With only a week to go to the budget, a document intended and committed to secrecy until budget night, we have been bombarded by all media outlets with ‘leaks’ intended to soften the blow of any possibly contentious issues and as a sounding board as to its contents and potential public acceptability. This happens each year, and from now until budget day there will be speculation about what the budget will contain or will not contain for which the Government deny all responsibility.
Many of us will remember when the budget was only of interest to the population if a penny went on beer and a couple of pence on cigarettes. They appeared to be the staple diet for the population, and little was know about the micro tweaking of the Countries bank account. There was never a mention of superannuation or aged pensions. An Aged pension was accepted as being obtainable at 65 years or there about, never questioned, never considered welfare. Some people had more than others which was taken as how things were. No one really cared, and everyone remained amicable and friendly to everyone else. We all got along in the knowledge that Australia was one of the ‘coolest’ places on earth to live bar none.
What happened to our Country, when did it start to become an unfriendly place to live, for that is what it now is, greed and self-interest have taken over. It is arguable and conceivable that change came during the prime ministership of the peoples Prime Minister Bob Hawke with Paul Keating as his offsider.
It was the start of what was to become the ‘technical’ era when jobs gave way to machines, and personal services were reduced as a result of staff reductions. The change came with obvious problems associated with it – reduction of employment – a lack of jobs – an increase in unemployment.
We can recall it was also about the time when the ‘stay at home parent’ roll, normally that of the mother, started to changed. The need for a secondary income became, in many eyes, essential to obtain all that became necessary for normal life and could not be lived without – every conceivable electrical gadget, the new car and the Australian dream of home purchase not to mention overseas holidays and eating out.
Bob Hawke called us the ‘lucky country’ and indeed at the commencement of his reign we were, for we knew little else. Unions were in their hay days running around with little or no control dreaming up schemes and benefits for the workers never being denied by a friendly Government. Suddenly employment was a problem, and Bob Hawke changed his slogan to ‘we shall become the Clever Country’ advising that our children should be encouraged to stay at school and have a right to enter tertiary education for a better future. Nothing was further from the truth.
Bob Hawke had a problem of gigantic proportions looming ahead. No work for the thousands of school leavers coming onto the market. The entry level jobs had been taken by the secondary income earners of households, mainly women who had re-entered the workforce taking jobs normally available and reserved for school leavers. Bob Hawke, therefore, kept the youngsters at school and gave them right of passage to higher education to avoid a massive blowout of unemployment figures that could not be seasonally adjusted massaged or cleansed by any Government department.
This was a functional cultural change for our country one which not only has continued until today but changed Australia forever. We have an overeducated workforce wanting to start at the top rung rather than at entry level. They see this as their right, armed with a degree which now is probably equivalent in value to the old secondary school certificate.
What has this got to do with the budget that is due? Many of today’s young politicians grew up within the system introduced by Bob Hawke and compounded by Governments that followed and have never experienced the hardship of general life. They inherited the greed factor and selfish attitude to boot. Gone is respect, caring for others and friendship.
How has this affected our Country? The answer is simple; we have over spent, we have spent more than we earn both as individuals and as a Country. Do Australians care? No, not their worry, Monday will continue to follow Sunday, and Tuesday will continue to follow Monday, in other words, life will go on, and debt will continue to increase.
We should be extremely concerned about the forthcoming budget, not just one or two of us but everyone. The propaganda from this Government that has been put out there is frightening for all and unlike any displayed by previous Governments. Ideas have in some cases been extreme giving a serious indication that the Government has no idea how to do good by Australia. They are showing not only an arrogance but a complete misunderstanding of how the majority of normal Australians are living or should we say surviving.
The Government has no idea how to address the inability of young Australians to buy a home or to afford exorbitant rents. They will not make hard decisions to give serious incentives to regional areas to spread the population of this Country to be less concentrated and dependent on major cities. They shy away from important infrastructure needed and required towards the end of this century
Power – they will not take the hard decision and take back essential services from private enterprise geared more to the profit dollar overseas than servicing the needs of the hand that feeds them.
They are skirting around the edges instead of wholesale policy changes that favour Australians. They run away from big business fearful of tackling the powerful top end of town. They fail to see it is more important to feed Australian before others, that selling the Country’s assets, be it property or produce, is of little value to the Nation. Buying back product that we produce at higher prices just does not make sense.
The government would just love to get its hands on the cash cow of superannuation. Previous SAS articles speculated that the Government, any Government, would find it hard not to gain control of the trillions of dollars just sitting in superannuation funds doing nothing but making fund managers rich. The Government has started its takeover by suggesting that young Australians use early accumulation of superannuation payments be used for a house deposits.
What an absolutely ridiculous idea! Firstly it is not the employee who contributes to superannuation it is the employer who contributes 9% ( to be increased ) of wages or salary paid to an employee. Therefore the Government want to make the employer pay an employees house deposit. As I said how ridiculous. This is the Governments first attempt to grab and control the superannuation dollar and more will follow, that we can be sure of.
Notwithstanding the above let’s assume that a young married couple are both in the workforce having been to University, both are about 24 years old. Their current income is just average nothing spectacular say $50,000 each, that means when they are 30 years old they have six years of say 10% in superannuation which equates to $30000 superannuation each plus compound interest. The superannuation they would have jointly would not be anywhere near enough for a City property deposit, and their joint income would not pay an average mortgage of $600000 without placing them in a seriously stressed position. Of course at the same time they each would be paying back $50,000 in HECs fees, and there is the possibility of a family coming along as well.
This is an impossible position to be in and makes a mockery of the Government’s thinking or thought process, and it is worrying to believe the Government mainly Morrison, Turnbull and the Finance Minister have such a poor understanding of basic economics and to think we trust our Country’s future to these people. This is why we should be worried.
Lately, the leaks have been coming so fast, and even Morrison has floated ‘ideas’ regarding what may be in the budget. Today he has stated he believes the housing market is flattening out. What is the good of a housing market that flattens out at a figure that no reasonable and normal Australian can afford, it is self-protective lip service from a Government who has no idea what to do and continually fail to understand the problems.
An aged pensioner may be more fortunate than some but less fortunate than others that is life, and we all have to make our way with what life has given us. However, it is reasonable and expected that a civilised country such as Australia would look after the elderly. This Government has little time for the elderly and see the past generation as an annoyance and would rather they go away and will be happy when the last has shuffled off. In the meantime, aged pensioners should expect to have a reasonable quality of life and not to have the stress of the unknown hanging over their heads by a Government who may have begun to realise the problems of our Country are greater than their ability to manage.
Having criticised this Government, not difficult based on the ability of its members, it is only right that we give them a bucket list for pensioners. It would be easy to suggest many ideas for the main body of the budget, but it would be pointless as the relevant Ministers do not listen to a Nation that is hurting.
Suggested bucket list for Aged Pensioners:-
Surely there are other sensible suggestions that would make an aged pensioner or any retired person’s life better and more enjoyable. Please feel free to make suggestions, maybe one day the Government will understand that the integrity of a nation can be gauged by the manner in which its elderly are held and looked after. Australia was once top of the tree but now has fallen just short of the third world standards.
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