Keywords: Retirement Savings
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ECONOMICS
- Brian Toohey
- 11 June 2014
15 Comments
The superannuation industry inhabits a cosseted world in which the money pours in thanks to a combination of government compulsion and tax concessions. The foundations of this empire are criticised for how the tax concessions create an expensive form of upper class welfare, and for the harmful effect of compulsory super's artificial expansion of the finance sector. The Abbott Government shows scant concern about either aspect.
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ECONOMICS
The 2014 Federal Budget has created a new hierarchy of virtue in Australian society, with well off investors deemed to be good and the disadvantaged bad. It is not so much class war as a war between capital and the rest of society. Those wielding significant capital are useful, while those who can save little, and have little to invest, are considered a burden.
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ECONOMICS
In politics, one should never opt for a balanced and thoughtful description of the truth when wild exaggerations will do. Especially when you want to take from the poor and give to, if not exactly the rich, at least the investor class. The dire pronouncements from the Abbott Government in response to the Commission of Audit's 86 recommendations reflect not only the PM's relentless negativity, but also more than a whiff of class war.
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AUSTRALIA
- Lin Hatfield Dodds
- 16 May 2013
5 Comments
The 2013 Federal Budget is framed around a national disability insurance scheme, education reform, and welfare to work focused welfare spending. The jewel in the crown has to be DisabilityCare, which will make a significant difference in the daily lives of nearly half a million Australians.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 04 February 2013
8 Comments
Last week the political leaders were brawling over assistance payments for middle-class Australians, with Tony Abbott claiming to be promoting 'tax justice for families'. A new Human Rights Commission report has shown how our super and tax systems fail unpaid carers, who are needed to sustain many families. But not the ones whose votes matter most.
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AUSTRALIA
- Brian Toohey
- 02 April 2012
8 Comments
Paul Keating says he changed superannuation from an elite system to one which would include 'the bloke running behind the garbage truck'. But a new elite has left the garbo in the dust. Labor's core constituency and the economy would be much better off with the age pension rather than super.
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AUSTRALIA
- Moira Rayner
- 03 February 2012
14 Comments
Michael Gill, former editor in chief of the Australian Financial Review, is suing his former employer Fairfax for age discrimination. I will be praying that the provisions prohibiting age discrimination in equal opportunity laws around Australia are exposed for the pathetic non-protections that they truly are.
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AUSTRALIA
- Lin Hatfield Dodds
- 04 October 2011
11 Comments
A third of taxpayer-funded superannuation concessions — around $10 billion a year — are directed to the top 5 per cent of income earners. People living on or below the poverty line get no such support. This week's Tax Forum must ask: Are we proud of how we redistribute our national wealth?
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 03 October 2011
11 Comments
The GST appears unfair, as it hits the poor much harder than it does the wealthy. But that's due to the way it is implemented, and it doesn't need to be that way. The St Vincent de Paul Society would like to see it increased, but with a more sophisticated and fairer compensation mechanism.
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AUSTRALIA
- John Warhurst
- 11 November 2010
12 Comments
Nine prime ministers have been observant Christians. Two have been conventional Christians. Ten have been nominal Christians. Five have been articulate atheists or agnostics. One was a nominal atheist or agnostic.
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ECONOMICS
- Catherina Toh
- 03 August 2009
8 Comments
An ethos of tough love balks at taxpayer subsidies for
anyone foolish or unlucky enough to make the wrong investment decision. In Australia we prefer to see people as victims and expect the government to clean up the mess.
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ECONOMICS
- Colin Long
- 27 November 2008
20 Comments
The outcomes of the G20 meeting this month demonstrate the limited vision of many of the world's politicians in confronting the global financial crisis. If our leaders can't imagine a different future, it is up to us to do so.
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