Is this why online campsite booking is more of a thing?

[paul_gee]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Adelaide/comme ... _mt_lofty/

[newhue]

funny ol world....addicted to money.

Imagine if we reversed our "democracy" and all put signs in our front yards stating the postie, water meter, and power meter person had to pay for access. Stickers on our cars stating the police had to pay the individual for the privilege of speaking to them after stopping. Politicians had yearly subscription fee paid to the public before we listened. The rules and privileges are herr for order and harmony, but screwing every dollar from the people because everything has to make money is just pathetic.

I got pinged 1 point and $120 because I didn't have my drivers licence on me other day. The copper had to do another 30 seconds work on the iPad bless her. But its hard to portray a positive light to your children about police when they rip people off. Same with councils and politicians.

Why can't the Mt Lofty Pay and Park cash grab be replaced with a free car park volume counter at the bottom. And let people wait or heavens forbid walk up the hill and get some exercise. But rather I suspect, in time more bush up top will be bulldozed for a car park expansion. For convenience and safety of course, don't mention a way of screwing the people agian who have supposedly paid for it their taxes already. And furthermore who cares about the environment, it's just another 50 Sq metre of remnant bush gone forever.

Cars have number plates, people have numbers with drivers licences; so in the name of policing and the like we are all linked to data bases looking for money. All necessary of course, all just a way of funding a world addicted to money.

I guess the alternative is to just keep paying and let it all roll like water off a ducks back; and pretend or ignore that the pond one lives on is forever increasingly shrinking.

But Shame on the Mount Lofty council....thanks for coming.

[benjabimon]

I know right, those councils, after all our gold! Oh lordy, what's the world coming to? I bet Mount Lofty council have a big Scrooge McDuck vault of money that they go swimming through!

[newhue]

well maybe, but the "user pays-again" approach only gets more, and more, and more. Is charging for parking at a look out really a way of dealing with crowd control, or just a way to cash in.

Over the past couple years I wave watched a local shire council short change it's people to the tune of 2.3 million dollars fighting in court what it allowed in the first place. After that win they are now fighting DA's they issued. And that's just one fight amongst many. The wast of money from poor vision, management, and ownership is why the "user pays-again" approach exists perhaps. But who am I say.

[Lophophaps]

User pays can be fair, but often is not. Some things should be available at no cost to anybody. The $2.3 million example defies logic. If an approval was given, then it seems strange that this was reversed. If I was building that development pursuant to the approval and was then told the deal was off, I'd be seeking costs. Acting in good faith and all that. What a waste! It's the same with many election promises, with works often held back until before an election, when the works can be handed out. There was a road in rural Victoria, SW of Melbourne I think, election promise, millions of dollars spent, duplicates and existing road, and the new one has about 50 vehicles a day. I'd make this sort of thing decision maker pays.

[Stroller]

Apart from anything else i think, taxes don't cover all the costs involved of doing the job properly, especially the conservation work. Especially when all these public servants have to jet about to conferences and such.

[muffin man]

I was there the other day and someone asked me for change but as I was leaving I just gave him my ticket.
It's a minimal fee up there...nothing more than ashtray money.
That online booking thing is a real pain and eliminates spontaneous camping.

[newhue]

I can give two examples that I am aware of as to why your ash tray money is still far better left in your ashtray.

Sth East Qld, home to more animal and plant species than most of the country. Population is flourishing, and set to grow grow grow. Kingsford Smith Drive runs along the river. It services both the domestic and international air ports, plus various industries along the river. It's been identified for some time now in need of an upgrade to ?. I have a friend who has drawn plans three times for ?, to the tune of 10 million each set of drawings by time they are all worked out. No politician is happy to leverage off the previous, they all need to make their mark, they all need to start from scratch. My buddy thinks it will never happen.

I am told by a person who bought land from the government, the failed Traverston Dam in the Mary Valley 2 hours Nth of Brisbane; was 4th on the preferred place to put a dam. The government paid 30% more for the land generally, then sold it for 30% less than market value generally after the proposal crashed. I will leave the political reasons as to why in such a place well alone.

Now user pays-again...why? We have enough money, it's just a classic capitalist view on the environment that it has to make money for itself.
Perhaps if politicians got paid better in the job, but had no entitlements after they left office may help. Perhaps if a % of politicians in office must not be businessmen. Perhaps a far lesser % of high end privately schooled students didn't become politicians. Perhaps if it was viewed as a proper public service calling, not a career manufactured through party membership and grooming.

Ash tray money or not its the principal. Its the initial idea, the kick off point that nothing is sacred and everything has to make money to have any worth.
Do people think it will stop at some point? It's going to get a whole lot harsher after the baby boomers are gone. This idea of more jobs, more growth, more immigration only suits people who see money as the most important thing on earth. But in reality it means less sustainability for you and your children, less environment, and less real habitat for humans to reside.

It makes me very sad that the calming effect the environment has on people has no value in a capitalist system. It's just there in all its biodiversity and glory. Just there to be bulldozed for progress. The calming value alone the environment has for society with its growing ills must be worth hundreds of millions; and I'd imagine that is just the effect on the metal health side of the argument.
Accepting politicians saying the user has to pay-again is a sad indictment of their gall on our intelligence. The gravy train is long and very messy, and us the people are paying on many fronts. But nothing compared to what our ever shrinking environment with failing health is coughing up.