Big business groups are already out attacking out our #ChangeTheRules campaign.— Australian Unions (@unionsaustralia) March 11, 2018
RT if you think workers need more secure jobs and a wage rise. #auspol pic.twitter.com/NPNIwAku86
Tuesday 13 March 2018
FAIR GO 101: It's Time To Change The Rules
Tuesday 12 December 2017
"What alternate universe does the Australian Treasurer inhabit?
In the 2017 September quarter households were spending less on clothing, footware, health, furnishings, household equipment, entertainment, dining out and alcohol - as the pressure on disposable income bites.
Tuesday 11 July 2017
Can't live on the wage you bring home but can't get a raise from the boss? Here's the reasons why
Thursday 15 June 2017
Blind ignorance and political opportunism continue to rule the federal corridors of power
Wednesday 31 May 2017
As utility bills get harder and harder to manage for those on low incomes, this comes as a slap in the face
Households are expected to pay up to $300-$400 more a year, with the rise in wholesale electricity prices making up est. 45 per cent of a domestic supply bill.
Tuesday 4 April 2017
Turnbull Government's $75 & $125 bribes appear to have earned it nothing but falling poll numbers
The Australian, 3 April 2017:
Wednesday 22 March 2017
GAS SHORTAGE! GAS SHORTAGE!: Why on earth do you think we would believe you now, Malcolm?
After managing to artificial inflate the domestic price of gas still further and wanting to reserve as much LNG as possible for the larger export market, now the Australian gas industry is crying shortages in order to blackmail state governments into opening up more conventional and unconventional gas fields across rural and regional Australia.
The gas industry in Australia ignored signs that domestic gas consumption would rise and, in an excess of greed made commitments to export markets which appear to have been predicated on the assumption that it would be able to easily and profitably make up the competitive squeeze between domestic need, client country needs and its own commercial aims - because it would still be allowed open slather to drill or frack every available square kilometre of land with gas reserves beneath it.
This can all be explained in one sentence. The gas industry has been deliberately manipulating and starving the domestic market for years.
Wednesday 22 January 2014
A Clarence valley voice in a wider forum
Clarence valley resident Charles Lincoln hold strong views on how the Abbott government regards pensioners. Mr Lincoln voiced his opinion in a contribution to the letters section of The Sun Herald (January 19).
Pension fears
We have returned the Conservatives to power and as pensioners it appears that we may have done the wrong thing, as we now find that this government has openly stated that the pensioners are rorting the system with regards to concessional rebates on council rates (''Retirees furious over rate rort claim'', January 12).
This concession has not been raised with regards to the cost of living adjustments for seven decades.
So if this concessional rebate is a rort, in the eyes of the Federal Government, does it mean that all of the other pensioner concessions such as chemist prescriptions, doctor visits, transport and many more are also rorts?
Pensioners and all self-funded retirees must watch closely to make sure that the concessions that they have at present are not further eroded to improve the bottom line of the government, because increases in pensions are only 28 per cent of the average wage and each time that the CPI is increased we get further behind.
Charles Lincoln, Gulmarrad
Thursday 7 November 2013
The truth about Australian cost of living pressures in 2013
Friday 1 November 2013
A reminder of cost of living figures BEFORE Abbott & Co have a chance to dismantle the national carbon pricing system
Sunday 23 June 2013
Home and business electricity price increases begin to slow in 2013
Wednesday 1 August 2012
Residential supply customers carrying the can for gold-plated electricity industry infrastructure upgrades
Granny Herald points out the blindingly obvious on 27th July 2012:
"If any further evidence were needed to demonstrate how the power companies, both state-owned and private, have been foisting unnecessary price hikes on their customers, it can be found in the industry's own energy forecasts.
Forecasts of demand for electricity have a significant impact on the price of electricity. The higher the forecasts, the more money earmarked by industry for network upgrades in order to cater for this supposed increase in demand. In turn, the higher the financial returns for the industry players.
Ironically, as the transmission and distribution companies earn a regulated return on their assets, they have a perverse incentive to
Yet the great conundrum of the radical rise in Australian electricity prices
- up 70 per cent in six years and poised to ratchet another 30 per cent higher this year and the next - is that consumer demand has actually been falling, and falling for years.
Actual consumption in the National Electricity Network has been way out of whack with forecasts. For the past three years, the industry has had to downgrade its forecasts, and by a considerable margin. Still, they persist with forecasting large rises in energy consumption, even in the face of a clear downtrend in actual demand - and huge price rises at the retail level to boot.
Not only has the electricity industry failed to recognise a change of trend in total demand, but in peak summer demand and peak winter demand too."
Sunday 31 July 2011
The Banana Mortgage Belt
As we leave July and enter August 2011, buying a banana is still a luxury for many on the NSW North Coast at around $14-$16 a kilo in some of the larger supermarkets.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics kindly places the pain in our wallets into perspective.
ABS CPI June quarter 2011 up 0.9%
The ABS Consumer Price Index rose 0.9% in the June quarter 2011, compared with a rise of 1.6% in the March quarter 2011.
The most significant price rises this quarter were for fruit (+26.9%), automotive fuel (+4.0%), hospital and medical services (+3.4%), furniture (+6.0%) and deposit and loan facilities (+2.1%). The most significant offsetting price falls were for vegetables (–10.3%), audio, visual and computing equipment (–6.3%), electricity (–1.5%), domestic holiday travel and accommodation (–1.5%) and milk (–4.6%).
Fruit prices increased by 26.9% in the June quarter 2011 mainly due to an increase of approximately 138% in the price of bananas due to shortages created by Cyclone Yasi. Banana prices increased 470% over the six months to the June quarter 2011.
The ABS Consumer Price Index rose 3.6% through the year to the June quarter 2011, compared with a rise of 3.3% through the year to March quarter 2011.
Wednesday 29 June 2011
Saying it with pictures for the benefit of Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott told the 55th Federal Council of the Liberal Party of Australia on 26 June 2011; As I said in my maiden speech and have been repeating ever since, middle income families with children are Australia’s new poor.
Leaving aside both the fact that Tony Abbott entered Parliament seventeen years ago and the suspicion that he is using this tired old argument to advocate tax cuts for comfortably off families like his own - it is immediately obvious that this statement by Abbott is not true.
So for the benefit of this shabby economic illiterate politician I will say it with pictures.
The mean weekly equivalised disposable household income has been rising for the entire time Tony Abbott has been the Member for Warringah and, the number reporting financial hardship had fallen to below twenty per cent of total households by 2009:
Individuals and families with low household incomes remain the poor - period.
Individuals and families on middle incomes fare better and, have been doing so consistently for at least the last twelve years.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2010; The headline indicator shows that the middle income group had a slightly greater gain in real income between 1997-98 and 2007-08 than the low income group (46% compared with 41%) and middle income households have maintained around a seven percentage point lead on low income households when it come to a percentage share of total income received by persons between 1994-95 and 2007-08.
Those most likely to experience financial difficulties are not middle income individuals and families:
By 2009-10 there were 2.9 million families with children living at home. In 2011 The Australian Institute of Family Studies stated; Of all four groups, families comprising couples with dependent children were in the second best financial position, with an average disposable income of $810 per week, and with 19% of people reporting the experience of at least one of the seven financial hardships.
The Report for National Families Week 2011 included the observation that in 2010 couples with children were more likely to have one of the parents in paid employment than lone women with children:
Sunday 17 April 2011
Stick 'em up! Your money or your health
Faarrck! When will this daylight robbery end?
“Our draft decision indicates that average regulated electricity prices will increase by around 18.1% for Country Energy customers, 17.9% for EnergyAustralia customers and 16.4% for Integral Energy customers (Table 1.1). These increases come on top of rises of around 7% to 13% in 2010.”
Maud Up The Street tells me that her winter electricity bill will rise by over $32 before she even turns her heater on during very cold evenings. Maud wonders how her old bones are going to manage and predicts an increase in aches and pains because she won‘t be able to keep her home warm enough.
IPART Draft Report and Draft Determination covering average price increases in standard supply areas.
Wednesday 13 April 2011
Dodgy 'carbon tax' claims using the Coalition's favourite North Coast butcher as an example
The one thing about public life that remains constant is that eventually all politicians who purvey dodgy claims get found out – unfortunately it’s not always in their own lifetimes.
However, in this case two Australian politicians – Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and the Nationals MP for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker – have been discovered trying to slap suspect meat on the bones of their argument against putting a price on carbon pollution.
In February 2010 Hartsuyker rose to his feet in Parliament to wail about the sad plight of a Coffs Harbour butcher who paid $7,400 per quarterly electricity bill, which would see his annual power cost coming in at $29,600.
While in April 2011 Abbott fronted the media with the claim that the very same butcher was now paying around $22,000 per year for electricity, which works out at $5,500 each quarter.
Now this would mean either the figures quoted in Parliament by Hartsuyker were blatantly false or that (despite rising electricity costs) the butcher will probably now pay considerably less for electricity this year than he did in the previous year.
If it is the latter, then based on current carbon price rise projections for 2012-14 this butcher would see next year’s electricity bill come in at about $3,600 less than his stated total 2010 power costs for the business.
Couple that with Lenore Taylor’s observation that (using the butcher’s admissions concerning annual turnover) any post-carbon price electricity costs passed on by the butcher in 2012-13 would mean T-bone steak at $22 a kilo would now cost … wait for it … . $22.04. Minced meat at $11 a kilo would now cost $11.02 and the Abbott-Hartsuyker argument about future prices spiraling because of a ‘carbon tax’ falls apart.
Monday 7 February 2011
What Keneally's promise to help with electricity charges means to the average worker, pensioner or independent retiree on the NSW North Coast
This is what the NSW Government Industry and Investment website had to say about the Energy Rebate on 5 February 2011:
The Energy Rebate was increased from $130 a year to $145 per year on 1 July 2010. The Rebate will be further increased to $161 from 1 July 2011. These increases reflect the average rise in regulated electricity prices. Also from 1 July 2010, eligibility for the Energy Rebate was expanded to include all customers who hold Health Care Cards.
Am I eligible for the Energy Rebate?
The Energy Rebate is now available to all electricity account holders who hold either a:
· Pensioner Concession Card issued by either Centrelink or the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA)
· Gold Card issued by the Department of Veterans' Affairs marked with either:
-War Widow or War Widower Pension
-Totally and Permanently Incapacitated (TPI)
-Disability Pension
· Health care card issued by Centrelink as a result of receiving one of a number of income support payments from the Commonwealth.
If you hold an eligible card and have not yet registered for the Energy Rebate you should contact your retailer.
Any customer receiving the Energy Rebate prior to 1 July 2010 will continue to receive the Rebate and will automatically receive the increased amount, if they continue to hold a valid and eligible card.
How do I obtain the rebate?
If you think you are eligible for the rebate or would like to ask some more questions, contact your electricity supplier or your local electricity distributor. Contact phone numbers can be found on your electricity bill.
This is what the Keneally Government announced on 6 February 2011 as part of an opening salvo in its re-election campaign:
The Energy Rebate will be increased from $161 to $250 from July 1, while eligibility for the rebate will be extended to households with a combined income of under $150,000.What this means is that if you have a Health Care Card or equivalent and your quarterly electricity charges came to a frugal $200 in any energy bill received after 1 July 2011, then the new Energy Rebate would reduce your actual payment (with GST added) to around $153 instead of the $181 or so you would pay now.
Families without the Heath Care Card but with a combined income of under $150,000 will be eligible for the Energy Rebate on 1 July 2012.
The worrying issue is the NSW Labor statement that this new scale will mean that families save $1000 in electricity bills over the life of the plan - which indicates that the annual $250 rebate may only be guaranteed for the next four financial years.
Keneally's launch of Fairness for Families can be found here.