Ive realised that a number of my recent posts have been political in nature. One need only look at my cover photo to get a sense of that. So Id like to 1) Apologise - I remember around election time some people posting relentlessly, and I grew tired of it. Small media soundbytes and rhetoric werent going to change my viewpoint. I can only imagine my own efforts at re-posting articles are similar for some. ... and 2) Explain: I grew up in rural NSW. Dirt road, neighbours a km away, and poor. Sometimes VERY poor. There were occasions on which, without government hand-outs, our family would not have had money for groceries; wed literally have gone hungry. Without free healthcare, myself and my siblings would not have been able to go to the doctor. Without subsidised medication, we may have remained ill. We had 2 television stations, one of which was the ABC - funded well enough to reach us. Without good access to tertiary education and student benefits, Id not have made it to Sydney, and enjoy the lifestyle I do now. The list is extensive, but the bottom line is: The Australia I grew up in made it possible for me to enjoy the successes I do now. Come to this budget, and Im one of the lucky ones. Unless my bonus is higher than average, I dont get hit by the levy, and I earn far too much to be eligible for any kind of government hand-out, so cuts there dont effect me in the slightest. The worst thing for me is indexation of fuel excise, given I drive an extremely thirsty vehicle. Literally, laughably, the worst thing I face is a small expense for my overly expensive car. But I remember. Perhaps more importantly, I empathise. I cannot fathom why I should be out of pocket a couple of hundred dollars per year, when a young kid on newstart would be out of pocket literally THOUSANDS of dollars. We were told that there would be an equal sharing of the burden - and yet here I am, Ill barely feel a thing, while the young, the disadvantaged, the Aussie underdog we all love to root for gets hit HARD. We pay quite a bit of tax in this country. Anyone who has worked in HK, Singapore, even the US will know that they pay a lot less. One of the reasons I am OK with paying more tax per year than my family when I was young earned in 2 is that I know... or rather, knew, that my money went where it was needed. The anger I feel at this budget is that this is becoming an Australia where there is no fair go. Where the underdog is downtrodden. The anger I feel is that corporations are given tax breaks while the sick, the poor, the needy are lumped with far more than their fair share. The anger I feel is at industries like the mining industry not being taxed enough for what comes out of the Australian ground, while we systematically lower foreign aid, and cruelly turn our backs on refugees, damaging our relationships with our neighbours for some political points scoring. If youre lacking in empthy, I urge you to just imagine what life might be like if you were without what you had today. Your industry outsourced, your wages cut, your job lost.... and then ask yourself: How would you be faring in this new Australia? So, Im sorry for the political tidbits Ive been posting. But Im not sorry for letting you know exactly what I think about where were heading as a nation.
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 09:59:03 +0000
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