Albanese had better watch how he spends our money on bribes, which are not earned like the Age Pension.

In the same article, Baume reminds us - and hopefully Albanese - that, of the 94 Labor MPs elected, only 8 were voters' first choice (despite the bribes and big spending).

Yes. Not a single one of the 28 Liberal MPs left standing were first choices for voters. But there is no chance of them governing in the foreseeable future; they are still expressing self-love/self interest: many of them bemoaning either their lack of inclusion in the shadow cabinet, or if they got a job with the extra bucks, it isn't important enough for them.

There is absolutely nothing to like about our politicians, nor our bizarre voting system.

Now that Elon Musk is finished with DOGE in America, he could be hired to run a rule over the Australian bureaucracy.

In the US, it was found that over 15 million people over the age of 120 years were on the security rolls - when the oldest person in America is 114.

Over $300 million in small business loans had been given out to people under the age of 11, with the youngest recipient a nine-month-old baby.

2.4 million federal employees had 4.6 million government credit cards.

Social Security numbers issued to non-citizens surged from 270,000 in 2021 to 2.1 million in 2024.

We all knew about USAID.

Dutton was going to have Jacinta Price checking up on spending and graft. We can only wonder what she would have found. We will probably never find out now, with no hope of a replacement for Labor anytime soon.

Wasn't superannuation meant to be a saving to financially assist us in retirement? Isn't the idea that you are supposed to draw down on that to live more comfortably? It was never intended to become a tax dodge to enable wealthy people to leave an even bigger inheritance to their kids?

Que the braying chorus now of money hungry, selfish capitalists.

Quite simple really ! Put the Govt top-up on Super into the pension fund. Super should only be for those who are on good pay in the first place & who want more money at hand in retirement.
As it is now, the Govt Super contributions are higher than the pension. The balance is out the window. There should also be a Govt lottery in which a wage for life can be won & a lottery for standard homes to be won. That would put a massive dent into inflation at no extra cost.

It is now clear that the compulsory super scheme (there is no compulsion in other countries) is just another pot of gold for the Socialists to tax. While all ex-politicians should be ignored, it's interesting to note that Paul Keating - whose baby it was under the Hawke government - is white hot with rage at the Albanese outrage.

However, the adage that people get the government they vote for (and serve them right) has never been truer. And there is nothing to be done. The Albanese gangsters can't be stopped now that idiots have given them full control of both Houses.

Don't be fooled by the usual assurances that it's only the rich - those with $3 million or more put away - who will be affected. Everyone will eventually be ripped off.

There is no longer a credible opposition, and even if there is one in the future, governments never give up on easy money.

The idea is to give a reasonable standard of living to all Australians in their retirement. Under the present system, some are doing very well and others are not. The first group are those owning their own home, therefore not paying rent, this group have reasonable assets including cars etc and a generous amount of money in the bank, they can in many circumstances draw a full means tested Aged Pension. The second group who struggle, are those for whatever reason retired with basically nothing, no savings, paying rent, living fortnight to foresight.

By all accounts superannuation has to be 15% of average weekly earnings, over ones whole working life to provide a reasonable standard of living in retirement, anything less is substandard. With the average life expectancy for aged pensioners now in the high 80's, and increasing, with the numbers claiming a pension due to ageing population also increasing at around 6% pa, its not unreasonable to increase the pensionable age to 70, and index it at 6 months per year, at least to the age of 75. A tightening of the means test for the well off pensioner is also in order.