As it's more than 100 days now, it has been suggested that a new thread was needed. The current govt has been breaking promises and telling lies at a rate so fast it's hard to keep up.
This below is worrying, "independent" pffft, as if your own doctor is somehow what? biased, it's ridiculous. So far there is talk of only including people under a certain age 30-35, for now. Remember that if your injured in a car, injured at work or get ill, you too might need to go on the DSP. They have done a similar think in the UK with devastating consequences.
and this is the 2nd time recently where the Govt has referred to work as welfare???? So when you go to work tomorrow (or tuesday), just remember that's welfare.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-20/disability-pensioners-may-be-reassessed-kevin-andrews/5400598
Independent doctors could be called in to reassess disability pensioners, Federal Government says
The Federal Government is considering using independent doctors to examine disability pensioners and assess whether they should continue to receive payments.
Currently family doctors provide reports supporting claims for the Disability Support Pension (DSP).
But Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews is considering a measure that would see independent doctors reassess eligibility.
"We are concerned that where people can work, the best form of welfare is work," Mr Andrews said at a press conference.
Film buffs are set to be stung when the federal government moves to impose the goods and services tax on online services like Netflix.
Imports of intangibles items such as downloaded books, music, videos and software will soon attract GST, Fairfax reports.
Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told ABC TV it was important to ensure a level playing field between Australian and offshore service providers, however he said Treasurer Joe Hockey would reveal all in Tuesday's budget.
@monman12 wrote:
Film buffs are set to be stung when the federal government moves to impose the goods and services tax on online services like Netflix.
Imports of intangibles items such as downloaded books, music, videos and software will soon attract GST, Fairfax reports.
Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told ABC TV it was important to ensure a level playing field between Australian and offshore service providers, however he said Treasurer Joe Hockey would reveal all in Tuesday's budget.
Adding GST to netflix won't make any difference to netflix users. The greatest generator for anger will be the attempt to ban VPNs. The Australian content does not match the US content. There are no apps available for a lot of TVs using Aus Netflix that are available on the US site.
Chances are, collecting GST from d/l sales will probably only collect GST of a small portion of d/l sales and will cost more to administer than they raise. Avoiding GST is not the reason people purchase online.
yes, thank you, found it on twitter 
After the budget, Mr Frydenberg will go further and attempt to convince state treasurers to extend the GST to low value parcels. Although earlier government reports have examined the case for lowering the $1000 threshold to $500, Mr Frydenberg is thinking of something much lower. Canada has a threshold of $20 while the United Kingdom has a threshold of 15 pounds.
At the most recent treasurers' meeting only one treasurer objected, Mike Nahan from Western Australia. He said he would not consider the proposal until the Commonwealth changed the formula by which it distributed the GST revenue between the states.
On Wednesday Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced a one-off grant of $499 million to Western Australia to help it cope with a Grants Commission ruling that would have given it less than 30 cents out of every GST dollar collected in the state.
(politics at work?)
murdoch will be happy about GST on netflix
A spokesman for Mr Nahan said he remained unprepared to discuss extending the GST to very small parcels, notwithstanding the grant. He would consider it only when Commonwealth revised the entire funding formula.
If they get it right, and seeing as Abbott boasted privately to journalists over drinks at Easter that he could beat Bill Shorten in an election if the polls narrowed to 52-48 Labor’s way, which is where Newspoll has it now, then as Laurie Oakes reported last weekend, an early election sounds seductive. The day after the budget last year, Abbott threatened that if it did not pass he would call a double-dissolution election. The budget did not pass.
After a record-setting four-year bull run, bank shares are looking vulnerable. The mini-reporting season this week, in which the four majors reported quarterly and half-year earnings, uncovered some disturbing trends. A search for dividend yields is the major investment theme that drove bank share prices to all-time highs, and the weak earnings growth reported directly undermines that idea.
Commonwealth Bank and Westpac declared flat revenue, and in CBA’s case, declining earnings. Given dividend payout ratios are at historic highs, declining earnings means lower dividends, ending the six-year run of dividend increases and sparking selling from investors.
The big four banks have reported profit growth of between 6 per cent and 12 per cent over the last four years, despite economic and loan book growth running around 3 per cent over that period.
There were two main sources of this above-system growth: the release of provisioning for bad and doubtful debts, and cost-cutting. The provisioning hollow log is now empty. In fact, the trend may have reversed, as the big four increase their capital into the flagged Basel III changes next year.
The rise in expenses seen in this week’s reports suggests there are no easy gains in cutting operations. So where does bank growth come from now?
A key issue for the dividend yield strategy is the direction of earnings growth. Where earnings are rising, investors can take a conservative approach, assuming no growth in dividends to estimate the next year’s dividend yield. If profits and dividends increase, investors get a pleasant surprise. However, where earnings are declining, the dividend yield is a siren, tempting investors to steer their portfolios onto the rocks of declining share prices.
The exception this week is ANZ, which reported good growth (7 per cent to 9 per cent) both domestically and internationally. Its ‘super regional bank’ strategy appears to deliver benefits both ways. As reported today, NAB lifted earnings, but also announced a $5.5 billion rights issue that is very likely to weigh on its share price.