That great sector of the Australian community, retirees, is being set upon again by government. The issue has passed barely noticed in the media but the political consequences for the Turnbull Government are sure to be profound.
On January 1, 2017, changes to the aged care assets test will see more than 100,000 Australians lose their part pension payments in entirety. More than 300,000 will have their pension payments cut.
There is a perception many retirees are rolling in money. They have assets many could only dream of. Perhaps that’s why the media has shunned the issue.
Let me ask the question, who among us could lose 20 per cent of our household incomes and come away unscathed?
It gets worse. With the loss of the pension, the government will also cancel retirees’ pensioner concession cards which allow them to enjoy discounts on council rates, car rego, energy bills and public transport tickets. Back of the envelope, that’s three grand per annum retirees will have to find.
Full column here.
Disturbing news circulating by many news services and Dr Kevin Donnely on why our Australian educating standards and kids education is declining due to radical teachers programed by teachers union set out to destroy education standards diverting to political subjects.Helensburgh first to be investigated as teachers indocrinating kids as young as year 3 on lies on refugees , climate and dangerous gender subjest that kids now confused,
.Parents anger already pulling kids out of public schools on this dangerous teachers triggered by teachers union having no regard for the kids future in a rising competitive world in need of English , technology science and maths.
Teachers union not interested in a world of literacy and numeracy , but more intent on disunity dividing a society rupturing the curriculum we had most successful for years earlier.This social engineering of lies such as refugees , takes center stage with the teacher union having this mad idealogy of breaking down the barriers of success.
Bring back the commonsense teachers please?
Delusional rubbish.
Oh, you are an educational expert now. You should see the figures on how indigenous students have improved in schools on the Cape where the teachers actually teach via D.I. methods. You cannot be an expert, sorry, make that a know-it-all on all subjects Dismayed. On another subject, baby boomers invented all the stuff that makes your life so much easier than it was back in the post-WWII years so if I were you I’d lose the attitude. You too will be 55 before you know it. Then someone 10 years younger will be calling you a dinosaur you dinosaur.
Don’t have to be an expert to recognise a delusional rant. Do you agree that teachers are “out to destroy education standards diverting to political subjects” if so then you are just as delusional and ill informed. Ever wondered why many people don’t want to pursue Teaching? Maybe because you and your conservative outrage industry makes such ridiculous claims when they try and progress on from Parroting times tables. As for your “if I were you” keep your advice. I don’t need any advice from someone who thinks the likes of Christensen, Dutton, Brandis, Bernardi, Barnaby etc add to this Nations progress. You are obviously a very sad angry dinosaur.
What do you think of teachers telling Year 11 students that Hitler was a misunderstood genius and the holocaust was greatly exaggerated. That is the kind of crap they are teaching in schools. Get the blinkers off and the patch over that one eye. Then wake up and smell the coffee.
And when have you ever heard me sing the praises of any of those politicians you mention? Wild swings don’t win the cricket Eddie (the expert).
Ah yes Rodent, the three R’s were clearly rampant when you were in primary school.
I have NEVER heard you quote anybody else on Education-only Donnelly who is from the far right in educational philosophy. I have never heard 2GBiased even interview anybody else on Education except Donnelly. You need to read and listen much more widely on Education Rat instead of the Conga line of right wing ratbags that front up on 2GBiased every day.
How about having a look at A.S. Neil, Dewey, Makarenko, Peter Hobson, Steiner, Krishnamurti, Rousseau, Piaget, Owens, Bassett, …..a bit if a reading list to broaden your mind on Education my son.
The teachers union thinks it’s all about class sizes. It clearly isn’t about class sizes and money. We need to work out what it is, f.ick the union from the discussion and get our kids educated.
‘stopping segregation with segregations’ sounds like a pretty apt and succinct way of articulating what was going on at qut and no doubt is still going on in many places, the so-called ‘special measures’ also sounds like a form of discrimination. I’ve not seen it but have heard that some pubs up in the north have special areas where they sell grog to indigenous people. If that is right is that acceptable? Are the special measure’s they had in the US, where blacks had certain areas on the bus or cafeteria to sit in acceptable? Is this not the point the student’s post was addressing? Do we want to live in a world were such a reasonable question needs to be stifled? and the subsequent brouhaha going a long way to ensuring self censorship, or outright censorship. If anything this whole disaster is a recipe for promulgating racism towards indigenous people; or should I say our fellow Australians? And this inculcation of racism/discrimination is foisted upon our younger generation that in general, from my observations, are a lot more tolerant, open and sophisticated (in certain ways), and less likely to have been normatised (?, I made that up) to the casual, mainstream racism that us older people grew up with.
I think Leak was wrong and/or misguided in the ISIS comparison but his main point is correct. Perhaps the House of Un-American… is a better analogy? Trigg’s and her mob are certainly anal.
Milton, my experience with the selling of alcohol to indigenous people in separate areas, is that it does not happen in the NT. …and maybe SA if Coober Pedy is anything to go by. In Katherine and Tennant Creek, no-one can buy any alcohol whatsoever until 2.00 p.m. You have to show your drivers license and you are allowed one bottle per person. Often there is a policeman/woman at the liquor outlet who checks the credentials. A friend of mine who is a magistrate based in Katherine told us that the rate of domestic violence issues has dropped significantly since these restrictions came in. In Darwin no such restrictions exist
Yes, I wasn’t sure Penny. If it did happen it may well have been years ago (in the 50, 60, 70’s). I do know an aboriginal bloke who years back wasn’t allowed in a bowls club in regional/rural qld.
Lou – yes it is a bit of a mess. and it was the McIntyre appeal that I was referring to. I don’t know how that will pan out but the ‘special measures’ he refers to seem vague, if not certainly discriminatory and based on race. Most reasonable people, I think, can acknowledge the need for ‘special measures’ say in a case of a disability. Hence wheelchair access, disabled friendly toilets etc. But whether an indigenous only computer room is justifiable, I don’t know.
Milton, it wasn’t the Winton Bowls club was it? They won’t be doing any bowling there until they iron the green. Bar’s looking ok though.
Some things have changed for the better Penny.
When we visited NT last year, I was impressed with the low level of indigenous drunkenness on the streets of Darwin. A big change.
About Wendy years ago I took a group of 115 to Uluru, and by coach on to Alice. We stopped at the Ebenezer Roadhouse where I tried to buy cartons of beer to entertain our guests on the six hour drive. The owner gave me the ninth degree, thinking I’d onsell to the locals as many truckies were in the habit of doing.
After much argy bargy, he relented and sold me the booze. At double the going rate, which is what he did with the truckies!
There’s a plethora of contradictions in this story Milton. Leak is trying to highlight the authoritarian behaviour of the HRC, and on form it is fair comment.
How about the latest 18c complaint by a Japanese advocacy group against a statue at the Ashfield Uniting Church. The monument is in memory of the “comfort women” of WW2, but the AJCN claims it evokes hatred against Japanese people. No mention of the memory of 200,000 who suffered. The complaint should be tossed out but don’t hold your breath.
See this is the thing with 18c. It starts from a premise of reason, and offence. But so many recent cases have been dubious on the offending score, and totally beyond reason by the complainants. While the HRC is not a party to any action, they certainly drum up the business, and fail spectacularly on advising that cases should not proceed.
Meanwhile back at the farce, Greg McIntyre SC (of Mabo fame) is trying again to perpetuate the Cindy Prior/QUT students case. Where will it end?
Sounds like the big Japanese historical denial industry has moved here as well.
Oh and in breaking news Terri Butler has come to a settlement with QUT student Callum Thwaites for her offensive comments about him on Q&A. It involves an unreserved apology on her website, as well as a financial payment. She is lucky it didn’t get to court.
Well I hope it’s at ieast double, hopefully considerably more than the $5k he was asked to cough up at the outset of this ridiculous affair.
didn’t one or two of our learned friends pronounce on this?
yes, and still no answer to your (our) question. No genius that Butler, but not a bad looker!
If thats a reference to me, HK jack,no. I havent followed that story. Although it does seem odd to me that people havent been complaining about the chilling effect of our libel laws – which shut down far more than 18c ever will.
She settled. So did two of the QUT students. Are you saying that means they were in the wrong? You know better than that.
If free speech were really the concern you’d be just as up in arms about Butler being sued as you are about Thwaites. At least try to be consistent.
John, i recall setting out my understanding of the differences between 18C and defamation and invited Darren to bring me up to date by explaining why it was a distinction without a difference, still waiting.
as to the settlements, i can certainly see a difference between a student paying 5k in go away money when facing Fed Court costs and a Labor MP settling a defamation action brought in the District Court.
i have seen at very close quarters the resources and protections offered to Labor politicians in this situation, and it is unusual, to say the least, that it would have settled this quickly unless it looked to be a loser.
i watched the replay of the show at the time and it looked like a pretty straightforward defamation case to me, but then, as i said, it has been at least twenty five years since i had one on my desk.
John, defamation and 18C are quite different. it doesn’t follow that because you disapprove of one you must disapprove of the other.
John you seem to be comparing apples and oranges. Butler accused the student of perjury, lying under oath. Nothing to see here? I would have sued her for defamation or slander, whichever fits.
jack, you would be well aware that as the QUT defendants had a free QC, the the only Fed Court costs they were facing would be for a coffee from the vending machine. Unless, of course, said QC thought there was a chance they would lose.
At the risk of teaching my grandma to suck eggs, a good settlement amount from a defendant’s point of view is something less than the likely cost of losing multiplied by the probability of losing. The same unfortunate arithmetic applies to the students and to Butler. In neither case does it mean they were admitting liability.
I also watched a replay of the show and drew a different conclusion from yours. Butler stated the allegations clearly as allegations, no problems there. She then incorrectly stated that no determination had been made on whether Thwaites posted the “nigger” FB comment; “We never found out” I think were her words. IMO it would take a very clever QC to twist that into a defamatory imputation. But Tony Morris is clever, so I guess Butler decided discretion was the better part of valour in this instance.
I would be interested in your reasoning on how that would amount to “straightforward” defamation.
Hi jack, no, you wanted to know why I thought offence was part of defamation. You didn’t ask the question you you now claim you asked. I didn’t bother responding.
By the way hi jack.. if your complaint is that 18c stifles free speech, then it does follow that you must disapprove of both. Unless your gripe is just that 18c stifles racist speech – which is what it is intended to do. You don’t make a lot of sense on this subject.
Milton
Darren, the matter regarding Butler is not about being ‘offended’ it is about being defamed. I would have that you, being in the legal profession, would know more about this type of difference than a lay person like I; unless you are being somewhat cute or too clever by half………………..
Darren
Nah, Milton. It boils down to the same thing – being defamed basically means youve been offended about what someone said to you. Its a distinction without a difference
there you go Darren, have another go, is that good law, it certainly doesn’t seem to be, but then maybe i missed the bit where defamation became about whether the plaintiff was offended.
Not being a learned friend Jack I do recall advising that she would settle or he would win and win well. I do recall copping some flack over my assertion………. One of the things I have had to do in life is decide on the commercial reality of defending matters verse the public implications of going ahead. In other words reputational damage in both the criminal and civil jurisdictions. It give you a nose for these things and the ability to understand most lawyers bring bias to the table.
JOH I think you will find the costs agreement was no costs if the students lost but the option to recover reasonable costs from Prior if she lost. By the way he was defamed and demonstrably so…….
What has been ignored by all and sundry here is the fact that the government does not have the money to pay for all the baby boomers pensions. With less people working and more people retiring the government is stuffed. If the retirement fund that was started 60 years ago was not raided and all the money placed in commonwealth revenue with the promise we will look after the pensions we would not be in this pickle.
The government must now look long and hard at how the retirement is funded. Other welfare payments are now starting to drain the budget with governments of all stripes promising piles of loot for one and all, without any clue to how it will come by said treasure
My thoughts are that the children are the ones that will have to stump up to provide food shelter and clothing for their parents who have lived high on the hog for a lot of their lives, perhaps with grand parents parents and children all living under the same roof .
Off course the greedy boomers are going to eat up the economy as they live high on the hog in retirement. The boomers senior year 1946 – 1950 are now between 70 and sixty six. Look to them to start dying off in ever greater numbers between now and 2030. The Juniors 1951 -1955 (age 65-63) of which I am one will be mainly gone by 2040. That just leave the sophomores 1955-1960 (62-57) and the freshmen 1960-1965 (56-51) and they will not be eligible for the pension until they are 67 or probably 70. So don’t sweat it.
Want to know how, how to come by the piles of loot?
1. Abolish the capital gains discount.
2. Only a maximum of two properties per person or couple (whichever is smaller may be negatively geared) all new negatively geared properties to be new residential only.
3. Introduce death duties to kick on the top 50% (adjusted yearly for inflation) at between 10-25% of value, with protection to not break up productive enterprises and farms.
4. Private insurance rebate only to be available where top cover over is held if family income is over $100,000.
5. Elimination of all tax loopholes where individuals turning over a million are able to structure their tax so that they pay none. Perhaps you could limit expenses to only 10-30% of income on a sliding scale.
6. Reintroduce the carbon tax.
7. Institute a proper resources rent tax.
That will do for the time being
We don’t need to spend $50billion on submarines
We don’t need to give $55billion to the big end of town that will/may see a benefit of 1% growth to GDP in 20yrs time!
Why subsidise those over $100K for Health Insurance???? Surely those on lower incomes need the investment more so??
As it stands now you only need to have basic hospital to qualify for the rebate. At least if they are forced to have top cover the have to spend a bit more. I forgot to add that if they didn’t the medicare levy would rise to 5% and then 10% if over $500K
I have to disagree on the Health Insurance Subsidy for high income earners. If they are on Basic Hospital only their rebate/subsidy costs less anyway. I am of the opinion “welfare”, benefits, rebates, subsidies, investment call it whatever you like should go to those on the lowest incomes only. I would advocate for all benefits to cut off at $100K with maybe Child care the exception.. But I would also advocate for a tax free threshold of $25K and lower personal income tax rates to offset the removal of the unfunded Howard/Costello tax transfer system. I agree with higher Medicare rebate for higher incomes but wuold have it come in earlier than your suggestion with a discount for top Health insurance cover.
Well Robin. How about they look at all the billions being rorted here there and everywhere and maybe they would have the money. I do though think it’s time the family home was in some way counted as an asset. there are too many on the system who’re sitting in multimillion dollar homes. It’s a tough one to tackle though
Not sure how. Maybe by taking the average price by postcode or something.
Carl on the Coast 12:15PM
A whiff of methane? Overegging the amount of gas in the atmosphere?
Ummm okay. I’ll try to bring you up to speed on a few things. Methane (CH4) is colourless and odourless , you may be confusing it with Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) aka “Rotten Eggs Gas.”
A perfectly reasonable explanation as to why your own scientific method of measuring atmospheric levels of CH4 appears to be providing values wildly different from those assessed by disciplined scientists using sophisticated measuring equipment.
If you can just accept that your confidence in your ability to determine CH4 levels with a sniff and a look at the sky may not be realistic you might begin to understand the enormity and proximity of the impending disaster.
The attatched link may or may not, depending on your receptivity to reality, inform you as to how significant a part methane will play in global warming.
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/
Best regards. Try to maintain your denial, the alterative is not something you are well enough or strong enough to cope with in your present state. .
2436 ppb, that’s parts per billion, is not even a sniff JB. The report would be more credible if it was measured in ppm, ie. parts per million, the standard way to measure gas concentrations in the atmosphere the world over. That’s 2.436 ppm JB, they must have very, very sensitive gas detectors, most would not even register that little half a sniff. That’s the trouble with most of the reporting on AGW, the authors don’t let the facts or standards get in the way of a bit of emotive writing and using language to suit. I don’t deny the science, but it should be reported in terms and standards used the world over .
Mack,
Having been an air quality practitioner for more than a decade, I can tell you that your view about standard units for gas concentrations is just plain crap. There is no “standard unit” of measurement for gas concentrations. As is usual in chemistry and mathematics, the unit of measurement that’s generally used is the one that yields numbers with the smallest number of zeros or decimal points.
See US air quality standards – gas concentrations are expressed in ppm, ppb and micrograms per cubic metre: https://www.epa.gov/criteria-air-pollutants/naaqs-table
As for the limit of detection for methane measurements, even back in 1972, they could measure as little as 0.02 ppm of methane in air: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021967300830885
that should have read “the world over in the industry I worked in 34 years”. PPM or a percentage is relevant and it ain’t the clean air industry. Kiss my you know what TO
I f I did, would it momentarily stop you talking out of it?
Whatever industry you work in, it’s all the same: 2346 ppb of methane would normally be expressed as 2.346 ppm. 0.004 ppm would normally be expressed as 4 ppb. Percentage units are only used for very high concentrations.
By the way, the fact that there’s three decimal places in 2.346 ppm means that the real value is plus or minus 0.005 ppm. What is it you were saying about sensitive gas meters?
As I said, total BS.
You must be a bit if a thickie yeh? No wonder you’re on the outside. The point I was trying to make is that using a figure like 2436 ppb would make someone who is not used to those terms think it was significant. 2.436 ppm is nothing. If you took a reading near your head after you fart it would probably register more than that. Actually, you might need to take the reading near your backside because you are talking shit.
If that’s what you meant, why didn’t you say that, instead of saying that ppm is the standard measurement unit?
I reckon you might need to rub yourself against a carborundum block, as you’re clearly not the sharpest knife in the drawer, Mack. A remedial course in English might help you to express what you want to say.
JB- says: “I’ll try to bring you up to speed on a few things.”
There’s no flies on you JB. I submit to your superior nous on the matter of gasses. Perhaps I should have used the word “puff” me old mate?
Btw, is it reasonable to claim that CH4 and H2S are often found mixed together, hence the odour you refer to?
Interesting this. My dad is still in his own house, on the aged pension at 93. Owns the place, lucky for him. He’s been there since 1947, so it’s appreciated somewhat. Around 27,000 percent as it happens. Has very little in the bank. He gets by with his costs for maintenance and is helped by the many genuine discounts that pensioners are entitled to. But here’s a point – his sights are very low and have been for years. Doesn’t want to go to Vegas every year or whatever. But that’s not the way with my g-g-g-generation. I also pay for a vital call button that he is supposed to wear all the time. Yet I find him giving money away to the Guide Dogs, Cancer Council, whomever. What do you do?
Meanwhile, we’re approaching retirement age and trying to put a nest egg together that *will* let us travel and have a bit of the life that we have known beyond our working years. I don’t actually feel inclined to retire in any case but that’s a decision that could well be made for me by circumstance. Which brings two more things to mind. I don’t think I’ll ever be rich, even if I inherit my dad’s place solely – because rich means not just a pot of cash (unless it’s humungous) but continual mega cash flow. You can spend most Lotto wins in a day or two – true robber-baron richness keeps on coming goes way beyond that. To me, rich means not having to think about how much money you’re spending. Ever.
The other point is that we, as a generation generalisation, are living *much* longer than even our parents (my dad notwithstanding). And that affects the amounts that we need to survive or gad about in our dotage. It means that the offspring have to wait longer for their inheritances too, and suffer the concomitant difficulties with housing deposits.
It’s all a bit fraught really. I’ve never trusted governments on superannuation. Too easy to change the rules – and they do it too often. I’ve taken a reasonable amount of risk to put a pot together though and I don’t feel like getting punished for it down the track.
And after that long drawn out pointless waffle your point is?????????
Kathy = length police. But he/she doesnt have anything else to say except for pointless waffle or, more eloquently “zzzz’. Clearly a great intellect (sarcasm alert).
Never mind Kathy, it was for people who have some comprehension capability.
Great to see you have strong genes Bald!
TV,
If you own your own place outright, which I don’t, that’s a huge start. If I read you correctly, you might even have two homes, outright, which is a lot better than most.
Re the comments here about government employees being on easy street, anyone who joined post 2005 won’t have access to a defined benefits scheme.
Are you still at the ABS, or were you hit by their latest cost-saving measures?
To TO (make sense?). We own our place as of a couple of years back. I will get half of my dad’s, but he’s healthy as a (geriatric) ox. I consider myself lucky. I was merely drawing some comparisons between generations in that original post. The proceeds of the inheritance I plan to turn into house deposits for our brood of three, rather than endless Scenic Rhine cruises. Maybe one or two…
the ABS gig goes to March. Hoping for some life in the old game before then.
TV, we paid for one of the alarms for the mother-in-law before she moved into a retirement village and it was used on a couple of occasions, for someone living on her own it was a god send.
hearin’ ya teeve
regulatory risk…hyooje
investment risk…hyooje
longevity risk….hyoojest
living longer and running out of dough? bloody stupid concept!…..umm no wait
Uncle Terence has arrived for the Xmas holidays Mr Jack and already inviting us to play his favourite game called “name that tune in one note”. He is a real wag. I got the 1st one right “god save the queen”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F88UfaVjIGs
i have my own opinion as to whether eddie obeid is or was corrupt, as i am sure others do, i will say that getting him involved in Labor politics was perhaps not Richo’s best work.
that said, five years for picking up the phone as a backbencher and lobbying for a family business while not disclosing the family as beneficial owners strikes me as way out of whack.
Given the other thing’s that Eddie Obeid’s likely done, rough justice has been served, I’d reckon.
Despite his health problems Richo seems to get by unscathed!?
Don’t kid yourself
Sarah Palin touted to be Trumps Secretary of Veterans Affairs Mr Insider, well that was until a few days ago when things soured a little between Trump and Palin. I like the Lady she’s fresh, bold and says what she wants and comes to the position as a former Governor of Alaska, good enough for me! And she’s rich too as are so many of Trump appointments as this very short clip attached shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtO1mFOUEOk
Everyone’s good enough for you Nossy, depending on what day it is
And the award for stating the bloody obvious goes to…….
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/vic-youth-reoffending-report-gets-release/news-story/ed2531ad946b0838333162ce3cd4e20f
Justice has been served for Mr Obeid.