Economist and commentator  Judith Sloan  thinks it is time to "hang up the boots" on the Australian of the Year award, saying that plenty of other countries manage without such an award, and so can we. 

Hardly anyone has heard of the awardees, unless they are in sport, already lionised. Bah! Humbug!

Grace Tame, was a  "self-referencing victim/activist using her position to score as many political points as she could, as well as potentially setting herself up for well-remunerated positions in the future". Hear! Hear! She should never have been nominated. Over the years some of the selections have been very questionable.

Alan Bond  in 1978, before he went to jail. Peter Hollingworth  before  before it was alleged that he did not act on child abuse in a previous position, and then had to resign as Governor General. Two clangers there!  A couple of the later ones are now advertising "massage devices" and "solar power" on TV. Adam Goodes, not nominated for his football prowess, but for being a 'victim' of racism, supposedly. Rosie Batty and Lieutenant-General David Morrison. Gawd. The list goes on. The duds tower over the few good ones who never drew attention to themselves, but got on doing what they had been doing before the silly, wanky award.

Dylan Alcott's call for more money for the NDIS makes him no better than the last incumbent of the position.

The NDIS is already a huge rip off of hard working Australians. Gillard's revenge is costing us billions. An example.

I can no longer walk the distances involved in many chores required on my property. Dragging a couple of full wheelie bins a hundred meters to the front gate was just not possible. The obvious answer a big mobility scooter. I found what I needed was a Goliath Mobility Scooter. I found a couple companies supplying these to the NDIS, but the $5,750.00 & $5560 respectively was a bit much for my budget.

After some searching I found a Sydney company selling Bikes, electric bikes & other battery powered scooters & toys for grownups who supplied them. Not something similar, but the exact same thing. The price was a bit more appetising at only S2250 plus freight of $100.

I am very happy with my mobility scooter, but am horrified at the rip off of the NDIS. Not only have we hired a number of bureaucrats to run it on a million a year salaries, but they are the totally useless bureaucrats who don't do anything worth any salary. Paying over double for equipment is probably a scam, but at least incompetence.

Anyone who has not set up suitable sourcing in an organisation buying this stuff at the best price is not worth hiring, let alone a million dollar salary. Another stuff up ripping off the working public of Oz.

With a Commonwealth Minister administering it, and all the bureaucrats involved, the NDIS was never going to be run in a businesslike manner at best practice standard.

Good thing for you that you have the nous to do your own sorting, Hasbeen.

Anything that involves bureaucrats sticking their noses in is automatically over-priced & unnecessarily complex.