Once again, some of the blokes at our barbeque got onto the state of the world, but this time, the whole lot, ladies as well as the blokes, are PI55ED off with Swanny, & Julia. This is for their attempt to have the states give a new subsidy to those lucky pensioners, who have scored public housing. The general opinion was an annoyance that labor always seem to want to do most for those who take least responsibility for themselves.

The three single pensioners in private rental housing, are paying almost double the rent that the public housing pensioners pay, & find themselves paying ever increasing state government charges to subsidise these lucky folk. They strongly resent any action likely to disadvantage them even further.

Then the home owners started doing a bit of math. It was a bit of a shock. After the huge increases in rates, insurance, & other charges we have had recently, we are paying almost pensioner public housing rental, before we even start to cover general maintenance.

As a matter of fact, we single pensioner home owners found we all have homes falling into disrepair, as we can no longer do some of the work ourselves, & do not have the money to pay for these things to be done. This is not so bad for couples it appears, but one recently widowed lady is quite worried, trying to make ends meet, now she is on the single pension. She is blaming no one but herself, but now preaches, "insure your partner before it's too late" to anyone who will listen.

Don't get me wrong. We are all very pleased with our pension system, & think the increase has been most gererous. We just don't see that we, or anyone else, for that matter, should have to pay more in government charges, so public housing tenants can be much better off than the rest of us.

The general opinion was an annoyance that labor always seem to want to do most for those who take least responsibility for themselves.

Unfortunately hasbeen that is life. Work hard, make sacrifices due to education expenses and what not, then get left on the scrap heap.

As I have often said, one is better off pissing all their money against the wall because at least then you will be looked after and that seems to apply no matter what government we have in power.

Evidence of this is in the fact that a former criminal is being provided with free public housing. Sometimes at as much as $4,000 per week.

We were once 'the lucky country', but now we are on an ever increasing 'down hill spiral'.

Our health system is getting ever closer to third world standards, many of our teachers are foriengers who themselves speak 'broken english' and we have a rappidly increasing population (mainly imigrants) and declining workforce to pay taxes.

Our new government is introducing new awards which will effect many workers overtime, which in turn will mean less people will pay possitive taxes, which means less income for the system, while more will be drawing from the system.

I guess the only comfort we can draw is that we were not born two or three generations from now as I hold grave fears for my kid's kids.

Hasbeen it is the way that both parties have operated for decades.They will punish the hard working majority in order to secure votes from minority groups.

We need and new political force in this country,since both the major parties occupy the same whore house.

I think you are all missing the point. What is happening is that some states are not increasing the rents on public housing after the $30 increase in pensions to ensure that the quality of life for pensioners is not reduced. For couples most of their measly rise would be absorbed by rental increases.

There has been much campaigning from pensioners over the last decade about how difficult it is to pay for basic food and bills -we've all seen the stories. I have dealth with many of these pensioner through work.

In the past rents went up with pension rises as a matter of course because the rents are calculated as a percentage of income. In the latest rounds given the poor state of pensioner living and lack of redress over many years the states are being encouraged not to increase the rents for at least one year or more.

Pensioners who rent private housing also receive rental assistance. Personally I think all pensioners should get a better deal whether in private or public housing, particularly with regard to fairer indexation of Super pensions.

If you are worried about wasting taxpayers money don't pick on the most vulnerable there are many better causes you could choose to spend your time in terms of government waste.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2009/s2698813.htm

http://www.finance.gov.au/superannuation/pension-indexation-review.html

And before the usual accusations fly: No we are not pensioners, we earn a comfortable living, we have no debts, we receive no money from governments and we rarely qualify for government handouts.

"The general opinion was an annoyance that labor always seem to want to do most for those who take least responsibility for themselves."

What else should we expect,

it is just the socialist swill paying off their voter base and expressing their contempt and loathing of anyone who had the foresight, character and ability to fund at least part of their own future.

Funny, then, that the general opinion isn't represented in the general voting pattern.

It's almost like Australian conservatives are so unable to see beyond their ideology that they'll go with any desperate excuse rather than acknowledge the faults in their reasoning. Sounds silly, I know.