14 January 2012

Bogan kids damages ACTION bus

| stahmo
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My first time to take the bus 702 yesterday turned out to be quite an adventure. Perhaps that’s what you get on Friday 13th.

As the bus went up Northbourne, near the public housing just before Dickson, a kid threw a solid object at the bus and hit the rear door. There was a loud bang and passengers noticed the intact but shattered door. The bus kept going for a few minutes, but then suddenly the glass fell apart and pieces of glass fell everywhere. The bus came to a stop at Mouat St. and everyone waited for the next bus to arrive.

broken bus window

No passengers seemed to have noticed what caused it, but the driver saw the perpetrator and said the video surveillance on the bus would have caught them. Later, the transport officer who attended our stopped bus spoke briefly to me about it. He said this kind of thing has happened before in Tuggeranong / Woden / southern parts of Canberra, but usually kids would throw less harmful objects like eggs. He said up until now it had been quite rare in the inner north. He called these kids “bogans”, kids with irresponsible parents that don’t properly look after their children.

All passengers had to wait 30 minutes until the next bus came to continue the journey.

standing around

It was sad to see this sort of thing happening in my adopted home town. Public transport in Canberra has already lost huge sums of taxpayer money in recent past, and this sort of behaviour is all going to add up to less services for the general public. I look forward to the realtime bus data and improvements to frequency and network coverage. I have taken the bus countless times and enjoy the experience much more than driving.

I guess this event makes me think, what has happened to the culture of these families that are less well-off … why does less income mean they take pleasure out of damage vehicles and being a public nuisance? What is wrong with our education system? I love this city, and hope it doesn’t become a second Sydney. I like to think that we are more sophisticated and cultured, but this sort of event is quite off-putting.

On a totally irrelevant but happier note, I met a happy Steve Jobs look-alike on the same bus.

steve jobs lives?

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GeneralMonash5:30 pm 15 Jan 12

bigfeet said :

GardeningGirl said :

I don’t know. I grew up in a guvvie and I suppose my family would have been considered poor and disadvantaged but I didn’t turn out feral and neither did most of the neighbours.

I know a number of people on 6 figure incomes who I would consider bogans, and a great many people on average and below average wages who are not bogans.

Boganity is a choice.

+1

all vandalism is a choice, irrespective of the socio-economic situation of the people involved.

Violet68 said :

Henry82 said :

Violet68 said :

so yeah it rewards the wealthy or those who have wealthy parents and acts as a disincentive for people who have to borrow and

currently the discount for paying it off in advance is 10%, so the “savings” for paying off in advance are marginal. There is also no interest on HECS debt, it only goes up with inflation.

Yes, it’s been lowered from 20% from 1st January 2012. 20% used to equate to approximately $100 off per subject for me, which was a very good saving. My point was that if you have the money (or parents) to pay the money up front you don’t have a HECS debt and therefore start your career debt free.

Dilandach said :

Violet68 said :

Dilandach said :

Violet68 said :

Maybe some sort of HECS system needs to be introduced (for their parents as well if offenders are under 18) to recoop costs.

HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access to tertiary education, so yeah makes sense……

I’m curious to know how you think that HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access tertiary education? (assuming they even get past year 8). HECS is effectively education on a tab which is later recouped when you graduate and get a job like the rest of society. Working off a debt as it is, which in a position obtained with tertiary credentials is usually a small slice of a usually good wage.

So please, enlighten the class on how a system which anything would actually help the “bogan” kids access tertiary education is in your eyes a hindrance?

Tertiary education was free under Whitlam. Yes HEC’s was a loan type system. Now it’s called HELP. It means if you don’t have the $650 to $700 cash to pay per subject up front, you don’t get a discount, so yeah it rewards the wealthy or those who have wealthy parents and acts as a disincentive for people who have to borrow and then spend a majority of their professional lives repaying the debt. Enlightening enough?

The smart ones get a casual job during university to either pay enough to wipe off a subject or two or pay some towards their debt keeping it low. Even then, on average a $30 – $40k debt (assuming not a cent was paid) that can be paid in installments is a relatively small amount compared to the potential earnings and opportunities provided. Love the excuse though, “too hard, won’t try.”

My parents didn’t pay a cent for anything related to my uni education, I was the first in my family to go to uni and I acquired a HECS/HELP debt. Thanks to my tertiary education I’ve had jobs that cover the repayments, allow me to live very comfortably and enable me to nearly clear the debt in under a few years. Hardly saddling me with a crippling debt.

Of course, its easier just to make excuses, say its too hard and go line up down at centrelink and pull cones all day than put the hard yards in and reap the rewards. That’s the majority of the problem, no motivation to better themselves because its ‘too hard’.

I daresay the same thing might happen in the case of a wealthy young person throwing rock at bus (with parents who can pay for a good solicitor) and a so called “bogan” young person who doesn’t have the same opportunity. Anyhow, it must have been a “bogan” cos it was near public housing…nuff said mate.

Always someone else, always not their fault. Darn those roving gangs of rich kids driving down to the public housing areas to throw rocks at buses to throw blame on those poor poor families up to their 3rd generation on welfare.

Congrats on being the first one in your family to achieve a Uni degree. Did you get to live at home and were your family supportive of your studies? I also think you completely missed/ignored my point about being able to afford a solicitor. I wasn’t saying it was someone else or even blaming anyone else, just pointing out the advantages of having money to pay a man to speak on your behalf in Court. Can’t be bothered wording it in a different way, so you might “get it”.

No, I didn’t live at home during uni. I shared a house with others. Paying the rent, paying bills. With a casual job. The normal thing, normal people do. I ignored the solicitor comment because it was yet another excuse.

“It’s not my fault I can’t afford a solicitor to defend me against something stupid i did (even though there is legalaid).”

Nothing but endless excuses. I guess when your life is nothing but sinking piss and pulling cones all day you become an expert in coming up with excuses to cover a number of situations while keeping personal responsibility at arms length.

johnboy said :

If my dim memories of childhood serve children of the very best families can get together unsupervised and get up to mischief (including throwing things at vehicles)

The difference between good and bad parents (IMHO) is how they react when the little darlings get caught.

Severe punishment, long uncomfortable conversation about error of ways, and having to pay back damaged caused is a lesson long remembered.

I’d have to agree, what kept me from going totally off the rails in my school-years was a deep-seeded fear of making the old man angry. Conversely, I became very good lying and at not getting caught as well, although I still limited myself to only minor acts of childhood mischief because of my fear of punishment.

If my dim memories of childhood serve children of the very best families can get together unsupervised and get up to mischief (including throwing things at vehicles)

The difference between good and bad parents (IMHO) is how they react when the little darlings get caught.

Severe punishment, long uncomfortable conversation about error of ways, and having to pay back damaged caused is a lesson long remembered.

EJ and GG how can we take your solution seriously when you cant accurately vilify the perpetrators. You cheapen the good name of “scum”. Not to mention the added tax expenses associated with funding more gunmen to solve puerile behavior. You seem to be playing political charades. Soooo boring.

BimboGeek said :

At my local centre it’s usually something like the phone booth being attacked. Bogans will attack public property that they themselves are likely to need and bogan kids attack schools. It’s like they resent the support of the community which is tragic considering that the rest of us, even the financially better off than your typical houso, rely on and are grateful for those services. They should be exiled to the desert.

I smashed the phone part of a of a pay-phone once, because it stole my last 50c without service and I really needed to call someone (can’t remember the details), but really, if telstra would do it’s job and make sure the phones are either operational, or at the very least, won’t accept money if they are not. It’s happened so many times, I even freecalled the Telstra service to complain when it happened once, they said they’d send me a call-card worth 50c but it never materialised.

GardeningGirl11:29 am 15 Jan 12

EvanJames said :

They sound more like Scum than bogans. Bogans can be any income.

Scum seem angry at the world, and since there’s no consequences to their anti-social behaviour, they are at liberty to conduct their anti-social behaviour. The rest of us get to be affected by what they do, and our taxes pay for the list of services and things necessary to deal with them. We will pay for that broken window, and the resulting investigation (if there is one), and the useless charade that the “justice” system has become.

Sometimes I wonder if Mayor Guiliani in fact had the right idea.

+1

Henry82 said :

Violet68 said :

so yeah it rewards the wealthy or those who have wealthy parents and acts as a disincentive for people who have to borrow and

currently the discount for paying it off in advance is 10%, so the “savings” for paying off in advance are marginal. There is also no interest on HECS debt, it only goes up with inflation.

Yes, it’s been lowered from 20% from 1st January 2012. 20% used to equate to approximately $100 off per subject for me, which was a very good saving. My point was that if you have the money (or parents) to pay the money up front you don’t have a HECS debt and therefore start your career debt free.

Dilandach said :

Violet68 said :

Dilandach said :

Violet68 said :

Maybe some sort of HECS system needs to be introduced (for their parents as well if offenders are under 18) to recoop costs.

HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access to tertiary education, so yeah makes sense……

I’m curious to know how you think that HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access tertiary education? (assuming they even get past year 8). HECS is effectively education on a tab which is later recouped when you graduate and get a job like the rest of society. Working off a debt as it is, which in a position obtained with tertiary credentials is usually a small slice of a usually good wage.

So please, enlighten the class on how a system which anything would actually help the “bogan” kids access tertiary education is in your eyes a hindrance?

Tertiary education was free under Whitlam. Yes HEC’s was a loan type system. Now it’s called HELP. It means if you don’t have the $650 to $700 cash to pay per subject up front, you don’t get a discount, so yeah it rewards the wealthy or those who have wealthy parents and acts as a disincentive for people who have to borrow and then spend a majority of their professional lives repaying the debt. Enlightening enough?

The smart ones get a casual job during university to either pay enough to wipe off a subject or two or pay some towards their debt keeping it low. Even then, on average a $30 – $40k debt (assuming not a cent was paid) that can be paid in installments is a relatively small amount compared to the potential earnings and opportunities provided. Love the excuse though, “too hard, won’t try.”

My parents didn’t pay a cent for anything related to my uni education, I was the first in my family to go to uni and I acquired a HECS/HELP debt. Thanks to my tertiary education I’ve had jobs that cover the repayments, allow me to live very comfortably and enable me to nearly clear the debt in under a few years. Hardly saddling me with a crippling debt.

Of course, its easier just to make excuses, say its too hard and go line up down at centrelink and pull cones all day than put the hard yards in and reap the rewards. That’s the majority of the problem, no motivation to better themselves because its ‘too hard’.

I daresay the same thing might happen in the case of a wealthy young person throwing rock at bus (with parents who can pay for a good solicitor) and a so called “bogan” young person who doesn’t have the same opportunity. Anyhow, it must have been a “bogan” cos it was near public housing…nuff said mate.

Always someone else, always not their fault. Darn those roving gangs of rich kids driving down to the public housing areas to throw rocks at buses to throw blame on those poor poor families up to their 3rd generation on welfare.

Congrats on being the first one in your family to achieve a Uni degree. Did you get to live at home and were your family supportive of your studies? I also think you completely missed/ignored my point about being able to afford a solicitor. I wasn’t saying it was someone else or even blaming anyone else, just pointing out the advantages of having money to pay a man to speak on your behalf in Court. Can’t be bothered wording it in a different way, so you might “get it”.

Grouping people so as to better vilify.

Ferals. Taken by smelly forest dwelling protesters.
Scum is a term reserved for adults.
Yobos only male.
Bogans are a joke from Melbourne.

fgzk said :

Jethro said :

wooster said :

“I like to think that we are more sophisticated and cultured, but this sort of event is quite off-putting.”

Hahahahahaha, “adopted home town” eh? Recently adopted, I’d guess?

Most Canberrans have adopted this place as their town. We would have to be one of the cities in Australia with the highest level of ‘out-of-towner’ residents.

To me, all it takes to be a Canberran is to live here and have a commitment to the place. It’s not like we are some 800 year old eastern European city where a family that moved there 80 years ago is seen as ‘new’. I see myself as a Canberran even though I’ve been here less than 5 years.

Just checking as you might be using “Irony” in your post. If so read no further. If not then you should stop claiming to be a “Canberran”. It is “like” a family lived here 800 years ago. Their relatives still do. You should at least know about the history of the land you claim an attachment too. “Canberran” fail.

So unless you are indigenous you aren’t a Canberra? What a stupid comment.

Jethro said :

wooster said :

“I like to think that we are more sophisticated and cultured, but this sort of event is quite off-putting.”

Hahahahahaha, “adopted home town” eh? Recently adopted, I’d guess?

Most Canberrans have adopted this place as their town. We would have to be one of the cities in Australia with the highest level of ‘out-of-towner’ residents.

To me, all it takes to be a Canberran is to live here and have a commitment to the place. It’s not like we are some 800 year old eastern European city where a family that moved there 80 years ago is seen as ‘new’. I see myself as a Canberran even though I’ve been here less than 5 years.

Just checking as you might be using “Irony” in your post. If so read no further. If not then you should stop claiming to be a “Canberran”. It is “like” a family lived here 800 years ago. Their relatives still do. You should at least know about the history of the land you claim an attachment too. “Canberran” fail.

Back in the old country we used to call them yobbos. Scummy yob kids breaking stuff all the time!

They sound more like Scum than bogans. Bogans can be any income.

Scum seem angry at the world, and since there’s no consequences to their anti-social behaviour, they are at liberty to conduct their anti-social behaviour. The rest of us get to be affected by what they do, and our taxes pay for the list of services and things necessary to deal with them. We will pay for that broken window, and the resulting investigation (if there is one), and the useless charade that the “justice” system has become.

Sometimes I wonder if Mayor Guiliani in fact had the right idea.

Holden Caulfield10:10 pm 14 Jan 12

Steve Jobs? He looks more like Paddy Lowe from McLaren’s F1 team to me.

wooster said :

“I like to think that we are more sophisticated and cultured, but this sort of event is quite off-putting.”

Hahahahahaha, “adopted home town” eh? Recently adopted, I’d guess?

Most Canberrans have adopted this place as their town. We would have to be one of the cities in Australia with the highest level of ‘out-of-towner’ residents.

To me, all it takes to be a Canberran is to live here and have a commitment to the place. It’s not like we are some 800 year old eastern European city where a family that moved there 80 years ago is seen as ‘new’. I see myself as a Canberran even though I’ve been here less than 5 years.

GardeningGirl said :

“I guess this event makes me think, what has happened to the culture of these families that are less well-off … why does less income mean they take pleasure out of damage vehicles and being a public nuisance?”

I don’t know. I grew up in a guvvie and I suppose my family would have been considered poor and disadvantaged but I didn’t turn out feral and neither did most of the neighbours.

My thinking is that being an anti-social arse-rod induces poverty, not the other way around.

Violet68 said :

so yeah it rewards the wealthy or those who have wealthy parents and acts as a disincentive for people who have to borrow and

currently the discount for paying it off in advance is 10%, so the “savings” for paying off in advance are marginal. There is also no interest on HECS debt, it only goes up with inflation.

Violet68 said :

Dilandach said :

Violet68 said :

Maybe some sort of HECS system needs to be introduced (for their parents as well if offenders are under 18) to recoop costs.

HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access to tertiary education, so yeah makes sense……

I’m curious to know how you think that HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access tertiary education? (assuming they even get past year 8). HECS is effectively education on a tab which is later recouped when you graduate and get a job like the rest of society. Working off a debt as it is, which in a position obtained with tertiary credentials is usually a small slice of a usually good wage.

So please, enlighten the class on how a system which anything would actually help the “bogan” kids access tertiary education is in your eyes a hindrance?

Tertiary education was free under Whitlam. Yes HEC’s was a loan type system. Now it’s called HELP. It means if you don’t have the $650 to $700 cash to pay per subject up front, you don’t get a discount, so yeah it rewards the wealthy or those who have wealthy parents and acts as a disincentive for people who have to borrow and then spend a majority of their professional lives repaying the debt. Enlightening enough?

The smart ones get a casual job during university to either pay enough to wipe off a subject or two or pay some towards their debt keeping it low. Even then, on average a $30 – $40k debt (assuming not a cent was paid) that can be paid in installments is a relatively small amount compared to the potential earnings and opportunities provided. Love the excuse though, “too hard, won’t try.”

My parents didn’t pay a cent for anything related to my uni education, I was the first in my family to go to uni and I acquired a HECS/HELP debt. Thanks to my tertiary education I’ve had jobs that cover the repayments, allow me to live very comfortably and enable me to nearly clear the debt in under a few years. Hardly saddling me with a crippling debt.

Of course, its easier just to make excuses, say its too hard and go line up down at centrelink and pull cones all day than put the hard yards in and reap the rewards. That’s the majority of the problem, no motivation to better themselves because its ‘too hard’.

I daresay the same thing might happen in the case of a wealthy young person throwing rock at bus (with parents who can pay for a good solicitor) and a so called “bogan” young person who doesn’t have the same opportunity. Anyhow, it must have been a “bogan” cos it was near public housing…nuff said mate.

Always someone else, always not their fault. Darn those roving gangs of rich kids driving down to the public housing areas to throw rocks at buses to throw blame on those poor poor families up to their 3rd generation on welfare.

All kids are thugs and should be rounded up and shot

Extreme? Maybe

Effective? Certainly

Dilandach said :

Violet68 said :

Maybe some sort of HECS system needs to be introduced (for their parents as well if offenders are under 18) to recoop costs.

HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access to tertiary education, so yeah makes sense……

I’m curious to know how you think that HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access tertiary education? (assuming they even get past year 8). HECS is effectively education on a tab which is later recouped when you graduate and get a job like the rest of society. Working off a debt as it is, which in a position obtained with tertiary credentials is usually a small slice of a usually good wage.

So please, enlighten the class on how a system which anything would actually help the “bogan” kids access tertiary education is in your eyes a hindrance?

Tertiary education was free under Whitlam. Yes HEC’s was a loan type system. Now it’s called HELP. It means if you don’t have the $650 to $700 cash to pay per subject up front, you don’t get a discount, so yeah it rewards the wealthy or those who have wealthy parents and acts as a disincentive for people who have to borrow and then spend a majority of their professional lives repaying the debt. Enlightening enough?

I daresay the same thing might happen in the case of a wealthy young person throwing rock at bus (with parents who can pay for a good solicitor) and a so called “bogan” young person who doesn’t have the same opportunity. Anyhow, it must have been a “bogan” cos it was near public housing…nuff said mate.

Violet68 said :

HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access to tertiary education, so yeah makes sense……

No. Their choice to be a bogan makes is harder for them to access tertiary education.

Boganity has nothing to do with income and everything to do with the choices you make.

Violet68 said :

Maybe some sort of HECS system needs to be introduced (for their parents as well if offenders are under 18) to recoop costs.

HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access to tertiary education, so yeah makes sense……

I’m curious to know how you think that HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access tertiary education? (assuming they even get past year 8). HECS is effectively education on a tab which is later recouped when you graduate and get a job like the rest of society. Working off a debt as it is, which in a position obtained with tertiary credentials is usually a small slice of a usually good wage.

So please, enlighten the class on how a system which anything would actually help the “bogan” kids access tertiary education is in your eyes a hindrance?

I think that ‘feral’ would be a more apt description of these types rather than the catch all classification of ‘bogan’. Afterall, you can have a bogan without the feral but you can’t have the feral without the bogan.

Why do they do this sort of thing? Only the feral knows, for fun with probably a hint of ‘up yours world, i don’t have nice things so i’ll break or steal other peoples things’. The attitude and behaviour is generally learnt from the feral parents. The lowly educated, long term unemployed and often drug and drink addicted with no prospects or motivation to improve their situation even for their own kids.

Whenever they do something its never their fault and one of their favourite catch cries when they’re bought to account on behaviour is “don’t judge me!”.

Quite easy to spot the ferals even before they open their ugly maws, the latest fad among them is that messy blonde streak that is across their hair like some cross bred mongrel dog, usually accompanied by some form of rats tail (which every time I see one I fight the urge to grab it and rip it from their skull or at the very least ask their parents “why?!”). Among other things unique to the feral.

The welfare system is squarely to blame. Encouraging and rewarding those who in past years wouldn’t have had the means to populate as much as they have recently. Sure, there were always ferals but no where near the amount as of recent times. Tough love is whats needed with the welfare families to prevent generational welfare dependence. Each kid born to these families is another one at risk of abuse, being lowly educated, unemployed and on the path to be a future crim.

Maybe some sort of HECS system needs to be introduced (for their parents as well if offenders are under 18) to recoop costs.

HECS made it harder for “bogan” kids to access to tertiary education, so yeah makes sense……

GardeningGirl said :

I don’t know. I grew up in a guvvie and I suppose my family would have been considered poor and disadvantaged but I didn’t turn out feral and neither did most of the neighbours.

I know a number of people on 6 figure incomes who I would consider bogans, and a great many people on average and below average wages who are not bogans.

Boganity is a choice.

“I like to think that we are more sophisticated and cultured, but this sort of event is quite off-putting.”

Hahahahahaha, “adopted home town” eh? Recently adopted, I’d guess?

GardeningGirl2:23 pm 14 Jan 12

“I guess this event makes me think, what has happened to the culture of these families that are less well-off … why does less income mean they take pleasure out of damage vehicles and being a public nuisance?”

I don’t know. I grew up in a guvvie and I suppose my family would have been considered poor and disadvantaged but I didn’t turn out feral and neither did most of the neighbours.

Alderney said :

This sort of wanton distruction seems the be the norm as entertainment these days (not that wanton vandalism is a contemporary phenomonen). This is the same mindset that compels governments to enmesh overpasses so toerags cannot launch rocks etc on cars travelling at speed below. What has society come to when we are forced into taking such measures?

Maybe some sort of HECS system needs to be introduced (for their parents as well if offenders are under 18) to recoop costs.

About time people were forced into monetary compensation for minor acts as collectively they cost the taxpayer a sizable amount.

+1

This city needs more police officers. And the Guardian Angels, what ever happened to them? Did the bloke who was starting a chapter here not have enough follow through? I’d gladly volunteer to join personally if someone could start a chapter, I’m sure others would too.

In my mind it’s not so much the vandalism or damage, but the downright stupidity of throwing a rock at a moving vehicle, an act which could very easily result in injury or fatality.

In the US, youth crime dropped dramatically at the same time as ownership of video game consoles (the Playstation especially) skyrocketed. I propose mandatory usage of bogan parent centrelink payments on buying their little brats Xboxes, so they can stay inside and mingle with other little turds playing Call of Duty multiplayer instead of being outside and vandalising the real world.

Which index of boganality does the Transport Dept use. Can I get a copy please.

This sort of wanton distruction seems the be the norm as entertainment these days (not that wanton vandalism is a contemporary phenomonen). This is the same mindset that compels governments to enmesh overpasses so toerags cannot launch rocks etc on cars travelling at speed below. What has society come to when we are forced into taking such measures?

Maybe some sort of HECS system needs to be introduced (for their parents as well if offenders are under 18) to recoop costs.

About time people were forced into monetary compensation for minor acts as collectively they cost the taxpayer a sizable amount.

Most of us were little shits when we were youths, but I for one never considered resorting to acts such as this.

At my local centre it’s usually something like the phone booth being attacked. Bogans will attack public property that they themselves are likely to need and bogan kids attack schools. It’s like they resent the support of the community which is tragic considering that the rest of us, even the financially better off than your typical houso, rely on and are grateful for those services. They should be exiled to the desert.

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