Category: Letters

After a one hour Zoom Empathy training course run by Katherine Teh, Barnaby Joyce’s comments were that: “Empathy probably has a much stronger role to play in an organisation with a single purpose.  But by its very nature, Parliament has the objective that one side has to get rid of the other, and vice versa.  It’s a hostile crazy boarding school out in the country”.  And I thought their objective was to run the country for us.  Silly duffer!

We have stumbled through the Covid-19 pandemic despite the absence of someone being in overall control.  The Federal government has mostly left the hard yards to the State Premiers who have all done a very successful job of it.  Yes – the Prime Minister did establish the National Cabinet and initially heaped a lot of praise on Daniel Andrews but it didn’t take long before all that changed and politics once again reared its ugly head and Andrews was on the outer and liberal NSW was the gold standard.  Even Victorian Liberals Frydenberg and Hunt attacked Andrews for political reasons.  I hope the people of Kooyong and Flinders remember this at the next election.

From day one the Prime Minister should have declared a state of emergency and taken control of this pandemic here in Australia.  He should have set up National bodies to handle every aspect of managing this pandemic and directed the States to cooperate with these National Bodies.  But he didn’t, but luckily for him, due to the excellent work done by the Premiers,  he is enjoying telling the rest of the world how well he has done.

I hope the Morrison government takes heed of Philip Flood’s advice – “Call for ‘more nuance’ in China stance – The Age 1 Feb”.  As a former top diplomat he would understand better than most how to deal with countries like China and their differing cultures.  We need to stop being a US lapdog content to poke a finger at China whenever the opportunity arises.  We must pursue our own identity and agendas and accept that the Chinese people do not like to lose face but are more than willing to give ground and make concessions when approached in a common sense and diplomatic manner.

Donald Trump’s “friendship” with Scott Morrison was a one-way street.  Fortunately he is no longer President and I can’t see President Biden acting in such a belligerent way.

A memory from 1 July 2000 – the day the GST was introduced in Australia.

I resigned from IBMGS on 30 June 2000 – if I hadn’t, I would have had a fortnightly increase in my pay packet of around $140 – the tax compensation for the introduction of the GST.  That day I wrote a letter to The Age – the first letter I ever wrote to them.  I hadn’t checked the next day and I was upstairs clearing some of my work files as I had been working from home.  The intercom buzzed and I went downstairs to see what my wife Patricia wanted.  She was with one of the local ladies who came in for a couple of hours each day to give me a break.  Patricia at that stage could not hold the paper herself so the helper (angels in my mind) would fold the paper and read out headlines and then the stories she wanted to hear.  The helper had just read out my letter to Patricia and it was the lead letter of the day and The Age titled it “For some of us, the chains grow heavier “.

To this day I can still see the loving smile on Patricia’s face – she was proud of that letter – I hadn’t told her that I was going to write the letter mainly because I doubted it would get published.

This is the letter and as you will no doubt see – nothing has changed

For some of us, the chains grow heavier

I keep hearing how much better off we all will be once the GST is introduced.  Any increases in prices will apparently be more than compensated for by the reduced tax rates.  But what about those people who are not earning any income?

At the age of 59, I have reluctantly given up a well paid job in order to look after my wife who is seriously ill.  It was either that or put her into a nursing home.

The pension that the government pays to carers is ridiculously low and as a result I am now drawing on my superannuation and savings each month.  Even that pension is at risk because the total I have in my superannuation funds is regarded as an asset and currently exceeds the assets limit allowed by the government.

The biggest fear I had to face when deciding to give up work was the fact that I don’t have as much superannuation as I would like.  In ten years I may well have exhausted all my superannuation and be left with only the age pension.

I say I have given up work.  In fact, I am working more hours now than most people do.  The demands on a carer with a seriously disabled partner are high.  I work much, much more than 40 hours a week for nothing except the carer payment and allowance – a total of just under $400 a fortnight.

If my wife didn’t have me to look after her, it would cost the government at least $1400 a fortnight to look after her in a nursing home.

Two-and-a-half months ago, I wrote on this matter to the Prime Minister (John Howard), with copies to the Treasurer, the Opposition Leader, and my own local MP, Alan Griffin.

I received a letter from one of Mr Howard’s staff members saying my GST comments had been referred to the Assistant Treasurer, Rod Kemp.

That is the only response I have had to date, which is disgraceful.

I am fortunate in that I do have some superannuation and a reasonable home to live in.  I am fairly resourceful and still young enough to do certain things.

But there are thousands of carers in the community who are less fortunate than I am, who are struggling to look after their partners, and who will be a lot worse off from tomorrow.  But I don’t think anyone in government in Canberra gives two hoots about them.

There is only one word to describe this photo – arrogance. Four men supposedly on their smart phones and another walking away with his back to the person speaking. Who just happens to be a woman. Is this un-Australian? That’s debatable.

If I wanted to be a doctor, I would need very high marks in order to get into University, and then spend several years studying, and still have to pass in order to be qualified.  If I wanted to be a tradesman, I would probably have to do a TAFE course and an apprenticeship to qualify. Many jobs that I applied for during my career as an IT specialist detailed a minimum education level and a resume of relevant experience.

But if I decided today to either stand for my local council, or to become a State or Federal politician, I don’t need any qualifications or experience at all.  The dumbest, most obnoxious and inappropriate person can nominate themselves and if accepted, can become a politician if he or she gets enough votes.  It has happened and will continue to happen.

The sad thing is it is possible for that person to hold the balance of power as we have seen these past few years.  Surely this has to change.

There have always been disasters and if one believes in Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, these disasters will continue.  Disasters such as droughts, floods and bushfires, and also viral pandemics, will continue to happen and to increase in severity.

I get sad when I read that some people blame God for these natural disasters.  I am not a religious person but I can’t bring myself to believe that any God would deliberately cause a disaster, especially where lives are taken.

Nearly all of the planets in our solar system were named after Gods from Greek or Roman mythology which is why I have always had a hypothesis that suggests that perhaps a God made the universe and delegated the creation of planet Earth to Mother Nature, sometimes referred to as a Goddess in Greek mythology.

If that were to be the case, then maybe Mother Nature set out to create planet Earth and chose its position in the universe so that it could be close to the sun and the moon, thereby creating daylight and darkness.  She then set about creating a beautiful planet with an atmosphere for creatures to live in and evolve over time.  She created land masses and oceans, land areas that are very cold and others that are very hot.  Everything was created with a balance, a balance that perhaps she hoped would protect her beautiful planet.

But I fear that she probably knew that because of the need to balance everything on the planet, that creatures might pose a problem.  Some creatures would be bold and destructive and others would be timid and complaisant. And as these creatures have evolved into what exists today, our refusal to acknowledge the necessity of balancing our lives has led to the awful disasters that we are seeing all too often today.

I sometimes wonder when it is raining very heavily if it is Mother Nature crying as she looks down on what was once her beautiful planet.  She can’t interfere as it would upset the balance.  Only we can restore the balance.