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So Trump's had a full public meltdown because Australia won't send warships to help him unfuck a war he started without telling anyone. Let that sink in for a second. He launched this thing with Israel 3 weeks ago. Didn't consult NATO. Didn't consult Australia. Didn't consult Japan. Explicitly said at the start he didn't need or want anyone's help. And now he's on Truth Social in all caps screaming that we're all ungrateful. Mate, you can't tell everyone to fuck off and then get angry when they all fuck off. Here's what happened. He blew the shit out of Iran. Destroyed the navy, the air force, the radar, the leadership. Great. Total victory. Mission accomplished. Brought the banner and everything. One small problem. The Strait of Hormuz is still shut. It's full of mines and anti-ship missiles and Iranian drone boats. The tankers won't sail. The insurance companies won't touch it. And 20% of the world's oil is just sitting there going absolutely nowhere. So suddenly Captain America needs help. He spends the whole weekend ringing every country with a boat. China. France. Japan. South Korea. The UK. Canada. Australia. Basically anyone with a dinghy and a flag. The response from most of them? "Get fucked." Germany said, and I'm paraphrasing only slightly: "You didn't ask us before you started the war. You told us you didn't want our help. And now you're upset? Yeah, nah." France said they'd be happy to help escort ships once the bombing stops and Iran agrees to let them. So basically never. Spain said no. Poland said no. Sweden said no. Australia said we haven't even been formally asked and also no. So what does Trump do? Does he reflect? Reassess? Pick up the phone like a grown adult? Of course not. He jumps on Truth Social and goes full toddler. "We don't need NATO! We NEVER needed NATO! We don't need Japan or Australia or South Korea! WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!" Mate. You were literally begging 15 countries for ships 48 hours ago. That's like getting turned down for a date and screaming "SHE WAS UGLY ANYWAY" loud enough for the whole pub to hear. You're not fooling anyone, dickhead. Everyone saw you practise your opener in the bathroom mirror. And he specifically named Australia. Which is genuinely fucking insane. We have shown up to every single American war for nearly a century. Korea. Vietnam. Iraq. Twice. Afghanistan for 20 bloody years. Five Eyes. AUKUS. Pine Gap. We are literally the most reliable ally the United States has ever had. And the one time, the ONE time, we look at the situation and go "yeah this one's a bit cooked mate, we'll sit this out," he loses his shit and calls us foolish on the internet. You know what's actually foolish? Starting a war without a plan to reopen the strait that carries a fifth of the world's oil supply. That's foolish. Blowing up someone's entire military and then being surprised when they use asymmetric warfare to shut down global shipping. That's foolish. Spending a year slapping tariffs on your allies, calling them freeloaders, threatening to annex their territory, and then wondering why they won't come running when you need a favour. That's fucking foolish. But here's the bit that should really worry you. He named Australia, Japan, and South Korea. That's the Indo-Pacific alliance. That's AUKUS. That's the Quad. That's the entire strategic architecture built to counter China. And he just told all 3 of them to get stuffed on social media. Xi Jinping is watching this with a bucket of popcorn and the biggest grin on the planet. Meanwhile Australia is getting absolutely smashed. We've got 2 refineries. About 3 weeks of fuel reserves. Diesel heading for $3 a litre. Farmers are already running out of fuel. They can't harvest. They can't plant. Fuel rationing has started in towns across the country. Food prices are through the roof because every step of the supply chain runs on diesel we don't have. The RBA just hiked interest rates because the fuel and food spikes from this war are driving inflation and recession fears are real. Australians are getting hit at the bowser, hit at the checkout, hit on their mortgage, and the bloke who caused all of it is calling US foolish. This isn't strength. This is a narcissist who heard "no" and couldn't cope. This is a bloke flipping the Monopoly board because he landed on someone else's hotel. And every time he does it, every single time, he pushes allies one step further toward making their own arrangements. That's how alliances die. Not with a bang. With a tantrum on Truth Social at 11 in the morning. Australia's not foolish for sitting this one out. 15 countries might be the only countries in this whole mess that are actually thinking clearly and holding this shit fest from spilling into WWIII And seriously, Donald. You're trying to bully Australia? NATO? Mate, we live in a country where everything is actively trying to kill us. Every single day. We've got 21 of the 25 most venomous snakes on the planet. Twenty one. Out of twenty five. The inland taipan, the single most venomous snake on earth, one bite can kill over 100 grown adults, just vibing in the outback like it's nothing. We've got the Sydney funnel web, the deadliest spider in the world, and it lives in people's fucking gardens where our kids keep them as pets. We've got jellyfish that can stop your heart. Sharks. Crocodiles the size of a small truck. An octopus the size of a golf ball that can kill you in minutes. A plant that makes you want to throw yourself off a cliff if you brush against it. A fucking dinosaur bird, that will literally disembowel you with its feet. Stonefish. Cone snails. The sun itself trying to give us cancer by 10am. We share a continent with every venomous nightmare God ever created on a Friday afternoon when he was clearly in a bad mood. And you think we're scared of a bloke in an ill fitting suit who can't spell "hereby" and throws tantrums on his phone? We couldn't give 2 fucks what you think, Donald. We wrestle things with actual teeth. You're not even in the top 50 most dangerous things an Australian deals with on an average Tuesday. Australia will survive this god awful administration. But if you're gunna shoot yourself in the foot, leave us the fuck out of it wanker.

He's just an uncouth C**t.

Gina and her old man are/were just greed merchants of the highest order. Lang Hancock was a money-grubbing grub who used smart lawyer/accountants to initially write up an iron ore royalty agreement whereby he got 2.5% of all monies earned from a number of iron ore leases that he'd pegged - in perpetuity. The second thing he did was set up a major trust to avoid paying any tax on that massive amount of money. So Rio Tinto pays this family multiple tens of millions each year for no effort whatsoever on their part, and they pay zero tax on it - until the Hancock Trust is dismantled. That's why Gina spent hundreds of millions on lawyers and court cases to stop her children from dismantling the Handcock Trust. She succeeded. She paid her children a few tens of millions to keep them from grabbing more of the billions in the Trust. Gina married an American tax evasion expert, one Frank Rinehart, who narrowly avoided going to jail for tax fraud. He wound up with a suspended jail sentence. He was a crook who taught Gina all about tax evasion and how to manipulate laws to keep winning unfair gains. Frank Rinehart was a total fraud, he lived a double life with another woman while he was married to Gina. Gina believes she's the only one entitled to W.A.'s iron ore wealth, as her family pegged the first iron ore leases - and that everyone in Australia should genuflect to the Hancock dynasty and thank them eternally for the huge efforts the Hancocks have made to build up Australia. The truth is, they're nothing more than 20th and 21st century robber barons. https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-man-who-came-between-gina-and-her-father-20120622-20tll.html

My cup runneth over! It began to rain last night as I went to bed, and has continued to do so throughout the night and into the morning. It has not ben the flooding type of rain, just a steady fall which allows the water to soak in. Now all that is needed is for the seeds laying in the soil to sprout for winter feed.

I don't gamble using most common forms. If I happen to go to a club, I might have a little tickle on the pokies, but with the idea that playing them is a form of entertainent and I expect to have to pay for the time I am being entertained. Therfore I set a limit, usually not very much, on how much I am willing to pay for the entertainment. If by chance (and the pokies are pure chance) I should win some money, that makes the entertainment better. Do you gamble with Scratchies? I don't, but they are a convenient way for someone to give you "a little something" along with a birthday card. My sister gave me ten dollars worth of assorted scratchies today for my birthday. That was five Scratchies. My experience with Scratchies is that you scratch them; look at them, utter "Oh, well", and toss them in the bin. My expectations were met with three of them. Any further disappointment I expected was dispelled when I saw that I won $2 on one of them. As I started to scratch the final one, I thought that I was just going through the motions, and I would have four out of five duds. You could have knocked me down with a feather after I completed scratching the last card. I'm no expert in these things, but I think I won $5000.00! If not, I've won something with three of a kind. I won't tell my sister until I have confirmed the win, but I think the right thing to do would be to give her a thousand, at least. Because of her generosity in giving me a place to live, I've been able to build up a bank roll that makes me feel somewhat financially comfortable. If it is a win, it's a windfall. I think I should share the joy. Begging letters will be returned marked: "Receiver to Pay Postage"

I really think the AUKUS deal and the Yank submarine deal needs to be cancelled - from our end. The last thing we need is to deal with, is a tantrum-throwing toddler when he's supposed to be leading the worlds only remaining superpower, and setting statesmanship-like behaviour and standards. On top of that, the subs are vastly overpriced, and will be delivered 30 years too late, and be obsolete when they are delivered.

Just overheard a great line in the tearoom... "The only war Trump had an exit strategy for, was Vietnam!"

The answer is simple. Get an electric car. Solar, and petrol prices are a thing of the past..

He's the ultimate snake oil salesman. Back in the early 1900s, travelling salesmen would sell "miracle cures" to naive country folk. Said remedies did absolutely nothing, of course, except leave the victim poorer and still sick. Trump is exactly the same. A liar and braggart. Promised to "drain the swamp" when in fact he's the biggest alligator ever to inhabit any level of government. Promised to "make America great again" and has only made it worse. Promised to make ordinary people's lives better and has only raised prices, lowered healthcare, and made billionaires richer. Promised to start no wars and has invaded multiple countries. A rapist, fraudulent, morally (and multiple financially) bankrupt huckster who has fooled the religious into believing he's god's choice. Someone totally devoid of tact, empathy, diplomacy or character. In fact, if you were to say "Apart from death row inmates, who is the public figure with the least Presidential qualities?", the answer would be "Donald Trump".

https://thetyee.ca/News/2026/03/20/Australian-Mining-Billionaire-Sues-Canada/ Sure mate. Have a read of that. Support this horrible woman all you want but don't be blind to what type of person she is. When you get to a certain level of wealth you have the ability to distort democracy. From the article - " subsequent rulings by the Court of Appeal, Court of King’s Bench and Supreme Court of Canada repeatedly found that Northback had no legal case." So Gina's company pushed their vexatious claim through every level of Canada's legal system and were knocked back each time. Then they went for the last refuge of the mega rich multinational, Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). If you don't know what that is, research it. Phillip Morris and Clive Palmer have attempted ISDS cases against Australia and thankfully were unsuccessful. Before you say "go petition your politician", a few years ago I did exactly that, sending emails to every lower house member pleading that Australia not be a part of ISDS. I believe that we now do not include ISDS provisions in any trade agreements. But that hasn't stopped Gina from trying to steal $7b from Canadian taxpayers for a project she spent $220m on. Still a Gina fanboi?

Can you see what's wrong with our electoral system? One Nation and independents got well over 1/4 of the primary vote, perhaps a 1/3, and because there was no seats won except for one independent, all those votes end up with zero value. The only votes that have value are the ones that help to win seats. The votes that don't win seats just remain as bits of paper filled out by voters who get ignored for the next four years. This is one of the reasons I stopped voting. Some votes have significant value, while other votes have no value at all. For a system that has mandatory voting, all votes should have value, and proportionate representation in the running of the State, or Nation So the jurassic idea of "winning seats" needs to be changed to: "A party is to get as many votes as it can, and then, a party's voters will get a real say in Parliament". In other words, abolish "seats", and have proportionate representation in Parliament instead. That will mean every vote will have value every election. No voter will be left behind.

Neice Mary Trump Had him summed up Years ago and she's a trained Psychologist with detailed knowledge of how he was raised. Just how better off the world would be now if More Americans had read her book. Apparently the Biggest MAGA supporters are White supremist Evangelistic Christians who are also the Most Heavily into guns. 60 Million of them. Sleep Peacefully. What could Possibly go wrong? Its unfolding at a rapid rate but it will be everyone's Fault But Donalds.. Hitler expressed similar views. Nev

The expression on Takaichi’s face and her uncomfortable shifting in her seat shows just how Trump’s unexpected and ignorant jibe landed. She was visibly shocked. He hasn’t got a clue of course. Then Eric Trump’s response on X; “One of the great responses to a reporter in history!” A true chip off the old block. The sooner they are all gone, the better.

Interesting talk on Late Night Live about Pauline. I can't see how to get a link to it but if you go to ABC.net.au/listen and click on Radio National, it's one of the top picks.

On another note, one of the interesting things to come from this was our refugee system, which is considered one of the worst ones in the development world and freuently is the subject of intenational condemnation, including from teh UN: https://www.unhcr.org/au/monitoring-asylum-australia Despite the reasons for our asylum system, and despite the need to ensure all apoplications meet the criteria required that they are not a risk to Australia and that if returned to their homeland, they are likely to be persecuted, killed, etc for the people they are (e.g. activitists, gay, etc). OK, the Ausssie government could easily identify them, but how could they in a day determine their status and likely safety at home? Yeah they are footblallers, yeah they are women.. Did that make them eligible or able to be ualified as not being an undue rrisk? Yes, you could argue they were to go back to a war zone, but there are many refugees in camps and detention centres in that position, so why wouldn't it apply to them. As it turns out, they themselves deided they no longer needed asylum and it was safe to return.. to a war zone. Of course, there could be something more nefarious at operation - they may well have received threatd or legitimately been concerned of the ramifications them staying in Australia would have on their families by the regime. But now, it beckons the question - if it is good enough to turn around anylum claimes very quickly for some footballers, then why is it good enough for us to virtually torture our Asykum seekers? Yes, we shoiuld be diligent with applicants and make clear economic migrants should be sent back to go through other routes of migration. But waiting up to 4 years before one can even get permission to apply for asylum is cruel.

Most of the brains of the Soviet Union was centered in Ukraine back in those days. They provided the bulk of engineering and development for the Soviet Union and industrial capacity. It's where the tanks, armoured vehicles, tractors and machinery were designed, developed and manufactured. Aircraft and rocket engines was another area. Right up until the Ukraine/Russia war Russia was still buying their helicopter engines from Ukraine. We tend to think of Russia as the centre of the Soviet Union but Ukraine was where all the talent was. As an analogy, the Russian approach to opening a can would be to bash it with a hammer; Ukrainians would sit down and design a can opener.

Firstly, THANK YOU everyone for your concern. I’m ok — just a bit shaken up, but I’ll be fine. For those who don’t know what happened, I was robbed this morning filling my car up at the petrol station, ready for an early start. After it happened my hands were shaking, I felt dizzy and I was probably in shock. My money was gone, so I called the police. They were fantastic and even called an ambulance because my blood pressure was through the roof. The officer asked if I knew who did it… I said: “Yes… it was pump number 4.”

A friend of mine was the Shire Engineer in a municipality in country Victoria. He complained that every time he attended a Council meeting he had to debate with ten other engineers.

The real problem with councils is the replacement of the shire engineer with ten unqualified administrators.

octave, I built my own place in 1996 when I was in my early 40's and I'm thankful I did it then and not now. Looking at some of those beams I got up there on my own gets me trying to remember what it was like to be young and physically capable. The deepest stump hole was up to almost the top of my head and too tight for a jackhammer, so I levelled out a punching pad in the rock base with a crowbar. I used it like a percussion drill, letting the hand pressure off just as it hit the rock so it would twist a bit like a drill and chip a little bit out at a time. It was a bit claustrophobic down there. I dug all the stump holes with a shovel, crowbar and jackhammer. As far as raising bearers and beams, it's amazing what you can do with pulleys and temporary gin poles. To raise and place the poles in the holes I had pulleys and ropes set up at different points so I could tie the rope onto the 4WD and just drive away and watch the pole stand up in the rear vision mirror. It was hard work but a lot of fun and I'm glad I did it. All the 4x2 wall studs, king posts and collar ties, the 6x2 rafters and verandah joists and the 10x2 ridge board are all recycled ironbark from when they pulled down the old Maroochydore RSL. I bought a whole truckload of it from a demolition mate. Great seasoned timber but as hard as your mother in law's heart. You can't drive a clout into it without pre drilling.

I cant say I knew exactly how it works. My son lives in NZ and has explained it to me many times, although I often don't retain the information. Here is an abbreviated description of the differences between NZ and Aus. It does seem to me that each system has its pros and cons. 🗳️ The big picture Australia → uses preferential voting in single-member electorates (plus proportional voting for the Senate) New Zealand → uses a mixed-member proportional system (MMP) That one difference changes a lot about how governments are formed. 🇦🇺 Australia’s system Australia has two houses: House of Representatives (lower house) Uses preferential voting (also called instant runoff) You vote for candidates in your local electorate If no one gets 50%, preferences are redistributed until someone does Outcome: each electorate elects one MP, and the party with the majority forms government 👉 This tends to favour major parties like Australian Labor Party and Liberal Party of Australia Senate (upper house) Uses proportional representation (Single Transferable Vote) Each state elects multiple senators Smaller parties have a better chance here 🇳🇿 New Zealand’s system New Zealand uses MMP (Mixed-Member Proportional) Each voter gets two votes: 1. Electorate vote Like Australia: vote for a local MP 2. Party vote (this is the key one) Determines the overall proportion of seats in Parliament How seats are allocated Parliament has ~120 seats Some are electorate MPs The rest are “list MPs” added to make each party’s total match their share of the party vote 👉 Example: If a party gets 30% of the vote → they should have ~30% of seats If they win fewer electorates, they get extra list MPs to make up the difference ⚖️ Key differences that matter 1. Proportionality NZ: Highly proportional—parliament reflects the vote closely Australia: Less proportional—especially in the House of Representatives 2. Governments NZ: Coalition governments are the norm e.g. New Zealand Labour Party often governs with partners like New Zealand Green Party Australia: Usually majority single-party governments (or stable coalitions like Liberal–National) 3. Power of smaller parties NZ: Smaller parties often hold real power (kingmakers) Australia: Smaller parties matter more in the Senate than in the House 4. Voting experience NZ: Two votes (local MP + party) Australia: Rank candidates in order of preference (House), and more complex ballot for Senate 5. Strategic effects NZ: Encourages voting for the party you actually like (less “wasted vote”) Australia: Preferences help, but major parties still dominate outcomes 🧠 Simple way to think about it Australia: “Who wins each seat?” → determines government New Zealand: “What share of votes did each party get?” → determines government

🚨JUST NOW: Australia REJECTS Trump’s Minerals Demands — Pentagon PANICS as Rare Prices EXPLODE⚡...... Australia has firmly rejected a U.S. request for preferential access to its rare earth minerals, signaling a deeper strategic shift—not just a trade disagreement. These minerals, like neodymium and dysprosium, are critical for advanced military systems such as F-35 jets and missile guidance. Following the decision, rare earth prices surged, exposing a major vulnerability: the U.S. still depends heavily on China for processing these materials. Despite billions invested, domestic production covers only a small fraction of defense needs. Australia’s refusal reflects growing concerns over sovereignty and trust, especially after recent U.S. trade pressure and policy moves. This isn’t just about resources—it’s about whether allies are being treated as partners or dependencies. Globally, China dominates rare earth processing, giving it strategic leverage. Any disruption could impact not just defense, but also everyday technologies like electric vehicles and renewable energy. In short, this standoff reveals a fragile supply chain, rising geopolitical tension, and a critical question: can the U.S. secure reliable resources without straining its alliances

I won't speak for Litey, and I probably wouldn't have used the "foolish" word, but my beef is not with the idea of proportional representation. I think it is probably a good idea. I think that the notion that only votes that put a member in parliament are useful votes, and all others are a waste of time. This seems like a naive understanding of how things work. i seldom vote for one of the 2 major parties. I usually vote for a minor party that could never win. Is this a wasted vote? No, because my preferences go to the least worst party. My electorate is a safe Labor seat; however, parties are strongly attuned to swings against them. If a smaller party on the left gets many first preferences and the Labor party gets by on second preferences, they are liable to want to adjust their policies the next time to turn those second preferences into primary votes, and the same applies on the right. I do believe it would have been better if a stronger opposition had been elected; however, the voters by and large, understand the system as it is and voted accordingly.

Trump hasn't been innocent since he left his mother's womb.

They don't all Have 37 Billion to buy their way into everything. She will replace them with robots without batting an eye lid. ALL she cares about is Making more Money for Herself. No one want's that kind of thing to be Happening within their Government. It's NOT good for the Country. Gina's on record saying Paying a fine is ok for ALL crimes and Workers are worth 2 Dollars a day. She's No Angel. Nev

I would pay people to finish all my half finished jobs, including vehicle projects.

I have two friends who are a vigorous 90 and will be having lunch on Monday with someone who just turned 96. There is hope for all of us.

Your a racist turd 2 people did that. They are not the enemy People like you are

This clip shows just what a lowlife Trump is. Here he is relishing the fact that US Congressman Neal Dunn has still been turning up for work to bolster the Republican numbers in the House, despite having been diagnosed with a terminal illness. In the meantime while Trump is talking about death and the details of Dunn's illness, Susie Wiles is sitting next to him and has just been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. It's hard to believe how crass and self-centered this guy is.

re my post this thread 13 February, I had the tests today. Took a little over two hours. Some of them were weird. The clinician put a camera on my head to monitor my eyes. There was a small sticker on the wall about 2 feet from me. I had to keep my eyes on the sticker while he yanked my head left. right. up and down, while he monitored my eye movement. Then I had to hold my head still while following a light spot jumping around all over by just moving my eyes. Then I moved into a soundproof booth to do the hearing tests normally done by audiologists. This was to determine if I was a suitable candidate for Cochlear Implants. Then I moved into another room where I had to lie on a bed. He rubbed my earlobes and forehead lightly with sandpaper and attached stickers and leads. He placed earphones in my ears, and he played a tapping sound; like repeatedly tapping on a cardboard box. At first it sounded like an approaching helicopter, but settled down like an idling motorbike. I had to look left, right, and roll my eyes as far up as possible, 5 minutes in each position. He took out the eyephones and placed a metal gizmo behind my ears and repeated the tapping so that I could feel it like he was tapping behind my ears. Then he repeated the whole thing with the sandpapering, stickers and leads on my neck, chest and just under my eyes. Finally, we moved to a third room, where I sat on the foot of a bed in front of a TV screen about 48 in size. He put a bulky pair of glasses, like a virtual reality headset, which contained a camera. It's scary looking at your eye filling a large TV screen. Then he played a yellow dot on the screen and I had to follow it without moving my head. Then he placed a cover over the lens so it was totally dark, and the displayed a small spot of light in the headset. I had to look a the position of the light. He turned it off and I had to keep looking at the spot without closing my eyes. It's hard to know if your eyes are open or closed when it is totally dark. Then I had to lie on the bed blindfolded while he blew very warm air into each ear to see if it made me feel the room was spinning. All these tests were recorded in graphs on the computer. He will email the results to my doctor with a copy to me by mid next week.

Good job a lot of us have the ability to work from home now.

Most Crude contains something like 10% Sulphur. There's Mountains of it piled up in a lot of Places near refineries. Overseas refining is a lower cost result than doing it Here and having Large reserves cost a Heap also and people don't want to have that extra cost.. The current reserves are Higher than they have been for a long while but are Below the recommended Amount. All reserves run out eventually if supply is below demand during WW2 Cars were put on Blocks for the duration. Nothing is guaranteed. That's the reality. Nev

But he doesn't pay to play golf, in fact he gets paid for the rooms the secret service are forced to pay full price for. Such a greedy fuck

When I was a new Constable back in 1980, fresh from the Police Academy, I was posted to Campsie, which is next-door to Bankstown. The Division included Lakemba. At that time it was strongly Lebanese. One of the notoriuous families there was the Alameddine family. They crooks then are now old men, but the now we have the third generation which is carrying on the criminal activities. The Alam al-Dins, also spelled Alamuddin or Alameddine, were a Druze family that intermittently held or contested the paramount chieftainship of the Druze districts of Mount Lebanon in opposition to the Ma'n and Shihab families in the late 17th and early 18th centuries during Ottoman rule. The Sydney branch of the family came as refugees from the Lebanese Civil War.

While we tend to think of oil as a fuel to be burned, it has many other applications even including pharmaceuticals. So disruption of supply can affect a host of other products. Anyway, if 25% of oil supplies are cut off, where is the other 75% coming from? Of are those other oils not suitable for fuel production. Remeber, "oils ain't oils, Sol".

On the bright side Trump, in his ignorance, has done more to promote decreased reliance on fossil fuels than any carbon tax or green energy initiative has ever done.

Now we can hope he spits the dummy and cancels the AUKUS deal

Cuba is easy to subdue these days. Iran is a Large Fortress. Boots on the ground will be like quicksand. Make Afghanistan look like a tea and scones party by comparison. Trump is a BIG FAKE little boy with dangerous toys in his Pram. Nev

Zelensky has just signed a deal with Britain for the manufacture of Ukrainian designed drones. One thing that we are ignorant of is how smart in the area of industrial design the Ukranians are. I think we have the impression that they are just farmers and miners, but they are industrially powerful.

Victoria's broke. Fossil fuels are estimated I think by the Austrlaian institute to be subsidised by $30,000 a minute: https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/ffs-fossil-fuel-subsidies-cost-australia-30000-a-minute/ Imagine if clean electricity generation, and the research to exploit it were subsisdised to the same tune. Your taxes are paying for you to have high energy costs, with associated high costs assocaited with the environmental damage and health complications it causes. That $40K per minute directed at the renewable industry would clean it up in a few short years.. And you would have less energy costs to boot. And if the government didn't change taxes, there would be more to spend as other costs would be reduced. And the economy is susceptible to global shocks per messrs Chump and Net. et al. Wake up, Australia!

NO smoke with solar and wind That's for Lucas Electrics on Bikes and cars. I'm paying 30 cent / kw Hr What's so bad about that with $400 annual for the connection. What are you paying for your internet or Netflix subscription.? Nev

Lang Hancock found the Iron ore with a Cessna 172. He's never had One good word to say about Gorgeous Gina.' and He's her father. I really don't want someone like HER having a lot of say about HOW this Country is Governed, thank you very Much. Nev

It would be great if we could go back to the days when Trade Unions worked towards the betterment of their members. Luckily the Unions wrested a lot of benefits from Big Business which remain in place today. If anyone wants to bag Unions to me, I'll simply ask them if they would be prepared to go back to a 48 hour week, bugger-all holiday leave, no paid sick leave etc. It amazes me that the people in business and politics who always scream that any improvement in the conditions of people who work will destroy the economy, are quite happy to avail themselves of those Union-won benefits. Would you really like to live in a system where there is no job security; no liveable basic wage and no economic protection in the event of illness or injury? If you would like that, then there is a number of flights from Australia to the USA each day.

W.A.'s Kwinana oil refinery, just S of Perth, was Australia's newest and biggest oil refinery. But it was built in 1954, by the "Anglo-Iranian Oil Co", which became British Petroleum. However, it was shut for good in 2021, as BP stated they couldn't compete with the oil refinery running costs of the S.E. Asian refineries - which all had huge capacity and cheap labour. The bottom line is, we are dependent on overseas oil, regardless of whether it's refined here or not. As Jerry says, EV's are the way to go, with many EV's having 400kms range today (or battery options to increase to "long range" ability) - and with many people having solar systems on their house, it's free energy from the sun, right where you are - and no amount of warring or global upsets can beat that.

The part that gets up your nose is that over 80% of our petrol and diesel comes ready-refined from huge refineries in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and China. These refineries source their crude from probably 20 or 30 different crude oil sources - then blend it to make it suitable for their particular refinery feedstock. It's not like a slowdown in Straits of Hormuz oil shipping is going to affect our fuel supplies or prices to the levels we're currently seeing. Maybe 15% - 20% at most, not the 70% - 90% increases we are currently seeing. We're being reamed senseless with a large pineapple with no lube, when it comes to fuel. Only 25% of the worlds oil moves through the Straits of Hormuz, so that means 75% of oil supplies are unaffected.

You have to feel sorry for the Yanks. Their fuel price is now about $US 4.00 per US gallon. There are 3.78541 litres per US gallon. That puts their price at $US 1.06 per litre. Currently $US 1.06 = $AUD 1.50.

BYD has finished their factory in Brazil. For the local market. It saves 25 days shipping time from China. Last month marked the first time BYD sold more cars abroad than in China. BYD sold 89,590 cars in China and 100,600 overseas. Note that last year the same company got into legal strife for slavery. "Brazilian labor inspectors rescued 163 Chinese workers from the plant’s construction site, accusing their employer, a subsidiary of BYD, of subjecting them to conditions analogous to slavery." Wouldn't have been a problem if they set up in Texas!

If there is a country in the World that needs a regime change, it's the USA. Unfortunately, replacng the Republicans with the Democrats will not change the American culture which is the source of the problem.