Polly Carrots
FIRST the Coalition came up with the ridiculous idea of a proposed first-home buyers' package allowing them to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as 5 per cent.
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Then, just to show us how silly or desperate for votes our major parties have become, the Labor Party has said they will do the same thing. All this will do is to give any young couple, who are sucked in by this carrot, a massively increased mortgage debt with a correspondingly higher risk of defaulting.
All in all, this is proof that the old saying that politicians leave their brains at home when they go to work is too close to the truth for comfort. And these are the people who run our country. God help us all.
Richard Hill, Newstead.
Coalition Policy
AFTER weeks of scare and smear the present Coalition Government has produced a "policy".
This "policy" apparently assists only first-home buyers and in the overall scheme of things is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Another startling revelation at the Coalition's campaign launch was I believe a "frontbench" which exhibited the charisma of a dishwasher. Roll on May 18, roll on a Shorten Labor Government - they have both policies and a front bench.
Francis Sheahan, Riverside.
Pre-Poll Voting
REGARDING Braddon leads pre-poll voting (The Examiner, May 14).
It is an outrage and an indictment of the sorry state of politics in Australia that 37,371 Tasmanians have voted up to three weeks before the election on Saturday.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, as of December 31, 2018, Tasmania has 381,521 registered voters; so this pre-polling figure represents nearly 10 per cent of those Tasmanians who are eligible to vote.
I accept that some people will be unable to vote on May 18 due to travel or other commitments, but no one will ever convince me that those people number nearly 40,000.
The adage goes that a week is a long time in politics.
If this is to believed, the majority of people who have already voted have made up their mind who they are going to vote for before considering all of the policy details and the consequences thereof.
Once a pre-poll vote is cast, it cannot be changed; even if a policy is revealed to be detrimental to the voter.
People who always vote for one party or the other - regardless of their policies and the impact on the economy, community, and social construct of Australia - represent a stain on our democracy.
Our society will never mature as a model of a democratic process, one that is considerate of the needs of everyone regardless of their social standing and economic means, while we treat voting as a tribal endeavour; one where voters determine that it is more important for whom one votes than it is for what one votes.
M D Wells, Launceston.
Lincoln v Shorten
BILL Shorten should be reminded of Abraham Lincoln's sage words: "you never help the poor by hurting the rich".
Jack Sonnemann, Lucaston.
Ashamed Australian
I HAVE never been more ashamed to be Australian.
Having viewed the disgraceful decline of the Murray-Darling rivers and toxicity of Lake Menindie, and the millions of dead fish as a consequence, where have all the millions of dollars gone to set up the Murray-Darling Commission during John Howard's tenure as PM?
There was 2 per cent flow then, and there is 2 per cent flow now.
Where are all the canals built to capture the obscene amounts of wasted water that fall in the north of the country, for security against drought?
Yes, it is time for a change.
D. Carey, Newstead.
Mining outdated
WOULDN'T it be great if our politicians recognised the need to accept that, just like the spinners and weavers of times past, the miners today need to accept that their occupation is outdated, making it necessary to channel their occupations into areas of sustainable, renewable, alternative energies, for example electro-magnetic, solar and wind.
If our politicians were prepared to fully back such sustainable schemes, giving our workers the opportunity to refocus their livelihoods, then we could happily forget the wasteful, polluting, destructive to the environment oil and coal mining activities which are destroying the earth.
Our people would then be able to work in occupations with a clear conscience, knowing that every day spent and the money earned would be to truly profit themselves as well as benefiting the environment.
Wouldn't it be great?
Lucia Dale, Summerhill.
Tamar sewerage
AFTER reading your full page and editorial in (The Sunday Examiner, May 12) it is disgraceful that all parties ignore your survey in Bass that says the most important thing to voters is the sewerage-Tamar River state - The Liberals' Archer simply palms it off to "apply to City promotions funds" and Labor's Ross "I await a proposal" or words to that effect.
Wow, what a pair of useless people we have in the major parties for Bass - quite pathetic to put it mildly.
It seems up to a billion dollars is needed to fix the problem and here we are spending millions on AFL clubs, Mona, tourism etc. - I ask you, what is more important?
It seems no one is worth voting for in Bass - I for one am waiting with bated breath.
Peter Newsom, East Launceston.
Self-Funded Retirees
MANY self-funded retirees have worked hard all their lives, don't smoke, don't drink don't gamble.
They lived simple lives and ended up with just a little more assets than is permitted to get a pension.
Like them, our income from investments is $7000 less than the minimum wage which will be reduced by $3000-$5000 under Labor's intended reforms.
This will leave us with less income than someone on a pension who have done less or even nothing to provide for retirement.
It is bad enough to be discriminated against like this while pensioners and union controlled super fund members will not lose their investment benefits like franking credits. It is even more insulting for filthy rich retirees like us to be labelled 'the top end of town' by Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen.
But worst of all is that retirees will become the main target to fleece to pay for reckless, populist pork barrelling.
Ovie Taylor, Newstead.
Closing Tax Loopholes
OVIE Taylor (The Examiner, May 10) claims that he and retirees of 'modest income' will be unfairly impacted by Labor's proposed franking credit policy.
About 92 two per cent of taxpayers will not be affected by the removal of cash refunds for excess franking credits.
Most of these cash refunds go straight into the pockets of a few very wealthy people who are already very comfortable.
In fact, 80 per cent of the benefit goes to the wealthiest 20 per cent of Australia's retirees.
If you have not paid tax and have assets to draw down on, then you should not be getting a government hand out while pensioners go hungry, and cannot afford to heat their homes.
The average worker in Bass earns less than $30,000 a year.
Why should their hard-earned tax dollars go to funding handouts to those who need it least?
This is a rort that is costing taxpayers $6 billion a year - which is about the same as.