SUPER-efficient and SUPER-friendly SuperHelp

 

I started our GOERMAN FAMILY SUPER FUND in the 2004/2005 tax year - and I've never looked back! The secret is to find the right accountants and administrations. I first went with what seemed to be then a bunch of rookies, Superannution [sic] Accounting Services, whose spelling mistakes were the least of my worries.

 

 

In the very first year they overcalculated the superfund's contribution tax by several thousand dollars, and it took me, a former but then very frustrated tax agent, three weeks to teach them their job - click here.

It makes for very dry reading, so just scroll down to their last email:

4 October 2005 Dear Peter, Thanks for that. I have read the legislation. I think you are right. Deepest apologies, my interpretation of the law was incorrect s274 which says that 15% but then there is this 82AAT which excludes it from being tax (only the deductible amount will be taxed) – the 82 AAT notice thing. Really appreciate that, now I have to go fix up a couple of returns. Really, thank you for this. Really appreciate it. Owe you one. I will forward you an amended return for your signature today. Regards Allan Ong

I accepted their apologies and their offer of waiving their fees which in my opinion was a small price to pay for perhaps also having saved their business because, as he confessed in a later telephone conversation, he then had to go back and correct a whole lot of other clients' tax returns.

Of course, the next year I took my business elsewhere which became very much an "out of the frying pan into the fire" situation. The local branch of a Canberra outfit, having quoted me a fixed fee, got greedy when they saw the balance of the fund and thought they wanted a slice of the action by tripling their fee on completion of the work. I had to take the matter to the local magistrate for arbitration before they accepted my payment of six hundred dollars to be shot of them.

"All good things come to those who wait" they say, and it came true for me when I went into pension phase and to SUPER-efficient SuperHelp.

That was in 2007, and I have been with them ever since! SUPER-fast, SUPER-efficient, SUPER-friendly! Don't take my word for it, try them!

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Has the Broken Hill Council got no idea how much BUNNINGS are charging for BRITISH PAINTS?

 

And the article in THE GUARDIAN continues: The motion was put forward by Broken Hill’s mayor, Tom Kennedy, at a meeting in the last week of May and supported eight votes to two. Kennedy defended the decision on ABC local radio, saying “why do we need to be welcomed to our own land?”

The Wilyakali Aboriginal Corporation, whose members perform most of the welcome to country services within Broken Hill city council, said the timing of the decision made it particularly distressing.

“The reconciliation week theme ‘Be a Voice for Generations’ was ruined by the behaviour of council,” it said in a statement.

“There has been no evidence of mutual respect, instead a disrespectful display of ignorance which has threatened to set community relationships with the council back many years.”

The corporation said it was concerned the decision could lead to “hateful dialogue”, and also criticised the council for failing to consult with traditional owners about the change.

Kennedy told the council meeting that traditional owners would still be invited to perform welcome to country but at no financial cost to the council. It had previously paid between $150 and $250 for traditional owners to perform a welcome to country and $300 for a smoking ceremony.

Those rates were already well below those recommended by the National Association for the Visual Arts, which suggests $300-$750 for a welcome to country and up to $1,500 for a smoking ceremony.

Two councillors who voted against the change to the council’s civil and ceremonial functions policy – Darriea Turley and Marion Browne – recommended conducting 28 days of community consultation first but Kennedy dismissed that concern, saying removing the fee for service was a “cosmetic change” to the policy. Kennedy argued that a welcome to country lost its value if it was being paid for.

The Wilyakali Aboriginal Corporation said council should not be the group deciding what value to put on their culture and services.

“Our welcome to country is performed at any ceremony which welcomes other tribes and or groups of people on Wilyakali traditional custodians’ lands,” WAC said. “When others are welcomed onto traditional lands, each other’s tribe would give a gift.”

Reconciliation Australia criticised the decision, telling Guardian Australia that it was “ill-advised and contrary to the spirit of reconciliation”.

“We are also concerned that it appears to have been undertaken without consultation with Aboriginal stakeholders,” it said.

“The timing of the decision, during National Reconciliation Week, a week set aside for Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia, seems to be unnecessarily provocative.”

Traditional owners also told Guardian Australia they were distressed by racist comments made by others on Kennedy’s Facebook page, where he announced the decision to the public.

Welcome to country ceremonies hold significant cultural importance within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, serving as a way to show respect for traditional owners and build relationships.

“The ceremony is entirely inclusive; a generous gesture on behalf of Aboriginal people to welcome other people to their traditional homelands,” Reconciliation Australia said.

It said just as organisations pay for other services, payments are made to “compensate Elders for their time and their intellectual property in delivering the welcome to country”. The Wilyakali Aboriginal Corporation has offered to provide cultural awareness training to Broken Hill city council and requested the council retract the decision.

The council’s first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) expired last year and it is in the process of developing a new RAP, which will have to be ratified by Reconciliation Australia.

Reconciliation Australia said it would “sincerely urge Broken Hill City council to reconsider their decision considering community feedback and urge them to reverse this policy”.

Kennedy is expected to meet with the council’s Aboriginal Working party this month.

 

 

Come on, Tom Kennedy! Have you got no idea how much BUNNINGS are charging for BRITISH PAINTS? Trust Broken Hill Council? Sure can!

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Fractured memories

Being part of the gang outside the Croya Railway Station & Guesthouse in the early 1950s

 

Sometime in the early 50s my father tried his hand at another business venture by leasing the "Bahnhof-Gaststätte" in Croya, a no-horse-town deep in Lower Saxony's deepest hinterland.

 

The first BMW Isetta (to the left in the photo) rolled off the line in
April 1955 which means this photo was taken after our time in Croya

 

My memories of that time are vague but I know that it was before 1952 because I hadn't started school yet, and that I was popular with the local kids as I had unfettered access to all the sweets and soft drinks.

 

Croya Railway Station in 1910

 

There was still a train running, although not as vintage as the one shown in the photo, when we left which wasn't long after. This was immediate post-war Germany and the 'Wirtschaftswunder' hadn't happened yet. The locals weren't even spending enough to keep the lights on and perhaps my giving away sweets and soft drinks to the gang didn't help either.

(Of course, had we stayed, my options in life would've been severely limited. There would've been no demand for an accountant, let alone a management consultant or computer programmer, in such a place. If I'd been lucky, I might have found work with a local farmer or in the nearby brickworks, and on weekends would've let off steam at the "Schützen Verein". Lucky for me, the Fickle Finger of Fate pointed elsewhere.)

 

Photo by Klaus-Dieter Tröger from the website www.kdtroeger.de

 

Today the old railway station and guesthouse is a private home, perhaps owned by a railway buff who outgrew his model railway - click here.

 

The only car that crossed the railway all day is his own

 

Perhaps the new owner dreamed of being in charge of the level crossing like 'Schrankenwärter Laumann' - if the trains were still running today.

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Ian's last email

P.S. The last book I got from Booktopia was "DARK EMU" authored by Bruce Pascoe. Don't think it would sit comfortably with you but gives a little known perspective on our first nation people.

 

Until Ian's email I had never heard of "Dark Emu" which seems to have become widely accepted largely because of the belief that its author, Bruce Pascoe, is an Aboriginal elder, which has been questioned as much as his book.

 

 

A lot has been written about 'fake Aborigines', with the 2021 Census reporting a 25 per cent increase in the Indigenous population in the five years since the previous census. Suddenly, people, who for the bulk of their lives have identified as non-Indigenous Australians, are now "box-ticking" 'Indigenous' as their identity in the Census. From the 812,728 people who self-identified as Indigenous, "there has been data to suggest that should actually be about 300,000 less." (click here)

 

 

Publishing with Magabala Books endorsed Bruce Pascoe’s claims to Aboriginality: "Magabala Books is Australia’s leading Indigenous publishing house. Aboriginal owned and led, we celebrate and nurture the talent and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices." In tolerant and racially mixed Broome their basic criterion for publication is racial discrimination: "If you are a non-Indigenous author your submission to Magabala Books will not be considered." (click here)

 

 

Fake Aborigine? Fake book? Several highly respected academics say that there is little evidence for Pascoe's claims that pre-contact Aborigines were romantic farmers who tilled, planted, harvested and stored their native crops like the picturesque Wessex folk in a Thomas Hardy novel.

 

 

Not that all this controversy has been bad for business: book sales have taken off and Pascoe's Black Duck outfit, which is tasked with reviving the lost knowledge and techniques of "Aboriginal farming", has become such a worthy cause that donors – governments, corporates, foundations and mums and dads – have thrown $1,899,263 of tax-free money at tax-exempt registered charitable organisation Black Duck Foods in the three years to last June. The black duck is very much in the black! (click here)

 

 

Peter O'Brien gave acomprehensive appraisal of Bruce Pascoe’s "Dark Emu" in his book "Bitter Harvest: The illusion of Aboriginal agriculture in Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu". It is a forensic but highly readable examination which reveals that Bruce Pascoe omits, distorts or mischaracterises important information to such an extent that, as purported history, "Dark Emu" is worthless. Even worse, it promotes a divisive, victim-based agenda that pits one Australian against another.

 

 

It is a pity "Bitter Harvest" is so difficult to get. It should be much more widely available, especially with so much media attention given to "Professor" Pascoe. Anyone who thinks they need to read "Dark Emu" would be well advised to read "Bitter Harvest" to get the balance right.

 

 

I think the "Dark Emu" is a bit of a dark horse. Ian was right when he wrote in his email that "Dark Emu" doesn't sit comfortably with me.

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P.S. "The Dark Emu Story" screens on Tuesday, July 18 at 8.30pm on ABC TV. I don't expect any fierce rebuttals from the ABC but will watch it.

 

I can't believe it has been twenty-three years already ...

 

Do you know what day it is today?" Padma asked me over breakfast. Me: "Um ... it's the ... fourteenth today, dear."

Padma: "It's the fifteenth. Does that stir any memories in you?" Me: "Memories?" (doing a passable Basil impersonation) "Agincourt?" Padma: "What?" (history has never been her strong suit) Me: "Anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt? Trafalgar? Crécy? Poitiers? Yom Kippur?"

 

 

As it turned out, I hadn't been all that far off: no, it wasn't the Battle of Agincourt but the Battle of the Sexes which started on this day twenty-three years ago. TWENTY-THREE YEARS! You'd get less for murder!

 

 

This is a matter too serious to handle on my own, and so we're meeting up for lunch with friends at Club Malua at Malua Bay but let's forget about the Flambé Jamaican Prawns; go straight to "For the Kids".

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