There should be reform, and also increase to unemployment benefit, but there would be such an uproar from business and the right it wouldn't even get up in parliament. I imagine the only change we will see will be like the recent rise in age pension, vote bribes for the grey set rather than well-balanced policy that protects ALL disadvantaged people and does not make a distinction about how they got there. By the way, pensioners are not most disadvantaged, only a few don't own their home, many have money in the bank and investments. so ease back on your whinging guys its only a small number of you that are genuinely vulnerable compared to the other poror.

the words pi**ing and wind come to mind tristan - not that I dont agree with you -

but no ones moves on a policy front unless there is an opportunity - (msybe Gahndi was an exception ) either to garner praise, win an electon, entrench a position - to look like you have done the right thing after a tragedy - wait and see the dust fly in the after math of the Bush Fire Royal Commission in Victoria - we will have policies regarding all manner of things fire tree and house related - they are already upon us in some instances -

Protection of the vulnerable and needy is a very low priority - culturally and politically - if the community doesnt care - neither will the policy makers - and sadly a whole lot of the community dont care at all

I think the CPSA (Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Society) makes a pretty good go at representing all pensioners - especially the most disavdvanged... The key, though - ultimately - is to mobilise the full breadth of the pensioner demographic.

It would be good to see the unemployed, disability pensioners, students - and others - mobilising in major cities in the run-up to the Budget...

The first step is solidarity... This can be expressed through publications, web-sites, petitions, public meetings, rallies, marginal seats campaigns...

And certainly I think 'GetUp' with (I think) around 300,000 members, could really 'get the ball rolling'... I might send them an email myself actually...

Don't give up on the broader pensioner demographic yet... There's still some while before the next Budget..

sincerely,

Tristan

Good article Tristan.
Might I suggest the greatest hurdle which desperately needs to be faced over the next few years of recessionary hardship, will be monetary reform.
Credit cards are going to max out. Most of these people may have bought a TV or DVD on these cards sometime in the past, but now they just buy groceries with them. The way these things are set up, this means they will effectively be paying up to 19% interest on food and necessities.
This is outrageous. Interest payments are nothing more or less than a penalty for being poor, paid to the rich.

sneekeepete ....Why do you think anything will happen after the current Royal Commission .........nothing happened after the last five ?
The big problem with Bush Fires is they are not an annual event so easily forgotten by our community and those charged with a response .
6 bad fires since 1923 compared at a Political level to the Road Toll Fires are a non event .

The General Public has absolutely no interest , for example , in Bendigo a Home in Hargreaves ST. one of the main city access Streets has a house totally surrounded by dead shrubs , trees and vines on timber trellis fixed to the timber fence and House , difficult to estimate the weight prob. 3 to 4 tons not counting the abundant dead weeds plus the weather board house !
The Golden Square Fire Brigade is approx opposite over the Bendigo Crk the Mayors House is about 3 Chain down Hargreaves St opposite .
How is this possible ? Only a drunk with a cig. butt is reqd for more tragedy and awe , more fodder for the feel sorry brigade another POP concert the only response .
Either there is no one charged with fire assessment in Bendigo ?
Or someone has forgotten their job description .

Readers who claim most aged pensioners are 'well off' might get something from the excerpt below as well...+

see:

http://www.apo.org.au/webboard/comment_results.chtml?filename_num=266245

"Recent research has found a substantial proportion of older Australians living in poverty (23.9 per cent), but the poverty rate for single older people – at 46.5 per cent in 2008–09 – is the highest of any group. Many of these are living on government benefits (about 73 per cent of them), with little or no ability to supplement their income through part time work. This means it is imperative to ensure that the benefit provided to single aged pensioners provides an adequate standard of living."

Trust the old sneekmeister on this one Shaz - there will be a plethora of policies - the latest one suggested all but directs new houses to be built out of tungsten or some other non flamable material!

Am I not saying what comes from it will be rational, effective or appropriate I am just saying there will be a lot of action - for those in power to seem to be doing something - thats all

This article is mere unweaned squalling for the teat. Before any wealth can be re-distributed, someone must first engage in productive activity.

There can be nothing more selfish than trying to get something for nothing by urging the government to take it from someone else. Yet this infantile sense of entitlement to something for nothing underlies every single socialist policy and is ultimately is all that socialism has to offer.

This economic illiteracy then does not understand that the destruction of wealth has consequences: it makes people poor!

Has it ever occurred to you that there might be some connection between the fact that government takes 40 percent of what the people earn every day, and the fact that hundreds of thousands of Australians reach old age broke? And then the same economic illiterates who caused the problem in the first place have the gall to suggest it should be fixed by taxing the rising generation even more!

Grim
"Interest payments are nothing more or less than a penalty for being poor, paid to the rich."

That is mere economic illiteracy too. So $100 today should be worth the same as the same $100 in 50 years time, should it.

You should be ashamed of your ignorance, not flaunting it like something clever.

Claims of 'economic illiteracy' are a resort of those of seek to avoid moral issues by claim of 'expert opinion'.

Such claims are also designed to deceive workers and vulnerable people of their real interests - to confuse them with jargon - that they consent to impverishment and exploitaiton.

Charmaine Crowe's core proposals, though, would only cost around $3 billion. And even if this was broadened significantly - and cost over $10 billion - it would be less than 1% of GDO...

The point: the measures I suggest are not beyond our means. As I said before - remember the economy is valued at over $1 trillion. Why then the Scrooge attitude?

And as for the moral aspects - the genuinely disabled; carers, those who cannot find work even with the imposition of an activity test - why should these people pay the price? Removal of superannuation concessions favouring the rich - could save billions....

So again - don't be deceived. Look at the moral aspect. And look at the underlying interests...

“This article is mere unweaned squalling for the teat. Before any wealth can be re-distributed, someone must first engage in productive activity.”

The article specifically targets pensioners, who -presumably- have spent their entire working lives in productive activity. It's even possible that a couple of them may have produced you, Wing ah Hume.

“There can be nothing more selfish than trying to get something for nothing by urging the government to take it from someone else.”

I have an 'ignite' credit card, which costs me exactly nothing. No yearly fees, no transaction fees, nothing. PROVIDED, of course, I pay off the full amount every month. How can Westpac bank afford to offer this free service?
By charging interest on the transactions of all those people who cannot afford to buy such luxuries as food, and housing and clothes.
Can there be anything more selfish than the rich being directly subsidised by the poor?

“That is mere economic illiteracy too. So $100 today should be worth the same as the same $100 in 50 years time, should it.”
Yes.
In fact, the Austrian School (Wing has perhaps heard of them?) has often advocated a return to the gold standard, as a means of controlling inflation. The other fork, of course, in controlling inflation and the money supply, is the issue of interest free credit, by the GOVERNMENT, and an end to the (contentious) practice of fractional -and post fractional- banking, whereby banks can create far more money than the Mint, out of thin air.
Can there be anything more selfish than getting something for nothing?
Look up monetary reform, -as proposed by many adherents to the Austrian school.
Tristan,
“So again - don't be deceived. Look at the moral aspect. And look at the underlying interests...”
Hear, hear. All the elitist policies of the arch and anarcho capitalists and free marketeers fail the first test of morality: “how would you feel, if it was you...”

It's hard to imagine the hardship that people living on pensions live under because you rarely mix with people outside your social group and the lone Newstart recipient you know isn't likely to bore you with the details of the intrusive, draconian and incompetent micromanagement that Centrelink foists on their Newstart 'clients'.

A more enlightened management regime would free up Centrelink staff and release their clients from the stress of micromanaged scrutiny so that they can retain their self esteem and confidence and perhaps develop an alternative to living on Newstart Allowance which pays half the poverty line.

Dear readers;

Just letting you know that I'm republishing this article on my personal blog as well as here.

If you're interested, I urge you to take a look there. Some of the work there is republished from OLO - some is original...

Importantly - I want to encourage debate - and to keep my blog 'relevant'...

Also: I'm looking to accept submissions for the blog from like-minded friends and readers who are capable writers.

And genuine - even critical -debate is welcome - (but no trolling pls)

So - hoping to see your there:

Left Focus: http://leftfocus.blogspot.com/

Serious tinkering around the edges of the monetarists' systemic breakdown. Once the bail-out pork turns to full hyperinflationary tsunami, how many 1923 Reichsmarks will the fake-left Fabians call for as an acceptable pension?

No wonder Ewins' article is backed by a cheerleader for "the Austrian school": the same monetarist nutters that brought us the globalizing free-trade scam in the first place! And "the Gold Standard" puke; another oblique plug for the Brown-Greenspan scam of an IMF bankers dictatorship with a Keynes-style "globally neutral" currency ("neutral" for the imperialists themselves, that is). And backed by none other than mega-speculator Soros - who'd have guessed?

Bankruptcies NOW - scrap the financiers' fake and oppressive debts! And ditch the pampered, fake "leftists" who keep selling out the workers.