Startling indeed, Muddy. What brand was it? Target?
Open Thread – Wed 14 Feb 2024
- Madame Cackle and her media mates
- Open Thread – Weekend 27 July 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 25 July 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 22 July 2024
- All the drivel fit to print
So long as they believe that Jesus is their saviour rites aren’t necessary. John 5:24 On the other hand rites…
EU tax fiddle at best. Bit like Iceland as a banking powerhouse. Australia as a renewables powerhouse?
Sorry, I could have been more precise: I believe they were goat toasters, or ‘goasters’ as they say in the…
I’ll offer an opinion, but as I’m not a Pressie it’s just that – an opinion. Baptism unites one with…
Perhaps to avoid confusion with the other Kingston in South Aus, on the Murray?
Zafiro
Snap re Kingston on the Murray.
And Top o’ the Page to me!
I guess it was either that or ritual suicide: After leaving his missus, Elbow is going to marry his latest girlfriend.
Nothing much is happening. It’s still pretty much a stalemate. The Russian Army may’ve advanced about a km near Avdiivka and also Bakhmut in the last week. And the Ukies yesterday damaged and possibly sank a large Russian naval vessel near Yalta. Apart from that just the usual droning and strategic missile attacks against infrastructure.
The situation in the US now is somewhat similar to that in Germany at the time of Operation Valkyrie.
Back then the German Generals wanted to remove Hitler not because they were finally opposed to the Nazi regime and its policies but because they felt Hitler, now obviously deteriorating mentally, was a threat to it. The Allies, on the other hand, wanted Hitler to stay there while they were fighting Germany because of the damage he was causing.
Right now in the US even Democrats are looking at how to get Biden out of the way because he has become a liability to their agenda, not because they have rejected it. And the Republicans want Biden to stay where he is because of the damage he is doing to his party.
My phone just flashed a news bulletin from Sky that Albo is going to marry his girlfriend. He will have to do it soon while he is still the PM if he wants to be remembered do something historic like being the first PM to get married while in office. He has done nothing else that is worthy of being inscribed on any stone.
Bruce, still waiting on those links.
If you were an economic forecaster, I’d think you’d call this ‘catastrophic.’
The lead story on the ABC radio news bulletin this morning, would you believe.
Just in case you’d thought the Fat Bastard’s creation Jackie Jackie Lambie wasn’t in bed with the loony left (Paywallian):
Nice distraction squirrel:
Mr Albanese first wooed his girlfriend with a date at a hipster brewery in Sydney’s inner-west, after meeting in early 2020 at a conference in Melbourne where the future prime minister was a speaker. Mr Albanese, a father-of-one, had recently split from his ex-wife of 19 years Carmel Tebbutt when Ms Haydon entered his life.
The US media holds its breath re the KC shooting.
In depth reporting or memory holing.
All depends on who the two people in custody are.
What a sick state of affairs.
Comments in this article suddenly went down the memory hole overnight…
Biden can’t even remember he was the one who raised Beau during the DoJ interview.
Old Joe dining out on his son’s death, again, looking for pity and then gets caught out not remembering when it actually happened.
A real shallow, nasty piece of work.
Dai Le is supping with devils.
A&J’s wedding will be bigger than Kylie & Jason’s wedding. Next up, baby bump news.
The only reason that bitch would marry d*ckhead Albo is for money. She’ll walk after about 2 years.
Note that down.
Wonder what this is about.
Are all English people like the ones in the documentary, Coronation Street?
Now known as Karachi Street
I love how he suddenly breaks out the indignant “How dare he/she/they!”
The man is absolute slime – dissipated, corrupt, and one of the most breathtaking liars that breaths. He has shown no respect to anyone – although he can show respect to what they can give him. His son is a wreck, his daughter scarred, his other son no angel (and Joe keeps keeps implying Beau died in combat and came home in a body bag – sort of pissing on that demographic to mark it as his), and his current wife was is mistress until his first wife’s death created a vacancy.
I believe it says somewhere that no congress can bind a future congress which means that the bill can be repealed and a new bill enacted. I understand that Rand Paul and JD Vance hope to get this execrable bill defeated in some way but this is not the way to go. Shame the congresspeople and senators who don’t give a stuff about Americans and prefer Ukrainians. If they really want to stop this show which politicians financially profit from it.
‘Sydney is at risk of becoming “the city with no grandchildren”, a senior government official has warned, as high housing costs drive young families to leave.
The state capital is losing twice as many people aged 30 to 40 as it gains, according to a paper by the NSW Productivity Commission.
The exodus of that group is a problem because people in that age range are among the most productive in the workforce.’
– ABC News
Biden’s wife packed the kids in the car and deliberately drove it in front of an on coming semi full of corn cobs. She and the infant daughter died. The two boys lived. Can he remember that?
Shatterzzz was right about her though Liberals have only themselves to blame by expelling her from the party.
Scaring the Democrat voters who might otherwise vote Republican or, heaven forbid, even Trump.
Roger
Feb 15, 2024 9:50 AM
‘Sydney is at risk of becoming “the city with no grandchildren”, a senior government official has warned, as high housing costs drive young families to leave.
Get out of the joint. The place is a joke.
She’s like the curate’s egg.
She abstained from the Climate Change Bill, saying jobs and cost of living were her focus.
Did I not read yesterday that Albo has handballed that issue to state Labor governments?
Or was it a hospital pass…
This trend also empties inner city schools while at the same time overloading schools in the outer suburbs. We can expect a lot of protest to keep schools open which no longer have pupils or not enough to justify the cost of keeping the open.
Now that really would be news, give she must be in her late 40s.
Truth-telling is code for give us a podium that cannot criticised or fact checked.
The trend seems to be migration to the regions rather than the outer suburbs.
Saw some ABS figures recently to that effect.
Particularly so in QLD, the most decentralised state.
Anyone suggesting Sydney is a great place to live is certifiable f*cKing idiot.
re: Tom’s toons. Ramirez has a bad case of TDS.
In other news Shellenberger proves conclusively that obuma is a black kunt and led the spying and framing of Trump.
Bongino outlines it.
It’s useless though unless all these bastards are taken out and nuked. It’ll just happen again only worse.
Nurse Betty at 8:08.
Sacking?
Why not just shoot 1,000 (ensuring the smoke has cleared in time for lunch, of course)?
You’re a big fan of collective punishment, aren’t you?
Some kid who is working on posters of brewery horses for bars should get the arse because someone seven levels above him and half a world away employed a trannie?
Do you drink Busweiser products?
Are you a shareholder?
If not, you are no different to the activists who would never be seen dead in K Mart but scream blue murder if they stock Australian flags in January.
Very disappointed in Leak’s cartoon today.
Is this the end of the Voice-Treaty-Truth crop top?
One would hope not.
Although I do appreciate a good bum-crack joke.
“We will tell you what the official truth is now and any demur or quibbling evidence will be taken as misinformation and invite state-enforced sanctions as well as from non-government institutions who must consider what might happen if they are deemed as encouraging disinformation.
“This is all in keeping with the democratic idea. Agree?
“That last is not for you to indulge in opinion. It is a test.”
Moved out of Sydney nearly forty years ago. Best move I ever made.
The official version of the truth will be that Australia was an earthly paradise, before the evil Europeans arrived and smashed everything.
The man is absolute slime – dissipated, corrupt, and one of the most breathtaking liars that breaths. He has shown no respect to anyone – although he can show respect to what they can give him. His son is a wreck, his daughter scarred, his other son no angel (and Joe keeps keeps implying Beau died in combat and came home in a body bag – sort of pissing on that demographic to mark it as his), and his current wife was is mistress until his first wife’s death created a vacancy.
Understated but correct. Compare the verminous biden clan to the glorious Trump family. Biden is in due to obuma and that fat, piss-eyed slug brennan. I don’t know how the rot at the heart of the US can be overcome. You’d run out of 9mms.
Saw a version of Wuthering Heights from 2011 I hadn’t known about advertised on Fox. Checked it on IMDB and naturally its a woke version with Heathcliff being played by a black actor.
I can’t wait until obuma’s biography is played by an albino. And Harrison Ford can play Mandela.
If you’re looking for something definitely not written for Modern Audiences,
The Dawns Here Are Quiet is worth a look.
The male lead isn’t an incompetent misogynist revelling in his unearned privilege.
There are no powerful wahmen of any hue,
and the only diversity is in the nature and extent the characters
have been broken by circumstance and the system.
Heads up if you need a windscreen replacement.
Took the CX-5 in for service a week ago. They told all good except we would need a new windscreen. Certainly had not seen that before. Impact mark below bonnet line on driver’s side with spreading crack. Hmm.
So we have insurance for this, rang NRMA who put us through to Windscreens O’Brien. Booked in, job got done. All very friendly and polite but guy tells us the wipers leave streaks now and tried to sell us a $100 new set of blades. Hmmm.
Mrs Eyrie drove home and said head up display now out of focus. This also explains the windscreen wiper problem as the curvature of the new screen is different. Called O’Brien’s and they instantly offered to replace with genuine Mazda part. Seems they first try to palm you off with a Pilkington glass non genuine part.
Why TF would you bother to try this? Have to wait a week for the glue to go off properly so they can remove the non genuine part.
Check with your insurance company on this.
Straya, doing dumb shit longer and harder than anyone else.
Seems the auto industry is like the building industry who can’t seem to get stuff done right the first time.
Further on Dai le .. even tho elected to Parliament at the last Federal election she is, still listed as a member of the current Fairfield Council in all of the, oft issued, council why-you-luv-us blurbs ..
I wasn’t aware that our highly paid .. cos lotza “time & effort” involved .. parliamentarians were eligible to hold down a 2nd job whilst “serving” their Federal electorate ………..
We popped down to Coastal Town a while before Christmas and, before we went, I rang the seafood shop to order a lobster.
Maybe 1.0 – 1.2 kgs.
Victorian season was closed, so they will have to come from SA, and you can’t get anything over 1 kg, because they all go for export.
Typical Chinese.
“Look at my huge crustacean!”
If offered 1 x 2kg lobster, or 2 x 1kg lobsters, I will take the two smaller ones every time.
There isn’t the slightest doubt that it’s deliberate. When they say plant based, what they actually mean fake, as in factory made.
Sandi Adams: Farming is being destroyed and it’s being destroyed by design
The World Economic Forum’s “Frankensteinization” of the Entire World. Hollywood’s “Predictive Movies”
They always go out of their way to emphasise the proper sequence of events … left wife then rooted new squeeze. Not the reverse, you understand.
Stop it, Sancho. You’re making me hungry.
Haven’t had a cray for years. Must save up and pop down to the Lorne pier.
Leak with another zinger… love it!
Yet another example demonstrating that FTA commercial television executives are among the the stupidest people to have existed in human history.
But hey, unparalleled insight into our (ever diminishing) audience’s viewing preferences, man!
It unintentionally testifies to the health of Trump’s mind that they must again and again go back to the one instance – whereas for Biden it is a new befuddlement at least once every time he speaks.
It is in fact a very normal thing to very occasionally misuse one word for another loosely associated one. How many people have not been explaining something or other and had someone ask “You mean x, don’t you?” and you respond “Yeah, why? What did I say?”
Haley and Pelosi are both villains in Trump’s political speeches and on differing topics almost identical, so it is no surprise when extemporising he mixes a name.
It ought not be lost on Ramirez that Trump can speak extempore on a topic on a moment’s notice and without notes, while Biden cannot even read a teleprompter after being coached.
But it is.
TDS is a very persistent and debilitating illness.
See also Teats Peanuthead, member for Mangybong – who’s now at it, again, BTW.
I was going to make a comment on this but “demons” just about covers it.
James Lindsay, completely unhinged
@ConceptualJames
Real quote. Demons.
It’s a sometimes food.
We popped across to Penola for a few days in December, and it is only an hour from there to Robe.
Sky Seafoods is the place to go for robster.
Not a cute shop on the foreshore or anything. A big shed in the industrial estate area. But the robster is velly good.
Sydney was fun and cool when I was in the Army there. Late 80s early 90s. Last time I stopped in was 2017. Yeah nah. Same with Melbourne. I haven’t voluntarily set foot there since the late 90s. Adelaide is cool these days funnily enough. And about as big as a city should be.
Mr Albanese, a father-of-one, had recently split from his ex-wife of 19 years Carmel Tebbutt when Ms Haydon entered his life.
Tebbutt had organised a group of alp ladies and staffers to make complaints about sexual harassment from liar pollies. There were dozens of complaints but nothing happened. Strange innit?
Heathcliff is describes as swarthy and it is hinted that he is Egyptian.
For Netflix that means black. Check their Cleopatra.
Penola/Coonawarra wine region and Robe are full of tossers.
Beachport is the go over that way. Or Southend down the road if camping.
The ALPBC is trying to frame Albo as the strong, silent type. You know, like Gary Cooper. This pap reads like High Noon.
That’s more like it! NSW Labor, “Who is sleeping with who”.
They’re like the Bourbon dynasty.
FFS.
Those Channel Crossers fleeing war-torn Bulgaria
may not appreciate losing their priority status with the
Envy Of The World, formerly known as the NHS.
Who is the men’s officer?
And…what is a woman?
I was thinking about this last night.
The stupidity was on display yesterday. Not just the epic numptiness of the Ten lawyer who kept patiently chick-splaining the finer points of the law to Jurdge Lee.
If Ten management had a smidgeon of a clue, they would have known from the documents already submitted to court that they were in for a hiding. And they knew of their own duplicitous behaviour towards Wilkinson.
When Jurdge Lee decided to call for witnesses to appear in person, any sane management would have war-gamed that and come up with the inevitable conclusion … “we are f-cked every which way”, and try to settle.
But no.
They spent buckets of money they don’t have for two days in court to confirm what everyone suspected.
That they are brain-dead morons.
The working class can kiss my arze, I’ve got the bosses job at last!
Apparently it’s perfectly fine, Clover Moore had divided her time between being Sydney mayor and a state MP for years, about 15 years ago. I think she was finally shamed into stopping the MP job, must have paid less and not as powerful as being the mayor of Sydney.
That’s another thing that irks me particularly, Sydney is the CBD and political centre of the state yet only a handful of gays get to decide who occupies such a powerful and prestigious position. It’s election should be synced with the state election and everybody should get a vote.
Heathcliff is describes as swarthy and it is hinted that he is Egyptian.
For Netflix that means black. Check their Cleopatra.
I checked. He is described as a dark-skinned gypsy. So I guess I’ll give them a pass.
Betcha the stupid new IR laws are having a big impact on this decision. Add to it all the climate rubbish and other forms of government extortion.
BHP sounds death knell for Australian nickel (Paywallian, 15 Feb)
Indo doesn’t have all that red and green tape.
Data for the dirt files.
With exceptions I can’t currently bring to mind, any city or state with a female chief of police (like Kansas City, MO, which just had a couple of gun-toting lunatics shoot up the Chiefs Superbowl victory parade) isn’t serious about law enforcement.
Tom Elliott suggesting on 3AW that Network Ten is up for sale, but the auction crowd are shuffling their feet and looking at each other.
He thinks they might fold, as Paramount in the US is also on the block, and potential buyers aren’t much interested in Ten.
Maybe Bruce Lehrmann might buy it.
She’d look good in an SS uniform, all that svelte black and silver.
‘Listen to the world’: Wong warns Israel over Rafah (Paywallian, live Gaza thread)
We warning Israel? What with? We can’t even send a frigate to the Red Sea. Israel has nukes. Maybe we could send that touring Islamic preacher who turned up on our shores yesterday. He can preach some inspiring sermons in Rafah to raise the morale of the Hamas guys before the IDF pots him.
Winston,
Thanks for the tip. Into the Vitamin C now!
Another good Leak. Albo down to his underpants. Whatever comes next might not be so amusing.
Feminists suborned for nefarious party political purposes?
Shirley not.
Is the Doc a descendant of Linus Pauling? Why so much C?
Steve trickler
Feb 15, 2024 10:08 AM
Anyone suggesting Sydney is a great place to live is certifiable f*cKing idiot.
Clover No More, the Lord Mayor of Sydney and Tennis Elbow our alleged PM both think that Sydney is the Best. Is that enuf’ for you?
Parents voting on public education with their feet:
Public school enrolments down to 64% of all new students in 2023.
Independent schools up 14.1%
Catholic schools up 4.8%.
Source: ABS.
Independent schools also have higher retention rates with 94.3% of students completing year 12 compared to 81.1% in Catholic schools & 73.6% in government schools.
How many parents would move their children into non-government schools if they could afford the fees?
What possible expertise can she lay claim too? What hard-bitten immersion in policy, strategy, and making of hard choices and weighing consequences gives her any right to tell the Israelis what they may not do? When has she exhibited the least awareness of world events that is at variance from what the ABC micturates from its electronic orifices. What therefore does she know of the lengths the Israelis are going to in an attempt to minimise impact on civilians?
I hope she made sure that only domestic press were informed of her diplomatic advice – if it was kept from Israel and others in the ME they might not think less of us.
But now, if the Israelis do attack, she will be standing around nodding like dashboard head-bobbing doll as the slovenly low-forehead Allah-wallahs erupt from the Western suburbs and terrorise the Jewish community screaming that we should “where’s the Jews”, while she intones ruefully that their anger “is understandable”.
I swear the only possible justification for her existence could be if there was a dam wall with a Penny Wong shaped hole in the wall that needed to be stoppered. Then she would be useful. And she mutter on all she liked about the importance of blocking holes in dam walls and people would not mind.
So long as they were out of earshot.
Kansas City shootings. Just more manufactured tripe for the sheeple. These alphabet agencies cant stop trying to out do each other. A black mayor in the midwest? A female police chief. Stop shitting me.
Is the Doc a descendant of Linus Pauling? Why so much C?
The official recommended daily dose is just enough to reliably prevent scurvy. More is not worse and can’t do any harm.
+100 upticks !
Elbow knew he was setting up a system where imported criminals would be set free to commit crimes on the streets of Australia including murder, rape and assault when he appointed fellow Liars socialist left faction comrade Andrew Giles as immigration minister in 2022.
Giles had been campaigning against immigration detention since the Abbott government came to power in 2013 on a policy of strong border protection.
Giles is not only incompetent, but fully committed to the left’s open borders policy free-for-all.
Another excellent scoop by Sharri Markson hidden away at 8pm last night on Sky News (which I taped for viewing today).
And you thought that battery in the garage was yours.
How Tesla profited from Victoria’s meltdown (Paywallian)
Ok, using a Powerwall to help support the grid is not ridiculous, but the battery owner should be getting the $16.60/kWh that the wholesale price was sitting at at the time of the event. For a 13.5 kWh Powerwall 2 that’d be a rather nice 180 bucks in the pocket, assuming 80% utilization.
I wouldn’t go that far. It’s fast becoming as pretentious as the rest.
What sort of monumental imbecile would admit to being mates with Kevni Riff?
How did Tesla profit from the power outage, BoN?
Will it do any good is the relevant question.The RDA for C is not about preventing scurvy, it is a recognition our body won’t absorb it. Beyond 2000 it can do harm. Given the rapid wash out time if taking 1000 I’d be doing it 250 x 4 to reduce wash out.
It’s only been 24.5 years for us, but otherwise agree 100%.
On short trips to Sydney to catch up with family, I find it grey, dirty, noisy and noisome. Two or three days is about all I can handle.
Indeed.
I think someone posted the Loy Yang was in strife before the storms hit, that’s all.
Haven’t got time to look.
Tom – I saw it as well. Must admit I wasn’t even aware of Giles or that he was an extreme left wing open borders imbecile (BIRM). I’d assumed the unleashing on the Australian populace of the third world murderers/ rapists/ peddoes was all the doing of the staggeringly stupid labore slag with the Roger Ramjet ‘roid jaw.
The labore pardeee – a sheltered workshop for severely intellectually impaired would be tyrants.
What a stupid comment!
Pretty weak stuff, even by the standard of your usual low-value comments.
+ 🕯
An upwick for Bruce.
“gerbil werming” .. strikes again ..! 14C & drizzling , trackies & jumper day in Fairfield, NSW …
The dems are just gaming the system.
But it’s ok because “Trump”.
Breaking news: Albansleazey government announces purchase of Channel Ten: “Ozzie taxpayers know a bargain when they see one”, the PM said.
Ok, using a Powerwall to help support the grid is not ridiculous, but the battery owner should be getting the $16.60/kWh that the wholesale price was sitting at at the time of the event. For a 13.5 kWh Powerwall 2 that’d be a rather nice 180 bucks in the pocket, assuming 80% utilization.
No idea how other owners of solar panels fare, but we have to remind our energy provider to send payment for excess capacity we sell them from our 10kw system. The time spent of the phone to them is ridiculous.
And don’t ask why we don’t sign up with another provider. We signed up for a rate other providers will not match.
Hangover from winning?
Why insert my blog name when I didn’t make that comment, driller?
Go sack someone and come back and tell us, you’re a boss, you bonehead.
Dunno, Bespoke, I’m not a subscriber.
You didn’t make that comment?
Sure.
Medics!
Is the Doc a descendant of Linus Pauling? Why so much C?
The official recommended daily dose is just enough to reliably prevent scurvy. More is not worse and can’t do any harm.
I dont know if there is a specific biochemical benefit in the Uric acid/gout pathway, but if nothing else, Vit C is an excellent anti-inflammatory/anti-oxidant, and gouty arthritis certainly has an inflammatory component/.
JC starting early on the turps today.
JC at 12:04
Very strange behaviour to falsify a comment reference.
That was me having a dig at Iodine Betty for wanting to sack the entire Budweiser marketing department because … well, Iodine Betty loves collective punishment.
What is it with ageing Queenssslanders?
Constantly having wet dreams about sacking people.
I suspect you couldn’t give Ch10 away. It spent years on the market with a sale being blocked by a major shareholder in some tax haven. It has a terrible market position in a declining industry.
Given the rapid wash out time if taking 1000 I’d be doing it 250 x 4 to reduce wash out.
Agreed.
Do you have a citation for the more than 2000 can do harm?
That’s why it would be good to read the actual contract.
I’ll bet the subscribers (not owners) took a substantial discount on the instal in return for giving Tesla control of the battery in certain grid conditions.
But when they do it, exactly under the terms of the contract, it’s “Elon stole mah electrickery”.
Johnny Rotten
Feb 15, 2024 11:29 AM
Steve trickler
Feb 15, 2024 10:08 AM
Anyone suggesting Sydney is a great place to live is certifiable f*cKing idiot.
Clover No More, the Lord Mayor of Sydney and Tennis Elbow our alleged PM both think that Sydney is the Best. Is that enuf’ for you?
Almost 2 minutes to cross the road on foot yesterday. Car after car after car … after car. No critique of the people behind the wheel. They are just carrying out life. Perth is a joke.
This city Perth is a joke. City life is f*cked
If I was a 38 year old billionaire’s son, I wouldn’t be dating a 47 year old single mother.
Fast Car live Luke Combs
Great songsmith Tracy Chapman.
In 1982 (?) the Republican party signed a binding agreement that would prevent them, and only them, from scrutineering elections.
This was lifted by a court in 2022. It was legally binding, and any scrutineering would have brought serious penalty.
The Republican party had been trying for more than 20 years to get the agreement voided.
That such an agreement could even exist defies belief.
After that, any sane observer, or sane US voter, should be in a perpetual state of wondering “What other agreements are currently in place to hamstring the will of the voters?”
Their system is a democracy, a very different one to ours – in the same way a poodle and a St Bernard are both canines.
Rabz
Feb 15, 2024 11:57 AM
+100 Up ticks
Yes.
It’s the Betamax VCR of the 21st century broadcasting world.
Just doing a quick tally.
Employing Wilko for two years doing nothing … $4 meg.
Wilko’s legal fees … $1 meg.
Their own legal fees* … $1 – $2 meg.
The likely settlement to Lehrmann … $750k – $1 meg.
So this little escapade has likely cost them upwards of $7 meg.
* even if Ten win with costs, Lehrmann doesn’t have two cents to pay costs.
John H:
Not as far as I know, but Professor X is a very long term member of the Cardiac Transplant team.
His explanation to me was that the excess vitamin c that is excreted via the kidneys attaches to the excess Uric acid and transports it out of the body.
It’s working for me. After a couple of months my urate levels are back to normal after being about 3 x the upper range.
Another reframing by the site’s thread derailer.
The comment compared Budweiser’s handling of their brand being dropped into the toilet by wokesters on their own payroll, with how Red Bull handled a similar attempt at de-machoing the brand.
You tried to reframe about that.
The rest of your comment is low-value, nay zero-value, drivel.
I’m too tired to search 20 years of archives, do you have a link to a commenter named “Iodine Betty”?
So we can see for ourselves some comments about a “love” for collective punishment?
Businesses flee draconian Victoria
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released data showing that Victoria recorded a net decrease of 7,606 businesses during the 2022-23 financial year.
The rising cost of doing business in Victoria prompted many firms to relocate interstate or overseas, with rising state taxes being one of the key reasons cited.
By contrast, Queensland experienced the largest net increase in businesses, growing by 11,031 in 2022-23.
The Australian Industry Group’s Victorian director Tim Piper says rising energy costs in the state have also been a factor.
“Some (companies) are able to stay here, (but) it is the continuing reinvestment that is the real problem”, Piper said.
“I know some big companies that are saying this is beyond the pale, they’re not going to be able to pay the level of gas prices especially, and they are having to reconsider their positions in Australia and Victoria”.
The employers’ group has warned that the state government’s electrification push for households will result in even higher costs for customers who remain on the legacy gas network.
Asian Pulp & Paper announced in August that it was halving its production workforce at its Box Hill manufacturing facility in Melbourne’s east, outsourcing some brand manufacturing offshore, and relocating equipment to Indonesia.
At the time, the company stated that the move was “necessitated by the challenging macro-economic environment, including unsustainable energy costs, among others”.
There are two key reasons why Victoria was the only jurisdiction to experience a loss in business counts.
First and foremost, the Victorian government’s draconian Covid lockdowns likely shuttered numerous enterprises, particularly those that are small and focused on people-serving (think cafes, personal trainers, stores, and so on).
Second, the Victorian government introduced a payroll tax surcharge in the 2021-22 State Budget as part of a mental health and wellbeing levy, but only for firms with a payroll of $10 million or more.
The 2022-23 State Budget then increased payroll taxes on these same enterprises as part of a 10-year Covid debt levy to help repay the government’s record borrowing during the pandemic.
I recently chatted with someone who works in business exceeding the $10 million threshold. They stated that their company was preparing to relocate its head office from Melbourne to Brisbane, where payroll taxes are lower.
The Victorian Government’s proposed increases to WorkCover premiums, which are borne by companies, risk driving more enterprises out of the state.
WorkCover is required if the actual or anticipated employee salary exceeds $7,500, or if apprentices and trainees are employed.
Changes to the required plan were announced in May 2023, with premiums rising by 42%, from 1.27% to 1.8% of a company’s employee pay.
The Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office predicts that the changes will cost businesses $17.8 billion over the next decade.
ANZ CEO Shayne Elliot recently described Victoria as “one of the toughest” places to do business.
The ABS data on firm counts appears to support these claims, with the state government effectively driving enterprises north, particularly to Queensland.
This has also been replicated by the internal migration data from the ABS, which shows the great migration north:
A couple of new words added to the Dictionary in 2024 –
range anxiety
noun. the apprehension or fear that an electric vehicle’s battery will run out of power before reaching one’s intended destination or a charging station.
enshittification?
noun. the gradual degradation of an online platform or service’s functionality, as part of a cycle in which the platform or service first offers benefits to users to attract them, then pursues more and more profits at the expense of users.
Now this word could also be used to explain the Australian Feral Guv’ments Policy for ruining Australia.
Kudos to Johanna who put it on the radar the other day. It is a ripper.
John H.
Did you read what I posted, John?
The part where I aid it was working and my urate levels have dropped to normal range?
The part where I said 500mg twice daily?
Jobless rate rises above 4pc for first time in two years
John Kehoe Economics editor
The unemployment rate has risen above 4 per cent for the first time in two years, as Australia’s extraordinary jobs growth slowed down over the summer holidays.
The number of unemployed people increased by 22,000 in January and the jobless rate ticked up to 4.1 per cent, from 3.9 per cent in December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday.
The number of people in jobs remained virtually flat last month at a record 14.2 million.
The unemployment rate has gradually edged higher from a low of 3.5 per cent in early 2023, as consumer spending slows and the economy cools in response to 13 interest rate rises by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which is trying to contain inflation.
ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said it was the first time in two years, since January 2022, that the unemployment rate had been above 4 per cent.
“However, similar to January 2022 and 2023, the increase in the unemployment rate in January 2024 coincided with a higher-than-usual number of people who were not employed but who said they will be starting or returning to work in the future.”
More unemployed people said they were expecting to start a job in the next four weeks, Mr Jarvis said.
“This may be an indication of a changing seasonal dynamic within the labour market, around when people start working after the summer holiday period.”
In January 2022, 2023 and 2024, about 5 per cent of people who were not employed were attached to a job, compared with about 4 per cent in the January surveys before the COVID-19 pandemic hitting in 2020.
The result was softer than economists had anticipated.
The median forecast of market economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for the unemployment rate to edge up to 4 per cent and for 30,000 additional jobs.
However, the labour market remains strong by historical standards.
The post-pandemic performance has been the best sustained period for jobs on record since ABS records began in 1978.
The seasonally adjusted participation rate remained steady at 66.8 per cent and the employment-to-population ratio fell 0.1 percentage point to 64.1 per cent in January, both around recent historical highs and well above their pre-pandemic levels.
Ahead of the employment report, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said unemployment was expected to tick up in the period ahead due to global uncertainty, high but moderating inflation and higher interest rates that are slowing the economy.
“We’ve overseen the creation of nearly 650,000 jobs since we came to government – a record for a government in its first term,” Dr Chalmers said.
“While monthly movements in employment can be volatile, employment is expected to grow this year.”
Anyone mention that Ten’s owner Paramount is doing mass layoffs today?
Or that layoffs have also been announced for Ten?
The Wilkinson stuff fits in perfectly.
Me without popcorn.
Paramount slashes staff, jobs to go at Ten (Paywallian)
‘Need a distraction’: Stefanovic questions timing of PM’s engagement
Speculation over the timing of Anthony Albanese’s proposal has begun, with one radio host claiming “what a nice day” it was to “divert away from the drama” as Labor comes under pressure to crack down on the released immigration detainees.
Anthony Albanese has been questioned over the “suspicous” timing of his Valentine’s Day proposal in a scathing radio segment on 2GB.
Broadcaster Ray Hadley has offered an ice cold take on why Anthony Albanese got hitched on Valentine’s Day.
“You’re not going to believe this,’’ 2GB presenter Fordham said on his breakfast radio program.
“I’ve got some breaking news. This is fair dinkum. Anthony Albanese is getting married.”
His colleague Hadley then sighed and said he didn’t want to be “cynical” but he questioned the timing.
“Call me suspicious, but isn’t it funny how it’s been determined on this very day when he’s under more pressure than Clive Palmer’s belt buckle?’ he said.
“He could have done it last week, he could have done it three months ago, he could’ve done it in three months’ time.
“But all of a sudden with Andrew Giles everywhere, with Angus Taylor jumping up and down about the $40million, what a nice way for Woman’s Day to divert from the drama. PM finds love.”
Fordham then added that “the weird thing” was that a girl in his street he called “the gronk” had predicted the wedding bells last year.
But if Hadley’s take was harsh, some of the 2GB listeners’ responses were worse.
One listener called Bruce texted to take a potshot over the Prime Minister’s broken promise on tax cuts, saying, “When Albo says ‘I do’ how do you know he will?”
Hadley then had another spray on his own radio program.
“The cynical part of me says timing is everything, and Valentine’s Day is a good time to propose, and it’s an even better time to get accepted to a proposal but it’s also at a time when people are still jumping up and down about the stage three tax cuts,” he said.
“And the $40million being spent by the government of our money to try to convince us that it was the right thing to do.”
He then wished Ms Haydon congratulations on the proposal.
“I reserve my cynicism for the prime minister,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also copped criticism online after announcing his engagement to partner Jodie Haydon amid a cost of living crisis.
The PM took to Twitter on Thursday morning to announce his engagement to his years-long partner, writing “she said yes” under a photo of the pair.
While the announcement, shortly after Valentine’s Day, was welcomed by political leaders, pundits online took issue with the PM’s surprise reveal.
“It’s great that I can’t afford to live but my tax dollars paid for that ring,” X user Windsor Beaver wrote, with a middle finger emoji.
One user wrote under the post “Fix the economy and this country”, while another stated: “Does it make my energy bills cheaper?”
Quite fine if FTA TV in Oz died real soon. Its been smelling bad for a while now.
Then let ABC move to subscription model.
Albo should get another puppy.
Sorry if this has been posted already. From yesterday’s Oz.
Australian Labor Party & Lbaor Blackout Bowen desire for Net Zero and Destruction of Australia
Sad image of rubbish bin at Coles as blackouts cause havoc
A sad sight has emerged in supermarkets amid devastating power outages affecting hundreds of thousands of Aussies.
Wild images show supermarket aisles and skip bins full of food waiting to be thrown away amid devastating power outages in Victoria.
More than 60 supermarkets blacked out after Tuesday’s unexpected storms left thousands of dollars of fresh produce “unsafe” for selling.
Coles and Woolworths both told news.com.au 30 stores each were cut off at some point as hundreds of thousands of Victorians were also without power.
Images posted online show a store’s freezer aisle blocked off by trolleys full of perishable items. A skip bin at another Coles appears to be filled with milk bottles
“Please do not purchase dairy, meat or frozen products as their quality may be compromised due to recent power outage. Apologies for the inconvenience!” A sign attached to a trolley reads.
One Victorian said their local stores were still “empty” on Wednesday morning.
“All dairy, fancy cheese (sob) and meat stuff all gone. Our power was off from like 3:45pm until 12:30am so it was off for quite a while and pretty warm outside,” they posted to social media.
Thanks Winston. It is consistent with the literature on wash out of C being rapid. It is not about being an antioxidant or anti-inflammatory capacity. 500 per dose makes sense because that increases the excretion rate.
A Scotch College, Melbourne alumnus (as is Dreyfus, btw).
Is ‘Hatred of Australia’ a core subject or an elective there, I wonder?
Its usually Hatred of Australian Hierarchy that I don’t control or not competent to be part of
Albanese government shows what happens when mid-wits get to run something far beyond their ken.
Far worse…mid-wits with attitude.
They don’t see Australia as an organised entity and government as a controlling/directing process. They see Australia as something to be plundered and government as the opportunity to plunder it.
SITREP 2/13/24: Avdeevka Turns Critical as Iskander Strike Devastates AFU Staging Area
SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER
14 FEB 2024
BREAKING: One Dead, Over 15 Injured, Suspects in Custody After Shooting at Chiefs Victory Parade
Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves confirmed in a press conference that two suspects were in custody, although social media images appeared to show three men detained by police.
End Wokeness
@EndWokeness
These are the men arrested at the scene of the Kansas City parade attack.
This story won’t be around for much longer
And they think they’re smarter than you, because they’ve figured this out, and you haven’t.
For the first time in my life, I’m now beginning to think Britain is finished
The country’s self-image as tolerant, decent and hard-working is being smashed. It’s only going to get worse
ALLISTER HEATH
Britain’s decline over the past 25 years has been staggeringly rapid. Almost everything is getting worse, and almost nothing is getting better.
Our public and private institutions are broken, presided over by an incompetent, selfish and narcissistic ruling class.
Living standards, when adjusted properly for living and property costs, are declining.
Even the simplest things don’t work any longer. Queuing, scarcity and congestion are rife, our infrastructure is embarrassingly poor, and the honest and hardworking face endless bureaucratic battles to obtain what they are due.
Free riding, crime, disorder, fraud, littering and generalised rule-bending are rife, and all too often tolerated by apathetic citizens and an indifferent state.
Britain’s residual virtues, our individualism, independence of mind, tolerance and openness, uniquely appealing features of our national character, are fading.
Like a frog in boiling water, few saw the full scale of the decline coming until it was too late, and those who did were ridiculed by the bien-pensant.
Yet even in 2024, when millions now realise that Britain is on the wrong track, there is no hope of meaningful improvement.
The Tories have been abysmal, but Labour will be even worse:
Keir Starmer will double down on the social-democratic and culturally nihilistic policies tested to destruction by the Conservatives.
In the 2000s, Britain had a particular idea of itself: a country of post-Thatcherite property-owners which reconciled modernity and tradition, globalisation and national self-determination, low-tax dynamism and fairness, where you didn’t need IDs to vote, where MPs weren’t attacked by screaming mobs, and where, finally, racism was increasingly a thing of the past.
We saw ourselves as a socially mobile, law-abiding land of high trust, low corruption, the rule of law, improving race relations and religious toleration: a uniquely open society and a model to the Western world.
Such a vision is now largely obsolete.
An Englishman’s home was his castle, making a huge difference to our national psyche, until our deliberate policy of rationing new housing at a time of mass immigration robbed the under-40s of the chance of owning anything of their own.
“This is a free country”, we used to maintain when presented with another idiotic proposal to control us, but that too is over, killed off by the woke war on free speech, the jailing of Christian preachers, the sugar tax, the surveillance society and the Covid lockdowns.
In narrow GDP growth terms, we continue to outperform the true laggards on the continent, as Brexiteers correctly predicted, but that should be no consolation.
Our manufacturing sector is being priced out of global markets by the rush to net zero, our energy policy is a hideous farce, our misregulated City is in decline, and our tax system an absurd conspiracy against hard work and merit, with marginal tax rates back at 1970s levels for some.
The socialist NHS, despite massive increases in funding, is a horror show, and one of the main reasons not to live in the UK.
Some 5.6 million adults are on out-of-work benefits, and yet immigration is running at extraordinary levels.
Our Armed Forces have been slashed, and are now being subject to a woke takeover.
Yet while all of these instances of national enfeeblement are tragic, they pale in comparison with the most terrifying regression of them all.
We thought that we had progressed decisively as a society, that we had vanquished racism and religious discrimination, that the institutions of our liberal state would prevent a minority from facing persecution, and that our ruling class would never allow any subset of the population to be openly hated and othered again.
How wrong we were.
That anti-Semitism, the oldest of hatreds, is back on the streets and screens of Britain, is terrifying enough; but the fact that this explosion of prejudice is being treated in such a cavalier fashion by the authorities and the mainstream broadcast media – and in some cases is even being rationalised and normalised – is a catastrophic development that casts doubt about Britain’s very future.
This is the worst moment for Britain’s Jews since the pogroms that disgraced Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester in the summer of 1947.
The double-standards, the never ending “pro-Palestine” marches that are inevitably marred by egregious, open, anti-Semitism and evil slogans, the bullying, the victim blaming, the spreading of fake news, the wilful, blatant lies and denialism of Hamas’s atrocities, the obsessive interest in, and delegitimisation, of Israel, a state that accounts for just 0.25 per cent of the Middle East’s landmass, is its only multi-religious democracy and which is fighting for survival against neighbours that reject its very existence, stink of a replay of the 1930s.
The return of anti-Semitism is not just an existential threat to Britain’s tiny, 292,000-strong Jewish community, but a damning indictment of a Britain that is regressing into darkness.
As Lord Sacks put it in 2016, “the hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews … the appearance of anti-Semitism in a culture is the first symptom of a disease, the early warning sign of collective breakdown.”
Already a non-Jewish MP has resigned out of fear for his own safety.
Traditional British democratic norms are being upended by far-Left and Islamist extremists.
Cranks, conspiracy theorists and racists appear to have entered mainstream politics in significant numbers, and many seem attracted by the Labour Party.
Anti-Semites never just target Jews.
They are full-service, equal opportunity bigots who oppress and impoverish and destroy all that they touch, and despise freedom and human flourishing.
Starmer is genuinely committed to fighting anti-Semitism, but he has proved unforgivably slow in his attempts at rooting out prejudice in recent days.
He rightly purged the Corbynites, but the rot in his party evidently goes far deeper, having contaminated even “centrist” or “Right-wing” circles.
Some in his party are seeking votes among far-Left and Islamist extremists: a morally righteous party would announce that they are not interested in such voters, and terminate all relevant candidates, even if such a stance costs them power.
In the absence of such a step, we face the prospect of many new Labour MPs being, at the very least, soft on anti-Semitism.
The Tories have failed, but Labour will be infinitely worse.
Britain is hanging on by a thread.
Simplicius is excitedly wanking again. After many many months of effort the Avdiivka salient still hasn’t been cut off. Which suggests Russian losses will have been heavy, since that’s what happens when armies attack in known directions towards prepared defenses. On the other hand Russia has been concentrating three armoured brigades to the south of the town, so maybe they will at last break through.
A dyke?
They don’t see Australia as an organised entity and government as a controlling/directing process. They see Australia as something to be plundered and government as the opportunity to plunder it.
I’ve said it before, government is just a criminal gang of brigands.
Some economists once did a paper on the effect of government on African nations. They concluded it was like having a nomadic gang of brigands decide to settle in your area.
The Age of Zugzwang
The Merciless Grip of Geostrategic Logic
Big Serge
14 Feb 2024
Note: I apologize in advance for the potentially rambling nature of this piece, which is something of a stream of consciousness geostrategic meditation. It’s possible that this is too abstract to be interesting. If so, please berate me in the comments.
I am a great lover of chess. While no more than a middling player myself, I am endlessly entertained by the seemingly countless variations and strategic contrivances that the world’s great players can create from that same, familiar beginning.
Despite being an old game (the rules that we know today emerged in 15th Century Europe), it has resisted the enormous amount of computing power thrown at it in recent years. Even with powerful modern chess engines, it remains an “unsolved” game, open to experimentation and further study and contemplation.
One chess adage, which I learned early at my childhood chess club, is that one of the biggest advantages in chess is to have the next move – a sort of cautionary lesson to avoid being overly cocky before your opponent has a chance to respond. A little down the road, however, you learn about a concept that inverts and perverts this aphorism: something which we call Zugzwang.
Zugzwang (a German word that literally means “move compulsion”)
refers to any situation in chess where a player is forced to make a move that weakens his position, such as a king that is backed into a corner to escape from check – each time he moves out of check, he moves himself closer to checkmate.
More simply put, Zugzwang refers to a situation where there are no good moves available, but it is your turn.
If you find yourself staring at the board, thinking that you would prefer to simply skip your turn, you are in Zugzwang.
But of course, you cannot skip your turn. You have to move. And no matter what move you choose, your position gets worse.
Weather ladies are too white.
As meteorology struggles with diversity, NOAA celebrates Black history (14 Feb)
I’m starting to see why weather forecasting has been so awful lately. Maybe BoM should do a smoking ceremony before each weather report.
A dyke by any other name is just plain Wong.
It’s incredible to think of the lives and war matériel Putin has wasted at Avdevka and Bakhmut.
“Russia is strategically better off, of course”
Delusional, wishful thinking.
I didn’t know about the uric acid elimination. Something learned today. I have long known this ….
Both can also be pro-oxidant. Vitamin C upon electron donation becomes pro-oxidant but it can be regenerated. At very high doses IV C has potent pro-oxidant functions, hence being explored as a cancer treatment but with limited success.
The antioxidant issue as a longevity issue has been subject to furious debate. The issue isn’t oxidation, it is the oxidation-antioxidant balance. For example, there are studies demonstrating that high antioxidant loading can impede the benefits of exercise. At a guess, take the antioxidants during the growth phase, several hours after the exercise.
For general health I wouldn’t bother with C supplementation. Grazing on broccoli is far more beneficial because steady low dose C, sulforaphane, and quercetin; the latter showing some promise in killing senescent cells, the latest craze in promoting longevity and as a strategy does have merit.
I’m surprised he’s surprised. Look who they put in charge of the country.
Albo should get another puppy.
He has. Named Jodie.
This does not only apply to the UK, we are getting very fast to half the population being anti-Semitic even though lots of them like to hide behind anti-Zionism which is really the same thing. The anti-Zionism mask may work now while the media is letting them wear it but eventually their ugly faces will be plain to see.
I have noticed that people have stopped saying how they can’t understand how the holocaust could have happened with such civilised people as the Europeans being in charge.
From Lance at Jo Nova
11:47 am · Reply
Restarting a grid is a nightmare that rational people do not want to consider.
The grid is essentially an inductive load. Motors, transformers, etc. The small resistive load is water heaters and cook stoves.
An inductive load needs between 4 and 6 times the apparent/real power equivalent to energize. Ie, it takes 4 to 6 times the running load of a motor in order to initially start it up.
So, if the grid load was 2 GW upon fault, then if all the loads are still connected, it takes 12 GW to restart them. Only for a few seconds, but if one cannot supply those few seconds, the the grid fails and goes black again. The only way around this is to segment the grid and restart it a ‘micro grid at a time’. The only stabilizing influence is resistive loads, so that means residential loads. Industrial loads are almost entirely inductive.
Only the thermal generators can produce the coupled, synchronized, base load, frequency reference for all others to follow. Without that backbone, a functional grid is not possible except on a very localized and isolated micro grid disconnected from the main grid.
Grid scale power generation, transmission, distribution, and voltage/frequency control, is very, very, far from the capabilities of solar and wind sources. Steam plants drive the grid that follows the connected load. Everyone else is following that lead, and mostly, poorly, in the sense that solar/wind are 2 levels removed from grid reality, and cannot sustain more than a parasitic capacity or dispatchability. IOW, non dispatchable power is not a benefit, but rather a liability, with respect to grid stability.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/04/the-clock-is-ticking-as-ukraine-destroys-more-russian-vehicles-faster-the-kremlin-could-run-out-of-fighting-vehicles-in-six-months/
February 4 2024 was the worst day of the war so far. Putin seems to be pushing for a Ukrainian capitulation before he rigs the 2024 Russian Presidential election next month.
Cope.
Giles was absent for three important meetings to do with the detainees. Two absences because he was out campaigning for the Yes campaign.
May have been in Credlin column.
Antisemitism is at least 2,000 years old. A few months ago I read an account by a Malaysian scholar that argued colonized countries learned antisemitism from their overlords. It certainly wasn’t confined to Europe.
Tesla profited by reselling the electricity downloaded.His supplier Amber had some sort of deal with Tesla so the battery was stripped, the owner made $100 but Tesla probably made thousands.
We have had a similar issue with Origin.We knew they could take power from our battery but until recently they have only taken small amounts. Recently in the hot weather they have taken large amounts after 7 pm meaning we have no ability to recharge from solar and so our main reason for getting the battery has been destroyed.
We are in discussions.
Competent power engineers have understood this for around a century. They have, alas, been replaced by inept lawyers and accountants who have never had to understand anything complicated. They imagine they have, but they are wrong.
That’s more like it! NSW Labor, “Who is sleeping with who”.
They’re like the Bourbon dynasty.
Frogs get the Bourbon dynasty.
We get the Woodstock and cola.
Amongst the narcissists of MAFS there’s been a man-child whose response to every challenge upon his behaviour has been to laff incredulously and say, “Wow, what’s this all about?? I just got MARRIED!”
(I feel very sorry for his “match”, who is a similarly immature coomer, but didn’t sign up for the humiliation she’s been put through)
…there’s a meme maker somewhere who is probably scrambling to get something out to Facebook before the news moves on…
The Echo, Byron Bay: Hundreds rally in Byron demanding Gaza ceasefire. Ignore Penny Wong if you like but you don’t mess with Byron.
The appearance of reality TV in a culture is the first symptom of a disease, the early warning sign of collective breakdown.
JohnH:
Apologies for my sarcy response earlier.
With so much crap being flung around, I assumed you were having a shot at me.
Sorry.
There’s no cope about it.
Putin has destroyed the Ukraine to make it part of Greater Russia and otherwise ruined Russia.
They’re not a credible major power anymore.
There’s too many leaked documents now to believe the optimistically low casualty estimates for Russia.
Sigh!
I was on the CSIRO BHP nickel sulphate pilot plant for about a month or two several years back. The dream was to make it at Nickel West then flog it to the Chinese. Guess that didn’t work out then. Alcoa then BHP nickel operations, a few twitching arseholes in our state parliament I bet.
But no-one at AEMO has an engineering degree (just bachelor of arts from the local TAFE), so it was: “What the hell! Let’s give it a burl and see what happens!”
Literally laughed out loud.
Then with dawning realisation my eyes narrowed to slits, eyebrows drew so close together that there is a real danger of baby eyebrows appearing on my forehead in a few months, teeth clenched, and veins in my forehead bulged and pulsated to the beat of ‘Woolies, the fresh food people’ – my wall of text bested by: Two. Effing. Words.
And adding insult to injury, my complaint of ‘three effing words’ is still longer than the more succinct ‘a dyke?’
Lysander, I have you in my eye, Sir!*
* From The Madness of King George – a criminally under-appreciated film, in my opinion.
Sir!
No sweat. I missed your original explanation for C and was the side tracked by some arguing high dose C has many benefits but the explanation you provided did not support that. The uric acid elimination was a surprise for me. A potent antioxidant that can also be a big health problem and is implicated in one of the most painful conditions we can experience. Biomedicine is so confounding like that. Several years ago I was peaking to my nephew, a specialist, and we were discussing how the progress in medicine will always be a long slow grind, that hope of some huge theoretic breakthrough that will solve so many conditions is hoping against history. Doctors know that, Dr. Google does not and nor do many people who rely on Dr. Google.
Adding humiliation to embarrassment to injury.
To be fair to electrical engineers who work for AEMO, there’s not a chance in hell they would design such a useless system unless the imperative to do so was driven by government 82% 2030 policy.
Plus a dash of ineptitude!
And its infected DIY shows.
Farmer Gez, you can have either Net Zero or an economy. You have to choose.
Net Zero is 19th century agrarian subsistence, not 21st century iPhones, computers and industry.
Does hitting a bong count?
H B Bear
Feb 15, 2024 12:13 PM
I suspect you couldn’t give Ch10 away. It has a terrible market position in a declining industry.
Yep. Since they moved (even further) to the ‘edgy’ left, their audience numbers have been on the decline. For 2023, they never peaked over 22.1% anywhere in the country (all people) and not one of their programs entered the top 50 of all programs for 2023. Their capital city share peaked at 21.4% for all people and even in their primary target audience 25-54 age group, they peaked at 25.9% – still 14% behind Ch 9.
Ch 10’s commercial TV licence has value but their programming is awful and the on-air staff are just as bad. Any sale of the network would reflect this.
No problems.
Easy mistake to make.
And another new word for 2024 –
greedflation
noun. a rise in prices, rents, or the like, that is not due to market pressure or any other factor organic to the economy, but is caused by corporate executives or boards of directors, property owners, etc., solely to increase profits that are already healthy or excessive.
? The verb form is greedflate. Other recently added inflation words include shrinkflation and shadow inflation.
Note – This word applies especially to Woollies, Coles and amazingly to all Guv’ment charges/taxes/levies/surcharges/fees.
The current arc of events reminds me of The Peace War by Vernor Vinge. Scientific fascists control the world, but ordinary people find ways around and underneath their hegemony. The tech in the story isn’t conceivable (yet, anyway), but the use of Covid and climate alarmism fits the same principle.
Qld youth crime crisis: Police too fearful to patrol the streets
Frontline officers are calling in sick and refusing to go out in marked cars for fear of being targeted by young criminals who know the system will protect them.
COURIERMAIL.COM.AU02:09
Officers across the state have opened up about the ongoing youth crime crisis engulfing Queensland and their frustrations with the revolving door of Children’s Court, which they claim is doing little to ease the crisis.
Fed-up police spoke out after respected Gold Coast district duty officer Arron Ottaway was stood down for allegedly authorising officers to ram a stolen car that police say was driven by armed teen offenders on a crime rampage.
In a separate incident this week, cops fired on what they thought was a stolen car being driven by four teens in Brisbane after it allegedly rammed an unmarked police car and tried to run down an officer.
It followed the fatal stabbing of 70-year-old Vyleen White in front of her six-year-old granddaughter at an Ipswich shopping centre, allegedly at the hands of a 16-year-old carjacker.
While not commenting on these specific matters, police said they feared more carnage from young criminals who may run riot without fear, as the cops could not chase them.
A senior police officer told The Courier-Mail that crews were often afraid to go to work out of fear of being rammed by a stolen car.
“Officers don’t want to be in a marked car, they don’t want to be out on the road especially at night when it’s a real concern,” they said.
“People are calling in sick, officers have been told not to walk on footpaths at night.
“You’re mad if you’re not aware of what’s happening around you.”
They said officers often felt powerless. “You know you’re going to get rammed. Stolen cars will pull up in front of you and throw things at you, and all you can do is turn on your bodycam and do nothing.”
One major South East Queensland police station is almost 20 staff down, with positions either vacant or officers away on leave.
“We can barely get a f —king car on the road,” one officer based at the station said.
“It’s not only youth crime but also DV takes up so much of our time. We’re just getting pulled in a heap of different directions.
“These kids (car thieves) aren’t stupid – they know if they hit the accelerator, we’re not going to chase them.”
Another frustrated frontline officer said cops were being reprimanded by bosses for not stopping at red lights when pursuing stolen cars.
“That’s why these young offenders have no fear and are doing what they like,” he said.
Another officer said it was “incredibly disheartening” having to deal with repeat juvenile offenders.
“You send them to court and they get (bail) … then the cycle repeats,” he said.
“They will eventually front court on multiple matters, multiple criminal indictable offences – over 30 criminal charges. And then they’re let out again after sentencing, no time served, no retribution for victims, no convictions recorded, nothing.
“Sometimes they’ll do a youth restorative justice thing, which essentially doesn’t mean a thing and is an insult to everyone.
“Bottom line is, they’re doing these things because they can get away with it.
“There isn’t appropriate punishment and police are sick and tired of being the last line of defence and bashing our heads against brick walls because we are doing everything in our power and nothing gets done.”
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll admitted youth crime was taking a toll on staff.
“Whichever way you look at what’s happened in the last few years, the unique offender numbers have been trending down but the small group has been particularly more violent,” she said. “Escalation in violence … taking vehicles, the notoriety on social media, and boxing in vehicles is one of those and it takes its toll.
“We have a great support network within the organisation to support our officers.”
Michael and Kerri-Lyn Stewart of the Balin Stewart Foundation and Belinda and Brett Beasley of the Jack Beasley Foundation at the announcement of a new knife crime prevention initiative at Parliament House. Picture: John Gass/NCA NewsWire
Michael and Kerri-Lyn Stewart of the Balin Stewart Foundation and Belinda and Brett Beasley of the Jack Beasley Foundation at the announcement of a new knife crime prevention initiative at Parliament House. Picture: John Gass/NCA NewsWire
It comes as state parliament on Wednesday passed laws barring the sale of knives, gel blasters and replica guns to children in a move designed to reduce the number of young offenders carrying weapons.
The government also put forward $6m to boost knife crime prevention campaigns, with a portion of the funds to go toward education campaigns run by the Jack Beasley Foundation and the Balin Stewart Foundation.
The foundations were set up by the family of slain teens Jack Beasley and Balin Stewart, who were killed in separate incidents involving knives.
In parliament, Labor also voted down law amendments put forward by the LNP to remove the clause requiring detention be used as a last resort and open up juvenile courts to media and victims.
The latter came despite the government the day prior committing to open the courts to media and victims’ families.
Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers said police faced highly emotional situations every day which could become a burden.
“Constantly responding to complicated and violent domestic and family violence incidents alone is adding strain and tension that often lasts well past the end of shift for our first-response police,” he said.
“A recommendation from the 2022 commission of inquiry proposed rotating police into short periods of less stressful operational roles with a view to allowing officers to rebalance, revitalise and restore their empathy.
“The rubber band can be stretched only so far and police are at capacity having to fill the roles of every other government department that does not work beyond business hours, and they’re also dealing with the trauma they see each day.”
H B Bear
Feb 15, 2024 12:13 PM
I suspect you couldn’t give Ch10 away. It has a terrible market position in a declining industry.
Perhaps a merger with ABC – sans taxpayer $. Same culture. Same direction (down). Merger made in heaven for lefties.
Typical Chinese.
“Look at my huge
crustaceancrushed asian!”FIFY.
Meteorology actually struggles with meteorology.
It occurred to me today just how much the being Black is at the core of Blacks’ identities makes it inevitable that they assume other people are obsessed with their Blackness.
Pop into a shop. One of the clerks says “Hi” and the other doesn’t give you a second look. The first clerk therefore said ‘hi’ because they are black and the clerk was trying to be ingratiating because they think Blacks are a threat. The second clerk ignored them because they think Blacks are invisible non-persons.
Race-baiters are just ringmasters of very large troops of race-clowns.
No other race has this problem – they just perceive some people have prejudices, but they don’t carry an a priori expectation of racism.
But as for Black History Month – I assume normal history as she be reached in skools covers American history as well as British, European in general, and salient bits of the Classical and Hellenistic periods.
Black History, I suspect, is restricted to just the American experience. No wonder they are pissed off at the preponderance of Whitey – they can point to history before the Americas. They just stupidly put it down to some ineffably subtle form of racism whereby even the ancient Greeks and Romans conspired to deny sub-Saharan history by cunningly writing their own history down so other people could read it.
Sneaky bastards!
Like running series repeats of repeats ad nauseam of NCIS, Bull, the other NCIS’s I can’t name plus a really crappy reboot of CSI. I may have left a few off that list. Ch 10 is gunna attract a heap of buyers as Speedbox outlined above re. ratings. Perhaps it’s all Paramount’s fault.
Failing upwards exemplar Ken Henry has just delivered his prognostications on the tax system:
How embarrasment.
On your income plus pension, ‘cost-of-living pressures’ are not even on the horizon. dickhead.
Oh, boy.
Apparently, the way to increase availability of rental properties is to tax the owners more.
I wonder why his last foray into tax reform was a complete fizzer?
Reality TV is documenting the decline.
Without it, i’d have no explanation about the correlation between septum piercings and VD, no warning for the next wave of neurosis coming from urban DINKS getting working dogs, and no insight that the next huge plate with a dinky burps-worth of powder and foam served up to me in a restaurant is simply 25c worth of stale produce put through $25 worth of processing and plating.
Plus, it’s confirmed my instinctual knowledge that a building which appears to leap up overnight and be made of nothing but chipboard, nailguns and glue, is quite simply not fit for habitation.
Gel blasters are awesome. I (may or may not have) acquired one to lessen the minor bird infestation in our area. One or two squirts of the trigger and a trail of water gel balls (size of peas) heads out (hypothetically). Those birds are smart and left for many months (possibly).
Alas a relative of mine who is plod, explained the downside with GBs being used in robberies. I protested that they look like toys and are even brightly coloured like toys. Yes, but apparently a coat of black matte paint and the 7-11 operator does not know the difference. Anyhoo as a result the GB may then have been re-gifted the following Christmas.
Forgive me for saying so Pete but I wonder who came up with that idea? The very last place I would pilot a process is CSIRO. They’re hopeless.
I did lots of work for those nickel operations and I’ve engaged with CSIRO over many years. They’re a bunch of off with the fairies loonies. If you want to do a pilot plant then do it with one of the WA metallurgical testwork companies or with ANSTO, who are very good.
CSIRO should be Rabzed just after the ABC is turned into radioactive glass.
May have been in Credlin column.
Yep. She filleted the insipid little nancy boy.
“CSIRO should be Rabzed just after the ABC is turned into radioactive glass.”
Very good. I worked for them when they were respected in the biological sciences. Those were the days.
What is funny about the renovation DIY shows (The Block particularly) is that there is no DIY.
The “renovators” seem to have a coffee cup grafted to one hand, and are either just pointing and waving at the real wukkas, or flitting around town from one sponsor to another looking for “design inspiration”.
Of course, there is always the happy coincidence for the sponsors that they just happen to have 5,000,000 units of the chosen “design inspirations” in stock for anyone else who would like to emulate the look.
Whatever they do, the jurdges will describe it as “mid-century modern Scandi industrial” or somesuch and you’d be crazy not to rush out and get your share.
Farmer Gez
Feb 15, 2024 2:50 PM
To be fair to electrical engineers who work for AEMO, there’s not a chance in hell they would design such a useless system unless the imperative to do so was driven by government 82% 2030 policy.
In my conversations with one or two EEs working in the ruinables industry they seem to have drunk the kool aid and claim to be convinced they are doing the right thing. Of course they might just like the technical challenges and the Mandy Rice-Davies response applies too. I would have thought some of them were old enough to know better. I certainly agree that you can’t have a stable power system without large thermal base load stations providing synchronous power into what used to be called “infinite busbars”.
Ken Henry seems to have a problem with people keeping their own money..
I have a friend in Aust who has an Air B&B, it has to earn $21K before he makes a penny
That is insanity on steroids it is a disincentive to do better.
I will be in Oz in a couple of months, i’m going to enjoy the horror show its become.
Plenty of material to work with. SloMo is right up there with R-G-R.
As well as the 3 afghan taliban witnesses BRS is being done in by a former SAS who had a personal animosity with him:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/event-of-startling-gravity-newspapers-back-sas-soldier-s-account-of-execution-20240215-p5f56b.html
And not one word about Hekmatullah the bastard who BRS was chasing after he killed 3 Australian soldiers; come to think about it we don’t hear much about the 3 Australian soldiers. I hope the 3 journos who did it for BRS get the pox.
A Top Man talking to the Top end of Town.
I doubt we will see any actual reform re tax, just a lot of low-level hissing as Albo extends & optimizes what is in place.
+++
Reality TV is voyeurism. Cooking shows are inversely proportional to cooking in the general population. The same is true with DIY programs about renovating etc. In an age when the younger generation is losing interest in romance and long term relationships we have MAFS.
CSIRO should be Rabzed just after the ABC is turned into radioactive glass.
Yep.
bern
That Lam case ruling is actually quite peculiar given in around 2017-2018 IIRC, the High Court invented marital rape in 1960s South Australia (?) when it didn’t exist.
[It’s different when women are accused, rather than inventing law that didn’t actually exist out of moral concern, it is unjust to apply the law equally, retroactively or not.]