The South Australian Political Landscape

[Q.]

Get some perspective FFS. We're living in relative paradise.

Sure, but doesn't mean we shouldn't be pushing for government to address things like wage stagnation, housing affordability, corporate tax avoidance etc

[morell]

Absolutely! But let's do that with some intelligence and decorum. And sensible discourse. Rather than picking a side and slinging rhetoric and insults.

The stuff in here is honesty unhinged.

as for your points ...

Wage stagnation - an issue, I think the bigger one in years to come will be robotics, AI and automation. We must develop a labour system which integrates with the technological revolution.

housing affordability - abolish negative gearing, restrict foreign ownership, release more parcels of land, tax reform on investment. There is no way I should get a tax break for being ******* richer by going into debt.

corporate tax avoidance - absolutely, need more tech savvy people in politics, also need to change the culture we have of as tax being seen as evil and instead see it as a social responsibility - which it is.

[morell]

we have probably gone backwards as a whole as a result of 15 years of Labor.

and yet just 5 years ago, we had people bemoaning the lack of infrastructure in this very thread. Go back and read it.

Labor builds said infrastructure - then we come back and say - we've gone backwards!! How have we gone backwards? In what area?

Some of the major projects that have been delivered of late is in all honesty world leading. The City is thriving. We're amongst the most livable places in the world.

What is happening to you poor souls to be so down in the dumps? Other than your "side" not being responsible, of course.

Could things be better? Absolutely. Mental health support and service provision isn't good enough. There does need to be more training for low skilled workers. I think we should be utilising our assets and skills in a more efficient and sustainable manner. Higher education has gotten too expensive. Q mentioned some good ones.

i can caveat all of that by saying I've never voted Labor in my life!

[bennymacca]

Is that total welfare, including pension, disability, unemployment etc?

This is for SA only:

ABSTUDY (Living allowance) 0.05%
ABSTUDY (Non-living allowance) 0.07%
Age Pension 16.23%
Austudy 0.30%
Carer Allowance 3.66%
Carer Allowance (Child Health Care Card only) 0.12%
Carer Payment 1.52%
Commonwealth Seniors Health Card 1.93%
Disability Support Pension 5.17%
Double Orphan Pension 0.01%
Family Tax Benefit A 8.58%
Family Tax Benefit B 6.67%
Health Care Card 9.13%
Low Income Card 2.62%
Newstart Allowance 5.11%
Parenting Payment Partnered 0.59%
Parenting Payment Single 1.45%
Partner Allowance 0.02%
Pensioner Concession Card 27.02%
Sickness Allowance 0.04%
Special Benefit 0.03%
Widow Allowance 0.08%
Widow B Pension 0.00%
Wife Pension (Partner on Age Pension) 0.04%
Wife Pension (Partner on Disability Support Pension) 0.04%
Youth Allowance (other) 0.66%
Youth Allowance (student and apprentice) 1.25%
Commonwealth Rent Assistance (income units*) 7.62%

Myth: Welfare is for lazy good for nothing free loaders
Reality: Welfare is for old people and those with disabilities.

I got over 4k from the govt this year for family tax benefit.

didnt even though i was going to get it (i get like $7 a fortnight from them and thought that was all it was)

middle class welfare ftw

seriously though, love how 40-70 year olds complain about this shit - they are the most prosperous generation in history

[Jimmy_041]

For once I will agree with Benny

We baby boomers should actually sit back and enjoy the fruits of our hard work and not worry about the future of others

My children certainly wont have to worry about it and that's all that matters

[Jimmy_041]

Those ******* grannys and cripples. They're ripping us good hard working taxpayers off.

I mean I had to buy my coffee table at Ikea! IKEA!

#shame #basketcase

From 2002 to 2013, IKEA Supply AG charged the Australian arm $2.67 billion as the cost of products. These were sold in the Australian stores for $4.76 billion. After other costs IKEA ended up with total pre-tax profits of $103 million for the period, on which it paid $31 million in tax.

http://www.afr.com/news/policy/tax/why-ikeas-profits-are-mostly-tax-free-20141105-11ho0k
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/ikea-pays-just-107m-tax-on-nearly-1bn-in-sales/news-story/082ee48185383b477916994a9e7c4c0c

[Psyber]

I'm delighted to be costing the public purse almost nothing.

From 2008 to 2011 I was a self-funded retiree who never bothered to apply for the meagre part-pension (Aged ) that was entitled to claim during that time. Since 2011 I've been working part-time - about 10 weeks a year - and I admit I do have my affairs organised so as to pay the minimum tax on my income under the law, but without resorting to foreign banks and shonky off-shore schemes which I agree should be stopped.

However, a recent discussion with friends of the issue of the wealth of the "baby boomers" and to some extent pre-baby boomers like me, prompted me to reflect on the changes over the years and on the the fact that in my first year of paid work (1968), after graduating from Medical School at Adelaide University, I worked an average of 90 hours a week and that in the next 5 years I averaged 55 to 60 hours a week all on fixed salaries and no overtime payments. (That first year worked out to about 57 cents and hour!)

My first home - 2 bedroom and about 12 years old - bought in 1969 cost 3.3 times my salary the previous year, which was pretty good because the first house my parents bought in 1956 including necessary repairs cost 5.7 times the family income. (My father was 51 at the time.)

[morell]

I'm delighted to be costing the public purse almost nothing.

Do you live in society? If so you cost the public purse plenty. Do you drive on roads? Do you ever need a doctor? etc

By all means you sound like you've paid your way and that's great, but people really do need to consider the total cost of living in a free society like we do, it's not just as a simple as a tax ($$$) for service.

Maybe the housewife from the 50s that kept the family unit together whilst the husband worked to enable her 4 kids to be well adjusted human beings and thus contributors should be looked after by the "public purse" as much as some sleazy lawyer or corporate slave who happen to earn good salaries?

However, a recent discussion with friends of the issue of the wealth of the "baby boomers" and to some extent pre-baby boomers like me, prompted me to reflect on the changes over the years and on the the fact that in my first year of paid work (1968), after graduating from Medical School at Adelaide University, I worked an average of 90 hours a week and that in the next 5 years I averaged 55 to 60 hours a week all on fixed salaries and no overtime payments. (That first year worked out to about 57 cents and hour!)

My first home - 2 bedroom and about 12 years old - bought in 1969 cost 3.3 times my salary the previous year, which was pretty good because the first house my parents bought in 1956 including necessary repairs cost 5.7 times the family income. (My father was 51 at the time.)

Yes, and thanks to inflation your wage also grew. Speaking to a guy at work who recently retired he said he recalled getting 15% pay rises. In less than a decade in his salary, whilst working in the same job, more than doubled.

This argument gets trotted out all the time about housing affordability and its quite simply inaccurate.

Housing cost, pers $ of salary, adjusted for inflation, is orders of magnitude higher than what it was "back then" that in all reality kids should be marching in the streets. Considering thats Australia's main wealth building tool, its created a huge divide between the generations. For the first time in Australian history, your grandkids will be worse off economically and financially than you. To put in in perspective if we take the average salary in SA of 55k, and take your 3.3x for a house, that would get something for $180k. Look on realestste.com.au and see what that gets you. In fact, let's have a look:



And no, its not because you worked harder or whined less, the current working generation are working longer hours than ever before as well.

[Dogwatcher]

They're only at work longer because some of them are on here, posting multiple posts in a day and reading posts spread over 145 bloody pages.

Politics is always a glass half full process. No matter which glass you drink out of.

[morell]

They're only at work longer because some of them are on here, posting multiple posts in a day and reading posts spread over 145 bloody pages.

I have the week off!

and I am 34, hardly a youthful millennial.

Politics is always a glass half full process. No matter which glass you drink out of.

Totally agree.

Some in here think the glass is empty and have smashed it on the ground in disgust.

[Jimmy_041]

Got to love the “progressive” class
Want to change everything but still want the, so called, easy bits of their predecessors

I started investing in super long before it became compulsory and am financially secure heading towards retirement
I still pay a lot of tax and my investments are now positively geared. If you think tax isn’t evil, then neither are tax deductions for costs to create the profits to tax. I have always said we should cut tax to 15% and do away with deductions
I still eat breakfast at home and would laugh at the suggestion of paying $25 for smashed avocado / tomato on toast and a latte
You look at wealthy people with envy and think death duties are a good idea. I admire them for their hard work and will move overseas to avoid death duties

And I’m with you Dogwatcher

[Q.]

I started investing in super long before it became compulsory and am financially secure heading towards retirement
I still pay a lot of tax and my investments are now positively geared. If you think tax isn’t evil, then neither are tax deductions for costs to create the profits to tax. I have always said we should cut tax to 15% and do away with deductions
I still eat breakfast at home and would laugh at the suggestion of paying $25 for smashed avocado / tomato on toast and a latte

Due to the current inflated wage to mortgage ratio, families don't have expendable income to salary sacrifice into super.

[Jimmy_041]

I started investing in super long before it became compulsory and am financially secure heading towards retirement
I still pay a lot of tax and my investments are now positively geared. If you think tax isn’t evil, then neither are tax deductions for costs to create the profits to tax. I have always said we should cut tax to 15% and do away with deductions
I still eat breakfast at home and would laugh at the suggestion of paying $25 for smashed avocado / tomato on toast and a latte

Due to the current inflated wage to mortgage ratio, families don't have expendable income to salary sacrifice into super.

If you are PAYE, then you don't have to. Your employer does it for you
I invested into super 10 years before it came in to secure my future

[morell]

Got to love the “progressive” class
Want to change everything but still want the, so called, easy bits of their predecessors

I started investing in super long before it became compulsory and am financially secure heading towards retirement
I still pay a lot of tax and my investments are now positively geared. If you think tax isn’t evil, then neither are tax deductions for costs to create the profits to tax. I have always said we should cut tax to 15% and do away with deductions
I still eat breakfast at home and would laugh at the suggestion of paying $25 for smashed avocado / tomato on toast and a latte
You look at wealthy people with envy and think death duties are a good idea. I admire them for their hard work and will move overseas to avoid death duties

And I’m with you Dogwatcher

South Australia is such a hard place to live in huh

its just terrible. Awful. Practically a war zone.

[Booney]

I started investing in super long before it became compulsory and am financially secure heading towards retirement
I still pay a lot of tax and my investments are now positively geared. If you think tax isn’t evil, then neither are tax deductions for costs to create the profits to tax. I have always said we should cut tax to 15% and do away with deductions
I still eat breakfast at home and would laugh at the suggestion of paying $25 for smashed avocado / tomato on toast and a latte

Due to the current inflated wage to mortgage ratio, families don't have expendable income to salary sacrifice into super.

If you are PAYE, then you don't have to. Your employer does it for you
I invested into super 10 years before it came in to secure my future

I've been contributing small amounts to my super since I started work in the early 90's. Strangely enough an AMP adviser I spoke with at the time ( 19, first job and they were with AMP ) suggested I start early with contributions. I did, and always have.

However my main investment is in my property. I'm hell bent on that being mine well before I'm close to retirement age and expect with the location and the property itself that that will be a cash cow on top of my super.

Q. is right, most families with a solid mortgage aren't in a position to top up their super.

[Booney]

Got to love the “progressive” class
Want to change everything but still want the, so called, easy bits of their predecessors

I started investing in super long before it became compulsory and am financially secure heading towards retirement
I still pay a lot of tax and my investments are now positively geared. If you think tax isn’t evil, then neither are tax deductions for costs to create the profits to tax. I have always said we should cut tax to 15% and do away with deductions
I still eat breakfast at home and would laugh at the suggestion of paying $25 for smashed avocado / tomato on toast and a latte
You look at wealthy people with envy and think death duties are a good idea. I admire them for their hard work and will move overseas to avoid death duties

And I’m with you Dogwatcher

South Australia is such a hard place to live in huh

The top end of town enjoy life in every part of the world mate, it's not them the average schmo like me has concerns about.

[Jimmy_041]

Got to love the “progressive” class
Want to change everything but still want the, so called, easy bits of their predecessors

I started investing in super long before it became compulsory and am financially secure heading towards retirement
I still pay a lot of tax and my investments are now positively geared. If you think tax isn’t evil, then neither are tax deductions for costs to create the profits to tax. I have always said we should cut tax to 15% and do away with deductions
I still eat breakfast at home and would laugh at the suggestion of paying $25 for smashed avocado / tomato on toast and a latte
You look at wealthy people with envy and think death duties are a good idea. I admire them for their hard work and will move overseas to avoid death duties

And I’m with you Dogwatcher

South Australia is such a hard place to live in huh

The top end of town enjoy life in every part of the world mate, it's not them the average schmo like me has concerns about.

Agreed

(To save Morell having to scan up the page)

We baby boomers should actually sit back and enjoy the fruits of our hard work and not worry about the future of others

[morell]

Oh I agree, its just hilarious that those that are most fortunate complain the most.

I would have no trouble with someone being 22, frustrated, unemployed and struggling wanting to rip up the system to a certain degree. I'd still steer them towards positivity...

... but when people are financially secure but then have endless complaints about the society that enabled that to occur - with shit like whining about power prices or ESL's??

Give me a spell. The privileged never see their privilege - that's what bites my bumhole.

[morell]

As for housing affordability. Its simple provable math. To argue otherwise is to argue against fundamental logic.

As for death taxes - I like the idea that should someone with enough of an estate be proven to have consumed money from the "public purse" through a pension, then that money should be paid back.

For example: Elderly couple live in Rose Park. Old fella retired 20 years ago at 60, lived off investments and super. He dies and leaves everything to his widow. Asset rich, but cash poor. She needs some money to get by and receives a pension. No worries. She then passes away so the fam sell the estate, low and behold the house in Rose Park is worth 2 million! You beauty. Trust fund for dayzzz.

In that scenario once the proceeds of the estate have been determined I think it's fair an amount gets put back into the public coffers to reimburse the rest of us that supported granny in her old age.

[Jimmy_041]

Oh I agree, its just hilarious that those that are most fortunate complain the most.

I would have no trouble with someone being 22, frustrated, unemployed and struggling wanting to rip up the system to a certain degree. I'd still steer them towards positivity...

... but when people are financially secure but then have endless complaints about the society that enabled that to occur - with shit like whining about power prices or ESL's??

Give me a spell. The privileged never see their privilege - that's what bites my bumhole.

Fortunate?

Don't you have Foxtel or Netflix?
I'll pay for it for you just to get you off here