On August 19, 2011, I posted in this same category, an article entitled “An experience with the Queensland Justice System”, in which I related the frustrations of having an action taken through QCAT (Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal).

I have another one. This one can not go through QCAT though, as I found out during the early stages of filing the documents.

I am a director and treasurer of a club. We are seeking compensation for debts that we incurred because of the untimely manner in which our auditors audited our Financial Statements. They had not delivered our audited documents by ASIC’s due date for lodgement. ASIC fined us for late lodgement. [Read more...]

The following will probably be only interesting, and maybe even useful (or maybe not) to those who live in Queensland, Australia, but as of July 2011, this was, and still is, my personal experience with the process of trying to recover $2,500 from a former tenant who left without paying back rent. Some might say I should have had insurance to cover this, but this person was from the same small country town as my wife, and a friend of other family members and friends, and I stupidly thought he would be honest.

Before making a claim for recovery of a Minor Debt through the courts, I had to approach QCAT (Queensland Civil & Administrative Tribunal). This is a new part of the process that involves both parties sitting down with a mediator to try to resolve the issue. I believe QCAT was established to help relieve the backlog in the court system. It was hoped that mediation would resolve many matters without needing to go to court. To me it was an extra impediment inserted in the process. [Read more...]

BIG4 Welcomes Dogs

I just heard that as of 1st July 2011, 23 of the 180 odd BIG4 Holiday Parks around Australia will now be welcoming dogs in their grounds. Others may follow suit, and a certain amount will not. The reason this is not a blanket policy is because each park owner in the franchise sets their own regulations. Obviously not every holiday park visitor will be happy if other campers have dogs, and the park owners have to be aware of what the majority of their guests expect.

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Air Pollution

Have you noticed that there doesn’t seem to be much discussion about Global Warming any more? The topic is now Climate Change. That could have something to do with a number of scientists now showing that planet Earth is actually cooling, and we are headed for another ice age. I guess whether we are warming or cooling depends on what timeframe you use – 1 year, 10 years, 50 years, 200 years, 1,000 years, 1,000,000 years, and a really accurate thermometer. I guess it also depends on who commissioned and paid for the facilities where the research is being done.

And are industrialized humans causing it? Undoubtedly we are, but all of it? It’s being claimed that the volcanic eruptions in Iceland have pumped up the same daily amount of greenhouses gases as a small to medium sized country, but still not as much as the European Airline industry. And how is this measured? How do you accurately weigh volcanic ash going up, or any form of emissions? Can anyone tell me? [Read more...]

Cheers John

“Miss me yet?”

“That change you wanted, how’s it going?”

I apologise for plaigarising this joke but it really sums up how I feel about the state of Australian politics at the moment.

The current crop, both in government and the opposition, don’t seem to have the faintest clue how to govern. All they are interested in is sniping like spoilt children at each other. Question time in parliament is just plain embarressing. And, none of them can answer a reporter’s question without making some derogatory remark about at least one other party.

I remember some years ago there was an article titled “How to vote for neither”. If only I could find it again. Mind you the politicians probably changed the rules so that type of voting is now informal. [Read more...]

Hitachi EH4000

Since the nuclear power disaster in March 2011 at the Fukushima plant in northern Japan, there are probably many people wondering if coal fired power stations are such a bad idea after all. I don’t want to get involved in the ‘clean’ coal debate because I don’t believe I have enough facts to make an informed decision. There are too many politicians, lobbyists, and media representatives out there and not enough scientists. I do believe we are polluting the planet. I also believe that the planet is warming, but I am not yet convinced that human activity is the major cause of it. The Greenies are making more noise than the Clean Coal lobbyists, but that’s probably because the media sells more advertising space promoting radicals than quiet achievers.

However for boys, and some girls, driving really big trucks is fun, so Eileen and I went for a visit to the Central Queensland, Australia, coal fields to visit our son who drives one of the biggest trucks ever made. [Read more...]

I’ve just gotta tell you this.

It’s Christmas Eve in Australia, well just about everywhere I suppose, and I went out at 8am to do some last minute Xmas shopping. Now I am not going out again in that chaos for a week.

As I was returning to my home I heard this on the car radio. A reporter was bringing a story live from Bethlehem. She must have had legal issues in the past, because she announced that she was in Manger Square (Yep, that’s what it’s called.) the ‘alleged’ birthplace of Jesus Christ. [Read more...]

What is investment advice doing in a holiday swap site? Well, if you don’t have any savings you can’t go on holidays. The following is something I prepared for Eileen to give to clients of her accounting practice who showed an interest in investing. It is more specifically related to circumstances in Australia, but there is enough generic information here to be of use to everyone. [Read more...]

Why aren’t we allowed to have fun any more?

When we were kids we were constantly told to go out and have fun. As soon as we became teenagers we were told to grow up and stop being so silly. Where’s the fun in that?

I guess I can only talk about this from a male perspective. I don’t know what women want (Maybe I should have seen the movie.) for fun. For me, fun is exploring places I haven’t been to before, and playing with toys. Exploring places I haven’t been to before doesn’t need much explanation, but what about ‘playing with toys’?

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Our son Ryan married on the 4th November 2006. He then lived and worked in the town of Cloncurry near Mount Isa in north western Queensland. At work he drove a truck which had four trailers, was 53metres long, and had 98 wheels. It carried lead from the mine to the railhead. This isolated but public160km road is the only road these monsters are allowed to be driven on. [Read more...]