Categories
transport

Fringe Benefits Tax craziness: driving, going nowhere

The old FBT company car rules resulted in some quite ridiculous outcomes. In fact they still do, because apparently they still apply for existing leases. Basically the rules meant that the further you drive, the less tax you pay. Which means people were strongly encouraged to drive long distances to save money — often driving  ... [More]

Categories
Going green Politics and activism

A few thoughts on the carbon scheme

New for June… a Lego house with solar panels on the roof. Here’s a few thoughts on the carbon scheme announced yesterday: 1. I simply don’t understand how the deniers can continue to be taken seriously by anybody when the vast majority of climate scientists agree there’s a problem that needs to be fixed. It  ... [More]

Categories
Going green News and events Politics and activism

Stuff I’ve learnt from Radio National

Often when I listen to Radio National, I’ll learn something I didn’t know before. In this case, I was listening to Saturday Extra last week. Cutting power consumption? One item talking about electricity efficiency noted that enormous amounts of money are being invested in distribution networks, instead of being spent on measures to cut consumption  ... [More]

Categories
Politics and activism

Thoughts on tax

The tax return My 2008-09 tax return took ages to come back. What happened to it? An old fashioned IT screwup: We know some people have experienced delays and frustration caused by our essential systems upgrade. Unfortunately, the size of the systems we deal with means they are incredibly complex. Also, given the importance of  ... [More]

Categories
Home life

Getting stuff done (or not)

Marita’s gone off overseas with Justine to explore San Francisco and surrounds. Management of time is often an issue for me, and I in no way want to say that her presence is a cause of me not getting things done. But I thought that while she’s gone for three weeks, I might have some  ... [More]