Where do pollies end up, after they leave office?
On the boards, of companies, they had dealings with, when in office…
surprise, surprise… 
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Here in Western Australia, they always somehow manage to get a high paying position with one of the large mining companies such as BHP or Rio Tinto, which have all quite coincidentally been major financial backers of the different political parties 
No Government sway or corruption here people, move on, don’t judge or question the blatantly obvious!
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That and the mining sector is the biggest revenue for the gov. I was reading forecasts due to the Evergreen collapse look to take a dive later this year so less iron ore and coal exports to China, less money for the Au gov.
China is using Iron Ore Exports as their leverage against the Australian Government with rising tensions between Geopolitical influences imposed by the USA.
Creepy old kiddy fiddler Biden has even mentioned “sanctions” against China, from his own country that is technically completely bankrupt and funding all of its own Government/Country, plus overseas aid to Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan through money loans in the billions FROM China itself!
How hard has his dementia hit him that he’s threatening the same country that is funding his own?
The USA is pretty much dead in the water right now, where COVID gave them a good shot in the arm financially (coincidentally), and the conflicts in Palestine/Ukraine certainly worked into their agenda for yet another shot in the arm from their history of starting Wars purely for DOD income……. but even all of these efforts are unable to pull them out of the massive hole that they have dug for themselves 
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We should be finding other markets for our high grade iron ore and coal as it’s some of the best in the world. Burns clean and efficient. China are reliant on coal for power and to refine Iron ore in to steel. Their domestic coal is shite, burns dirty and pollution is high because of it. China haven’t got much left domestically supposed to last til about 2030.
I don’t know about the US thing so much, I remember Trump whacking tariffs on China when he was last in during the early covid days. But yes of course their employment is through the roof going overtime making war everything and it’s big business with a lot of money involved. I thought USA just print more money when they run low. 
Yeah Trump simply added Tarriffs onto high cost luxury imports from China, which was paid by the US Citizens who were looking to buy expensive cars and other products from overseas, in a bid to boost the US Manufacturing/Jobs economy.
.Australian government did the same here with our Imported Vehicles to help protect the Australian Car Manufacturing Industry.
This is a big difference between making regulations for your own country and threatening to “attack” another country by threatening sanctions against them for the pure intentions of trying to harm their economic/manufacturing interests.
Not a good idea provoking China when you’re own country is heavily reliant and debited to them!
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Wait and see what happens f all I can do about it. What will be will be 
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For sure mate, not a great fan of discussing religion/politics…… two of the worst shitshows responsible for all of this bad stuff in this world 
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Ha heard it on local radio today, Elbow can’t fullfill his election promise of the individual power bill rebate of few hundred dollars. Hmmp I wondered why that was supposed to kick in before xmas and I wasted MY time querying my power provider why it hadn’t happened yet and they had no idea. Oh well at least now I know.
Looking through a pile of stuff packed away (brother-in-law deceased estate) and I came across these…
Not the “Most Wanted” pack… but maybe… I don’t want to open them to find out.
Printed in China too… so no doubt just a knock off pack. Still interesting though seeing George W’s noggin on the back of the pack.
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Fucking over dodgy ebay sellers… 
Bought a cheap red dot scope off a seller I’ve bought from before. It arrived, and after unboxing it became pretty clear that it was faulty and no amount of windage and elevation adjustment would move that dot out of the upper left quadrant of the field of view.
Contact the seller who requests a photo of the problem… have you ever tried to photograph a red dot to highlight an alignment problem?? 
it’s not possible.
Long story short after nearly two weeks of a barrage of emails back and forth their final solution is to ignore my repeated requests for a return address so I can have a refund and offer me a refund of half the purchase price while I keep the faulty scope. 
Obviously not acceptable. I bought from an AU seller, but it’s clear from the Ingrish in the emails that I may as well have ordered it from mainland China.
I don’t expect perfection or precision from a Fleabay scope, but getting that red dot central’s the bare minimum I expect in the way of functionality. Thank Christ it was an ebay order using PayPal, at least I know they’ll have my back.
Okay, rant over… where’s that bourbon? 
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That sucks. Sounds like a China drop shipper. They say they are in Australia but are actually in China.
Raise it with Ebay and good you got paypal as well raise it with them too. Think you got 30 days. Paypal have been very very good in my troubles in the past. Very efficient.
Care to show who it is?
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I feel your pain brother 
Ordered something as simple as 4 x LED 12V coloured dashboard lights for a Hotrod that I’m working on back October last year.
Because I had ordered from AliExpress previously years ago when I was still running my business, my new order automatically pre-filled the shipping details to a property address that I hadn’t lived at in 5 years!
I went back to that old address, introduced myself and told them that they will be receiving something in their Letterbox addressed to myself, gave them my mobile number and they are still waiting and watching out for my package to arrive.
I went back to that address a week before Xmas, a couple of days after Australia Day and a few days after School Holidays finished…… and yet they still haven’t seen anything arrive in their mailbox
I tried everything under the sun to try and work with the retailer, shipping companies and Australia Post to change the delivery address……. but to no success
I ordered 8 little LED lights that would fit in a standard Letter Envelope, not a huge bulky parcel, and yet here I am nearly 6 months later waiting to receive basically a single Postcard from China to Western Australia
To be fair, the Chinese AliExpress seller has been absolutely fantastic all of the way through this clusterfuck, and it’s 100% the fault of Australia Post who hasn’t been able to manage the simple task of delivering what my Retailer sent me back in August last year to deliver it onto a truck heading to Western Australia
I’ve honestly never been burnt by online sellers through whatever platform they are advertising on, but have been let down by Australian Borderforce//Customs/Australia Post more times than I care to mention
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Bit low on the feedback with a few problems from others. I’d steer clear of that one.
This one would be better. I think @BME had one
Top Quality Professioal Optical 1x40 Red Dot Sight Rifle Scope In Stock | eBay
Or try these funts
Oh yea Aus post are awesome, I had my new phone sim card sent to Brisbane. It was a great holiday 
@BME I was playing with this Tax cut calculator | Treasury.gov.au
Shows the lesser cut you’ll get after Elbow fiddled with it. People on welfare with no job don’t pay tax so have no say. Bottom line got lifted to $25k.
They’re missing the third colomn…
What you were promised…!!
You should have got 9k…now its just 4.5…!!
Yaaay…my word is my bond.
Hope he takes his wedding vows, a bit more seriously than other promises…
And, thats just direct tax.
Lets not forget good ole indirect tax, Mr gst…
Whatever you end up with in the hand…deduct 10% value from that, as it goes in tax to the govt…
High income earners, literally pay nearly half of what they earn, to the govt…
And get nothing in return, at the end.
Like i said, they need to get serious about the big companies that trade here, via offshore entities, and pay next to no tax…
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I’m a bit shitty, as the Ducted A/c down the coast, looks like it will have to be replaced.
The unit is about 17 years old, and uses the older 410a gas, which is now not allowed.
Even though they have split systems in the living room and main bedroom, the tennants want the ducted as well.
$8000.00 worth.
The total cost , of the retaining wall, slab, and garden, was nearly 6 figures, due to the crappy soil.
The worst part is, the ATO classifies it as a capital improvement, so i cant directly claim it on tax, only depreciation ( a much smaller amount).
Its not all beer and skittles being a landlord…most people dont realise, that of the rent you receive, after all the fixed expenses ( rates / insurance/ management fees /income tax / land tax)…you only get around half the gross amount.
It will take many years of rent, to recover the cost of these repairs.
During which time, you hope the tennants respect your property, your risk, so they can have 4 walls and a roof over their heads.
And, when you finally sell the property, you have to pay capital gains tax…
Term deposits yield higher returns, than investment properties, at the moment…
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Don’t forget the excises that Labour let run out from previous gov to keep our consumables down like fuel. Part of the reason fuel won’t go down below what it is now. Oh but it’s global warming… my arse the gov hasn’t renewed any fuel excise relief so you are paying 50% straight to the goobermint. $1/ltr to the Gov, $1/ltr to BP.
Smart move if Elbow or anyone wanted to give us some relief. … abolish GST. We pay the original Tax that’s been in place before I was born, then unlike Howard promised, 10% is slapped on top of everygodamthing.
Australia is the highest earning and taxed in the world. Work hard earn heaps of money and get it stolen by your government. Why bother, may as well be a crackhead get them to pay me and sit on the welfare like many do. There is no incentive and they wonder why many do it, because they let it happen.
That sucks with your AC. Can’t they just re gas it with R134 like a car? Or is it different.
Sounds like your tennants are a bit demanding if they already have split systems.(spoilt I can only afford wall rattlers) I’d put to them I can do it but your rent will increase to help pay for it.