19th February 2018
 

11th February 2018
The greatest challenge for Australians is to realise that they, not “the government”, are in charge of their future destiny.





That is DEMOCRACY. voters.network gives them the tools to make it work for them. All Australians can join free today and make a difference tomorrow.






10th February 2018

I read an article in the Herald this week that asked the question “Are our politicians just in it for themselves?”

And I thought - What about the rest of us? Are we just in our jobs for what we can get out of them – income, super, holidays, homes, cars, friends and acquaintances, opportunities, knowledge, experience, wisdom, wealth? Are politicians any different to the rest of us? Why would they be?

John Hewson led the Liberal party from 1990 to 1994 and was defeated by Paul Keating, so he knows a bit about politics and – he was a politician.

Below are extracts from his article in SMH this week. I thank Fairfax for their commentaries on government and acknowledge the importance of the press being able to reveal the dishonest and fraudulent practices that sometimes permeate politics to damage the nation.

Hewson says: “I totally agree with Shorten that “the most corrosive sentiment awash in western democracies is the idea that politicians are only in it for themselves.””

“As long as our politicians are still preselected the way they are, leading to a parliament dominated by apparatchiks focused more on point-scoring and blame-shifting instead of governing; as long as our ministers are mostly amateurs, few of whom have ever had a “real job”; as long as campaign funding is so opaque and corruptible and lobbying too is so opaque; and as long as those in government “kick issues down the road” rather than solve problems; that corrosive sentiment will fester.”

That tells it like it is. I don’t think it will ever change without voter intervention.

He then goes on to say “The tragedy is that the two major parties know what needs to be done and how to do it, to genuinely clean up our politics and while they are prepared to talk about it, even to make “promises” to fix it, neither has ever done so, basically because each believes that they can exploit the present system more effectively than the other (party).”

Then, speculating on what the leaders of each major party is likely to do in 2018, he concludes,
“This will only compound the “corrosive sentiment” that “politicians are only in it for themselves”, that politics is “their game” and they will say or do whatever they have to, to win.””

Voters take note: This is a senior former politician speaking from experience. We would all be foolish to ignore his comments and believe the pleasant fantasy that most politicians are “in it for us”, relieving us voters of any responsibility for what the future brings, or to an active role in guiding our governments.
The only ways that my experience over the past 30 years dealing with Australian politics and observing other democracies differs, is that - “what is in it for them “ is not their ONLY concern, but it is their major concern, a long way ahead of what is in it for the voters; and not ALL politicians are “in it for themselves”. There are notable exceptions amongst MPs.

Are they, in that, so different from the rest of us? I do not think so. They are just like us – no better and no worse, no cleverer no sillier.

Once voters have clearly understood this truth – that of course politicians are primarily in it for themselves, those voters have discovered the key that unlocks the power of democracy and delivers it to the people. Here is why. It is simple logic:-

Votes are the exclusive right of voters alone; winning a majority of votes in their local electorate along with enough of their party colleagues doing the same to constitute the majority in parliament, is the ONLY way politicians can avail themselves of “what is in it for them” as the government which is a whole lot more than if they are in opposition, where they still have to win a majority of votes in their own electorate.

Therefore when voters want good government as they see it, the best way to obtain it is to use their votes as bargaining chips to achieve it. Letting local MPs know that your vote and that of others hangs on whether they do what you want, is very effective. Why would you elect a politician who did the opposite of what you want? Those in safe seats can simply move outside the box and campaign in the nearest marginal seat if the government will not listen. But if asked nicely, well in advance with supporting evidence, the politicians will usually listen, because they will know that if they do not do what the voters want, there will be “nothing in it at all” for them, as they will be voted out of parliament.

One caution – never bluff. Voters should always do what they said they would do.

Professor Hewson claimed at the start of his article that “populism always fails in the long run.”
I totally disagree with him. His claim rests on the idea that a few hundred politicians backed by government staff, will have better knowledge of what is wrong and what needs to be done, than 16 million voters with all sorts of life, career, trade, commercial and professional experience, backed by another 10 million fellow Aussies.

“Populism “, or doing what the people want, will succeed when enough voters network their knowledge, experience and goals in a spirit of patience and tolerance, because as a body of people we have a great deal of knowledge, wisdom and experience amongst us. Further, we do know what we want and are prepared to pay for and we do know what we don’t want and are not prepared to pay for.

That is why I invented Votergram in 1986 to let voters tell EVERY politician what should be done, formed FairGO in 1990 to help voters campaign and have now formed voters.network to put real power to guide governments into the future, with the Australian people in network hubs throughout Australia, led by trained Hub Leaders. They will help co-ordinate a process of discussion, discovery and democracy that will improve all Australian lives for generations to come, when most of us have moved on.

9th February

Fixing social problems without spending lots of money

Many organisations appear to be tackling Australia’s social problems. When I visit their websites I am amazed at the appeals for donations, sponsorships, money to pay those who run them on top of government (taxpayers’) funding.
FairGO’s biggest campaigns cost no more than this to win – under $10,000 each to cut road toll by 75%, beat the ID card, save the NSW snowfields; under $2,000 each to ban smoking on planes, keep Hornsby hospital open, keep Neringah hospital. Personal issues under $200 each- cross-border disability care, respite care Sth Sydney, mental health care, damages claim, $10k debt write off, $9,000 credit card w/off.
Small money, dedicated voters, solid arguments, informative Votergrams, receptive politicians. Those are the inexpensive solutions. You can make it happen without big money by leveraging off the resources of democracy. https://voters.network/join.php

8th February 2018

Why do Australians suffer in silence?

Governments so resolutely work against so many Australian individuals including small business that it is a wonder so many people tolerate it. Why do they?
This is what I have heard from others over 30 years:

They are so busy enjoying this beautiful land of opportunity that they do not have the time to improve their lives and those of their children and grandchildren.
They are too occupied with sport to worry about the impact government is having on them.
They reckon that if they don’t have to fight for something then it is not worth having.
They feel they can’t win against City Hall (government).
They believe that government would not take any notice of them.

We have proved all of those wrong.

We can enjoy this land a lot better with decent wages, more hospitals and schools, less crime and corruption, affordable housing for all.
Sport is a field in which training, preparation and determination pay big dividends. Democracy is the same and it can be every bit as entertaining as sport, with far greater rewards for the fans.
They do have to fight for the dividends paid by good government because a lot of greedy individuals will fight hard to preserve their privileged access to our taxes, infrastructure and services.
They can win against City hall anytime they care to network and press their case, because they have the votes that give control of parliament to people who represent them. Only if they ignore, give away or misuse their voting power can they be beaten by government if their cause is for the common good, fairness or justice.
There is no doubt that if a person believes they cannot win they will surely be proved right. On the other hand we KNOW that together we can win, which is why we have mostly been proved right for over 30 years.

Our politicians will be just as happy to help you as to hinder you. All you have to do is ask in the right way, with the right strategy and act with tact and diplomacy. We have some great politicians and they are our most under-utilised resources. Join us and let us Advance Australia in a way that benefits the vast majority of us.

Join voters.network and be part of the present and the future of this great country. There’s no time like now!

6th Febraury 2018

Is this Political Money Laundering ?

Last Friday the Sydney Morning Herald reported on huge political donations. Over $200 million was paid, it said, to Australian political parties. Voters would be foolish to believe that donors did not want big favours in return.

Even then, many donations were said to be not publicly disclosed because politicians had made laws to keep secret amounts under $13,200. It is easy to have a number of individuals donate under that threshold instead of the one business making a $100,000 donation.

Most amazing, was a story on page 4 that claimed some major accounting firms and consultants donated $800,000 to two political parties in 2016-17. It was reported that these firms had received close to $500 million in government fees over about 3-4 years. Those fees would have been paid from voters’ taxes, contributed for schools, hospitals, defence, transport etc.

Two questions arise.
First, was up to $800,000 of taxpayers’ taxes laundered through major consultancy firms and subsequently deposited “clean” into major political party bank accounts as “donations”? Our tax money laundered into political party funds?? If so, there is surely a further question of whether that might be theft, fraud or misappropriation of public funds. By our elected MPs??

The second question is whether the funds donated to the political parties was bribery. That could only be determined by whether or not the donors received benefit from those political parties. If any of the donors claimed tax deductions for amounts in excess of $1500 per year then that could only be tax deductible as a business operating expense incurred in earning income. If the payment to a politician or political party was paid in the course of earning income then it would be a bribe. As a bribe such a payment would not be tax deductible. An investigation by the ATO of all political donors may well be called for.

Nobody can tell what the intentions of the donors or parties might have been. All we can do is examine the facts. The facts seem to be that the consultancy donors received substantial fees (approaching $500 million) from the government. The government is substantially controlled by Members of Parliament who are members of those political parties.

The problem is that voters really have nowhere to go to seek justice on such issues because politicians effectively control all law enforcement agencies.

One of the options voters do have is to vote out of office MPs whose parties accept donations from parties who receive government contracts or who benefit from government laws. Corruption is only removed by removing from office those who accept corrupt payments from people who receive government contracts or benefits.

does not require the donor to first specify a benefit sought. People receiving donations of money are generally friendly and willing to assist their donors and secondly are smart enough to know that one good deed (like a donation) deserves another ( like a profitable contract).

The best way to stop corruption in Australian politics & government is to vote for local political candidates individually on the basis of their past performance and to ignore advertisements and publicity which try to “sell” us political parties or party leaders , on the basis of “promises” which sometimes are not fulfilled. Voters.network makes that objective assessment easy by letting voters rate their MPs in between elections then refer back to that rating before casting a vote.

This money laundering scandal, if that is what it is, may explain why some federal MPs are intent on cutting corporate taxes for the richest and biggest earners in Australia on top of already giving them back the gst they pay. That tax break would most benefit the clients of the accounting firms and consultants who donated the $800,000 to political parties. What went around would have come around!!

Hopefully some MPs will take this up and voters will vote according to what they think is right.



VOTERS.NETWORK ACTION FORUM REPORT 5TH February 2018

Voters.network's Action Forum on Domestic violence and violence against women has offered the following range of possible solutions. Advanced access members of voters.network  will soon have a chance to indicate which solutions they support for campaigning. It is advanced access fees that make the network forum and decision-making possible as they involve a lot of time, effort and cost.
We urge all our followers to join voters.network and upgrade to advanced access. We know the network can make a huge difference to Australian lives if we just each give a few minutes a week to our role in this marvellous democracy.

Title
A more appropriate title is “Domestic and family violence”

Education on
Avoiding violent disputes,
Self defence courses at or after school

Government Advertising on
Anti-violence laws and practices
Violence from alcohol & substance abuse
Safe reporting facilities
Ban violent pornographic film/video/ computer games

Prevention
Dispute & anger management courses for offenders
Compulsory alcohol counselling for alcohol offenders
Mandatory reporting by witnesses
Reduce alcohol outlets in high offender areas
Make suppliers liable for damage caused by alcohol & substance supplied.
Marriage/partner vows & contract “and I promise that I will never be violent towards you”.
Non-violence agreement before recipients receive welfare ”.
More support & accountability for anti-violence organisations

Protection
Mediation/ court hearing within hours of reporting incident.
Safe place for victims to confidentially report violence
GPS monitoring of offender
home security systems for victims

Punishment
Longer gaol sentences
No parole for offenders.
Offender compensates victim financially
Life imprisonment for group (gang) offences.
Heavier sentences if alcohol or other drugs involved
Immediate gaol for breaching any AVO
Surgically performed castration in case of absolutely proven violent sexual assault
Prosecution of on-field assault by professional footballers


30th January 2018

Horses for courses!

Did you see the ABC program on the guy taming wild brumbies in central Australia?

In the same way, voters can train their governments to provide solutions instead of problems. They could stop spending time and money on wild unwanted projects and attend to the most important needs of the people in the Australian community.

That is what voters.network is about.

Why does access to the full voters.network suite of services cost $40 annually plus gst?

It amounts to 12 cents a day or 85 cents a week. To be able to persuade politicians and guide government properly, voters.network needs to be completely free of any outside financing. To share the load of assisting people it also needs to be decentralised so that trained hub leaders can look after smaller groups of people and thus assist them better.

To rely on volunteers trying to stretch their income to cover their expenses, pitted against very highly paid professional big business lobbyists, would be fatal. For that reason, three-quarters of each annual contribution by a member goes to that member’s hub leader and another quarter goes to mentor Hub Leaders 2 generations back. Only one quarter of the contribution towards annual network costs goes towards network administration.

If Australia is worth enjoying it is worth enjoying fully. It is worth spending 85 cents a week to have government working with you rather than against you. FairGO and its Votergram service have remained independent for 30 years. Our voters.network will do the same. We aim for you to get a lot more out of it than $44 worth.

Join voters.network now for free and upgrade any time you like to make it all possible.



26th January 2018

AUSTRALIA DAY

I don’t know that I “celebrate” Australia Day any more than I “celebrate” Anzac day or Good Friday. I joined a community breakfast this morning and met many neighbours who I don’t often see. It is governments and commercial enterprises who want us to “celebrate” these days.

Would changing the date just ease our consciences about how much most of us have gained by treating the previous inhabitants of Australia so badly? Would it make existing Aboriginal Australians feel happier about our failure to include them and their culture in our everyday lives?

Moving beyond the date,  - what should and could we do to ensure that Aboriginal Australians are given just a bit more opportunity than others in health care, housing, IT, education and career opportunities than the rest of us, to catch up on 200 years of neglect.

Of course plenty of Australians could not care less – about anyone other than themselves. With any sort of luck they are in the minority. Plenty of others run a “gang” mentality of abusing or denigrating minorities not strong enough to battle their “gang”. That probably applies equally to people of most races and cultures.

We constantly see politicians looking to benefit the super-rich (corporate tax cuts, recover gst paid, limit pay increases boost profit increases, overcrowd the cities, build tunnels and expressway and multi-storied unit blocks) on the basis that this creates jobs. The wages paid to the workers are a pittance compared to what the owners get out of it.

We all value our homes, offices, factories, shops etc. Should we not estimate the market value of our capital city lands that were taken from the Aboriginal owners by force and never paid for? Should we not set that as a target to be paid to the Aboriginal community by way of education, health and career opportunities over the next 100 years out of federal and state budgets apportioned according to total population?

Australia Day is a day to recognise how lucky we all are to live in this beautiful land well described by Dorothea Mackellar in her poem " A sunburnt country", with a superb system of western democracy where the majority of voters controls government and government controls or affects a much of life.

It is a day to recognise how badly previous governments and some of our own forebears treated the Aboriginal people.

It is a day for every Australian to help shape this country’s future, their own future and the future of the people who were here before us for 2018 and the next few decades.

My thoughts are that having decided that we owed the Aboriginal community $1 trillion or so for capital city land stolen from them, payable in benefits over 1oo years we would:

Construct and staff many top quality hospital in Aboriginal towns or centres and make them training hospitals to train Aboriginal medical staff to serve the broad community, but particularly the Aboriginal community.

Construct and staff many top quality primary schools, high schools, universities and Tafe’s in Aborginal towns and centres, again training and educating Aboriginal people to work in them as educators to serve the widest community but particularly the Aboriginal community.

Construct and staff a fourth level of education facilities in Aboriginal town and centres to provide specific education in every type of career from the most popular trade to the most challenging profession and train Aboriginal educators to work in them.

Establish or subsidise an existing not-for-profit micro-credit bank to lend small amounts to Aboriginal people particularly women who wished to commence their own micro-business, whether in art, craft, clothing, health, law or accounting.

Connect all of these facilities to the world online by NBN satellite services for educational and networking purposes.

The returns in productivity and savings in welfare would be great but a minor part of the benefit to Australia.


Australia is such a great place to live that we can afford to be generous and make up for the misdeeds of earlier governments by providing our Aboriginal community with opportunities so that at the end of this century there will be no difference in the quality of life between Aboriginal people and those who came to Australia after them.

What do you think? You are one person in the majority of Australians who will control what government does simply by how you communicate with your politicians and how you vote. It is as easy as that.

Whether you agree or disagree with my ideas, please let us know. If you would like this matter to be raised in the voters.network Action Forum please email admin@voters.network and ask them to please put up a discussion topic in the Action Forum on “A Fair go for Aboriginal Australians”.

That is, in part, what the National Anthem means by “Advance Australia Fair”.
Greg

18th January 2018

Truck Safety - The urgent need for voter input

For 25 years from 1987 FairGO ran the Roadwatch campaign to cut the road toll. It was based partly around the absurdly dangerous semi-trailers and B- doubles; the trucking companies that demand impossible travel times for their drivers and those drivers who just don’t care about other road users.

The annual killings on the road were then 16 people killed per 100,000.

Our aim was for truck drivers to earn a good income and go home happy in their trucks rather than dead in a box. It was for other road users to do the same.

When the government eventually got the deaths down to 5 per 100,000, we left it to them. It had been a lot of work with plenty of opposition to the idea of road safety. We had spent quite a bit of personal money doing it, but it worked.
They say that “The price of democracy is eternal vigilance”. Now I see that in the recent truck crashes. I guess it is 5 or 10 year since we left it to the politicians. In that time they have let the killings start again.

Truck killings really are not “accidents”. They are the logical outcome of political decisions. Politicians know, as the head of Toll Transport pointed out in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, that “trucks cannot turn, accelerate or brake like a car”. They also know that many truck drivers take drugs to stay awake while many others go to sleep at the wheel. They know that trucking company executives often require drivers to drive for unsafe lengths of time and at unsafe and illegal speeds to make bigger profits for the company.

Politicians know that the art of driving safely includes the ability of any driver or vehicle to take evasive action to avoid the mistakes of other drivers. Drivers have varied skills and experience levels. Trucks are mostly incapable of taking evasive action. I drive the highways a lot and I see unbelievably bad driving of trucks. Sometimes they drive two or three abreast chatting on their radios and blocking the highways. Often they tailgate slow and particularly small cars. Frequently they weave from lane to lane. Often they break the speed limits.

Trucks and particularly the most dangerous of all, B-doubles are always going to kill innocent road users as long as they are allowed to drive on our roads.

It is time for voters to stand up to their deadly politicians – the nice people in good looking clothes who make laws that allow truck drivers and trucking company executives to kill other road users. Road roulette is okay until it strikes home and a massive vehicle driven over the speed limit ploughs into your car and ends all your dreams of life. Trucking terrorists are the most deadly of all.

While they are allowed, trucks need to be speed limited to 80 kph and confined to the left hand lane. As soon as possible they should be banned and freight moved onto rail. Political parties who receive money from trucking companies will never do that , so it will be up to the voters.

Every truck in which a driver breaks the road laws should be deregistered immediately and stripped of its plates.
Every “professional” truck driver involved in a breach of the road laws should have his licence cancelled. These guys reckon they are “professionals”. Well, that is what happens to professional doctors, dentists, accountants and lawyers. If they break the professional rules they are out. For truck drivers the professional rule is the road law.

Most importantly all truck drivers should have to undergo government licence testing. None of this fake industry-own licence testing. If the drivers were worthy of licences they would not have crashes at all because they would be driving slow enough and far away enough to avoid crashes. Many don’t have crashes. The good drivers, given a leisurely time to deliver their goods and plenty of rest periods as well as good pay, do very well. The prime fault lies with the trucking industry bosses and they are the ones who are friendly with the MPs.

The best thing every passenger can do is film bad truck driving and phone crime stoppers to ask police to check out the truck or coach further down the highway. Same if the truck tailgates you. A passenger can photograph the truck and number late. Pull into a different lane, let it go past and photograph it again. Then ring crime stoppers and report it. Don’t ring the trucking company. They probably caused the problem.

Other motorists can be the eyes and ears of the road. We pay the Police so we may as well help them do the job of keeping us safe. If we all do that, the heavy vehicles will soon start to behave . That is how Roadwatch forced the road toll down before and drivers can do it again.

But we should also urge all politicians to ensure that truck drivers get well paid for their deliveries and for looking out for other road users. Pay rates and sub-contract fees need government regulation. Its removal was probably a factor in the recent killings.

When politicians just ignore us voters, happy to kill a few of us as a sacrifice to freight industry profits, our move can be straight into marginal government electorates to remove whatever party is in power. Just one marginal campaign that cost government one seat really helped the original Roadwatch campaign last time. In democracy, voters rule. Only monarchs and dictators can kill people at random with immunity. MPs will pay the price with seats in parliament if this continues.

Don’t let anyone tell you that the pollies did not know or plan it. These road deaths are the result of deliberate political party policy to expose Australian road users to deadly danger.

There will be differing views on this issue and plenty will disagree with me, so I suggest that all those go onto the voters.network Action Forum where all views are helpful so that we can work out a broadly acceptable solution to stop these killings dead in their tracks.

It is not my view that is important, but the view of the Australian people, so let’s hear it and then do something about it.
Greg

10th January 2018
Domestic violence and violence against women are two of the scourges of ruthless and violent criminals and wreaking destruction through the community, particularly where children are involved in any way.

You can take action to reduce this problem that is primarily caused by the neglect or favouritism of our politicians.

Solutions are in their hands, but a substantial number  of voters need to network together, to provide good solutions and persuade politicians to adopt them, or be replaced with representative who will.

This year FairGO and Votergrams celebrate 32 years of helping Australian voters get governments doing what those voters want. We are celebrating with the launch of voters.network. Disrupting democracy will get it out of sleep mode where it looks after the top 5% of voters and make it look after the other 95% first.

That is because when they network, the 95% decide who will govern and that is best based on the performance of individual local MPs, not parties or party leaders. The first step towards good government is to elect good MPs to parliament and that means carefully assessing your local MP. Voters.network has a special ratings page to help you rate your local MPs monthly for reference at election time.



1 December 2017
Citizenship crisis brings banking royal commission

It took a citizenship crisis in parliament to make politicians heed the voters’ voices calling for a royal commission into banking organised crime. This has been the most astutely organised crime in Australia for at least 50 years and particularly since banking deregulation 30 years ago.

Most of the politicians and political parties who have been partially funded by banks and bankers for decades, would not even imagine the fraud, theft, deception and dishonesty with which major banks have abused their customers to earn their million or billion dollar profits & massive pay packets.

It is not the bank staff that customers meet who are the corporate criminals, but many of the bank directors and senior management who direct their subordinates to earn more profits in any way they can and particularly by tricking trusting customers into unaffordable debt and then bleeding them of everything they can, or insurance policies on which claims are not paid, or into investments owned or controlled by the banks themselves.

Even as a former Chartered Accountant and bank auditor I have been staggered at the dishonesty of banks as I have worked since 1987 to assist bank victims all over Australia to achieve some degree of fairness from their financial abusers.

The royal commission teaches us Australian voters some invaluable lessons about how to make democracy deliver us more justice and better lives:-

Tell all politicians what we want. Don't just tell our own local MP who has little power alone.

Explain each reason carefully, concisely and repeatedly

Join with voters from as many different electorates as possible

Never give up until we win

Take an interest in many topics rather than concentrating on one single issue alone, so that politicians can come to understand us and our broad values better

Support the good honest MPs who stand up for the rights and lives of voters

Vote out the MPs who neglect voters, waste tax money by awarding over-expensive contracts to their buddies and who think only of the power that politics gives them

Apply persuasive pressure when the timing is right, as the citizenship fiasco has made it now

This is why we have now launched voters.network, following 30 years of success with the Votergram service and FairGO . Voters.network is a micro-business opportunity for all those who believe that government exists to serve all of the Australian people, rather than just a privileged minority. For others it is a chance to work together for empowerment on the many issues of common agreement.

I invite you to join voters.network free to rate monthly how well your local MPs are representing you and your goals. Then I hope you will upgrade and make the $44 Advanced Access contribution which will fund the volunteer hub leaders (75%) and its administration (25%).

Together we CAN change our world. FairGO & Votergrams have proved that and helped tens of thousands of Australians over the past 30 years. That is partly because we have no political party preferences or philosophies. Our one gaol is that the politicians Australians elect and pay should do what the vast majority of Australians want done. That is not too much to ask in return for the election. salaries and taxes we give them.
Greg


6 NOV 2017
ONLY ONE WAY TO IMPROVE LIVES IN A WESTERN DEMOCRACY!

That is to get involved, work with others, tell politicians what you want and vote them out of office if they don't do it.

Of course politicians cannot do everything every voter wants because we all want many different things.

However, most of us agree on  a whole lot of things that could be done to improve the lives of Australians.

We might agree on some of these:-

Protecting our environment has positive results on our lives

If all children and youths receive good education, Australia can earn more money providing goods and services to the rest of the world

Women and children should not be abused physically or sexually

Those who earn the highest annual incomes should pay the highest rates of tax

All tax avoidance and evasion should be banned so that everybody pays tax according to one simple basic principle.

Basic health care should be available to everybody, not dependent on wealth.

Financial literacy taught to all students would help prevent them being preyed on by unscrupulous predators.

Inexpensive housing could easily be provided by developing our inland cities, with more jobs provided in that very process.

Governments should serve the other 95% of the population as well as they serve the richest 5%.

When CEOs receive bonuses for increasing profit, it is not just produced by the effort of one person but by the whole team they lead and so everyone in that team should receive a bonus set at the same % of their normal salary or wage as the % bonus the CEO received relative to his or her normal salary.

If you have thoughts on any of these matters you might like to join www.voters.network and subscribe  for Advanced Access so that we can chat about them online and then campaign to have our elected politicians do in government what we, the voters, want done. Your $44 will help fund the network and you might even like to becopme a Hub Leader.

Hub leaders are allocated $20 our of every $44 paid by voters in their network. They also receive $10 from the subs of voters in hubs which they help their voters establish. voters.network is a genuine and  diverse network in which the power rests with the individual voters not a central committee. In that respect it is quite unique.





Women of abusive partnerships living in cars with the kids? No way!!

Of course they should not be. There are so many aspects to this issue and so many different solutions, but in the end it takes our politicians to solve it using the taxes we contribute.

If you want to protect women and children reasonably quickly, join voters.network now. It has 30 years experience in solving such issues. We voters elect and pay politicians who control government funds, laws and services. Networking gives the voting numbers who add strength to any campaign.

These women and children deserve to enjoy better lives. Let’s work with them and for them to see they do.

Young Australians will never be able to own their own homes? What nonsense !!

Of course every Australian should be able to own their own home and it does not necessarily have to be in a high rise made of flammable material, or in a capital city. There are many solutions to the housing crisis that threatens to stop Australians enjoying their most basic right and their best path to reasonable wealth, their own homes.

This problem is directly caused by the actions and inactions of the politicians we voters elect and pay. They can just as easily fix it, but we will need to persuade them to do it.

Voters.network is about voters persuading politicians and networking is about building the numbers of votes that make some politicians more responsive.

Join voters.network and help make it happen. Together we can do it!


Voters win 1st round in The Great Australian Tax Battle with  Billionaire Businesses.

No more company tax rate cuts according to the Sydney Morning Herald.  Parliamentary Budget Office figures indicate that the cuts to company tax while personal taxes rise annually would be unacceptable to voters. Our arguments have been accepted by some of those in power.

The clever plan by big business to secure tax cuts for companies earning billions would have pushed taxes onto voters and starved government of funds.

Currently there is a dispute between the tax office and four companies in respect of $4 billion. The arguments are only about the wording of our tax laws which could easily be fixed if MPs wished to.

Global tax evasion works like this. Goods cost $500m to make and sell for $1 billion ($1,000m) . If the sale is made in Australia the $500m is taxed at company rates. But if the product is sold to a Singapore associate company for $550m and onsold from Singapore for $1 billion ($1,000m) the $50m only is taxed in Australia. Australians are deprived of tax on $450 million. That is a lot of education and health care that is not given. These schemes are devised by lawyers and accountants who themselves receive huge pay for doing so.

The next phase of the campaign for fairer taxes is to get businesses paying the GST like voters do, by abolishing the input credits. These allow businesses to recover from the GST they collect from customers, all the GST those businesses have paid on their purchases of goods and services. GST is pure and simple a political fraud on the Australian voters.

Australia cannot provide the education, health, planning, defence and welfare services a well as essential infrastructure without taxing the super rich at appropriate rates. Big business does not have trouble raising funds like unlisted family businesses do.

Even back in the 1970’s the big businesses paid a higher rate of tax. Tax on profits over $5m should be raised to 35%. Tax on personal income of over $1m per year should be raised to 50%. All tax avoidance schemes should be illegal with the law changed to eventually set personal and company tax rates the same. That would stop people diverting their income to companies.

The tax enemies of the Australian people are partly the big businesses, accountants and lawyers who devise the tax avoidance schemes, but mostly they are the politicians who pass laws that allow tax avoidance and judges who find in favour of tax cheats.

Of those the ones voters can most easily influence are the politicians.

Greg (former FCA, CPA, ACIS)

Do you get angry at what your Australian governments are doing?

Do you wish they built better lives for Australian instead of politicians fighting each other for power?

If any of the stories in today’s media worry you and you want to influence government policy and action, please contact us at FairGO and join voters.network.
For 30 years we have been helping ordinary Australians, small family businesses and farmers change government decisions. Bad government is inexcusable as is negligent government.

The fact is that we have some extremely good Members of Parliament who will go out of their way to help you, if approached in the right way. FairGO is a specialist at helping voters influence government. It started with the Votergram service which has operated for the past 30 years, quietly taking any voter’s message to all members of parliament. So much has been achieved by active, concerned voters.

If you are worried about energy prices and climate change, then let us help you make your views known.

Do you resent big business controlling government, lobbying to cut its own taxes to starve the government of money for infrastructure and services so that big business can provide them at a very handsome profit and the banks can finance the projects to earn their own super-profits.

Will the new head of ASIC change the banking culture of lending customers into profit then bleeding them dry or will his past career with Goldman Sachs during the GST make him more on side with the banks, as ASIC has been for years?

Is it good enough that the NBN is the subject of over 100,000 complaints or should we put pressure on our politicians to get this mess cleaned up fast so that Australia does not fall behind the rest of the world in IT services?

Did you see the comment by the Treasury Secretary that people were realising just how inexpensive housing is in regional cities and buying there? In the past week I have visited Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo, Narromine and Parkes in NSW and seen the huge increase in the size of these beautiful cities. One could afford housing there on a lot less pay than in Sydney and raise families in far more freedom and a much cleaner environment. It is truly amazing to see what these cities have to offer instead of the fire-prone high-rise home units and office blocks in capital cities that are nothing less than death traps for those unfortunate enough  to occupy them and the continually clogged roads that waste our time.

If you want better government or better lives for your family, consider joining voters.network with access to FairGO’s expertise at persuading politicians to do the right thing and Votergrams to make sure they all know what you want and why it will be good for the vast majority of Australians , or perhaps your relative who is being denied proper service by a government.