Cheaper Petrol

Back to School in 2012

27/01/2012. In NSW most students go back to school on Monday 30th of January. However: NSW School zones will be back in force for term one on Tuesday 27 January 2012.
(for dates, School Zone speeding and parking offences)

Politicians pay rise

01/12/2011. Just 2 days after the Gillard Government announced plans to slash billions of dollars in public spending as part of a savage mini-budget, the base salary for even the most junior parliamentarian will jump nearly 30% from $140,910 to at least $185,000.
Treasurer Wayne Swan, the deputy Prime Minister, will earn about $370,000, an $83,000 rise.
Finance Minister Penny Wong, who has been busy slashing spending, will earn an increase of $70,000, boosting her pay to about $310,000.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard's salary will jump $115,000 to around $481,000 and Peter Slipper gets a pay rise of almost $70,000 to more than $315,000 as Speaker.
How can our "representatives" feel with "hard working Australians" struggling with increased rent, electricity, grocery bills, child-care and fuel prices?
How can they possibly relate to pensioners having to choose between necessary medications, heating their home or even food?
Or self-funded retirees whose income has fallen, due to interest rate reductions and a share market decline of 12% in the last 12 months.
How can they identify with a worker who has to put fuel in the car, so he can go to work, knowing that his children went to school without breakfast?
We have to pay our politicians a decent pay, but when their pay-increase is more than our minimum wage, they are no longer capable of understanding the struggles the rest of us face.

Shell to cease refining at Clyde

27/07/2011. Shell today confirmed its decision to stop refining operations at its 79,000 barrel-per-day Clyde Refinery in Sydney.
Refining at Clyde will cease prior to mid-2013. The Clyde refinery and Gore Bay will be converted into import-only terminal operations.
The decision to close the refinery will have far reaching consequences :
Shell currently employs over 300 workers and around 200 contractors on site.
In addition to this, Shell draws on a network of firms in finance, logistics, engineering and IT. The refinery directly supports the local polypropylene plant with 57 employees, which produces plastic products for the automobile and household sectors.
The company states that the closure is not the result of the proposed carbon tax.
However, although oil refineries will qualify for free carbon permits, it is not enough to cover all carbon emissions (and the tax will grow), and any cost increase in a fiercely competitive market is damaging.

Xstrata Suspends A$ 586 million of Expenditure.

03/06/2010. Xstrata, which last month halted some copper exploration in Queensland, said it was now also immediately suspending A$586 million of expenditure to develop both the A$6 billion Wandoan thermal coal project and a A$600 million project, to extend the life of the Ernest Henry copper mine.
The company says the two projects would have created 3,250 new jobs which have now been put at risk.

The difference between this announcement and the Fortescue suspended iron ore projects is that Xstrata projects are projects where spending had already been approved.

Fortescue Metals puts $17.5bn projects on hold to review super tax

19/05/2010. Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group has reacted to the Federal Government’s proposed Resource Super Profits Tax with a statement that up to 30,000 jobs could be at risk if the tax is introduced.

The company cited the uncertainty in the financial markets caused by the proposed tax.
• Solomon Hub - US$9 billion proposed investment with 6,000 people employed in operations and 15,000 through construction.
• Western Hub - Estimated US$6 billion proposed investment with 4,000 people employed in operations and 7,500 through construction.
• Chichester Hub expansion – US$4.5 billion invested to date with 2,700 people employed in operations and 7,500 during construction - proceeding

Rio Tinto to review new Australia investment over tax

12/05/2010. Mining giant Rio Tinto Wednesday said it was reviewing all new Australian capital projects in response to "shocking" plans for a 40 percent tax on resources "super profits".
Rio chief Tom Albanese condemned the tax as a danger to investment. Albanese added that Rio had been "shocked" at the tax plan, and criticised the government for rattling mining investors and sending the sector's stocks plunging.
"Unfortunately Australian policy makers will risk de-rating their mining industry if they're not careful," he said.

Do something about global warming?

Without it affecting your pocket or your lifestyle?

Xstrata suspends $30 million exploration in light of the Government’s super profits tax

11/05/2010. Xstrata's chief operating officer for North Queensland Copper, Steve de Kruijff, said that it was not possible to justify Xstrata's funding of additional exploration activities when the "fundamental economics of the industry in Australia are being challenged".
Last year Xstrata's copper mining, smelting and refining operations in north Queensland contributed over $1.3 billion to the Queensland economy and are employing over 3500 people.

Backflip on "the Greatest Moral Challenge of our time"

28/04/2010. Before the 2007 election, Mr Rudd mocked then PM Mr Howard as a climate change sceptic, someone unwilling to even ratify the Kyoto Protocol; someone who didn't take the profound effects of global warming seriously.

As late as October 28, 2009, Mr Rudd declared: "Perhaps the most wicked problem facing us as a nation and the world at the moment is climate change. It is one of the greatest scientific, economic and moral challenges of our time."

Today the Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong stated the government would not try to legislate the ETS even by its new delayed start year of 2013 unless there is "credible action" by the end of 2012 from countries such as China, India and the US.

When the Coalition proposed the same “wait and see” policy before Copenhagen, the Mr Rudd described it as an “absolute failure of leadership”. Yesterday he said it was “a reasonable … and responsible course of action”.

In the meantime, taxpayers continue to fork out $90 million a year to keep 408 public servants, employed within the Federal Climate Change Department - despite most of them now having nothing to do until 2013.

That is on top of the millions of dollars already spent, including $13.9 million on advertising, the 114 public servants the Government took to Copenhagen and the $80,000 on establishing a call centre.

It seems that Mr Rudd’s convictions of the past were little more than rhetoric designed to win votes on an issue that was popular at the time but has lost some of its lustre.

One thing that worries us: Last year’s budget projections expected $15 billion from the CPRS.

How will he fill that enormous hole?

Caltex Australia agrees to purchase Mobil service stations

27/05/2009. Caltex Australia has entered into an agreement to acquire 302 Mobil service station sites.
Caltex Managing Director and CEO Des King: “Today, Caltex is primarily a wholesaler of fuel but a relatively small player in the retail fuel market when compared with Coles Express, Woolworths and BP. This acquisition will allow us to better compete in the retail fuel market with these major players.”

The Cheaper Petrol Party wants more players in the market, not less.

If Caltex took over Mobil's 302 service stations, the Caltex-Woolworths joint operation would own 44 per cent of retail outlets.

Today the average price of unleaded in Sydney is $1.136, crude oil is 48.4 AU cents/litre (taking into account the US/AU exchange rate) add 48.5 cents in tax, leaving a margin of 16.7 cents per litre, up from 10.6 cents per litre before the election and before the introduction of the Petrol Commissioner.

We urge the ACCC and the Petrol Commissioner to stand up for consumers who are being ripped off by the big oil companies. Stop the merger going ahead.

Today:
Average Unleaded Petrol = $1.440
Crude Oil: (Nymex) US $96.70 per barrel
That's 57 AU cents per litre.
So who gets the rest?

Keep up-to-date
with the Road Rules

Practice Driver Knowledge Test

All Practice Questions (pdf)

Options for older drivers

NSW (RTA website)
General information.

A guide for older (NSW) drivers (RTA Website pdf)
Some useful information about your options,
How the test will be conducted,
A refresher on the road rules.

RTA Live Traffic

High and Low petrol price for today
(MotorMouth - New Window)

Volunteer Sacked For Swearing

10/03/2009. John Willis lost his job as captain of a Gippsland brigade for swearing on emergency radio during the Black Saturday bushfire crisis.
John was battling a fire that had already claimed 50% of his own dairy farm and was threatening a house.

The CFA said the firefighter, who has 40 years experience, (has travelled on his own time to hundreds of fires - in Victoria and interstate - and worked at car accidents, storms and other emergencies, saving countless lives) was stripped of his rank after at least two outbursts during last month's tragic inferno.

"He wasn't a suitable person to represent his brigade, let alone CFA in a senior role," Mr Hogan said. "He's got a history of that sort of behaviour."

In our opinion, when John is willing to put his own life on the line to save someone else or their property, he may swear to his heart’s content.

This volunteer was fighting fires, some deliberately lit, where flames four storeys high, raced across the land like a speeding train, wiping out towns within an hour and where so far 210 people died.

And he swore.

It is not as if he was doing a cooking show on national television.

Victorian Bushfires

13/02/2009. Many lives lost, many families left with nothing.

People who have lost everything are helping each other.
Neighbours helping neighbours.
Over $65 million has so far been raised.
All over the world there is coverage.

Queenslanders, after two thirds of their State was (and still is) flooded, receiving Government assistance, have donated part or all of it to Victorians.

Companies like Coles, DJ and others are donating a full day’s profit.

Dairy farmers who lost their stock make their equipment available to those who lost their equipment.
Volunteer fire-fighters were saving lives and property, while their own home burnt to the ground.
Truckies, delivering donated food, blankets and clothing, are donating their time and part of their pay.

Our cricket team has given up time to raise the spirits of the survivors.

And so it goes on and on and on.

The generosity is overwhelming.

It’s good to be Australian.

Tax Cut for Small Business - Smoke and Mirrors

12/12/2008. "Small business will get an 'effective' tax cut by deferring part of their next tax installment", PM Kevin Rudd says.
Businesses with an annual turnover under $2 million will be allowed to postpone 20 per cent of their next Pay As You Go (PAYG) tax installment - due in January and February - until annual tax returns fall due in July.
This is not a tax cut. It's a deferral, and not a reduction, of tax liabilities.
Typically, businesses estimate in advance how much tax they will pay each quarter. These estimates can be varied downwards each quarter but most business operators do not bother, preferring to reconcile their return at the end of the financial year.

FuelWatch dead and buried

12/11/2008. The Federal Government's stalled FuelWatch plan to regulate petrol prices has finally been killed in the Senate with the upper house voting against the legislation this morning.
Independent Nick Xenophon was the crucial vote.
The scheme was to start on the 15th of December and would have cost $20.9 million over 4 years.

Changes to NSW Road Rules

26/06/2008. New road rules come into effect on the 1st of July 2008.
Main Changes
Full List of Changes (pdf)

Labor's $70 million hybrid gift to Toyota

11/06/2008. PM Kevin Rudd yesterday pledged $35 million to Toyota from Labor's new Green Car Innovation Fund as an incentive to assemble the Hybrid Camry at the Altona facility in Victoria.
Victoria matched the $35 million.
To us this sounds like policy on the run. No inquiry and no HCC (Hybrid Car Commissioner). Also, according to last month's budget, the Green Car Innovation Fund (for which guidelines have not yet been developed) does not start operating until 2011.
Toyota announced it would have build the cars here "with or without assistance".

Rates blamed for house price dive

07/06/2008. A SUCCESSION of interest rate rises is blamed for the greatest single drop in Australian house prices on record.
The national median house price lost nearly $13,000 in the first quarter of this year.
Home prices may slide further this year after housing affordability deteriorated in the first quarter to the worst on record, according to a separate report by the real estate institute published May 28.

Member calls for investigation into benefits and risks associated with genetically modified orgasms.

03/06/2008. We're not touching this one.

Wages, House Prices and Petrol

16/05/2008. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that Adult average wage has increased by 4.8 % over the 12 months to Feb 2008.
The Capital Cities House price Index rose 13.8% over 12 months to Mar 2008.
In the 12 months to Feb 2008 petrol has increased from $1.06 to $1.46.
An increase of 40 cents or 37.7 %.

BUDGET SPEECH 2008‑09

13/05/2008. Read the full text of the Budget Speech delivered on the 13th May 2008.

RBA lifts rates to 7.25%

05/03/2008. As predicted, yesterday the Reserve Bank of Australia has raised its official interest rate by 0.25 of a per cent to 7.25 per cent. Government response: Mr Rudd said the Government was focused on fighting rates rises by tackling inflation. But did he not say earlier he was raising rates to fight inflation?
Inflation in Australia is not a big problem. A big risk is that the interest rate rises will cause a slowdown in our economy and possibly a recession.

Another rate rise - to cut inflation??

05/02/2008. The RBA increased rates by yet another .25%. This marks the bank's 11th increase since May 2002, which has lifted the rate from 4.25 percent to now 7.0%. But isn't the increase in interest rates contributing to inflation? Lifting rates did not work the last 10 times, why would it work now? Can we look forward to another rate rise in March?