I was feeling quite pleased with myself when I sat down to pay some bills. My bill paying a/c was up to $8400, against $1000 a year ago after paying last years bills. It was quickly apparent why.

There's the rates, $3600, up from $680 the original rates bill here.
An electricity bill $890, up from $320 the first bill here.
A couple of car rego $590, down from $1700 last year after a change to club rego for my classic Triumphs. Still $5000 going to do nothing much more than support bureaucrats, & boy hasn't their cost escalated.

Then there are a couple of car insurances, well down after the change to restricted use. But the shopping trolley rego & insurance is due any day, so it is fairly obvious why the bill paying account looked so good.

The one I really resent is the rates. My neighbor assures me that the only thing the council has done in 32 years to the road built by the developer is once dropping some blue metal, & spraying a veneer of bitumen over it, finished in half a day. The only thing the 60 residents here get other than that is a library truck for 3 hours 48 times a year. Pretty poor return for the couple of million dollars a decade they gather from us.

A bit of quick math shows that it costs $111.50 just to own my home, add another $50 to gather & supply water, & treat & remove waste water, before counting maintenance, & it becomes pretty obvious why rents have climbed so high.

God we need to trim the numbers & the wings of our bureaucrats.

we need to trim the numbers & the wings of our bureaucrats.
Hasbeen,
Labor would never allow that & if the Coalition even just hinted at doing so a civil war would break out.
Remember Campbell Newman when he purged the Qld Public service ? He did go in too hard & too fast but still, the whole of the Public Service would have crucified him backed by the people who always waffle on about equal rights.
Vehicle registration in Qld is nothing short of stealing.

Ops, that is $890 a quarter, $3560 a year for power, & $111.5 a week to own the place.

Good point Hasbeen. Councils in particular seem to have their rises out of control. Unfortunately government spending never goes down they always find a way to gouge more out of people for things that they don't need. Someone said to me that they pay $150 per year for the garbage truck to go past their vacant property. I remember at one council they were talking about a billion dollar plan. I was surprised and appalled they could lay their grubby hands on a billion dollars collected presumably significantly from rates. It seems that they are able to do this because many are sleeping- sadly in many cases their own money is seemingly being used against themselves.

Reagan said 'big government is bad'

PS- I think you need thicker walls in your house.

Oh, how I love to hear the 'Old Farts' whinge. They whinge about everything, it's too hot, it's too cold, it's too dry, it's too wet. Blame the Labor Party for everything.

When Labor established the car industry in Australia in 1949, your folk hero and founder of the Liberal Party, the cowardly 'Pig Iron' Bob Menzies said: "No worker should own a car." So you blokes should be on shank's pony!

"no worker should own a car".

Paul demonstrates for the umpteenth time that there simply isn't any anti-Menzies claptrap that he won't fall for. Never happened.

Elsewhere Paul claimed British capitalists wanted to continue WW1 until 1922 but when challenged for evidence, meekly claims that someone somewhere made some profit on something during the war. You'd think he'd be embarrassed by his idiocy...but apparently not.

"No worker will own a car" if in the future only electric vehicles are available.

Unlike you mhaze I read historical accounts, not relying on Google and a bit of cut and paste to get me through. ' Pig Iron' Bob also dodged military service during WWI, yet supported the war, like Howard with Vietnam. Menzies also said Australia needed a pool of 10% unemployed to control worker demands. I have read extensively about Menzies, both good and bad.

'Pig Iron' Bob must be rolling in his grave to hear that aged welfare folk own cars. DISGUSTING!

"Unlike you mhaze I read historical accounts,"

So show me where Menzies said that about cars.
So show me where British 'capitalists' said they wanted the war to go to 1922.
We've already been down the 'pig iron' Bob road and proven that your assertions there were rubbish.

But Paul just makes these claims and then, when called to provide evidence, drops them without comment, and just moves on to other unsupported and unsupportable assertions.

mhaze, being an avid "Googler" as you are, why not try for yourself. Failing that, any decent library will have books on Menzies, try reading, it is a cure for ignorance. Then again you can simply rely on my superior knowledge.

Translation....

Paul shot his mouth off, has precisely no evidence for the things he asserted and wants me to go find evidence that doesn't exist.

Menzies never said those things. Paul made it up. But he'll try to pretend otherwise.

By the way, Paul. I've done plenty of research on Menzies and/or the relevant period. That's how I know that what you claim is rubbish.

mhaze, I'll agree to disagree. I don't know what your "research" on Menzies involves, or your depth of knowledge. As recent as last year I read David Kemp's book on Menzies, very good, there are several good books on him, and reading will only help your "research", and remove any ignorance.

Ps. I also have a number of Labour pamplets and newspapers from the 40's and 50's left to me by my Old Man, that make extensive mention of Menzies. Heavyerly biased but make for interesting reading.

Don't worry, it is the extreme left that is now shouting that no one
should own a car !
Of course the Commissars won't own one either, they will be chauffeured
around in big Zisses, like those in Moscow I saw coming to a do in the
Hotel on Red Square. Their wives were just dripping in jewellery.
And this was many years before the Oligarchs.
It was really an eyeopener to see and watch the proletariat standing
in the street watching them arrive.

"I'll agree to disagree. "

I won't. We can agree to disagree over lots of disputed things - was Sargon II the first real emperor, did Homer invent the Greek alphabet, was Y2K a cock-up or a conspiracy. There are good arguments either side.

But there are NO arguments to support your inane assertions. You made it up. I looked it up. The number of families with cars increased by 714% in the Menzies years - strange for someone who, according to your fantasies, didn't want them to have cars.

Just making stuff up and then asserting that there's some book somewhere is some library in some undefined locations isn't truth, let alone scholarship. But it is very much Paul's SOP.

mhaze,

I find it rather conceited of you to demand I supply you with information that I know to the best of my knowledge to be true. On Robert Menzies, who incidentally was Australia's longest service PM, something you may be unaware of. If you read Menzies 1946 response to Labor's "Full Employment" promise, and later his 1961 speeches on employment, you will know Menzies was an advocate for a pool of unemployed, which previously he had put at 10%. His "car" opinion was from opposition when Labor announced their plan for an Australian car industry.

Pauliar,

You are once again lying through your teeth. You have been challenged and once again cannot provide any proof whatsoever.

Pretty much "what is to the best of your knowledge" is bogus and probably lies told to you from other fwit greens.

I understand that it pains some to be told Robert Menzies the founder of the LIBERAL PARTY was a military coward, an appeaser, an admirer and a flatter of Hitler. I'd pull my head in to, and try and rewrite history. The Liberal Party is full of Useful Ideiots like some here.

Well Paul, he was none of those things - well maybe an appeaser, but then so was most of the western world and all of the Labor Party - but its interesting how hard you're trying to change the subject away from your made up claims about Menzies and worker's cars.

BTW the ALP didn't create the car industry in Australia post-war. It'd been around for decades. They just sold it out to the yanks and therefore ensured it'd never be a viable stand-alone industry.

Compare how the Australian government handled Holden with the way the Swedes handled Volvo to see what a disaster the ALP created in 1948-9.

Pauliar,

From a reliable source may be, from you, the master of Bullsh1t, not so much.

One thing to misquote what I say, like the reprobate ttbn, my quote for Menzies "no worker SHOULD own a car", ttbn turns that into, "no worker WILL own a car" my capitals, a misrepresentation, shameful.

shonky, my sources are as reliable as possible, books by reputable authors, labour material I have in my possession, in the form of newspapers and pamphlets, to having conversed with people politically active in the days of Menzies.
AND yes a bit of Google as well.

Menzies was remarkable in the way he was able to resurrect his political career from the disaster's of the late 30's and early war years to become the long serving leader of post war Australia. There were several factors, not the least Menzies calm demeanor and cultured ways.

Pauliar,

If your sources are beyond repute, please link to one. So far you have provided exactly zero evidence.

Therefore the claim that you are a liar stands.

shonky, when presented with the truth, if its not to your liking you simply deny it. Your raves about the outcome of the 'Cry Baby' Porter case is a good example. You made certain outragous claims which turned out to be false, then you simply denied you ever made such claims, despite the fact I cut and pasted your bs.

I put it down to 'Himmler Syndrome' that you suffer from.

The whole problem is that far, far too many get salaries more than twice what they're actually worse, particularly in the Public Service.
There are bureaucrats who are costing the taxpayer more than what they get paid due to incompetence & indifference. If only the wasted money could be directed towards brick & mortar infrastructure & education.
Those who do perform are very few & they are satisfied with their pays.
As it stands Australians are out-pricing each other whilst bitterly complaining about the cost of living. It can't really get any more stupid than that or can it ?

Pauliar,

If your sources are so reliable then link to one. I don't believe a word you say, your credibility is zero.

shonky,

I consider it a virtue to have zero credibility with you and a few others on here. Tell me what on Menzies have you ever read, NOTHING

Pauliar,

As you are OLO's resident liar and village idiot, your credibility with everyone is zero. Just about everything you post is a lie.

Next, you call on others to "prove" stuff they've posted that is freely available online, then refuse to provide any evidence for fanciful bullsh1t that you make up.

You are a liar and either you post a link that shows that your outrageous claims have some base or just admit that you made it up.

shonky,

You should have typed your last post in CAPATALS, a real rant on your part.

Such insecurity on your part, like the school yard bully with his "EVERYOBE hates you, and EVERYONE loves me!", an attempt to create inclusion for the special, that's you, and rejection for the despised, that's me. The use of the word EVERYONE, definitely 'Himmler Syndrome' on your part. Did your mother stop breast feeding too early? Were you rejected and unloved as a child? Bullied at school, Possibly you never received a birthday present like other children. All has led to your desire to feel superior.

Pauliar,

Clearly, your mother dropped you on your head. The fact that you still can't back up any of your outrageous claims shows that you are a LIAR and a FRAUD.

Put up or slink away in disgrace.

shonkyminister, to make you feel better why don't you promote yourself to the position of Reichsfuhrer. Then you will feel superior to all of us. You are defiantly suffering from 'Himmler Syndrome'.

Pauliar,

You have worked hard to make everyone else feel superior to you.

shonky, when were you first diagnosed with a 'Superiority Complex', and now with your extreme far right leanings 'Himmler Syndrome'? Were you a bed wetter as a child? Are you past that stage yet?

Did 'Pig Iron' Bob want to name his new political party; The National Socialist Workers Liberal Party? NSWLP. His bushy eyebrows could have been his trade mark.

It's not a complex when I only feel superior to scumbags.