Thread: The Great LPG Swindle

righty-ho. its now over 3 months since i applied for this grant. i have survived fiscal meltdown only by putting christmas on hold and literally have had to cut another hole in my belt.
i patiently waited for the centrelink authorised review officer to complete her work and she 'phoned me this morning to say that ausindustry have flatly refused to co-operate in this matter and she has referred me direct to the federal ombudsman.
i spoke with their office today and they are considering the case. whilst only implied, it did become clear that this is certainly not the first case they have had to deal with concerning ausindustry. i was also asked what my desired outcome would be and so i have obviously requested my grant to be paid and a formal apology to be made to my family and myself for the unnecessary hardship we have suffered. i've also expressed my belief that the news beat-up on the abc last year was not just the work of the MTAA but had political input as well from kim carr's department.
i will keep you all posted as to how things proceed from this point.

ok, that's it, i've met my match and i give in !
i spoke to the ombudsman's representative yesterday and realised that what i'm dealing with is a cultural divide i can not bridge. he was unable to comprehend that the phrase 'if you do the conversion yourself...' could possibly relate to someone actually doing something for themselves. in his opinion i was a "backyard" bodger and that my claim was as uncredible as, to use his example, someone doing work on their own house rather than employing a tradesman to do it.
obviously an effete, middle-class professional with a hefty salary, he couldn't see that some of us live in a world where the only way we can get things done is to 'have a go' instead of handing money to predatory commercial interests.
all i can say is good on him and i apologised for wasting his time.
as a response i have decided to harden my attitude and my family unit will be henceforth concentrating on paying down all debts we have, refusing to make any retail purchases and winding back all spending to an absolute minimum. this way we can make a positive contribution to deflation and with a bit of luck cause government to start to reduce it's expenditure on professional salaries.
if everyone reduces their debt levels by 5%, $100billion will be torn out of the economy and nullify all attempts to stem the haemorrhaging. asset prices will go into freefall and consequently the capacity to pay wages will be severely reduced.
now before you condemn me as a luddite, just consider what this will do to the values of range rovers ! by next fire season early L322's should be down to chump-change prices......i quite fancy bashing one of those to death on the tracks and then i can give my RRC a bit of a rest.
meanwhile those who can turn their hand to anything will be the ones in the box seat.
i can't see myself sitting on the street holding a sign saying:
"will make recommendations aimed at achieving fair, just and lawful administration FOR FOOD"

Can I say it now.........really......now can I say it........



























































































































I told you so

sure you can say it mcrover but i can see the price of my house fall by up to 85% and still not be in negative equity. can you ?

[quote=pomonastik;893623]ok, that's it, i've met my match and i give in !
ombudsman's representative

G`day ,

Sorry to read you feel that it`s time to end .

Is it not possible to front the actual ombudsman or is the rep deemed as one in the same , if not sure i`d suggest checking because it seems to me you have the information just in need of the right ear .

I`d also suggest it may be worth while starting again with new people , i know this may sound odd but i have found there is more than one person doing any given job , most of the people you Have to talk to find the people you Need to talk to is a waste of time i know and you may already know which level ( the decision makers ) you need to talk to .

On the other hand if your finishing because you`ve had enough of it all i can understand this also .

Anyhow , good upon you whatever you do and if nothing else you probably understand the system a bit better than most ( if that`s actually posssible )

Cheers

thanks for your encouraging message of support PLR.
actually the reason i've decided to let it go is that now the weather has finally found it's regular cycle i must focus all my mental as well as physical capacity toward what is really important in my life, namely the protection of my community. for the next 3 to 4 months i need to clear my head of all the crap of everyday life and just concentrate on the very real enemy at hand. it is a kind of zen approach but it has served me well thus far. even the 20 minutes i spent arguing semantics with the ombudsman's rep yesterday was a dangerous distraction from what i do and finding such a lack of perspective in his attitude was really the last straw. any spare daylight hours i do manage to snatch between now and may will inevitably be used up in frantic efforts to keep the rangie in one piece and ready for the next day. last sunday i rebuilt the back end between 5.30pm and nightfall using a few bits salvaged off the wrecker but i really need some new springs and shocks. next thing on the list is tightening up the swivels as the old girl has got a mind of her own over bumps at the moment.
all in all i have learned that it was a mistake to have any faith in 'the system' delivering a fair result and that the current spiral into oblivion it faces should only be encouraged in order to expose the grossly corpulent public service to the realities of the world i already inhabit. once the playing field becomes level we'll find out who the true australians really are. i know i'm fair dinkum.

Digger The "system" and ".gov" is out to screw the working man any way it can...allways has been....

Sorry you didn't get any joy out of the LPG rebate...I don't know about now , seeing as they have apparently change the wording of act, but soon after the rebate came in you could spend $500 bucks on a system put it into a car that had not previously been on LPG and get the full $2000 back. this I know for a fact.

It was not intended as a "re-cope your costs" initiative (as some of the posters seem to think) but as a incentive to do the conversion....

All I can say is dont give up, keep pluging away and good luck


Tony

Originally Posted by pomonastik

sure you can say it mcrover but i can see the price of my house fall by up to 85% and still not be in negative equity. can you ?

I dont get what you mean by that, I take it you mean that your little protest of not buying anything is going to have some sort of effect on the economy of this country then I think again you will be very very very dissappointed.

Even if everyone on AULRO cut their spending by 30%, it would hardly be noticed to the economy at large but the members in the smaller comunities would just about drive their shop owners broke.

If you are that disenchanted with the Australian gov then find somewhere that you can fit LPG to a vehical without qualifacations.....maybe Chad or one of those African countrys where they dont have rules....but you also wont get a rebate for nothing.

Im sure they could use a good fire fighter though