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NewsHave Your Say In The Annual FiftyUp Club Budget Poll
Have Your Say In The Annual FiftyUp Club Budget Poll

Have Your Say In The Annual FiftyUp Club Budget Poll

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Last updated by Chris Zinn on

On Tuesday the Treasurer gets on his hind legs in Canberra and lays down new laws which inevitably create winners and losers. He will assure all sides that the changes are in the common good and seek to maximise the benefits to the winners and minimise the impact to the losers. 

Two days later the leader of the Opposition, who has the right of reply, minimises the so-called gains and amplifies the pain. The theatre of the event still leaves many people cold and they might not appreciate how it stands to affect them.

This is especially true for older Australians  given  that issues around retirement incomes, be they pensions or superannuation, are central to both budgets and elections these days. 

Take the example of last year when pension eligibility changes were announced which come into effect in January 2017. Last year the Government reduced the threshold at which the part pension cuts out meaning 91,000 people no longer qualified for the benefit and 235,000 had their pension reduced. 

On the plus side 170,000 pensioners would receive another $30 a fortnight and the budget bottom line would benefit from savings of $2.4 billion over four years.

The truth is you may feel like you don’t get a look in on major decisions like this apart from the privilege of being asked to choose in what appears to be an inevitable double dissolution election. 

(Click here to take the 2016 Budget Poll)

Discussions around negative gearing issues, bracket creep problems and middle income tax breaks swirl around and around. 

The FiftyUp Club aims to  aggregate not just the buying power of the over-fifties to get better deals but also to amplify their voice in the political horse trading. 

As individuals we have a vote, hard won and protected as ANZAC Day should remind us, but as a group we also have a voice which has its own power. 

Last year we conducted an opinion poll of your views around the Budget and took it to Canberra to remind politicians on all sides what you thought and why. 

Thirteen thousand of you took the time and trouble to answer questions and provide comments which the pollies and their staffers told us provided a valuable insight into what the over-fifties think on these issues. 

Todays there’s another chance to have your voice heard with our 2016 Budget poll (Click here to take the 2016 Budget Poll)   

It will only take a few minutes, is hopefully devoid to unnecessary bulldust and will help, I hope, help cement the club’s reputation for speaking commonsense. 

We’ll gather and collate all the responses and share them with you and the political decision makers 

It might be a bit late to change the Treasurer’s mind but it’s never too late to ensure when it comes to decisions which directly effect older Australians that our voice is heard. 

(Click here to take the 2016 Budget Poll) 

 

 

 

Originally posted on .

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FiftyUp Club
Have Your Say In The Annual FiftyUp Club Budget Poll

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Someone
Someone from QLD commented:

All politician's only look after number one and they're sucking us dry and give them selves a big pay raise ,blood sucking maggots that they are and that goes for both parties they get big money a fortnight to the amount that we get a year may be they should try and live on the age pension for a few weeks, 

john
john from QLD commented:

Bill " Shortonbrains" will have to confront the position taken by the most "class warfare" treasurer (KEATING) who scrapped negative gearing, spent 6 months patting himself on the back with both hands, then had to reinstate it ( in full) because most investors dumped their negatively geared houses, causing a critical shortage of affordable rental properties, and a severe drop in house prices. LABOR never learns from it's past mistakes: "THERE WILL BE NO CARBON TAX UNDER THE GOVERMENT I LEAD" from Bill Shorten has a familiar ring to it. john daly 

Victoria - One Big Switch
Victoria - One Big Switch from NSW commented:

Hi FiftyUpers! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and concerns - we love hearing what our members have to say, particularly when it comes to such an important issue like the Federal Budget. With the budget looming, Channel 7's Sunrise is giving one of our members the opportunity to represent over-50s and share your impression of the budget. It would be THIS Wednesday (May 4). If you would like to get involved please email myself at victoria@onebigswitch.com.au with your contact number and postcode. Thanks! Victoria @ FiftyUp Club 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

I really think that the government need to really look at the age of retirement. In some jobs, yes we could work till we are older but in others not at all as they are far to demanding on our bodies. I am only fifty nine this year and work in a job that is required to lift heavy things and work to a time budgets to do each order witch requires me to work at a very fast pass all the time. Of late I find it very hard to do. I do not want to change my career as I am soon entitled to long service so there for I had no choose but to do less hours to keep this job as it it so demanding and hard on my ageing body. So mabe they need to look at the type of work the people are doing befor they demand that they work till they are even older than what they thought that they would have too when first starting work a fifteen. We have worked hard and paid for our retirement and we would like to be able to enjoy some of it with good health befor the lord takes as. 

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