Toilet Bowl Flush Tax in Australia

[Diuretic]

Context is everything. In some parts of Australia we are now lookng at permanent water shortage. I used to have a front garden and a nice back yard. Now I have rocks and dirt out the front and just dirt out the back. Mike Young (one of the blokes in the article) is a water expert and one who has been telling us for some years we're in big trouble. This idea merely reflects reality. Water is a precious commodity but the way some of us who live in arid areas use it has been, to date, wasteful. You'd think in a couple of hundred years of European settlement of this landmass we'd have worked out that you can't live like a European in a desert. We might be using "Dune" as a survival manual

Di ....is it going to be a yearly set fee,or are they seriously thinking of charging per flush?

I think they're going to base it on total consumption Harry. Where I am we have a set limit per household of free water (it's accepted that we pay taxes and that the supply of water to our houses is part of the social contract) but if we go over the limit then we pay. Again where I am we've had restrictions for a few years anyway. Over there in Western Australlia they're as bad off for water as we are (except WA has a tropical north which has plenty of water, it's Perth and the south-west that's drought-stricken) so they need to be thinking about how water can be saved and a reasonably sensible price put on it.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Drill your own well and install your own septic system and give the government the finger every time you take a shit.

 

[Diuretic]

If it were so simple many of us would do it. We're an arid region, we just don't have the ground water. Our water is from the River Murray and metropolitan reservolrs. We don't have enough rain to build up a decent ground water. Even the water of the Great Artesian Basin (whoa flashback to high school) is having trouble meeting the needs of pastoralists and miners and other producers.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Biolet Products - Biolet Composting Toilets

then don't flush at all

 

[Diuretic]

Okay. Now about drinking water?

 

[Skull Pilot]

This is a about a flush tax no?

 

[Diuretic]

I suppose that angle sells papers.

I get told off when I go out the back yard and take a leak. Can you imagine the fuss if I went out there with a spade to take a dump?

I don't need the aggro.

 

[rayboyusmc]

Now if everyone pissed in their backyard, wouldn't that increase the ground water table.

That's how it's done here in Florida.

 

[michiganFats]

Go Blue.....

Sparty On!!!!!

 

[editec]

Context is everything. In some parts of Australia we are now lookng at permanent water shortage. I used to have a front garden and a nice back yard. Now I have rocks and dirt out the front and just dirt out the back. Mike Young (one of the blokes in the article) is a water expert and one who has been telling us for some years we're in big trouble. This idea merely reflects reality. Water is a precious commodity but the way some of us who live in arid areas use it has been, to date, wasteful. You'd think in a couple of hundred years of European settlement of this landmass we'd have worked out that you can't live like a European in a desert. We might be using "Dune" as a survival manual

As I understand Oz's water problems, part of the problem now is that so much water is being used for sheep.

And since sheep also graze in such a way that destroys the grass, they're like a double whammy on the environment.

Oz, and all of us, have to learn to live WITH the environment, rather than trying to make it bend to our will.

I may, for example, abandon my attempts to make Searsport Maine, the coconut and pineapple capital of New England.

I'll probably invest all my money into lobster ranching from here on in.

Scuttlin' scuttlin' scuttlin'
Keep them Lobsta scuttlin'
Keep them Lobsta scuttlin -- Shell hide!
Through all those Nor'East winters
Sat on my ass got spinters
While shellbacks were movin with the tide

Shovin' off, droppin' traps, haul 'em up, grab their backs
Shovin' off, droppin' traps, Shell hide!
Shovin' off, droppin' traps, haul 'em up, grab their backs
Shovin' off, droppin' traps
Shell hide! Shell hide!
Shell hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!

 

[tigerbob]

Go Blue.....

Sparty On!!!!!

Grrrrr!

 

[Diuretic]

As I understand Oz's water problems, part of the problem now is that so much water is being used for sheep.

And since sheep also graze in such a way that destroys the grass, they're like a double whammy on the environment.

Oz, and all of us, have to learn to live WITH the environment, rather than trying to make it bend to our will.

I may, for example, abandon my attempts to make Searsport Maine, the coconut and pineapple capital of New England.

I'll probably invest all my money into lobster ranching from here on in.

Scuttlin' scuttlin' scuttlin'
Keep them Lobsta scuttlin'
Keep them Lobsta scuttlin -- Shell hide!
Through all those Nor'East winters
Sat on my ass got spinters
While shellbacks were movin with the tide

Shovin' off, droppin' traps, haul 'em up, grab their backs
Shovin' off, droppin' traps, Shell hide!
Shovin' off, droppin' traps, haul 'em up, grab their backs
Shovin' off, droppin' traps
Shell hide! Shell hide!
Shell hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!

Yes you're right, European domesticated animals (and us) have pretty much damaged the fragile environment here. I was listening to a bloke on radio the other day actually seriously advancing getting rid of sheep, cattle and goats (not all the goats, I like goats) and farming kangaroos instead.

I've mustered sheep and cattle, never tried to muster a mob of roos. Forget the horse, get me a pogo stick!

(For the younger members - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo_stick)

 

[rayboyusmc]

Forget the horse, get me a pogo stick!

You leave Pogo out of this commode thread.

Remember, it was Pogo who first said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Now Frenchie the owl and the alligator fellow are another thing. I believe they were both republicats.

 

[del]

Forget the horse, get me a pogo stick!

You leave Pogo out of this commode thread.

Remember, it was Pogo who first said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Now Frenchie the owl and the alligator fellow are another thing. I believe they were both republicats.

it's dr. howland owl and albert alligator.