Invisible Taxes

628,153 residential households that rent in NSW were indirectly taxed $42,366,000 in 2006/07. The latest available annual report from the NSW rental bond board (2006-07) show that they were holding $696,497,000 of our bond monies, that they received $42,459,000 in interest income, but only paid out $93,000 in "interest" to the tenants who supplied that money.

The Board pays out interest based on a "benchmark" rate – the Commonwealth Bank's "Streamline Account" product. That pays 0.01%pa

Even so, the Board declared a $23.9m, loss for the year that year. How? Well, the Office of Fair Trading charged the board $21m, run the operation (up $3.15m on prior year even though face to face and phone inquiries are plummeting). $21m to run the Rental Bond Board? Sounds like the administrative charge from Office of Fair Trading is subsidising other core work. Hardly seems "fair".

In the overall scheme of things, the $1.15m discrepancy between what the Rental Bond Board says ($9.152m) it paid towards the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal and what that Tribunal reported receiving from the Bond Board ($8.002m) are neither here nor there, so I'll move onto grants for Tenancy Services.

Tenancy Services "provides impartial information, mediation and education services to tenants, village residents, landlords, their agents and village management about their rights and obligations under this legislation" – so $491k pa year sounds reasonable. But $30.491m?

The notes under "Tenancy Services" shows the Board in that year pumped $30 million into "NSW Land and Housing Commission for Stage 2 of the Affordable Housing Initiative. Stage 1 was funded for an amount of 9.9m in 2005/2006".

A quick google and reference to Hansard shows that this money was appropriated in 1998 and the project was never been heard of again –except when Sylvia Hale MLC demanded it be fulfilled during the Law Enforcement Legislation Amendment (Public Safety) Bill debate following the Cronulla Riots.

So in two years $40m of Aussie Battler Renters' bond interest has been ploughed into something that hasn't been heard of since 1998.

I know that the government coffers have been tight for years, and we have to expect some user pays. I don't mind some of my hard earned interest going to supporting rental services etc, but to siphon off forty million into a scheme that was supposedly budgeted for in the late 90's and which has never been mentioned by our extremely announcement and re-announcement focussed government beggars belief.

Still – now I know why I only got 34 cents for 18 months of a $1660 bond. Pity that the money orders cost five bucks originally.

only 10 months of waiting

Happy Birthday to Me!
Thank you Australia for getting rid of the toxicrodent.

Now to get rid of my hangover...

I may now be able to start living a life again, and to be able to debate and counterpoint government or public opinion without exploding.

It has been such a depressing year; it got to the point where I was banned from watching serious current affairs shows on the grounds that either

• a. I would do myself damage
• b. Would do the TV damage

Now; to prove the Right to be wrong and that the Fourth Estate can actually be as tough on the new government as they were on the old; the Right commentariat thought that centrists and the Left were being one sided, when in actual case they were just doing the job that the Opposition should have been doing all along.

Part of the really awful feeling i had was the Opposition refusing to resist the Govt on anything that would showed some real social ideals.

Sure, the argument went "they have the numbers so why waste the capital", but I still see that as a total abrogation of their DUTY as an opposition.

I can bet that the outgoing senate aren't going to just "roll over" since they have the numbers to make the incoming govt's job as hard as possible till June 30.

Let's now just watch this space.

to quote Russell Crowe

God Defend NewZealand; spoken at the Oscars a couple of years ago when he won some gong.

Well, I must agree.

Stu and I are (at some point in the not too distant future) eloping to NZ and getting civil union'd.

Can't do that here....

And NZ don't require us to get a Certificate of No Impediment from our dear old government here; i wrote some months ago about the Attorney-General refusing to issue such certificates for the purposes of overseas same sex civil unions - on the grounds that such a union is not recognised under Australian law.


Thank you New Zealand, but more importantly, Thanks Stu for saying "Yes". I love you very much!

this is a holding space

lots of things that I'm cranky and splentic about, but not had the mo (make that 45 hours!!!) to actually blog them. Will pre-date some postings here based on thoughts over weekend...

South Australian citizens #2

Vale, Amanda Vanstone, the colourful Sentator from South Australia, who has been dumped from the Cabinet in J-Ho's long awaited reshuffle.

Some actual honesty can be found in the governments announcement with the name of the department "Immigration and Multicultural Affairs" changing to "Immigration and Citizenship" (to be headed by that wonderfully gentle, consultative, and inclusive Kevin Andrews of WorkChoices (TM) [SICK] fame);

Multiculturalism is DEAD.

Become the Australian that the J-Ho's wants you to be, or piss-orf.

Thanks for the
Decent Coffee
Real Pizza
non-canned Pasta
Thai Food
Vietnamese Food
South American dance styles
Belly Dancing
Kebabs
Tabouli

etc, but

We now need to get back to our white anglo saxon christian (prefer to say Protestant, but The Mad Monk may object) roots.

South Australian Citizens in the News Today #1

Letter in today's SMH Letters regarding David Hicks.

To all the letter writers supporting the traitor David Hicks, spare a thought for our World War II prisoners of war. They were forced into slave labour, had appalling food and had no access to proper medical treatment. Trial? There were no trials; they had to wait until the war ended to be repatriated.

Yes, bring David Hicks back to Australia, but make sure he is charged with treason and then sentenced to life imprisonment.

Anthony Dusting Shailer Park (Qld)

got this reply from me

Anthony Dusting (letters 23 January), if you weren't being sarcastic, can you please supply us and the Government with the legal advice that you have to show that David Hicks has any charges to answer for here in Australia? The whole point is that nothing that he is alleged to have done is in contravention of any laws anywhere in the world.


which probably wont be published due to the stating of the bloody obvious.

But for those of you interested, the SECURITY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (TERRORISM) ACT 2002 - SCHEDULE 1 - Amendments came into force AFTER hicks was already incarcerated, and the pertinent bits, namely:

(1) A person commits an offence, called treason, if the person:
f) engages in conduct that assists by any means whatever, with intent to assist:

(i) another country; or

(ii) an organisation;

that is engaged in armed hostilities against the Australian Defence Force

may well be moot in that The Australian SAS was not at that point involved in "armed hostilities" - it was there purely as an advance recon force.

whose definition of "Tolerance"???

from the SMH today came a story that John Howard had sent an Australia Day "greeting" to a wonderfully "Australian" values evangelical sect called "Catch The Fire" ministries.

OK, he's entitled to do that, isn't he?

Well, when the "sect's" leader Pastor Danny Nalliah has been charged, convicted, appealed, had overturned, then on re-appeal had his conviction upheld on religious vilification against another religion, yeah, I do have a problem.

Sri Lankan born Nalliah is not afraid of a fight; after being born again, he and his wife spent a couple of years in the "heart of the beast" "45 miles from Mecca" (presumably) prosyletising and helping run an "under ground" christian church.

Then, and I quote from his own website

"On April 9, 2000 at 5:00am while in Ethiopia the Lord Jesus Christ woke me from sleep and spoke about Australia. He very clearly told me, “Son, if my people will rise up and be proactive, they will stop the disaster which is coming on the land. But if my people sit back, relax and be reactive they will pay a heavy price to take back their land spiritually.”

I suppose that he really is the guy to save Australia from itself; after all (again from his own bio) he worked as a church cleaner for 2 years (VERY metaphoric, huh?) before "From here the Lord raised him up to be a Sunday School Superintendent, Cell Group Leader, Cell Pastor, Regional Pastor, Church Board member and then into Church planting."

Cell Group Leader??? Has he been consulting the Anarchists Handbook?? Cell Pastor??? Sounds like an Imam attached to a suicide bombing squad to me... Same principles, just different faith.

This is a guy who according to the previous (and more enlightening article) called for the destruction of pretty much all non-christian places of worship (including the all-powerful Freemasons' Masonic Lodges), casinos (well, he has a point there), brothels, and bottle-shops (now u see why I'm pissed with this guy!!!)

His views on Moslems are that basically (and this is my paraphrasing from a few online sources - yeah wiki, and others) "no, they don't worship our God - Allah is a catch all arabic word for any god".

Well - if all of our politicians can either
a. get in a lather about, or
b. just ignore and laugh off

intolerant religious fanatics who are disowned by there own religion, then surely the PM should not be having anything to do with this cHRISTIAN "holy man" who (in anti vilification court action) found himself against the Islamic Council of Victoria who were joined and FULLY SUPORTED by the Catholic Church and the Uniting Church.

J-Ho - for goodness sake! U aint an idiot. It is obviously something that - like everything else - you thought you could get away with.

For goodness sake. This is only going to lose you votes from the liberal members of your party. These bigots already vote for you, or for Family First who preference you.


so anyway, my "public" contribution to this debate, via the SMH Letters page went out this afternoon, thus...


From: Bernard Kealey
Date: 19-Jan-2007 15:07
Subject:
To: letters@smh.com.au


The Prime Minister's continued support of Pastor Danny Nalliah's
"Catch the Fire" ministries ("Howard's greeting for 'anti-Muslim'
group" January 19, SMH Online) is a fantastic example of the one
sidedness of the argument for tolerance in this country.

To be sending an "Australia Day" message to a congregation overseen by
a non-Australian pastor who incites the destruction of Masonic, Hindu,
and Buddhist temples, as well as Mosques, casinos and bottle shops is
outrageous.

If Pastor Danny is so concerned that Islamic forces are overturning
the Christian culture, I suggest that he has a more spiritually
fulfilling challenge in his native Sri Lanka where the overwhelming
majority is Buddhist, and the race for 3rd place is a neck and neck
tie between Christian and Moslem adherents.

vanity...

for the first time ever, a recent posting to here showed up in a Google News alert. No, I don't feel that special, but I was a bit surprised...

A wee bit of Catch Up...

Just realised that todays prev post was the first since May... Oops!
Way too much to summarise my feelings on issues of the past 7+ months, so will just cut and paste letters that I have submitted... Am going to cheat, and date the posts accordingly. (But I will tag them as Letters)

Oh - and Happy New Year everyone.

Here's to a more bloggingly productive year!

Bush does have some expertise

having gotten into the letters page of SMH, The Age, The Australian, The (??) Denver Tribune, and most prestigiously The Herald's Column 8, I needed a new challenge.

Lets see if I get published by the New York Times SUPPORTING President Bush.... yeah, I know, who would think that I could stoop so low - but then, who would have thought that Bush could speak authoritatively about anything

From: Bernard Kealey
Date: 17-Jan-2007 12:34
Subject:
To: letters@nytimes.com

To the Editor,

Re : Bush Says Iraq Fumbled Executions (January 16, 2007).


I feel obliged to agree with President Bush, on the grounds that he is an expert on the subject of executions; as Governor of Texas he oversaw (through the denial of clemency) 153 executions. He may not be making great grades as Commander-in-Chief, but man - he sure managed executions efficiently.

Bernard Kealey
Sydney, Australia

iPhone

submitted to SMH
All these stories about Apple's iPhone. Sure it looks really cool - but pricey; will they offer a cheaper "shuffle" model that will just dial a number at random in the hope that you want to talk to that person?

Water Greed

"> Published in SMH Letters Page on 12/01/2007

Can someone please tell me what it would take for a ballot at the state election to ask "Are you so darned selfish that you would strenuously object to recycled water?" If the electorate answers "Yes" - well we get what we deserve.

Patriotism

"Submitted" to SMH

Abbey Bowman (Letters, January 8) seems to miss Lisa Pryor's point ("Flying the flag for an upside-down kind of patriotism", January 6-7). The rednecks referred to certainly don't "ache for others to be" Australia-loving people. They want this land all for themselves. It isn't patriotism, it is xenophobia, racism, NIMBYism, and a misplaced sense of right.

"Pride" should begin with who you are - what you have achieved, and what you contribute. Not where you (through no choice of your own making) were born. Likewise, "patriotism" should not be blind love for the country where one resides - its climate, and natural beauty (again, "accidents of nature"), but pride in what our country stands for, how our citizenry treats each other, and for how our government represents us.

"Patriotism" comes with a responsibility to contribute to the society constructively to enhance our privileged existence here for all. It is not a blind acceptance that this place is great, we're here, it's all ours.

Shall we all start feeling patriotic about AWB, Children Overboard, Deaths in Custody, Stolen Generation, Cornelia Rau, David Hicks, Cronulla Riots, and now Kunthea Ker?

Domestic Terrorism

submitted to SMH

If bacteria grown in flour is a "biological agent" ("Scary powder was just flour" SMH 06/12), does this mean the AWB not only financed the Iraqi biological weapons program, but also supplied the feedstock?

Women cant be trusted

Earle Mardle (letters 20 November) suggests mandatory DNA testing at birth to catch spousal cheats and to protect the rights of children. Wow! Thank god I'm gay and not likely to be fathering any kids; I really do not want ANY government or private sector agency getting their hands on my genetic makeup thanks. The only reason that this does not yet happen is practicality, not some touchy feely reason such as ethics or right to privacy. This overly simplistic view completely displaces a whole heap of other rights - like genetic privacy - to "protect" a tiny minority of duped men. Why not take it a step further - an early amnio so that the male partner can decide whether or not to continue the relationship, or pressure the mother to terminate the "bastard"?

ABC Shakeup

submitted to SMH

Ken Cullen (Letters November 2), fear not. Media Watch is not going. But in line with the media shakeup underway Monica and Kerry O'Brien are to be replaced by David Flint and (unfortunately for Fairfax) Miranda Devine; negotiations are still underway to see which of them gets which gig. The bad news for News is that Piers is applying for the Director of Editorial Policy.

Werribee shame

submitted to SMH
From the lack of any reporting to the contrary, I can only conclude that those sub-human bastards from
Werribee are of traditional Australian white stock. We would have heard about it if they werent. Does this also explain the lack of interest in the Letters page?

Who U Callin' Jesus???

submitted to smh

John Brennan's letter ( 23/10) did have some reasonable points, but to compare Allan Jones plight to that of Jesus Christ is ludicrous. Jesus did not remorselessly attack those whom he did not agree with, nor threaten nor bully; netiher was the Sermon on the Mount sponsored by corporate interests, nor influenced by "crib notes" from the rabbinate or the court of Herod.

Prayer economies

submitted to SMH
Harrold Stewart (letters 10 Oct) beseeches us to pray at each meal saying that God will use our prayers to save our farmers and their produce. Does He weigh up the crisis to be alleviated based on volume of prayer?

Perhaps chuches could set up premium phone services, priced competitive to Idol or Big Brother so punters could put their money where their prayer is; help with famine relief for africa, global warming, world peace, domestic drought relief, priests' retirement funds, or whatever the crisis de jour happens to be. A standard "issue specific" prayer that those out of practice can use comes thru the phone; money is collected to help alleviate the "crisis" specified; and technology can help introduce a prayerless generation to the practice.

What constitutional rights??

submitted to SMH
I sincerely hope that John Guyer (letters 26 Sep) was writing tongue in cheek. It is however worth pointing out again that Australia doesn't have any defined ongoing constitutional rights of individuals, except as electors. There are 16 occurrences of "right" (singular or plural, including "copyright", and section headings) in our constitution. No occurence of word "freedom" one of "obligation" (financial), and zippo on "moral".

Apart from the High Court which can only rule on cases brought to it (usually years after enactment), Australians have no constitutional protection from a govt with a slender numerical majority over-riding and undermine any or all historical conventions and "democratic" protections that they wish to dispense with.