Open Thread – Mon 18 Sept 2023


The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes), Adolph Menzel, 1872-75

1,013 responses to “Open Thread – Mon 18 Sept 2023”

  1. feelthebern Avatar
    feelthebern

    Last weekend the All In podcast held their annual summit.
    They had a lot of good speakers & are dropping selected ones onto their youtube channel.

    https://www.youtube.com/@allin/videos

    These include Larry Summers, Ray Dalio, Bill Gurley & Elon.
    The Bill Gurley one talks about the stagnation of the US.

  2. feelthebern Avatar
    feelthebern

    Cocoa prices hit 50 year highs over the past week.
    How long before ColesWorth jack up their chocolate prices for stock that was contracted 6-12 months ago?
    Heads ColesWorth wins.
    Tails the consumer lose.
    If only there was a competition regulator to ensure profiteering like this didn’t happen.

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  3. feelthebern Avatar
    feelthebern

    Two of my WhatsApp groups is lighting up this morning with a range of Yes front groups being granted DGR status in late 2022 & early 2023.
    Is this old news?
    Or fake news?

  4. Gabor Avatar
    Gabor

    feelthebern
    Sep 19, 2023 6:01 AM

    Two of my WhatsApp groups is lighting up this morning with a range of Yes front groups being granted DGR status

    Made me look up DGR status.
    One learns somet new every day.

  5. Vicki Avatar
    Vicki

    I can’t believe this. Breakfast TV News just reported that a large number of Sydney and Sth Coast schools are closing today because of anticipated temperature of 34 degrees plus ! Good heavens – what are they going to do in Summer? Permanently close the schools?

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  6. Dot Avatar

    Oh no! 34 degrees! Heavens to Betsy!

  7. Jorge Avatar
    Jorge

    The Barassi worship continues, driven by sports media.

    Nothing against him but the game is bigger than one man and the Cup should not commemorate an individual.

    He wasn’t gay and he wasn’t black. Most unsuitable.

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  8. Dot Avatar

    DUDE! WHERE’S MY F-35?

  9. billie Avatar
    billie

    You use Whats App?

    Get onto Signal if you want privacy.

  10. Dot Avatar

    The Barassi worship continues

    As it should.

    The John Elliot Shield will be even better.

    Which hopefully after 2023, will be the new name for the AFL Minor Premiership given the McClellan is now the Club Championship for the AFL/AFLW.

  11. calli Avatar
    calli

    So…I looked it up. DGR status follows so you don’t have to –

    Deductible Gift Recipient specific listing | Treasury.gov.au
    Entities endorsed as deductible gift recipients (DGR) are entitled to receive donations which are deductible from the donor’s income tax. Division 30 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 determines which entities can gain DGR status.

    And, I presume “No” does not have this status?

    Our government and its agencies are either corrupt or very, very close to it.

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  12. 132andBush Avatar
    132andBush

    Good heavens – what are they going to do in Summer? Permanently close the schools?

    As I referred to the other day; if you read the BOM definitions for the various classes of heatwave we will have heatwave announcements nearly each week.
    Interesting stats exercise there if anyone wants to take it on. They are basically declaring a heatwave if it’s forecast to be three consecutive days over the average in any particular district.

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  13. Cassie of Sydney Avatar
    Cassie of Sydney

    Russell Brand’s career is finito.

    It’s surreal now, we now live in a time where female accusers don’t bother going to the police, instead they go to the MSM to air their real or imagined complaints about a man, and the media run with it, and what happens, a man’s life is destroyed! Geez Louise, it works a treat. Such trivial details as “evidence” and “trials” are now deemed irrelevant. Every day in the West is now…..”j’accuse”!

    Further to Esther Krakue’s very wise words about “sexual discipline”, I think mothers need to counsel their sons very carefully. It’s open slather on heterosexual males. But you see, all of this has come about by a chronic lack of sexual discipline in the West, and now we live in a culture drenched in lewdness, vulgarity, indecency and pornography. It’s been fifty years in the making, a culture now totally infused with sexual unrestraint.

    The old rules protected males and females. Perhaps it’s time we adopted those rules again.

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  14. Pogria Avatar
    Pogria

    I’ve been reading an article a Swiss moron who bought a $300.00 live lobster at a restaurant in Sardinia, then dropped it back into the sea. The best part of the article were the comments. My favourite comment;
    I buy eggs and then let them free by throwing them towards the lefties on the picket lines” 😀

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  15. 132andBush Avatar
    132andBush

    Obese teachers can’t cope with the heat?

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  16. Vicki Avatar
    Vicki

    There is no doubt that fire conditions in rural areas are going to be dodgy this summer particularly in relation to grass fires. And it is a warm, dry spring up here. But this media panic regarding mild temperatures is ridiculous. It was in the low 30s here yesterday. I went for my usual 45 minute walk around the property without any discomfort & we did all the normal maintenance work – gardening, machinery maintenance, cattle work and so on. Husband helped a neighbour repair an excavator. All out in the sun. All normal.

    Husband remarked this morning that this is just the same as the Covid panic. It does not worry him. It makes me seethe. It is insidious mind control.

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  17. calli Avatar
    calli

    Good heavens – what are they going to do in Summer? Permanently close the schools?

    They have form. This is just a tryout for more and for other reasons.

    Old Cats and Kittehs have already mentioned the 100F “go home” for children…if the principal decided to apply it.

    Discomfort is now considered dangerous.

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  18. Robert Sewell Avatar

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/woman-euthanized-belgium-heard-screaming-loved-ones-as/

    “Belgian law specifies that to qualify for euthanasia, the person must be in a ‘medically futile condition of constant and unbearable physical or mental suffering that cannot be alleviated, resulting from a serious and incurable disorder caused by illness or accident.’”

    Unfortunately for Alexina, her death was anything but peaceful. After a cocktail of drugs failed to end her life, European media outlet Le Soir, reported that Alexina was suffocated with a pillow by nurses while her loved ones in another room heard her screams.

    And who assured us this wouldn’t happen?

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  19. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    Obese teachers can’t cope with the heat?

    Closer to the mark, I reckon.

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  20. Dot Avatar

    Cassie

    Women don’t want to get married and they don’t want children until they’re 30 and it is only one.

    Sure I am talking to younger university educated women.

    They initiate hookups. There’s a reason why Bumble exists.

    I’m not blaming women. I’m just asking what’s in it for men anymore if they don’t want unemotional promiscuity.

    (We’re not waiting for women to become almost infertile. Who will save them? Not me.)

    Speakman’s absurd enthusiastic consent laws even cruel a relationship forming organically let alone a sneaky link.

    If a man wants multiple children from a fertile wife you may as well convert to whatever religion necessary and enter into an arranged marriage.

    Look at the divorce rates in Western Europe.

    It’s wild.

  21. Robert Sewell Avatar

    It Begins: Australia’s Fifth-Largest Bank Announces Digital-Only Transactions – Will Phase Out Cash, Cheque, and Phone Payments in All 80 Branches Starting Next Year
    January 2024: Phasing out of new checkbooks for new cash management accounts, including any linked Macquarie Wrap accounts.
    March 2024: Automated telephone banking services will be shut down, making phone payments impossible.
    May 2024: Depositing or withdrawing cash or cheques over the counter at Macquarie branches will no longer be possible. Ordering checkbooks for existing accounts will also be discontinued.
    November 2024: Writing or depositing cheques, including bank cheques, will be completely phased out. Superannuation contributions or payments using cheques will also cease.

  22. eric hinton Avatar
    eric hinton

    Heavens to Betsy

    uptick

  23. Vicki Avatar
    Vicki

    132 and bush – thanks for that. It makes sense. BOM – who are all warming fanatics – must be contacting the media whenever 3 days are above average & declaring a heatwave.

  24. lotocoti Avatar
    lotocoti

    Feckin’ ijits.

    Denise has a prostate. Most transgender women do, as do some intersex and non-binary people. That’s ok. Nature is weird and wonderful sometimes. It is infinite in its diversity and combinations.

    Delusions are weird and wonderful too.
    Sometimes.

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  25. 132andBush Avatar
    132andBush

    It is insidious mind control.

    It is.
    If you remember in January I was down at Horsham and the forecast was for some ridiculous temperature and I was scoffing at it given there was a southerly forecast as well. We were on track for one of the coolest summers on record and it felt as though some people were trying to “bump up”perceptions.

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  26. Robert Sewell Avatar

    It Begins: Australia’s Fifth-Largest Bank Announces Digital-Only Transactions – Will Phase Out Cash, Cheque, and Phone Payments in All 80 Branches Starting Next Year

    So is the Macquarie Bank going to suffer a run on its deposits?
    I don’t know, but I’m accelerating the plunder run of my Commonwealth accounts into gold.
    Silly people.

  27. Cassie of Sydney Avatar
    Cassie of Sydney

    We live in a dumb times, but worse, both dumb and forgetful times.

    At work last week I sat and listened as people sitting near me, all of whom are younger than me, shrieked about the coming week’s “heat wave” and how “unprecedented” and “boiling” it was.

    To which I turned around and said “nonsense”. I said I clearly remember the year 2000, how on the first day of the Sydney Olympics a heat wave began that went on for weeks. I then said that the difference between 2023 and 2000 is that 23 years ago people celebrated the heat whereas now people shriek and catastrophise about it. There was silence. And then surprisingly a younger colleague agreed with me, he said he also remembers how in 2000, when he was nine years old, he also remembers that heatwave.

    I sometimes wonder if people here quite understand the depths of this climate alarmism and catastrophism, and how it is framing much of the business world. ESG is now running amok through large corporations. I work with younger people and climate change IS their religion. Some I’ve had conversations with are even convinced the northern beaches are going to disappear! LOL. Of course, of course, none of this alarmism curtails their winter skiing trips or their jaunts off to Europe this year. They just don’t seem to think they need to make any sacrifices to save da planet! Sacrifices are for little people.

    Dumb times, forgetful times, and very hypocritical times.

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  28. 132andBush Avatar
    132andBush

    Remember:
    This time last year everywhere was or nearly was under water.

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  29. Robert Sewell Avatar

    They’re determined to control your money, no matter what. And next in line is the refusal by the banks to allow you to spend it on something their woke department disagrees with – like excess meat for this month, or an OS holiday if you’ve already had one this year. Or a new car if it isn’t an EV.
    So how is this going to apply to business trips? Will they be curtailed? Or just not counted? And how are they going to happen if all the airlines go broke because the peasants aren’t going to be allowed to fly and subsidise the rich industrialists? Because those 737s aren’t going to leave the ground with just Business Class on board.
    Actually, those 737s aren’t going to be built – only the Learjet Class will survive. Boeing will go tits up and the stockmarket will as well.
    It’s going to be a hell of a ride, strap in.

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  30. Cassie of Sydney Avatar
    Cassie of Sydney

    I’m so sick and tired of this constant blackwashing in historical programmes.

    Last night I watched on SBS IQ programme called ‘Royal Mob’, about Queen Victoria’s grandchildren and their various marriages. Last night’s episode dealt with the Hesse sisters, the daughters of Queen Victoria’s second oldest daughter, Princess Alice, who tragically died young from diphtheria. Princess Alice married the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt, a German royal family. Their four daughters were as follows……Victoria, Elizabeth, Irene and Alix. All were great beauties, particularly Elizabeth and Alix. Ella and Alix married into the Russian royal family, and the rest is history, both were murdered by the Bolsheviks. Alix became Empress of Russia and she, her husband Nicholas, and their five children were shot and bludgeoned to death in a cellar in Ekaterineburg.

    But anyway, the eldest Princess Victoria married Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884, and their children included Princess Alice, the mother of the late Duke of Edinburgh and Earl Mountbatten of Burma. The programme had a reenactment of Victoria and Louis’ wedding day in Darmstadt Germany in 1884……and what did they have at the reception, a black actor as a wedding guest. Yeah…nah…nah….nah….bulldust and bullshit. I can guarantee you there were no blacks in Darmstadt in 1884.

    I’m getting tired of this blackwashing.

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  31. Cassie of Sydney Avatar
    Cassie of Sydney

    “If a man wants multiple children from a fertile wife you may as well convert to whatever religion necessary and enter into an arranged marriage.”

    And that will happen, Islam is on the rise in Europe, and more and more European men are converting. Wonder why?

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  32. shatterzzz Avatar
    shatterzzz

    It Begins: Australia’s Fifth-Largest Bank Announces Digital-Only Transactions – Will Phase Out Cash, Cheque, and Phone Payments in All 80 Branches Starting Next Year

    Why isn’t the gummint investigating with this? .. shirley, any company in the banking business, who’s main function is money, has an obligation to deal in money .. if a bank isn’t interested in accepted standard monetary practises is it in breach of its licensing conditions ……. and if not, why not? …….

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  33. Miltonf Avatar
    Miltonf

    Better not to bother with contemporary tv Cassie. I only watch it when I happen to be in public places where it’s rammed down your throat but fortunately there seems to be a move to subtitles so U don’t have to listen.

  34. Farmer Gez Avatar
    Farmer Gez

    If you want a rest from the YES campaign, come out to the bush.
    The Voice is barely a whisper and the biggest issues in conversation will be the state of the roads and power/fuel prices.
    Call it a sanity break.

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  35. Cassie of Sydney Avatar
    Cassie of Sydney

    Netflix tried some blackwashing and the ensuing blowback was sweet, very sweet to watch. Portraying Cleopatra as a sub-Saharan black women didn’t go down very well, particularly in the middle east, and particularly in Cleo’s home of Egypt. But more importantly, it was a a lie. Cleopatra was Greek, perhaps with some Persian blood. I loved reading about the Netflix blowback, because racism towards sub-Saharan blacks is endemic in the Arab world. LOL. As I wrote above, we live in seriously dumb times.

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  36. Robert Sewell Avatar

    “To reverse these cruel travesties of justice, tonight I’m announcing that the moment I win the election, I will appoint a special task force to rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who has been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration,” President Trump said.
    https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/trump-pledges-task-force-to-investigate-alleged-persecution-of-political-prisoners-by-biden-administration-5492548?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=copy
    Considering the stories coming from these gaols about the bashings and mistreatment of these prisoners, I really hope the guards are held to account.
    And no, ‘I was just following orders’ won’t be accepted, just like it wasn’t accepted at Nuremburg.

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  37. Cassie of Sydney Avatar
    Cassie of Sydney

    Mark Speakman, the current NSW Liberal opposition leader, is THE example of why I can’t and I won’t vote Liberal. Nothing surprises me about Speakman, a green lite figure who hasn’t got a Liberal bone in this body. This is the same Speakman who enthusiastically joined in the lynching of Bettina Arndt back in 2020. Yesterday, here on this blog, C.L. informed us how the Queensland government has passed a law in the last week which will allow all men accused of rape to be named and shamed in the media from the get-go, yet complainants cannot be named. This new law has been supported by the LNP. Just great.

    I wrote this yesterday on C.L.’s blog…

    As an aside, and it is related to the likes of Milei and Meloni, because we’ve seen how useless Meloni has been, how utterly useless the Conservative clowns in the UK have been for thirteen years, with Europe’s borders now completely collapsing, and now we’re witnessing, in real time, the dystopian deluge of sub-Saharan African and middle eastern males into southern Europe, next month there’ll be an election in NZ and the NZ Nationals are poised to win. But you might wonder why I’m so tepid about this. Well, because it’s becoming increasingly evident that voting for these right of centre and/or conservative parties is a waste of time, prior to elections they talk the good talk, but after winning elections they fail to walk the good talk (although I’ll make an exception about the Victorian Liberals, they don’t talk the talk). There is simply no point voting for them. I write this as it’s becoming increasingly clear that the NZ police, back in March in Auckland, didn’t just stand back and allow the violence at the Let Women Speak rally, they knew it was going to happen and they stood outside the park. It was deliberate. Will a new Nationals government try and clean out a politicised police force? Will a Nationals government clear out government departments infested with career leftists? Until right of centre governments decide to put on some boxing gloves and at least try to defang and dismantle departments of LGBTQI+ gunk, human rights nonsense and so on, absolutely nothing will change and the progressive winds keep blowing, I believe that there is simply no point voting for these parties. Or perhaps I’m just now too cynical. As C.L. wrote, either here or on Dover’s page, a country like Italy that won’t deport scum (and that’s an insult to scum) like Kanye (or whatever he’s called now) and the botoxed female he’s currently with for their ongoing pornographic antics on Italian soil, I believe that country no longer deserves to exist.

    It’s not the economy anymore, stupid.

    This focus on the “economy”, at the expense of other pressing societal cultural issues, has been the downfall of the right. It goes without saying that the right are (usually) better economic managers than the left. But whilst the economy should be a concern, it should not be the sole concern of the Liberal/Conservative or National Parties, there are many other concerns. Too many on the right look misty-eyed at Reagan and Thatcher, and here in Oz too many misty-eyes look to John Howard (whose economic credentials (apart from the GST) are overrated). I think it’s time those eyes were wiped dry, and it’s time to keep them dry. We no longer live in even remotely similar times to the 1980s or even to 2007. When Reagan, Thatcher (and Howard) held power, the pillars of faith and family, whilst under attack, were not crumbling, sure they were unstable. But this is no longer the case, the West is collapsing before our eyes.

    Anyway, unlike myself and unlike others here, I get the the impression that there are some right of centre voters who still think that having any right of centre government is preferable to having a left of centre government, even if that conservative right of centre government, once in power, like the UK Conservatives from 2010 to now, like the Oz Liberals from 2013 to 2022, do nothing to fight, combat and reverse far-left infiltration and so on, instead they just stick to “economics”. Well, that sole focus on economics no longer works, people now want more, they’re right to want more, and I won’t vote for such a party, because whilst I might regard a good May budget as important, I also regard perverts in women’s bathrooms as equally as important, I also regard LGBTQI+ propaganda in our schools as equally as important, and I particularly regard the forced takeover of a Canberra Catholic hospital by a far-left Green government as equally as important, in fact I regard that as more important than any good May budget.

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  38. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    shatterzzz

    if a bank isn’t interested in accepted standard monetary practises is it in breach of its licensing conditions

    Will Macquarie Bank refuse to accept legal tender? If so, what is the penalty?

  39. eric hinton Avatar
    eric hinton

    Farmer Gez
    Sep 19, 2023 8:08 AM
    If you want a rest from the YES campaign, come out to the bush.
    The Voice is barely a whisper and the biggest issues in conversation will be the state of the roads and power/fuel prices.

    Correct. Went for a ride on the toy R1 yesterday and saw a total of one No and no Yes signs. Plenty of The Gates Are Shut signs near a solar factory. And it did cross my mind this is my last crotch rocket. The next bike will have to have off road capabilities to cope with the potholes.

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  40. Dot Avatar

    The Liberals haven’t had a claim to “the economy” legitimately for 20 years now.

  41. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    Cassie

    You are correct. Until mnon-leftards can gain control of the culture, they will not have any significant effect on the economy.

    Offer social conservatism and moderate economic policies and there might be some change, but nothing will change while ever the current toxic political and social culture prevails.

    And those “moderate economic policies” should be focused on individuals, small and medium business. Big Business has made its bed with leftards, they should be left to sort out their industrial relations mess themselves.

  42. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    non-leftards …

  43. Northshore Redneck Avatar
    Northshore Redneck

    Craig Kelly and Ralph Babbet at the Oaks tomorrow night for local cats.

    https://twitter.com/senatorbabet/status/1703727813931758052

    I want to shake Craig’s hand for organising the covid rallies, they were a great solace for some of us during a very dark time.

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  44. billie Avatar
    billie

    Is now the right time for all the special interest groups to demand a Voice in the Australian Constitution?

    Why not every nationality/ies have their own voice? Would it be racism, to give one nationality more than others?

    You could have combinations of nationalities, say Irish Germanic Filipino, or Sri Lankan Peruvian African American etc .. and we could all introduce ourselves by our specially selected and edited honorific .. I’m a proud whatever whatever whatever (but leave out the ancestry you don’t want to draw attention to or you think might dilute your superiority claim)

    The point of claiming all the “nation” titles is just to underline, that you belong more than someone else does and are thus superior. (welcome to “MY” country)

    How this contributes to the quality of life for all Australians is beyond me to recognise.

    What is it about the left that they want to “make things better”, by condemning the entire community to their will?

    Whatever happened to the concept of equality in Australia, why do so many people think it’s OK for some people to have more equality than others?

    Do they read 1984 at schools these days?

    /sarc

    I’ll get out of your way now

    I’m a proud Australian

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  45. calli Avatar
    calli

    Okay. Our government isn’t corrupt, just glacially slow when it suits them and circumstances allow. Twelve weeks is supposed to be fast?

    I can see the late submission being workshopped in Leigh’s office – the No campaign gifted them an opportunity for plausible deniability. Exactly a month before close of books for individuals to get a deductible donation away, enough time to design and screen print a few corflutes.

    Meanwhile, Yes has had months and months of access to corporate funds and sponsorship.

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  46. calli Avatar
    calli

    Meanwhile, Yes has had months and months of access to corporate funds and sponsorship.

    And of course, our humble fact checkers…the ABC.

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  47. Makka Avatar
    Makka

    nothing will change while ever the current toxic political and social culture prevails.

    Every year for near 2 decades, our education system pumps out tens of thousands newly minted green/left zombies, thanks to the insidious curriculum they have been immersed in for the prior 12 years. It will take them another near decade for them to somewhat think for themselves unraveling the MSM propaganda they are bombarded with- IF they are lucky.

    Until we see a Govt willing to rebuild our education system devoid of the green/left/indigenous/Marxist claptrap permeating almost all subjects, nothing is going to change ,not really where it matters. At the foundations.

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  48. Bruce of Newcastle Avatar
    Bruce of Newcastle

    Netflix tried some blackwashing and the ensuing blowback was sweet, very sweet to watch.

    Today’s episode of schadenfreude:

    Disney Sees Massive Fall Off for Disney+, Hulu Subscribers After Price Hike, Woke Policies (Newsmax, 17 Sep)

    Disney is expected to fall tens of millions short of its 2024 goal for Disney+ and Hulu subscribers in the aftermath of big price increases for their streaming services and growing public anger over their woke policies.

    In March of 2022, Disney’s political demands in Florida that children as young as the third grade be taught sexual matters sparked a national furor among conservatives, with boycotts against the entertainment giants services like Disney+ and Hulu.

    They’re also trying to sell off the American ABC, which is likewise very popcornworthy:

    ABC News Staffers ‘Freaking’ out over Reports Disney in Talks to Sell Outlet to Mogul Byron Allen, Nexstar (15 Sep)

    You’re own silly fault woke lefty peoples. GWGB.

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  49. OldOzzie Avatar
    OldOzzie

    Why being a tradie might be a better option than uni

    Julie Hare – Education editor

    University enrolments have headed south as potential students opt for trades over study in a heated labour market that has delivered big salaries and pay rises – without the student debt.

    The lowest paid and most unskilled have received the biggest pay rises, proportionally, as the economy struggled to find enough electricians, mechanics and other blue-collar workers.

    Experts said declining demand for university study – enrolments dropped by 109,600, or 8.7 per cent in the year to May 2022 – was the result of skill shortages and big salaries on offer in blue-collar jobs.

    The tight job market has provided the lower-skilled with wage gains that have reduced inflation’s bite and were not mirrored in wealthier parts of the economy.

    Seek chief economist Matt Cowgill said that since 2019 the lowest income quintile experienced a 13.1 per cent growth in salaries, compared to 7.8 per cent for the highest quintile. “We’ve seen really strong demand for labour across a range of traditionally lower to middle paid industries and occupations and that’s reflected in the salaries,” he said.

    Higher pay and no uni debt

    Adecco country manager Nicholas Lee said shifting dynamics in the workforce should push more people to think about whether university was the right path.

    Apprentice electricians could earn $55,000 a year while they learnt on the job. “Admittedly, it’s low wage, but it’s a good return on investment.

    Once fully qualified, they almost double their earnings earning up to $100,000,” Mr Lee said, and salaries can jump to $200,000 in certain parts of the country and in sectors such as mining.

    James Brookfield left school halfway through Year 11 for an apprenticeship and now runs his own business, P Phase Electrical, employing five staff members.

    “With the amount of infrastructure going on around Sydney some of the guys working on mines and tunnels and so on are earning $300,000 to $400,000,” Mr Brookfield said. While he can’t compete with that, he is paying new fully qualified electricians around $110,000 a year, compared to $70,000 five or six years ago.

    One of his employees, Tristan Johns, 25, is in the final year of his psychology degree at Western Sydney University but said his mind was open to taking a trade in future.

    “Being a tradie wasn’t on my radar prior to working for James, but the more I’ve learned while on the job I would definitely think about it in the future. I could definitely earn more as a tradie at least for a few years, than I will be able to as a psychology graduate,” Mr Johns said. His student debt was close to $35,000.

    Train drivers could also earn between $150,000 to $180,000 with just a certificate level qualification, with those in remote areas earning up to $250,000 – with no student debt to pay off.

    Even disability workers, with only a TAFE certificate, could earn $64 an hour – the equivalent of around $120,000 a year. Traffic controllers earn $50-$60 an hour, with zero qualifications. Diesel mechanics, electrical and mechanical engineers are also in strong demand and can attract high salaries.

    Meanwhile, the median salary for university graduates in 2022 was $68,400, while the average student debt was $24,770.

    Mr Lee said many blue-collar workers now earned salaries usually associated with white-collar jobs and earn-while-you-learn training meant they graduated debt free.

    “These are roles that are not going to be easily replaced by artificial intelligence and automation,” he said.

    “Roles that use hands and heart and mind are going to increase in importance and value.”

    Trades back in demand

    Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveal that university enrolments fell by 5 per cent between 2021-22 as school-leavers and mature-age students responded to the healthy jobs market.

    Andrew Norton, a higher education policy expert with Australian National University, said school-leavers with high ATARs were going to university anyway, but those with lower ATARs were “making a sensible trade-off” and going into trades and other jobs.

    Data suggests that after years of being the poor cousin to university study, trades and vocational education have regained lost ground.

    The trend appeared to undermine federal education minister Jason Clare’s target for 55 per cent of people aged 25 to 34 to have a university degree by 2050, which require a doubling in the number of students from current numbers.

    At the end of 2022, there was a 10 per cent increase in the number of people starting an apprenticeship compared to a year earlier, according to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research.

    South Australia and Queensland had the highest growth, with the number of apprentices in training rising by 16 per cent.

    Those figures coincide with an increase in the number of people who did not complete year 12.

    “It’s causing universities quite a lot of problems, but it’s mostly benign from the point of view of students because they are doing something constructive,” Mr Norton said.

    Demand is so soft that the University of New England last week promoted a guaranteed place in 2024 – without an ATAR score. All potential students need is a letter of recommendation from their school.

    In its September labour market update, Jobs and Skills Australia said that employment had continued to increase across all five skill-level groups with the biggest rises in the lowest and middle groups and the lowest rise in the highest skill level.

    Mark Diamond, national secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, said there was a lot of anecdotal evidence of older workers looking to move into the occupations the union represented.

    “While that may be taking some people away from studying at university, those workers are usually substituting one form of education for another,” Mr Diamond said.

  50. Dot Avatar

    Until we see a Govt willing to rebuild our education system devoid of the green/left/indigenous/Marxist claptrap permeating almost all subjects, nothing is going to change ,not really where it matters. At the foundations.

    I think you need to get the government out.

    There’s no welcome to country at a coding boot camp.

  51. Black Ball Avatar
    Black Ball

    Led by morons with delusions of grandeur. Herald Sun:

    Combined gas and electricity bills have risen to a record $4400 a year for typical families in some outer suburbs and regional towns, sparking calls for urgent new relief.

    The eye-watering cost of living hit is revealed in St Vincent de Paul Society’s latest tariff tracker report, which shows price hikes this year have added $675-810 on average to dual-fuel household bills across Victoria.

    Volatile wholesale prices and the cost of maintaining and building poles and wires to get power to homes have helped pile on the pain.

    Vinnies policy manager Gavin Dufty said state government relief payments early this year, which were linked to an energy comparison website, should be reintroduced in a targeted way as high winter bills arrive, and ahead of Christmas.

    A federal government bill credit scheme for concession cardholders is currently being rolled out.

    The Vinnies report, done by Alviss Consulting, assesses every offer in the market to work out average real price hikes each year.

    Mr Dufty said along with council rates, petrol costs, and high food prices, many families were “getting smashed” and considering whether they can afford to buy new school uniforms for their kids or go away in school holidays.

    “Many households will be going without certain things to make these payments,” he said.

    “Having another targeted power saving bonus has two advantages; it’s when households need to offset big winter bills, and it might spice up the retail market and squeeze the retailers to put better offers on the table,” he said.

    The highest average bill cost — $4425 — for dual-fuel families is in the historic engine room of Victoria’s energy generation, the Latrobe Valley.

    Similar bills are landing in northern and eastern suburbs including Warrandyte and Ringwood, and across northern Victoria in Wangaratta and Wodonga.

    Costs are average market prices and based on households with typical use, such as a family in a three-bedroom brick veneer home.

    The report shows solar households can now save between $745 and $1000 a year compared to non-solar homes, depending on where people live.

    All-electric households in general have lower average bills than dual-fuel homes, which could be impacted further by the decision to ban new gas connections for new builds from next year.

    Mr Dufty said he hoped utility price pain had peaked due to recent interventions in wholesale markets, but that high interest rates and capital costs could still put pressure on bills through network charges.

    He said big savings could be found for people shopping around, with the “price spread” – the difference between the best and worst deals – creeping up to $520-$690 a year for electricity and $630-$785 for gas.

    The Sunday Herald Sun this week revealed that outer suburbs of Melbourne were where the most people claimed the Andrew Government’s latest $250 power saving bonus, which opened for applications in March but wrapped up last month.

    Growth areas such as Werribee, Pakenham, Reservoir and Berwick had more than $15,000 applications each, signalling where the cost of living pinch was hurting most.

    The government said of the 4.4 million people who had visited the Victorian Energy Compare website to apply for their relief payment, 40 per cent found a better deal to which they could switch and save a further $200.

    Combined gas and electricity bills for typical consumption dual-fuel households

    Inner city (Melbourne CBD, Brunswick, Carlton, Fitzroy, Northcote, Richmond and Collingwood): average annual combined energy bills $3955 — up $690

    Inner east and southeast (Kew, Hawthorn, Camberwell, Balwyn, South Yarra, Prahran, Armadale, Toorak, Caulfield): $3910 — up $675

    Inner city bayside (St Kilda, Port Melbourne, Albert Park and South Melbourne): $3910 — up $675

    Northern suburbs (Heidelberg, Fairfield, Ivanhoe, Bundoora, Thomastown, Preston and Reservoir: $4100 — up $775

    Inner west/northwest (Footscray, Yarraville, Williamstown, Flemington, Moonee Ponds, Broadmeadows, Coolaroo, Braybrook and Sydenham): $4075 — up $765

    Southeast/bayside (Elwood, Elsternwick, Brighton, Sandringham, Beaumaris, Chelsea, Bentleigh, Moorabbin, Springvale, Noble Park, Keysborough): $4000 — up $730

    Outer bayside (Frankston, Seaford, Mornington Peninsula): $4040 — up $745

    Eastern suburbs (Bulleen, Templestowe, Box Hill, Doncaster, Mitcham, Vermont, Glen Waverly and Chadstone: $4000 — up $730

    Northern Victoria (Echuca, Shepparton, Heathcote): $4140 — up $760

    Western suburbs (Hoppers Crossing, Werribee and Geelong/Bellarine regions): $4140 — up $775

    Western Victoria (Macedon, Kyneton, Ballarat, Colac, Warrnambool, Portland, Hamilton, Horsham, Ararat and Daylesford): $4040 — up $730

    Outer northeast, east (Warrandyte, Ringwood, Chirnside Park and the area around Mount Dandenong): $4385 — up $795

    Northern/Northeastern Victoria (Kilmore, Seymour, Violet Town, Nagambie,

    Wangaratta, Chiltern and Wodonga): $4400 — up $790

    Eastern Victoria (Latrobe Valley, Sale): $4425 — up $810

    5
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  52. Mother Lode Avatar
    Mother Lode

    About the school closures…when I were a kid, knee-high to a grasshopper, our schools were built of solid brick. The classrooms were big and windows that could be opened along at least two (opposing) walls, and blinds. The classrooms were cooler than the outside.

    Has there been a change to school construction? Are they designed with fewer windows that can be opened or changes of materials – on the assumption that air or even air conditioning will be circulating? And, in the infrastructure abundance that was the Building uh Edumacation Revolution, this was done badly?

    They are pretty much messing up kids at the best of times now. Half of them are on meds for ADHD and the teachers have more important things to do than engage the kids – they have to condition them with SJW reactions and fevered megaphoning of nonsense theories and histories.

    13
  53. OldOzzie Avatar
    OldOzzie

    HumeLink transmission project shapes up as a test of governments’ will

    Angela Macdonald-Smith – Senior resources writer

    The $4.9 billion HumeLink transmission project is shaping up as the first big test of governments’ will to progress difficult projects needed for the energy transition, says a key adviser to the NSW government.

    Cameron O’Reilly, the lead author of an independent review into the state’s energy reliability and supply which recommended the extension of the Eraring coal generator, said the full benefits of several projects already under construction could not be delivered without the controversial HumeLink project, making it vital to the transition.

    His report recommended that the NSW government take on HumeLink as a priority infrastructure transmission project under its electricity road map if project proponent TransGrid did not promptly commit to building it.

    But this was one of four of the report’s 54 recommendations that was not accepted by the government, even in part, when it announced its response to the report earlier this month.

    The 500-kilovolt, 360-kilometre project in southern NSW will not only connect to the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro storage project but also a transmission line being built to South Australia that will open up the region to remote wind and solar farms. The Australian Energy Market Operator has said HumeLink needs to be online by July 2026 at the latest, but the venture faces fierce pushback from landholders and communities on the route of the line, which want it to be buried underground.

    Mr O’Reilly said that although he accepted it was the government’s right to reject any of the report’s recommendations, it was a concern that such a critical project had still not received a commitment, despite being among four priority projects identified by the market operator as far back as 2018 and its key role in enabling the exit of coal power.

    “I know it’s going to be expensive. I know it’s going to be difficult, everyone can see that,” he said, pointing to the difficult terrain in the region and the social licence issues. “But when you have Snowy 2.0 fully committed, EnergyConnect fully committed, the most singular, most no-regrets project in NSW, and probably the most coal exit-enabling project in the shorter term, is HumeLink.”

    NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe was not available for comment.

    Cost estimate goes up

    TransGrid said on Monday that it expected to reach a final investment decision on HumeLink in March after the Australian Energy Regulator’s assessment on the project, due by the end of that month. A spokeswoman said landowner agreements were increasing and were in place for about half of properties on the HumeLink corridor.

    She gave a revised cost estimate for HumeLink of $4.9 billion, up from $3.3 billion three years ago, an increase that has previously been roughly flagged by TransGrid chief executive Brett Redman.

    She said that represented an increase in real costs of 29 per cent, less than the 30-50 per cent increases expected across the infrastructure sector in the past 12 months alone.

    “The updated cost reflects the tightening global supply chain post-COVID and significant cost increases in construction, building, material and skilled labour costs in a highly competitive market,” the spokeswoman said, noting that benefits from the project were also increasing at a similar rate so the net market benefits should be greater than the existing $1.3 billion estimate.

    Mr O’Reilly, who works at Marsden Jacob Associates, said it was “understandable” the state did not want to take on another project from AEMO’s Integrated Systems Plan given its function went well beyond NSW to the National Electricity Market more broadly.

    He said that while there was a big effort to push the HumeLink project forward, some people would never accept it, requiring government leadership. Otherwise, the transition from fossil fuels would be at risk.

    “We are probably in HumeLink facing the first test of will on something that’s facing significant resistance,” he said.

    “There’s no escaping it will be a difficult project. This is probably the first big test of government wills – I’m not saying this is just about NSW, but government will to progress difficult projects as part of the transition.”

    Mr O’Reilly said the importance of some of the independent review’s other recommendations, which include improvements to the planning system and moves to better integrate rooftop solar and batteries into the grid, had been overlooked in the reaction to the report, which had focused almost entirely on the Eraring power station.

    He highlighted the NSW government’s acceptance that gas power would still be needed to cover for long periods without renewables. “That stands NSW in good stead, I think, in helping to manage its transition.”

  54. Makka Avatar
    Makka

    Why being a tradie might be a better option than uni

    Might? It’s a no brainer.

    I don’t, but if I had a son I’d urge him into auto electrics/electronics. Anything that’s mobile, from cars, cranes to autonomous to 800t draglines become the available pool of work. Billions of $ in capital equipment needing sparkies. Every shift. Pay in mines ,off site mine support, OEMs will bring in north of 200k annually. Easy. And rates will only be going one way.

    11
  55. OldOzzie Avatar
    OldOzzie

    “ABC must be open to all voices”

    The great strength of democracy is that everyone gets their vote and has an opportunity to have their say.

    The Australian Editorial

  56. Top Ender Avatar
    Top Ender

    Just got my comment rejected at the Oz.

    The story was “‘Give defendants Indigenous jurors’: report”

    Comment was:

    Where would this lead?

    Juries to contain a percentage of gay people if the defendant is gay?

    What about if the defendant is from overseas? Insisting there should be people from the defendant’s country of origin?

    If the defendant is male insisting there should be 48% of the jury male?

    24
  57. Makka Avatar
    Makka

    I think you need to get the government out.

    Lol. To be replaced by our cowardly Labor-Lite pink wet effeminate yellow bellies in the LNP? You think they will somehow summon up the courage to tackle the curriculum and it’s rabid leftard custodians with a wholesale rebuild/restructure?

    As I said, NOTHING is going to change.

  58. feelthebern Avatar
    feelthebern

    Combined gas and electricity bills have risen to a record $4400 a year for typical families in some outer suburbs and regional towns, sparking calls for urgent new relief.

    Petrol pump isn’t friendly to families these days either.
    Good thing the Voice will distract the punters.
    For now.

    10
  59. Bruce of Newcastle Avatar
    Bruce of Newcastle

    It’s gaslighting season in New York. Be prepared for hordes of chicken littles and boys crying wolf.

    Great Reset/Climate doomsters descend upon New York City: ‘The WEF, UN, Clinton Inc, & Bill Gates are getting the climate hoax gang back together’ (17 Sep)

    Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, Pope Francis, Matt Damon, Hillary Clinton, and the degenerates who run the U.N. walk into a bar in New York…

    No, this isn’t a joke.

    That’s basically what’s going down next week on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York City next week. Except they won’t be chit chatting in a bar. These forces will be demanding the surrender of your rights while virtue signaling to the world about their claimed moral supremacy.

    UN Set to Agree New Political Declaration on Pandemics Next Week – & it’s a Horror Show (17 Sep)

    On Wednesday September 20th, our representatives meeting at the United Nations will sign off on a ‘Declaration’ titled: ‘Political Declaration of the United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.’

    This was announced as a “silent procedure”, meaning that States not responding will be deemed supporters of the text. The document expresses a new policy pathway for managing populations when the World Health Organisation (WHO), the health arm of the UN, declares a future viral variant to be a “public health emergency of international concern”.

    Weather and the sniffles are now permanent existential emergencies, and our ears will be bleeding from the MSM propaganda stories coming out over the next week or two.

  60. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha Avatar
    Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

    Inheritance tax will only hurt middle Australia
    judith sloan judith sloan
    Danielle Wood was appointed as the new chair of Productivity Commission in September.
    Danielle Wood was appointed as the new chair of Productivity Commission in September.

    12:00AM September 19, 2023
    192 Comments

    The Australian’s new commentary newsletter. Sign up to get the nation’s sharpest writers, with their bold opinions and incisive analysis in your inbox every Sunday.

    The newly appointed chairwoman of the Productivity Commission, Danielle Wood, is very keen on taxation, especially new taxes. Indeed, the staff at the Grattan Institute, which she now leaves, have rarely seen a tax they don’t love or wish to increase.

    Higher GST? Tick. Greater GST coverage? Tick. Higher taxation on older people? Tick. Higher taxation on superannuation? Tick. Property taxes on owner occupiers? Tick. Limits on negative gearing? Tick. Lower discount on capital gains tax? Tick. Carbon taxes? Tick. Inheritance tax? Tick.

    On the face of it, Wood’s strongly held views on taxation policy could prove an embarrassment for the Albanese government. Indeed, just before her appointment being announced, she delivered a lecture in Tasmania where she endorsed the option of introducing an inheritance tax as well as including the value of the family home in the Age Pension assets test.
    Read Next

    theaustralian.com.au06:55

    “While so-called ‘death taxes’, but more correctly ‘intergenerational transfer taxes’, are political dynamite, the windfall wealth gains of older generations and structural budget pressures mean we should at least have a sensible conversation about the possibility of taxing large inherit­ances,” she said.

    She added: “At minimum, we should not be subsidising inheritances via some of the existing rules that allow the accumulated value of superannuation tax breaks to be inherited by the next generation, as well as the exclusion of virtually all the value of the family home from the Age Pension assets test.”

    While strenuously denying the suggestion that the Albanese government plans to introduce an inheritance tax, senator Deborah O’Neill made the weak point that Wood’s speech came before the announcement of her appointment as chairwoman of the Productivity Commission. The fact is that Wood’s views on this matter have been well-known for a very long time.

    But OK, let’s have an open mind about inheritance taxes, at least until you have read to the end of this column. We can all agree they are political dynamite, but are there sound economic reasons for considering such taxes? What does the international evidence tell us?

    It’s always worthwhile returning to the basic facts before discussing policy options. Indeed, Wood refers to the previous work of the Productivity Commission on intergenerational wealth transfers but misses the main point. In her speech, she states “the Productivity Commission projects that among current retirees, just 10 per cent of all inheritances will account for as much as half the value of bequests.”

    She quotes Thomas Picketty who likens this to a Jane Austen world “where inequality is exacerbated by ever-growing inheritances”. In fact, the Productivity Commission report shows the reverse. A key conclusion is wealth transfers actually improve wealth inequality. “When measured against the wealth they already own, those with less wealth get a much bigger boost from inheritances on average, about 50 times larger for the poorer 20 per cent than the wealthiest 20 per cent,” the report read.

    On a dollar-for-dollar basis, wealthier people receive more inheritances and gifts but “less as a percentage of their existing wealth”, an effect the Productivity Commission expects to persist into the future. “Children tend to enjoy a similar relative wealth position to that of their parents, but inheritances are not the main driver of this.” These findings match international research. But just like bank robber Willie Sutton, it’s not surprising those seeking more tax revenue would eye off intergenerational transfers given the sums of money involved in annual bequests are substantial – currently close to $200bn annually.

    In fact, Australia used to have a number of death duties levied by both federal and state governments. Currently there is a 17 per cent tax levied on any superannuation balance held by a deceased person not given to dependants. Capital gains tax is also payable by beneficiaries on inherited assets apart from the family home.

    If we look across the world, many countries have inheritance taxes but many don’t. Interestingly, nine OECD countries have abolished them since the early 1970s. The Nordic countries don’t have them. In the US, the exemption levels are extremely high – assets of up to $11m given to children attract no tax, for example.

    But the main take-out point of the international experience is how little revenue is generated from inheritance taxes – a mere 0.5 per cent of all tax revenue on average of those OECD countries with such taxes. It’s a lot of trouble to go to for such a little return. In Australia’s case, we would be lucky to drag in around $3bn a year.

    Note also that the compliance costs of inheritance taxes are extremely large, including the required addition of gift taxes. Only annual wealth taxes have higher compliance costs. In those countries that have inheritance taxes, there is a thriving estate planning industry that is essentially productivity-sapping.

    Let’s be clear on another point: the very wealthy don’t pay inheritance taxes. They have trusts, companies, overseas assets – complicated arrangements that mean that death doesn’t trigger a tax event. It’s only the middle classes that get caught in the inheritance tax net, which has been the recent experience in Britain.

    One of the problems of Wood’s endorsement of an inheritance tax, as well as a number of other taxes/penalties to be imposed on older folk, is they essentially involve double taxation. In the case of superannuation, it would be triple taxation – at the point of contribution, earnings and pension.

    People have accumulated assets using post-tax incomes or, if they have used negative gearing, are liable for capital gains tax on any realisation of assets. The presence of an inheritance tax and all the attached regulations carry the risk of deterring investment and capital accumulation, which would have wider negative economic effects.

    That older people are wealthier than their children and grandchildren has always been thus. It potentially becomes an economic issue with a (slowly) ageing society. But it’s not helpful to set up a narrative about intergenerational conflict, as is Wood’s wont, in part because the older generation continues to help out, both financially and non-financially, younger generations.

    As Wood takes up her role, she must bear in mind that she is heading up the Productivity Commission. It’s not about taxes which, to varying degrees, are productivity-sapping. The work of the Productivity Commission about productivity gains that could be made in the large non-market, government-funded services sector is important in this respect. If these gains could be achieved, then the need to raise taxes would be commensurately reduced.

    As Paul Krugman opined, “productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything”. Wood may care to have this famous quote framed to hang in her new office.

    The “Voice” is passed at referendum, and the Albanese Government introduces an inheritance tax. Civil war breaks out two days later.

    9
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  61. OldOzzie Avatar
    OldOzzie

    The ‘ticking time bombs’ inside Aussie homes sparking a rising number of fires

    An increasingly common item poses a growing risk to Australians, capable of exploding and injuring or even killing those in proximity.

    A spate of fires sparked by exploding lithium-ion batteries in e-scooters and e-bikes in recent months has prompted renewed safety concerns.

    Data obtained by news.com.au shows emergency services have responded to hundreds of incidents in the past 18 months, some of which led to serious injury and even death.

    “We’re concerned about the number of lithium-ion battery fires we’re seeing,” New South Wales Fire and Rescue Superintendent Adam Dewberry said. “And the number this year is well-and-truly trending up.”

    There were 165 fires involving lithium-ion batteries across NSW in 2022, while there have been 114 incidents already this year, up to July.

    Last month, a 54-year-old man died when a lithium-ion battery stored inside his Punchbowl apartment exploded. When fire crews arrived, they found his lifeless body on a bathroom floor and suspected he had perished after inhaling toxic fumes while trying to contain the blaze.

    Early on Friday morning, a battery in a golf cart-style buggy exploded at a St John’s Ambulance facility in Burwood in Sydney’s inner-west.

    Six ambulances, three support vehicles and a trailer were damaged while a nearby storage area, electrical wiring and part of the structure itself were also impacted. It took fire crews more than 90 minutes to bring the blaze under control.

    And just yesterday, firies were dispatched to respond to two separate fires involving exploding e-bike batteries.

    Queensland Fire and Emergency Services reports a total of 107 fires caused by lithium-ion batteries last year, while the tally for 2023 so far is sitting at 93.

    In March last year, a 22-year-old man died when a scooter battery caught fire in his caravan in Logan Central. His pregnant partner sustained burns to 80 per cent of her body and had to be placed in an induced coma.

    A spokesperson for Fire Rescue Victoria said: “Victoria’s fire services are responding to an average of one significant lithium-ion battery fire each week, and this trend is expected to increase.”

    One of those was earlier this month when a house fire in Lalor was caused by a battery in a model toy bought online from overseas, leading to significant damage throughout.

    A lithium-ion battery can leak up to 500L of gas per kilowatt hour, Professor Christiansen explained.

    “A kilowatt hour is a measure of how much energy the battery stores. Typically, an e-scooter battery is a quarter of a kilowatt hour, whereas an e-bike battery is about three quarters. So, they’ll produce 125 or 375L or explosive and toxic gas.”

    If it ignites immediately, intense flames of 1000C or more can be produced. If the gas fills a room, an explosion is likely.

    “You might only have seconds before a major vapour cloud explosion or those rocket-like flames,” he said.

    Research by the organisation EV Fire Safe found that if a battery goes into thermal runaway inside a home, there is a 64 per cent chance of being injured and requiring hospitalisation, and a 7.8 per cent chance of death.

    Panic erupted earlier this year when it emerged an Australian online auction house had sold 40 discounted e-scooters that were water-damaged, posing a serious risk to buyers.

    One of them later caught on fire while left on charge overnight. A man and his son woke to find the living room of their Northern Beaches home engulfed in flames.

    “These damaged e-scooters were effectively ticking time bombs, ready to explode inside family homes across New South Wales,” Fire and Rescue NSW Assistant Commissioner Trent Curtin said at the time.

    Be alert, not alarmed

    With proper precautions, consumers can dramatically reduce the chance of a fire or an explosion, Professor Christiansen said, but with an increasing range of uses, the potential for problems is growing.

    Rough estimates indicate there are between 250,000 and 300,000 electric scooter owners in Australia. There were about 75,000 e-bikes sold across the country in 2021.

    Consumers should only buy a product with a lithium-ion battery from known and trusted companies and only use the charger supplied, Professor Christian said.

    “Never buy one that requires the user to manually turn it off when charging is complete. And never charge a battery indoors, ever – full stop, period.”

    If something goes wrong, “you might only have seconds” to escape disaster, he added.

    “If you hear popping, hissing or screaming, or you see any kind of gas or smoke venting, do not attempt to deal with it yourself. Leave the building immediately, alerting other occupants, and phone the fire brigade.”

    Photos of Damage Pretty Scary – OK will charge all LI Batteries outside in Future

  62. Salvatore, Iron Publican Avatar
    Salvatore, Iron Publican

    Farmer Gez Sep 19, 2023 8:08 AM
    If you want a rest from the YES campaign, come out to the bush.
    The Voice is barely a whisper and the biggest issues in conversation will be the state of the roads and power/fuel prices.

    Yep. There’s never been a mention of it here.
    Not publicly, not in the pub, not at BBQs, not anywhere.

    The district would be an almost solid No vote (though you never know what the schoolteacher/nurse cohort will do)

    11
  63. Cassie of Sydney Avatar
    Cassie of Sydney

    So, last night at a NO rally in Adelaide, the oh so loving, kind, tolerant left screamed, hurled, screeched abuse at NO rally attendees, the abuse screamed and screeched was such charming epithets as “racist pigs*” at Warren Mundine, Jacinta Price, Alex Antic and ordinary Australian men and women arriving at the rally.

    Well done to the member for Grayndler, this will be his legacy.

    I now await Gucci clad Bin Chicken Burney to condemn the vicious, nasty, racist abuse hurled at Mundine and Price. Oh wait Cassie, you’ll just hear crickets from Bin Chicken Burney.

    * Gosh, where were the ubiquitous Nazis, surely they turned up…oh wait, it’s Adelaide, not Melbourne.

    23
  64. Bruce of Newcastle Avatar
    Bruce of Newcastle

    COVID severity ‘much lower’ now

    Weird how that suddenly happened just when subsidies were removed.

    The Daily Chart: Follow the COVID Money | Power Line (18 Sep)

    And they wonder why trust is so lacking nowadays?

  65. Top Ender Avatar
    Top Ender

    Over at Quadrant, on the new Snow White “jumping the shark”:

    …the decision to remake Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with a non-white lead, a gay huntsman, no prince, and no dwarves is truly a “jump the shark” moment.

    13
  66. Farmer Gez Avatar
    Farmer Gez

    “There’s no escaping it will be a difficult project. This is probably the first big test of government wills – I’m not saying this is just about NSW, but government will to progress difficult projects as part of the transition.”

    Simple market solution for Mr. O’Reilly.
    Pay landholders lots of money so the project looks like a bonanza and not a curse.

  67. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha Avatar
    Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

    I now await Gucci clad Bin Chicken Burney to condemn the vicious, nasty, racist abuse hurled at Mundine and Price

    Linda Burney’s performances in the House would have to be the least inspiring I have ever seen.

    13
  68. Cassie of Sydney Avatar
    Cassie of Sydney

    “Until we see a Govt willing to rebuild our education system devoid of the green/left/indigenous/Marxist claptrap permeating almost all subjects, nothing is going to change ,not really where it matters. At the foundations.”

    Correct, hence my comment above about useless right of centre conservatives parties and leaders across the West, with the exception of Trump and Orban.

    They are utter failures and they deserve our contempt.

    15
  69. Dot Avatar

    I think you need to get the government out.

    Lol. To be replaced by our cowardly Labor-Lite pink wet effeminate yellow bellies in the LNP?

    No government besides redistribution if it needs to be done at all.

    Make public schools non profit charities owned by the local real property owners, send parents a “cheque” (from Treasury) and close down the Ed Dept & BOSTES.

    You will never win by trying to rewrite the curriculum.

    The people you are fighting against are full time educationalists, Marxists and “academics”.

    How can win in a game of bureaucratic chicken with these fanatics over a sustained period is beyond my comprehension.

    I acknowledge public instruction is nearly 180 years old in this nation.

    It may be a hard habit to cut off cold turkey.

    It’s shooting the moon but it is the long term strategy for success.

  70. H B Bear Avatar
    H B Bear

    I regard Brand as a Pommy tosser but current events are all to do with the removal of (primarily media) protection than anything that may or may not have occurred. Either way he’s finished, which is the main idea.

  71. thefrollickingmole Avatar
    thefrollickingmole

    Makka.

    Good choice on the auto sparky, if I may be allowed to anecdote…

    Chap I despise spent his earlier years ( up to about 35) being a junkie, pump and at one time had his 15 year old ” girlfriend” traded to pay off his drug debts.

    Then he flipped, went straight and did a mature age apprenticeship in auto sparky. $ 200,000+ per year and now owns 4 properties and is set for life.

    I still despise him and hope he dies of arse cancer, but at least he’s worth an ounce of respect now.

  72. Cassie of Sydney Avatar
    Cassie of Sydney

    A clever Liberal party (yes, I know, it’s an oxymoron) would already be out and about in marginal electorates like Parramatta, Bennelong and Reid warning that the Albanese government is coming to take away your gas, and will implement death taxes.

    12
  73. H B Bear Avatar
    H B Bear

    How long before it is described an “open secret”?

  74. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha Avatar
    Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

    MarkT
    17 minutes ago
    The socialists are after the lot, they want your hard earned wealth so the leaners can get their cut of the spoils. Albo wants your money and he is not going to stop it. I don’t get the aged pension and never will. I live on my own money.
    The government has no right to tell me how I organize and decide to spend my money, how much I can pass onto my children. I have been taxed on everything and in some cases twice over.
    To the illogical millennial socialists that haven’t worked a hard day in their lives, you can either bugger off and winge your way through life, the world doesn’t owe you a living. Or you can pull your heads in, work hard and build your wealth with a large dose of self respect.

    WHAT ! HE! SAID!

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  75. Farmer Gez Avatar
    Farmer Gez

    I forgot to add.
    The main reason the government doesn’t want to pay farmers a decent income for having these transmission lines on their land is the precedent it would set in the market.
    Much better to have deals done by companies under confidentiality agreements so no one knows the quantum of an average offer. Governments then are able to offer a token contribution as an act of goodwill.
    Scum bags

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  76. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha Avatar
    Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

    Then he flipped, went straight and did a mature age apprenticeship in auto sparky

    Cite you the business in Western Australia that will only employ adult apprentices – they say teaching the ones straight out of school ” the work ethic” is a waste of time.

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  77. Crossie Avatar
    Crossie

    Knuckle Dragger
    Sep 19, 2023 7:19 AM
    Obese teachers can’t cope with the heat?

    Closer to the mark, I reckon.

    I noticed at recent grandsons’ school events that most teachers are morbidly obese, and not just the old ones nearing retirement but the young ones barely out of university. Then I looked around me and the mothers were the same, strangely enough the grandparents were slimmer than their descendants.

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  78. Crossie Avatar
    Crossie

    Makka
    Sep 19, 2023 8:39 AM
    nothing will change while ever the current toxic political and social culture prevails.

    Every year for near 2 decades, our education system pumps out tens of thousands newly minted green/left zombies, thanks to the insidious curriculum they have been immersed in for the prior 12 years.

    Here in NSW all this happened under Coalition stewardship but then what can you expect with Coutts-Trotter running the Ed department. They had plenty of time to put in their own people and yet nothing was done. My grandsons attend Catholic schools and they are not much better than public schools as far as the green-leftism goes.

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  79. Beertruk Avatar
    Beertruk

    To paraphrase Monty Python…’and now for something completey different,’ today is Talk like a Pirate Day

  80. Makka Avatar
    Makka

    It’s shooting the moon

    Of course it is. You may as well go pee in the ocean.

    At some point you have to accept we are fkd and plan accordingly. Moon shots are a waste of time and pixels.

  81. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    Cassie of Sydney

    Sep 19, 2023 8:59 AM

    So, last night at a NO rally in Adelaide, the oh so loving, kind, tolerant left screamed, hurled, screeched abuse at NO rally attendees, the abuse screamed and screeched was such charming epithets as “racist pigs*” at Warren Mundine, Jacinta Price, Alex Antic and ordinary Australian men and women arriving at the rally.

    And, right on cue, Liberal wet Simon Bummingham calls on both sides to show respeck.
    The implication being that abuse is flying in both directions.
    Flog.

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  82. Roger Avatar
    Roger

    The newly appointed chairwoman of the Productivity Commission, Danielle Wood, is very keen on taxation, especially new taxes.

    Because nothing inspires you to work harder & smarter than the government’s hand in your pocket.

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  83. Colonel Crispin Berka Avatar
    Colonel Crispin Berka

    Toons.
    Broelman’s was the funniest today.

    Regarding Stiglich’s toon today it was just more evidence that Idiocracy has come true in so many ways. POTUS is a feeble joke instead of a WWE champion, but presumably that gap will be filled in about 9 years, ya dig?

  84. Dot Avatar

    At some point you have to accept we are fkd and plan accordingly.

    You have tried this now for fifty or more years and you have lost badly each year.

    Abolishing the Dept of Ed is the only way forward.

  85. Makka Avatar
    Makka

    Here in NSW all this happened under Coalition stewardship but then what can you expect with Coutts-Trotter running the Ed department.

    Exactly my point. The custodians of the Ed Dept’s are marxists/green/left. Regardless who is in power. We can change Govt’s but does anyone really think the LNP has any where near the conviction needed to make foundational wholesale change to the curriculum? To take on these parasites and their comrade journos it the Marxist media?

    Clearly, whoever is in power, they are our enemy. That is the situation we are now in. They do not represent us or our best interests. They are there for themselves and their interests. Daylight second. We are the necessary evil in their parasitic lifestyles.

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