jetjr

Ive watched one take a smallish kangaroo on the run - way more pointy sharp bits there than on a goose.

I think the complaint is about paying ongoing fees for the certification and where that money goes

I think maybe risks in self managed super are poorly understood by many going that path If you are sitting in a $700 K house, why shouldnt it be used as funds for your retirement? Otherwise its a form of super gifted to your heirs upon departure.

Agree, I do think super/pension needs to be considered together including exemptions, tax and allowances. I know of several retirees who spent all their super and savings on a very elaborate house, and still claim pension.....not fair in many eyes. The tax changes they are proposing are removing exemptions which encourage extra investment into super. At worst its the same as you would have paid were it income. A real issue is the seeming constant changing of the system, people make plans based on the rules then they change and there is winners and loosers.

El Al have armed security on every flight, and missile counter measures installed, Specific routes avoiding risky airspace too. And serious security before each flight, think belts, shoes off and without much prompting everything else. Laptops dissasembled or simply taken away and returned later. Lots of questions and plenty of wrong answers You have to get your luggage and personally present to Security who open it and go through the lot. The marks and age of your passport adds to risk and odds of further attention. Israeli's have been dealing with serious terrorisim for some decades, we could learn a bit from them as we catch up. Everyones had a stint in the army so comfortable with weapon around.

Got an echidna lives in our yard too, sends dogs apoplectic. Know hes around because they come back bleeding from nose. Pretty confident critter, will wander around whole yard. Wont see him for months then turns up again. "Eric" does cause similar damage to a large group of feral pigs rooting around in ground for food once he finds a good spot.

I agree re roadside lights, flashing lights at night, blind and confuse and really do constitute a safety issue. Try working in the dark around a few machines with them on. Maybe there should be a light intensity controller posted to remotely turn on and off lights so as jut enough and the right colour are going. Each emergency vehicle can, while signing on to site, supply the frequency for their vehicle so the controller can take over control. Maybe automatic intensity control on lights or some sort of engineering shade controlled by satttelite comms, in all road vehicles to prevent this problem. An annual inspection should ensure these shades work and retract properly. Maybe a back to base alarm and recording system. The possibilities are endless Ive sat through meetings where this type of rubbish is leigitamately thrown around. No one is brave enough to say "its going to cost too much" lest they be branded as having poor safety culture or attitude.

Bit too much focus on hi vis, in most cases staff are supplied uniform shirts in any case, if having them yellow and orange helps at all its not such a big deal. They do get expensive with night reflective gear Problem comes as it becomes normal and it pushes into every task and every business. Anyone trained in WHS knows PPE is the last choice and least effective way to mitigate a risky activity. The idea that its management fault, whatever an accident, does lead to excessive proceedures. Especially in big companies where management arent necessarily too interested in productivity or businesss are highly profitable. This may slow as things get tougher in mining.

Change a few names and issue here and we could be discussing CaSA and over regulation in aviation At aome point those involved loose respect and adhereance to rules and the actual safety improvement slows or can reverse. The costs are exponential as incidences reach certain level

We have a resident echidna.......where he apends time looks like a mine site Also get black, brown and used to get inland taipans, very agressive little feckers those ones. Change colour and can look like black or brown. Niece bitten by brown at front steps, nearly didnt make it to hospital. Just try to tell us how endangered they are.

Yes just a few weeks of fuel reserves and little process capacity, it has been reveiwed nd not considered worth doing anything about........... When things are good, populations and govt ignore some obvious things

Diesel works if you run big km trips New models mostly feature DPF and some include adblue injection These emmission control methods raise costs of ownership on modern diesels Late model territory is a pretty good vehicle, earlier had some issues with front end and horrible fuel use. Diesel i know of has happy owners. Terrotory hasnt excelled in sales stakes and as a result sees discounting. Good value for purchase but pretty sure this will hurt values but your looking at long ownership. Some issue re tyre sizing on them havig few options and expensive too. Running several diesels I can say the last few years have seen petrols cheper fuel wise with diesel price well above ULP Personally i strongly push AWD models , safety benefits are worh the costs LPG has reducing excise program so wont be cheap for much longer

Isnt federal politics the ultimate committee? Even worse, its directed by constant popularity polls. Your going to end up with a lot of camels when horses are needed

The balls will be several thick when level is down, probably single when its full. As others have said floating covers and tiles arent a new idea, not too many cost effective unless water VERY expensive Black is the carbon black used to resist UV degradation, at best they are likely to last 15 yrs before breaking down slowly over the next decade Wind will most definitely move them if not water filled. If they are then growth on outside could make them sink. Absurd cost All evaloration reduction reloes on very expensive water, like treated town water. All water has a value, plenty think its higher than it is. Saw something recommending using these to fix Broken Hill water issues and covering Menindee lakes, would be cheaper to relocate the town. California does lead the world in spending money to save percieved environmental problms.

Its 60kmh because the rural road which is Bathurst racetrack is normally a two way road, including entrances to houses and properties. Some blind corners at the top too Pretty regularly there someone using both lanes running a hot lap like they see on TV. For some reason there always seems to be someone trying a race lap backwards

Us data on airbags vs Au and rest of world needs caution In US, they have used to have very low seatbelt usage rates and therfore airbags regulated to restrain "unseatbelted" adult, way more force used to deploy, much more likely to injure adults and especially kids I believe many have key switch to disable if child in front set

No they cant see much ground water being "poisoned" Std approach, when facts dont agree with you, start insulting opponents. Yes produced water can contain salts and bicarbonates, all of them natural, thats why its all captured stored and processed via RO - same as Desal plants in most capital cities, then you drink it!! I believe you even drink recycled effluent in you area - similar process, similar ranting when it was discussed too. In exploration works water has been allowed to go back to rivers, potentially increasing flows and reducing degradation of the rivers from over extraction - you on that band wagon too about degraded rivers from evil irrigators? Now that treated water is balanced and often used for irrigation. often cases cheaper than pumping bores so prefered. Being applied via new best practice irrigation systems like drip and pivots. Leachate or brine is a serious problem and industry has to formulate responses to it. Overseas they reinject the lot back into the aquifer......near where is came from. Yes dams built on the cheap over 10 years ago have leaked, now decommissioned. Its a single lined small dam in NSW. Poorly constructed even by agricultural standards. There is an unknown regarding radioactive content in ground water, it didnt come from leaky dam but did accumulate for some reason. Current dam have 2 and three liners and monitor each to see if theres an issue, hopefully looking at new liners and systems to improve them even further. Generally have sampling points located around to watch for ground water changes too.

FT, I doubt its "full" of hydrocarbons - more sensationalist rubbish. Yes gas can escape, does naturally. How do you know any came from CSG, pic above is from 30 years before mining took place Even incredibly low levels sees oily layer on top and theres none like this that Ive seen. Even raw water coming from the wells itself mostly have bugger all hydrocarbons. Do you even know whats in frack fluid and how much and how its used? Be more concerned about methane leaks from your local landfill. Theres a big issue with near no effort or money to deal with it. Located not far from where many live. Major groundwater potential issues too.

Because you missed a vital question - who wants to be a farmer? Was me for a long time, thankless hard work, big risk with little return. Was some great things too. I do live somewhere pretty similar to Chinchilla, just smaller. I can say first hand what happens to farming based towns when droughts or govt buybacks of water does to whole valleys Young professionals and their families leave, schools close, shops leave, social problems develop. Population drives everything. Having a second income stream to a region is critical to survival. Could list plenty of western NSW towns in similar state to that, have been since ~ 2000. Only towns growing have mining, govt or big industry nearby. Industry is struggling and govt is growing short of our money.

Sure would, much more likely than without them, likely to be dryland value, In many cases free water to irrigate with. New roads, lots of new fencing, nearby towns thriving, medical centre, great schools and now we have RPT nearby. I can ring up and get a plumber, electrician, builder, hydraulics guy whatever Oh and I can now use mobile phone too like the rest of Australia. Few years ago had none of this and never any chance of getting it. Too many Aussies sit in well serviced areas criticizing development. Go for a visit to areas with small towns and no industry, youll really see how a drought bites. Only ones left are farmers and govt supportee's. one group cant leave other has no reason to. Ironically PV solar isnt very efficient in hot dry areas, dust gives plenty of problems too.

"50 farms for sale between Chinchilla and Roma" - yep sad. A real issue is who is looking after that land as it ceases to make a living for someone. Contrary to popular beliefs it doesnt return to nature and repair itself. Simply becomes weed and feral infested and cost far more to return to productivity. More often overgrazed and no inputs used and many jobs lost. Similar for national parks and gifted lands, No one managing it as there isnt enough money to do so properly. Some then display this as "how it used to be before settlement" and a model for everywhere else Not sure we can afford to shut down industries which can fund all this. If things work out well and the world moved to renewables, no one will want the gas or coal. Lower std of living for us all here. Pearo raises good points Firstly theres two arguments, is it happening and whats causing it? As said most likely it is happening and world seething with people are causing it. Real question is what to do? A bucket of water on a bushfire isnt going to stop it and that water is VERY expensive. More concerning is can we achieve anything or should we concentrate of surviving with the changes. Tough call to deny, let alone impossible to stop, developing countries populations wanting electricity and all the shiny things we have. Currently many dont have enough to eat and we expect them to be concerned about climate change and next generations.

Not true re money in a drought, you underestimate farmers and what they need or how long CSG has been out there. They see it as a way to secure their future, pay off loans and move forward. Droughts come and go. No one else is out there offering real long term help. They dont get cash but infrastructure, roads, schools, hospitals, mobile service, access to air travel, medical services and water and their towns develop and prosper. Worth much more all provided because population is there. A VERY small number of that population is actually farmers. Try living somewhere west of the ranges where dryland farming is all there is and no mining, you have very little including people. I think it would be great to have all this without the compromises and risks mining brings but it isnt possible. Generally regional centers and farmers see a continued stream of city centric regulation and costs imposed. Many dont hate green groups but probably should. Why do I have to explain a fire? UCG sets fire to underground coal to release gas I think - how is that relevant to CSG except its happening in central QLD too?

Now your talking UCG - pretty unrelated but nicely sensational and the confusion with a few emotive images works well Still interested in claims from TP re draining aquifers Maybe you could elaborate on the risks of groundwater contamination, how, how much, where? Risks are low, firstly very few are fracked here, only "tight" gas sites, Daz says 10%, id have thought less than that. Many aquifers are localised, unused and many are rubbish quality water and the volumes of either leaked frack compounds or even well water are miniscule in comparison. Lots of overseas or unrelated evidence used in debate here deliberately confusing issues. I see often campaigns run by city based groups with farmers as mouthpiece. Green leaning groups convincing farmers to support preying on their fears. On the other hand they then have published policies which include devastating taxes, restrictions inc ending irrigation and intensive farming, making transport and energy more expensive. This will end up closing down of agriculture and regional areas will die. WA will see what happens to regional towns when mines wind back. Lots of happy farmers I know in CSG areas both NSW and QLD. Places where CSG is predicted to happen is where dissent is strong. Carbon pricing schemes have to exclude agriculture as they are massive methane producers and couldnt survive if this were included. Anti CSG farmers are walking very thin line often being led by environmental enthusiasts. I think many in Australia dont realise we cannot always afford our moral standpoint. I fully support placing heavy compliance pressure on CSG companies, but much of the current attacks are unfounded and will see them walk. Many Australian families miss out on jobs and resources to secure their farms and local infrastructure. NSW is a basket case. Govt pandering to any noisy minority. Population is Ok with anything happening so long as they cant see it and yet they have lives based on what it produces. I also believe effort should be put into developing renewable energy, it is the future. How much we sponsor it is the question. For the time being we need cheapest, greenest fuel and right now gas is it. The developing world are moving towards producing much of our trinkets and food as our moral high ground slowly prevents it happening here.

FT Can you please explain how ground water is effected by CSG Where will it "drain to", how deep it it, how much is there, who is using this water below 800m, whats the quality like

Quite frightening how short voters memories are.