I don't know what it's like in the rest of the world, but here in Australia we have a nice little piece of bureaucratic legislation about fire escapes. Fire escapes are a Good Thing, and you can't miss a doorway that's considered a fire escape in Australia, because the law says that they must all display a notice about what you can and can't do with a fire escape. You're not allowed to obstruct the door so that it doesn't close, for example; nor may you block the passage. On top of all that, you're not allowed to interfere with the sign that tells you all these things, and the sign says as much.

I was considering one such sign today, prominently displayed on a fire door in my place of employ, and noted that the penalty for disobeying was $1100. An odd figure, I thought. Perhaps it had something to do with the relatively recent introduction of the 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST) which replaced the wholesale sales tax. Perhaps the fine used to be a round $1000, but fining someone is considered a service, so they add the GST.

I wrote "(incl. G.S.T.)" on a small fragment of sticky note and stuck it after the bit that said "Penalty $1100". Perhaps now the fire door police will hunt me down and fine me $1100 (incl GST) for interfering with a fire door notice.