A new perspective on life

 

Unlike Rat in "The Wind in the Willows" who spends all his days in, on and close by the river, I've only been close by but not in or on the river these past few months.

This all changed this morning when I launched my canoe for a paddle down the river to get a new perspective on life. And it worked: with the sun shining and the river as smooth as glass with not a hippo or heffalump in sight, it was a pleasure to drift along with the tide and think of nothing in particular.

Until it was time to return to "Riverbend" and sit, dulce domum, on the verandah with a plate of cheese and fried chicken pieces washed down with a glass of red while listening to the "The Wind in the Willows".
(some of my readers are even literate enough to read it themselves here)

Life is made up of little pleasures. I drink to that!

 

So what else is new(sworthy)?

 

The bad weather is long behind us and all we suffered were dirty windows. Not so for many others up and down the coast who lost cars, houses, some even their lives, to raging floods and pounding seas. Our thoughts are with them.

Still at home, our little Malty is nearing the end of his life. He's been with us for fifteen happy years and we shall look after him as best we can for whatever he has left in dog years (months?) The vet put him on a daily prescription of VetACE and Frudix but he's gone off his food and is losing weight.

Speaking of which, Padma bought some vegetables for tonight's dinner, including a bunch of green asparagus which are labelled PRODUCE OF MEXICO. I suppose somewhere in Mexico City is a store that sells asparagus labelled PRODUCE OF AUSTRALIA. International trade or trade gone mad?

With an election coming up, the politicians are busy lying their way through the next few weeks in order to secure another three years in power during which to milk the public purse - see here. On 2nd July we're going to be asked what we want. And what do we want? We want it to be over with because whoever we vote for, the government always gets in.

In the U.K., too, people are being ask to choose between being flooded by 500 million Turks if the EU expands to the east or the economy collapsing and everyone rooting around in rubbish bins for food. I have it on good authority that Mary Poppins supports the EU whereas Basil Fawlty is backing Brexit.

There's been little activity in the local real estate market in recent months but just now Sproxton Lane's swankiest property at Number 27 sold for $1.7 million which is a lot of money for an albeit lovely house on just 1700 square metres (sorry, 1719.9 square metres; at that price every tenth of a square metre counts).

That just leaves this 'Renovator's Delight' (which is real estate speak for "the property is dilapidated and ready to fall down"), priced at $825,000 and, of course, the seven acres of 'Riverbend', priced at whatever it takes to get me back to the tropics.

It's been such a long time since anyone showed an interest in Riverbend that I've almost forgotten what I'd do if a buyer turned up. I guess I'll cross that rickety bridge when they push my wheelchair onto it.

And that's all there is for the moment, folks. Tomorrow the long Queen's Birthday weekend starts and the river will be in flood again, but this time with all sorts of life and low-life.

 

Do something!!!

 

As a self-funded retiree, I’m frustrated with Canberra’s continuous fiddle with superannuation. So here's fair warning to all politicians of any persuasion that this group of aged voters may be about to make the greatest impact on any Federal election in history. Ignoring them may be the start of a changed political environment in this country.

I absolutely agree that if a pension isn't an entitlement then neither is theirs. They keep telling us that paying us an aged pension isn't sustainable. Paying politicians all the perks they get is even less sustainable! The politicians themselves brought it up, saying that the Age of Entitlements is over.

The author, Dr. Dale Kerwin of the School of Education on the Mt. Gravatt Campus of Grifffith University, is asking each of us to forward this message to a minimum of twenty people on our address list; in turn, ask each of those to do likewise. In a few days, most people in Australia will have this message. This is one idea that really should be passed around because the rot has to stop somewhere.

Here are the proposals to make politicians shoulder their share of the weight now that the Age of Entitlement is over:

1. Scrap political pensions.
Politicians can purchase their own retirement plan, just as most other working Australians are expected to do. Read more here.

2. Retired politicians (past, present & future) participate in Centrelink.
A Politician collects a substantial salary while in office but should receive no salary when they're out of office. Terminated politicians under 70 can go get a job or apply for Centrelink unemployment benefits like ordinary Australians. Terminated politicians under 70 can negotiate with Centrelink like the rest of the Australian people.

3. Funds already allocated to the Politicians' retirement fund be returned immediately to Consolidated Revenue.
This money is to be used to pay down debt they created which they expect us and our grandchildren to repay for them.

4. Politicians will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.
Politicians pay will rise by the lower of, either the CPI or 3%.

5. Politicians lose their privileged health care system and participate in the same health care system as ordinary Australian people.
Politicians either pay for private cover from their own funds or accept ordinary Medicare.

6. Politicians must equally abide by all laws they impose on the Australian people.

7. All contracts with past and present Politicians men/women are void effective 31/12/16.

The Australian people did not agree to provide perks to Politicians; that burden was thrust upon them. Politicians devised all these contracts to benefit themselves. Serving in Parliament is an honour not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so our politicians should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX Parliament and help bring fairness back into this country!

If you wonder why this needs a concerted initiative by all citizens, look at the figures below:

STATUTORY OFFICES, Date of Effect 1 July 2014, Base Salary (per annum), Total Remuneration for office (per annum)

Chief of the Defence Force > $535,100 - $764,420

Commissioner of Taxation > $518,000 - $740,000

Chief Executive Officer, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service > $483,840 - $691,200

Auditor-General for Australia > $469,150 - $670,210

Australian Statistician > $469,150 - $670,210

Salaries of retired Prime Minister and Politicians, Office, Additional salary (%), Salary as of 1 July

Prime Minister, 160, $507,338

Deputy Prime Minister, 105, $400,016

Treasurer, 87.5, $365,868

Leader of the Opposition, 85.0, $360,990

House of Reps Speaker, 75.0, $341,477

Leader of the House, 75.0, $341,477

Minister in Cabinet, 72.5, $336,599

Parliamentary Secretary, 25.0, $243,912

Other Ministers, 57.5, $307,329

Shadow Ministers, 25.0, $243,912

Source: Remuneration Tribunal

So if I pressed all the right buttons, the TOTAL annual wages for the 150 seats in the Parliament are:

Prime Minister $507,338

Deputy Prime Minister $400,016

Treasurer $365,868

Leader of the Opposition $360,990

House of Reps Speaker $341,477

Leader of the House $341,477

Minister in Cabinet $336,599

Parliamentary secretary $243,912

Other Ministers* 307,329 x 71 = $21,820,359

Shadow Ministers* $243,912 x 71 = $17,317,752

The TOTAL ANNUAL SALARIES (for 150 seats) = $41,694,311 - PER YEAR! And that’s just the Federal Politicians, no one else!

For the ‘lifetime’ payment example (below) I used the scenario that:
1. They are paid ‘lifetime’ salaries the same as their last working year
2. After retiring, the ’average’ pollie’s life expectancy is an additional 20 years (which is not unreasonable)
It’s worth remembering that this is EXCLUDING all their other perks! - see here.

So, for a 20-year ‘lifetime’ payment (excluding wages paid while a Parliamentarian), here are some staggering figures:

Prime Minister @ $507,338 = $10,146,760

Deputy Prime Minister @ $400,016 = $8,000,320

Treasurer @ $365,868 = $7,317,360

Leader of the Opposition @ $360,990 = $7,219,800

House of Reps Speaker @ $341,477 = $6,829,540

Leader of the House @ $341,477 = $6,829,540

Minister in Cabinet @ $336,599 = $6,731,980

Parliamentary Secretary @ $243,912 = $4,782,240

Other Ministers** @ $307,329 = A$6,146,580 x 71 = $436,407,180

Shadow ministers** @ $243,912 = A$4,878,240 x 71 = $346,355,040

Conclusions: TOTAL ‘life time’ (20 year) payments, (excluding wages paid while in parliament) = $833,886,220 – OVER $833 MILLION

Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, John Howard, Paul Keating, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, et al, add nauseum, are receiving $10 MILLION + EXTRA at taxpayer expense.

Should an elected PM serve 4 years and then decide to retire, each year (of the 4 years) will have cost taxpayers an EXTRA Two and a half million bucks a year! A$2,536,690 to be precise.

A 2-year retirement payment cut-off will SAVE our budget bottom line $792,201,909 *** NEARLY $800 MILLION.

There are 150 seats in House, minus the 8 above = 142 seats, divided equally for example = 71 each for both shadow and elected ministers.

This example excludes all wages paid while a parliamentarian AND all perks on top of that - travel, hotels, Secretarial staff, speech writers, restaurants, offices, chauffeured limos, security, etc. etc.

150 seats, 20-year payment of $833,886,220 less annual salary x 2 years of $83,388,622. [$41,694,311 x 2]

YOU’RE RIGHT, YOU HAVE FOUND WHERE THE CUTS SHOULD BE MADE!

ACTION: Push for a MAXIMUM 2-year post-retirement payment (give ‘em time to get a real job).

Spread it far and wide folks. People should know.

Dr. Dale Kerwin
School of Education
MT Gravatt Campus
Grifffith University
ph. 07 3735 5884
fax. 07 3735 5991
email: d.kerwin@griffith.edu.au

Below are the email addresses of all our Senators and Members of Parliament. I have sent most of them an email suggesting that they start making some changes to their gilt-edged remuneration packages in line with voters' expectations. So far all I've received are computer-generated "Thank you for your email, We appreciate the time you have taking to contact us" replies.

Why don't you send them an email and see if you have more luck?

Click here to open List of Senators in separate window

Click here to open List of MPs in separate window

Get to it! It's called Democracy in Action!

P.S. If you want to know how the system works, read George Orwell's "Animal Farm". Here is an animated version which has a happy ending. The book and real life is far more depressing:

To read the book, click here.

 

Specsavers vs. Cameron Optometry Batemans Bay

More power to Specsavers® who couldn't have come to the Bay soon enough!

 

I recently went to Specsavers® Batemans Bay and got the full eye-test treatment, and two pairs of glasses, frames and all, for $149*.

Which immediately reminded me of the time when Padma visited Cameron Optometry to have nothing more than a pair of new lenses put into her existing reading glasses, for $214*.

We buy a new pair of glasses only every ten years or so which means we have no ready cost comparison but after I had paid $149 to Specsavers® FOR TWO FRAMES AND TWO PAIRS OF LENSES, I felt justifiably 'ripped off' by the $214 paid to Cameron Optometry FOR JUST ONE PAIR OF LENSES **.

So I asked Cameron Optometry for an explanation. They came back with "... the pricing structure is different ... BLAH BLAH BLAH ... Prices for lenses can vary for many different reasons (things such as lens material used, digital lens technology and coatings to name a few can all affect this), and in my experience the price difference usually relates to the quality of the product ... BLAH BLAH".

Not much of an explanation, so I emailed Optometry Australia, "the influential voice for the optometry profession", for their opinion.

Here's their reply:

"Good morning Mr Goerman, Thank you for your email concerning Cameron Optometry. Any individual business is entitled to charge what it considers to be appropriate fees for their goods and services. This is not unique to optometry - any business, whether they sell cars or provide dental services, are free to set their own prices. Mr Cameron has provided lenses at a certain price. That is his price. What Specsavers charge is their commercial decision. Neither is right or wrong - in each case it is an individual commercial decision. I hope that this information is of assistance."

I think their analogy with car salesmen explains it perfectly and I'm happy to share their and Cameron Optometry's 'commercial decision' (whatever happened to the term 'business ethics'?) with all my friends and acquaintances and The Checkout at the ABC.

More power to Specsavers® who couldn't have come to the Bay soon enough!

 * Costs of eye-tests charged separately to Medicare.
** Specsavers charges $99 for supplying and fitting a new pair of hard-    coated lenses to an existing frame.

 

Happy days are here again ...

 

The skies above are clear again; so let's sing a song of cheer again; happy days are here again. As indeed they are! The bad weather has passed and with it my bad mood. It's time to get back into the old Riverbend frame of mind and relax.

And what better way to do it than in a hot bubble bath with a good book and a glass (or two) of wine.

Happy days are here again!