According to the OECD report, Pensions at a Glance 2015, thirty-six per cent (36%) of Australian pensioners are living in poverty ie had less than fifty per cent (50%) of the median household income (adjusted for size) in 2014:
Thursday, 14 January 2016
The weirdness that was the Abbott Government continues in the Turnbull Government
New Zealand offers to take 150 asylum seekers off Australia’s hands each year from 2014-15.
The Abbott & Turnbull Governments could have saved anywhere between $35M and $60M a year on the back of this offer, but what did these two coalition federal governments do?
They said “No!”.
The Guardian, 11 January 2016:
In a deal brokered between prime ministers Key and Julia Gillard in 2013, New Zealand agreed to accept 150 refugees from Australia’s offshore processing centres each year from 2014-15.
The quota remains in New Zealand’s forward planning for humanitarian resettlement.
But when the former Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, was elected he effectively scrapped the deal at the Australian end, saying it would be called upon only “if and when it becomes necessary”.
“Our determination is to stop the boats and one of the ways that we stop the boats is by making it absolutely crystal clear that if you come to Australia illegally by boat you go not to New Zealand but to Nauru or Manus and you never ever come to Australia,” he said.
The Coalition government is loath to have refugees resettled in New Zealand as it is seen as undermining a fundamental tenet of the policy: that boat-borne asylum seekers will never be settled in Australia.
Refugees resettled in New Zealand can apply to become citizens after five years. New Zealand citizenship would give those people the right to travel and work in Australia.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said he believed resettlement in New Zealand would be an incentive for asylum seekers to board boats.
Canberra Times, 12 January 2016:
The time asylum seekers spend in Australian detention centres has blown out to a record high under the Turnbull government, leaving men, women and children languishing behind wire, facing an uncertain future.
The latest statistics from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection show that in December, people in onshore immigration detention had been there for an average 445 days. In November, the figure was 446 days.
The average detention period has increased steadily since May last year and is now the longest since the government took power. It is more than double the 200-day wait four years ago under the Labor government.
Australian Government DIBP Immigration Detention and Community Statistics Summary 30 December 2015:
At 30 December 2015, there were 1,792 people in immigration detention facilities, including 1,647 in immigration detention on the mainland and 145 in immigration detention on Christmas Island.
On that date there were also 537 asylum seekers (including 68 children) in detention in the Republic of Nauru and 922 adult asylum seekers in detention on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea.
Detaining a single asylum seeker on Manus or Nauru costs $400,000 per year. Detention in Australia costs $239,000 per year.
Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Last week Michael Pascoe started the 2016 political year off with his tongue-in-cheek and gave readers a good belly laugh
The Age newspaper along with Fairfax journalist & BusinessDay contributing editor Michael Pascoe deserve a hearty round of applause for this effort on New Year’s Day 2016, Crystal ball reveals 2016's highs and lows in business:
January
Senator Eric Abetz declares a Day of Shame over Tony Abbott not being named Australian of the Year. "Monckton warned me – it's the United Nations World Government again," the Tasmanian senator says.
At his first official function as Ambassador – an Australia Day barbie – Joe Hockey lauds the McDonald's all-day breakfast as the sort of innovation Australia needs. Embassy staff quietly ask guests not to tell him it's already available here.
February
After the year's first RBA board meeting, governor Stevens says "chilling out" is working well for the economy by reducing speculation. To assist, the RBA board will only meet quarterly.
The UN General Assembly declares thermal coal a hazardous substance. Environment Minister Greg Hunt says: "If coal's a hazard, all you have to do, to get rid of it, is burn the stuff."
March
The Bureau of Meteorology says 2016 is already on track to take 2015's Hottest Year Ever title.
Under instructions from Minister Hunt, BoM apologises to Alan Jones for using alarmist language and re-scales expectations for 2016 to perhaps be Least Coldest Year.
Missing person report is filed for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.
April
ASIC and ATO jointly announce a royal commission into banking/finance/superannuation industry and promise a no-holds-barred crackdown on executive expenses rorting and multinational tax dodging.
The sharemarket plunges. An ASIC spokesperson asks why no journalist noticed the date on the release, April 1. "This was a perfect example of "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't true".
After six months of holding his head with a slight tilt to the left, while smiling beneficently through media conferences, Prime Minister Turnbull experiments with a slight tilt to the right. "Innovation is what we're all about," he says.
May
RBA governor Stevens announces "chilling out" policy is being replaced by "hanging loose". RBA board meetings are to be bi-annual.
Treasurer Morrison's first budget solves spending and revenue problems by privatising and outsourcing e.g. ABC is to be sold to Foxtel, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to the IPA, the Health Department to a consortium of tobacco and drug companies, the Defence Department to Donald Trump; Centrelink clients will be auctioned off for body parts.
Tasmanian Senator Abetz declares Tony Abbott a genius. "The budget proves my leader is actually running the government from his hideout in the Brindabellas," he says. "Morrison is his puppet."
June
The Queensland government agrees to a take-or-pay contract with Adani in order to secure a Galilee Basin coal mine. Every Queenslander is to be guaranteed a monthly coal ration of 10 tonnes, delivered to their door.
Read predictions for the second half of the year here.
Read predictions for the second half of the year here.
Sixteen parternalistic buybodies delivered a report to the Turnbull Government which may change your relationship with your GP
The Daily Telegraph, 4 January 2016:
LAST year was the year we avoided a $7 GP fee and a $5 prescription medicine price hike but six major reviews are plotting other major changes to the health system for 2016.
Primary health care, Medicare rebates, private health insurance, prescription medicine payments, mental health care and electronic health records are all slated for major changes under these reviews.
These and other health reforms, to be rolled out from 2016, will push up the cost of blood tests and scans, change your relationship with your GP, see you dragooned into an e-health record and increase your private health insurance costs — but might save you $1 on your prescriptions.
Seven million Australians with chronic and complex illness like diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, asthma and mental illness will be asked to enrol with a single GP practice.
The practice would receive an annual budget to keep them well under major reforms to primary health care being considered by the government.
The government is also considering changing the way GPs are paid.
The current fee for service model might only apply for acute health problems like visits for the flu or accidents.
Doctors might receive a fixed budget to treat chronically ill patients and could be paid for performance on reducing hospital admissions or improving blood sugar, blood pressure or cholesterol readings in patients.
A new class of salaried care co-ordinators could be paid to help patients navigate the health system under the system proposed and reduce the red tape burden on doctors.
The government’s Primary Health Care Advisory Group, headed by former Australian Medical Association chef Steve Hambleton, which proposed these measures handed its report to government early this month…… [my red bolding]
Who on earth came up with the damn stupid notion that my choice as both a patient and consumer should be limited or removed by tying me to using one particular medical practice? A practice which in all likelihood will not receive maximum recompense from the federal government unless it also strong arms its patients into staying in the opt-out eHealth system.
Ah yes, it was these sixteen paternalistic busybodies.
I refuse to have my personal medical data inserted into digital government records vulnerable to hackers, I need a care co-ordinator like a hole in the head and, I want to retain the freedom to change doctors without delay if I so wish and without a mountain of paperwork to negotiate before I do.
So Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull and Minister for Health & Aging Sussan Ley, I don’t want what you you will try to spin as the best thing to happen to the health system since antibiotics. It’s just too Orwellian for me.
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
A Trans Pacific Partnership negotiated for Australia by the Coalition Government? Well, what did you expect!
It seems that the Australian Liberal-Nationals Federal Government laboured to bring forth a puny bundle of little joy.....
World Bank, Global Economic Prospects, January 2016:
On October 4, 2015, 12 Pacific Rim countries concluded negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the largest, most diverse and potentially most comprehensive regional trade agreement yet. The 12 member countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 January 2016:
Australia stands to gain almost nothing from the mega trade deal sealed with 11 other nations including United States, Japan, and Singapore, the first comprehensive economic analysis finds.
Prepared by staff from the World Bank, the study says the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership would boost Australia's economy by just 0.7 per cent by the year 2030.
The annual boost to growth would be less than one half of one 10th of 1 per cent….
Since sealing the deal in October the Australian government has been reluctant to commission an economic analysis of its effects, turning down an offer from the Productivity Commission.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the deal as a "gigantic foundation stone", saying it would deliver "more jobs, absolutely".
It opens up trade between members but makes trade more difficult with non-members through a process known as "cumulative rules of origin" where members lose privileges if they source inputs from countries outside the TPP.
The Productivity Commission has been strongly critical of the provisions saying that they turn so-called free trade agreements into "preferential" agreements.
The Partnership also requires members to sign up to tough intellectual property provisions and to submit to investor-state dispute settlement procedures administered by outside tribunals.
World Trade Online says the negotiating parties are planning to sign the agreement in New Zealand on February 4. It says Chile has confirmed the date and some trade ministers have already made arrangements to travel to Auckland, but it says New Zealand has yet to issue formal invitations.
Tony Abbott makes a joke
This has to be former prime minister Tony Abbott displaying a sense of humour or him well on the way to becoming the butt of another joke.
The politician who could never enunciate a genuine plan to “repair the budget” is now giving advice to the current prime minister. *cue laughter*
Australian Financial Review, 6 January 2016:
Liverpool Plains community getting the "Wrong Mine, Wrong Place" message out to China
The people of the Liverpool Plains in NSW Australia have a message for the Shenhua Group in China, who want to build a massive coal mine in the middle of their farmland.
The LPP community have spent $750,000 fighting this madness so far! There are more battles to come before we can save our water and precious Ag land – for more information on how you can add your support, visit: http://www.friendsoftheliverpoolplain... and help us win this fight.
Music by Luke Vassella
Shot/directed/edited by David Lowe and Eve Jeffery
Produced by Cloudcatcher Media
Help us make more cool stuff by chucking something in our tip jar! http://www.cloudcatchermedia.com/tip-...
The LPP community have spent $750,000 fighting this madness so far! There are more battles to come before we can save our water and precious Ag land – for more information on how you can add your support, visit: http://www.friendsoftheliverpoolplain... and help us win this fight.
Music by Luke Vassella
Shot/directed/edited by David Lowe and Eve Jeffery
Produced by Cloudcatcher Media
Help us make more cool stuff by chucking something in our tip jar! http://www.cloudcatchermedia.com/tip-...
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