Tag Archives: Superannuation

More Gaffes, Stonewalling and Alt-Right Infiltration

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Oops, a bit late with the posting…working in retail during holiday periods tends to lead to that.

I hope you had a restful Easter break.

Last week, we saw policy promises from both major parties around health, jobs and the economy. The parties both rallied their volunteers on Sunday, and so began a week of campaigning with tempered by truces on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

This week saw another gaffe, with Bill Shorten saying there would be “no new taxes on superannuation” – except, well, he has one planned should he get into government. He apologised and said that upon reflection he should have said that there would be no new taxes on superannuation other than what had already been announced by Labor in the last few months. Scott Morrison has attempted to jump on this gaffe, but it feels overdone, mostly because he’s using the line he’s been using for the last ten days about Labor and Bill Shorten being liars.

When not selling their policies to the electorate, both Shorten and Morrison have been frustrating journalists (and voters) by stonewalling on certain questions. For example, when the Prime Minister was in the electorate of Deakin with MP Michael Sukkar, he was asked he felt confident in Sukkar’s support, given Sukkar had backed Dutton last August – and Morrison responded:

That is such a bubble question, I’m just going to leave that one in the bubble

Shorten on the other hand, got into a terse exchange with Channel 10 reporter Jonathan Lea, who asked about the costs of Labor’s emissions reduction target five time and didn’t get a “proper” answer – Lea was rightfully frustrated.

It is a worry that both leaders feel they can control what is put out by the media by stonewalling and avoiding questions. It doesn’t work, because we have a fairly independent and free press, which means that politicians or governments can’t control the story anyway. If anything it makes both leaders look like they’re hiding something, which one might think would be something they would rather avoid.

There weren’t a huge range of announcements this week due to the agreement to not campaign on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but Labor has promised to give Indigenous community organisations more say in where money goes, combined with further promises to invest $115 million in indigenous health, and to make Pat Dodson the Indigenous Affairs Minister should Labor win the election. Otherwise, most of the week was spent either talking more about previous policy announcements, or debating whose policy costings were correct. There are so many millions and billions floating around, my head is spinning.

Meanwhile, Fraser Anning had been embroiled in some sort of alt-right conspiracy to infiltrate politics. It seems that at least one of his political staffers and some of his campaign staff have links to an ultra right-wing group that tried to infiltrate the Nationals (they were unsuccessful, after they were discovered and expelled from the party in October last year). However, it gets a bit weirder, as one of these alt-right guys worked for Clive Palmer a few years ago. He only worked for Palmer and his eponymous – but now-defunct – Palmer United Party, but only for three weeks. Palmer doesn’t see it as a big deal, he apparently fires people all the time.

Meanwhile, Clive Palmer is having another stab at politics – he is now running a new political party, the United Australia Party, and will be running for the Senate. Palmer was planning to contest the ultra-marginal Queensland seat of Herbert, but because he’s quite unpopular there, he’s decided to put someone else in the seat and try for the Upper House where he potentially has a better chance.

Many in the government now believe that George Christiansen’s electorate of Dawson in Queensland is going to be lost in the election, as he comes under more fire for being an “absent member” – he’s spending more time in the Philippines than in Australia, mostly because Christiansen has a Filipino girlfriend. The main concern for the electorate Dawson for both major parties is that the One Nation vote is generally quite high and they don’t really want a member of the Lower House from One Nation.

There are also questions surrounding Barnarby Joyce and Angus Taylor over the $80 million government purchase of water rights from two farms owned by a company that is domiciled in the Cayman Islands. If that wasn’t enough, the company did at one point employ Angus Taylor. Taylor denies that he or any family members have benefitted from the sale, and Barnaby Joyce was “out of range”.

Tweet of the Week

Election campaigns that have Easter in the middle of them means politicians take photos with the oddest of characters…

Thing’s I’ve Been Looking at Online

The logistics of the world’s biggest single-day election – The Interpreter

Annabel Crabb says we shouldn’t be distracted by the billions and millions – ABC Online

 

Three Weeks That Were – May 13 to June 2

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Yep, I worked two Sundays in a row again – that’s the joy of retail – so here’s a list of some of the things that happened in politics.

  1. Liberal MP Jane Prentice has lost pre-selection in her seat to a man, making many Liberal women very, very concerned. Warren Entsch is also worried and concerned, but that’s normal for Warren Enstch, because he’s probably one of the nicest, most accepting people in parliament. Meanwhile Craig Laundy is implying the person who will now be the candidate in the seat may have been partaking in branch stacking.
  2. There are continuing concerns over the standards of care at residential care facilities (i.e. Nursing Homes) after revelations that some facilities are failing several benchmarks.
  3. There are calls to encourage refugees to come to small country towns rather than the big cities in order to fill job shortages. While there are concerns that some may face problems with the isolation in some of these towns, many employers seem willing to take people on.
  4. There a questions over how Australia plans to deal with waste now that China has stopped taking in other nations’ rubbish (yes, apparently Australia has been sending some of our rubbish to China for years). There a questions over whether Australia should have a Pay As You Throw system, or burn some of our rubbish to add to the electricity grid.
  5. Focus in the Banking Royal Commission has moved to how banks have been treating small businesses. ANZ has confessed to misconduct, NAB has conceded it forced a business loan client to pay off his debt with the sale of his home, and the Commonwealth Bank has admitted to charging double the amount of interest they were entitled to.
  6. Around 200 athletes that attended the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April have now applied for temporary protection visas. Another 50 athletes have officially over-stayed their visas.
  7. Operation Augury – the mission to the Philippines to help the Philippine Army with the fight against ISIS in the city of Marawi – has all of a sudden become a very quiet operation shrouded in secrecy.
  8. Several Liberal parliamentarians are trying to get a private members bill through parliament to ban the live export of animals during the Northern Hemisphere Summer, after vision of conditions on a sheep live export ship became public a few weeks back. Other Liberals have pushed for more regulation rather than a full on ban, and that is what Minister David Littleproud ended up announcing.
  9. Pauline Hanson has announced that her party will no longer support company tax cuts – making it incredibly hard for the government to now pass the bill through the senate. Apparently, Hanson has been asking for way too much in return and the liberals can’t give it to her so she isn’t going to help them. But…
  10. …it appears that either the whole party was not aware, or NSW Senator Brian Burston has decided not to go with the party, as he has announced that he will support the government’s company tax cuts. Pauline Hanson is very upset – she had one heck of an interview on SKY News – and told Burston to resign. He won’t resign and Hanson is yet to sack him so, we’ll have to watch this space.
  11. Canning MP Andrew Hastie has revealed that Chau Chak Wing – a prolific donor to both parties and the name sake of a university building at the University of Technology, Sydney – has been named in a UN bribery investigation.
  12. The day for the 5 by-elections – dubbed Super Saturday – has been announced as July 28. That’s a nine week campaign, leaving these seats without representation for over 80 days. While the AEC and the Liberals say that date has been chosen to avoid school holidays, so as not to disadvantage voters, Labor is very angry. July 28th is the weekend Labor is having their national conference, and while they have since deferred the date of the conference, they felt like the selection of that date was politically motivated.
  13. Speaking of Super Saturday – the Liberals have announced that they will not be contesting the two safe Labor seats in WA in order to preserve their election war chest (i.e. They are unlikely to win and they shouldn’t be throwing money at a futile endeavour), while Bob Katter is helping Rebekha Sharkie out with costs for her campaign in the seat of Mayo, as she takes on Liberal candidate Georgina Downer (daughter of former foreign Minister Alexander Downer).
  14. The Government is and the Opposition are currently fighting over each other’s respective tax plans. The Liberal tax plan costs the government more, but will take longer to implement, with the highest tax bracket benefitting later on. The Labor plan will be cheaper and faster to implement but provides less relief to the highest paid workers. Meanwhile, Amazon has announced that Australians will only be able to access the Australian website from July 1, in order to comply with new online shopping GST legislation.
  15. A review has called for the superannuation program in Australia to be simplified and made more transparent. It turns out many young people who have changed jobs multiple times have multiple super accounts, meaning they will have less to retire on in the future. There are also calls to make it easier for workers to stay with one super account for their entire working life.
  16. Workers on the minimum wage have had a 3.5% wage increase to $719.20 per week. The unions are happy for the rise, but say that it is not enough to give workers a living wage. Meanwhile, employers say it will make it harder for them to hire people because it costs more to pay people.
  17. The redress scheme that came out of the Royal Commission into Child Abuse has now had the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Scouts, YMCA and the Salvation Army sign up, along with all states and territories, except WA.
  18. Barnaby Joyce is facing criticism for getting paid for an interview with Channel 7. He argues that, despite calls to respect his and his partner Vikki Campion’s privacy, there have been drones flying over their home and paparazzi everywhere, and because Vikki felt ripped off she agreed to the interview and took the $150,000, which is to be put into a trust for their son Sebastian.
  19. Labor faced some drama at the Victorian State conference, when the CFMEU and the AWU teamed up to end controversial debates and end the conference early. Delegates were set to debate offshore detention of asylum seekers, an issue that would have revealed the deep divide within the party, and there were concerns that this would affect the five Super Saturday by-elections.
  20. Independent Tasmanian Senator Steve Martin is no longer independent, having joined the Nationals. The former Mayor of Devonport, who got in on the Jacqui Lambie ticket after Lambie had to quit due to Section 44, was sacked from the party when he refused to step aside for her. Since coming to parliament, he’s made friends with the Nationals and found he shares their views and so he joined them.
  21. Michaelia Cash has received a subpoena from the federal court, calling her to give evidence regarding the AWU raid scandal, in which one of Cash’s staffers tipped the media off to raids being carried out at AWU offices. Cash is trying to get the subpoena thrown out, which is just a little suspicious.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Hamish MacDonald on the Barnaby Joyce interview – SMH

Jessica Harmsen on being pregnant on TV – ABC Online

The Two Weeks That Were – April 2 to April 15

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Hopefully now that uni and work have petered out a bit, I should get back to my regular posting schedule… Hope you are all having a lovely Easter Weekend.

The past fortnight began, with flood and cyclone damage being cleaned up across the bulk of the north-east coast. The NSW town of Lismore, and Queensland town of Rockhampton as well as the Whitsunday Islands were the three areas with the bulk of the damage. Researchers have also been able to survey the Great Barrier Reef – and it has had a tough run, with some major damage and stress bleaching.

Interest rates may go up in the next few months, due to the high rate of investment buying and interest-only loans. However the RBA is anxious about raising these rates because it will cause stress on the mortgages of low-income households, as well as lead to defaults on mortgages in some cases, as many households do not appear to have enough of a buffer if the earners were to lose their jobs.

The other issue is that somehow, an internal Liberal Party debate on whether to allow people to dip into their super to buy a house has been played out in the public, making the party look a bit uncoordinated. The suggestion has been panned by many people, including the people in my household, because it is a stupid idea. The only place that does allow superannuation to be used to buy a home is Singapore – but Singapore’s super contribution level is 33%.

Pauline Hanson had a tough time with an ABC Four Corners exposé on the One Nation Party. There have been accusations of mind-control and manipulation. One former member has claimed the party is run like a dictatorship, and the journalist behind the stories was asked multiple times by James Ashby (remember him?) to leave one of Pauline Hanson’s press conferences.

A documentary has been made about life on Manus Island, which shows the centre as quaint and quiet, but also reveals the uncertainty of the detainees. Filmed on a phone, the clips had to be sent bit by bit to the co-director in the Netherlands, the Manus-based co-director wanted a record of what happens on Manus before the centre closes in October. Manus was also rocked by a shooting incident this week, in which Papua New Guinean military staff attempted to break in to the centre armed with guns.

There are concerns that staff working on the NDIS are not familiar enough with some of the disabilities they are meant to be catering plans to. Several plans are missing or omitting vital equipment needed by recipients, and many consults are being done over the phone, leading to suggestions that maybe staff need more training or to meet with recipients face-to-face.

Finally this fortnight, Malcolm Turnbull went to India for bilateral talks; private schools are concerned that they will lose funding from the federal government; Australia has supported the launching of nearly 60 tomahawk missiles by the USA, targeting Assad Government sites in Syria; The Emissions Reduction Fund is running out; and Scott Morrison has been dumped by Ray Hadley for ‘cheating’ on him with ABC Radio in Melbourne.

Tweets of the Fortnight

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Euthanasia debate on Q&A  – ABC Online

Ben Pobjie on John Clarke’s passing – ABC Online

The Two Weeks That Were – March 19 to April 1

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Apologies for the late posting – uni and work has been a bit busy….

The fortnight began with debates on several issues in parliament, including Childcare, company tax, and the Racial Discrimination Act. The Government wanted to pass changes to childcare rebates to allow the lower income earners to have more of their childcare costs covered, which in theory encourages more women to rejoin the workforce. Labor isn’t too thrilled, and the sector has concerns about the legislation, mainly because it cuts rebates to unemployed parents who aren’t actively looking for a job or volunteering.

The government also tried to change the Racial Discrimination Act, in particular the wording to section 18C, but also the process of making and dealing with a complaint. The plan was to change the words in 18C to “offend, insult and humiliate” to the word “harass”. They couldn’t have picked a worse day to introduce the change to parliament – Harmony Day – and Labor made sure to point that out. The wording change did not get through the senate, but the process changes did thanks to the NXT and other cross benchers.

There is still argy bargy over power and energy in South Australia but the real issue now its the fact that the Hazelwood Mine is closing in April. The sector, the South Australian based NXT, and other groups want a plan for what will happen next. The big plans in SA and the Snowy hydro plan will take a few years to sort out, and there will be a shortfall in energy production on the east coast. The government seems to have committed to putting together a plan after they negotiated with the NXT to get their company tax legislation through the senate.

Pensioners now have the option of changing in-home care service providers if they so wish. The federally funded package has introduced ‘portability’ which allows people to take all their services – help to cook, clean, bathe, etc – and move to another provider if they don’t like the current one. Private companies have become involved, and are now in competition with mainly church-run providers, which the government believes will increase competition.

It’s been discovered that many young people don’t know a lot about their superannuation (no kidding). They are unclear about what super options are out there, what kinds of super plans there are and many don’t know how to check their balances. The study has recommended that, given many young people have several different super plans from different jobs, workers should be given one super fund when they join the workforce and be able to take that super fund with them everywhere they go and not be forced to join their employers’ chosen super fund every time they changed jobs.

Also this fortnight, Cyclone Debbie hit the North Queensland coast causing damage and flooding across Queensland and Northern NSW. Floodwaters are still causing issues in Queensland, but is now receding in New South Wales and the clean-up has begun.

Finally this week, there is still hostility between the Liberal and the Labor parties over the Fair Work Commission decision to cut penalty rates; Li Keqiang, the Chinese Premier, paid a visit to Canberra and Sydney to have talks with PM Turnbull and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian; and Julia Gillard has become the new Chairperson of mental health group Beyond Blue, taking over from former Liberal Premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett.

Tweet of the Fortnight

https://twitter.com/LauraKParr/status/845840154971406336

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

People share their experiences of racism – ABC Online

Why Older people are scared of a cashless society – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – September 11 to September 17

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The week began with Malcolm Turnbull’s return to Australia, and his return to dealing with the Opposition and backbenchers, as well as the cross benchers. The week began with the Senate running out of things to do, leading to some strange speeches and discussions – including Bridget McKenzie forgetting the name of a candidate who ran in the election. Also during the week, Pauline Hanson gave her (second) maiden speech, in which she said we were being “swamped by Muslims”, leading to the Greens walking out of the Senate chamber.

This week also marked a year since Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister. The opposition and the government both gave Turnbull a ‘report card’. Since he became Prime Minister, there’s been an election and there are now 14 less Coalition members in Parliament. The opposition did give Malcolm Turnbull a gift though, negotiating and passing over $6 billion of budget savings. Additionally there was a backflip on superannuation, to cater to the Coalition backbench.

The same sex marriage plebiscite has been announced for February 11th, 2017. It will be compulsory to vote, will only require a simple majority to pass, and the yes and no sides of the debate will each get $7.5 million in funding. This however, is only going to happen if the Labor party pass the legislation for the plebiscite, which they are saying they will not do, because they believe it is unnecessary. Meanwhile, critics are pointing out that the ‘no’ campaigners will say things that are hurtful to the LGBTQI community, no matter how ‘civilised’ the government says they will be.

Meanwhile, Stephen Conroy has thrown his party and the country a curveball, resigning quietly on Thursday night, tabling his valedictory speech to the record without reading it aloud because he thought he’d get too emotional. He did it so quietly in fact, that Tanya Plibersek and Bill Shorten didn’t really know what was going on until the media brought it up. Now there’s a push for the person to fill the casual vacancy to be a woman, but we shall have to wait and see what happens in the next few weeks.

Finally this week, there are concerns over defemce uniforms being made in China; and there and questions about what kind of transport should be available to and from the new Badgery’s Creek airport.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Meet the ABC Port Moresby Bureau’s unofficial guard dog – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – August 31 to September 6

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So it’s officially been a year since Tony Abbott became Prime Minister.

Over the last weekend, March in August protests were held run by the March Australia movement. There was thought to be about 5,000 people protesting in Sydney, as well as thousands in other major cities and towns across the country. They’re not happy with the government for quite a few reasons, like the budget, asylum seekers and marriage equality, and they really don’t like Tony Abbott.

Australia will be sending more aid to Iraq to help with the crisis, as well as flying weapons into Iraq to give to the Kurdish fighters. The weapons won’t be Australian, and the flights carrying weapons will land so they know who they’re giving the weapons to. Tony Abbott is justifying the decision by saying that Australia should do what it can to help stop genocide. Bill Shorten isn’t happy that Australians could be in harm’s way but understands that this needs to be done, while the biggest critique has come from both the Greens and Independent Andrew Wilkie, who says that Australia has picked a side and therefore we’re at war and want a debate about whether we send Australians in. Tony Abbott seems to be having a little too much fun scaring people about IS (ISIS/ISIL) and this week has called them a “death cult” – at least they’ve got something to distract people from the budget.

Staying with war zones, Australia will have no new exports or export uranium to Russia, as part of more sanctions being announced by both Australia, the US and the EU. Australia is also setting up a temporary embassy in Kiev (there wasn’t one already?) where police and non-lethal military support will be based along with a few diplomats. Most of them are involved with the investigation into MH17, and will remain there for some time.

This week the Mining Tax repeal passed. The school kids bonus will remain in place until 2016, however the one thing that is upsetting people is that Superannuation increases will not occur until 2021 – in seven years time – which could make people’s super $20,000 worse off. Super experts, the Opposition and workers aren’t too happy and the government is being accused of hypocrisy. It’s thought that this could become an election issue. Tony Abbott also had a hissy fit, saying that the Opposition didn’t accept his mandate.

Criticism has been cast on a Centrelink measure meant to help with income management. Originating in the Northern Territory during the intervention years under John Howard, the Basics Card is being rolled out in other towns with high rates of unemployment and Centrelink payouts. Half the Centrelink payment is put on the card, with the idea being that you spend it on essentials like food and it can’t be used to buy alcohol or cigarettes – two major concerns when the intervention took place. The issue is, most people getting the card in NT were adults in family units, and the card was beneficial because it meant that the kids got food and their parents didn’t spend all the money on alcohol, drugs or cigarettes, whereas the people getting them in other towns are young, childless, singles. There are benefits to not being able to buy alcohol on the card, however the restrictions mean that young people have no freedom on the Basics Card to buy things that they want. People have been finding ways around the Basics Card restrictions and some have resorted to bartering, while other criticisms include the issue with addiction. The card just stops your from buying the alcohol and/or cigarettes, and there are no programs to help with quitting or treating the addiction.

Tony Abbott spent the end of this week in India and Malaysia. In India, Abbott paid respects to those killed in the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks in 2008, had a lunch or breakfast with investors, talked to Mumbai University students about the “Colombo Plan” which allows Indian international students to study in Australia and of course, talked about Australia being “open for business”. He also met with Narendra Modi, signed a deal on uranium trade, with the promise the uranium would only be used for energy purposes, and not for weapons. In Malaysia, Abbott and the Malaysian PM discussed the Malaysian Airlines flights MH370 and MH17, spoke about how Australia and Malaysia were great friends and condemned ISIS. Malaysia, being a Muslim-dominated nation is one nation that the West wants to keep onside.

Unfortunately this week, an asylum seeker passed away from septicemia/sepsis after cutting his foot. It has led to concerns that the Manus Island Detention Centre is ill-equipped and poorly maintained. There is also concern that the asylum seeker may have been mistreated, which the government denies. The Queensland Coroner will hold an inquest and the Immigration Department will also investigate. The opposition wants a fully independent investigation and that all the information be publicly available.

There have been concerns about the number of students doing Maths and Science at school, with the main concern being that Australia could fall behind dramatically. Experts have been suggesting that universities and companies should get involved with education as well as work with each other, as well as the provision of education and training for teachers.

Finally this week, an application at ICAC for a suppression order regarding emails that could be private due to parliament privilege is upsetting journalists, the Royal Commission into Labor’s insulation program returned, critical of the governmental departments in charge of the scheme, the Royal Commission into Child Abuse got more time and money, and we learned that CFMEU construction workers have a tendency to swear to the Trade Union Royal Commission.

Tweet of the Week

You know something has a lot of swearing when ABC News 24 stops the live cross to it:

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Hamish Macdonald reflects on Steven Sotloff, the US journalist killed by ISIS this week – SMH

Jim Middleton leaves the ABC and Australia Network

Not allowing YouTube comments on videos