$4000 for a battery?

The latest election "promise" has come from the present government in the form of a "promise" to provide up to $4000 for a battery for home owners who have solar panels installed. This is almost certain to be a vote winner - but it should not be.

There are a great many things wrong with this but they will be ignored by most people. It is assumed, rightly, that most people are so alarmed by global warming they will grab any opportunity to help reduce the problem. Yes, we should be alarmed by the way we are treating the planet. We should be doing a great deal more than we are about the problems associated with the abuse of the environment. The problem is like the problem of "exercise". 

Middle Cat, a physiotherapist by training, knows the value of the right sort of exercise done in the appropriate way and at the appropriate times. Even she will admit to not doing exercise when she should. It is so much easier not to do it, to rely on something else such as another painkiller or "I'll do it later when I feel more like it". We are treating the environmental problem in just the same way.

Batteries, a rapidly changing technology in themselves, are like pain killers. We are being told if we put one in we are "helping the environment". Really? A home battery is not going to store much power, especially at the rate most households use power. Think too of the cost, environmental as well as financial, which goes into making such a battery and installing it. The cost is high but the idea of using less power is like exercise. We believe we can pay for it like we pay for a painkiller and we can reduce our use later in just the same way as we will exercise later.

Still, others more knowledgeable than me think batteries are a good idea - a vote winner. 

Then there is the problem of who will get the benefit. If you live in a multi-story building then you won't have solar panels and a battery. If you live in rented accommodation then you are not eligible and neither is your landlord because the scheme does not apply to rented accommodation. 

Where I now live there are eleven other dwellings, four of them smaller than the others. There are no solar panels. The idea was discussed before I moved in and rejected for sound architectural reasons. We would not benefit from the scheme.  We would help to pay for it because of course what the government is promising is a return of taxpayer money to some people but not to others. 

Some people will argue that this is "fair" because they have gone to the expense of putting solar panels on the roof. They will say it is like the government buying the electricity the panels generate. No, it is not the same at all. This is about propping up a government scheme to meet that fairytale "net zero" target. It makes even less sense than the old "pink batts" (roof insulation) scheme. That had very different problems but modern homes do get good insulation now. 

Last night I listened to someone telling one of my new neighbours what a wonderful idea this proposal is. I have yet to meet the neighbour but he was letting this person talk on and on. When the other man finally drew a breath and wound down the new neighbour said, "We could spend the same amount of money and do more for the environment if we did two simple things which would benefit everyone."

"Rubbish!" came the response but the new neighbour persisted.

"We could make it much more expensive to take the car to work and cheaper to use public transport and we could start to rebuild the green canopy."

They went on arguing about this. I quietly shut the door on what they were saying and thought that the battery proposal was just like not doing the necessary exercise. It is a billion dollar painkiller which won't alleviate the pain. 

"Working from home" does not

work for everybody. It does not work for most people. If you are "public servant" then damn well get back to the office. Get back to the place where the files you need will be available. Don't tell me your "internet connection" is down...again.

I really have had this "working from home" lark by some of our so-called "public servants". It really hit home yesterday. 

I had to have my annual 'flu vaccination yesterday (on top of the second half of the shingles jab last Monday). It meant a morning away from the desk by the time I had ridden down to the clinic, rushed in and bought some very necessary underwear at the local chain store, and then waited for my turn (appointment necessary but they were, naturally, running late). The nurse was quick and efficient. The doctor asked how Middle Cat was as the jab was going in and I was out before waiting the obligatory ten minutes.

In order to save time I went to the Post Office and the chemist on my way home. There was no point in making an extra trip. It was at that point I was accosted with a cheerful "Hello Cat." There was someone I knew. She was sitting having a coffee with her cousin. It is late Friday morning and the two of them look relaxed and happy. "Join us for a coffee?"

"Thanks but I have to get back. I have to get some work done before a couple of people fly out."

I left it at that. The excuse was true but nothing would have induced me to have coffee with those two. Both of them are "public servants" who "work from home". They should both have been home - and working. Instead they were sitting having coffee and looking at photos on their phones.

This is not the first time I have seen or heard of such things happening. There are two people I know, brother and sister, who both WFH but every Tuesday morning they have a long breakfast together in the shopping centre. There is another man who takes his lap top along and says he is "working" but he chats to people he knows too. I am also aware of WFH people at the library. They have their laptops with them. The screens are up but are computer games, chess games and other entertaining items really "work". These are people who tell me they work for "X" or "Y" of "Z" department. They are almost certainly getting good salaries.

The election campaign is being fought around issues like this. The present government, thinking it is a vote winner, is saying people should have the "right" to WFH. The current opposition policy is to send people back to the office. WFH was a Covid issue. It was not intended to be a long term policy or a right of any sort. It was most definitely not intended to be a means of having breakfast with your brother or coffee with your cousin. It should not be about rushing out to bring the clothes in before it rains or picking up the kids from school and not being available because you are doing those things.

The internet does not go "down" as often as some of these people suggest. Yes, a few of them work harder and accomplish more but I suggest they are in the minority. There are the very few for whom it is the only way they can work.  I know of one man who is so severely disabled that getting him to work would take up more time than he could spend there. He puts in a full day at home and is infuriated by some of his colleagues who do not. I came into contact with him only recently but when I explained what I needed to help someone else he responded with a cheerful, "I can probably get to it this afternoon - is four o'clock too late?" His boss says he is the only WFHer who actually is efficient. He wants the rest of the staff back in the office.

"I know all the arguments Cat but the only argument for me is where they actually do the most work and that is in the office."

I have no choice about where I work and, oddly, the internet has only had one unplanned outage in the last twelve months. I have moved my place of abode and had a number of other issues to deal with but I have kept my commitments. I wanted to retire and it has not happened the way I hoped it would. I don't suppose it really matters. It is good to feel that I can still contribute something but it really does infuriate me that there are still expectations of me - and others like me. Why should we pay for people to "have coffee" with their WFH colleagues while we get on with the job?

 

  

"So what has migration done for you?"

I had a rare few hours out yesterday. My cousin T... picked me up and, along with his partner R... we went to the other side of the city to have a light meal with another cousin M... and his partner J...

It was at a cheap and cheerful venue we had all been to before and we enjoyed it just as much this time. It was also just a couple of hours sitting and chatting to people I love and know well. 

Later in the afternoon I was talking to someone else who was complaining about "all those immigrants coming in". He is someone I am wary of and try to avoid if I can. He wanted to know what "all that migration" had done for me. 

"Well I just had lunch out and the place we went to is run by Lebanese migrants," I told him, "It was very nice."

He laughed as I thought he might but I persisted in giving him an answer I knew he would not want. I told him about my personal experience with migrants, not simply the big names who have come to this country as migrants.

I told him about one of my closest friends. I... came here from Italy at the age of thirteen. She never went back to school because there was no job for her father and she had to work to support the family. She did not speak English when she came but she ended up running her own shop. She worked beyond retirement age.

Her story reminds me of Middle Cat's late father-in-law who came from Cyprus speaking no English. He did the same thing and brought out all his siblings one by one and then his parents. They all worked beyond retirement age. 

There is my friend D... who is Jewish. Her parents migrated here after the war. They survived the unspeakable horrors of a concentration camp and went on to bring up two doctors, a lawyer and a university lecturer in psychology. 

There is the delightful Syrian couple who run the tiny cafe in our shopping centre. Just after Christmas I shared a recipe belonging to my great-grandmother with P... She had asked if I would after I gave her a small pack of biscuits as a tiny "thank you" for being so concerned about Middle Cat. Recently P... introduced me as "part of the family" to someone else. She meant it too. Sharing a recipe is an important part of acceptance among the women in Syria.

After the second part of my shingles vaccination on Monday I stopped for a few quiet minutes - as we are required to do - and sat next to a Muslim woman with a small child. The child was curious about me and I engaged the child in conversation. Her mother then joined in and we spent longer talking than I intended. She is going to English classes because she wants to be part of her child's school community.  I came home with her address so I could send her some information about a person who gives free English conversation lessons. I know L... has just seen one family off to another state and is planning on taking on another to help. L... came here from Iran as an older child. She will understand many of the difficulties.

Today I need to get my 'flu jab and get a prescription renewed at the chemist. In both places migrants will be the people who help me.

That is just a tiny fraction of the way migration influences my life. I don't need to look far. I don't need to see the owners of building companies, shopping centres and more. I most certainly don't take the attitude of my questioner. He forgets he is also the child of migrants to this country. He likes to believe he has been here "forever". His family has not. They may have come not long after the First Fleet and mine may have come long after that but they still migrated.

If my great-grandfather had not chosen to be a sailor instead of a dominie-crofter in the north of Scotland he would not have met my great-grandmother. I would not be here now. I am very, very proud of my Scots ancestry - and their courage in migrating. It has done a lot for me.  

Trumping Trump's tariffs

will have to be done somehow. The Great Depression came about partly because of the same economic strategy. (They imposed tariffs at a time when the economy was already struggling. It didn't work. It won't work this time.)

It is actually even less likely to work this time because the world is a very different place. Trade is a much bigger international affair. All countries have other trade agreements in place. I am no economist and I may even be completely wrong but I doubt it. I see tariffs as increasing the price on everything a country imports. It will not make home made goods cheaper unless they are already available for less the price and are better quality. That just does not happen.

Downunder is going to have eat humble pie and return to real negotiations with the European Union and the United Kingdom. We were too arrogant last time. It is going to have to build stronger ties outside the Asian region. Yes, I have been saying that for a long time. So have many other people I know. Our politicians do not seem to be listening.

Yes, our beef farmers are worried about the likely effect tariffs will have on their industry. The reality is that successive governments in this country have been lazy about that. They have assumed that the US market was there for the long term, that our beef would always be wanted. What a shock to discover they might be subject to tariffs! They should have been preparing for this from the time that it looked likely President Trump would win first time around. People know how he thinks. They just do not want to believe it will happen. The US is a big market from our perspective. From the perspective of the US it is a small market. Cutting out our beef completely would have no effect at all on the ability of America to feed itself.

As a country we are lazy, very lazy, about marketing our goods and services. Some of us think we are "too small" to be able to bargain effectively but high quality goods and services are always needed. Wherever there is a need then there surely has to be some negotiating power? We need to lift our game and lift it urgently if we are going to survive.

If tariffs do nothing else at all perhaps they will be a wake up call for this country. I am not sure that will work though. If we re-elect the present government then their determined Asia-centric focus is not going to help us find new markets despite the platitudes from the Trade and Foreign ministers. 

Tighten your seat belts. We are in for a very rough ride.

 

April Fool's Day

has come and gone. Some of the usual foolish jokes have been played on the unsuspecting...and there have been some more serious attempts to convince us that black is white, white is black, two and two make twenty-two as well as four and any other number of foolish pranks.

Yes, April Fool's Day can be fun but only up to a certain point. Beyond that it can cause a lot of stress. It should not be used as a means of "getting back" at people - but it is. It should not be used to "tease" people about issues which have strong emotional connotations for them - but it is. 

It is fine for me to go into the post office to pick up an important item, one that had to be signed for after showing ID, and have the staff pretend they could not find it while they are actually holding it in full view. The post office staff know me by name and they know how far they can go. That bit of mild teasing was followed by concern about whether I was overloaded with work because of earthquakes and tidal waves. We did not even consider it to be part of the April Fool pranks.

It is not fine to "fool" someone about pregnancy when they have lost a child themselves. That left the young woman in distress. Being told to "get over it" and "take a joke" just made matters worse. Someone talking to me took over and told her, "I need some advice about that risotto. Mine did not turn out nearly as well as yours." They were chatting as I left but it was not a happy situation.

I remember the occasion on which the state to the west of us decided it was going to implement "metric" time. That fooled a lot of people. Telling someone that "daylight saving" ended this past weekend is only funny if they do not have an urgent medical appointment or some other engagement. ("Daylight saving" ends this coming weekend.)  

There were once plans to build a canal from the harbour to the main square of the state's capital. Convincing people we might send special water buses along a to be built canal could fool people who do not know the state's  history but it can also be amusing for those who do know it.

A good April Fool joke will be genuinely funny. It won't harm anyone. There were a few around yesterday which did not fit into that category, indeed were not jokes at all. The Reserve Bank really has left interest rates on hold. I suspect they are regretting the last cut, particularly in light of the increasing problems with the United States. The Chinese really are mapping that undersea cable. It is a much more serious act than most people are aware of so you do not joke about it. You do not joke about these things because they are too serious, they affect too many people or they affect our national security. You do not joke about nuclear power or the floods interstate. I heard all of those things today. It was not funny.

I really don't have much time for April Fool's Day, especially at election time.

 

We are getting a visit from the Prime Minister

today. That news has magically appeared this morning along with news about a new health facility to be built in the electorate.

I am not likely to meet the Prime Minister. I have no desire to meet him - or the Leader of the Opposition. 

The announcement about the new health facility is actually old news. It was "accidentally" leaked back in February. It went into our local council's newsletter. They were then told it was "confidential" and the matter was removed from the council's pages.

None of this was "accidental" of course. It was all intended to happen. They want us to believe that the whole thing is something new, not something that has been some years in the planning. 

If it all happens, in the two stages which are planned, then it will run over cost by millions and take far longer than they say it will. This is a government project. 

I can remember when there was nothing at all on the site this will perhaps be built. We went past it many times when I was in my teens. The Senior Cat was setting up an "area" school south of the site. It was mostly rural land. Now it is urban sprawl. 

There is a university associated with the hospital too. At one time I went in and out of it on a regular basis. It is built on the side of a hill. It has to be one of the least accessible places I know. Yes, they now have a rail extension that far but it took years to build it and the station is too far from the university to be really useful. 

The hospital itself is too small of course. Such places always are. The lay out is confusing even for people who work there. A former neighbour is a doctor there and her frustration at having to "go the long way around" is, rightly, immense. Neither of us have seen the plans for the new facility which is to be added but both of us hope without much hope that it will be better laid out.

All of this of course will not matter one bit to the Prime Minister. He can simply walk in today with his chosen press people in tow and make the announcement about the "new" facility and the "new" funding and how much it is "needed". He will make pronouncements about how the previous government did nothing  and conveniently ignore the issues brought on by Covid and more.

It really must all be rather fun to be able to do all this. You can spend other people's money with gay abandon. There is no need to keep your promises because nobody really expects you to do that. Being a politician is really rather good fun isn't it? Mind you there is always the possibility that you might lose the seat even if you do not lose the election.  

Electioneering material is

being stuffed into the letterboxes almost faster than I can drag it out and bin it.

Yes, I bin it. I do not keep it. I look at it but only to see how the lies are mounting up. 

There are the lies about "what we have done" and "what they have not done" and the lies about "what we will do" and more. There are the "promises" that will not be kept.

The mother of the girl who asked me "don't they have to keep their promises?" saw me yesterday. She stopped to thank me - which was nice - but said she was worried. 

We are perhaps worried for different reasons but I could sympathise. The NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) is out of control. It is costing far too much. This woman's daughter does need help. She could perhaps do a simple job like feeding paper into a shredder but many such jobs no longer exist. She needs to be occupied because she is as capable of being bored as anyone else.  The NDIS is not coping with that sort of thing.

It is one of those things which needs to be looked at but to say so is seen as electoral suicide. How dare anyone think of taking away money from a person with a disability. The problem is that money is being provided to some people who do not need it to live with dignity from one day to the next.  Like it or not some people have been getting NDIS money for things that are not essential. 

The other issue is the costs that are being charged. Yesterday my BIL came and put in a grab rail at the front door. It will make using the step there much safer for me and a number of people I know. He used an old grab rail from the previous house that the incoming people said they did not want. The cost to me was nothing but I would happily have bought a grab rail. 

The same thing provided by the NDIS would have cost thousands. It would have had to be requested. Someone would have been sent to assess me. Someone else would have been sent to assess the wall and the placement.  A grab rail would have been bought through an NDIS supplier at a much greater cost than one from the national chain of hardware stores. Then someone else would have been sent to see where it needed to go and, finally, someone would be sent to install it. The whole process would take months and cost thousands. 

"Oh it is the way we have to work," we would have been told.

I bought a small ramp so I can get the trike onto the front porch where it is out of everyone's way and out of the weather as well. I did some research on line. I looked at what the NDIS suppliers were charging - and bought exactly the same item from the national chain of hardware stores for half the price. A friend has just bought herself a new walker. It is the one recommended by her doctor and physiotherapist. They suggested going through NDIS but her need was urgent and they can afford to do it.  It was done at a fraction of the cost of going through NDIS and she has it within three days. She admits she is fortunate that they could do this but it also means she has been able to go back to work immediately.  With NDIS she would have been working from home and being much less efficient. 

These are "little" things in the minds of many but money could be saved. It is taxpayer money and it should be spent wisely and responsibly - but it is not the sort of thing election material tells you about.