In sneeringly arrogant costello's budget the liberal voters and liberal donors got most of the tax breaks as I see it. The same at election time the bribes - as some so cruelly call them - will go to marginal seats and those loyal coalition voters,those who like being paid for their vote as some have very nastily said.
I am a 70 plus pensioner who did not have super in my working days and who now along with others must subsist on around $200 a week about the same amount that sneering arrogant costello and his miserable, mean-spirited, uncaring ilk pay for their lattes with tasty cakes. Yes we pensioners who laid the foundation for this nation's wealth - NOT sneering, arrogant costello - get hungry and cold so need to eat and heat. Also we have to purchase fuel for our vehicles. All this and more at the same prices those who get $1,000 a week. But pensioners don't matter in this age of wonderful national prosperity. Oh there's some mention of a once only munificent grant to us bloody useless parasitical wrinklies. This munificent grant would be the price of a sneering, arrogant mean spirited, uncaring costello lunch. BIG BLOODY DEAL! At least they haven't got us sweeping the streets or cutting the grass on nature strips for our miserable pensions YET! numbat (A cast aside whingeing aged pensioner)PS And it's not only the liberals who do not care it's all of you well-fed selfish workers as well.

Numbat, I'm one of those "selfish" workers you're having a go at. Too young for the pension, yet too old to find full time employment. I exist most weeks on little more than the pension (which is a little higher than the $200 you mentioned) and am forced to sign a two monthly contract just to keep my miserable part time job. It's due again at the end of the month , but I'm not sure just what it will contain this time since John Howards IR reforms have come into play. To top this off, being single and with an income just enough to keep me from getting a "low income" Health Care card, I get no concessions on my car rego, house and land rates, telephone, doctors bills...the list goes on, but I'm sure you get the idea. I also live in a remote area, so don't see a soul unless I'm at work. The threat of having no job looms ever larger as Government policies force more older people like myself onto the dole. They know ageism is rampant, but when they're forcing the disabled to look for work, we'll get no sympathy from the Liberals. However, I do see your point. It's the truly greedy workers who are helping to create a society where you have to keep the big end of town happy. They think they're immune to unemployment and look down their noses at people like you and I, but the growth=wealth mentality cannot keep on forever. A major crash is coming and those same people whi have to keep up with the "Jones" will come to realise the folly of their big spending ways.

And to make matters worse, the big 'mining boom' is being exploited by not Australian, but foreign companies. Although they may be paying royalties and tax, guess where the profits are going - again, no long term strategy for the nations wealth in natural resources.

This is starting to sound like those commercial TV current affairs programs..

I agree whole-heartedly with all the above posts.

The Rodent should be using this (temporary) boom windfall for long term nation-building and not frittering it away on populist vote-buying.

History will probably judge him on the basis of lost opportunity rather than longevity in office.

It's getting too late in my working life to get excited about most of these changes but it's my children I am worried about.

I'm fearing the day when most of us get squeezed between interest rates going up at the same time wages go down and when the boom ends...?

Lindsay - love your work !! I wish you were a contender for "that job".

Couldn't agree more Wobbles. As more and more rich people at the top of the heap own more and more of our assets, rental properties and continue to force the price of housing beyond the reach of ordinary working class people, it's our grandchildren I worry about. What sort of life are we leaving for them?? By the time they reach adulthood, they'll be staring at a plundered landscape where nothing is owned by the public. That one percent of the worlds super rich will own it all. Unfortunately, no Government is going to put the brakes on this pillaging of our National assets. The Snowy Hydro scheme will be the worst disater of all. As with the privatisation of our other assets, the only thing that will happen is that the Government will get richer at the expense of ordinary Australians while we pay ever increasing electricity costs to a foriegn company. The major political parties won't be satisfied until they hold the population to ransom. They'll then have a slave society totally dependant on the crumbs they have to work hard for simply to susrvive. Big business is bad business. I'm so glad I'm not a child growing up in this greedy "New World Order."

Wildcat.

You are so correct. I am on a disability support pension 25% of average weekly male earnings.

I too am worried about the future of kids in Australia. We will have a population of renters, those who are unable to buy thier own homes. Of course the landlords will love this new feudalism.

I am watching question time in the house of reps as I type this. Do our political leaders have any comprehension of living in this country. I think not.

We need a Government who governs, not one that plays party political games at every opportunity.

I am fortunate to have my own home, in-between the mullock heaps of open cut mineing. The towns of the whole shire do not benefit from the mining industry, as they are just dormitories for the mine workers, with just a few who have their families living locally and contributing to the local economy.

I have survived on less than the age pension. I did have part-time, casual work up until 2 years ago, but I quit that, because of my state of mind & difficulty budgeting my Income & expenditure. When my car broke down, I have left it sitting in the shed, gathering dust, for past 15 months. I pay into a health fund, I took up when working full-time, try to grow a few vegetables, which has been impossible in our recent summer. Saved up for a new computer, and never regretted purchasing .

Nothing in this years budget to encourage me to seek work in that field, of selfless work caring for aged, disabled persons in the community. To receive just 40cents in the dollar out of the extra income, before purchasing petrol,[which works out at over $6.00AU per gallon, compared to USA residents paying up to $3.00US, we are a lot worse off in comparison.]

Prior to working in Age Care, I was out west working in a country Abattoir, processing sheep & goat the halal method for the export frozen meat trade. [now days the majority of their workers are sponsored, overseas workers]
Before that, 6 years of travel in the winter months 200klm per day to sort & pack citrus, where I did not gain anything, just wore my car and myself out. Summertime I got hassled, to get to work, find a job! Nothing in the government’s budget to endear me to any political party.

I wonder if the forum administrator will forward these posts to a parliamentarian? Go on mate do it live a little. I mean what can they do to you except throw you in jail. But perhaps you are a liberal if so then you wouldn't be game I should think. numbat

Numbat.

Should just send it to The Business Council of Australia. Parliaments a joke, could not even get a quorum this afternoon. Sheesh.

The budget handed down on May 9 is the most wonderful that I have seen since 1977, when Joe Bjelke-Petersen, Premier and Treasurer of Queensland, brought one down which abolished death duties.

This current budget will hopefully set the policy frameworks to combat the greatest medium-term threat facing Australia - that sometime in the next few years our foreign debt will be called in.

Having done the hard yards in eliminating government debt, the Howard government has now set out to eliminate private debt, which can be almost as devastating. By making it pay to save, something that has not been possible for at least fifty years, the Howard government may be able to create several hundred billion of additional savings over the next few years that will re-assure our foreign creditors and dissuade them form foreclosing on us.

I have always been amazed why our left-wing financial advisers, whose policy is to borrow and spend with no thought for tomorrow have so little regard for President Bush, considering as how he pursues the same policy.

The Keating government's additude to superannuation was typical Labor; force someone to do something that it did not pay them to do. The result was that people only put in to super the mimimum that was required. With the Howard government reducing the super savings tax rate to 15% by eliminating the tax on withdrawals, there is no limit the the savings people can make, and the age group from 50-60, instead of frittering their surplus income on imports, can save it in super.

The only question about the budget is whether it has been in time, and whether we can reduce our foreign debt enough to satisfy our creditors when the crisis hits. Only a financial genius can know when the current situation, where the United States in borrowing $US 3 billion a day, will be considered unsustainable.

The Howard government deserves to be re-elected solely on its actions concerning superannuation, without even considering the reforms it has made in industrial relations.

Budget Envy?

Plurdsus, it's all very nice and well for those like you (I'm assuming) that can afford to put away a little extra for retirement, but what about those on invalid pensions, some of whom are being forced to look for work by the uncaring and inhuman Howard led Government? What about those who will lose their jobs thanks to inhuman IR (so called) reform? What about those who because of age, mental illness or any other reason are not part of the workforce and have little to look forward to in retirement? I do agree with you on one point though and that's the need to reduce personal debt, but how do people on Government support manage that little trick when they sometimes have to rack up a credit card debt simply to put food on the table. The little people are hurting Plerdsus and if you're fortunate enough not to be one of them, then good luck to you, but eventually I believe you'll see the folly of your support for the Howard Government, especially when your place at the top of the heap begings to crumble. Never forget the little man Plerdsus. They are many and it's their hand that hold you up in the world. Lose their support and you'll come crashing down too.

Alan Grey: Budget envy? - no! just bloody poor in a rich nation that I helped build. Who knows Alan my taxes may have assisted in educating yourself, perhaps going by your selfish unthinking post - a bloody waste of money. numbat

What a bunch of winging bludgers.
I am on the pension, with no extra income, but no debts either. Having heard all the bitching from people like you, I was amazed at just how generous the pension is, when I started recieving it.
As one of Bob Hawk's "silly old buggers", I started late, & still had kids to educate, when I reached 65, so no savings, or big super,
but so what? The pension is not too hard to live on.
If you leave $250 in the bank each fortnight, it will pay all your bills, & leave a bit for a tap washer, or a can of paint, when required. It'll even buy a set of spark plugs for your car, although it won't stretch to a lot of petrol.
It won't pay for much alcohol, or tobacco, either, but why should it? Its a safty net, not a country club membership.
Did I hear the bleating of an "invalid" pensioner? Probably like the ones around here. They'll do any work for "cash in hand", but don't ask them to do any work for pay thet may be taxed.
Us oldies had it much easier than the kids of today, so crawl back
into your box, & stop trying to bludge off the kids, you peanuts.

Hasbeen: You miserable old git - fall over and get up yourself. Numbat

Mr Hasbeen, you tell us about the miracles you are able to conjure from your pension - "it will pay all your bills, & leave a bit for a tap washer, or a can of paint". Do you consider courtesy and respect as luxuries that exist only for members of your mythical country club?

You say you still had kids to educate when you started on the pension. My fear is that you might have taught them all you know.

Hasbeen

You comment "Did I hear the bleating of an "invalid" pensioner? Probably like the ones around here. They'll do any work for "cash in hand", but don't ask them to do any work for pay thet may be taxed." is very offensive.

Are you insinuating that being on a disability support pension means you are ripping the system off?

I am on a DSP because I have leukaemia, I will not live long enough to qualify for the Age Pension.

Our Government is using greed and envy to bolster thier political ends.

Hasbeen.

I am confused, you seem to be an expert on living on a pension when in March of this year you stated:

"I have an investment of over $7000 in my tanks & pumps for this domestic water. I have a further investment of $2400 in a "grey" water system, for my garden. The cost of maintenance, & operation of these systems is roughly equal to urban water rates. All this investment was achieved on a little less than the average income."

I also note you have been an employer in the past, what happened to your business?

An employer a less than average income or a pensioner? My Frog Poo detector is twitching.

Steve, yes I have been an employer, & a very good one, but at that young age, I was not much of a business man, & often took home, less than most of the employees.
I bought my first house when I was 20, with my dads guarantee for the loan. It was about the cheepest house in Sydney, a 4 room cottage, with an outside toilet, a fuel stove, & a chip [wood] bath heater. But I had an asset, which appreciated. The value of that land today, is probably equal to my net worth.
After many changes in my life, I found myself managing a tourist opperation which required long hours from all the employees.
All the staff, including me, earned around half what wage employees did, with penalty rates in a seven day, 18 hours a day business.
They were lucky. Very few in that industry did, or do, earn the average wage.
I spent 12 of my last 15 working years, running a couple of small companies, of a group of 8 companies south of Brisbane. No one there earned anything like the average wage. When the parent company went broke our long service disappeared, & there was no redundancy, in fact we were lucky to get our holiday pay.
For the next three years I earned $12 an hour, as a casual laborer when I could get it, on a horse stud, an egg farm, & a turf farm.
Believe me, going on the pension was a relief, & I didn't drop much income.
As my kids were into horses, I had bought a cheep, run down property, in the Wolffdene area, & when the dam was canned, spent a lot of money bringing it up to standard, over quite a few years.
How did I do it? I don't drink, smoke, or gamble. I do all my own maintenance around the place, & on my 26 year old car.
Life's a ball, if you stop feeling sorry for yourself. Give it a go, you might be supprised.

Hasbeen, I admire what you've done. Don't get me wrong, but you have something that a lot do not have and that's a quaranteed income for life...the aged pension. People on Newstart have a very different outlook on life. Ageism is rampant in many parts of Australia and for some, they're regarded as being too old to find employment, yet too young for the pension. Their lives are made miserable by a inhumane and uncaring Government who force them to jump through Centrelink's hoops. It's degrading and humiliating. I've been there as I struggled to pay my way through a nursing course. All I got for my troubles is a very uncertain future whereby my short term contract for the only work I can find in the area is constantly under threat by an employer who openly despises older workers. He wants them replaced by young "puppets" and there's not a damned thing we can do about it. As a casual a couple of years back, I saw first hand what Centrelink can do to a person in that "twilight" age group. Centrelink pushes them until they crack and end up attempting self harm. Yipee!! Now they're off Newstart and onto sickness benefits. Big bloody deal!! All that gets them is the knowledge that soon they'll be pumped full of chemicals and thrown back on the scrapheap at Centrelink again. What a hidious way to live out the last of your pre pension life. Paid taxes all their lives in some cases and struggling to simply stay alive, let alone live a decent existance. And Steve, you hang in there. There are some who appreciate your struggle. Keep up the fight.

Has been.

You have had a fortunate life. And I am glad you are having a ball. You are fortunate that your property is less than 2 hectares or you will have to sell it to qualify for the pension. I have worked for 30 years being paid well in the Television industry as a videotape editor. I did not buy a house until I was 40 and had it paid off by the time I was 44.

I then moved to the sunshine coast and built the house I live in just before GST. It cost me $175,000 in six years it is worth $500,000. In other words if I was to buy the same house the mortgage payments would have increased $600 per week.

I am fortunate to see my asset increasing in value, but I see the social dislocation this is causing. We are creating two societies in Australia. One with nothing but envy the other with nothing but contempt.

The budget super changes mean that people cannot retire at 55 as self funded retirees. It is not economically viable, so another 5 years to get the tax concessions why does the tax cut in at sixty when the availability of super is 55. More tricky and mean.

I do not feel sorry for myself, I have had a wonderful life, just not as I planned. I hope you keep your health, your attitude may change if you do not.

Steve, Hasbeen tells us he has 20 acres in one of his earliest postings. not under 2 hectares. Also, if you join the Airforce at 15 and retire after 30 years, you are entitled to an Airforce Pension. Not every young man has a generous dad who can afford to lend him the money to buy a house. Our governments intend to privatise most things, including education, transport and hospitals. Already the cooks and cleaners are contract workers for Army, Airforce, and Navy at least on land. They will still tax us the same level, just shuffle the papers around, and expect us to do for ourselves with what remains.

Has Beanie been telling us Porkies?

My property is about 19 acres, but fortunately, it is not as yet, valuable enough, to prevent me qualifying for the pension.
It is one of my worries, but if it happens, I will sell the place, & move west.
I do not want to move. I have spent 14 years getting the place as I want it, but the Qld government may yet force me to. Under their new plan, I am not allowed to subdivide, [& sell 16.5 acres], & the value of the lot, may rise to where I loose some, if not all pension.
Wildcat, I have had my experience with centrelink. I lost my job, just before my 62Nd birthday. Although they are kinder to the over 60s, I did not like what I saw, & went out & found work.
Not many people realy want a 62 years old laborer, which was all I could get, but, as the local younger ones, prefered to put up with rubbish, & get the payment, I found enough to get by. I realy did object to paying tax on my earnings, when they were rarely more than the benefit payment, which, I am told, is tax free.
My father did not loan me money, but he had to go guarantor, so the bank would.
I'm not sure about my health either. I had a heart attack in February, but recieved prompt, & excellent treatment from Qld Health.
After all the horror stories, I did not expect that. They appear to have given me an overhaul, making me better than before.
An old mate of mine uesd to say "Its no good getting old, if you don't get lucky", so may be, I'm lucky. But then the other one says "the harder you work, the luckier you get", so, perhaps I deserve it

Hasbeen.

The over 2 hectares relates to the income test not the assets test. It is deemed that you have a property large enough to produce income (ie agisting horses).

You should not qualify for the OAP, maybe you are worse that those invalids working for cashies.