My social life had been spanked, so here I was two years out of a relationship sitting by myself at a licenced restaurant on the waterfront sipping a Riesling waiting for my half dozen Thai oysters to come. The Riesling was not that great, but I am not complaining, more an observation of what was turning out to be a mediocre lifestyle. I had a rickety table that was fixed with a folded beer coaster, at least that was the easy part to rectify, the rest will be more difficult, but I reckon I am up for the challenge.

I had taken on a mortgage three years earlier on a three year fixed interest loan, my loan was about to mature in another four months, so I was saving hard to roll the mortgage over for another three years to align with my proposed retirement date. My plan was to pay half the mortgage off in three years leaving three years at the half mortgage. I had made some nice moves, I purchased the property just before the property boom and interest rate hikes.

I had timed my entry into the market perfectly, I had foreseen the interest rate hikes, I expected the rises into my second year, six months into my first year and the rises began – laughing. Then the property boom struck, the rises for townhouses I have noted are not progressive but jump on decade based data and this was the time. The former property owner actually sold for a loss, within a year I saw a 35% property price increase and 65% rent increase in three years.

So was my lack of social life worth it? I believe so, my lack of overseas travel hurts, but I can holiday at home. For my retirement planning, I have another fours of fulltime work, so the mortgage should be closed out with a year to spare and it is time to have fun again. My job is well paid, the people are some of the nastiest people you would ever have the misfortune to work with so I am maximising my time at the place that pays well in the city before I walk out with a sizable retirement benefit.

The property, despite the initial pain, will assist in my retirement plans living part time in the Philippines, Thailand or Vietnam. Yeah, I will be walking out half a year after I turn sixty, I have to work half a year to June 30 for the tax benefits, so that is fine as you are in countdown mode and start to sign out mentally. Yeah, I will be cherishing that time and I am looking forward to the next couple of years. So the boredom I am experiencing now should be returned in the next couple of years as long as I stay healthy.

What I have learned with more than two decades of employment in the state government is managers actually have less power than they think. Yet, this important fact doesn’t stop them abusing what power they do have. In people-centric organisations, the purpose of the department is to provide a service or product to the public utilising the knowledge and skills of the team, this is normally at a subsidised price.

What these managers fail to realise is they are not in business, yet they seem to think they are. They are a service provider and their role is to provide a service to the community using taxpayers funds – the taxpayer pays their inflated salaries. These inflated salaries do not attract the top talent either, I see lots of career bureaucrats. These managers have an obligation to utilise taxpayer funds in a manner that serves the public and to not enrich themselves or their cronies. This is not just an ethical obligation, this is written into the Public Sector Act – this is law.

Many managers treat this as an inconvenience instead exploiting their position to enrich their personal power base. This generally involves rewarding those who do not present a challenge to their authority, they will promote those who pose no threats to their dominance as they now owe their master their total loyalty. In private organisations, the emphasis is to identify the most motivated talent and develop these individuals to best harness their abilities to generate value for the business – this is sadly not the case in government organisations.

Liza Harvey destroyed the Liberal Party in Western Australia, Lisa was the former leader of the Liberal Party after two term Premier Colin Barnett lost the 2017 election. Liza was the Opposition Leader as the Liberal Party began their four-year term in opposition. Liza was interviewed on the news as leader of the opposition party, her job was to rebuild the Liberal Party after two terms in government.

During the covid pandemic, the then Premier of Western Australia did a pretty decent job of shutting the borders in Western Australia. The community intention was clear, they supported Mark McGowan in closing the borders and calling for lockdowns to keep covid out of Western Australia. This was a successful strategy, Western Australia was largely covid free. When covid did get in, the suppression of the virus transmission was crushed immediately and we did not get massive infections of vulnerable people.

The Austŕalian Labor Party won the 2021 election in a landslide, that was inevitable after Liza Harvey The Liberal Party were annihilated, left with just two seats in the Legislative Assembly. This was largely due to the efforts of Liza, a political party needed to read the community’s concerns, instead Liza wanted to open borders when the community clearly indicated otherwise.

What the Liberal Party needed to do was return to the levels of representation after the defeat of the two term Barnett government. That is a disaster, Liza was forced to resign the leadership and no one wanted to take over. This opened an opportunity for young hopeful Zac Kircup who lacked the prerequisite leadership abilities, the Liberal Party knew they were going to lose and he campaigned in a manner that only offered weakness and indecisiveness. Former leader Liza Harvey lost her seat and opposition leader Zac Kircup was also trundled out of parliament.

I was spending a rainy Sunday indoors, I could have gone out but was happy flicking through my computer. I had some Simon Sinek on YouTube when some workplace bullying videos appeared, one had a whiteboard behind with a list of points. The video really didn’t work through the list, so I thought I would work through the list.

1. Smear campaigns.
2. False accusations.
3. Sabotage.
4. Playing the victim.
5. Stonewalling.
6. Weaponising colleagues and superiors.
7. Scapegoating.

A smear campaign is a premeditated effort to undermine the credibility, reputation and character of the person being attacked. In my workplace, this involved staff leaking information [including misinformation] to damage the standing of the person targeted. This leaking caused irreparable damage to the individual, absolutely undermining his reputation in the workplace. If enough people in the group are leaking confidential information, then the people creating the misinformation campaign tend to have a degree of authority.

I have seen the devastating effects of false accusations levelled against an individual, this was a collaborative effort waged by an individual bequeathed a undeserved prime role, all he had to do to maintain that position was rat everyone out. He used that office and the authority bestowed in that role for self-preservation and self-indulgence.

The act of sabotage in a business setting undermines not only the targeted individual, it undermines the organisational in general. The management needs to display the required leadership to actually control the direction of the workplace, the management needs to use the authority they hold to ensure all staff are treated equally.

When it all goes wrong and the truth comes out, accusers can be expert at playing the victim. They present themselves as the ones falsely wronged and unfairly treated to elicit sympathy, to influence outcomes and to avoid accountability. Playing the victim is a form of learned helplessness, this is almost a comical performance when the situation has been turned and the individual finds themselves facing scrutiny for their actions.

Weaponising colleagues is an interesting proposition when discussing workplace bullying, this includes spreading false rumours to undermine the credibility competence in an attempt to get someone fired. Likewise, they create a toxic atmosphere that they control, this includes malicious gossip in an attempt to make individuals or a group of individuals resign.

Scapegoating is the act of blaming an individual for something bad that someone else did. There are four basic types of scapegoating, that is 1) axe grinding [grievance], 2) patsy [blamed], 3) framing [false implication] and 4) reckoning [avenging and punishing]. So when I identify the tactics used, it is easier to call out in the workplace and apply remedial actions.

In order to develop a diversified investment portfolio, fixed interest, namely in the form of bonds normally fulfills the diversification requirement. For most industry linked or managed superannuation portfolios, you would expect to see around 10% of asset allocation in government bonds.

The bond market isn’t as straightforward as many think, the bond market is large though and whilst I have learned about the bond market, I do not have the access to the market to purchase bonds. The advantage of bonds as a regular investment income generally providing greater investor certainty than share dividends with repayment of the initial investment on maturity. This is a low risk strategy to seek capital preservation, this is an excellent investment during turbulent times. 

If a manager is telling you, or a group of you, that his [or her] leadership team is providing you with leadership, then you need to think very hard about what you are being sold.

Firstly, if they feel the need to tell you they are providing you with this highly-questionable interpretation of leadership, then you need to question their interpretation. The first question I ask is, exactly what leadership model are you applying here? The responses are typically comical, I have never received an answer with a comprehensive model applied. They just cannot answer the question because they do not know, they know the term leadership is fashionable and that is about it.

Based on my experiences, these so-called [and self-promoted] leadership teams are nothing more than self-elected, self-indulgent and noticeably self-preservation groups. This is based on an application of cronyism and favouritism masquerading as teamwork but are really self-serving obstacles to productivity and efficiency. From what I have directly witnessed, this is a cohort of people engaged in self-promotion with the sole task of getting out of work. I see people in positions with measurable duties, these people are no longer frontline staff engaged in non-aligned activities related to their actual job description.

I live in Perth, this is pretty much the end of the world insofar as international travel and proximity to major cities is concerned. Since covid, that curtailed my international travel prospects as the frequency of flights has been reduced as airfares soured.

There were outrageous airfares for a population starved of international travel, there were people willing to pay these prices and the airlines were happy to gouge customers. I did not want to play their silly games so instead I holidayed at home. I had become accustomed to international travel, I was making anywhere from three to five international flights per year so it was an interesting time for me.

We have a weekend house, so my free time was spent 80 kilometers south of Perth, it is on a river so it is a pretty scenic setting. On Thursday evening I would leave work, already halfway there to spend the Friday and Saturday at the house and return home on Sunday around midday. So, whilst I was missing international travel opportunities, the time spent down the house was worthwhile. The house is old, it is far from luxury yet this is what I love about staying down the house, I love the 1950 vibe of the place.

So heading into 2025, I made some decent payments on a rental house I purchased and that will reduce payments over the next three years. Once I roll over this mortgage my payments will be halved so this will improve my income from the property. Then I plan to live overseas in a cost effective country in South East Asia or Europe where I can spend the Perth winter abroad. The rental property will subdise my travel accommodation and I will draw down my superannuation. I am now in countdown mode with approximately four and a half years left in the workforce and really happy now.

I love diving in the Philippines, Balicasag Island is still my favourite location after my first trip in the early 1990s. After a long lapse, I have returned on many occasions enjoying every single trip.

Alona Beach itself has changed greatly since my first trip; sure, there has been plenty of development on the beachfront, however the basic vibe hasn’t. The actual diving around Panglao Island has deteriorated somewhat, the walls are fine but marine life is almost non-existent now. The quality of diving around Balicasag hasn’t deteriorated greatly with schools of jacks and barracuda frequently sighted around the island; the vertical and sloping walls maintain their world class appeal.

One side of the island offers vertical walls while the opposing side slopes away in a gentle fashion to about 16 metres before a more gradual vertical drop. Directly in front of the island offers a sloping reef with plenty of options to enjoy the barracuda. The schooling jackfish tend to congregate on the vertical wall but have been known to move around to the sloping area. I still try to get back to Alona Beach once a year to dive even after all this time.

I am viewing the Canadian response to the Trump tariffs and I am pretty surprised, the normally overly polite Canadians are responding forcefully. I am liking what the Canadians are doing here, they are really responding to what can only be described as threatening and coercive, Trump’s tactics are not obtaining their intended impact.

What US President Donald Trump has done is built a sense of belief in Canadians, there is now a deep nationalism in Canada. The Canadian response to the Trump tariffs has been nothing short of spectacular. Whilst Trump announced nations were cosying up to Trump kissing his arse, as explained in his own words. “Please Mr President, let’s do a deal” Trump bragged on camera, the Canadians are instead boycotting US goods and seeking alternative markets for their goods and services.

What nations are seeing is the Canadians led by the impressive Mark Carney are seeking trade deals with like minded nations who believe in fair trade. The leaders of Western nations are seeing a trade impasse with Trump that does not damage their economy, whilst the US is still the largest economy in the world, there are many options that do not require a nation to engage in a poor trade deal with the United States. Whilst sharing a common border, the obvious choice is to engage in trade with the largest market, there are more options for the Canadians to explore.

I am watching with interest the beginning of the second term of the Trump presidency. Trump began with pardons of the January 6 rioters, hard to believe. Trump will never be able to sell a law and order narrative now, he is compromised here. On the same token, Biden granted a whole bunch of late presidential pardons including family members. I can see the reason why, US politics is toxic on both sides and Joe was concerned they would go after his family. Then the whole notion of presidential pardons circumnavigating an independent justice system beggars belief.

Trump is moving the military down to the Mexican border, in fairness to Trump, that was a major policy and his government is acting. I have no issues with countries protecting their borders, we live in a world with sovereign countries and borders. Likewise, I am critical of the Biden Administration halting work on the southern border wall, that was just stupid politics.

Kamala Harris as Vice President was tasked with the southern border issue and failed spectacularly. Everyone knew Trump would run for office again, the best way to neutralise the Trump groundswell would have been to finish the wall and take away his policy. But no, the Biden Administration instead offered Trump a huge soapbox to stand on – that was stupid politics.

Whilst some are saying Trump is keeping his promises, he said he would end the Russian invasion of Ukraine in one day, talk about spectacular failures, that deadline has been and gone. Trump thought he could deal with Putin on a personal level and has been openly critical of Zelensky. Trump is a tall man in charge of a strong country, Putin is a short man in charge of an imperialist country believing they can rebuild the former Soviet empire. Russia is not a strong country, the invasion of Ukraine has been a strategic and tactical failure.

Donald Trump is egotistical, he will not want to be played by the weakened short man and made to look like a fool on the international stage. Donald Trump will only have credibility if he assists Zelensky in negotiating a favourable outcome for Ukraine against a weakened and exposed Putin. If Trump gets played by Putin he will be the laughing stock of the world. The strategy is to play on Trump’s ego and ensure a positive outcome for Ukraine and allow Russia to exit with a degree of face saving.