Leaving aside the fact that our federal politicians are on annual salaries of $210,000 upwards, it is their parliamentary pensions that win hands down in any computation as to what constitutes the best form of welfare.

Politicians elected before 2004 receive more than $100,000 per year for life, with some ex-ministers pocketing close on $300,000 per year. In 2018 the Department of Finance estimated the total liability of the pre-2004 parliamentary pension scheme would be just short of a billion dollars. Even considering the lower end of parliamentary pensions, they are seven times the rate of Newstart and over five times the rate of the age pension.

And while the rest of us plebs are now required to soldier on until 67 years of age to receive the age pension, politicians will still have access to generous taxpayer-funded pensions once they turn 60. But the icing on their cake is that, unlike the rest of us, their pensions are asset and income test free. It's called a sense of breathtaking entitlement.

Now that the 2016 federal election results have settled it is an opportune time to clarify the Imputation tax credits. Dividend imputation is a corporate tax system in which some or all of the tax paid by a company may be attributed, or imputed, to the shareholders by way of a tax credit to reduce the income tax payable on a distribution.

In effect, the company pays the tax the shareholder may have to pay on their dividend. It is imputed or in lay terms paid on behalf of the shareholder to the Australian Tax Office. This payment is in effect money the shareholder has earned with their shares. If it was not paid by the company then the shareholder would be entitled to a higher dividend to pay tax if required.

The franking credit is actually money earned by the shareholder and if they are not liable to income tax their money paid to the ATO will be returned to the shareholder. If they are liable to some tax less than the imputation credit the surplus will be returned to them. What was ignored due to ignorance or subterfuge is that money was earned for them by their shareholding and thus was their money and would either help pay their Tax bill or be refunded to them.

Such simple facts if understood would have made a much closer election result.

A BETTER way to ease traffic congestion in Invermay would be to make an off-road heading south going under the Southern outlet joining on to Montague Street at Invermay. Then build another bridge over the river at the end of Gleadow Street towards Riverside.

This would take a lot of traffic away from the Invermay area directly into Riverside easing traffic congestion.

FOR every protestor there is a lobbyist.

For every welfare recipient, there is a political cash donation.

For every left-leaning suburban climate change latte sipper there is a farmer struggling with unprecedented environmental Armageddon.

For every Newstart recipient, there is a chief executive on an obscene salary.

For every garden variety progressive, there is a well-paid political minder.

For every Green slogan, there are taxpayer-funded party spinners.

For every struggling mortgage payer, there is a corrupt employer or corporation welshing on wages and super.

For every Asylum seeker, there is a xenophobe in a marginal electorate.

For every Indigenous voice to parliament, there are two centuries of historical white prejudice. This is not a time to be quiet.

CHINA is to impose a curfew on children under the age of 18 playing video games at night amid concerns over video gaming addiction.

Let's face it, the World Health Organisation officially classified video gaming as a disorder in April of this year, and Australian behavioural experts have reported an explosion in the number of young children with video game addictions.

So for China's government to implement restrictions on such a scale shows real and valid concerns for their youth who spend excessive time in the "virtual world"; when the real world beckons. Spring is in the air, and unfortunately, a growing number of our young haven't noticed.

READING the letters of complaint about the site of the new prison in Westbury, one could be forgiven for thinking it is going in the old IGA building on the main street rather than some distance away on the other side of the Bass Highway, tucked away behind existing industrial buildings.

The prize though must go to Sandra Stening (The Examiner, November 7) who claims it will be in full view Bass Highway.

No, it won't.

The prison will be set back along Birralee Road and according to the Department of Justice will not have razor wire along the external walls.