Time to give the over 50's a voice in budget debates on tax, retirement and work

I think we need to be very clear about that we have all have the same understanding of the terminology used eg. rich ? poor? reduced? etc. Clearly defined vocabulary 

It's no doubt necessary to talk about raising taxes after the gross overspend from our inept Labour government but I do think cutting Government spending a lot more important than raising more money from any of us. 

I believe the people who are least likely to work again will be taxed again on assets which have already been taxed two or three times already. Through working hard I have amassed enough in super to be taxed after the age of sixty. I made many sacrifices to ensure my super allowed me to retire in the manner in which I wanted. I worked seven days a week paying inordinate amounts in tax and then placed as much as I could into super. How are they going to tax politicians income from super, they have unfunded pensions and receive income from them for life without the worry of the vagaries of the share market. We are going to be taxed at source on our pension money before we even receive an income. I support the appropriate taxation of the huge companies who minimise tax to the maximum through off shore tax havens such as Guernsey, Singapore and Ireland. By taxing these purchases of these companies eg google, apple etc all of our budget deficit worries would be over. Why keep attacking the hard working Australian time and time again especially when they have reached an age whereby all they want is a quiet retirement whilst not looking to the government for financial support. Sue van-cuylenburg Kuranda Queensland. Sent from my iPad Powered by UserVoice. 

Pity the media doesn't expose Hockey as the hypocrite he is by excluding both current &has-been politicians from his infamous statement about the age of entitlements being over. The public should be reminded frequently just how much these parasites are costing us. What ex PM's collect in handouts is obscene. They are by far the worst welfare spongers & "leaners" in this country. Even when they're dead, they still keep their hands in OUR pockets by awarding themselves state funerals while many battlers struggle to pay for the funerals of their loved ones, the final insult being GST added. When, or rather if, they lead by example & start to reach into their own pockets, then maybe people will be prepared to willingly make sacrifices for the good of the economy. They should start by indexing parliamentary pensions using the CPI as they want to do for age pensions. They have been doing this for years with ex public servant's pensions & repeatedly claim that it is adequate. The fact is, these people are being literally cheated out of thousands of dollars over many years, I should know as I am one of them. 

While protecting those that can't work past 65, still give the pension status to those that can; but also give those over 65 a chance to earn money for themselves and at the same time contribute tax dollars to the government. Aged pension is equal to $22500.00 for a single and up to $33500 per year for a couple, tax free, but it is a cost to taxpayers. Make it so that these amounts are tax free thresholds for those that work past 65 years or pension age and do not claim a pension cash supplement. Amounts earned over these thresholds up to an extra $50,000 per year to be taxed at 10% up to $75000 per year 15% and pension 20% up $100,000, after that amount you are on your own and pay tax like anyone else does. The bottom line is that we earn more we spend more and if there are more baby boomers spending then we can trade our way out of this mess. 

There should be another dot with "not applicable" as some of us are already retired and the answer yes or no does not apply. 

For 40 years I have planned, adjusted and readjusted my Super Investments in reaction to the whim of Governments of the day. Despite the GFC and the Howard/Costello years when for a time I was triple taxed on My Super Contributions and investments, I am now a self funded retiree and expect to be until in my 80s. But every day the pendulum swings from politician to politician about how they might change the structure of Super and I still have to continually review my investment strategy - purely because of politics. It would appear to me to be far more sensible to remove Super Regulation from Politics altogether and appoint some independent body. This combined with a minimum 3-5 year "evergreen" period for ANY proposed changes to the rules would allow the public some degree of certainty in their retirement investment planning. Also, a CPI adjusted maximum Super balance of $2-$3M per individual, before tax concessions are removed seems very reasonable. 

I find it extraordinary that we are paying politicians who are no longer serving. Any normal business that did that would be bankrupt in a very short time. Perhaps if politicians were treated like us all and once they finish their role that's the end of their pay packet, we would have a surplus to redirect to far more important things like education, health, pensions. Does anyone actually know how much of taxpayers money is currently being spent on politicians no longer serving the country? 

While I was working, my tax was going to my co-workers for family support, child care and paternity allowance, yet they were earning more money than I did. The system is wrong and needs a major overhall. 

Australia need to get back into manufacturing or we will be a nation serving the rest of the world cups of tea at their pleasure. We cannot not exist on tourism and the crumbs we get out of our mining industry owned in large by multi nationals who are getting the lions share of the wealth generated out of OUR resources harry Oosterveen