I’m not sure if the tax office is really desperate, but I just received a quarterly PAYG instalment notice that is more (for 1 quarter) than the entire amount of tax I paid last Financial Year. I was expecting an increased amount due to the financial boom we are experiencing, but does the ATO expect that I am going to increase my profits more than fourfold in the next 12 months? A quick check with some business associates confirms that I am not the only one. A glitch? A plan? Not sure. Can’t get through to the ATO and am awaiting a call back.

re: Netbank offline: It’s been like this since yesterday as far as I can tell. This is absolutely ridiculous. I’m behind on rent because of them and living on my credit card as I wasn’t able to transfer the money from my netbank savings account before their system went down. Now I’m sure the automatic transfer is continuing to attempt to withdraw from an empty account. If they decide to charge me their 30 odd dollar dishonour fee for this, I’ll scream. This is the second time the Commonwealth Bank has kept a major folly quiet recently, with all ATM facilities being unusable all Saturday night and Sunday a few months ago – this resulted in me being broke and stranded in the city, calling on friends for a lift – without so much as any kind of apology to us, their customers. Totally unacceptable, I’ll spend the rest of the day looking for a new bank.

The Workplace Authority to be repackaged as Fair Work Australia Ombudsman. The Director Barbara Bennett (ex Comcare) and Helen Bull (also ex Comcare) quietly resigned last Easter leaving Penny Weir (ex Comcare) running the show and Lesley Butt (again ex Comcare) in charge of HR. I wonder were the ex Comcare gang of girls running the Workplace Authority will turn up next? Do they travel in packs?

Rio Tinto: the mining giant which Barnaby Joyce recently fought to protect “in the national interest” – is about to demonstrate its commitment to Aussie jobs. Or lack thereof! Rio has had four Australian flag ships carrying bauxite from Weipa to Gladstone for over 20 years. Now Rio has built 5 new ships – but placed them all under the UK flag – because of the tax concessions provided by the Poms. Rio will withdraw the Aussie ships one by one – with Australian jobs going down the plug hole – starting this month with the “Fitzroy River”. What will the Qld govt and the Federal govt do?

Not sure if it’s quite Wankley material (and with such strong competition this week!), but surely A Current Affair deserves some recognition for its story last night about ‘how to get all the free money you’re entitled to from the government’. Seems a little hypocritical when held up against their many stories about welfare cheats and single mums.