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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.

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.

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.”

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

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."

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.

I am so glad we have compulsory voting here. One of the best features of our electoral system.

The Farage party are claiming it as a victory. But, the parliamentary investigation into his £5m undeclared gift has resumed and if found he violated the rules of parliament, a recall petition is put to the electorate and if a certain percentage agree, it will trigger yet another by-election. The reality is that Clacton is one of, if not the most deprived electorate in the UK and immigration, of which Farage is a one trick pony politically, is being blamed by Clactonians for all their problems will mean that the recall petition is unlikely to get the numbers. Reforms winning electorates are all in deprived areas, and is more a protest about them being relied upon for votes be Labour and the Tories more than anything else.. and I would say the apathy of the electorate is partially the result of decades, if not over a century now of being promised the earth and still being sucked dry compared to those who live in marginal electorates. Pork barelling is alive where it will buy a seat. But, Reform's claims to a mandate by the people of Clacton are as hollow as the promises made to the people of Clacton. with a 44% voter turnout against an average turnout of around 65%, it represents 27& of the voting public of Clacton who have voted for him. Of course, we can't predict which way the other 66% pg voters in Clacton would have voted if casting a ballot was mandatory - I would imagine the spoiled ballot count would be high despite the onerous requirement of putting a tick against one person only; but I have a sneaking suspicion Farage would have found the numbers far tighter than the headline suggests.

Possibly unpopular with clothed people too 😊

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

Cockatoos chew wooden houses everywhere and Kangaroos are all over the Place in the bush. . This is Awestralia. Nev

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.

OME was being diplomatic.

I'd beg to differ on that. The way I see it, the cause of most arguments on this site is people playing the man and not the topic. The inability of some to debate in a civilised and well mannered way without being outright rude to people. I don't think I'd like to sugar coat straight out bad behaviour as misinterpretation. For sure misinterpretation happens but I think the inability to handle opposing viewpoints combined with bad manners is a bigger contributing factor.

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.

The concept of Local Government, as I see it, is the means by which communities organise for the provision of facilities and services required by that community. People offer their time to gather and make decisions that it is hoped will solve local problems and/or plan for future improvement which benefit the community. Local Government s we have it is a formalisation of community management that human communities have employed since the time when three or four families decided to pitch their tents together in the same place. In modern times in Australia, each State has created some sort of law to give the various Local Governments the same framework to follow. How each Local Government unit uses that framework depends either on community involvement, or the integrity of those who get elected to form the Council. I would say that the closer the local council is to its community, the better it works. Local Governments in urban areas reflect the lack of 'community' typical of the anonymous nature of the inhabitants. Rural Local Governments are often more in tune with their communities due to the social interactions of those communities.

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.

There is a super critical co2 turbine being developed. Based on a gas turbine but used co2 instead the atmosphere and heated through heat exchanger instead of combustion. Supposed to be a lot smaller physically then a steam turbine. Apparently China have one running. Developer are looking at high temp NPP to run them. Still would require a "condenser" of some sort.

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

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!

Don't forget how long it takes to construct a power plant of any type. Those plants operating and the ones coming on line were designed an construction commenced before the explosion in solar panel technology that has happened in the past decade. Is it any wonder that they haven't switched over. Economics lags behind the technology.

That really is clutching at straws - or pearls... Nuclear power stations close down for refuelling, too... Was 30 days per shutdown when I was in the game. I know, because our software saved a whole 2 days per shutdown. Which was a big deal and saved a couple of million per shut down.

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 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.

Don't stomp on the Cornflakes or you may be arrested as a Serial Killer. Nev

It's mountain out of molehill stuff.. Australia has, for as long as I can remember had this requirement. For the automatic UK citizenship issue, there is virtually no chance of coming a cropper because of it. They have no idea if your grandparents are British, and if you have no idea you become a citizen as a result, and don't declare it on your ETA application, you will enter as an Aussie citizen.

Here is a bit of red tape that is hard to understand the reasoning for. This came to my attention in a conversation with my son when we were visiting him in NZ. There are some either new rules or old rules now being enforced regarding passports that seem absolutely crazy to me. So my wife and I are Australian citizens, but by virtue of the fact we were both born in the UK we retain British citizenship. This now means that if we were to travel to the UK the UK government now requires that we have British passports. UK passport changes leave Australians with dual citizenship scrambling before border rules kick in That is inconvenient enough, but it gets worse for my son. My son was born in Australia, but by virtue of the fact that both his parents are British citizens, he also is considered to be a British citizen. My son moved permanently to NZ and is a citizen of NZ. The rules that apply to travelling into the UK also apply to travelling into Australia. This means that if my son were to travel to the UK via a stopover in Australia, he would need an Australian passport (because he retains Aus citizenship), a British passport because he retains British citizenship, and to get back home to NZ he needs an NZ passport. Here is an AI summary of the situation: "Because you and his other parent were Australian citizens at the time of his birth, your son is automatically an Australian citizen by birth. Since he also holds British citizenship (from you) and New Zealand citizenship (by naturalisation), he is a triple citizen. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] This status changes the passport requirements for his travels: Document Requirements by Destination Traveling to Australia: He must enter on an Australian passport. The Australian Government requires all citizens to enter and leave the country using an Australian passport. He cannot use his New Zealand passport to get a Special Category Visa anymore, as visas cannot be granted to people who already hold Australian citizenship. [] Traveling to Britain: He must enter on a British passport. As a British citizen, he cannot use an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) or a foreign passport alone to clear UK border control. [1, 2, 3, 4] Traveling back to New Zealand: He must use his New Zealand passport to seamlessly re-enter his home country."

He means a BUBALUS (Latin for gazelle)