Diary of our stinking Govt.

[boris1gary]

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.

[monman12]

I'm not too worried about the drop in commodity prices as I only paid $8.50 for my BHP shares and I have had quite a large Div yield for that stock anyway.

I have had BHP for years, and as a dividend stock they suck. Looking at  return (AS A PERCENTAGE D9275) my return  over many years shows as 3.4%. There are technical issues  but basically BHP only pay 50% of profits as returns.

This is a 10 year chart of BHP dividend yield, you would be hard put to  find the commodities boom in it!

A "blue chip" reliable mum and dad stock which might start delivering better dividend ratios now (???).

[***super_nova***]

---

@vicr3000 wrote:

'We give a sh it what happens to our fellow man'

Preally ?

1200 plus drownings of men, women and children says otherwise.

And as a true leftie said when asked about the boat drownings,
- quote - "tragedies happen, accidents happen"

That is really caring.

---

Interesting that you only "care" when you can use it against people who object to the treatment of refugees.  You do not care what is happening to the people in our refugee camps, you do not care what is going happen to those sent back, or those who are rotting in one of the many hell holes around the world while trying to find a country where they could make themselves a life and future for their kids.  But, of-course, i forgot that you "know" they are not really proper refugees, they just left their homes and all they owned, for the fun of siting in refuge camp for years.  Yes, that makes lots of sense.

[cherry*135]

Add to the list of don't cares - young people, sick& disabled people and poor people.

[vicr3000]

The difference is Nova, i didn't ever say I cared and then come out with a stupid comment like SHY did when she was taken to task by the media.

She doesn't and didn't like hard questions being asked after making grand statements about them.

If I said I cared and then said the deaths didn't matter, fine, pick me up on it for being hypocritical
But I didn't.


I would love the numbers of genuine refugees to be increased through proper channels but
I can see why some play hard ball because whatever they do is never enough.

[debra9275]

Ummm MM 12. As I said I only paid $8.50 for my BHP shares, and. because I only paid $8.50 per share, the div yield has been pretty good on those for me ( because I only paid $8.50 per share)

They are certainly not my highest div yielding stocks, ( the div yield being in comparison to the price I paid per share, not what the current price of the share is)

So your graphs based on current share price v div yield are pretty useless to me (sorry)

If I paid $30.00 per share (which is about where they are at now), no it would not be a good div yield

[debra9275]

Your newscorp graph is useless to me too. I said when I used to trade in newscorp shares, I did not say it was this year or even last year . Speaking of dividends, that one would have to be about the worst.

[debra9275]

http://inbrief.nswbar.asn.au/posts/e371c68ea0afb7756df683408002c94b/attachment/mr_14022015.pdf

AUSTRALIAN BAR ASSOCIATION

and

LAW COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA

MEDIA RELEASE

14 February 2015

Personal attacks on Human Rights Commissioner

alarming say the legal profession’s leaders

[debra9275]

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/feb/13/tony-abbotts-authoritarian-need-to-attack-just...

And when the authoritarian leader sets up new consultation processes with the same backbenchers who have been so comprehensively ignored and shut out by the prime minister and his command and control office, the changes are viewed with suspicion.

Authoritarian leaders ridicule or ostracise stakeholders and lobby groups who disagree with them, rather than listen respectfully to their views. That has been this government’s modus operandi from the outset, which makes it very difficult to rebuild trust now that it is suddenly changing tack and trying to get some of those same groups onsid

[debra9275]

http://www.smh.com.au/business/tax-haven-explosion-puts-hole-in-corporate-tax-20150213-13dnh8.html#i...

Confidential documents obtained from the Tax Office under the Freedom of Information Act show Australia's corporate tax base is in crisis because of the explosion in tax haven dealings by multinational companies.

The alarming data in these internal documents is at odds with the public position of the Australian Tax Office (ATO), which maintains the tax regime in this country is functioning well and most large corporations pay their fair share of tax.

In recent years there has been a dramatic escalation in related party dealings - that is, in multinational companies striking deals with themselves. Not to put too fine a point on it, Australia's budget is being plundered by Switzerland, Singapore and an array of islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

The other most telling findings are that at the nadir of the global financial crisis in 2009, 29 per cent of Australia's largest companies paid no tax. Three years later that figure was 26 per cent. It had barely recovered by 2012, even though the economy had bounced and the resources boom had reached its zenith.

The figures are worse for foreign-based multinationals: 34 per cent paid zero tax in 2010 and 30 per cent paid zero in 2012. What doesn't show up in the FOIs is that, thanks to aggressive profit shifting into tax havens, many pay some tax but very little

Among recent developments, the "big four" accounting firms – the architects and promoters of profit shifting – lifted their collective contribution to political parties, mostly the Liberal Party, by almost 20 per cent last year to $551,498.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG were the most enthusiastic, collectively doubling their "contribution to the democratic process" during 2013-14.

Moreover, the push to shut down proposals for greater tax transparency proceeds apace. In its submission to the inquiry, peak accounting body CPA Australia has called for the government to abandon plans for increased disclosure. Incredibly, its argument is that disclosure leads to uninformed public comment.

[debra9275]

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-decision-to-dump-philip-ruddock-af...

The move has angered many on his backbench and threatens to reopen the leadership question after some who stuck with him revealed they were appalled at the vindictiveness and sheer brutality of the move on Mr Ruddock. Many MPs were caught by surprise, as they believed Ruddock had been steadfast in his support of the Prime Minister throughout the spill process.

"The PM had my vote on Monday even though he refused to get rid of Peta Credlin [his chief of staff]. He has now lost my vote because he had no right to get rid of Philip Ruddock," one furious backbencher said.