How fair is this Bill

The inflamed row over paid parental leave in the budget is a classic case study in how difficult it is to withdraw entitlements, the defective political debate in this country and the resistance to the cause of budget repair.

Anger against the Abbott government decision to withdraw a PPL benefit for a category of working mothers has become white hot, stirred by Labor leader Bill Shorten’s accusation that Tony Abbott is “vilifying tens of thousands of women” and columnists depicting the government as fools, quasi-criminals, stubborn white men and hypocrites. For many, there is no limit to its infamy.

Under the current arrangements Australia has two classes of working mothers — those who get two PPL schemes and those who get one only PPL scheme. An impartial observer might think this a problem.

The former Labor government introduced a sound PPL scheme that operates for 18 weeks at the minimum wage and is worth about $11,500. It is paid to the primary carer of a newborn child taking time off from work and goes to individuals on less than $150,000 ­income.
The Abbott government has proposed a decisive shift. It wants to eliminate the two scheme model. Abbott and Morrison say that if your employer scheme pays better then you don’t get the government safety net. If you have an employer scheme and it pays less than the government scheme, then the government will make up the difference.

Morrison argues the current system is blatantly unfair. It favours better-off mothers and public servants. Of those enjoying both a government and employer scheme 61 per cent are public servants, a core ALP voting constituency. Indeed, these working mothers are actually funded twice by the taxpayer for their leave. How fair is that?

5 comments

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/much-heat-but-little-light-in-parental-leave-debate/story-e6frg74x-1227360662493

Pete I still cant see why taxpayers are paying for people to have kids 

Me neither . But paying them a paid parental leave fron their employer and then on top of that the minmum wage would seem to be lunacy,,,

That is the reason why the government is trying to reduce the Senior's entitlements... makes you wonder when people are having 6+ and more children just to support their dole money. Are we getting the best of the breeding stock for our population with these sort of policies?

I feel it is a disgrace as to what is happening in view of the World's overpopulation.

It is not the current govt that wants to raise tax on seniors but the labor party that now wants to add tax on top of saving for retirement and earnings wants to tax withdrawals as well . There should be no tax on savings for old age as it reduces those that want to be independent to relying on other taxpayers ..

concessions on Individual states provided services are up to each State and vary State to State. 

When a person gets more money for "not" working there is something patently wrong with the welfare system.

No incentive to get off your backside and work (I am talking about those who do not want to work at all and they do exist.)

Not wrong there Pete.

Feel free to have kids but pay for them yourself.

SD

It is no wonder single taxpayers with no dependants feel as though they are carrying the tax burden.

They are Radi

Yes, Pete, that was shown in figures printed in the weekend paper a week or so back.

If families with children were the forgotten people in the 1960s, then PAYG workers without children are the forgotten people a half-century later.
Not only do they support an expanding smorgasbord of social security payments but its incomes are being squeezed year after year by bracket creep.
For all the focus on planned cuts to family welfare payments in the budget, rising tax revenues and particularly bracket creep are doing the bulk of the work in reducing the budget deficit from $41 billion this financial year to a projected $7bn by 2019, according to new analysis from the Grattan Institute released this week.
A Coalition government elected on a platform of lower, simpler, fairer taxes should be placing far greater weight on spending restraint to repair the budget and lower the burden on Australia’s overtaxed workers.

The top two income-tax thresholds, for instance — $80,000 and $180,000 — have not changed since June 2008. Had they kept pace with inflation they now would be $92,800 and $209,900. Income tax on individuals is projected to increase by almost a third from $176bn this financial year to $234bn by 2018-19, far more quickly than any other economic variable. We already rely too much on income tax.

Letting inflation push more workers into higher tax brackets is bad economics because it dulls the incentive to work. It is unfair because it affects lower-paid workers the most.

Workers on average incomes will soon be paying a marginal tax rate of 39 per cent. And it is anti-democratic because it lifts individuals’ average income tax rates without requiring legislation.

Australian today

Why is everyone down on large families? the wife and I are planning on at least 10.... And so pleased the Gov't will help financially, maybe to the extent I won't have to waste time going to work....

You were really ahead of your time Seth a true entrepeneur . To build a business based on other families creating their own as businesses as subcontractors was in advance of today's real world . 

Its interesting that once you retired and left the business to the subies it failed . Shows you need a central entrpeneur to hold the structure together ..

One of Bill Shorten’s closest factional and political allies collected more than $225,000 in Australian Workers Union membership fees disguised as payments for health and safety training when he was running the union, the royal commission has heard.

It has been alleged that Victorian Labor MP Cesar Melhem was in charge of the AWU in Victoria when attempts were made to hide false invoicing practices and “phantom” memberships were used to boost the union’s standing at ALP conferences.

Mr Melhem, now government whip in the Victorian upper house, replaced Mr Shorten as the AWU’s Victorian secretary when Mr Shorten became a federal MP in 2007. He remains a strong ally of the federal Opposition Leader.

The AWU hearings at the trade union royal commission this week represent the closest the commission has come to affecting Mr Shorten through its focus on Mr Melhem and the Labor leader’s political powerbase within the Victorian branch of the union.

The AWU under Mr Melhem collected the $225,000 from employers in supposed health and safety training fees, but the cash was deployed to fund AWU memberships, the commission has heard.

The union is accused of unsuccessfully trying to rectify false invoices documenting the payments in March this year after the commission began investigating.

Mr Melhem is also under fire over a deal with employer Clean Event that involved the AWU ­allegedly trading away $6 million in wages and penalty rates for cleaners in return for $75,000 and extra “members”.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/bill-shorten-ally-oversaw-phantom-union-membership-drive/story-e6frg6n6-1227380475371

Seth when you were a multi . And boss of Seth and Thons Construction Pty Ltd did you pay all your workers Union Dues as seems to be the practise today . 

Pete I was in the construction game as a contractor and employed various trades as sub contractors, mainly gov't but also private, I had a great experienced team full time and I finally retired I handed the business over them. as tradesman they received all due entitlements plus, you do your best to retain good men,

They did well for a few years but a downturn in contracts finally finished them.

You were ahead of your time Seth .. It is now 87 per cent of those in the private sector who wish to be contractors or make their own arrangements , and only less than 13 per cent belonging to Unions . 

Even this figure is in doubt as many are phantom members with whole work forces being signed up without their knowledge and their membership fees being paid by the employers to obtain industrial peace...

The AWU alone in its Victorian Branch has suffered a loss  of 10,000 members this year to a new total of 20,000 due to the new secretary cleaning the books . 

Bill Shorten has been challenged to reveal any connection to allegations besetting his former union of fraudulent transactions and scams that boosted its political power by signing up phantom members.

The Opposition Leader came under pressure in parliament for the second day running to reveal any knowledge of claims before the trade union royal commission that the Australian Workers Union was involved in sweetheart deals, ghost memberships and fraudulent accounting. Mr Shorten has refused to comment on events before the commission, saying he will not “provide a running commentary’’.

Yesterday the commission heard fresh claims that Mr Shorten’s former union, led at the time by his political and industrial ally Cesar Melhem, doctored invoices to help conceal the fact that $225,000 was used to bolster memberships and the AWU’s influence on Labor’s conference.

The ALP leader, who was AWU Victorian secretary from 1998 to 2006, deal he announced that signed up netballers as union members without their knowledge.

“The Australian Workers Union, led by Cesar Melhem and the state secretary at the time — who was Mr Shorten, state secretary in 2005 — signed up the entire­ membership of the Australian Netball Players Association, and then sent them an invoice for $9000, without their knowledge, to boost their (the AWU’s) membership­ numbers so that they would get more votes inside the ALP for preselections …

Bill Shotens reply " I don't comment " no wonder he is sinking inthe polls ..

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