GRIPES

[spacesailor]

They are going to shoot 'drones' why not troublesome birds .

spacesaillor

[nomadpete]

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

It was BAT carcases I was Incinerating.

That's fair enough. I wouldn't be touching bats, live nor dead.

 

But You would be the first person I know who is plagued by dead bats. 

 

Do you live in a belfry?

[facthunter]

No they have always been in this area. Katherine is Much worse. I don't have a Mosquito problem. Nev

[old man emu]

Not many of us know just how many migratory birds move from Australia to Asia as part of their life cycle. That's a source of infection that really can't be stopped.

[pmccarthy]

A bloke in Queensland started bending over their proboscis's as they a

emerged, then they flew away with his tent.

[red750]

This is copied from a post on Facebook. I was not sure where to post it, I thought here was as good a place as any.

 

I don’t give a flying xxxxx who this offends, but I stand by it. Conflict is coming, sooner or later! Australia is broken. You the Government, all of you are out of touch with the people that you re supposed to represent ! The cost of living is so high that both parents are always at work, rather than spending time with their children (single parents stand no chance)😥. You took religion out of schools. There is NO discipline for the majority of youth today. Well, now most of those kids are rude and out of control. You shall reap what you sow! We have taken a whole generation and turned them into selfish, entitled brats who have no respect for people, property or authority! You deem people with terminal illnesses and some with only a few months to live…fit for work!!! You allow our veterans of war to go homeless and hungry but give out billions to foreign aid!!! You save drug addicts over and over again but refuse to give free diabetic supplies to those who need them to stay alive. You bend over backwards to be politically correct, too scared to say enough is enough, in case you offend someone. You put the retirement age up so people must work until they drop. You take care of prisoners and give them everything under the sun (food, medical, education, representation, money, rehabilitation) yet you cause the elderly, those that have paid their debt to society and their families, to go broke caring for them either at home or in a nursing home... THINGS NEED TO CHANGE!
Copy & paste if you have the guts!
I’m betting most of my friends have the guts.

[onetrack]

That sounds like something GON wrote up! Or an American Sovereign Citizen. 

 

I don't know where war veterans go homeless and hungry, either in the U.S. or here. America does treat its veterans reasonably well, Australia treats its war veterans even better than the U.S., from what I've found out. The veterans who are hungry and homeless usually have major mental health problems, but refuse to accept help ("the Govt is not going to control my life!").

 

I don't know where people with terminal illness are deemed fit for work, that sounds like a furphy to me.

 

In my experience, the vast percentage of youngsters today are polite, helpful, and well-behaved. There's only a small percentage that are not, and they've always been with us.

 

I do agree, Political Correctness is a problem in todays world, it's a good job we've got a few people who are straight shooters and who are not so diplomatic.

 

The retirement age had to go up, because people are living much longer, and are healthier in their old age. The former retirement age produced an unsustainable system, and we have a low birth rate, which means there is going to be less employed workers in the future to provide the wealth to cover pensions.

 

The greatest single problem with our Western countries at present is the unjust enrichment of the already wealthy and of the corporate set. The tax system needs to change so the rich pay more tax, not less and less constantly, as has been the case.

In America in 1955, when the U.S. was at its economic peak, the top income tax rate was 91% - and U.S. companies didn't employ double degree accountant/lawyers to find tax havens, and tax loopholes, and devise "innovative corporate structures".

[Marty_d]

All whinging and no solution.

 

[nomadpete]

35 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

All whinging and no solution.

 

Sure is.

 

But that's the definition of a 'Gripe'

 

So quit griping about it.

[facthunter]

It's dummy spitting. The People Voted.  His own electorate Kicked out M Sukkar.  It's a crap THING reposted.  Reform needs more that that kind of Stark Raving MAD Response. Nev

[onetrack]

This should be in the "positives" thread, but I'm posting it here, because we've been talking about general injustices, and the warping of the tax system to favour low tax levels for the rich.

 

In an alarming scenario for many wealthy people who have set up trusts - basically only for substantial tax avoidance reasons - the ATO is cracking down on these people.

 

Specifically, the ATO is setting out to enforce Section 100A of the Tax Assessment Act, which is specifically targeted at tax avoidance, via utilising Trusts outside ordinarily accepted methods.

 

In short, anyone who has set up a simple family Trust to share income between a husband and wife has nothing to be unduly concerned about. But the ATO is looking at "excessively complex structures" which go far beyond what is needed for simple family arrangements; trusts where income is distributed to adult children and the income then ends up in the hands of the original taxpayer, anyway; and unnecessary transactional arrangements that go far beyond simple income splitting between husband and wife.

 

The people the ATO is targeting are "high net wealth" people, mostly professionals (the usual suspects - doctors, lawyers, accountants), high income tradies and FIFO workers, and those who are operating businesses utilising complex trust arrangements, that essentially amount to tax avoidance schemes. 

 

This move is long overdue, and the ATO is talking about going back over 30 years, which may make some "clever" individuals become a little disturbed, that they could end up getting a rather sizeable tax bill - to make up for all the correct taxing that they have so far avoided, with their "ingenious" Trust structures.

 

One can only hope that corporations and companies are included in this crackdown, but I'll wager the ATO is looking for the low-hanging fruit first - as the corporations and companies would be happy to pay their lawyers to fight "unfair" and "retrospective" tax bills, whereas individuals may not be so inclined to take on the ATO in court.

 

https://williambuck.com/news/in/general/ato-clamp-down-on-trusts-is-income-splitting-dead/

[nomadpete]

An interesting development, if it actually does happen. 

 

But one point mentioned might be cause angst for a lot of average punters:- 

11 hours ago, onetrack said:

ATO is talking about going back over 30 years,

If they can go back that far for this particular issue, can they also for other tax disagreements?

[pmccarthy]

You only have to keep records for five years I think, perhaps seven years for business. Further back would make it difficult to defend why decisions were made.

[onetrack]

Yes, it seems odd that the ATO has mentioned this 30 year retrospective investigation, when 7 years is generally regarded as the limit for records and claims - unless criminality is involved, of course - which means investigations can be carried out 50, 60 or 70 years later.

I would imagine the ATO is talking about Trust agreements that were set up from 1998 - which is when Section 100A came into force - and those Trust agreements are still in force, and all the documentation relating to them is still readily available.

The ATO is apparently also seeking out high value "generational wealth transfer" deals via Trusts, whereby those Trusts are not actively complying with the general rules for Trusts, and are simply convoluted tax avoidance measures.

[facthunter]

Set up Discretionary Trusts and expect to "Draw the Crabs". Same with Superfunds with your whole BUSINESS in IT that the NP are trying to Protect,. SPIVS they are and DESERVE to BE found and made an example of. They are stealing ordinary Taxpayers Money. Nev

[onetrack]

My gripe today is the slackness of tradies and the poor design of a lot of domestic equipment. My 94-yr-old Italian neighbour Barney rings my doorbell at 8:30 AM this morning, just as I had planned an easy day.

 

He told me in his broken English, his "air conditioner bracket was broken". I do all his running repairs, because he's childless, and his wife died about 10 years ago, and he's totally computer illiterate and he can't find any tradies any more, because there's no more telephone book or yellow pages book. I told him I'd be over in an hour to look at it.

 

I get over there and find his stove rangehood had completely fallen off the wall, and landed on his stove! You should've seen the bodgie setup these installers had put in, to hold the rangehood up.

It was an old rangehood, at least 40 or 50 years old (Barney's been in the house since 1994, and he said it was installed long before he got there). 

Fortunately, that made it a pretty simple and basic setup - but the installers had used screws that were too short and too small, and they'd simply pulled out of the wall.

 

There were large wooden dowels (about broomhandle diameter) installed in the wall and they'd hammered plastic rawlplugs into the dowels, but the rawlplugs hadn't gone in far enough - and there appeared to be previous repairs as well, because someone had spread plaster or filler around the dowels, which plaster had fallen out as well.

 

I decided the dowels were still quite useable, we just needed to dig up some larger and much longer screws. The rangehood was covered in thick grease, which all needed to be cleaned off before I could do anything, as the grease was getting everywhere. I took the rangehood out onto the back lawn and scrubbed it thoroughly with hot soapy water, until it was nice and clean.

 

Then we set out on a hunt for some big screws. Barney went through all his tins of screws and could only come up with some big countersunk head woodscrews. I told him we needed regular button head screws, and I thought I might have something. As luck would have it, I had a few 14G x 65mm type 17 concrete screws that looked ideal for the job. There were only two screws holding the rangehood up.

 

I drilled out the dowels to take long rawlplugs and ensured the concrete screws would go in without any problems. They did. Then came the fun of re-installing this prick of a thing. It was heavy, and awkward, and the screw holes were right up inside the rangehood housing, with tight access - and no lighting, of course.

 

Add in, trying to stand on a wooden chair to get enough height, and lean over the stove at the same time, as you're trying to get the screws to start in the correct spot - all the while you have to look over the back of the rangehood to see where the screw is pointing, and turn the screw from the underside of the rangehood housing!

 

Barney's not much help of course, he's pretty wobbly on his pins, and he uses a walker fairly regularly - although he get around the house without it. He couldn't even hold my phone with the light on in the right position to put light on the screw heads, as he'd have to stand on a chair, too!

Fortunately, I managed to get the rangehood to hold in position by resting it on the top edge of the tiles under it, while I managed to get the screws started. Barney helped by holding pressure on the rangehood, to prevent it from dropping.

 

I managed to get both screws started, and then spun them in with an 8mm socket on my battery drill. One jammed 2/3rds of the way in, but after backing it out, then screwing it in again a couple of times, it went right in and got an excellent grip. I was sweating like a horse with the effort, and with the effort of getting up and down constantly, and also having to kneel on the chair as well, which my knees protest about greatly now.

 

Both screws got a great hold on the wall, and the rangehood was fully secured. I went and got my Silastic gun and squirted wet area silicone all around the edges of it to finish it off.

Barney came out with some home grown Italian garlic and $50 for my trouble.

Not exactly tradies rates, it took me two hours in total! - but I'd be happy enough to fix it for him for free, he's a good neighbour, and has been for nearly 30 years. So it all ended up a positive type of morning!

 

 

[facthunter]

Blessed be the Rangehood Fixers as they will gain a lot of Knowledge about Ancient Grease. Nev