BendigoBoy

It's a balancing act, I suppose. Don't get me wrong, those in most need need support, no argument there. Not sure couples earning between $250,000 and $530,000 a year need help with childcare costs when we've got a national debt to bring down. If they do go ahead with these stage 3 tax cuts, my savings are going to the Smith Family. Just hope they do actually scrap the stage 3 cuts before they come in; doubt we'll see it though. Labor rolled over on those the same way they did on their pledge to ditch negative gearing.

Concur with you on juniors; and I think it's an area where strong tech leads really show their value and their worth.

I don't disagree with that. But I do think that proper, meaningful management should be able to detect productivity over activity. So perhaps it's really a failure of management practice if people end up just doing "busy work" rather than being measured by objective, meaningful results and performance measures.

In general, I wouldn't dispute that. It just strikes me, in the main from what I've witnessed and discussed with peers over the last few years, as little more than "managers" wanting to be seen to exercise some control, power and value add where they've probably not actually been adding anything substantial for a few years now. Must be rather emasculating when all those damned professionals just get on and do their bloody jobs even better working from home than when they have you standing watch over their shoulders.

All good; personally, I've given up on the ABC and the wider media in general. It's perpetual "the sky is falling nonsense" because of interest rates normalising recently. Just wanted to clarify and give a little voice to there being at least some fields where the organisations aren't holding all the cards

When it comes to wanting a return to office, I think this very much depends on the field and size of the company. Certainly, in software engineering, myself and a large number of friends and colleagues have made the move out of the capital cities over the course of the pandemic and we've made it abundantly clear that any attempt to force us back to the office is going to result in them having to go to market to find replacements. By the same token, a lot of firms have embraced going fully remote for engineers because it doesn't limit their hiring sphere. I'm very appreciative of the fact that many occupations can't or won't be as accommodating; but it's not as black and white as "Corporate Australia wants to see an end to WFH".

Oh! And just to add, whilst it's still bizarre not having a table in the carriage so I can pop my laptop up, the V-line trains have never been anything but clean and prompt for me between Bendigo and Melbourne.

Bendigo's pretty lively at the moment. We're just finishing up a monumental Ring Cycle at the theatre; the restaurants are as good as ever; Balgownie's still great for a bottle and a bite of lunch at the weekend. The V-Line's now the same price to get from Bendigo to Melbourne as I used to pay for the tram from Caulfield into the CBD. Weather's a bit patchy, but I'm originally from Kilmarnock, mate - so trust me, it's still a massive improvement. Sure, lots of people are struggling with the fact interest rates are slowly getting back to sensible levels. But I hold my tongue on commenting on whether anyone overextended themselves or the intellect of anyone who trusts what a central banker says. Compared to the Central Belt, hopefully you'll find things a dream out here come the Spring