught up with the news yet?