"Who's The Softcock Now? Huh?" Says Tradie Plugging His Softcock EV Ute Into Worksite's 3-Phase Power Plug

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

A local electrician who spent recent months being called a softcock for buying a 2026 KGM Musso EV has this week begun charging it off his client's three-phase power board, free of charge, every single day.

Trent Malios, of Betoota Heights, is currently three days into a residential rewire in the Heights. He installed the meter box himself on Tuesday. He has been plugging his ute into it since Wednesday.

The Musso was on ninety-four percent when our reporter arrived during smoko.

"Free fuel, how good," said Malios, when asked about him essentially stealing electricity from the builder's client.

"Charges like fuck on the 3-phase, too. Only need to have the [vulgar remark removed by subeditor] on for a few hours and the [vulgar remark removed by subeditor] is pretty much charged. The boys have been ribbing me about it, saying it's gutless and for softcocks. Who's the softcock now?"

He has not been to a petrol station for days, he says, now that he only buys "human petrol" like "pies" and "coke".

The other blokes on site have. Fuel across the Diamantina Shire crept up to $3 a litre on Tuesday morning following the outbreak of hostilities in Iran, and had not come back down.

Wayno, a concreter at the next site over, had been one of many "colleagues" to call Trent a "woke softcock" over summer. He's now paying $400 a week in fuel.

"I'd rather get the bus than drive that fucken Korean dodge em car," he said.

"A packed one, too. Full of immigrants that have no fucken manner or idea about personal space. Fucken, on a 40 degree day, too. Better than driving around in that fucken thing, I tell you that."

As for the ethics of stealing electricity from a battler just trying to build a glorified tent out in the scrub for somewhere to put his family, Malios just shrugged.

"The plumbers are going to be the first blokes to do a shit in his dunny," he said.

"And the tilers smoked more ciggies inside than outside. Where do you draw the line?"

More to come.