GRIPES

[onetrack]

We have a large (210 Ha), fairly new, citrus-growing operation, N of Perth, at Dandaragan - Moora Citrus. They produce beautiful, sweet tasty oranges - yet I'm struggling to get any - because 60% of the Moora Citrus orange crop, goes directly to China!!

 

[Subria]

Some years ago a friend of mine had a large stone fruit farm up near Lake Makoan in Victoria,he had his fruit on wire vines aggressively pruned to produce small amounts of fruit per tree root but large in size. I'd never seen this before but he said ALL of his fruit went OS, none made it to market here as he got considerably more $$$ from OS buyers! 

He's now long gone sadly as is his once magnificent fruit farm (due to our wonderful corrupt Govt) on the edge of the lake, as well as his PA39 & C210, loved flying them both🛩👍

[old man emu]

7 hours ago, onetrack said:

because 60% of the Moora Citrus orange crop, goes directly to China!!

To pay for the importation of plastic trivia in unnecessarily excessive packaging.

 

Who said Australia was a First World country?  We are slaves in our own country to the Barons of Globalisation.

[old man emu]

I've just come back from from a search mission to find Berri Orange juice at my local Coles. I couldn't find it at Woolies yesterday. So I decided to ask Mr Google where I could get it and found this post from a month ago:

 

I rang up Berri 3 Aug 2020. They told me Berri has permanently ceased making orange juice a few months ago. I think Berri has been bought out by Phillipines company San Miguel a while back.

9 hours ago, onetrack said:

60% of the Moora Citrus orange crop, goes directly to China!!

Where it is pulped, put into big drums and sent back here. Is it impossible to pulp oranges in Australia?  As a result of COVID, I'm wary of any biological produce coming out of China. I even worry when I open a new tool that has been in a vacuum sealed package. Who knows what is in the air inside the package.

 

I have seen the Third World, and it is us!

[onetrack]

You're right to be greatly concerned about Chinese juice concentrates and Chinese food supplies in general. Their attention to health regulations, food safety and the quality of the end product is minimal at best.

Do a Google search on "Chinese juice concentrates" and you'll find the Americans raising alarms at the dodgy quality of Chinese juice concentrates more than 10 years ago.

High arsenic levels, waste water contamination, high levels of pesticides, fungicides, and other residual "nasties" - along with rotten fruit being processed for juice, leading to contamination with patulin - a mold spore that produces mycotoxin, which can survive processing procedures and high temperatures.

I see no reason for us to be consuming food from China, when we are one of the food bowls of the Southern Hemisphere, and have a long record of producing high quality food that is demand, worldwide. One of the reasons why our primary produce sells so well in China.

[red750]

They are at it again.

 

"Hello, this is Shastri from Telstra NBN. How are you today?" All nice and polite, but they are a scam. You can tell by the 10 second delay at the start of the call. I don't have Telstra NBN, I'm with another provider. Three calls in the one afternoon. And today, a recorded message "Your Amazon account will be suspended.." Hang up. I don't have an Amazon account.Never bought on Amazon. Why can't the ACCC track these pests down and put them out of business? You feel like answering with a string of obscenities, but the next call is your sister-in-law.

[old man emu]

32 minutes ago, red750 said:

You feel like answering with a string of obscenities, but the next call is your sister-in-law.

And the problem with that is ...?

[Jerry_Atrick]

On 08/09/2020 at 2:08 PM, Subria said:

Some years ago a friend of mine had a large stone fruit farm up near Lake Makoan in Victoria,he had his fruit on wire vines aggressively pruned to produce small amounts of fruit per tree root but large in size. I'd never seen this before but he said ALL of his fruit went OS, none made it to market here as he got considerably more $$$ from OS buyers! 

He's now long gone sadly as is his once magnificent fruit farm (due to our wonderful corrupt Govt) on the edge of the lake, as well as his PA39 & C210, loved flying them both🛩👍

 

@Subria, care to explain what government rules or actions forced the fruit farm and other possessions to go (presumably under the hammer/sold)? Genuinely interested as I would have thought it was probate taxes, but when I left Aus in the late 90s, there were none; and I heard, it seems incorrectly, from an Aussie accountant that a small inheretence tax was intorduced (apparently this is not true). However, a quick check of the internet shows that it is the other taxes that can come into play - any taxes alreeady owing by the deceased is an obvious one, and that is fair enough, as well as any taxes payable from post-humous estate income (rents received, royalites, etc).. also fair enough. In fact, looking at this wep page (https://www.investblue.com.au/knowledge-centre/insights-news/inheritance/how-tax-works-when-giving-or-receiving-an-inheritance) it seems not too unfair a system... CGT payable when the beneficiary disposes of the asset (reading the info here, I think as long as an asset is passed down generations and not sold/given away, it will never be subject to CGT). Pardon the pun, but I am dead against death duties and stealth death duties, so would be interested in how the government forced the beneficiaries hand? Of course, a lot of wills are contested, sometimes acrimoniously... but this is either the fault of the testate (e.g. leaving out a key dependent, poor will drafting, or in the case of a spectacular case I know, trying to use the will to keep the family money pooled when some of the beneficiaries wanted to do something on their own.. that case was heard in the High Court), or it could be a greedy beneficiary or a chancer who was left out, but that is hardly the fault of the government.

 

On to the manufacturing issues in Aus, maybe this clip explains the problems and a major gripe of mine - the so-called level playing field policy that was (and maybe still is) pursued by Aussie governments. EU cheese (and other artisan agricultrual) produce manufacturers are subsidised - to the tune in 2018 of EUR 59bn of which 42bn is direct income support (https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/key-policies/common-agricultural-policy/cap-glance_en). How are our local producers without equivalent support supposed to play on this level playing field. Seems there are some quick wins to announce tarrifs on foreign imported goods (and services) where those industries are subsidised heavily to compete (which, surely is a form of dumping?). The EU is no better than China or the US when it comes to international trade, and we just allow it all to happen... It's just the world, for some reason, likes them more.

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Jerry_Atrick

[onetrack]

Many farm owners with a great deal of equipment and machinery that is on a depreciation schedule, get caught with unforeseen tax, when they sell up.

 

They have a ripper of a clearing sale, and equipment that was bought 20 or 30 yrs ago, brings good money, because it's well-maintained, and in good condition.

 

The problem is, the equipment or machinery has been written down to virtually zero on the depreciation schedule, and any sum it sold for, above the "book value", is classed as taxable income.

[old man emu]

8 hours ago, onetrack said:

They have a ripper of a clearing sale, and equipment that was bought 20 or 30 yrs ago, brings good money, because it's well-maintained, and in good condition.

That can be a problem when antique hunters go to clearing sales and find all sorts of U-beaut stuff, like old cars, motorbikes and planes.

[old man emu]

GRIPE: ALDI puts a surcharge on card transactions.

 

Early in this COVID epidemic many retailers began requesting customers to pay using cashless methods, so that the possibility of the virus spreading to workers handling cash could be reduced. Fair call.

 

This lead to an increase in the use of debit cards (by the wise) and credit cards (by the foolish). The card issuers kept quiet about people incurring charges for exceeding  monthly transaction limits, but that could be expected as it is a hidden income stream for them. However, a lot of the big retailers did what they could to waive card fees. Except ALDI, which still imposes a 2% surcharge for cashless transactions. 

 

I suppose that by maintaining the surcharge, they make up for the money they didn't make through rounding up of purchase totals. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I find it effin amazing the banks are allowed to get away with card transactions, and retailers are, too. For both, it is far cheaper and less risky to use electronic transactions than handle cash (maybe for credit cards, chargebacks are a factor).. yet they charge for it. It is really unbelievable. But then again, the pollies did everything they could to protect their mates from a Royal Commission into misconduct, so it is not surprising... and this is coming from someone who works in the banking sector.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Jerry_Atrick

[spacesailor]

 " . Except ALDI, which still imposes a 2% surcharge for cashless transactions. "

I'm The opposite.

I Pay by debit and get a $ hundred out at the same time.

saves a trip to the bank, But the wife won't do it at all, much rather go to the bank then pay Aldi.

spacesailor

Edited September 24, 2020 by spacesailor

[Bruce Tuncks]

For many years, Brazilian orange grove workers could not afford to buy orange juice for their kids. Why was this not commented upon?

[Old Koreelah]

1 hour ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

For many years, Brazilian orange grove workers could not afford to buy orange juice for their kids. Why was this not commented upon?

Bruce this sort of thing happens over the world.  For thousands of years people living around Lake Victoria made a good living from its abundant fish stocks. Now the best fish are exported to rich countries and many locals queue up for the leftovers.

As a result, I don't buy Nile Perch from our supermarket.

[onetrack]

We aren't much better off in Australia. A very large proportion of our finest meat, dairy products, and ocean catch, goes to the extremely wealthy in countries such as China!

[spacesailor]

I met a group of grey-nomads in far north Queensland,

Who fished, and traded their excess fish to a couple of farmers for meat. 

Hope they are  still trading without the government's GST TAX !.

spacesailor

[Bruce Tuncks]

Yep Onetrack, I well remember my grandmother buying 2 large crayfish for Saturday evening.

She was a stingy old lady so they must have been quite cheap in the 1950's.

Gosh I can't remember the last time I had a crayfish but I do remember it was very small.

I knew a guy who worked on a crayboat but he couldn't afford one for himself. They were all exported.

[old man emu]

 

[willedoo]

This is a gripe that I can't do anything about, and it's thunderstorms. I hate them, or to be more specific, I hate the lightning, hail, and erosion damage they cause. Thunderstorm season has started here in S.E. Qld., and after only two days of it, I've already almost been hit. I was walking out of the shed on Tuesday and saw a flash of light out of the corner of the eye, then an instant bang that nearly made me wish I was wearing brown cord pants.

 

I often do a few modems per year due to storms, so last night I unplugged everything and took refuge in bed. It was high lightning, luckily with not too many ground strikes. Most of it was air burst lightning but as I was lying there in bed, I could feel the house shaking and feel the concussion shocks from the big ones. Very similar to the shock wave felt when letting off explosives. I think that was due to the fact that they were bursting in the air, but quite low.

 

A lot of the effects are due to geography. The driveway is wrecked with lot of erosion damage, but I live in the hills with a steep 500 metre long drive. The erosion wouldn't be much of an issue for someone living on the flat. My place seems to be vulnerable to strikes because of height and position, but I often wonder if the rock attracts lightning. The property has a lot of rock outcrops and cliffs, mainly rhyolite.

 

The sheet lightning is not too bad. I've had it come inside the house on more than one occasion and it usually consists of a few small blue flashes earthing on metal components like sinks and stoves. I once had a small blue bolt arc between a frypan I was holding and the stove I was about to put it on. The handle was insulated, so maybe that's why I didn't feel any voltage go through me. It's the big ground strike killer bolts that scare me, like the one that nearly got me a couple of days ago. All exciting stuff, but something I can do without.

 

On the good side, 100mm. of rain. This morning, the sun is shining, the water tanks are full and all the birds are happy. They get a bit quiet during the dry times but after rain the whole lot start singing. I've always thought birds are a type of litmus test; if they're happy, we're happy.

 

 

[nomadpete]

Understand how you feel about lightning. We used to live on top of a rocky knoll. The driveway was steep - the house was 160metres higher than the street and the driveway was only 250mtrs. I used to dread every Queensland downpour as it meant buying another load of road base to make up for what washed down the hill. We lost several washing machines to lightning strikes,, modems, TV, and once the dishwasher got hit so hard that the power point welded itself to the power plug and I had to pull the power point off the wall and replace that too. We weren't always at home and too lazy to unplug everything in the house every day when we left for work. Never felt frightened as the house was all steel and well grounded. At least we never got flooded out! When the storms weren't actually trying to lift the roof off, we loved to sit out on the verandah suppling wine and watching the storm cells pass by at a safe distance.

[old man emu]

40 minutes ago, willedoo said:

rhyolite.

This rock is high in silica. Silicon (Si) is a semi-metallic or metalloid, because it has several of the metallic characteristics. Silicon is never found in its natural state, but rather in combination with oxygen as the silicate ion SiO4-. Silicon is a semiconductor, meaning that it does conduct electricity. Unlike a typical metal, however, silicon gets better at conducting electricity as the temperature increases (metals get worse at conductivity at higher temperatures).

 

I suppose as the rock it heated by the amperage of the lightning bolt. A typical lightning flash is about 300 million Volts and about 30,000 Amps.

 

Since Power = Voltage x Amperes

P = V x A

   = 3 x10^8 x 3 x10^4

   = 9 x 10^12 Watts.

   = 9 trillion Watts

   = 9 teraWatts

[willedoo]

18 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Never felt frightened as the house was all steel and well grounded.

Pete, I think part of the reason I get a bit twitchy around storms might be related to childhood experience. When I was about 4 or 5 we had a tornado rip the roof off. We had to shelter under the kitchen table as there was debris flying around and being blown out. The wind suction was trying to take the table but my mother and older siblings were able to hold it down ok. I always remember us kids being told to shelter under the parents double bed after it had passed. Mother's reasoning was that it might double back. I still remember that wet bedding dripping on us.

 

I've heard a few good stories about surviving Cyclone Tracy over the years. One bloke told me that he was quite inebriated and reasoned that the bath tub was a good place to shelter with a few tinnies. He passed out and slept through it but woke up with the whole house down on him. Luckily the metal bathtub protected him and he didn't get a scratch.

[nomadpete]

Childhood trauma like that stays with you forever. You and the whole family must have been terrified. I'm surprised you live high on a hill. Even without having gone through what you did, I do get quite afraid when the wind shakes our house. In gusts, it quivers on its stumps. So did your previous house and its stumps were only a foot high, and concreted firmly into rock. 

[Yenn]

I survived a lightning strike years ago. The chimney i was building got a direct hit. It was just like a blue green glow which hung around for a few seconds. When we tried to contact our winch driver, he didn't reply, so we looked over the edge and he was laid out on the ground by the winch. The lightning had run down the winch cable and he got a kick as he was holding the drive handle. Luckily he revived in a short while and lived on for many years.

The funny thing is how slow everything seems to happen.