As the new year rolls around, along with our fresh resolutions and grandiose plans, some of us are holding optimistic – and potentially unrealistic – hopes for the headlines we’ll see this year. These are the articles we’d like to be writing in 2020.
Ben
Trump removed from office
The US elections will be held in 2020, but hopefully the world will be rid of President Donald Trump by much earlier than November. No US president has ever been removed from office following an impeachment, but they have never had someone as dim-witted as Trump hold the highest office before either. While the US has clearly been sold down the drain during Trump’s reign, hopefully at least some members of his party do the right thing and vote to remove him from office when the time comes.
Janelle
- Major retailers agree to pay dairy farmers a fair price for milk
- I know I’ve done things I shouldn’t have done and I’m sorry: Trump
- Deeming rules to be linked to official interest rates
- Public transport free for Aussies aged 66-plus
- We’ll never dope our athletes again, says Russia
- Tackling climate change is our No.1 priority: PM
- Tax-free threshold for older workers to be doubled
Leon
I like to see an increase to the Age Pension base rate, GST dropped for pensioners, lower taxes for workers aged over 70 and four free health checks a year.
I’d like to see more integrity in our politicians.
I’d like the gender pay gap to close, less talk about ageism until everyone is absolutely clear on the meaning of the word, and more acceptance of and less ignorance about climate change (it’s happening people, whether it’s solely man-made or not and we can do things to slow the burn).
I’d like to see Tom Waits tour Australia. I’d like to see more rain, not just on the coast. I’d like houses to be affordable, rents to be lower, Newstart to increase and politician’s pensions to decrease. While we’re at it: if pollies are worried about how to fund a 12 per cent compulsory super bump, they could redistribute the extra 3.4 per cent they get added to theirs to small and medium businesses – or towards that Holy Grail pension increase.
Most of all, I’d like to see more of my family, fewer AFL headlines, more of the planet and less reality TV (I don’t watch it, I just don’t think anyone else should either).
I’d like to see more YourLifeChoices members, so spread the word!
Liv
- Sacred land returned to traditional owners: 80,000-year-old sites saved
- Fracking illegal under Australian law
- PM pledges investment in renewable energy sources: hope for sustainable future
- Adani coal mine closed: hope for the Great Barrier Reef
- An end to offshore processing of refugees
- Mental health funding increases
- Pollies respond as if the country were on fire … because it is
- Age Pension rates increase … finally!
Rhonda
- Acceptance of climate change by government
- Better treatment of asylum seekers
- World peace
Kaye
I would like to see a return to a kinder, more community focused society rather than different interest groups getting shouty with each other.
It seems that there is a dramatic loss of trust in politicians and it is highly likely this has been exacerbated by politicians wedging and simplifying complex issues.
It is okay to say you don’t know, if you don’t.
And it’s more than okay to say sorry, if you have made an error or hurt someone, even unknowingly, by your words or actions.
I would like to see a stronger national focus on climate change. I believe this is the single most pressing threat to our wellbeing, but it seems to take a Swedish teenager to try to encourage serious action.
I would also like a more compassionate attitude towards those with less. I do not believe people on low incomes are suffering because they choose not to earn much. Nor do I believe they didn’t try hard enough.
I think we are all one step away from misfortune and our mission should be to reach out and help those less fortunate, not judge them.
So I think the robo debt collection scheme should be binned for once and all and a fairer way of assessing overpayments introduced. I also think it would balance the ledger if a way of determining under payments was devised. I call it give and take.
And Iast, but certainly not least, I would like to see all Australians make more of an effort to get into the regions , the bush, the outback and get to know those doing it tough in country towns and hamlets – we are a nation of clever people so surely there must be ways of reducing the country-city divide?
Happy New Year to all our amazing members.
What headlines do you want to see in 2020? Do you think we have much hope, or are we a little too optimistic?
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