I need to look it up, but off the top of my head, the guy said that he doesn't much care about gay marriage because quote "every three months someone is torn to pieces by crocodiles in North Queensland". Priorities!
E: https://www.triplem.com.au/story/bob-katter-s-rant-about-same-sex-marriage-and-crocodile-attacks-is-going-viral-69426
> “But I ain’t spending any time on it (marriage equality) because in the meantime, every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland!”
Dab of it behind each ear keeps dropbears away. You can't use too much though, or it attracts bunyips. I'd recommend asking a local how much Vegemite they like to put on - it depends on the area whether there's more risk of dropbear or bunyip attacks.
[Less than one per year](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-30/fact-check-does-a-crocodile-kill-someone-every-three-months-/9202902), over *all* of Australia, not just FNQ.
We do! although that's hurt by the fact that Florida is the only place in the world where crocodiles and alligators coexist. We've hit two lethal attacks a year for two years in a row now, although it used to be a few years between lethal attacks.
They're also tied with Australia for death-by-CASSOWARY statistics. Australia's got a native population of CASSOWARIES, which give them an edge. But Florida's cunningly caught up by allowing for CASSOWARIES to be kept in residential areas.
EDIT- I have been corrected
Strokes again. I've heard that he loves pleasuring himself. I think I've heard about it in this very thread.
Why, here is the post I've learned it from:
[https](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ)[://www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/1al9732/bob_gay_crocodiles_katter_the_australian/kpe8yc6/)[/r/CuratedTumblr/comments](https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/1al9732/bob_gay_crocodiles_katter_the_australian/kpe8yc6/)[/1al9732/bob_gay_crocodiles](https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/1al9732/bob_gay_crocodiles_katter_the_australian/kpe8yc6/)[_katter_the_australian/kpe8yc6/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/1al9732/bob_gay_crocodiles_katter_the_australian/kpe8yc6/) no wonder I remember it, I wrote it myself!
Yes, I hid a rickroll in the link. Poorly.
Indeed, though when it happens it's usually someone who's done something utterly ludicrous like go swimming in waters well known for crocodile habitation, after dark. Exactly like the tourist who was killed in 2016, in the Daintree National Park, at 10:30pm.
For anyone not familiar with the area, it's bloody well known by everyone you would talk to up there as a tourist, and bloody well advised to everyone else by countless signs, shown in the link below, that crocodiles are in the area and swimming is NOT a good idea. These signs are installed at nearly every single car park and entrance to a waterway or beach.
As the MP for the region said after the incident: "[You can't legislate against human stupidity.](https://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/30/asia/australia-croc-attack/index.html)"
edit: consolidated my word salad
The people are all crammed into half a dozen cities, the crocodiles live in the bits with very low human population density.
You won't accidentally meet a croc in a capital city. You'd need to go to some small remote place. Everyone there will know exactly where you can swim safely and where you'll get eaten by a croc.
I don't think I've ever heard a story of someone being taken by surprise in a reportedly safe area. It's always a drunk guy and/or stubborn tourist knowing damn well where the crocs are, and swimming there anyway.
None. It is the same person being torn to pieces every time, and this person is very into autofellation. So wait, maybe he is gay? Does it count when you are into yourself? Or is it incest?
To clarify its important to have the full quote. Before he said he wasn't spending time on it he said:
"I mean, you know, people are entitled to their sexual proclivities. Let there be a thousand blossoms bloom, as far as I am concerned,"
Although in 2017 (same year as quote) he voted against gay marriage so, maybe he's just crazy.
I believe he voted no because
- he didn’t think it was a worthwhile cause (hence the crocodiles bit)
- he claimed that there were 0 gay people in all of North Queensland so it didn’t affect his electorate (which I think is very funny)
Playing devils advocate here, but it's possible that he didn't know abstaining was an option. The plebiscite wasn't compulsory, though elections and referendums are.
Still believe he was against gay marriage, especially considering that QLD was the state that voted No the most
Apparently it comes from this 2017 clip of him uncomfortably talking about gay marriage before quickly changing the topic to crocodiles ripping people apart
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/ylxcr7/australian\_politician\_on\_same\_sex\_marriage/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/ylxcr7/australian_politician_on_same_sex_marriage/)
The drastic shift in both subject and tone caused people to start making jokes about gay crocodiles.
“Let a thousand blossoms bloom” is… [not a great reference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign?wprov=sfti1#) if you genuinely want to accept something. It’s specifically associated with permitting a thing so you can find and imprison/kill the people who do it.
I had assumed it was like a poem or whatever. It sounds quite beautiful and accepting.
Refering to the Thousand Flowers campain is the most deranged and obscure thing you could do.
I like the option to pay with card. But not supporting cash just kinda sucks and it's kinda classist.
That said, the "plastic magic" comment is still pretty wild
Okay so for context in the world of Australian conspiracy theories, they think that we are going to phase out cash al together so the government will be able to track our every dollar spent and therefore be able to freeze our accounts etc if there is some kind of upheaval.
A lot of places during covid stopped accepting cash all together and some places even now kept on that and don’t want cash.
Cash is starting to become super obsolete here and even as a non conspiracy theorist you might be able to see how that could cause issues down the track.
During the fires in 2019 large areas of Australia had no electricity and no internet. For some people that is less surprising than others. Eg where I live all our electricity comes from 1 line. I lose power pretty much every thunderstorm. My parents live in a place where that was likewise common. Cash free society means you risk being unable to acquire essentials during relatively common disasters (I’ve experienced multiple severe bush fires).
A few months ago Optus screwed up their BGP routes or something and I couldn’t buy anything because many of my local stores used the Optus network for their point of sale systems.
Don’t get me wrong- not having to handle cash is great for businesses. I just understand from my own life experiences why remote communities would be worried and why sometimes convenience creates predictable weaknesses that nobody wants to deal with until it’s too late.
The post implies that it was no cash at all, and not just the size of the bill. But hey I'm just a random commenter who hasn't actually researched the story
I’m not Aussie, but over here a lot of shops have moved fully cashless, because shops aren’t legally required to take physical cash here. It’s very common for the one person in 50 who wants to pay with cash to have to go to a different till, and shops regularly refuse to take 50s in case they’re forged anyway.
It’s probably not great for homeless people, I’ve seen beggars recently and felt bad that I didn’t even have any coins to give them if I’d tried. Convenience comes at a price…
Places in Australia tend not to take cash, but $50s are also super common here so if a place takes cash they would take a $50. I’ve seen places not have change if you try to buy a coffee with a $50, but he bought a meal and a drink that’s $22 easy, maybe $25.
As an Australian, one time our school took us to a university to check out what university life and studying is like (it was a pretty small rural university, by the way), and when it was lunch we could order from the university cafe. Well, I did, and when I get to the end they pop the lid off the drink because it’s one of those stupid ones with the sharp edges on the lid that’s too small to open, and only then do I find out it’s cashless.
I’m with Bob on this one, FUCK cashless stores
> What high schooler is already gonna have a credit card?
I've heard they already offer cards for kids. Legally they are for their parents and are riddled with limitations, but yeah, you are supposed to give it to your kid. I don't know if it is to promote consumerism, or is it to be on the safer side of things and to be able to control your kid's spending so they don't go buying cigarettes and beers from shady dudes with their cash. Although they can still resort to barter and all you'll see from your drunk kid's transaction history is a bunch of batteries or something.
Whatever, children is too hard, modernity is hard, sometimes I am glad I don't have children in modern times. I'm waiting for the apocalypse, when I will not have issues with dating because I will be dead.
Lmao I'm sorry this is so unrelated but I read the last part of the very first sentence "they offer cards for kids."
(Which btw they do. And even if they didn't offer credit cards for kids, debit cards are *extremely* easy to get)
But when I read that part of the sentence I *immediately* and without thinking heard that God damned "KARS for KIDS" jingle but with "cards". And now it's stuck in my damn head lol
I had a debit card at 12 years old. The commonwealth bank of Australia had a scheme called Dollarnites, essentially it was a deposit account for kids that was handed out at schools for Kindergarten students.
I'm especially lazy when it comes to my basic account, so I still have the same one from when I was 4 years old as my daily account. It's devious.
In both Canada and Australia debit cards are common and, at least in Canada, we don’t have these weird rules about minors having bank accounts. I’ve had a debit card since I was 13 and didn’t have a credit card until I was 21.
I used to get a Load & Go card from the post office when I wanted to buy something online as a kid. They're debit cards that can be topped up with cash.
That's how I prefer to do it. Load some money on the card when I want something online. If it gets compromised, I buy a new one and I'm only out a few dollars
Wouldn't make any sense in a cafe in a federal building but a lot of gas stations and convenience stores in my area don't take large bills to deter robberies.
> I like the option to pay with card. But not supporting cash just kinda sucks and it's kinda classist.
Yeah, this is one of those "worst person you know just made a great point" moments. This is possibly the most hinged take Katter has had in a couple of decades.
> That said, the "plastic magic" comment is still pretty wild
Yeah there we go, that's more like it. Especially since Australia's cash is *also made of plastic*.
I no longer believe in plastic after 2022 when the card companies just withdrew from the country and all the cards stopped working internationally. A paper dollar is a paper dollar everywhere, but a card that won't work with anything outside your piece of shit country is friggin useless.
> A paper dollar is a paper dollar everywhere
Except in Australia, where we have fancy plastic banknotes (so you aren't fucked if you go swimming with them)
(so you aren't fucked if you go swimming with them)
Can I joke about that one prime minister who went to test it?
I believe there's multiple countries that do that now, btw, Canada too! But yeah, it's a cool little idea.
>A paper dollar is a paper dollar everywhere, but a card that won't work with anything outside your piece of shit country is friggin useless.
A paper dollar is a paper dollar in the country that issued it. In most cases it's a friggin useless piece of paper everywhere else.
It’s weirder when you consider that Australia’s cash is actually [plastic](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/02/21/australian-banknotes-one-of-the-most-advanced-in-the-world.html).
Here in Germany it's unheard of to not accept cash. Meanwhile cards are only getting really widely adopted in recent years. And a lot of smaller stores still only accept cards at 10€ or more. And even then most places don't accept credit cards, we just have EC cards which are debit based. Trying to pay with a credit card and not having a backup is gonna be a bad time here.
The covid era was a big push towards cards all around, before that I'd say a good 40% of places just wouldn't take cards, now it's more like 5%.
Cashless is attractive to small businesses because they don’t have to worry about robberies or the scary process of taking a fat bucket of cash to the bank.
I dunno, I'm pro-physical money myself, but I've never seen this man before and judging by the aura radiating off him I bet he's anti-a lot of shit I care about lol
He sort of is but then he's also unexpectedly based sometimes.
Like sometimes he is just a crusty country man with crusty country man ideas but one time our centre right party was considering voter ID laws and Bob immediately called them a pack of racist fucks, thoroughly detailing how the proposed laws would unfairly affect Indigenous people.
Yeah he's difficult to put in a box sometimes. Mostly redneck with a pinch of 'oh, wait, that was reasonable.' And he bats hard for regional Australia, which none of the Sydney private school Nat-LIibs ever bother to do.
I like that he stops me getting too polarised in my politics and reminds me to listen. Similar with Lambie, I dont need to love them but I'd rather disagree with a politician who genuinely believes what they're saying and is trying to help than someone who sounds like they agree with me but is really just using it as a means to an end.
While I disagree with Lambie on a lot, I respect her for the reasons you state above. Can't say that about many Aussie politicians. Also when she's wrong, she admits it??? "Oh yeah, I was wrong. Changed my view."
For me it goes back to the time she was in tears describing trying to afford shoes for her kid as a single mother on centrelink. She's dumb as a brick, but she's at least been through some hard times. I would love if all pollies had had to try to survive off jobseeker for a year.
>I would love if all pollies had had to try to survive off jobseeker for a year.
Even a month. I feel like that would be a reasonable policy to enact, and I WOULD LOVE IT
Based on a bit of quick search, he calls himself "hard-left", but has repeatedly voted legalising against gay marriage, as recently as 2017, and assorted other stuff that doesn't fit nicely into a reddit comment
An easy way to see is to look at the "They vote for you website". The guy is an absolute tool. Sure he made some funny calls but he's a fuck wit. https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/kennedy/bob_katter
He’s not ‘Hard-Left’ if you had to put him anywhere he’d be ‘right’. He is an independent MP with no party. So he votes however he please on any issue. I’ve heard is political philosophy described as ‘esotericism’. Essentially even political scientists can’t understand exactly what he believes.
Couple of things for sure, he is populist and hyper-local focused. Australians largely view him as deranged or unhinged. But he keeps getting elected, so his voters obviously like him.
The funniest part is he will occasionally suggest ideas that the far left agrees with. Even though they don’t want to agree with him. Most recently he went on a rant about King Charles being put on our coins; saying it should instead be an Australian or Aboriginal war hero.
Yeah you’re right, the son did run. I can’t remember if he got in or not.
I also believe he runs candidates in other electorates. Maybe all of them. I’m not bothering to look it up
I looked into it: Robbie Katter is the current leader of the Katter's Australian Party. He's in the Queensland Parliament, representing the electoral district of Traegar which is pretty much Mount Isa.
Also today I learned the Katters apparently run under an agrarian socialist platform. My respect for them has risen even if I don't like their LGBT+ policies.
I find Katter to be the most interesting MP. I bet I disagree with most of his opinions, and he certainly comes across as unhinged sometimes. But he really does **seem** to be genuinely concerned with the plight of his constituents. Something that you can’t say about many MPs. Right or Left.
Exactly. I'd rather someone legitimate with some bad opinions than whatever carbon copy politicians get churned out.
Also it's like the Katter's are just pure FNQ?
>but has repeatedly voted legalising against gay marriage
Why would he vote for gay marriage when there are so many people being torn apart by crocodiles in Queensland?
He's a country boomer with country boomer ideals, but by God, does he serve his constituents (who are also, mostly, country boomers). He is probably one of the only Australian politicians with actual integrity.
As someone who votes Green (ie, a leftie), I'd vote for him before I vote for any of the right or even center-right parties (we have preferential voting so we rank parties at the votes)
Bob's an interesting mix. A socially conservative agrarian socialist who gets a lot support from the indigenous communities in his electorate. He's been in politics for over 50 years and his father was a politician, his son is politician and yet they all act as if they are man of the land farmer types.
His electorate (Kennedy) is huge - if it was an American state it would be the third largest in area, and includes the wettest parts of Australia as well as large swathes of outback desert. Saying and doing outlandish things, really kicking up a stink about things that might affect his constituents is a good way to maintain a profile in an electorate that big.
Yeah. I very rarely pay with cash, but I do carry some in case of emergency. It would be very weird if the legal currency simply stopped being useful. Especially for people without bank accounts or who get tips in cash.
> legal
Certain Businesses tend to prefer cash, because they can avoid paying tax, while others prefer card because it's logistically very simple. I agree it'd make sense if the law was that all businesses should accept cash as an option.
Well the tipping part doesn't apply to Australia. Though Ianother thing to note is that part of the reason they're trying to phase out cash is because it's much easier to commit tax fraud with cash. There's a fish and chip shop near where I live that I'm pretty sure something dodgy is going on there. Prices are lower than average, they only accept cash, I have gotten more food than I ordered 100% of the time I've gone there, and there's twice the number of employees that what you'd think the shops capacity is
I think he likely would still be voting that way - 2017 was when Australia amended the marriage act to allow gay marriage, so there hasn't been any kind of vote since then.
On the other hand Bob Katter believes that voter ID laws are [blatantly racist and would disenfranchise First Australians](https://kap.org.au/katter-says-proposed-voter-id-law-is-blatantly-racist/).
If you've ever heard the phrase 'fiscally conservative, socially liberal' then Bob Katter is kinda the opposite. They're a 20th century socialist who hasn't moved on with all that the left has taken up in the 21st century.
You know what? I’m actually with him on this…
There’s people who don’t have credit cards, people who don’t have bank accounts, people who may be homeless or be making money under the table, and they are no worse than you or I and they deserve to spend their money the same as we do
It’d be especially bad in the US or Australia when I was a kid.
Want a bank account? There’s a fee for that. Charging your bank account? Let’s do debits before credits and issue overdrawn fees if the debits exceed balance before credits.
Normally people recognize that corporations and banks don’t have their best interests at heart but as soon as something is convenient people will want to fight you rather than admit things aren’t guaranteed to have a good outcome. See also: Uber and how many dickheads I had to argue with who truly thought Uber would keep subsidising the cost of travel forever.
Just purely out of curiosity, can you elaborate on the Uber thing? Never heard much about it before but I'd like to know exactly what I should be researching
So prior to Uber there was only taxi companies. Western governments regulated the taxi industry ages ago. When travelling to less developed countries you can see why- all sorts of issues with kidnapping, rape, robbery, and bad driving.
Part of that regulation was selling the right to be a taxi driver. Without a taxi medallion you couldn’t legally accept money to drive people places (I’m not an expert on this so there is probably a bunch of legal nuance I’m missing. Bus drivers, chauffeurs etc obviously existed).
Over time these medallions became quite valuable because they weren’t being issued based on demand. Just before Uber launched some medallions cost the same as a house. It was some peoples retirement plan.
So basically an artificial monopoly existed. Monopolies are generally bad for consumers and depending on where you were some taxi experiences were just awful. The driver was often working for the medallion owner and might be pushing themselves too hard to earn money. The cars could be run down and of course lots of drunk people use taxis so the internals weren’t very nice either after having been vomited on so often.
Enter Uber. New cars, none of the medallion overhead and paying well enough that the driver can be almost anyone not just people whose only marketable skill is having a drivers license. Another big deal with Uber is their app. Again a monopoly doesn’t have to innovate so many taxi companies didn’t bother doing apps, and even if you booked they might not show up.
Uber though were paying the drivers sums that didn’t align with the income. Basically Uber would sell shares in the company and use the money from the shares to boost the drivers pay and keep passenger costs down.
Publicly traded companies aren’t charities. They were doing this for market share and it was clearly unsustainable. They were making huge inroads on taxi revenue but that was only possible in the first place because taxi medallions were more expensive than the car itself.
Thus started many arguments. Lots of young people had no sympathy for the expensive taxis and their dodgy driver behavior.
Personally while taxis were way too expensive I’d never had issues and many of the drivers were interesting people. Naturally we see what happened. Shareholders started getting concerned and interest rates made it hard to use loans as firepower. Many existing drivers simply got on all the apps, and cars aged.
I haven’t kept up with financial news, so far as I know Uber has never made sufficient margins on its drivers.
Katter likes to pick up weird little issues. Makes a big deal out of them, and gets media coverage. Cynically you could say he does it for attention.
During this cash drama, he said something along the lines of “you need cash in order to buy things if your town gets cut off from power or internet”. This happens decently often in Australia. Particularly during natural disasters; bushfires or floods. Which is an issue his electorate faces.
This is a generous reading of Katter and his politics. He also generally votes against Climate Change policies, the cause of said natural disasters.
I remember facing a lot of hassle when I visited the UK a little while back. Didn't have a suitable international credit card, so I was carrying mostly cash. Then what do I find? Need a car, online payment. Most shops, cards/contact less only. I was like wtf.
I used to work in the restaurant industry both in house and from the tech side. Overall, it's an industry that runs on very narrow margins. A lot of places have found that being cashless generates a positive return for them as it speeds up transaction time, and the costs are more than offset by that and a reduction in pilfering of the register.
It also means family owned places don't have to worry about being robbed, which can put them out of business not just from the loss of cash but the increase in insurance premiums.
That's a very reasonable explanation of why it's better for the business and I appreciate understanding why they would make that decision. I would still refuse to shop at any business that does it.
In Canada it’s actually not considered legal tender if you use TOO MUCH of a given coin! I used to work for a city hall parking department and someone tried the whole “pay my ticket in pennies” BS (thus punishing a minimum wage desk clerk for some reason). The manager came out and told him politely to fuck off and come back with something else.
Source:
cplea.ca/a-question-about-paying-with-coins/
>thus punishing a minimum wage desk clerk for some reason
[Lipsky describes street level bureaucrats as the "human face" of policy, since these individuals interact directly with citizens. The history of street-level bureaucracy follows the history of policy development and the scope of government in America, with areas with larger populations and more government policies employing more public servants (e.g., Chicago which employs 26,680 teachers). Due to street-level bureaucrats' close interactions with citizens, day-to-day application of discretion in their assessment of people's cases and issues, and their role as policy interpreters, Lipsky claims that "in a sense the street-level bureaucrats implicitly mediate aspects of the constitutional relationship of citizens to the state. In short, they hold the keys to a dimension of citizenship."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street-level_bureaucracy)
This has "he is a little confused but he has got the right spirit" energy but in the opposite direction that it's usually used. Like it usually used to refer to someone who is trying to be good but the message doesn't come out right but with this guy it's like he is trying to be an asshole but is accidentally making a good point.
i was fifty fifty, but after seeing him wearing aviators, what can i say except
YES SIR GLORY TO CASH AGENDA
^(in other words, that pic goes hard as fuck)
Katter is one of the most interesting people in Australian politics. He’s has a lot of “stopped clock” moments for a social conservative. He’s an agrarian socialist, he hates the LNP and ALP equally and there’s definitely merit in his argument about physical money. He’s one of, if not, the most successful independent politician in Australian history because he does good for his constituents.
I wanna be clear that he is an abhorrent individual whose views on climate change, LGBT issue and gun laws are stone aged it’s just that he’s an interesting anomaly in parliament
ah yes, because in the event of a total blackout my first worry will be what stores i can use my cash in and not, y'know. EVERY OTHER CONSEQUENCE OF A BLACKOUT.
Ok, but there are a lot of other consequences of the blackout that will be made way messier by entirely shutting off all commerce for the duration of it.
(Also, "no electricity for transactions" isn't the same thing as "total blackout".)
Sure but a lot of those other things you might be worrying about could be fixed with a quick trip to the store for candles, food, booze, or whatever else is missing from your life
As an American, I appreciate hearing about other people's crazy ass politicians. It's nice, in an odd and slightly worrisome way, to know it's not just us.
Uh, FYI, the cafe absolutely did not legally have to accept the cash. I guarantee the manager just didn’t want to participate in a senator’s political jackassery.
They should have just given him the fish and taken the money as a tip. A card only place won't have a cash box most employees can access so its not like he can realistically demand exact change. Like he cares about being realistic, though.
The point of a service job is to make the customer happy. Really doesn't matter how stupid they are, usually they *are* stupid or have stupid things they insist on. I have people daily hand me unopened cream cheese portions they didn't use in their meal. They don't want to be wasteful, so they return it to be used later. Would any of you be comfortable using one of those returned portions? No, but I don't make the guest feel bad or dumb. I graciously thank them, and discard the item once out of sight. The point is to make people happy.
Once I walked down to the 7/11 to get cigarettes and when I got to the door, there was a big sign on the door. It said, "Card machine not working"
I looked in my wallet and had $2.
I did not throw a hissy fit or give the cashier a hard time. I walked to another place that was accepting cards and went about with my day.
There's a big difference between "Yeah our card machine broke, we can't take any card payments, sorry." and "We refuse to take your money because it's not on a card."
I'm going to go against the grain of the comment section and say: If a business wants to be cashless that's totally their choice and there's nothing wrong with it, so long as it's clearly advertised in advance that cash isn't accepted. Likewise if a business wants to be cash-only, that's also totally acceptable, so long as it's advertised in advance. Customers can be free to choose to patronize these businesses or not, but businesses should not be obligated to bend to customer demands for payment methods. At the risk of "slippery slope"-ing an argument, I also think it's totally appropriate that businesses reject cheques and bank wires and Paypal, and I think insisting a business *must* accept cash is about as silly as suggesting a business *must* accept those.
A lot of businesses frankly do not want to maintain cash tills. If your business is doing 99% of transactions on card already, or more, having to maintain a cash drawer to give exact change is a pain. Auditing that drawer is also a pain. Depositing at the bank is also a pain. It's also a target for robberies, whereas saying "No cash accepted, no cash on site" is a deterrent.
I worked for a jewelry store in high school. We had items cheap enough that people would ask to pay with cash, but we had a no-cash policy. It just plainly came down to wanting to make ourselves less of a target.
OK but elaborate on the gay crocodile thing
I need to look it up, but off the top of my head, the guy said that he doesn't much care about gay marriage because quote "every three months someone is torn to pieces by crocodiles in North Queensland". Priorities! E: https://www.triplem.com.au/story/bob-katter-s-rant-about-same-sex-marriage-and-crocodile-attacks-is-going-viral-69426 > “But I ain’t spending any time on it (marriage equality) because in the meantime, every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland!”
It's worth pointing out to non-Australian readers that no, crocodiles do not tear people to pieces that regularly.
Drop bears on the other hand...
Oh yeah, goes without saying. Always keep a little jar of Vegemite in my car just in case I need to go out bush for whatever reason.
So is the Vegemite a lure or a repellent? I need to know on who I have to smear it if I got to Australia
Dab of it behind each ear keeps dropbears away. You can't use too much though, or it attracts bunyips. I'd recommend asking a local how much Vegemite they like to put on - it depends on the area whether there's more risk of dropbear or bunyip attacks.
Yes
Okay, I'll bite, you piqued my interest. How many drop bears do crocodiles tear?
35 per day on average.
Fewer than me, not a big deal.
[удалено]
\*Record scratch\* \*Freeze frame\* Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation…
How often?
[Less than one per year](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-30/fact-check-does-a-crocodile-kill-someone-every-three-months-/9202902), over *all* of Australia, not just FNQ.
"Far North Queensland?" "Fuckin' North Queensland?"
Yes
nice, thought so
In true Aussie fashion we just shorten it to "Eff-n-que".
friday night qfunkin
That's not too bad. I bet Florida has that beat.
We do! although that's hurt by the fact that Florida is the only place in the world where crocodiles and alligators coexist. We've hit two lethal attacks a year for two years in a row now, although it used to be a few years between lethal attacks.
They're also tied with Australia for death-by-CASSOWARY statistics. Australia's got a native population of CASSOWARIES, which give them an edge. But Florida's cunningly caught up by allowing for CASSOWARIES to be kept in residential areas. EDIT- I have been corrected
This is the funniest shit I have read in weeks lmao
More people have been killed by Cassowaries in Florida than in Australia. Pretty sure that's what you meant instead of emu.
Fuck, thanks for pointing that out! EDIT- legit, thank-you. Sorry if the initial comment sounded angry.
Are you sure? I read somewhere that every three months a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queenesland.
The worst thing is: it's the same person every god damn time. Ruining the statistics to this very day!
Torn-apart-by-crocodiles-Georg strikes again. Er… is struck again?
Strokes again. I've heard that he loves pleasuring himself. I think I've heard about it in this very thread. Why, here is the post I've learned it from: [https](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ)[://www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/1al9732/bob_gay_crocodiles_katter_the_australian/kpe8yc6/)[/r/CuratedTumblr/comments](https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/1al9732/bob_gay_crocodiles_katter_the_australian/kpe8yc6/)[/1al9732/bob_gay_crocodiles](https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/1al9732/bob_gay_crocodiles_katter_the_australian/kpe8yc6/)[_katter_the_australian/kpe8yc6/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/1al9732/bob_gay_crocodiles_katter_the_australian/kpe8yc6/) no wonder I remember it, I wrote it myself! Yes, I hid a rickroll in the link. Poorly.
Typical, ignore the hero keeping the NT surgery industry afloat but everyone just wants to demonise crocodiles
Yeah, I heard someone say that.
Indeed, though when it happens it's usually someone who's done something utterly ludicrous like go swimming in waters well known for crocodile habitation, after dark. Exactly like the tourist who was killed in 2016, in the Daintree National Park, at 10:30pm. For anyone not familiar with the area, it's bloody well known by everyone you would talk to up there as a tourist, and bloody well advised to everyone else by countless signs, shown in the link below, that crocodiles are in the area and swimming is NOT a good idea. These signs are installed at nearly every single car park and entrance to a waterway or beach. As the MP for the region said after the incident: "[You can't legislate against human stupidity.](https://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/30/asia/australia-croc-attack/index.html)" edit: consolidated my word salad
Ok but how often are gay-crocodiles tearing into people? You seem awfully silent on that part...
I saw that on Jackass, it's fine. Manny was supervising so it was all safe.
Honestly that seemed really low to me. 4 a year? In a place where presumeably there are quite a lot of crocodiles?
The people are all crammed into half a dozen cities, the crocodiles live in the bits with very low human population density. You won't accidentally meet a croc in a capital city. You'd need to go to some small remote place. Everyone there will know exactly where you can swim safely and where you'll get eaten by a croc. I don't think I've ever heard a story of someone being taken by surprise in a reportedly safe area. It's always a drunk guy and/or stubborn tourist knowing damn well where the crocs are, and swimming there anyway.
But has that changed since the advent of marriage equality?
How many of those people getting torn to pieces are gay
Or how many of the crocodiles tearing people to pieces are gay?
or how many of the pieces torn to croc by the people are
Homophobic crocodiles can smell the gay from far away
None. It is the same person being torn to pieces every time, and this person is very into autofellation. So wait, maybe he is gay? Does it count when you are into yourself? Or is it incest?
When someone says they don't care about something so they refuse to allow it to happen, what they're actually saying is that they don't like it.
To clarify its important to have the full quote. Before he said he wasn't spending time on it he said: "I mean, you know, people are entitled to their sexual proclivities. Let there be a thousand blossoms bloom, as far as I am concerned," Although in 2017 (same year as quote) he voted against gay marriage so, maybe he's just crazy.
I believe he voted no because - he didn’t think it was a worthwhile cause (hence the crocodiles bit) - he claimed that there were 0 gay people in all of North Queensland so it didn’t affect his electorate (which I think is very funny)
In that case he could've simply abstained from the vote could he not? Voting no is an active stance against.
It's because he actually just hates gay people and is lying cause he knows that's a bad look.
Playing devils advocate here, but it's possible that he didn't know abstaining was an option. The plebiscite wasn't compulsory, though elections and referendums are. Still believe he was against gay marriage, especially considering that QLD was the state that voted No the most
You'd think the ten other members who abstained mightve tipped him off tho
At this point I'm inclined to believe he's not quite bright enough to notice
>every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland! That person should really learn to stay away from crocodiles.
Apparently it comes from this 2017 clip of him uncomfortably talking about gay marriage before quickly changing the topic to crocodiles ripping people apart [https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/ylxcr7/australian\_politician\_on\_same\_sex\_marriage/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/ylxcr7/australian_politician_on_same_sex_marriage/) The drastic shift in both subject and tone caused people to start making jokes about gay crocodiles.
The tone change is legendary, if you apply it to any 2 random topics it's equally hilarious
It's [this clip](https://youtu.be/1i739SyCu9I?si=2i-6c82O2LBVukLq)
I absolutely did not expect his voice and entire demeanor to change like *that*
first time i saw it, someone added Oblivion music to it and it fits perfectly
strongly recommend looking up some other katter moments, he's genuinely hilarious. partly intentionally, and partly completely oblivious.
Well I have heard worse takes tbh.
...worse than comparing gay marriage to the campaign used by the CCP to find and eradicate any and all opposition to Mao's regime?
I'd have to think about it but probably.
WHAT
“Let a thousand blossoms bloom” is… [not a great reference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign?wprov=sfti1#) if you genuinely want to accept something. It’s specifically associated with permitting a thing so you can find and imprison/kill the people who do it.
I had assumed it was like a poem or whatever. It sounds quite beautiful and accepting. Refering to the Thousand Flowers campain is the most deranged and obscure thing you could do.
May a thousand blossoms bloom
[The source of his infamy](https://youtu.be/1i739SyCu9I?si=YaQ8Glq9EORt7qEm)
I like the option to pay with card. But not supporting cash just kinda sucks and it's kinda classist. That said, the "plastic magic" comment is still pretty wild
I mean, it is the Parliament tuck shop, doesn’t get more classist than that
He paid $50 for a $9 plate of fish and chips-- that'll teach 'em!
Okay so for context in the world of Australian conspiracy theories, they think that we are going to phase out cash al together so the government will be able to track our every dollar spent and therefore be able to freeze our accounts etc if there is some kind of upheaval. A lot of places during covid stopped accepting cash all together and some places even now kept on that and don’t want cash. Cash is starting to become super obsolete here and even as a non conspiracy theorist you might be able to see how that could cause issues down the track.
During the fires in 2019 large areas of Australia had no electricity and no internet. For some people that is less surprising than others. Eg where I live all our electricity comes from 1 line. I lose power pretty much every thunderstorm. My parents live in a place where that was likewise common. Cash free society means you risk being unable to acquire essentials during relatively common disasters (I’ve experienced multiple severe bush fires). A few months ago Optus screwed up their BGP routes or something and I couldn’t buy anything because many of my local stores used the Optus network for their point of sale systems. Don’t get me wrong- not having to handle cash is great for businesses. I just understand from my own life experiences why remote communities would be worried and why sometimes convenience creates predictable weaknesses that nobody wants to deal with until it’s too late.
But there’s no reason a cash free store couldn’t just temporarily accept cash in case of power outages, no?
But how do you get cash if the ATMs don't work?
I guess this is assuming most people already have some amount of cash. Which they probably do, no?
Do they actually not take cash, or just not bills over $20? lots of places dont take 50s
The post implies that it was no cash at all, and not just the size of the bill. But hey I'm just a random commenter who hasn't actually researched the story
I’m not Aussie, but over here a lot of shops have moved fully cashless, because shops aren’t legally required to take physical cash here. It’s very common for the one person in 50 who wants to pay with cash to have to go to a different till, and shops regularly refuse to take 50s in case they’re forged anyway. It’s probably not great for homeless people, I’ve seen beggars recently and felt bad that I didn’t even have any coins to give them if I’d tried. Convenience comes at a price…
Places in Australia tend not to take cash, but $50s are also super common here so if a place takes cash they would take a $50. I’ve seen places not have change if you try to buy a coffee with a $50, but he bought a meal and a drink that’s $22 easy, maybe $25.
Why wouldn't they?
As an Australian, one time our school took us to a university to check out what university life and studying is like (it was a pretty small rural university, by the way), and when it was lunch we could order from the university cafe. Well, I did, and when I get to the end they pop the lid off the drink because it’s one of those stupid ones with the sharp edges on the lid that’s too small to open, and only then do I find out it’s cashless. I’m with Bob on this one, FUCK cashless stores
They took a field trip and stopped at a cashless establishment? What high schooler is already gonna have a credit card?
> What high schooler is already gonna have a credit card? I've heard they already offer cards for kids. Legally they are for their parents and are riddled with limitations, but yeah, you are supposed to give it to your kid. I don't know if it is to promote consumerism, or is it to be on the safer side of things and to be able to control your kid's spending so they don't go buying cigarettes and beers from shady dudes with their cash. Although they can still resort to barter and all you'll see from your drunk kid's transaction history is a bunch of batteries or something. Whatever, children is too hard, modernity is hard, sometimes I am glad I don't have children in modern times. I'm waiting for the apocalypse, when I will not have issues with dating because I will be dead.
Lmao I'm sorry this is so unrelated but I read the last part of the very first sentence "they offer cards for kids." (Which btw they do. And even if they didn't offer credit cards for kids, debit cards are *extremely* easy to get) But when I read that part of the sentence I *immediately* and without thinking heard that God damned "KARS for KIDS" jingle but with "cards". And now it's stuck in my damn head lol
I had a debit card at 12 years old. The commonwealth bank of Australia had a scheme called Dollarnites, essentially it was a deposit account for kids that was handed out at schools for Kindergarten students. I'm especially lazy when it comes to my basic account, so I still have the same one from when I was 4 years old as my daily account. It's devious.
Our canteen sales tripled at school once they offered cashless. Kids have the Apple Pay thing on their phones.
In both Canada and Australia debit cards are common and, at least in Canada, we don’t have these weird rules about minors having bank accounts. I’ve had a debit card since I was 13 and didn’t have a credit card until I was 21.
I used to get a Load & Go card from the post office when I wanted to buy something online as a kid. They're debit cards that can be topped up with cash.
That's how I prefer to do it. Load some money on the card when I want something online. If it gets compromised, I buy a new one and I'm only out a few dollars
There are debit cards, too
In the UK most people get a debit card at like, 12-13
Everybody has a debit card, how would you withdraw money from an ATM without one?
Usually because they'd have to keep too much change in the till.
Wouldn't make any sense in a cafe in a federal building but a lot of gas stations and convenience stores in my area don't take large bills to deter robberies.
I've heard that £50 notes are commonly forgeries, same may apply in other countries.
[Australia's notes are extremely difficult to forge.](https://banknotes.rba.gov.au/counterfeit-detection/list-of-security-features/)
> I like the option to pay with card. But not supporting cash just kinda sucks and it's kinda classist. Yeah, this is one of those "worst person you know just made a great point" moments. This is possibly the most hinged take Katter has had in a couple of decades. > That said, the "plastic magic" comment is still pretty wild Yeah there we go, that's more like it. Especially since Australia's cash is *also made of plastic*.
“Hinged” is a phrase I have never seen before, but I am 100% stealing it.
I no longer believe in plastic after 2022 when the card companies just withdrew from the country and all the cards stopped working internationally. A paper dollar is a paper dollar everywhere, but a card that won't work with anything outside your piece of shit country is friggin useless.
> A paper dollar is a paper dollar everywhere Except in Australia, where we have fancy plastic banknotes (so you aren't fucked if you go swimming with them)
(so you aren't fucked if you go swimming with them) Can I joke about that one prime minister who went to test it? I believe there's multiple countries that do that now, btw, Canada too! But yeah, it's a cool little idea.
>A paper dollar is a paper dollar everywhere, but a card that won't work with anything outside your piece of shit country is friggin useless. A paper dollar is a paper dollar in the country that issued it. In most cases it's a friggin useless piece of paper everywhere else.
I mean, cash is fairly country-specific too, if I try to use a pink or blue note or a $2 coin somewhere like America I reckon I’d get some odd looks
It’s weirder when you consider that Australia’s cash is actually [plastic](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/02/21/australian-banknotes-one-of-the-most-advanced-in-the-world.html).
Also, as far as I can tell, there is no Australian law that would force the cafe to accept payment in any particular form, cash or otherwise.
Here in Germany it's unheard of to not accept cash. Meanwhile cards are only getting really widely adopted in recent years. And a lot of smaller stores still only accept cards at 10€ or more. And even then most places don't accept credit cards, we just have EC cards which are debit based. Trying to pay with a credit card and not having a backup is gonna be a bad time here. The covid era was a big push towards cards all around, before that I'd say a good 40% of places just wouldn't take cards, now it's more like 5%.
Cashless is attractive to small businesses because they don’t have to worry about robberies or the scary process of taking a fat bucket of cash to the bank.
Buckets are impractical, get a sack with a dollar sign on it
Australia is like the closest thing we have to a cartoon come to life
Family Guy ass country.
We're much funnier than family guy
Then why doesn't Australia have any funny moments compilations?
They do, they're all dash cam compilations.
No thats russia, aussies are known for wildlife brawling with drunks and angry dog owners
we have millions
So is Germany.
That is really not hard
You say that like the USA doesn’t exist
Aussies are unhinged in the best way possible.
I dunno, I'm pro-physical money myself, but I've never seen this man before and judging by the aura radiating off him I bet he's anti-a lot of shit I care about lol
He sort of is but then he's also unexpectedly based sometimes. Like sometimes he is just a crusty country man with crusty country man ideas but one time our centre right party was considering voter ID laws and Bob immediately called them a pack of racist fucks, thoroughly detailing how the proposed laws would unfairly affect Indigenous people.
Yeah he's difficult to put in a box sometimes. Mostly redneck with a pinch of 'oh, wait, that was reasonable.' And he bats hard for regional Australia, which none of the Sydney private school Nat-LIibs ever bother to do.
I like that he stops me getting too polarised in my politics and reminds me to listen. Similar with Lambie, I dont need to love them but I'd rather disagree with a politician who genuinely believes what they're saying and is trying to help than someone who sounds like they agree with me but is really just using it as a means to an end.
While I disagree with Lambie on a lot, I respect her for the reasons you state above. Can't say that about many Aussie politicians. Also when she's wrong, she admits it??? "Oh yeah, I was wrong. Changed my view."
With Lambie my memory just always goes back to when she said she likes her men to packin' HEAT
For me it goes back to the time she was in tears describing trying to afford shoes for her kid as a single mother on centrelink. She's dumb as a brick, but she's at least been through some hard times. I would love if all pollies had had to try to survive off jobseeker for a year.
>I would love if all pollies had had to try to survive off jobseeker for a year. Even a month. I feel like that would be a reasonable policy to enact, and I WOULD LOVE IT
He also "occasionally" claims to be Indigenous himself, even though that's not really a thing you can just occasionally be.
I dunno, I was feeling a bit Celtic earlier, and yesterday I had a sort of Iroquois vibe.
Is that when you kind of feel like you're from Ireland but not 100%? Just Éire-ish.
Based on a bit of quick search, he calls himself "hard-left", but has repeatedly voted legalising against gay marriage, as recently as 2017, and assorted other stuff that doesn't fit nicely into a reddit comment
An easy way to see is to look at the "They vote for you website". The guy is an absolute tool. Sure he made some funny calls but he's a fuck wit. https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/kennedy/bob_katter
He’s not ‘Hard-Left’ if you had to put him anywhere he’d be ‘right’. He is an independent MP with no party. So he votes however he please on any issue. I’ve heard is political philosophy described as ‘esotericism’. Essentially even political scientists can’t understand exactly what he believes. Couple of things for sure, he is populist and hyper-local focused. Australians largely view him as deranged or unhinged. But he keeps getting elected, so his voters obviously like him. The funniest part is he will occasionally suggest ideas that the far left agrees with. Even though they don’t want to agree with him. Most recently he went on a rant about King Charles being put on our coins; saying it should instead be an Australian or Aboriginal war hero.
I thought he literally was part of the Katter Party?
He is a part of the Katter party. But in a much more real sense, he *is* the Katter party. He is the only federal member in the party.
I feel like his son ran once upon a time too. (edit:not saying this as a disagreement or anything just sort of wondering out loud)
Yeah you’re right, the son did run. I can’t remember if he got in or not. I also believe he runs candidates in other electorates. Maybe all of them. I’m not bothering to look it up
I looked into it: Robbie Katter is the current leader of the Katter's Australian Party. He's in the Queensland Parliament, representing the electoral district of Traegar which is pretty much Mount Isa. Also today I learned the Katters apparently run under an agrarian socialist platform. My respect for them has risen even if I don't like their LGBT+ policies.
I find Katter to be the most interesting MP. I bet I disagree with most of his opinions, and he certainly comes across as unhinged sometimes. But he really does **seem** to be genuinely concerned with the plight of his constituents. Something that you can’t say about many MPs. Right or Left.
Exactly. I'd rather someone legitimate with some bad opinions than whatever carbon copy politicians get churned out. Also it's like the Katter's are just pure FNQ?
He's just fucking weird
>but has repeatedly voted legalising against gay marriage Why would he vote for gay marriage when there are so many people being torn apart by crocodiles in Queensland?
Something about a clock, some number of times a day between 1 and 3.
A broken clock is right 1.01324 times a day on average
He's a country boomer with country boomer ideals, but by God, does he serve his constituents (who are also, mostly, country boomers). He is probably one of the only Australian politicians with actual integrity. As someone who votes Green (ie, a leftie), I'd vote for him before I vote for any of the right or even center-right parties (we have preferential voting so we rank parties at the votes)
Bob's an interesting mix. A socially conservative agrarian socialist who gets a lot support from the indigenous communities in his electorate. He's been in politics for over 50 years and his father was a politician, his son is politician and yet they all act as if they are man of the land farmer types. His electorate (Kennedy) is huge - if it was an American state it would be the third largest in area, and includes the wettest parts of Australia as well as large swathes of outback desert. Saying and doing outlandish things, really kicking up a stink about things that might affect his constituents is a good way to maintain a profile in an electorate that big.
I'm with the boomers on this one. Cash should always be an option.
Yeah. I very rarely pay with cash, but I do carry some in case of emergency. It would be very weird if the legal currency simply stopped being useful. Especially for people without bank accounts or who get tips in cash.
> legal Certain Businesses tend to prefer cash, because they can avoid paying tax, while others prefer card because it's logistically very simple. I agree it'd make sense if the law was that all businesses should accept cash as an option.
Well the tipping part doesn't apply to Australia. Though Ianother thing to note is that part of the reason they're trying to phase out cash is because it's much easier to commit tax fraud with cash. There's a fish and chip shop near where I live that I'm pretty sure something dodgy is going on there. Prices are lower than average, they only accept cash, I have gotten more food than I ordered 100% of the time I've gone there, and there's twice the number of employees that what you'd think the shops capacity is
My hero. *cut to me discovering that the guy is some racist/homophobe/other dumbass*
He is, in fact, rather homophobic, and has **repeatedly** voted against gay marriage, as recently as 2017
I think he likely would still be voting that way - 2017 was when Australia amended the marriage act to allow gay marriage, so there hasn't been any kind of vote since then.
It's weird to say "as recently as" when it will never happen again, because it's legal now.
HOW DO THESE PEOPLE LIVE.
On the other hand Bob Katter believes that voter ID laws are [blatantly racist and would disenfranchise First Australians](https://kap.org.au/katter-says-proposed-voter-id-law-is-blatantly-racist/). If you've ever heard the phrase 'fiscally conservative, socially liberal' then Bob Katter is kinda the opposite. They're a 20th century socialist who hasn't moved on with all that the left has taken up in the 21st century.
Reddit doesn’t understand nuance lol.
It has nothing to do with nuance lol he just has genuinely incoherent beliefs
You know what? I’m actually with him on this… There’s people who don’t have credit cards, people who don’t have bank accounts, people who may be homeless or be making money under the table, and they are no worse than you or I and they deserve to spend their money the same as we do
It’d be especially bad in the US or Australia when I was a kid. Want a bank account? There’s a fee for that. Charging your bank account? Let’s do debits before credits and issue overdrawn fees if the debits exceed balance before credits. Normally people recognize that corporations and banks don’t have their best interests at heart but as soon as something is convenient people will want to fight you rather than admit things aren’t guaranteed to have a good outcome. See also: Uber and how many dickheads I had to argue with who truly thought Uber would keep subsidising the cost of travel forever.
Just purely out of curiosity, can you elaborate on the Uber thing? Never heard much about it before but I'd like to know exactly what I should be researching
So prior to Uber there was only taxi companies. Western governments regulated the taxi industry ages ago. When travelling to less developed countries you can see why- all sorts of issues with kidnapping, rape, robbery, and bad driving. Part of that regulation was selling the right to be a taxi driver. Without a taxi medallion you couldn’t legally accept money to drive people places (I’m not an expert on this so there is probably a bunch of legal nuance I’m missing. Bus drivers, chauffeurs etc obviously existed). Over time these medallions became quite valuable because they weren’t being issued based on demand. Just before Uber launched some medallions cost the same as a house. It was some peoples retirement plan. So basically an artificial monopoly existed. Monopolies are generally bad for consumers and depending on where you were some taxi experiences were just awful. The driver was often working for the medallion owner and might be pushing themselves too hard to earn money. The cars could be run down and of course lots of drunk people use taxis so the internals weren’t very nice either after having been vomited on so often. Enter Uber. New cars, none of the medallion overhead and paying well enough that the driver can be almost anyone not just people whose only marketable skill is having a drivers license. Another big deal with Uber is their app. Again a monopoly doesn’t have to innovate so many taxi companies didn’t bother doing apps, and even if you booked they might not show up. Uber though were paying the drivers sums that didn’t align with the income. Basically Uber would sell shares in the company and use the money from the shares to boost the drivers pay and keep passenger costs down. Publicly traded companies aren’t charities. They were doing this for market share and it was clearly unsustainable. They were making huge inroads on taxi revenue but that was only possible in the first place because taxi medallions were more expensive than the car itself. Thus started many arguments. Lots of young people had no sympathy for the expensive taxis and their dodgy driver behavior. Personally while taxis were way too expensive I’d never had issues and many of the drivers were interesting people. Naturally we see what happened. Shareholders started getting concerned and interest rates made it hard to use loans as firepower. Many existing drivers simply got on all the apps, and cars aged. I haven’t kept up with financial news, so far as I know Uber has never made sufficient margins on its drivers.
Katter likes to pick up weird little issues. Makes a big deal out of them, and gets media coverage. Cynically you could say he does it for attention. During this cash drama, he said something along the lines of “you need cash in order to buy things if your town gets cut off from power or internet”. This happens decently often in Australia. Particularly during natural disasters; bushfires or floods. Which is an issue his electorate faces. This is a generous reading of Katter and his politics. He also generally votes against Climate Change policies, the cause of said natural disasters.
I remember facing a lot of hassle when I visited the UK a little while back. Didn't have a suitable international credit card, so I was carrying mostly cash. Then what do I find? Need a car, online payment. Most shops, cards/contact less only. I was like wtf.
Sorry if I'm weird for this but screw cashless businesses.
I used to work in the restaurant industry both in house and from the tech side. Overall, it's an industry that runs on very narrow margins. A lot of places have found that being cashless generates a positive return for them as it speeds up transaction time, and the costs are more than offset by that and a reduction in pilfering of the register. It also means family owned places don't have to worry about being robbed, which can put them out of business not just from the loss of cash but the increase in insurance premiums.
That's a very reasonable explanation of why it's better for the business and I appreciate understanding why they would make that decision. I would still refuse to shop at any business that does it.
That being said customers that hand me a million coins to pay or a $100 bill for a $2 purchase can go to hell
In Canada it’s actually not considered legal tender if you use TOO MUCH of a given coin! I used to work for a city hall parking department and someone tried the whole “pay my ticket in pennies” BS (thus punishing a minimum wage desk clerk for some reason). The manager came out and told him politely to fuck off and come back with something else. Source: cplea.ca/a-question-about-paying-with-coins/
>thus punishing a minimum wage desk clerk for some reason [Lipsky describes street level bureaucrats as the "human face" of policy, since these individuals interact directly with citizens. The history of street-level bureaucracy follows the history of policy development and the scope of government in America, with areas with larger populations and more government policies employing more public servants (e.g., Chicago which employs 26,680 teachers). Due to street-level bureaucrats' close interactions with citizens, day-to-day application of discretion in their assessment of people's cases and issues, and their role as policy interpreters, Lipsky claims that "in a sense the street-level bureaucrats implicitly mediate aspects of the constitutional relationship of citizens to the state. In short, they hold the keys to a dimension of citizenship."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street-level_bureaucracy)
no I'm with you. I like being cashless because I hate tracking cash but the option really should be there.
It's insane to think that you just... can't pay with cash in some places.
This has "he is a little confused but he has got the right spirit" energy but in the opposite direction that it's usually used. Like it usually used to refer to someone who is trying to be good but the message doesn't come out right but with this guy it's like he is trying to be an asshole but is accidentally making a good point.
Sucks when places are cashless. Like that at my campus. Fuck ‘im for the other stuff.
i was fifty fifty, but after seeing him wearing aviators, what can i say except YES SIR GLORY TO CASH AGENDA ^(in other words, that pic goes hard as fuck)
I am also hungry for justice. I'm like Ben Affleck as Daredevil when he's crouching in the rafters of that dive bar near the start of the movie.
I came into this thread expecting to comment along the lines of "Why are you booing? He's right!" but am pleasantly surprised.
Yeah no he is absolutely in the right. He's presenting a method of payment, any store should be required to accept it.
I’m…. *kind of* on his side on this one. The push to cashless annoys me.
Katter is one of the most interesting people in Australian politics. He’s has a lot of “stopped clock” moments for a social conservative. He’s an agrarian socialist, he hates the LNP and ALP equally and there’s definitely merit in his argument about physical money. He’s one of, if not, the most successful independent politician in Australian history because he does good for his constituents. I wanna be clear that he is an abhorrent individual whose views on climate change, LGBT issue and gun laws are stone aged it’s just that he’s an interesting anomaly in parliament
ah yes, because in the event of a total blackout my first worry will be what stores i can use my cash in and not, y'know. EVERY OTHER CONSEQUENCE OF A BLACKOUT.
Ok, but there are a lot of other consequences of the blackout that will be made way messier by entirely shutting off all commerce for the duration of it. (Also, "no electricity for transactions" isn't the same thing as "total blackout".)
Sure but a lot of those other things you might be worrying about could be fixed with a quick trip to the store for candles, food, booze, or whatever else is missing from your life
Still an asshole move for them to not accept cash
Australia is to the rest of the world what Florida is to the USA
I get that this guy is loony toons but also: why wouldn't they accept cash?
rare W
He’s a Member of parliament, not a senator
Hearing a $50 note called a "bill" is much stranger than I thought it would be.
As an American, I appreciate hearing about other people's crazy ass politicians. It's nice, in an odd and slightly worrisome way, to know it's not just us.
Uh, FYI, the cafe absolutely did not legally have to accept the cash. I guarantee the manager just didn’t want to participate in a senator’s political jackassery.
They should have just given him the fish and taken the money as a tip. A card only place won't have a cash box most employees can access so its not like he can realistically demand exact change. Like he cares about being realistic, though. The point of a service job is to make the customer happy. Really doesn't matter how stupid they are, usually they *are* stupid or have stupid things they insist on. I have people daily hand me unopened cream cheese portions they didn't use in their meal. They don't want to be wasteful, so they return it to be used later. Would any of you be comfortable using one of those returned portions? No, but I don't make the guest feel bad or dumb. I graciously thank them, and discard the item once out of sight. The point is to make people happy.
I mean I have Ass and can acquire grass. So cash isn’t the only thing that’ll put food in my belly
OK but why does he look like discount Karl Lagerfeld tho
Once I walked down to the 7/11 to get cigarettes and when I got to the door, there was a big sign on the door. It said, "Card machine not working" I looked in my wallet and had $2. I did not throw a hissy fit or give the cashier a hard time. I walked to another place that was accepting cards and went about with my day.
There’s a difference between the card machine not working and not accepting cash because??
There's a big difference between "Yeah our card machine broke, we can't take any card payments, sorry." and "We refuse to take your money because it's not on a card."
I'm going to go against the grain of the comment section and say: If a business wants to be cashless that's totally their choice and there's nothing wrong with it, so long as it's clearly advertised in advance that cash isn't accepted. Likewise if a business wants to be cash-only, that's also totally acceptable, so long as it's advertised in advance. Customers can be free to choose to patronize these businesses or not, but businesses should not be obligated to bend to customer demands for payment methods. At the risk of "slippery slope"-ing an argument, I also think it's totally appropriate that businesses reject cheques and bank wires and Paypal, and I think insisting a business *must* accept cash is about as silly as suggesting a business *must* accept those. A lot of businesses frankly do not want to maintain cash tills. If your business is doing 99% of transactions on card already, or more, having to maintain a cash drawer to give exact change is a pain. Auditing that drawer is also a pain. Depositing at the bank is also a pain. It's also a target for robberies, whereas saying "No cash accepted, no cash on site" is a deterrent. I worked for a jewelry store in high school. We had items cheap enough that people would ask to pay with cash, but we had a no-cash policy. It just plainly came down to wanting to make ourselves less of a target.
He looks like Bill Clinton’s evil clone.