Retirement income system: It would have been good to know before we voted

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Retirement income system: It would have been good to know before we voted

To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number.

I related strongly to the circumstances and stance of your correspondent "We don't need this" (The Age, 24/9), where there was acknowledgment that $4367 of franking credits might have well been better "diverted to the needy".

Illustration: Pat Campbell

Illustration: Pat Campbell

I voted for the policies of the Labor Party at the last election because it seemed reasonable, when I am financially secure and pay no tax, to take this tax benefit away.

I am amused that the government has now announced a review into the age pension assets test, including a review of the exemption of the family home. That review may well result in a long-term permanent reduction in the amount of pension people will receive over many years.

Perhaps it would have been fairer to the public to have had the policies of both parties revealed before the last federal election so voters were able to make a comparison.

Creighton Parker, Blackburn North

Sacrificing good policy for votes

Given the government's glorious defence of tax concessions (especially franking credits) in the last election, will Scott Morrison and Tim Wilson come out on their steeds with armour and lances to defend them after the government's own inquiry into retirement income finds that they are not affordable any more?

I doubt it, and they will just acquiesce after trampling Labor with horses' hooves on something they always knew was unaffordable. Talk about economic managers – they simply jettisoned good economic policy for some votes.

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John Rome, Mount Lawley, WA

A hidden agenda?

Are we to assume that the "major review of Australia's retirement income system" is little more than seeking a way to open up the huge dollars locked away in mainly union-controlled industry super funds that consistently outperform the for-profit sector?

One thing that we can be sure of is that the review will not include the obscenely generous, non-means-tested parliamentary pensions.

Gary Sayer, Warrnambool

No credible answers

The policies Labor presented at the May 2019 election were such that the Coalition had no credible answers to them, and at long last Brendan O'Connor has advised his party to stay true to the cause.

It will be interesting to wait and see how many of the policies the Coalition will try to implement on the sly. Franking credits – a given; negative gearing – a given. Of course there were problems in the delivery, but Bill Shorten was not the issue, and it now remains to be seen how Labor will produce the leader to counter the media-savvy Scott Morrison.

Margaret Raffle, Keilor East

Compulsory super an unmitigated disaster for many

For many individuals, especially women in casual employment and young people constantly changing employers in the "gig" economy, compulsory superannuation is an unmitigated disaster. Due to this policy, many of us have lost crucial dollars that would have been better managed privately to save for the future, rather than entrusted to a fund where it was whittled away by management fees.

Most people working different jobs have no time to roll over details between several different super funds and thus lose track of what has been paid out ... and lost. Thousands of dollars better used for retirement have thus been squandered or vanished, ironically due to supposed "nanny state" protection.

Another aspect of compulsory superannuation is that it promotes greedy capitalism on the part of profiteering investors who elect schemes with shares in unethical companies promoted by unethical directors.

Janet Upcher, Opossum Bay, Tas.

THE FORUM

A rewarding career

"One for the books" (Good Weekend, 28/9) brought back many memories. I spent most of my working life in public lending libraries and found it a rewarding career. My last position was at the St Kilda Library, which was a wonderful, welcoming community space although I was quite amazed and amused to hear that someone would use a foot spa there.

My very first position in the early 1960s was in the North Melbourne Library, which was the main library of Melbourne City Libraries. I was fresh out of a library school, a one-year course then run at the State Library. I was on the front desk on my own, when an elderly man came in and winked at me and asked if I was new.

He then asked me for a "hot" book and followed me around the fiction shelves as I desperately tried to find a suitable book. I ended up at the classic writer Emile Zola and picked up the The Ladies' Paradise. He seemed pleased but I never found out if he found it hot enough.

Susan Munday, Bentleigh East

Pots and kettles

Amanda Vanstone (Comment, 27/9) berates Greta Thunberg for berating world leaders for ignoring the science of the climate crisis.

She reiterates Scott Morrison's critique, which reduces a complex political (should it be "scientific"?) issue to effectively say "I'm right and you're an idiot" exactly what she accuses Greta of doing. It is not a matter of opinion but of the science. Again, in Vanstone's words, "people have grown tired of that trick".

Paul Baker, Franklinford

Shaming us all

It is time for Amanda Vanstone and me to break up. I have long admired her common sense and moderate Liberal views, but her character assassination of Greta Thunberg and her supporters is beyond the pale.

And then to also trot out the old chestnut that "... what we do makes little difference" is disappointing. Our 1.3 per cent of CO2 emissions plus that which we export in the form of coal put us in at least 11th place among emitters.

But more to the point, the comments belie the fact that Australia has a much more significant global role in influencing others through its founding membership of the UN, the G20 (and a guest appearance at the G7 this year), ASEAN and the TPP. It is also the informal leader of the Pacific Forum, which it shamelessly let down on climate change just a few weeks ago.

We are also in the top 15 economies of the world. We have punched above our weight and can and should now. To say we count for nothing in this debate shames us all.

Michael Feeney, Malvern

Courage beyond her years

It seems that some adults have nothing better to do than to focus their venom onto Greta Thunberg, even if it is the "usual suspects".

As a female 16 year old with Asperger syndrome, who is unafraid of speaking out, even to a large assembly, she is an easy target. It has not gone unnoticed that Sir David Attenborough has largely escaped criticism for voicing very similar concerns. Apparently, it is inappropriate to criticise a senior citizen but perfectly acceptable to lash out at a young girl.

Ms Thunberg has demonstrated a courage and maturity beyond her years, while those who insult and denigrate her have behaved in a cowardly, irresponsible, immature manner.

She is on a mission to try to do something worthwhile, not just for herself, but for her generation and those to come. Her concerns are shared by millions of people, including the business community and farmers.

Ms Thunberg's critics are part of the problem and not remotely interested in the solution.

Irene Goldwasser, St Kilda

Own up to our failure

The cut-through of Greta Thunberg's message to the world is that it is the primary responsibility of adults to protect children and because of our inaction on climate change we are failing them.

There is no answer to this charge except to work together as quickly as we can to limit the impact of climate change as much as is humanly possible.

First we adults need to own up to our failure so we can get back to doing the job of protecting our children.

Otherwise those words; "how dare you?" will cast a shadow over the rest of our lives.

Hans Paas, Castlemaine

Selective outrage

Good on you, Julia Baird, for your fantastic "The war on outrage is lost" (Talking Point, 28/9) in Saturday's Age.

It's not worth talking about Kyle Sandilands comments, but where are the voices of our leaders? Surely, as Baird says, there would be outrage if a Muslim or an ABC journalist had said these things, but nothing, absolutely nothing, from people like Eric Abetz and others, so keen to defend our "Christian faith" when they want, but not when it might mean they may loose the support of a radio host.

Is suppose that this sort of shameful stuff is all right to say if it's a white Australian shock jock who says it.

Sue Littleford, Clifton Springs

The reality is different

Spending time with Donald Trump has clearly rubbed off on our Prime Minister. Addressing the United Nations he was fulsome in his praise of Australia's ratification of a new maritime treaty with Timor-Leste as an example of our record of supporting the UN's role as "the prime custodian" of the "international rules based order".

The reality is very different. Australia previously did not permit international courts to determine maritime disputes and in 2004 bugged the Timor-Leste cabinet during commercial negotiations over the oil-and-gas-rich fields in the Timor Sea which gave Australia the upper hand in those negotiations — one of the most shameful episodes in Australia's history.

Confirmation of the bugging enabled the Dili government to challenge the treaty in the International Court of Justice in The Hague and conclude a significantly more favourable new agreement.

Neil Hudson, East Melbourne

Making the cut

What makes Australia's best restaurants ("Tipping top hats to tiny snacks", The Age, 28/9) is that they pay all of their staff the legal wage.

It's time to include this as a footnote in any review of a restaurant's fabulous owner and food.

Rennis Witham, Williamstown

Hasty treatment

My 96-year-old aunt broke her hip last Monday. She was in the emergency ward overnight until late Tuesday morning and had an operation on Wednesday afternoon. On Friday she was sitting in a chair, sleepy, weak and confused. The next day, Saturday, she was discharged to her nursing home. There, she has to remain in bed because there's no physiotherapists available until today.

This seems very hasty treatment and discharge from hospital. Is this the proper and best care we can give to our elderly citizens?

Linda O'Brien, Heatherton

Around and around I go

When an advertising man suggests I should listen to what he has to tell me, I can't help asking myself what it is that he is not telling me that I really should know and, if I do what he asks, who will benefit, me or the interests the advertising man represents?

Of course, part of Scott Morrison's charm is he wants us to believe he represents our interests and that's what he tells us, but when an advertising man ...

Brewis Atkinson, Tyabb

This is their training

Dr Carrie McDougall ("Why we reported that Ben Roberts-Smith was under investigation", The Age, 28/9) says Australian Defence Force personnel aren't trained to kill. Of course they are and when the need arises they do. Special forces soldiers are no different.

McDougall must live in a different world. Put another way, McDougall had better hope our soldiers are trained to kill should she ever come under armed threat and they meet their obligation to defend her.

Noel Mavric, Moonlight Flat

A win for the AFL ...

I commend the AFL for the selection of all Australian artists for the grand final entertainment. Tones and I, the 19 year old female rapper, seemed like a fish out of water. I must admit, I exhibited "youthism" when I compared her to Paul Kelly.

When I later viewed her The kids are coming on YouTube I could discern the lyrics. She is brilliant, expressing the concerns of Greta Thunberg in rap.

Unless something is immediately accessible we sometimes turn off. It was a prescient choice. For once the AFL was ahead of its time.

Peter Russo, Brunswick West

... and for football

Richmond's grand final win was also a win for football. Once GWS' "aggression" and game-spoiling tactics were outplayed it showed they were hopeless at football.

The AFL needs to sit their love child down and teach them the value of playing football. Their rugby scrum tactics belong to another code .

For the good of the game GWS has long needed parental guidance. Spawning the team for the Sydney market has been too narrow a romantic focus.

Des Files, Brunswick

A team of taggers?

It seems that 2019 Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe had a tagger to disrupt his play. So his coach put two taggers on his tagger. Let this run for a few more seasons and each AFL team will have one great player and 17 taggers, reducing the game to single combat.

How about each player just follow the ball and the play and stop this off-the-ball nonsense.

John Massie, Middle Park

Hard to believe

It's hard to believe that, while pocketing millions of dollars in rent, the owners of warehouses being packed to the rafters with "recyclable waste" by dodgy operators, didn't know about and were happy to profit from what was going on.

Even more unbelievable is that, now the operators have scarpered, the owners expect taxpayers to bail them out ("Owners left holding the trash", 29/9).

Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills

AND ANOTHER THING

The footy

GWS came second of all the AFL teams for the year. They were good enough to get in the top eight and the other six weren't good enough to keep going. Hardly deserving of criticism.

Don Hampshire, Sunbury

Richmond Football Club came prepared for the big dance and delivered. For GWS it was only a deb ball.

Frank Stipic, Mentone

GWS would probably be the world's smallest giants. They can only grow.

Rob Mathew, Yarraville

A very un-grand final.

Jen Gladstones, Heidelberg

As a Magpie supporter I would like to say thanks to GWS Giants for enabling us to avoid an embarrassing drubbing.

John Walsh, Watsonia

What a wonderful and daring Leunig on grand final day.

Clasina Griffioen, Clayton

Regulation

Break out the feather duster. They're going to get tough on another bunch of cowboys, recyclers this time (28/9). If they get the same treatment as the "Corkman cowboys", I bet they'll be quaking in their cowboy boots.

John Cain, McCrae

The environment

So Sussan Ley, Australia's Minister for the Environment, tells us that David Attenborough is wrong. A comparison table of their environmental qualifications would be interesting reading.

Jen Hooper, Box Hill

Politics

Please stop picking on the federal government, they haven't done anything ...

Keith White, Red Hill South

Liberal Party, keep your mits off our super and family home. If you are going to lift the pension age to 70 this applies to you lot also

Sheridan Rodgers, Berwick

Finally

Only six months to footy. You beauty.

Brian Morley, Donvale

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