Telstra has done it again with its ridiculous decision to have customers who pay their phone bills in person charged extra for their efforts.

And, by the look of it, they’re going to get away with this impost on their customers.

Then again, if you look at their past efforts, including the whopping salaries etc for their executives, it seems Telstra can do anything they want to and our Federal Government is not going to intervene.

This latest penny–pinching move is, we are told, to help meet the costs of their current administrative procedures.

Why don’t they take a long hard look at these procedures and maybe put their highly paid executives to work in real jobs?

You wouldn’t believe it   

Young fellow I know had to go to our local court the other day and while he was waiting for his case to come up he was somewhat taken aback to realise someone had graffitied the back of the seat in front of him.

Will people stop at nothing today?

Shuttle bus concerns   

While there’s no doubt that the advent of the free shuttle bus service around parts of Wollongong is being welcomed by its many users with open arms, there are some concerns mounting out there in the suburbs.

Seems that people drive to get on points to use the bus and they leave their cars parked in the streets, which is getting many locals upset as they are finding it hard to park outside their own door.

No thank you 

Now we read that the State Government might allow municipal councils to set their own rate levels rather than the current system of rate pegging.

Let’s hope not because it will certainly lead to us digging even further into our pockets to help employ more “fat cats” and splurge on already proven wasteful schemes such as The Gateway complex at Bulli Tops and our own Blue Mile.

We are over–governed as it is and to let councils loose on the streets, so to speak, is not the way to go for sound economic reasoning.

Photo mania  

Received the latest blurb from my local politician Lylea McMahon the other day and lo and behold she had her photo in it 12 times, but our Member for Wollongong Noreen Hay has done better in her latest pamphlet - with 18 photos.

Noreen’s excuse, and it makes sense, is that her electorate covers an area which contains people of many overseas backgrounds and for her a picture is as “good as a thousand words”.

And far better than the 6000-plus written by our PM!!

Action better than words Kevin  

Our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s 6000-plus word diatribe published at the weekend and aimed at the future of our economy was well researched, but Mr PM it’s action we really need.

And we need some consistency in the action.

What worried me about it generally speaking was the amount of repetition it contained and the claim that the Hawke–Keating Labor governments introduced successful micro–economic reforms and our PM promises more reforms of his own in this area.

The fact is that economic history shows the Hawke–Keating governments put us in the doghouse and it was really his Liberal predecessors that got us up and running again.

You shouldn’t have forgotten that Kevin because just look at the wonderful time you’ve had spending a massive surplus and then taking us into financial debt.

And what was somewhat alarming was your claim that the price of petrol and food would rise with an economic recovery … wasn’t it you who said you’d bring petrol prices under control?

I also wonder what your treasurer Wayne Swan made of it all, for after all shouldn’t it be his role to chat to us about the economy?