Australian Politics General...

[Smurf1976]

No one is going to want a three bedroom weatherboard home with minimal furnishings, casement single pane windows, no insulation, linoleum floors with perhaps a rug and a briquette or open fire or if your lucky , an oil heater.

There's nothing quite like the smell of burning briquettes on a still night.

Breathtaking, and not in a good way.

I think we can do without those making a comeback.

 

[sptrawler]

Absolutely @Smurf1976 , I could roll of heaps of examples where things were done in a timely manner, because the engineers designed it and the tradespeople made it happen.
The only time the design engineers were contacted, was if there was a problem that required an engineer to solve it and that was not often.

 

[Smurf1976]

Absolutely @Smurf1976 , I could roll of heaps of examples where things were done in a timely manner, because the engineers designed it and the tradespeople made it happen.
The only time the design engineers were contacted, was if there was a problem that required an engineer to solve it and that was not often.

Trouble is, if you look at the people calling the shots in society in recent times well they just can't relate to this concept at all. Their entire career background is at best administrative or legal, at worst straight politics.

 

[Smurf1976]

oil heater.

Mine still works and the cat's fine with it:

Not a government built house but was built in the 1960's yes.

 

[farmerge]

The key is to get the right sort of people in charge and to do the lot.

So if there's a Housing Commission with its own tradies, surveyors and all the rest. If the utilities are in government hands also with their own workforce and doing it all in house, including inspection of electrical work etc. If the road authority is also government with its own workforce then that makes things happen.

Because if you get a bunch of tradies and engineers and leave then to it, they tend to come up with grand plans and do things. Not always perfectly but they'll make something happen and it comes down to being able to easily get the right people all in the one room and agreeing on how to proceed. Do it this way and the inspectors on site will give it the tick every time, because we've done the engineering and agreed that's a suitable method. Etc. And it's the job of councils and government to work with this not against it, the default is it's approved with just a few tweaks here and there because the council wants a consistent street appearance or whatever.

Then it's off to work we go and everyone works together. Excavation for example gets a lot cheaper when it's the Public Works Department (as it used to be called in Tas) doing it and nobody cares whether that's the road foundations, the house foundations or it's the trench for the sewer line or power. It's a hole so dig it. Same with the rest - concrete the footpaths and driveways as a single project, don't worry about who owns what since it's all government anyway.

Been there, seen that approach on other projects and it works. The workforce works as one, it being a technicality that they're employed by different departments. Just keep the accountants under control and remind them that it's better to save money overall than worry about who's doing what.

Also gets the materials cheaper when it's all in bulk. How many ovens did you say you wanted to buy Sir? Well that would be ten thousand of this model here, what's the price? A lot less than retail....

Same with everything else from pipe and cable to bricks to timber to plasterboard. All gets cheaper when you're buying huge amounts and the supplier knows that not only are you the biggest customer around but you're also backed by government. They can be certain the account will be paid, albeit probably a week after it was due but they can live with that.

The key is to keep the wrong sort of people out of it. I'll avoid offending anyone and just say the workforce should consist mostly of trades and other hands on people, and in charge will be people with technical competence to be overseeing their work.

All ultimately comes down to a desire to actually serve the people and fix things rather than risk averse administration watching the wheels fall off society. I've encountered such people and never did like or respect them in any way. They cover their own rear end but get nothing done.

It's amazing when one goes back 20 or 30 years ago when there was the PWD - Public Works Dept, State Housing, State Roads Board etc.
They might not have been the quickest movers off the mark, but the work was carried to correct specs and done only once and properly

 

[SirRumpole]

It's amazing when one goes back 20 or 30 years ago when there was the PWD - Public Works Dept, State Housing, State Roads Board etc.
They might not have been the quickest movers off the mark, but the work was carried to correct specs and done only once and properly

I think what we need is a Federal Department of Engineering and Construction composed if engineers which would monitor major infrastructure projects and ensure that they are designed and built to the correct standards.

There are obviously some shonky operators out there in the commercial world and they need oversight, and if they don't come up to the nark then the DEC would step in and do it themselves.

 

[IFocus]

There's nothing quite like the smell of burning briquettes on a still night.

Breathtaking, and not in a good way.

I think we can do without those making a comeback.

Kero heater burning badly with an old wick goes close, CO death traps.

 

[farmerge]

Kero heater burning badly with an old wick goes close, CO death traps.

Back in the day we had one of those kero heaters with a big bottle at the back of it.
Many a time it flared when putting the re filled bottle back in.
Quite amazing really that the joint wasn't burnt to the ground.

 

[sptrawler]

Kero heater burning badly with an old wick goes close, CO death traps.

Smelly horrid things, but they were cheap to run, these days kero is expensive.

 

[SirRumpole]

Smelly horrid things, but they were cheap to run, these days kero is expensive.

Oil heaters were good, but too expensive today.

Smurf's cat is happy, he doesn't have to pay the bill.

 

[Smurf1976]

Oil heaters were good, but too expensive today.

Smurf's cat is happy, he doesn't have to pay the bill.

Indeed. Costs nearly $1000 to fill the tank from completely empty to full.

The cat itself was free. Feeding and warming it not so much.

Back to the thread subject, well energy costs are a big one politically and I do wonder how many Australians are eagerly awaiting any hint that spring is arriving because they can't afford to keep warm? From what the charities say, the number is significant.

Without wanting to "bash" the present government, because all sides have made the mess, I do hear plenty of comments and people aren't happy about it, not at all. It could well be the issue that tips the balance given energy cost isn't just a household issue, it's also a cost input to just about every business as well as things like councils (paid via rates) and indeed everything.

 

[wayneL]

From a bloke called John Goddard... Thoughts?:

Dear Sane Australians,

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but we cannot vote our way out of this.

The Apathetic Majority are too plugged in, too dependent. They drank the Kool-Aid and are eagerly awaiting their fate.

They’ve consciously opted for a life of shackled safety. They want to be serfs. And I mean that literally.

They see the political class enriching themselves at their expense. They see home ownership becoming a pipedream. They see the TV telling lies to their face.

And do you think the Apathetic Majority protest against this?

No.

In fact, they facilitate their own demise.

They cheer for the Big Government Agenda and vote it back in every three years. Obedient sheep, they thank their overlords for plundering half their wealth and openly mocking them.

I’ll say it again, we cannot vote our way out of this.

The opposing momentum is too great.

At best, a few good candidates might win seats in Parliament. But without a majority all they can do is act as a handbrake, slowing the rate of societal decline.

But is that our goal? Merely slowing the rate of decline?

That’s certainly not my goal. And it shouldn’t be yours.

My sights are elevated towards a higher goal: prosperity and freedom, excellence and virtue.

A total victory, not a handbrake.

But this can’t be achieved within our ‘democracy’, over which the uni-party and State-funded media have a stranglehold.

All this system offers is the illusion of choice to those too braindead to realise that the ‘left’ and ‘right’ use each other as public scapegoats whilst working together behind closed doors to increase their own power and that of the State.

The only solution, in my mind, is to opt out.

Save in Bitcoin. Pay with cash. Avoid tax. Acquire land. Disobey bad laws. Throw your TV out the window. Grow your own food. Connect with likeminded individuals. Do business with them (and only them). Move into the same neighbourhoods. Take over a Council. Take over a State (or create a new one). Secede.

Stop being meek victims of circumstance and act like the conquerors who came before you.

Eventually you will realise that there are more of us than they want you to believe.

And that’s when the real fun will start…

 

[sptrawler]

It's all good, I think I read we now have a minister for social cohesian, to try and repair the current social fragmentation excercise.

 

[wayneL]

It's all good, I think I read we now have a minister for social cohesian, to try and repair the current social fragmentation excercise.

Phewww, we're saved

 

[wayneL]

I remember a few years ago that many people thought that things would degenerate from #loveislove, that perhaps "P" might be added into the alphabet soup.

Leftists scoffed at the suggestion, yet have a look at this as ever so gradually not only "P" but also "I" is being worked into acceptance.

 

[moXJO]

I remember a few years ago that many people thought that things would degenerate from #loveislove, that perhaps "P" might be added into the alphabet soup.

Leftists scoffed at the suggestion, yet have a look at this as ever so gradually not only "P" but also "I" is being worked into acceptance.

That list has allegedly been floating around. Some big names on it as well. Lots of fake lists going around now as well

 

[wayneL]

That list has allegedly been floating around. Some big names on it as well. Lots of fake lists going around now as well

I'm more concerned about what the judge said from the bar

 

[moXJO]

I'm more concerned about what the judge said from the bar

I know a few judges and some of them are deluded. Really badly deluded.

 

[farmerge]

I remember a few years ago that many people thought that things would degenerate from #loveislove, that perhaps "P" might be added into the alphabet soup.

Leftists scoffed at the suggestion, yet have a look at this as ever so gradually not only "P" but also "I" is being worked into acceptance.

WHAT !!!!!!

 

[IFocus]

Seen this the other day and thought it put things in perspective.