Whinge of the day thread...

[greenhillstraveller]

NS

Yes GHT, copped the result of something like this yesterday while detecting Maroochydore Beach (which has lost some 8-10ft off the sand banks in places, revealing old stones of old rivers beds). Anyway, I picked up about 20 or more little corroded pieces of alum cans that were probably buried where people sat on the sand 20 years ago....now distributed

NSL, is it rude to ask what other stuff you get from old river beds? We used to go there for holidays, but I have never been treasure hunting with detectors. Don’t like people watching me Only use it remotely for gold. Thanks

 

[Hawkear]

So depressed this freezingly cold Victorian morning looking at the morning news about soaring electricity and gas bills And even the prospect now that we are going to face shortages of both heading into winter.
Only good news was that I didn’t see any posts on Facebook by greenie organizations calling for the shut down of AGLs base load power station in the Latrobe Valley or to prevent further exploration and fracking for gas in Victoria. Hmmm!

 

[Mackka]

I believe the gas and electricity prices are going up due to the suppliers getting better prices for it overseas and they are charging Australians the same rates. No better than petrol gougers. Wife saw a head of lettuce for $11.99 yesterday. They will sit there and rot and eventually be thrown out, shame really.

 

[Mackka]

Saw the other night on telli, that cameras have been installed outside various schools to check on dropoff zones and if the parents do the wrong thing they get a fine in the mail. Well, i asked myself, why are so many parents driving the kids to school and my wife said,” Because they get paid to do it”, how could this be? She said if the child needed to be transported more than 3.5 klm to school, then the parent could claim an allowance from the State Gov’t. True enough, looked at the School Transport Assistance Scheme which pays anything from $11.50 per week to $450.00 per week for kids that live more than 100 klm from school. My solution to traffic jams caused by schools, let the kids walk the 3.5 klm. It would be good for their health, good for the environment getting all those cars off the road and good for the gov’t by saving the unnecessary expenditure.

 

[Redfin]

GAS:
There was an industry insider on 3aw just now.
We have the largest deposit in the world.
Said we have unlimited resources in Bass straight with some plugged.
The gas gets frozen in huge tankers, then shipped to Japan, China an Korea etc where customers are paying the SAME price as us.
How can that be possible?
How much are selling it for?

 

[user 4386]

GAS:
There was an industry insider on 3aw just now.
We have the largest deposit in the world.
Said we have unlimited resources in Bass straight with some plugged.
The gas gets frozen in huge tankers, then shipped to Japan, China an Korea etc where customers are paying the SAME price as us.
How can that be possible?
How much are selling it for?

The media tend to get most things wrong - a source of myths.. We only have modest gas reserves. However what we have done is become the largest EXPORTER (not producer) of LPG. Definitely no unlimited resources (from memory alone, if we did not export it current reserves would last us 50 years) And some countries we export to pay less than us. However Western Australians get it cheap.
"How much natural gas does Australia have?
Australia holds 70 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves as of 2017, ranking 27th in the world and accounting for about 1% of the world's total natural gas reserves of 6,923 Tcf."

 

[Mackka]

At the end of the day, one way or another, we are getting shafted ( no pun intended).

 

[user 4386]

Saw the other night on telli, that cameras have been installed outside various schools to check on dropoff zones and if the parents do the wrong thing they get a fine in the mail. Well, i asked myself, why are so many parents driving the kids to school and my wife said,” Because they get paid to do it”, how could this be? She said if the child needed to be transported more than 3.5 klm to school, then the parent could claim an allowance from the State Gov’t. True enough, looked at the School Transport Assistance Scheme which pays anything from $11.50 per week to $450.00 per week for kids that live more than 100 klm from school. My solution to traffic jams caused by schools, let the kids walk the 3.5 klm. It would be good for their health, good for the environment getting all those cars off the road and good for the gov’t by saving the unnecessary expenditure.

If they walk 3.5 km (4.8 km for secondary students) they are students not eligible for anything. That is the best part of an hour walk each way. It has to be greater than those distances, based on the nearest school. Paid directly to service provider (eg Qld) not parent. Car payment only if no pujblic transport. Based on principle that the state should provide adequate schooling within a reasonable distance except in mostly rural areas, otherwise state shouold assist. Has to be more than twice per week to get it. The higher end of the scale relates to more than 100 km daily each way. So the payment probably has little impact on traffic outside schools.

Only exceptions relate to families on Health Care Card etc (financially severely disadvantaged) and children with disabilities.

Beats when I lived in outback WA when young - if your family did not have a school of the air radio, education not compulsory.

 

[user 4386]

I believe the gas and electricity prices are going up due to the suppliers getting better prices for it overseas and they are charging Australians the same rates. No better than petrol gougers. Wife saw a head of lettuce for $11.99 yesterday. They will sit there and rot and eventually be thrown out, shame really.

Yes, seems to be a case for using the WA system. Trouble is the petroleum export tax does not go to the federal govt then.

In most cases the vegetables go to charities from supermarkets (fortunately) - quite a good scheme. Not left to rot but regularly taken off the shelves after a certain time. Yep, I saw a small red cabbage for $10.50. To misquote Marie Antoinette "Let them eat spuds" (their price has gone down).

 

[Smoky bandit]

Recession by Christmas is my uneducated guess.

 

[user 4386]

Recession by Christmas is my uneducated guess.

"Recession is characterised by rising unemployment levels, fall in price of assets, decreasing price of commodities that results in low consumer confidence in the economy".

https://byjus.com/commerce/differen... when,said to be a period of negative growth.
Because recession is a measure of decreasing GDP of a nation (not of the money in your wallet) I am a bit doubtful that we will have one - would only be if noone wanted our iron ore, LPG etc.

I expect galloping inflation instead.

"Inflation is referred to as the situation when the price level of goods and services rise, which leads to decline in the purchasing power in the economy or in other words decreases the buying power of the money".

We are only starting to feel the hurt.

 

[Hawkear]

I believe the gas and electricity prices are going up due to the suppliers getting better prices for it overseas and they are charging Australians the same rates. No better than petrol gougers. Wife saw a head of lettuce for $11.99 yesterday. They will sit there and rot and eventually be thrown out, shame really.

Not sure about electricity prices that seems to be more home grown. Probably due to the lack of investment in cheap 24 hour generation over many years.
I see on the news last night one company is telling its customers (as a favour of course) to leave and find another retailer as they signed them up at retail rates cheaper than the company can now buy electricity wholesale. Great PR job as they are effectively pissing off their customers to preserve their profits!

With regard to gas prices I‘d agree they are being pushed up by international demand with its knock on effect here. The government had to intervene a few years ago when a similar thing happened with too much of our being exported causing competitive pressures to increase the cost of our domestic supply.
The problem may be due to our over dependence on too few gas producing companies and there being little competitive pressure in the domestic market. In this regard State governments must shoulder some of the blame with their bans on fracking to open up new eastern state gas fields to smaller producers and leaving us at the mercy of the big producing (and exporting) companies.

 

[Smoky bandit]

"Recession is characterised by rising unemployment levels, fall in price of assets, decreasing price of commodities that results in low consumer confidence in the economy".

https://byjus.com/commerce/differen... when,said to be a period of negative growth.
Because recession is a measure of decreasing GDP of a nation (not of the money in your wallet) I am a bit doubtful that we will have one - would only be if noone wanted our iron ore, LPG etc.

I expect galloping inflation instead.

"Inflation is referred to as the situation when the price level of goods and services rise, which leads to decline in the purchasing power in the economy or in other words decreases the buying power of the money".

We are only starting to feel the hurt.

Hope you are correct.
Guess we will see by Xmas.

 

[user 4386]

Hope you are correct.
Guess we will see by Xmas.

It is not necessarily better. And in extreme cases of inflation (as in the 1930s) it can be replaced by depression if everything gets so expensive that people default on debts and the banks go under. My wife's father used to run across the river into France every payday to exchange German deutsche marks for French francs - because by the end of the week you might as well have used them to wipe your bum. I still have a ten billion deutsche mark note.... So in a sense you could be correct, as one can lead to the other, but I am more of an optimist.....

 

[user 4386]

Not sure about electricity prices that seems to be more home grown. Probably due to the lack of investment in cheap 24 hour generation over many years.
I see on the news last night one company is telling its customers (as a favour of course) to leave and find another retailer as they signed them up at retail rates cheaper than the company can now buy electricity wholesale. Great PR job as they are effectively pissing off their customers to preserve their profits!

With regard to gas prices I‘d agree they are being pushed up by international demand with its knock on effect here. The government had to intervene a few years ago when a similar thing happened with too much of our being exported causing competitive pressures to increase the cost of our domestic supply.
The problem may be due to our over dependence on too few gas producing companies and there being little competitive pressure in the domestic market. In this regard State governments must shoulder some of the blame with their bans on fracking to open up new eastern state gas fields to smaller producers and leaving us at the mercy of the big producing (and exporting) companies.

I don't think lack of Australian gas reserves is having any effect at present - there is plenty going to Europe.

With electricity it is reportedly the cost of distribution not generation that is pushing prices up. Renewables are no help if you cannot distribute the power produced (some wind farms were complete but unused recently for this reason). That and a lack of storage is why companies drastically reduced the money they paid home pwners for the power that they supplied to the grid. Lack of investment in the grid (as it is upgraded as in Queensland, watch the prices go up further). I would speculate that lack of decisions about renewables versus coal and gas discouraged investment in the grid (you need to know where it will be needed - renewables are often more locally used than centralized major power stations).

"Access to Electricity: Poles and Wires
Over the past decade, electricity prices in Australia have increased by 63 per cent on top of inflation. One of the main reasons for this is access to electricity. In some areas, access to electricity is twice the cost of the electricity itself. These costs make up the largest component of an electricity bill in all states except for South Australia, where generation costs are higher. Accessibility is based on the network of poles and wires around your home or business, accounting for approximately half of the average household bill. Sources report that in recent years, the increase in prices is because of much-needed network investments. These investments are addressing the previous underinvestment in network maintenance and the need for increased capacity.

When assessing international comparisons, poles and wires in New South Wales and Queensland are the simplest explanation for Australia’s sky-high prices. This is because of the multi-billion dollar upgrade to the network. When looking at places such as Victoria, residents spend less on poles and wires. However, prices are still much higher than they are in Victoria than they are around the world."

 

[Solid Luck]

lol..a shortage of coal? Hence one of the reasons for power costs rising. Dig it up and fire up the power stations.

 

[Mackka]

I did hear that we import our coal for coal fired power stations.

 

[Solid Luck]

I did hear that we import our coal for coal fired power stations.

Yeah. Probably after we sell it to them.

 

[user 4485]

I did hear that we import our coal for coal fired power stations.

Don't know about that Mackka.
I do know that Mt Piper near Lithgow uses coal sourced from local mines.
Eraring Power Station uses coal mainly directly from conveyors out of the local Mandalong Coal Mine as well as surplus needs from other Hunter Valley/NSW coal mines.
Due to the current high coal prices Australian power stations are facing coal shortages &/or higher costs as they have to pay market spot price for surplus coal. This is another reason electricity costs are rising.

Qld power stations examples:
Coal to fuel Stanwell Power Station comes from Curragh Mine in Central Queensland.
The Tarong power stations receive coal from the nearby Meandu Mine via a conveyor.

Can't find any info on an Australian power station importing steaming coal? Possible though.

 

[user 4386]

I did hear that we import our coal for coal fired power stations.

Yes coal briquettes worth $3 million AUD in 2022 (and an average of $3 million AUD for each of the preceding 32 years). In that year (2022) we exported $AUD 67,000,000,000 worth of coal (about 22,000 times the value of the imports). The media loves to make a mountain out of a mole-hill.

Don't understand your comment about a shortage of coal Solid Luck - tongue in cheek I guess?