Tasered

Wednesday 21st January 2009
Carolyn spent the day looking up the requirements for our Visa, we are just over half way through our first full financial year and as we are hoping to fill the criteria in the first two years in business, we want to make sure that everything that we have been doing so far fits the bill. If by some chance there are any discrepancies with what we are doing, we still have over five months of this financial year to go to put it right.
The problem appears to be that the Government and the department of the WA Government who sponsored us to come over here have marginally different regulations, the rules change quite dramatically depending on where your business is i.e. City, Rural, or somewhere in between like Busselton.
We think that for the most part we can fulfil the rules of both departments, what we are wondering though is how they work out how many staff hours the previous owners used to employ people for.
We have got to employ the equivalent of an extra Australian citizen, full time (38 hrs), over and above those that the previous people used to employ. What we need to know is how the government work out how many hours the previous people paid, because as far as we can tell there are no records of hours worked.
The tax office will have details of how much has been paid in wages and superannuation, but it doesn’t ask for hours worked on any of their forms. We are going to have to contact the powers that be direct and ask them we suppose, it just doesn’t feel right.
We had a local builder come round this evening to look at some alterations and extensions that we want done to the house, he was a friendly sort of chap, he took a set of plans away with him and said he’ll come back with some drawings and prices.
In the evening we went to Petticoat Lane, it is a street market that takes over the centre of Busselton on one evening a year, the whole town and surrounding area turn out for it, it was really quite busy.
We spent about two hours wandering round looking at all the bits and pieces that were for sale, the only bits we bought were some Spices and Jam from an Olive Farmers stall and some Sausage Sizzles from a stall run by one of the local rugby clubs.
Before we went home we made the trek to Gelato for Ice Cream, Ian had is usual homemade Apple Tart with loads of Cherry Ice Cream while the rest had one scoop each.
As we were walking back to the car there was a scuffle outside the Vasse Pub, the Police moved in to stop it and one of the morons involved decided to hit the Policeman round the back of the head, the Policewoman that was with him, quick as you like, pulled out her Taser and shot the idiot. By the time Ian managed to find a good vantage point where he could see over the top of the cheering crowd, the Officer was just about to remove the prongs while the moron lay on the floor totally helpless.
It’s funny, over here all the law abiding citizens cheered when the officer used the Taser to disarm the guy, and the use of the Taser made no more than a couple of lines in the local paper, it was a means to an end, as few people as possible got hurt and everyone apart from the moron walked away happy. In the UK there would have been an inquiry during which time the officers concerned would have been suspended on full pay. Having had the inquiry, the equal rights for morons committee or a similar group, would demand that the inquiry go to the House of Lords and then if they still didn’t get the right result, the European Court of Human Rights.
This process would take about five years, during which time the officers have been on full pay whilst getting a nice sun tan and carving out a career as window cleaners (cash in hand and no European Court of Window Rights to deal with if someone doesn’t like the way they have been done).
Another reason for wanting to leave the UK.