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14th April 2018
The (Big) Business Council of Australia is said to be campaigning with the gloves off, for a tax rate as low as 25% even on a taxable income of billions and that after tax havens and tax avoidance schemes.Crooks dominate bank boardrooms I have always written that the dishonest, destructive and predatory treatment by banks of their customers is no accident of minor staff, but a deliberate strategy of bank directors to put their own financial interests way ahead of those of their customers. Policy directives to lend amounts the customers could not possibly service and repay, boosts bank profits through penalty interest rates, charges and compound interest that could not have been dreamed of if the loans were affordable. All it needed was sufficient assets for the bank to strip from the customers when the debt got high enough. Today Fairfax media quotes Mr. Michael Chaney, former chairman of directors of Nab. The Herald says “Mr. Chaney describes trade-offs between behaviour and profits, between enduring the community’s mistrust of banks and the desire of the bank CEOs to keep their jobs.” As bank directors appoint and dismiss CEOs, the clear implication is that if the CEOs did not do what was required to boost bank profits they would be sacked by the board. The only reason for the community mistrusting banks is their fraudulent misappropriation of customers’ money, their theft of funds from bank accounts, their fake insurance policies and their false and misleading statements that encouraged customers to borrow more than they could afford. Often this cost customers their life savings and the government has ended up providing welfare for people who were quite well off before being worked over by their bank in order for the CEO to not be fired by the bank board. The herald continues “He (Mr. Chaney) backs that assessment with his experience as a bank chairman. “When you get back from investor meetings, you say we need to create some incentive plans that cause our people to generate more profits. You assume everyone will do it ethically but somewhere down there, whether it is amongst your tens of thousands of employees or your brokers or other parties somebody does the wrong thing because they can make money out of it.” Mr Chaney is further quoted as saying “ In the shorter run over a couple of years you (bank executives) would be absolutely crucified in the market and the people would be calling for your head”.....” if you don’t ever make a move to sell someone a product that they don’t want and so on.” Three points. Firstly the community does not mistrust banks for selling people products they don’t want. The community mistrusts banks for deliberately lending people unaffordable loans that any banker would know were unaffordable from the start, but which the customer did not know were unaffordable because the customer had less experience with loans than the bank staff. Customers mistrust them for illegally drawing money out of customer’s accounts, for a bank manager getting into a horse racing syndicate with a customer’s executive staff then when the customer complains about his money being taken to feed & train the horse, victimising that customer with false claims of breaching loan terms; when the bank offers the loan at one rate but charges another rate; when the bank colludes with another bank customer to financially ruin a borrower. Secondly, bank directors are not paid to “assume” anything on important matters like ethics, corruption, dishonesty, theft of customers’ funds. They are paid to plan bank policies and factor in the impact of those policies they endorse then instruct staff how to carry out those policy directions. They are not kindergarten children, but supposedly astute business people who know exactly what they are doing. Thirdly what Mr. Chaney espouses is like the Nuremburg principle. Bank directors give instructions like “make more money” – just do it, don’t tell us why you can’t. They leave it to the staff and brokers to decide how, washing their hands of responsibility, just like Hitler left it to camp commandants to decide how to treat Jewish prisoners. Only bank victims were not gassed quickly. Like long term prisoners many were gradually starved of every vestige of wealth, health and respect as the bank sucked out all their assets. It tells us something about bank directors when Mr. Chaney explains how bank executives are maximising profits for investors while not worrying about the well-being of their customers at all. The Mafia does the same. What is the solution? Private enterprise banks were given free reign years ago by their political henchmen who sold off the government banks to prevent any competition from curtailing this ruthless private bank behaviour, probably in return for big political donations and favours. Private moneylenders, which is essentially what the banks are, will probably not change radically, so there are two good solutions. The first is new government banks to work for customers if as voters we encourage our elected MPs to make sure that happens. This would give government more access to long term funds for infrastructure development and put compulsory superannuation to work for the nation and the superannuants instead of lining the pockets of the banks and their offshoots. It would dramatically alter the profit perspective. The second is the model adopted by Bendigo “community” banks, where the bank operates through community owned retail outlets. Bank customers own those retail outlets so they are some of the “investors” of whom Mr. Chaney speaks. Bank staff are employed by those community owned “banks” so staff are always looking to the interests of their customers. Their jobs depend on it. My own experience with Bendigo Community bank has been superb compared to the horrific experience of dealing with the grossly understaffed major banks who treat their borrowers and investors so badly, through no fault of staff. The government, if it had any interest in the rights of bank customers would take a substantial interest in Bendigo & Adelaide bank, perhaps 20%. It would remove government guarantees from customer deposits with the four major banks. It is absurd that while these banks earn billions of dollars annually and pay outrageous salaries to the CEOs for ripping off customers, that taxpayers should be held liable for the debts of those banks if their financial ineptitude renders them unable to pay their debts. It is the bank directors and CEOs who should be liable for debt the bank cannot afford to pay as it will only be their actions that cause that to happen. Clients of GBAC Advisory can have inexpensive Loan Impact Statement drawn up and loan management plans drawn up to deliver them, rather than the bank, good profits from their borrowings. GBACA is always ready, when some unusual circumstance like illness, business downturn, bad seasons arise, to negotiate with the bank to temporarily adjust the loan terms to suit the circumstances. We have found banks very willing to do that. Borrowers are rarely experienced enough at such negotiations to do it themselves. They are often quite surprised to see that we have achieved what they thought to be impossible. Everybody has their own field at which they are good. Nothing will happen without action by the Australian voters. That is why I have established voters.network so that people like bank customers can exert some influence over what happens instead of so many people having their lives destroyed because bank directors and CEOs are more interested in making maximum profits for investors (probably other banks) than the social destruction they cause their customers. Democracy means voters ensuring that government works for them. That is, as opposed to dictatorships and monarchies where heads of state “rule over” the people. Because the Queen leaves it to Australian parliamentarians, despite the monarchy, voters rule in Australia. But they will only rule when they work together because they need to have politicians do what the vast majority wants done. Honest banks are probably wanted by all but the bank boards and those investors who constantly want more profit at any cost. Why should we put up with it?? Today’s Sydney Morning Herald typifies the issues around Australia. Voters.network gives a loud voice to the Australian people which cannot be ignored in a democracy. It does not involve much time or effort. We do not rally or protest on single issues. We work online and through our elected representatives on every conceivable issue. No-one keeps a dog and barks too. We elect and pay politicians to run our country or state the way we want it run. They will do that if we work with them to make it happen. Join as a free member see how it works, see what tools we offer you to build better more enjoyable lives for yourself and your family. Don’t believe that you can’t win. Of course you can win, if you go about it the right way and if your claim is valid. All we have to do as voters, residents, parents and victims is work together and have our elected and paid politicians fix the problems. But we must discuss and offer solutions, for our politicians obviously do not know what to do on every matter. Voters.network is your opportunity to get problems solved with the minimum of effort and discomfort. You don’t have to rally, march in the streets or continue to suffer . Just say what the problem is that you want solved and offer suggestions on solving it. Easy peasy. Join voters network free then if convinced upgrade for $4 per month for 12 months or contribute in advance $44. Then enjoy life more knowing you have powerful allies to achieve your goals. https://voters.network/join.php . Today’s dramas A port agreement struck by the NSW government prevents Newcastle and Wollongong Ports from handling containers that would remove thousands of trucks from passing through Sydney. This illustrates government negligence, perhaps corruption and the stupidity of privatising public assets like ports to get short term cash when a government is incapable of managing finances. It is claimed in court that council elections were rigged to have a person elected to a Sydney council. It is no good this being revealed in a court prosecution, because the damage in council policy has already been done. We need an Electoral Commission that can act by deferring the election immediately it becomes suspicious that an election is about to be rigged. Energy policy conflicts continue over coal or renewable production. This is because coal is cheaper but more polluting. Wind and solar are more expensive and cleaner. Meanwhile we export our coal so it still pollutes the world. Surely good sense suggests an energy policy of using cheaper but dirtier coal to produce our own power if it is going to be used anywhere and simultaneously putting the profits from coal powered electricity into building a national renewable energy structure free of “electricity trading” that bumps up prices and perhaps based on private networks of rooftop solar and wind, particularly in big cities. Agriculture has brought incredible shame on Australia by its treatment of livestock. Politicians are solely to blame. We have seen cattle bludgeoned to death, chickens dropped live into boiling water and sheep dying in the most disgusting circumstances imaginable. What penalties and gaol terms do you think would stop this profit-oriented cruelty. What monitoring systems do you think would detect such cruelty. Why do we elect politicians who facilitate such cruelty. Only ordinary Australians speaking up can have this cruelty stopped. All you have to do is join voters.network and say what you think should happen. The staggering case of the Australian Tax Office abusing taxpayers in a way that would have done credit to Stalin or Hitler raises the question of government abuse of Australian people. Governments are not our rulers. They are our servants. Of course the Tax Office must ensure that people pay their fair taxes. But the Tax office should assess each tax return and then send a bill for the tax owing. That is what it did most of the time since federation. In recent times it moved to “self-assesment” a lazy, cost-cutting, job destroying way of neglecting its responsibilities. Taxpayers had to assess their own taxable income and assess their own tax. We all know that the person who produced the document cannot effectively review it. If they made a mistake of belief when they prepared the return they will make the same mistake when reviewing it. It is always wise to have a second person review a financial document. The Tax Office has the opposite aim to the taxpayer so it is ideal to review a tax return and point out any errors. Then they can be debated until a correct answer is accepted. The ATO should dump self-assessment and do the job it is employed for, that is assess tax returns each year and issue assessments rather than coming back years later after money has been spent and asking for a big tax bill to be paid because of some past error. Again, Australians need only join voters.network for us to get the tax office working for us not against us. Thousands of people in capital cities are suffering because politicians are failing to provide the schools, sporting facilities, hospitals and transport services for high rise communities that the politicians themselves have forced on people. Voters.network already has a discussion forum on the question of capital city populations and congestion which will expand to take account of lack of services. Corporate tax cuts will not be reinvested in wages, that much is for sure. Companies that can avoid tax through smart expensive tax advisers will soon enough find a way to avoid reinvestment of tax savings as the government seems to dream of. The most obvious way will be to invest the savings in new jobs and dismiss staff in existing jobs. The real solution is to remove all payroll tax on employing people and allow a 150% tax deduction for annaul increases in wages under $100,000 p.a. and reduce the tax deduction for salaries over $200,000 p.a. to 75%. Rental prices soar by as much as 5% on city fringes, Blue Mountains and Central Coast. Of course if politicians keep bring in people into capital cities from overseas and regional areas, this problem will keep getting worse and younger Australians will suffer. Homelessness will get greater. We are told that already 18,000 Australian children are homeless. What a political disgrace! You can either accept this degraded life in Australia or join voters.network to build better lives for yourself and your family and for the tens of thousands who suffer neglect, bad laws or bad administration. 10th April 2018 Have you seen the media reports of the ATO abusing taxpayers? Do not put up with abuse from the Australian Tax office or any government department. Joining voters .network is the best form of protection and a lot cheaper than taking on the tax office in court. The ATO would not dare to persecute voters.network members or users of FairGO's services as it apparently has others recently. Anyone persecuted unfairly by the ATO has an additional simple inexpensive remedy. A Votergram to each of the 225 Federal MPs would stop the persecution dead in its tracks. No fancy lawyers or accountants needed, though we have tax accountants in the network. The cost to send a message by Votergram to 225 Federal MPs is $25 in total. Responses are monitored and you can rate MPs for good or bad responses. The ATO action is most likely caused by unrealistic cost-cutting and performance demands by Federal MPs themselves. Historically the ATO has been very obliging to honest taxpayers. Today taxpayers, residents, bank customers, children, women, cattle, chickens, dogs and sheep are all being abused under the auspices of our state and federal politicians who are responsible for all laws and all government action. Abuse is running rife! Unless voters do network together, to campaign, help politicians perform better and guide government policy, Australians are going to end up enduring the sort of abuse to which our first settlers were subjected by the authorities in the 1700’s. Let’s not do that!! Join voters.network now if you have not already done so and remember that Votergrams can protect you from abuse - not only by government. 9th April 2018 Hub Leaders can make money from voters.network by helping fellow members The network employs no staff. Hub Leaders manage their own hubs with training and assistance. Advanced network members fund their Hub Leaders, by annual contributions, in order to learn how to enjoy better government services. Any willing advanced member can help the other members and receive that funding by leading a Hub. That will give them $20 a year for every advanced network member in their hub towards their costs and time. Leaders mainly pass information between network administration and their hub members. This keeps the network independent, building diversification and decentralisation into administration. There are 16 million voters in Australia. A leader of a hub with 1,000 advanced members, would receive $20,000 p.a. funding from those members. Ordinary members do not pay for their ability to rate the performance of their MPs. Membership is promoted through social and other media. The network employs no staff. Hub Leaders manage their own hubs with training and assistance. Advanced network members fund their Hub Leaders, by annual contributions, in order to learn how to enjoy better government services. Any willing advanced member can help the other members and receive that funding by leading a Hub. That will give them $20 a year for every advanced network member in their hub towards their costs and time. Leaders mainly pass information between network administration and their hub members. This keeps the network independent, building diversification and decentralisation into administration. There are 16 million voters in Australia. A leader of a hub with 1,000 advanced members, would receive $20,000 p.a. funding from those members. Ordinary members do not pay for their ability to rate the performance of their MPs. Membership is promoted through social and other media. 9th April 2018 FAIRER TAX SYSTEM BADLY NEEDED FOR AUSTRALIAN VOTERS What are your thoughts on corporate tax rates, negative gearing, tax havens, personal taxes? Join the voters.network forum and let’s see if we can make the tax system fairer for voters. Here are my thoughts having spent most of my working life as a Chartered accountant / tax adviser. How amazing that people support corporate tax cuts. Companies earning billions of dollars a year will pay lower marginal tax rates than employees on $40,000. Business & farm owners will simply direct income through companies to pay less tax. Wage and salary earners will suffer most. Government spending will be cut because taxes will be less. Foreign companies investing here will run their investments through tax havens and pay little tax in Australia anyway. To achieve the governments jobs and growth it would be better to remove payroll tax. Fancy taxing employment!! And replace it with a “technology tax” to combat replacement of people who serve us well with technology that serves us badly but is cheaper. Salary, wages and contract fees for personal services should only be deductible against Australian income to the extent that they are paid in Australia. That will deter the current boom in exporting of jobs, which like immigration, forces Aussie pay rates down at the lower end of the market. That then costs money in welfare spending. To further encourage job creation for low to medium paid employees, salary and wage payments of up to $200,000 per employee p.a. should be allowable deductions at 150% of the amount paid and payments of over $500,000 per employee p.a. should be allowable at the rate of 75% of the amount paid. Thus salaries and wages would be more evenly spread. Loopholes in tax laws work firmly against the majority of Australian taxpayers. Fees for tax return preparation services should cease to be deductible where they exceed $1,000. Most of the big tax bills are for advice on how to avoid tax, so why would they be allowable tax deductions? There is no possible justification for excluding businesses from paying the GST that all voters are forced to pay. Government works as much for business as for individuals. The “input credits” law that allows businesses to reclaim gst paid should be revoked. But what is most important is what you think, not what I think. Feel free to put forward your counter arguments and views. We want a system which works well for the vast majority of Australian voters. Join the Action Forum https://voters.network/forum.php discussion on a fairer tax system for Australian voters. 2nd April 2018 Police brutality, mental illness and solving problems Are Victorian Members of Parliament developing a Police State? If you are a Victorian, you can join voters.network and rate your local MPs to let them know your views on what they do. Police states do not come suddenly but gradually. Those Germans who experienced the ruthless rule of their elected leader Adolf Hitler saw it gently become a fact of life. Responses by Victorian politicians and Police leaders to ABC’s 7.30 tonight were totally unhelpful. No wonder the politicians are cutting its funding. For as long as I have known, Police could get away with criminal activities without fear of punishment. This only happens because our elected politicians deliberately let it happen. They wouldn’t if voters worked with them more often. But there is a second and related aspect to the Police brutality increasingly dished out to voters without the slightest justification. Have you noticed that this treatment is predominantly directed at people with a mental illness? It is quite obvious, so why does it happen? The answer to that question is also quite obvious. It costs governments money to maintain health services and facilities for people with mental illnesses. Governments love to save money by cutting services and to divert that money into infrastructure projects about which they can boast for years. They get to cut ribbons and open buildings and perhaps have their names on foundation stones. That wins votes. Infrastructure means monuments to politicians. Services are just about looking after people and that does not necessarily win votes at all. If we simply don’t care what happens to others and think only of ourselves then I guess we can’t really blame the Police too much for acting that way too. Why are these matters arising for Police anyway? Dealing with crime is what Police are about. Mental Health is not a Police matter. It needs mental health medical experts. Politicians have a clever trick to neutralise public concern about certain issues. Mental health treatment has been a major failing of governments at least since the 1960’s. Violence is another. They subsidise community organisations working to alleviate certain problems. Mental Health may be one of them. By subsidising these organisations the politicians can control what they do and ensure that they do not put too much pressure on government to actually solve the problems. The concerned community members working hard in these groups can achieve some progress, but can rarely solve all the problems. That is because the government owns the problem and has silenced the voters most concerned about it. This is why voters.network and FairGO have never accepted government subsidies. That is why we are so successful. That and the fact that we do not crow about our successes as other groups do, because we know that the real heroes are the voters who have taken on the problem and the politicians who have helped them solve it. But that very independence is what makes us totally dependent on voters to upgrade and contribute to our funding. It means we can only do what voters help us to do. We invite you to upgrade to advanced membership. That entitles you to become a Hub Leader after a very brief training and with constant support. As a Hub Leader you will help us develop the network and you will receive half of each annual contribution from members of your hub to help cover your time, costs and effort. Voters who join are automatically allocated to hubs on the basis of postcodes, unless they mention that they have been referred by someone in which case they will be allocated to that person’s hub if that person is a hub leader. Most new members spend a while as ordinary free members until they get to know us and what we are seeking to achieve for them. There are so many matters about which voters are concerned and so many great solutions that can be adopted by politicians. But until we bring the voting community and the parliamentary community together, it is unlikely that those solutions will be adopted. Every Australian can use democracy to help them build better lives, by joining voters.network. 1st March 2018 Easter Sunday The day is a symbol of what we might call, in a secular way, “The Power of Positive Thinking”, to take the title of Grenville Kleiser’s book. Christ’s followers must have felt pretty “down” after seeing him executed. Not really what they had expected to happen. Perhaps they felt a bit disillusioned too. Don’t a good few of us voters feel a bit downhearted and disillusioned about our governments from time to time, regardless of which party is in power? What Jesus was seeking to accomplish was pretty difficult – a radical change in thinking. What Easter Sunday commemorates is something really good coming out of a disaster. In 1978 I felt pretty low too when my local council seriously let me and my community down. In those days I had no plans to do anything but build my Chartered Accountancy practice and perhaps follow my forebears into farming. But I was well locked into church as well. That I always enjoyed. But something good did come out of my council disaster. Years later I worked through FairGO and Votergrams to obtain respite care in Canberra for a young man with cerebral palsy living in NSW. He wanted to go where his friends were and leave the dependence on his parents. But the ACT government would not fund him as he was a NSW resident and NSW would not fund him to Canberra. Instead they would fund him to Yass, which was where he did not want to go. (Without my council disaster, I would never have thought of developing Votergrams or forming FairGO.) It took a lot of thinking and a lot of strategic persuasion, but eventually both governments could see their way clear to come to an extremely good arrangement, so he moved to care in Canberra, funded initially by NSW then the ACT. It was much the same when a pay award increase threatened to close Warrah, a very nice community for people with severe disabilities. The Board called us in and with the help of parents, the NSW government was persuaded to fund the pay increase, despite its earlier refusal. Christ’s resurrection is seen by many as simply impossible. So too, many find it impossible to believe that governments will change their mind to help individuals or the broad community. In our democracy it is a case of understanding the issues, identifying potential solutions and strategically bringing persuasive power to enlighten politicians to those possibilities. When I look at so many successes over so many years, I know that we have performed miracles and that much of our success has been due the to willingness of politicians to look well and truly beyond what is in their own interests and break down the barriers to happiness for Australians who ask for help. That is why we are reluctant to blow our own trumpet like so many organisations do, for the real heroes are our much-maligned elected politicians. Far too often we are far too fast to condemn and crucify them without fully understanding what is required for them to deliver us the Australia we want. Dashed hopes can be resurrected by those with the courage, faith and determination to simply not accept “NO” for an answer from the governments we elect, employ and pay to do our bidding. Now you may have been following, even thinking of joining, our Action Forum on domestic and family violence. I was horrified to learn in recent weeks that domestic violence is so common that major employers are giving paid and unpaid “domestic violence leave”. Do we have an epidemic of domestic violence in this country? What is the cause? Mostly it is men who are violent. What has got into these men? What is their background? Why are they doing this? Who is pushing them towards it? What is the role if any of drugs, alcohol, gambling, debt? What do we do with a mother and step-father who repeatedly arranged for their 8 year old daughter to be raped? Are fiends, monsters deliberately giving birth to children so that they can be abused? You and I have two choices that are all lot better than those of the people who stood around and watched Christ being crucified. We can either let the sexual abuse of children continue with our endorsement, knowing as we do that their lives will have been utterly destroyed until the day they die OR we can act to have our government curtail this horrendous crime against children very quickly. Whatever happens to little children from this Easter onwards will be on the heads of the Australian voters. What you and I decide, these Australian children will live. Any one of us could have a child or grandchild kidnapped for sexual abuse. The baby born in the next hospital bed may be destined for rape within a year or two. We do not live under military rule as in Christ’s time. We live in a democracy and we can stop this practice stone dead – if we think first of the children and develop effective solutions. JOIN, UPGRADE, GIVE US A HAND. Forget cricket cheats and political donations for a moment and let’s save a few hundred or thousand Aussie kids from a horror story and put an end to domestic and family violence, of which child rape is just the most extreme example. Greg 30th March 2018 Good Friday I am spending Good Friday in beautiful, lush green, pollution free, traffic free, inland nsw. Canberra is 2 hours one way. The magnificent snow fields 2 hours another way. The lovely south coast beaches, rivers and lakes 2 hours in another direction. The pleasant city of Goulburn is 2 hours away in another direction. Very nice homes sell for between $400,000 and $700,000. On their block size they would be $1m to $2m in Sydney. The saving on a 30 yr loan would be astronomical. From here, I can attend to the needs of voters from the Western Australian wheat belt to Hobart in Tasmania, Far North Queensland, Broken Hill mines and New England University in Armidale as well as Adelaide and Melbourne. I could deliver goods and services to anywhere in Australia and most places in the world. There are very good alternatives to overcrowded capital cities. Today we remember the execution of Jesus Christ. Without discussing the issue of his divinity or the behaviour of today’s religious leaders, we can learn some important lessons from his life and death. He taught that we would all get on better if we thought about each other as much as about ourselves. He taught freedom of thinking, tolerance of and respect for others. He taught that rather than bearing grudges we would enjoy life better if we forgave others and ourselves for our inevitable mistakes. We should value democracy, with all its faults, for it is surely better than the power of the religious leadership of his time which had him killed because he was disrupting its power base. Do we still see that today in some parts of the world? Our democracy is better than the Roman dictatorship which had him crucified for disturbing its rule of the Jewish nation. The heavy fist of that dictatorship is seen in the crucifixion of 10,000 people along the Apian Way. Do we see similarities in the Russian, Chinese and some Middle Eastern countries today, where dissent is not tolerated at all? How lucky we are to live in a democracy where by using our votes and our voices in unison as a network, we can control what is done with our state, territory or nation! It does take a little bit of effort to say what we want and do it in a way that persuades politicians. But compared to being crucified for dissent against the powers that be, it has a lot going for it. What we see in Jesus is a man prepared to stand up for what he believed and prepared to die for it. Ordinary people like you and me in our Australian democracy can stand up for what we believe, challenge authority and not suffer any harm. I have done it for 30 years, challenging politicians of all parties and bureaucrats alike. When I started I was scared of retaliation, but none has come. I am not that important and most politicians would like to do the right thing anyway, if only voters supported them. But doing the right thing and governing well is extremely difficult and mostly a thankless task. If we just work together as voters and with our elected MPs of all parties, but insisting that if they wish to continue in office they do what the vast majority of voters want, the result will be happiness. One difficulty is finding out what the vast majority want done. We can do that if we work together. Another is managing the very many tasks government entails and managing them well. To do that politicians need our input, for we are on the ground experiencing the outcomes everywhere. Let’s take one hint from Jesus and treat our Members of Parliament as we would like them to treat us. I bet it will work well. Have a Happy and Safe Easter. Drive carefully and share the driving on long trips. Men who hog the driving, do their wives, partners and adult children a great disfavour by denying them the experience whilst Dad is with them. 27th March 2018 Role models for children Who makes the best role models for children – sports stars, business people, sales people, film stars, TV personalities, parents, grandparents, teachers, lecturers? Do children model themselves on people outside the family or is it primarily their parents who are their models? When people who have done great things speak who do they most nominate as guiding their lives. What I mostly hear is “Thanks to my mother...” or There was one teacher [name] who really inspired and encouraged me” Or "My father...............". Is it perhaps the combined impact of all the adults they experience that models their behaviour? Should the government be working to stand by parents, not necessarily financially, but to give moral support and help them over difficult situations? Should we as the community combine with governments to see that all parents get a fair enough go at life to provide good role models for their children and expose them to people who are also good models? “Couple deliver their own baby in NSW hospital”! “How bad can it get in Australia for young couples?” Young couples are the solid future of Australia. They will drive the workforce and demand for decades. They will take on the challenging role of parents, looking for support, child care for their babies and toddlers. What they are able to do for their young children will set those children on a path that will determine their future lives. Young couples are often looking at impossible house prices in capital cities, yet have little knowledge of rural and regional cities where houses cost a quarter of the price. They need secure jobs. What do you think governments should do to help these young families, starting with early pregnancy and child-birth? If you know, your best course of action could be sending a Votergram to every Member of Parliament telling them what to do. You could join voters.network now and start the community talking about what is needed. If you are in an early parenting organisation you could contact FairGO to help co-ordinate a campaign for improvements. The way democracy works is that those who put most effort into influencing government enjoy the most out of it. Young parents are often just finishing studies, looking for jobs and homes, starting families and very short of time. Voters.network, FairGO and Votergrams exist as tools for them to use in order to build better lives. We believe that all Australians are entitled to a fair go from governments. Working with our elected Members of Parliament, regardless of what party they are in, can be a very good way to ensure that all young families do get a fair go. 15th March 2018 Are governments failing the people, failing the nation, failing themselves? Are we voters fiddling while a social bushfire is burning in our midst? Or is it just media hype to earn money and entertain us? Whatever it is, voters.network needs you to help sort it out before we all suffer – our young people most of all. You may agree or disagree with what I say below. It is what you want, not what I want that is important, so join voters.network and have your say in a more effective way. Then together let’s change the world so that Australia prospers as a fair country in which everybody is given a fair go – young and old, rich and poor, sick and healthy. To do that we must guide and control government, not let others with their own selfish greed in mind, do it courtesy of our neglect. Free enterprise capitalism does not have to exclusively enrich the wealthy and impoverish the poor. CEO’s get paid $5.5m a year. That’s over 150 times the minimum wage of about $35,000. We surely do not need to be an excessively welfare country, but rather a strong working country. Homelessness has dramatically increased. NDIS seems to be failing to deliver for our most vulnerable people. Our tax system achieves the following goals: To enrich tax avoidance experts in the legal and accounting fields. To ensure that the very highest income earners can buy tax favours though political donations or advertising campaigns and pay relatively low rates of tax, if any at all. To deceive and confuse ordinary average Australians into believing that they are being fairly treated, partly by the division of taxing and spending between states and the commonwealth – a bit like the thimble and pea trick. To seriously disadvantage small to medium sized family businesses and farmers To allow taxpayers money to be used for many purposes for which it was not intended. Education, electricity, water, housing, child care and aged care have suddenly become investment and profit-making ventures from which people make money, instead of public utilities for the equal benefit of all Australians. Violence in young people from more recently immigrant families is of great concern. It is most likely the product of politicians allowing large numbers of people to immigrate to Australia, but failing to provide them with the education, careers, understanding of Australian culture and support that will assist them to happily integrate with the existing Australian community. It is grossly unfair to put these young people into such disadvantaged circumstances. Immigration needs far better management than it has received to date from its profit-driven proponents. A government wants to spend billions of dollars of public money on stadiums for a football league that has its own $300 million stacked away and wants to put on the field a violent criminal who harassed and stalked women in America refusing to pay court ordered compensation . Is our public money seriously going to be used for this purpose, to endorse violent home invasion, assault and harassment of women? First shouldn’t the league settle his court ordered debt, with reimbursement from his salary? Whatever we want, in a democracy we can pretty much have, but we must put in the time effort and resources needed to achieve it. She won’t be right mate unless we make it right. Many of you have used FairGO and Votergrams over the past 30 years. Now there is a new geneation of solutions. Join voters.network and help your fellow Australians make it right. To do that they need to know what you want for Australia. And voters.network would love a little bit of your money by way of the annual contribution made by advanced members. That way we all share the costs and voters.network stays independent. 14th March 2018 Dividend imputation is a politically orchestrated tax fraud designed to give big investors, like big banks, big benefits and leave salary and wage earners holding the tax baby. Why shouldn’t nab lose its banking licence with customers given a year to move to another bank? Would a new government bank be more honest? Why does the government pay to build stadiums for an organisation that runs sport as a business and has hundreds of millions of dollars in kitty? Is this what we want, while parents have to deliver their own baby in hospital due to staff shortages? So does The National Retailers Association really want zero growth in wages as reported today? What about a similar zero price rise requirement for its members? The Tax Office can’t be bothered to check company tax returns and issue assessments. No wonder people cheat. No wonder others get angry required to pay tax without supporting documentation while the tax office itself disallows deductions for lack of evidence. Alan Jones and 2GB enjoy their well earned ratings fame. I wonder how many voters realise that they would probably solve their problems faster if they quietly sent a Votergram into the relevant parliament. Stop, look and listen to the politicians. Assess how well they are representing you. You can join voters.network FREE and rate any of them you wish to, with a tick or a cross. ------- 14th March 2018 Banking, child care, aged care, crime control, transport and politicians' duty to perform. Did you know that voters.network, https://voters.network/join.php lets you rate your MPs? Our representatives, our politicians, have, through bank de-regulation and much privatisation, set loose a ferocious, corrupt and ruthless profit-devouring industry, crooked as possible and not in the slightest bit concerned about the harm it does to Australians. Politicians of both major parties have lined the pockets of this industry by allowing it to sell unaffordable loans to unsuspecting customers; to accept bribes for loans; to launder money, to sell fake loan insurance: to foreclose at will, given it billions in compulsory superannuation funds, guaranteed its debts despite its multibillion dollar profits and sold the government banks that once held the private moneylenders in check. Taxpayers’ funds are pouring into child and aged care run by huge enterprises to whom the well being of the clients, children or elderly is far less important than maximising profits. Huge government subsidies or grants increase private profits exponentially. Owners take the profits. We voters share the costs. The voters who pay have no say. Would it be better if government ran these services itself, returning the big profits to clients or to the government for the people? Or is privatisation a roaring success despite the higher charges to Australians needed to deliver desirable super-profits? Are our politicians serving us well or badly on these matters? You can rate their performance easily by joining www.voters.network FREE. Then you can rate your local MPs or any state or federal MPs or ministers with a simple tick or cross. Eventually a picture will be built of what the voters think of their MPs. We are not out to denigrate them. There are some truly magnificent MPs, but even they can be persuaded to make bad decisions. If voters get alongside them and quietly help them with feedback and solutions, they will improve their performance. There are also some hopeless politicians who would be far better replaced. That applies in all walks of life. Voter involvement in rating their politicians is a first step towards building better lives. If voters elect them and voters pay them, it is important for voters to monitor what they do and assess how well they are being represented. Then they can use voters.network’s rating facility to provide feedback on how satisfied they are with what is being done by people elected to represent them. Democracy belongs to and can serve the voters, but voters have to make that happen. Voters.network provides the platform. Working with politicians should be the voters’ goal. 11th March 2018 1.Domestic and family violence and 2.population management I see some campaigns coming up. Two topics that seem to be grabbing the attention of Australians at present are Domestic and Family Violence and Population management ABCTV had two programs dealing with population this evening. Population policy is purely political, so we voters can modify it if we wish by persuading politicians and their political parties to do what we want, or replacing them with others who will represent our views. But what do you think? What are our views - the views of the Australian community, both silent and vocal? Are polliticians doing what we want? Are political parties giving us politicians with the vision to handle the population they are increasing by their policies? What happens at the two ends of this equation - the one whee immigrants arrive and the one where the population ends up living and working? Are our politician squeeezing us at both ends by inceasing the immigrant intake and refusing to dev elop the 100 or more regional cities and centres that could so easily servie the world via the NBN with good road, rail and air transport facilities, schools nad hospitals which would provide tens of thousnads of jobs? It will probably be the next topic for discussion on voters.network's advanced member-funded Action Forum after we conclude domestic and family violence. The benefit of voters.network's advanced membership’s $44 annual contribution, lies in the network being completely independent of both government and business. The contribution primarily funds Hub Leaders to run their hubs that protect the network’s internal and external independence. Join voters.network for free. Then if you see the benefit of a truly independent body for voters, you can upgraad to advanced membership. The network is backed by FairGO's 30 year presence in Australlian democracy as a 100% Australian funded and operated entity. Voters.network already leads the world in its field. 10th March 2018 Step 1 in home hunting. What is the main factor stopping you buying the home you want and why? Your earnings? Your aspirations? Your family size? Your preferred location? The style of home you like? Price? Your banker? The government? Your local MPs? All MPs? The answer leads to solutions! If you are not already an advanced member, send your answer via the contact form on voters.network. First name is fine. Advanced members post on the "Home Ownership" topic on the voters.network Action Forum. 9th March 2018 Home prices affected by 7 factors Contrary to fake news by bankers today about zoning, home prices in Sydney are dictated by 7 factors: Desire of residents to raise families in homes with privacy, not drug and crime infested housing estates. Refusal of governments to develop the 30 inland cities in NSW with good road, rail and air access to match their very cheap housing, superb life-style and global internet trading reach. Excessive property developer profit margins allowed in return for large donations to political parties. Government stamp duty and infrastructure charges. Developments being debt financed so buyers pay large interest and loan charges. Government allowing foreigners to use Australian homes as safe havens for money, laundered or legitimate. Council zonings in accordance with voters wishes. Today’s publicity is a move to disenfranchise the Australian voters and compel them to accept the sort of housing imposed by the Chinese communist government. The thing is that Australian voters live in a democracy that they can control, not a communist dictatorship. Hence voters.network . Time to limit developers to a 20% mark up on direct costs and get government developing all our cheaper cities through tax breaks and government re-location, directing foreign home buyers there. Join the voters.network action forum and make a difference to your life before the powers-that-be cramp your style to make profit for others! 8th March 2018 Less talk. Ask for action on International Women’s Day! When your messages of up to 100 words goes by one $25 Votergram to every MP in Parliament, telling them what you want them to do for women, it will go direct to the decision-makers. The opposition pressures the government. The back bench pressures the cabinet. The cabinet pressures the ministers and the ministers pressure the departments. FairGO can help you word your message. Email votergrams@fairgo.org . 8th March 2018 Are governments failing the people, failing the nation, failing themselves? Are we voters fiddling while a major economic disaster is building around us? Or are the stories I have comment on below, just media hype to entertain us and earn money for the media? Whatever it is, we need you in voters.network to help sort it out before we all suffer – our young people most of all. You may agree or disagree with what I say below. It is what you want, not what I want that is important, so join voters.network and have your say in a more effective way. Then together let’s change the world so that Australia prospers as a fair country in which everybody is given a fair go. To do that we must guide and control government, not let others do that because of our neglect. Free enterprise capitalism does not have to enrich the wealthy and screw the poor. Energy Australia is just about to equalise gender pays. Others can do the same. It is only fair. On International Women’s Day we are told that one major step forward is respect. That is so true. But respect is usually earned rather than given. So to be respected women will need to do what earns respect and with men that is first and foremost being able to stand up for yourself. That is pretty difficult if you are physically weaker and trying to look after small children. It means being able to physically defend yourself from attack; making sure you are financially secure and owning everything 50/50 with your spouse or partner. To those who say that it is not fair to put the onus on women, I echo my widowed mother’s words to me. When I said that something was "unfair" she replied– “Life itself is not fair, so best get used to it now!” The best time for women in a relationship with a man to secure their respect and security is in the beginning. If I could not look after myself I am sure many men would do me like a dinner. As a kid growing up without a dad, I was lucky to have male relatives and friends who taught me how to do it. Life has worked well for me and I would like it to work a bit better for most women than it did for my mother. Though she too learned how to defend herself and earn enough money for our family of 4 to survive. Headlines scream that education funding is unfair and seek to start a fight between government and non-government schools. The SMH article compares two schools by saying what one receives and what the other spends. It defies logic. Comparing apples and oranges. Let’s not fight. If government schools need more money it comes from consolidated revenue, it does not have to be taken from other schools. Obviously the schools educating the poorest children need enough government funding to do the same things as the richest schools and the richest schools do not need any more government funding than is needed to help poorer parents send their children there if they wish. Everybody pays taxes and all parents are entitled to some educational benefit out of those taxes. Education, electricity, water and housing have suddenly become commodities from which people make money. Voters must decide how that plays out. A government wants to spend billions of dollars of public money on stadiums for a football league that has its own $300 million stacked away and wants to put on the field a violent criminal who harassed and stalked women in America and refuses to pay court ordered compensation to the owners of a home he invaded and terrorised. Are Members of any Parliament going to support that sort of abuse of women, terrorism, home invasion and contempt for the law? Do we voters think that providing sporting facilities for that code and its stand on violence is a good idea, or that it should use its own money to build its own stadiums from which it earns a fortune in gate money and TV rights? Should the sport’s governing body ensure that agreement is reached with this player’s victims to pay the court-ordered damages out of his football earnings before he goes on field? His apology is not worth a pinch of anything because he has ruined one young boy’s life by his rampage and that can never be undone. This is hardly a sporting code of role models. Is it reasonable that surgeons, accountants, lawyer, banks businesses or bookkeepers who go on TV should gain a great influx of customers, not because they are good, but because they say they are good? Or should we, the customers, rate them as we can now rate politicians on this website. Here is the story of two banks. CBA notified me of a term deposit falling due in about 1 week for one of the companies I manage. I phoned the local branch to give them instructions to roll it over in part. No answer but a machine! I phoned the 1300 number, went through 3 or 4 tedious menus, eventually reached a live person and gave the details and sought interest rates from the friendly operator. After a while she said that as it was a company she would need to put me through to the business section. She did that. I told my story and identified myself again. Checked rates, said what I wanted done and the operator said that she could not action it because the due date for maturity had not arrived. When I suggested she could note my instructions and have the appropriate section action them on the due date she said that was impossible. Instructions had to be given on the exact due date. I asked what would happen if I was overseas, in meetings all day or out of phone range that day. She said that was irrelevant. I gave up and on the due date matured the company’s money for depositing with a more helpful bank. Yesterday I received a phone call. “Hi Greg” the caller said, “It’s Karen from Bendigo Community Bank. I just wanted to let you know that one of the companies you manages has a term deposit falling due in a bit over a week so that you can let us know what you want done.” How pleasant! What a bank. Why would I deal with deadheads in a bank that sets out to be obstructive when I can deal with a bank that actually cares about its customers? I deal with all banks but Bendigo Community Bank is streets ahead of the others. If you want to test the waters, open an account with them and see how it works for you. Having spent much of my life in Chartered Accountancy and dealt with many banks for many clients, I have certainly enjoyed a refreshing experience with Bendigo Community Bank. So much so that I am buying just a few shares for 50 cents each in the local company that runs the community bank for Bendigo. Yes, we can actually own part of our own bank. Don’t let inertia keep you in a bank that treats you badly. But wherever you bank, do your own homework. Don’t rely on the bank to do that for you. The bank is trying to earn a profit from you. You need to protect your own interests. Don’t expect any bank to do that for you. Housing is horrifically expensive in capital cities yet in regional cities it may only cost a quarter the price and the air is many times fresher. If governments developed regional cities with highways, rail lines and air travel to them there would be jobs galore and young people could adventure out into the most beautiful parts of Australia to live far richer lives than they ever will in capital cities. NBN will provide access to the world for businesses who set up there at far less cost than in Sydney or Melbourne. Inertia is preventing our young people from moving outside the capital city "square" and enjoying the very best of Australian lives in regional cities and towns. What do we gain and lose from international free trade agreements? Government ministers tell us all about what we can expect to gain, but nothing about what we will lose. Most of our manufacturing has gone. What are we selling to earn money to pay for our imports. Agricultural exports are still very important, but climate change may alter our capacity to feed others at profitable prices. Service industries are important but not everybody can join them. Governments should tell us what we are giving away and put profits from what we gain into education for those losing their jobs so that they can earn money in new fields and contribute to the tax base instead of drawing on welfare. By its system of seeking a small financial contribution each year from advanced members and allocating most of that to hub leaders, voters.network may be able to make some small contribution to future earnings by channelling those funds to thousands of hub leaders around Australia, all making our democracy work better for the people of Australia. Why is it that according to media reports, 339,000 Centrelink callers waited more than 30 minutes on the phone and 33 million calls between July and January received no answer at all? Why have our politicians been so stupid as to concentrate so many services into one hopelessly inefficient service office? Why have they been so incompetent as to fail to properly staff the phones. The trend to automatic phone answering services robs the community of massive amounts of time for no benefit at all and those who cut jobs and costs by using phone answering technology instead of giving people jobs answering phones in a proper and helpful wa, should be dismissed from parliament at the next election and from their bureaucratic jobs. Our time is valuable. We pay taxes for service. Governments should be increasing taxes for high income earners, not reducing them. Why are we having 33 million calls to Centrelink over a 7 month period at all? There are only 26 million people in Australia. Are we providing government services and welfare to far too many people for governments to manage? Do we need to get more people into the workforce and housing. Is there a better way than regional development? Not that I can see. A group of teenage criminals has just been arrested. Teenagers are causing havoc elsewhere. Women need to be respected as do men and children. Whose responsibility is it to teach children to respect others? I would say it is primarily their parents. The parents had the fun of sex. Surely it is up to them to do the hard yards with the children that produces. But people cannot teach what they do not know. Parents who have been shown no respect by their own parents, by schools, by government agencies etc, cannot teach respect. Prime responsibility for teaching children to respect all others lies with their parents. Secondly it lies with schools because children spend much of their lives at schools, so they will learn what they see and do there, whether or not we like it. It then becomes the responsibility of government to ensure that parents and schools have the knowledge, experience and resources to teach respect to children. We pay teachers to teach respect so I suggest that government run parenting courses for all parents at various times suitable to parents and pay parents to attend and to teach respect to their children until those parents and the children can demonstrate that they understand and have adopted respectful practices. Part of that teaching will include demonstrating how much better life can work in a respectful world for respectful people. Jobs and wealth come much more easily to those who treat others in a respectful way. "Sydney trains cuts 100 services to stop system meltdown" says the headline. The fact is that our politicians who are frantically promoting higher populations for capital cities are manifestly incapable of running cities with such high populations because such cities require far higher, not lower government expenditure per person. That is partly the higher cost of managing people crammed closer together. It is similar with cattle. Those run free-range in paddocks take a lot less care than those crammed together in feedlots. Politicians must surely have known that. It is also because in big cities every bit of land acquired for public purposes costs infinitely more and costs more to develop because of the narrow spaces in which developers have to work. Voters have a good bit of supervising to do if our governments are going to delier better lives to our children and grandchildren, even to ourselves and even just lives that are as good as what we have enjoyed to date. Act now or forever suffer the consequences! 7th March 2018 March 8 is International Women’s Day. It comes about because many men have been treating many women very badly. Something we should change guys! We men can start giving women a fair go by making a change in many simple ways. It is a lot more fun being in a relationship with a woman if she is an equal partner rather than the guy being the dominant one responsible for all decisions and leadership. Here are some simple steps: Don’t hog the steering wheel. If she drives as much as you do she will be just as good a driver and you will both travel long distances more safely. Hogging the steering wheel means she does not get the same experience as you. Sit back and enjoy it. I have for more than 50 years and sharing the driving has worked very well. My wife will handle a difficult traffic jam, parking spot, 4wd climb or creek crossing as well as I will, if not better. Make sure she has her own bank account and investments. My mother had never signed cheque when my dad died leaving her with 8 y.o. me and twin daughters of 4 y.o. The steep learning curve left her very vulnerable to exploitation. Make sure that she has joint ownership of the house, farm or business and her own car, if you have a car you use all day, so that she will be secure and as mobile as you. Ensure she has more than adequate funds for spending commensurate with your combined income.She should never have to ask you or money. Never put her down or belittle her on her own or in front of others. That just indicates that you have a self-confidence problem. Encourage her to have as many friends and activities as possible for that broadens her horizons. If one of you cooks meals the other should wash up. Share household duties. Never hit or abuse her. It damages her self-confidence and reveals you to be cruel, insensitive and if she is physically weaker, a coward. It certainly destroys a good relationship. I am sure many others have even better suggestions, ideas and experience than I do, so perhaps you will join voters.network and post them on the Action Forum discussions. Voters.network is our newest venture to help Australians buyild better lives by guiding government. 1st March 2018 Media Controlled Democracy (MCD) and horrific living conditions for our Aboriginal fellow Australians. Barnaby Joyce was not removed from office by voters for work failures. He was removed by a relentless media campaign about his sex life. Is this how we want our democracy to work? A person voters elect gets attacked by the media on personal matters until they resign. The removal damages the MP’s party and advantages the opposing party. How does this affect wise community members we might want to elect to represent us? Why would they stand? Not so many people are perfect. The reaction to the rape of a 2 y.o. in Tennant creek is something we voters need to take up. The causes are obvious to most. Alcohol & other drugs; lack of education, careers, housing, self-esteem and development. The fault is not all the Northern Territory’s. They have few people and few resources. We all took the land belonging to Aboriginals and we are doing very well out of it. We perhaps need to give something back. Join our Action Forum and share your views with us. Here are some discussion starters: Should alcohol distributors be liable for damage caused to people who consume their product or to third parties by an offender whose mind is affected by alcohol. It is no good criticise the NT government for not removing the child from the family. Aboriginal people have never forgiven white people for “stealing” children years ago. Should responsible parenting be taught to all people all over Australia, with them paid to attend? Should we boost development in inland Australia to provide jobs , education, health care, housing and financial security for people living there? Should we encourage big city residents and require immigrants to settle inland to ease the pressure in major capital cities and develop sustainable cities throughout Australia, based in part on the internet which allows us to trade with anyone in the world from almost any town in Australia. Tear these ideas apart,or expand them. Add your suggestions to help inland Australia and the people whose homes our forebears took by force of arms. Join the forum on domestic violence and make a difference. Don’t condemn little children to suffer for our neglect or violence! What is the best way to boost the economy? An individual voter earning over $40,000 p.a. pays tax at the rate of 33% or more (up to 45%) on every dollar over that amount plus the medicare levy plus 10% gst on most spending. Businesses claim back the gst they pay, out of the gst they collect from customers. If a person’s first $40,000 pays for gst exempt items and the rest is spent on gst items, the balance over that $40,000 would be effectively taxed at 33% + 10% gst = 43% compared to big businesses earning billions of dollars who are taxed at 25%. Government contemplates giving a $400 million benefit to nab alone in that 8 cent in the $1 tax cut on its $5.3 billion profit, depriving education, health services, welfare, etc of $400m in the process. On the other hand the Government could leave the corporate tax rate as it is and spend an extra $400 million on boosting the economy itself, including schools, hospitals, highways, port & rail links. Then we would be sure to see jobs and growth. The government and big business lobby claim that if companies earning billions pay less tax they will invest that money in the economy. Of course the government will have that much less to spend so it will have that much less to invest in the economy. The amounts will be equal. 8 cents more in the dollar for big business to invest and 8 cents in the dollar less for the government to invest. Which will do more for voters with that 8 cents in every dollar? Big business or the government? Is big business boosting Australian jobs with its funds or it is paying for call centres in India, South Africa, NZ, America and the Philippines? Does Big Business spend most money where it can do the most good for the community or where it can make most money for the company? Should the corporate tax rate be exactly the same rate on the same amounts as for individuals. After all, we all need after tax money to live and invest in homes, cars, children etc Given that company profitability is earned by a team from the CEO to the most junior person, should all staff received the same percentage incentive bonus on their pay as the CEO does? Would it be fairer if businesses paid gst like ordinary Australian voters do, without claiming it back again as big businesses do now? The Business Council of Australia implies that American companies would not want to do business here if they had to pay high Australian taxes on their profits, but under the double tax agreement and common tax planning practices they would either pay lower American tax on their profits or run them through a tax haven paying almost no tax. Australian tax rates would be of only academic interest to American business owners. Investments would always be made via a tax haven so that 10% interest on the total amount invested could be immediately claimed as a tax deduction here and attract only tax haven rates. The sheer falsehood of the prediction that cutting the big business corporate tax rate to 25% would create jobs and growth is well illustrated by Nab’s, $5.3 billion net profit linked to a proposed 4,000 staff sacking. This is not a criticism of nab. It is just what big business is about, maximising profits. Lowering the corporate tax rate just gives more money to the very wealthy to do with it what they will and less money to the government to spend for the benefit of the vast majority of voters who have less spare cash. Spending money on and for the vast majority of Australian voters may well do more to boost the economy than handing it to big businesses that can easily shift it off-shore. It may also reap more votes for government politicians. Nab also announced its plan for a $1.5b investment and $1b cost cut. The investment is a one off $1.5m. The cost cutting that puts 4,000 staff out of work is an annual recurring loss to the economy of $1b. Anyone would see that in a 10 year period the economy gains $1.5b and loses $10b, a net loss to the economy of $8.5b plus a direct loss to government revenue of 8% tax on $5.3 billion or $400 million multiplied by 10 years that is $4 billion. Cash moves from government to the moneylenders. Voters need to consider this tax cut proposal very carefully and let our local MPs know how we feel. 20th February 2018 The hounds bay for Barnaby’s blood? It is a story of nature – love, sex, pregnancy. So why is this referred to as a political “crisis” by the media? Politicians are just like everyone else. No different. The plan to cut tax rates for billionaires who channel their income through companies; the plan to develop a weapons export business so that governments can kill and maim their citizens or citizens can kill or maim their politicians; the health, education, housing and transport services needed for our booming population; a bank earning billions that will sack thousands to lift profits even higher! Might not any of these cause a greater crisis in our lives than a political pregnancy ? Why is this being blown up into a major news story? Why indeed? To understand, one first might conjure up a picture of two warring armies – French & English; North and South Vietnam; China and Japan; Northern and Southern states of America – fighting for the power and prestige of ruling a nation. Then picture them using, not swords, muskets, napalm bombs and tanks, but words, public relations, advertising and verbal attacks on each other, in their quest for power. “Sticks and stone may break their bones, but names can kill careers in politics”. Picture Parliament House as the “theatre of war”. On one side are the parties in power and on the other the parties seeking to take it away from them. Rule of Australia is at stake. Conquest is not about winning control of cities and towns, but the winning of votes from individual voters in sufficient numbers to win control electorates until one party holds more than half of them. The two sides are almost equally matched. Their words of war grow louder and louder with the final battle for the votes that will deliver victory coming within sight. It might be next year, but if one of the ruling generals is knocked out, the government’s defences may be weakened enough to crumble earlier under a prolonged siege. Votes of large numbers of individuals are the key to victory in a majority of electorates! The challenge is how to strip votes from the opponent when most voters are not very expert or that much interested in dull matters of government; may not have enough detailed knowledge of portfolios to form a view? But every voter understands sex, and pregnancy. It is a topic on which everyone can express an opinion. There are other issues too of marriage and of women’s rights on which everyone has a view. If all of these can be properly exploited one side may gain an advantage. Even within the parties there is friction. Once a person is at the top there is only one way to go – down. Plenty stand ready to take their place. Is there a chance to make a play for leadership in the midst of the confusion, as voters and party members speculate on public attitudes? For almost all politicians, there is a little bit of good in this distraction, because suddenly the voters are looking at one particular MP and that means they are not looking at the performance of their own MPs, their ministers, the government or the opposition. How good is that for an MP used to constant criticism from the media and public? Voters become distracted from the boredom of health, welfare, education, housing and transport and for a brief time can watch a “reality politics” struggle to see who will win, who will prove to be best under pressure. That’s why the hounds are baying for Barnaby’s blood. It has nothing whatsoever to do with good government, but everything to do with posturing for power over the people of Australia. Would it be handy to have an independent voters’ network equipping voters with the ability to keep government on track? Would it ever!! FairGO's voters.network is not about doing the job for voters, any more than Votergrams are, but about helping them do the job themselves and building support for what they want. Then they will know how to do it for the rest of their lives. In particular it is about casting aside the fantasies of idealistic democracy and getting alongside the people we elect to represent us. Then we can help, guide, encourage and support them in using their power for the benefit of the people of Australia rather than for the small select group who currently impose their will on politicians by way of their wealth and our neglect.
Having just watched the appalling misery inflicted on people in Syria by warring factions I am conscious of how lucky we are to have a sensible, civilised democracy in Australia. True it is not perfect, but much of the fault for that lies with us, the voters, who have failed to lend a hand, share some of our aspirations, experience and wisdom with the politicians we elect to represent us. Imagine what our MPs would achieve if they each had the combined knowledge, wisdom and experience of their 100,000 voter constituents alongside them; informing them, encouraging them and supporting them against the powerful, greedy self-interest groups that currently control democracies world-wide. Voters can command serious attention from their MPs and many MPs are only too happy to listen and assist their voters. Some voters claim politicians will not listen, but I think those voters do not understand winning techniques and strategies or how voting works. Consider this:- In a 100,000 voter electorate the final count after all preferences have been distributed might be: Candidate No 1, 55,000 votes candidate No 2, 45,000 votes, a difference of 10,000 votes so candidate No 1 wins comfortably. But if 5,100 voters who previously voted for candidate No 1, swung their votes instead to candidate No 2, the vote count would be : Candidate No 1, 49,900 votes Candidate No 2, 50,100 so candidate No 2 would be elected Just 5% or 1 voter in 20 could make the difference, so politicians in office will mostly heed the wishes of voters IF voters are prepared to re-elect only those who do what they want and replace those who don’t, regardless of party membership of the candidates. Generally speaking there are good representatives and bad representatives in all political parties. There is no reason to believe that politicians are any wiser than the voters and they often lack experience. SPECIAL OFFER: FairGO will donate 2 Votergram Vouchers, worth $25 each which will send a 100 word message to every member of any parliament in Australia on any issue, with no time limit on their use, to every member of voters.network who upgrades to voters.network Advanced Access before 5 pm 28th February. That will allow them to participate in the voters.network Action Forum, Proposal selection,network funding and become Hub Leaders after appropriate training if they wish .
Horses for courses!
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 |
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