Greg Smith in Western Australia

Last week I read two articles about small businesses closing.  Why?  The increasing government regulation and reporting requirements were just too costly. One was a dress shop and had to regularly prepare report to six different federal, state and local government departments.. This week I read that Australia's GDP is stubbornly low - not even keeping pace with inflation.  I'd bet the productivity per person or per worked hour is way down. Even Labor fan Gratten was concerned, and further Reserve Bank rate rises appear to be on the horizon. Chalmers has lots of excuses but not enough skill or imagination to change anything. I think he has little clue. (If only the Liberals could get a good leader and get their act together. Albo's mob MUST go.)

My daughter has a small shareholding in Rural Funds Management (ASX : RFF).  I have no idea how good an investment they are.  I have no association with them. But the lead articles in their regular newsletters are excellent.  The recent newsletter featured an article ("Space, Food and the Price of Peace") that highlights the real role in rural industries in war and peace.  Food is essential. Here's an email I sent to RFF.  Their website ( https://www.ruralfunds.com.au/ ) has a link to the newsletter and  article ( https://www.ruralfunds.com.au/resources/news/rfm-newsletter-edition-25---2026 .) Hello, Unfortunately I'm not in a position to invest in your organisation, however my daughter has a modest share holding and receives your Newsletter. I DO very much like the articles.  The "Space, Food and the Price of Peace" article in Edition 25 is well written, informative and (for me) opened a new view I had never before considered. Thank you so much for th...

In another " You WILL be healthy " push from our medical " I'm better than you " medical people, a sugar tax is being pushed. I propose a 12% price hike twice a year. Let's see how that plays out.

Australia to way too timid in a modern world.  The media is doing it's very best to demonise data centers which have a potential to centre Australia as in dispensible engine room for future world economies. And the government is taking note of the fear and suspicions by introducing draconion rules that risk making it "too hard" for investors. Sure data centres, like any industry, needs to follow reasonable rules regarding location, resource usage and environmental impact but the positive impact they have on GDP and security should not be ignored. All levels of government should stand ready to help, not hinder.  Manufacturing followed the same path. Dealing with increasing regulation, uncapped labour cost rises, and government laziness, manufacturering in Australia collapsed. Yes, we ship iron ore overseas and get it back as washing meachines.  Australia must be less timid, not be afraid to fail, and be prepared to adventure.

 It used to be easy to setup and run your own private email server.  I used postfix. If you wanted to send an email to someone@somewhere .com your server would look up s omewhere.com 's mail server address from it's DNS record, connect to it's port 25, somewhere.com would say "Hello", you said I have a message for someone , and somewhere.com would say great - send it over. Now it's all encryption, domain authentication keys, permitted sender policies, spam checks, scam checks, etc, etc, etc. I gave up and went back to my native gmail address.  Let the experts try and keep up.

 The Australian referendum to recognise Australian Indigenous peoples in the constitution through the establishment of a Voice To Parliament body was quickly defeated. Current counting stands at 60% No. I voted No. But not against Aboriginal peoples or against recognition. I voted against the Voice To Parliament which was to be given constitutional powers to consult with all levels of Government. While not having any veto power, it's influence would be significant. My No stance developed over time.  After announcement of the referendum, big business, sporting interests, unions and associations fell over each other to announce support and provide campaign funding. To my mind this could only be the result of a lot of background lobbying of company boards and various management teams. Then when the legal implications were questioned, the Solicitor General released a carefully crafted and clearly forced statement stating the proposed amendments were legally "safe" in his opin...