Dear Hasbeen,

I accept that you regard disagreement with you as total foolishness.

That means that there is no point in exchanging views with you.

Let me fist say, as a Sydneysider I am not bitching from a personal sense of entitlement. In fact, under the Abbott and Hockey ideal I am a Sydney property millionaire, owning my own home and all.

Beach, are you slipping? No reference to the Lefty/Progressives/Trotskyists/Greens. Nothing more that a half heated shot at Silly Billy and gays, In my day the catch cry among the unintelligent was "The wogs got all the houses!" has that in someway shifted to "The gays got all the houses!" or have you just mellowed in your old old age?

The conservatives on the forum will simply back Cocky Joe, of course he could have just as easily said "If you want a house in Sydney or Melbourne why not buy a Lotto ticket and chance your luck." One can not see a better system than Capitalism, something akin to the joys of 19th century England, I'm sure. Fortunately we ditched the ideal of pure capitalism some years ago and mated it with Socialism to produce a hybrid system, which I am happy to support, as is the majority of Australians.

Foxy, I totally agree, Hockey like Abbott, suffers very much from a bad case of 'Foot In Mouth' disease, it can prove fatal for an idiot politician like Hockey. Good point about foreign investors, they thumb their noses at our laws, and in reality the conservatives in power as did Labor, do jack about it.

davidf, you are failing to understand the totally discredited economic theory of Trickle-Down Economics' or "Reaganomics" for short, as expounded by that famous economic expert and Bozo The Clown impersonator, Ronald Reagan. This is how it works; The Billionaire employs you to wipe his ass, and pays you a penny. Eventually, so the theory goes, with hard work, and a lot of wiping, you too will become a billionaire. So if there is no Billionaire to start with, then there is no ass to wipe, and therefore no penny for you. And to expand that to encompass "Hockeyomics" no house in Sydney or Melbourne either.

Of course we shouldn't be surprised at such a comment from this L-plate treasurer.

He's the guy who claims $270 travelling allowance every night he spends in his wife's house in Canberra to pay off her/their mortgage.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-10/hockeys-housing-comments-prompt-call-for-mp-rent-transparency/6536146

He's also rented rooms out to other pollies. Nice little earner if you can wangle it. He should have mentioned that when he was giving advice to aspiring Sydney homeowners - try and wedge it so the taxpayer pays your mortgage.

Perfectly legit you realise - legally if not morally.

Here's some of those high end earners - whoops! - they paid no tax!

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/budget-pain-not-for-millionaires-who-pay-no-tax-20140513-zr9o3.html

"The latest tax statistics show 75 ultra-high-earning Australians paid no tax at all in 2011-12. Zero. Zip.
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Each earned more than $1 million from investments or wages. Between them they made $195 million, an average of $2.6 million each.

The fortunate 75 paid no income tax, no Medicare levy and no Medicare surcharge, even though 60 of them had private health insurance.

The reason? They managed to cut their combined taxable incomes to $82. That’s right, $1.10 each."

And again more recently.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tax-office-statistics-reveal-the-55-millionaires-who-paid-no-tax-20150429-1mw2zp.html

"Fifty-five of Australia's highest earners paid no income tax at all during 2012-13, not even the Medicare levy.

All earning at least $1 million, they managed to write their taxable incomes down to below the $18,200 tax-free threshold, although for most the exercise was expensive.

Tax statistics released Wednesday reveal that 40 of them claimed an extraordinary $42.5 million for the "cost of managing tax affairs" meaning they each paid an average of $1 million to an adviser prepared to help to bring down their taxable income, which is itself a tax deduction.

Between them they reported earning $129.5 million, an average of $2.3 million. By the time their accountants had finished with them they reported losing a combined $12.8 million."

DavidF,

It should make sense to you: no big money, no investment - no jobs.

As Hasbeen pointed out, the rich do pay most of the tax. A few try to, and sometimes do, avoid tax. But the number who do is highly exaggerated by the Left (who also do very well from the rich, and many of the Left are also rich) and the envious who think someone else should do for them what they cannot do themselves. I think you will find that most of the tax avoiders are tradies, taxi-drivers, the self-employed etc. Not all of them, of course.

You were right to mention the GST as a tax paid by the rest of us as well as the rich. Apart from the necessities of life, we do have some control over what we spend, so we can 'avoid' some of that tax. Unfortunately, it is the not so well off who are the big spenders on luxury goods - general on the never-never.

Nevertheless, I will repeat my feeling that Hockey is an insensitive rich man who should not be treasurer, or a politician of any kind. There are better men and women than he is who cannot afford their own home. I will also say that, as a conservative, I will not be voting for the coalition next election for various reasons; one of which is my opinion that the Abbott/Hockey government has been be hard on less well off Australians. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Most Australian politicians are good for nothings interested only in themselves.

ttbn,

"Nevertheless, I will repeat my feeling that Hockey is an insensitive rich man who should not be treasurer, or a politician of any kind. There are better men and women than he is who cannot afford their own home. I will also say that, as a conservative, I will not be voting for the coalition next election for various reasons; one of which is my opinion that the Abbott/Hockey government has been be hard on less well off Australians. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Most Australian politicians are good for nothings interested only in themselves."

Interesting - and a further attestation that this particular govt has overstepped the bounds of decency, and is in fact a rabid outfit of far right wing ideologues.

When we read articles like this from Amanda Vanstone, titled "Lazy, sneaky or both: what were you thinking, Prime Minister?":

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/lazy-sneaky-or-both-what-were-you-thinking-prime-minister-20150607-ghho0v?skin=smart-phone

And even more notable is this from the IPA:

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/09/right-wing-thinktank-ipa-denounces-coalitions-sole-citizenship-proposal?CMP=share_btn_tw

"Libertarian thinktank IPA denounces Coalition's sole citizenship proposal"

"The Liberal party’s ideological allies in the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) have called on the government to rule out a minister stripping sole nationals of their Australian citizenship, saying this would be “an outrageous attack on the rule of law”.

Simon Breheny, director of the IPA’s legal rights project, also called for the coming legislation dealing with dual nationals to include a comprehensive judicial review process so that a person could challenge the case."

Let's hope that when the detritus of this govt is finally swept away, the right can get back to its solid foundations and produce a crop of pollies less extremist.

Most jobs in Australia come from business not trickle down money from the rich. The rich could be taxed much more and not suffer.

Like Paul1204 I am a property millionaire living in our mortgage-free house amid some beautiful acreage. We have parrots, kookaburras, butcher birds, koalas, dragon lizards and other wildlife to enjoy on the property.

I get US dollars from the US government, the US military, Philips Corporation and the University of Pennsylvania. My wife gets pensions from Denmark, Norway and Germany. The money buys much more in Australia than it would in its countries of origin. Economic mismanagement has depressed the Australian dollar. I am 89 and take no medication. Life is very good for me in Australia. I am here because my wife grew up and went to university in Australia before she left for Europe. She wanted to come home when I retired in 1987.

I feel very sorry for the less fortunate Australians who have bought the goods that Abbott and his wrecking crew are selling, and the other Australians who have not bought the goods but are still suffering.