The latest blatant waste of money is the $632 million going to descendant of the Stolen Generation, so called. Not the alleged victims themselves, but their modern descendants who are also traumatised, it is claimed. Sob. Sob.

Hey Paul1405,
I often use Afterpay, I've made 64 purchases using it but I'm trying to get out of the habit of buying something and having to pay for it later.
I've never paid a single cent in extra fees, but I make sure I pay my fortnightly payments manually online rather than waiting for them to take the payment themselves, that way I know I'm always up to date.

- They've now increased my limit to $3000, with no upfront payment;
First payment 2 weeks after purchase, they reward you with a higher limit and rewards (in the form of discounts) if you don't have late payments.

I've gotten some great bargains using it too, sometimes they have 15% or 20% off, which works out great if the item is already heavily discounted or on sale. Discounts on top of discounts.

Just today I got an offer from Zip-Pay (another service I have $1000 limit)
- They've offered $20 off if I spend $100 at Big W.
But I will admit to once not paying my monthly payment on time (3 days late) and I had to pay a $6 fee.

There's quite a number of these services, Humm, Openpay etc.
- But I've only used Afterpay and ZipPay.

You can also buy gift cards at certain places, I can access them through the Suncorp app on my phone.
I bought a bed from Super Amart about a year ago.
Worked out a deal for the bed I wanted, then after all was said and done, purchased a 6% off $500 Super Amart gift card from the Suncorp App and saved another $30 on top.

There are ways you can save an extra few dollars here and there, if you're willing to take the time to do so.

AC then there are the scamer's;

The other day a call, recorded message; "Your Apple Iphone is being dispatched by Amazon tomorrow, if you wish to cancel this $799 purchase press 1". If you do press 1 someone will soon be asking for your credit card details to make the "refund".

If you are interested in government salaries and the people getting them, here's one for you:

That dill, General Angas Campbell who was up to his neck in the badmouthing of our SAS solders along with Brereton and Morrison, gets paid $1,063,118 pa. His British counterpart gets $458,810; the U.S. one, $755,900. Campbell is well over-paid.

The creep still keeps his money although the allegations against our trips have been proved to be wrong.

Economist Judith Sloan believes that JobKeeper will rank as "the single most irresponsible and reckless spending program ever undertaken by a government". It makes the Pink Batts and Building the Education Revolution programs "look completely amateurish in terms of government spending for dubious benefit."

Ms. Sloan says there is a very strong case for a future government to hold a royal commission into JobKeeper to ensure that such blatant and inequitable waste is never repeated.

"Based on hasty and commercially naive advice concocted by Treasury", taxpayer money was snapped up by businesses that were good at the system rather than being hurt by Covid. Not only private companies scooped up the loot, but "private clubs, private schools, barristers’ chambers, trade unions and plenty of other chancers" got their snouts in the trough.

A payment of $1500 per fortnight per worker was made whether or not the worker had actually been stood down or their hours reduced. "A large number of recipient businesses didn’t actually reduce their workforces but received the payment notwithstanding. "Around $12.5 billion was paid to businesses that did not suffer any decline in sales revenue. Some actually saw sales increase"

And the "tenured, well-remunerated dolts in Treasury" never thought to include a claw-back provision whereby businesses that had received payment but had not experienced commercial damage would be required to repay the grant.

And the Morrison government won't release details of the scheme.