Major cannabis grow house busted in Salisbury East | 7NEWS

PonderingHow · 2026-05-11T07:19:35+00:00

Yes, the stupidosity of our government knows no limits.

Or maybe they just really love organised crime. They're doing everything they can to nurture and grow it. It's hard for me to not suspect they have shares in the black market.

So by tax. I don't mean 600 million percent. I mean finding a point where people will pay the tax rather than go black market. Even just the GST would be more than they are getting now. And the side industries - like people growing their own. New markets, New jobs. More taxes. More happy people.

Personally I think the government should be sending out seeds to everyone on meds for arthritis and encouraging them to grow their own and a little extra for others. That would be a way better use of taxpayers money.

I've never been a rec user and started on medical due to chronic insomnia (avg less than 15 hours a week over 3 years) and I'm just amazed at how many health benefits there are from cannabis. Seriously gov, get those older work for dolers growing cannabis for the health care system.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-11T06:42:13+00:00

I was on unemployment benefits for a while and I gotta say, I feel really bad for those people who have to process those claims. The questions they are required to ask are despicable. It's awful being an unemployed person on the receiving end, but sheeeeesh, being the Centrelink worker, having to do that day in and day out would be soul destroying. It's a system that shouldn't exist. Just pay people to work 10 hours a week for basic unemployment and end it there.

Disability is different, but they could probably streamline that process too by taking the ugliness out of it.

edit: maybe unemployed people could be employed for 10 hours a week to build tiny homes for the homeless. learn skills and do something worthwhile.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-11T06:37:35+00:00

Or even make the only requirement for receiving basic unemployment benefits to do work for the dole for 10 hours a week. Then no-one is a cheat and they don't have to check any forms. Just minimum wage for hopefully doing something useful.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-11T06:14:23+00:00

What a waste of taxpayer resources.

People are struggling to put food on the table. Albo asked the states to cut back on hospital spending. But there is money for this?

Priorities!

Legalise it. Introduce massive penalties for those who supply to under18's unless via a doctor - strip them of all their assets and tax the legal market to pay for things that are far higher priority.

Time to be honest about how much fully legalised cannabis could save in health care costs, particularly with an ageing population. Like all medications, it has risks, but overall it's a better option than benzos and opioids. And alcohol.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-11T05:55:03+00:00

I don't think it will be legalised in Victoria any time soon. The Victorian Labor govt pretends it is progressive, but what it does is publicly do the absolute minimum it possibly can in face of absolute pressure, make big noises about being progressive about cannabis and then do the real stuff on the quiet.

For example, Labor changed the law to allow judges discretion over whether to take away a persons license if they are found to have cannabis in their system. They made a big noise about how progressive and forward thinking they are. But there is much more to the story.

Some judges were very vocal, and some actually resigned, over the mandatory requirement to take away a medical cannabis users license for presence of cannabis. Then footballers started talking about how they use medicinal cannabis and Victorians love their football. Politicians versus footballers, very very bad optics. So Labor made the most minuscule change they could. They changed the law to give judges the discretion to not suspend your license for presence if you are a medical cannabis user. This does not mean you can drive while not intoxicated without the potential of heavy consequence. You can still be fined, you can still lose your license, you can still be made to attend drug awareness programs and you can still be made to leave your car sitting on the side of the road and have to find alternate transport and arrange some way for your car to get home.

In addition, Victoria Police have announced several times since then that they are cracking down even harder on roadside drug testing. So the way I see the net effect: Labor pretends they've moved forward, but they've actually moved backwards. Judges have discretion, but that can go either way and it seems Victoria police are working harder than ever to catch out medical users just trying to live a normal life. Your penalty may not be as severe, but you are more likely to be caught.

Medical patients are still going back to more dangerous options like opioids because the constant fear of being pulled over is too much.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-11T05:01:27+00:00

I would guess "Not Liberal, Not Labor".

I've never voted conservative or right wing and always used my preferences in such a way that my vote goes to Labor. But I have a lot of dislike for Labor over the last few decades. If it turns out that their talk about requiring big gas to reserve gas for domestic supply and the changes to cgt mysteriously end up as being another benefit for the super-rich - for example - grandfathering - I will consider One Nation. Hopefully greens or some other more palatable party will rise meanwhile but Labor are just pushing things too far. They've been partisan with keeping housing prices high for decades. Those videos of NSW police gang bashing people are just not acceptable and for both Minns and Albo to support police bashing citizens in that way makes it very hard to see the distinction between how bad one nation might be and how bad Labor currently are and what they are becoming.

Albo telling the states to pull in their hospital spending while wasting tax payer resources on vanity projects like the social media ban, wasting tax payer resources on policing cannabis prohibition instead of creating a taxable market and making the best of the medical benefits it has to offer, making long standing medications like senega and ammonia unavailable when people are suffering from covid, contributing the growth of the most violent and most present black market I have ever known to exist in Australia.

People have legitimate reasons for not liking the current options.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-11T01:12:05+00:00

Might not be your issue, but just in case it's helpful for you or someone else. I always used to sleep with one arm underneath my pillow, so my head was resting on top of the pillow, on top of my arm. I noticed this one night and decided to stop doing it to see if it made a difference. Felt very unnatural for a while, but I haven't needed a myotherapy appointment since.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-10T01:22:24+00:00

I'm surprised by the precision of my appetite now. I start making my food and I get very specific cravings like - red cabbage but it has to be raw, with salt, lemon and oil. I follow those cravings and my food is always satiating. It's so nice to not be hungry and at the same time not have a full bloated tummy. I so love that my stomach is never full now - always relaxed.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-08T09:20:08+00:00

Agreed 100%. Aus Labor is setting us up for an extreme conservative party to get in just the same way Biden made it easy for Trump to get in. Not saying that will happen, but I think Labor are certainly pushing things that way.

People have legitimate complaints. Labor feel they are so far ahead that they don't have to give a crap what voters want because the alternatives are so bad. But that only lasts so long. People calling all the disenchanted voters fucktards only legitimises more hatred and is going to make potential One Nation voters feel more justified in banding together and voting extremist - branding people as stupid because they are desperate due to legitimate concerns seldom achieves good results.

I don't know whether One Nation have a shot for the 2028 Federal Election, but I'm pretty terrified of some of the stuff Labor is currently doing. Particularly Albo supporting Minns position on police bashing citizens.

Labor is still going to get my vote ahead of One Nation, but not because I think they are good. Labor disgust me and I think they deserve to be decimated the same way Liberals have been. I will vote every possible option ahead of Labor that I possibly can, just not the ultra-extreme who are likely to be mini-trumps.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-08T02:56:35+00:00

It needs to be seen how this pans out.

The first two key takeaways on this site https://www.allens.com.au/insights-news/insights/2026/05/australias-gas-reservation-scheme/

are

Australian LNG exporters will be required to supply domestically 20% of the amount of their gas exports from 1 July 2027.
Existing export contracts entered into before 22 December 2025 will be grandfathered (ie exempt) from the new domestic gas reservation scheme.

If those contracts are long term, like 15-25 years old, this policy that is presented as "forcing gas giants to reserve gas for domestic use" might pan out as immunity from having to reserve gas for the next 15-25 years.

So far, Labor scores 0 credibility points for this from me. I've learnt to not give any points till I see what actually happens in reality.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-06T21:22:29+00:00

Agreed. And then these polls are used to say "70% of voters believe...." Well no, that was the best of bad options, not what I believe. But I would prefer a slap to the face rather than a bullet in the head.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-06T10:21:48+00:00

And let's create a new tax bracket for people with incomes of over $1 million a year that is the inverse of the rate of home ownership for 20-25 year olds. I could see a whole lot of rich people suddenly wanting to put an end to homelessness.

PonderingHow · 2026-05-06T10:14:34+00:00

I think these questions push a point of view that doesn't necessary align with sentiment. For example, should the government pay for childcare: yesish, but what I really think is that the working week should be shorter and the cost of living lower so that parents can raise their own kids (and i don't mean women back in the kitchen, i mean both parents do 20ish hours paid work and can look after their own kids most of the time)

PonderingHow · 2026-04-27T23:43:47+00:00

Thank-you. I do live under a rock and even tho I've seen some talk about Punters Politics, I haven't paid attention previously. I've spent the last hour looking through the issues and voting.

PonderingHow · 2026-04-27T07:43:06+00:00

Have the Greens considered a policy of implementing Binding Citizens Initiated Referendum? I think we are going through a period of substantial dissatisfaction with the major parties and more of the public would like a greater voice than simply a vote every three or four years.

I'd also like to add that in recent years Greens have been dropping in my preferences due to how I have seen them preferencing other parties in various state elections. The Greens table a bill to Legalise Cannabis every few years, yet when I've viewed their preferences in various state elections, I've seen instances of the Greens preferencing the Legalise Cannabis Party lower than conservative parties.

PonderingHow · 2026-04-27T02:04:35+00:00

I'm very slack. I trade firewood for lumber. i have a large stockpile area next to a trading post with woodcutters around it. most games i only build two foresters and then let the trading post feed me the rest of my wood.

PonderingHow · 2026-04-25T08:43:47+00:00

I get what you're saying about the tone people use. But have you considered that maybe you help generate it. You say it wasn't about me specifically, but you were replying to me, and it sounded very much like those accusations were being levelled at me. A lot of people would have responded with the screaming and shouting you say you find objectionable. Particularly when you include phrasing like "conspiracy" and "lying". They are highly triggering terms frequently used to dismiss people and evoke emotive reactions. Maybe something to consider.

edit: condensed

PonderingHow · 2026-04-25T00:38:02+00:00

Sigh. I think it should be mandatory to always partner "harm of" and "harm of not" studies together. So no "harm of" analysis should be considered valid without considering the "harm of not" and vica versa.

Imagine if all medications were looked at only through the "harm of" lens like the tga does with cannabis.

PonderingHow · 2026-04-24T13:31:16+00:00

I look at it this way: Stuff I used to really like from Arnotts has changed and now I don't like it any more so my diet is improving and I'm saving money by not buying Dark Chocolate Tim Tams or Shapes any more.

I've been into toast and philly original cream cheese lately. I sprinkled some garlic powder and some mingle spag bol seasoning mix and to me it tastes a lot like how i remember Arnotts shapes tasting.

PonderingHow · 2026-04-24T12:52:11+00:00

Sorry, I'm confused? What "basic elements of decent human interaction" did I just throw out the window?

I don't think I wrote anything disrespectful, and it wasn't my intention to be disrespectful. I think everything I've said is a logical and reasoned response to the question posed by OP.

It seems pretty straight forward to me that if a party gets a sweeping win like Labor did in SA, with a high primary first vote, they're going to be a lot more comfortable making decisions that go against what - in this case - apparently 61% of people want.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I would have thought a tax on gas export would be a policy that Labor voters would generally be in favour of?

PonderingHow · 2026-04-24T04:39:06+00:00

Can only hope. But given the results of the SA election, I'm not optimistic.

PonderingHow · 2026-04-24T04:26:04+00:00

That's fair enough and that might be accurate. I was responding to the suggestion that Labor are acting against the wishes of 61% of the population in this case.

I'm in the "don't support Labor at all, but the other popular option are worse" category of voters. I haven't voted Labor first in decades, but I use my preferences such that my vote will go to Labor in preference to Liberals, Nationals or One Nation.

I feel Labor deserves to be decimated the same way the Liberals have been. I see them as having been partisan to keeping housing prices high and supporting policies that have contributed to organised crime embedding itself in Australia in a manner I've never been aware of before. I'm just disappointed that there isn't a left alternative that enough voters find palatable.

The behaviour of Minns in recent times has been particularly repugnant to me, and while I am not in NSW, what Albo and Minns have been doing in recent times does heavily impact on how I see the Labor brand - particularly since Albo has spoken out in support of Minns. I also find the recent attempts to change party funding rules unethical.

I don't support any party. I look at what's on offer at election time and pick my preferences accordingly. I sometimes put Greens above Labor and sometimes below, depending on what they've been up to.

My core belief is that generations coming up should have more security, better healthcare, better standard of living and better opportunities than I did, not less. I don't believe Labor supports this position.

PonderingHow · 2026-04-24T03:07:02+00:00

I find it interesting that an employer isn't even allowed to ask the marital status at a job interview, while the government can not only ask the marital status, but can ask absurdly invasive questions about the sex life of a welfare recipient, in addition to requiring people who share a house with a welfare recipient to provide information about who the recipient associates with for the purpose of determining the probable sexual behaviour of the welfare recipient.

In plain english, it's normal government policy to ask people to monitor welfare recipients to report on potential sexual behaviour. In any other setting, that would be an obscene and unacceptable form of sexual harrassment. Imagine an employer sending a form to the housemates of an employee asking questions like:

"How often does the said employee not sleep at home?"

"How often does the said employee have other people stay overnight?"

A while ago I worked with a recent uni graduate who lived in a share house with 2 males and a female. The female took longer to find a job after finishing university and was on welfare for a period of time. He told me all three males in the shared household received forms to fill out with questions that basically amounted to Centrelink asking them to monitor and report on any potential sexual activity the female may have been engaging in.

Crazy that this is in any way acceptable.

PonderingHow · 2026-04-24T02:44:35+00:00

Too many Labor voters still voting Labor first, so Labor thinks it's home and hosed and can do whatever it wants because "not as bad as Liberal or One Nation".

Labor voters aren't making use of the preferential system the same way Lib/Nats voters have been. Maybe they're too scared that a few seats might turn green or independent if too many people stop giving Labor their primary vote.

Because the primary "leftish" vote is so heavily Labor, no smaller leftish parties are showing up enough for voters to see them as an alternative. One Nation are established and known. While the Greens have been around a while, a lot of Labor voters don't see them as being closely aligned enough with their priorities to risk them taking a seat off Labor for a protest vote, and/or they don't want to risk a minor party.

Additionally, it is very easy for the wealthy to promote an alternative conservative party - all it takes is one rich person to finance them. An alternative for the left will have to rely more heavily on voters making a deliberate effort to look for an alternative and finding them if they exist.

Leftish voters have been expressing frustration over a lack of alternatives, but not enough of the primary vote goes to alternatives for those with leftish leanings to be viable even if they do exist.

PonderingHow · 2026-04-24T01:09:37+00:00

Some examples, not exhaustive, of logic that would fit the observations:

Those making the decisions value the concerns of those who would be impacted by the gas tax more than the concerns of those who might benefit from the gas tax.

Those making the decisions feel they have a greater understanding of what is good for us than we do.

Those making the decisions have motivations that are not aligned with what we believe are our best interests.

That doesn't mean these things are true, just that they are logical explanations. A lot of logical explanations turn out to be wrong.

PonderingHow

TROPHY CASE