Why punish good citizens
Many years ago we were told we were about to run out of oil, so many people opted for smaller, more economical cars. The end result is we now pay top dollar for small cars and fuel. When the drought started to bite, the community reduced water consumption, got praised for it and then got rewarded with an increase in water rates.
Now, after we’ve installed our energy saving light globes and turned off the beer fridge we are told that electricity costs are going to increase by $100 a year. It’s not hard to get the impression that regardless of how much we cut back on using resources, executive salaries, profits and dividends must be maintained.
Richard Purser, chipping Norton
Why punish good citizens
The PM receives $5,942 a week, and he has just received another $403 a week. As a pensioner, I am mad about this. I calculate his increase is double the amount of my pension. Both food and petrol have risen alarmingly in the past year and the $5.75 increase for pensioners is a joke. If only we could harness the power of the oldies.
B. Braithwaite, Tuncurry
Power Grab
There’s nothing new about education in John Howard’s latest speech: it’s just the usual teacher bashing and try to bully the states. However what is interesting is yet another example of the Liberals wanting to centralise all power in Canberra. First industrial relations, then water resources, now education soon we’ll have to apply to some Liberal Minister in Canberra for permission to build a dog house.
Michael Griggs, Lidcombe
Rural life really in the slow lane
I find it interesting to read of transport infrastructure concerns in Sydney and how disadvantaged commuters have extended travelling times because of road closures, train breakdowns and so on. I empathise, but there is little mention of transport concerns in rural areas. In the lead up to the last election the incumbent premier Bob Carr came to Alstonville on the North Coast and promised a bypass for which we had been more completed by now.
After six months, it was discovered the funds were unavailable for the bypass. Years later it hasn’t even started being built. At Kadina High School in Lismore, some students have to wait up to 40 minutes for their bus to arrive of an afternoon.
Often the buses are delayed and students can be waiting for about an hour. These buses are contracted by our State Government. Isn’t it the government’s responsibility to ensure the service is actually provided?
For the first time I will be voting not for a candidate, but against a government that seems in capable of addressing the issues of people who live outside of Sydney.
Greg Wade, Wollongbar
No fair go for the working poor
After 10 years working as a cleaner at a tertiary institution earning $530 a fortnight, a friend was retrenched and told he could reapply for the same job at $400 a fortnight.
He declined their generous offer and is now struggling to keep his chin above water. Can any of the Federal politicians who last year voted them selves an 18 per cent pay rise, to be introduced over the next three years, tell me how my friend’s added insecurity will make this a better country?
WorkChoices is not Australian, in the fair go sense of the term: that is if the currency for such a term still exists in today’s marketplace.
J. Gainsford, Marrickville
WorkChoices or no choices?
I am a Crohn’s disease sufferer and feel that Government is neglecting all persons with a disability with its Workchoices laws.
The extent of the illness requires, at times, some compassion and understanding from employers because of unexpected time off work. My experience with my last two employers has been disappointing (and in one case resulted in me taking action with the Anti-Discrimination Board).
I have two questions for John Howard: What laws have you enacted in WorkChoices to protect people like me from being dismissed by employers who don’t have any understanding or compassion when it comes to illnesses of which there is no cure? And why are you creating a society where everything is about greed and profits?
Steve Brooks, Umina
Howard blocks out his battlers
What is going on with the Howard Government? Billions of Australian taxpayers’ dollars and the jobs that go with them are being handed to an overseas bank. Then there was the decision since overruled, to spend $500,000 to expand the Prime Minister’s dining room, and thousands more on chairs for the cabinet room. All this stupidity plus a one sided industr8al relations policy that has meant many entitlements, including long service leave, have fallen through cracks.
Mr. Howard should start listening less to the big end of town and more to those battlers who have kept him in power. If he believes that the battlers are “rusted on” because his Government has delivered strong economic growth and record employment, he is wrong.
Peter Menton, Bankstown.
What cost a public holiday?
Given the public perception of the ability of the Howard Government to better manage the economy, perhaps an estimate of the cost of granting a public holiday during the APEC summit to a city of four million people could be made public.
Whatever the cost turns out to be to cater for this talk fest in the lead up to the Federal Election and to enhance Mr. Howard’s standing in international affairs by the predictable photo shoot on the steps of the Opera House in the company of world leaders.
I, for one question why a costly public holiday is justified when increasing productivity is one of the catchcries of this Government.
Obviously that is only important when it doesn’t get in the way of John Howard’s quest for a fifth term.
Ray Lister, Kensington
Howard’s way
What part of “we expect our government to protect Australian citizens, jobs and assets” does the Prime Minister not understand?
His Government has attempted to wash its hands over the non-existent weapons of mass destruction used to justify the war on terror, the David Hick affair, the AWB scandal, the disastrous effect of AWAs on working families, the blatant corporate geed behind the abortive sale of Qantas, allowing management (and the associated jobs) of the Future Fund to be undertaken by a non Australian entity and now the possible off shoring of the Education Endowment Fund.
If these are examples of the Government’s good economic management, then God help Australia and Australians.
Jennie Morris, Wollongong
Fruit isn’t fresh
Is it just me, or am I right in asking: “Where is all this advertised fresh fruit and vegetables? It doesn’t seem to matter if I buy my apples, oranges or pears from any one of the large chains, who profess to offer consumers the freshest and best.
Maybe it was fresh three months ago when it was picked, but by the time I get my hands on it, the apples are like mush. The oranges, if you can find one grown in Australia are as dry as the land west of the Blue Mountains. The imported fruit, as much as it pains me to buy it, is just as bad. Oranges from Spain and the good old US are very poor quality.
I have tried the fruit markets, same old rubbish. Maybe it is time for the powers that be to legislate that the picking date is also on the little sticker that accompanies our fresh fruit and vegetables. No wonder our kids won’t eat the stuff, it all tastes like cardboard and costs an arm and a leg for the privilege of eating one bite, then dispatching it in the bin.
Where is all the beautiful fruit and vegetables this country used to produce. Not on the shelves of Woolies or Coles. It wasn’t that long ago we saw footage of our farmers ploughing their fruit trees into the ground. Methinks its coming back to bite us.
Shame McCabe, Penrith
Taxing our credibility
In the past week or so we have been bombarded with advice and warnings from the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation regarding tax on contributions to superannuation funds. Wye are we receiving these warnings when are less than a fortnight away from the Government imposed cut off for contributions.
The Deputy Commissioner for Taxation has had some 13 months to inform people about the taxation issues surrounding the transfer of funds into superannuation, so why the delay?
Much of the cause of the taxation problems people are experiencing in making contributions is of the Taxation Department’s making. Specifically, cash, art works, industrial and commercial property, shares and bonds can be transferred into superannuation but residential investment properties cannot.
This situation has forced the sale of many residential properties that were retirement “nest eggs” and has served to exacerbate their supply to renters.
Perce Butterworth, Annandale
Eliminate the negative
If I were a Labor MP, no doubt I would be singing out hear! Hear! As Kevin Rudd tried to nail John Howard over the Kirribilli House party, after all the Libs have put the boot into Kev several times. However, this is but a symptom of how negative politics have become in Australia. Everyday some boof head asks Peter Costello a Dorothy Dix question and the Libs laugh loudly at the Treasurer’s brand of humour/
It seems the propaganda machines are obsessed with getting us to vote against Rudd or against Howard. When is someone going to come up with something positive that I can vote for?
Geoff Hinds, Merrylands
At the end of the day, a bribe is still a bribe
The first lie of the budget build up was Peter Costello’s comment that it was emphatically not going to be an election Budget. While it does have (and was designed to have) voter appeal, we need to bear a couple of things in mind.
The focus on education is certainly welcome, but remember how much education has suffered under the Howard Government. Simply, this is long overdue.
There is a striking similarity here with banks, which have treated their customers with nothing but contempt for years and now that we have adjusted to outrageous fees and closed branches, they seek to buy us off with ads that try to say how much they care.
The second point is that we should treat bribes as bribes. When in Thailand at an election period, I noticed that of the three candidates, one gave 100 baht to villagers where I was staying, one gave 200 baht the next day, and the third gave nothing other than policy. I tried to convince villagers to take the money and vote for the third guy, but the one who gave the most money in bribes won.
The bribes was misinterpreted as an indication of his generosity of spirit. That generosity was never seen again. We can be a little more savvy. Take the money, recognise it for what it is, and vote on the basis of policy.
Tony Greening, Katoomba
If pollies want a crack let’s discuss workplace agreements
The Federal politicians defend their latest plunder of public finances with three main arguments:
First, that a politician’s pay is not excessive compared with private enterprise, second, that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys, third, that the decision was that of an independent umpire. Each of these arguments is spurious and cant. As to the first, politicians are not in private enterprise; they are supposedly, in public service.
Further, the reality is that most politicians could not earn the sort of return in private enterprise that they make as politicians. This was one of Kelly Hoare’s main concerns when she recently lost preselection for the seat of Charlton.
Those politicians who could make more in private enterprise typically fall into two groups, those who could do so only because of the public profile. The reason those in the latter group remain in politics rather than earn significantly more money in private enterprise must involve a rational decision on their part that the non financial benefits of political office (that is, power and public notoriety) outweigh any financial losses.
As to the second argument, the reality is that, given the political oligopoly and the preselection practices of the major parties, all the electorate would get from paying their politicians more is better paid monkeys.
The preselection processes throw up very few candidates of true merits. Most are either party apparatchiks or numbers men. Blind party loyalty or the ability to stack branches are not skills that warrant greater pay. Regarding the third argument, it is interesting to watch Coalition members hide behind the independent umpire, a right which under their WorkChoices legislation they have denied the rest of us.
I would be happy to be appointed the electorate’s bargaining agent to negotiate individual workplace agreements with each politician. I would agree to pay them their true worth.
Mark Daley, Sydney
Two faced guardian
I’ve never thought of the ACCC chief, Graeme Samuel as a cock-eyed optimist but I had my doubts when I heard that he wants the Howard Government to legislate to jail people guilty of price fixing.
This Government attacks Labor for receiving election funds from the unions, but appears to think we won’t notice its own reluctance to bite the business hand that feeds it.
Isabelle Wharley, Willoughby
Bankers Bonkers
Is it just me or is there something faintly surreal about a company, be it a bank, oil company or tel co, stating that in order to remain competitive prices must go up where consumers become victims to credit card creeps. Competition means doing whatever is required to come out a winner. If companies think charging the highest amount makes them a winner, then it goes without saying priorities are completely turned upside down.
Answer me, please Mr. Bank representatives, how raising credit card rates in order to remain competitive, providing a potential incentive to get a better deal, works?
If I were to see one out of four credit cards with a lower interest rate, no annual fees and a better interest free period, that would signal this product as being competitive. Not giving me a product or service that is demonstrably and overall definitely cheaper is not competitive. It’s a waste of our time and an insult to our intelligence as consumers.
Dave O’Connell, Warrimoo
Killing with kindness
The compassionate many in NSW lower house who voted to continue with the drug injecting trial at Kings Cross seems to think they are achieving some sort of humanitarian out come when the reverse is true. Those with a medical background know it is better to cure a patient of an illness than to let them suffer needlessly. The drug injecting room trial is a cowardly method of avoiding an inconvenient truth. Making hard policy decisions to remove the addicts from the environment which condemns them to a slow and degrading death requires leadership and courage.
How much longer can the NSW Government pretend the injecting facility is a trial, when it is more correct to label it a failed public policy promoted by people who feel the problems is too big for them and have admitted defeat?
The Prime Minister has recently shown he is prepared to make difficult decisions to protect Aboriginal children. It is a pity the same level of commitment isn’t present in the NSW lower house.
Wayne Brown, Queanbeyan
Editor’s Note: Mr Brown may I draw your attention to the fact that, the licencing legislation of the injecting room to operate by the NSW Labor Government is unconstitutionally invalid and is in breach of Federal Law. Not only has the Howard Coalition Government failed to uphold Section 109 of the Australian Constitution and enforce Federal Law in May 2001, 21 days after the opening of the Kings Cross injecting room the Howard Coalition Government deleted Section 232 (a) Collusive Seizures of the Australian Customs Act. The full evidence against the Howard Federal Government can be found by going to the following Link >>>> Update February 2007 Part Two - The Law and You.
I am not arguing the merits of the injecting room, I am arguing the illegality of the NSW legislation.