Assets and pension cuts.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED, TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. Anyhow, today things are changing, and this change is affecting me and my family, and in a way in my old age, we are looking more at what the government can do for us, that is why I will be writing posts about the Australian Security System.

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

This article can be found here, Assets and pension cuts. 

How the Australian pensioners are losing money

Now let us just imagine you have this house for rent, so, you think you are doing okay. But since they introduced the assets test in January 2017, there are a lot of pensioners that have been lamenting, how the government has treated them, because they will be losing more pension. In fact, most of them will be losing two or three times the amount of money they can earn from the rent. So, let us look at what is happening. 

Welcome to our article, Assets and pension cuts. 

Dear readers, to make sense of what we are saying in this old article, we must say that this article shows you the way, why today there are less properties for rent. You see, you need to learn what has happened in the past, to know why there are not enough properties for rent today. Now let me go back to tell you what has happened in the past. 

 let us talk about the pensioners and the assets test. Anyhow, in our last article, Australian pensioners alarmed, we talked about the disastrous budget that the treasurer Joe Hockey delivered on the 13^th of May 2014, in this article we are continuing to talk about the pensions cut, and the effect it will have on pensioners. Depending on what sort of pensioner you are, these changes will affect you in different ways. So, there are pensioners that their pension does not change at all, some pensioners that will be losing part of their pension, and some will lose it altogether. So, if the pensioners are upset about this change, they are right to be upset. Because Joe Hockey is an idiot, because any politician in his position, must consider first the effect of the budget it will have on the people, that they are supposed to serve. 

Anyhow, now let us discuss an example, which we have started in our last article, about Mr. and Mrs. Day, who own two houses, they live in one house and rent the other one. Then, we will talk about other cases, and what some pensioner can do, because for every action there is a reaction, so, the pension changes can bring other changes.

Talking about Mr. and Mrs. Day, and what they are going to lose, because of the pensions cut.

Let us talk about, how much pension they received before, then how much they receive now, and then compare this with other pensioner, whether they are being discriminated. Anyhow, we are setting this case, in a way that is easy to understand, so, all figures are well rounded figure, and therefore they have not been worked out mathematically.

So, Mr. and Mrs. Day have about $580,000 worth of assets beside their own residence.

Before the 1^st January 2017 change, they received about $450.00 per fortnight each.

After the 1^st January change, they will receive about $350.00 per fortnight each;

So, they will be losing about $100.00 per fortnight each. Now because they have problems with renting the house. When the house is not rented, it is hard to live on $350.00 per fortnight. One must keep in mind, that a single pensioner that has no assets, receives $873.90 per fortnight, and even they complain about living a modest decent life.

Anyhow, let us talk about owning and renting a house, because Joe Hockey budget, is a budget aimed at ruining the small property investor. So, these small investors must decide whether it is worth to keep things as they are, or they need to change a few things, to live their life at the same level of other pensioners. So, now let us look, how owning and renting a house affects the pensioners, if they can receive a government pension.

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People owning and renting a house. 

People believe that owning and renting a house is the way to go. If you talk to any real-estate agent, they will tell you that it is profitable to own a rental house. But we must ask ourselves if it is profitable all the time, or are there times, when it does not work out in your favour, or the way you want it work out, therefore, owning a second house is not the best thing to have, which is the case of Mr. and Mrs. Day.

As we have said in our last article, today most house owners find it hard to rent their houses, because there are too many vacancies here in Brisbane. So, Mr. and Mrs. Day, had to rent their house for $400.00 per week, which is a low rent if one considers the house value. Anyhow, they hope that the tenants will pay the rent on time and will not damage the house while they are living there. They have worked out that as things are, after paying all the bills, they can average in a year about $200.00 a week net rent. They must estimate a conservative figure, because there are too many vacancies, and there have been times, when their house has been vacant for months.

After going over all this rental stuff, we must start to think whether there is something wrong, with the way’s things have been set up for Mr. and Mrs. Day. So, we should ask. Did Mr. and Mrs. Day make a mistake when they invested in this rental property? Because they were thinking that by having a property for rent, they could be better off when they retied.

But now that the assets-test is changed they are shocked, because their second house investment is more a disaster than a benefit. In facts, they are worse off, because if they had only the house they are living in, they would have received a lot more pension, than what they are earning from their investment. So, they could have more time for themselves, instead of trying to run their property for rent.

Today we can only ask, what sort of government is this? They tell the people to save their money for their old age, so that they can live a better life. But when the people reach their old age, they turn around, change the laws and take away that money from you. But this is not all that we need to say; you see, they make laws that takes away money from the people on the government pensions, but they don’t make laws to cut their own pensions that are huge compared to the rest of us. You see, the means test, and the assets-test does not apply to their politician pensions, so, they can own huge properties or anything else, they can earn anything, and they still will receive their full government pensions and other benefits. So, there is a law for the public and a different law for the politicians.

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What some people could do? 

When the laws change, and those properties that you have worked hard for, they don’t earn what you expected them to earn. You must start thinking many things including about what you want to do, and what you can do with what you have.

In the case of Mr. and Mrs. Day, they are losing so much money that they must start thinking about a different set up, so that they can receive a more pension than they are receiving now and live an easier life.

As we have said, Mr. and Mrs. Day, are not on the best terms, they are living together, because divorces and changes are costly, but because of what has happened to their pension, they may have to divorce now. Because now that their pension has gone down more, they have lost that financial balance, which in a way kept them together. So, they will be forced to divorce, because, if they are divorced, they will receive a single pension each. But that is not all, they will own a house each, and live in their own houses, so, they have no more assets, they will not earn any money, so, they don’t have a mean-test or assets-test to go through to receive their pension. therefore, they will receive the government full pension each. Now let us see what difference it will make.

Today they receive about $350.00 per fortnight each.

If they are divorced and live in their own houses, they will receive, $873.90 each per fortnight.

Which is a lot more than what they receive today, the only question left here is will they do it?

Anybody that is losing that much money will certainly do it, to make sure, let us look at those figures again, but this time let us see, how much money they are losing in a year, if we work both pensions together:

Now, they would receive about $700.00 per fortnight, in a year they are receiving $18,200.00.

If they divorce, they will receive 873.90 each per fortnight, which will be $22,721.4 each.

Or 45,442.8 per year. So, they are losing $27,242.8 government pension in a year.

Our own views on this is this.

If people start divorcing to receive a full single pension in the future, you cannot blame them, because they have been pushed from the government to do it. If the assets-test had not changed, this would not happen.

Now, let us talk about pensioners owning properties.

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Pensioners owing properties. 

The pensioners that own a rental property today are in a lot of trouble, because everything has turned against them. The government changes the assets-test and cuts the pensions down. Then the properties cannot be rented unless they rent cheap, and, they cannot sell their properties easily, because there are too many rental properties up for sale; and when a business makes not enough money, it is hard to sell.

But there is more, when their rental property is sold, it is subject to the gain tax, here again the government is robbing what is rightfully yours. They are robbing you, because if you want to buy another property of about the same value somewhere else, you must pay the gain tax, which is based on the difference in price, when you bought the property the first time. If you have bought the property a long time ago, for sure there will be a lot of gain tax. Now, I want to point out, if you need to buy another property of the same value, for personal reasons, why you must pay this gain tax, you really haven’t gained anything at all, because you still have a property of the same value. But the government does not accept this explanation, they work on the difference of the price when you bought it the first time.

Now let us look at some other real-estate problems. Some of you may think that I am exaggerating, because everybody things that the properties are always going up. But I tell you what, the boom on the property market for me is already ended, but people are not aware of it yet. When I drive around the street of Brisbane, there are too many signs of places for rent and for sale, when a few years ago, there were none. So, everybody that owns real estate should brace themselves now, for the rough ride ahead, this will also affect the pensioners that happen to own properties.

Anyhow, we want to conclude this article now, by saying that the pensioners are having a hard time no matter where they turn, they find problems.

Therefore, in the future, they better plan to own just one house, and then collect the full pension from the government.

I believe that I have said enough in this article. So, see you in our next article, The Assets Test Problem. 

To see more click on this link, Assets and pension cuts.   

See you soon.

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Where the rental problem started

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED, TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. Anyhow, today things are changing, and this change is affecting me and my family, and in a way in my old age, we are looking more at what the government can do for us, that is why I will be writing posts about the Australian Security System.

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

This article can be found here, Australian pensioners alarmed 

There are many houses in Australia, but they are not enough. 

Parliament house Canberra is where they can control everything. 

Australia parliament house in Canberra is where politicians talk how to make new laws, and budget the economy, most times they get it right and sometimes they do not. I believe that the shortage of rental properties, has started from one of the budgets in 2014, when the Australian treasurer Joe Hockey, made a disastrous budget against the Australian landlords, that even today cannot be fixed. Read our blogs to see what we mean.    

 

Welcome to our article, Australian pensioners alarmed.

Dear readers, we are going to repost several articles that will show you why this rental crisis is happening now. But we believe that this crisis has been going on for at least the last 10 years. So, let me start with this article. Which is the beginning of the downfall of the rental market.  

Let us start from the beginning.

 Yes, today the Australian pensioners are alarmed, because their pensions can be cut, and some of them may even lose the government pension, because they own rental properties.  

But let us start from the beginning and talk about the man that brought in this disaster, that the Australian pensioners didn’t deserve. Anyhow, this disastrous budget was delivered from the then treasurer Joe Hockey, the 13th of May 2014, today we are still finding how terrible this budget was. Because the 1^st of January 2017, some Australian pensioners have lost some pension payments. But first let us see how the experts have described this budget at that time. So, here I quote:

The grim budget faced widespread criticism and was overwhelmingly rejected by the Australian public as reflected in all opinion polls after its release. Opposition to "unfair" budget measures came from the opposition and crossbench, pensioners, economists, the union movement, students, welfare community and disability groups are protesting. The budget included changes which were contrary to pre-election commitments and promises made by the Liberals in opposition. Critics argue that every one of the following pre-election commitments made by Tony Abbott were broken in the first budget: "No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS." Echos of the "dead and buried" Fightback! policy package from the 1993 election occurred with proposals to defer unemployment benefits for six months for under 30s and the removal of GP bulk billing. Most proposals have since been shelved, dumped or modified.

End of quote.

Anyhow, Joe Hockey, has moved out of the Australian politics, but the politician have given him a good job, with a very good pay. Meanwhile the Australian pensioners are hurt from those changes to the assets test that he proposed. Here we want to ask, if he wanted to save money to the government by cutting the pension, why he didn’t propose to cut his own pay and the other politician pay, at least the same amount that the pensioner will lose, just to be fair for everybody, since they receive a ridiculous high pay for their services. We think that to cut the politician pay is only fair, since we are all in the same boat of Australia. Now, let us talk about the Australian pensioners, because they are alarmed and worried.

(But before we do that, please note that these articles now have been regrouped, so they may not follow each other closely.) 

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 Pensioners are alarmed.   

Yes, dear readers, today the Australian pensioners are alarmed, they are alarmed because they feel that the Australian government is ripping them off. They feel ripped off because the changes that are taking place from the first of January 2017 are unfair to them. We believe that they are right to feel alarmed, worried and upset, because some of them will be forced to live with less than the minimum government pension.

Therefore, we will talk about the Australian pensions, since most of us must be interested about. I admit that I am not an expert in politics and government matters, however, when we use our common sense and things don’t work out, we want to have our say. So, the Australian Pensions are changing, from the first of January 2017. This change is hurting people that rely on the Australian government pension.

Here we are talking about retirees, that have not got enough of their own funds to retire and live a modest decent life, so, they rely on the Australian government pension, for a full pension or part pension. Most of the people that will be affected from this change, are the part pension retirees; some of them will receive less pension, and some of them will lose the government pension altogether, because of the changed in the assets-test.

Now, what hurts most these pensioners that are losing pension money, is that the people that have got no assets, because they have never worked hard and tried to save money, they will still receive the full pension from the government, but those that have worked hard, paid their tax and saved their money for rainy days, hoping to have just a bit extra cash when they retied will have the pension reduced and in some cases completely cut off. We believe that this is not right, because it is the people that have worked hard and saved their money, are the people that have paid most taxes in the past.

Anyhow, here are some figures that have been published on the net.

About 330,000 Australians will find their pension cut from the 1^st of January- 90,000 will be losing it entirely, because of the tighter assets test. I believe that it is not fair, because it is already hard for pensioners to live a modest life peacefully.

So, if the federal government loses next election, because of what they have done, they deserve to lose. Anyhow, let us look at some possible outcome, and how people can react to these pensions cut. Here we are going to write about some imaginary case, about what some people can do, because they feel that they are being discriminated and punished for being good honest citizen.

Anyhow, here we are going to talk about a case or two, as an example. You see, before this pension was cut, this couple had accepted that the government would give them only a part pension, so, they tried to live with that, but now that pension is being cut, they don’t know what to do, because it is going to be hard for them to live a decent modest life.

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Other pensioners’ concerns. 

Here we cannot use real names, so, the name that appear are not their real names.

Mr. John Day and Mrs. Ann Day are two pensioners, they have received a part pension for years, as they are both over 70 years old, so, they are aged pensioners.

Anyhow, let us describe how this change will affect Mr. and Mrs. Day.

Mr. and Mrs. Day own two houses, they both live in the same house, even though they are not on the best terms with each other, and it is said that they will end up divorced soon. Anyhow, they are still living under the same roof as husband and wife, so, they receive their pension as a couple, which is less than if they had the pension paid as single people, so, they start thinking if they are doing the right thing, or they should do other things to improve their financial position. So, let us compare what is happening to their pension.

As we have said, Mr. and Mrs. Day have two houses, one they live in and another one they rent, so, the house they rent is calculated as an asset, the value of the house is set at 520,000 dollars, add to that a few more things they have, they have 550,000 dollars’ assets, so, their pension is calculated on these assets, as it was before they told me that they were getting from the government about 450 per fortnight each, from the 1^st of January, they are going to get about 350 dollars per fortnight each. This is not enough to live with even if you try hard to save money.

The house they rent, today it is rented at 400 dollars per week, because they could not rent it any higher, now, that is not net money, because they must pay all the fixed expenses, like the rates, the water and other urban utilities, the insurance, the maintenance. But that is not all, because sometimes the house is vacant for several weeks until a new tenant is found. So, there are times when in a year, they can average from the house rent, about 200 dollars per week.

Here one needs to ask, where and how the government people work out this new law, about the assets and how much you earn. I believe that it should be worked on a real possibility that you can earn at least as much money as the full pension before they cut the pension.

Anyhow, this is how I believe the rental crisis started, and has continued to get worse, and who knows when it will improve. Now, having said that I believe that this article is becoming too long, so, the facts and figure about this example will be discussed in our next article, Assets and pension cuts 

To see more click on this link, Australian pensioners alarmed. 

See you soon.

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Australian Social Security.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED, TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. Anyhow, today things are changing, and this change is affecting me and my family, and in a way in my old age, we are looking more at what the government can do for us, that is why I will be writing posts about the Australian Security System.

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

This article can be found here, Australian Social Security   

 

The Australian Social security helps people.  

The Australian Social Security is a government system that helps people in need, their staff are very patient people, but they help only up to the point that they are allowed to help. There are a lot of people that go to the Centrelink Offices, to see what help the can get, they can be unemployed people looking for work, they can be pensioners to see what they can get from the government, and others. 

Welcome to our article, Australian Social Security 

The Australian social security fails the farmers.

Dear readers, in this article about the “Australian Social Security”, we start by writing, why the Australian Social Security fails to help the farmers; then we will also discuss other things where they fail. But first let us discuss about the farmer, because as we have said in a previous article Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business, so, we want to work out, why the farmers don’t get social security payment from the government, like most other people do.

You see, today the Australian Social Security system is helping lots of people, but it is not helping the farmers, even though the farmers really need help from the government. Therefore, we want to know why this is happening, and then, we can suggest how to avoid this happening again. We believe that the Social Security system in Australia must help anybody that needs help, at least the name itself suggests that. So, we are going to investigate and talk about this issue, in this article and the following articles.

Anyhow, our views are based on what is happening in Australia today, about farming and the drought, so, the first question is; why the Australian Social Security system has failed to help the farmers. We believe that the Australian Social Security can do better than what it is doing now. So, let us see why the Australian social security is failing to help the farmers.

Now, what we are saying here is what we know, but, if you want to know more about the Australian Social Security system, you should follow these links, Social security in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_security_in_Australia, Benefits and Payments - Australia.gov.au, and other links that can be found on the internet.

Anyhow, we believe that the Australian Social Security system that we call Centrelink, has failed to help the farmers, because it has not been planned to help them from the beginning, as we will explain as we write these articles. Anyhow, we are talking about the drought and the farmers that are having a very hard time, so, we were saying that all this hardship can be minimized, if aids from the Social Security System was more readily available to the farmers, but it is not, so, the only thing that we can think about this failure, is why the social security has failed to help? Because it is not fair for the farmers, so, the present Social Security System needs to be adjusted.

So, why the social security has failed to help? Once you ask that question and look for the reasons, you realize that in Australia not everybody is treated the same, from the current social security system. You see, people are treated different because they belong to different categories; there are: the-have and the-have-not; there are the workers that work for wages; there are the self-employed; there are the farmers, which we could say are self-employed, and others; anyhow, when people go to Centrelink the Social Security government agencies for help, the agencies do what they can according to where these groups of people belong, so, let us see some examples how this works.  

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How the Social Security works. 

Let us start from the working people; when people that work for a wage, become unemployed and they are not earning any money, they can go to Centrelink, where they can apply to receive the unemployment benefit from the government; this means that the government gives them some money, until they find another job to go to and can earn their living. This system is called Social Security unemployment benefits, or something like that, and it is good, it is like receiving a small wage to help you survive, so, it helps the workers when they don’t have a job and need financial help, which is good.

But the problem with this system is that all categories are not treated the same, which is not good. So, I believe that something needs to be done, to help anyone that needs help. You see, some categories may not receive help because they belong to a certain category, even if they earn no money and have no money, like the farmers when there is a drought or other disasters, this is the problem with the Social Security system of today.

You see, the farmers cannot turn to the government for help, because they are self-employed, and they are supposed to be rich, okay they are rich, because they own a lot of land, so, the assets test will exclude them from any government help; in this case there is no social security for the farmers. This is the reason why the social security system is failing the farmers, it is not set to help those people that cannot earn money even when they work hard, in the hope they can earn their living.

But I believe that these people must be helped, because they are the backbone of the Australian economy, therefore, we cannot afford to lose them, so, the Social Security system needs to be adjusted to help them when they need help. They must be helped from the government, until the day that something else can replace the government help; like the collection of funds that we have suggested in our last article. Here we need also to say, that today farming is not regulated from the government, but some regulations may need to be placed; so that when things don’t work out, the government will be more willing to help the farmers.

Anyhow, we have worked out that today the farmers cannot be helped from Centrelink, because they are self-employed, and because they have too much property as assets. You see, the assets-test is the main problem here; but I believe that the assets-test in special cases should not override the income test completely, this suggestion does not apply only to the farmers, because the assets-test is also making life miserable to pensioners that own properties, when those properties cannot earn half the money the assets test believe they could. 

So, in my views the assets test needs to be modified. Anyhow, we are going into details later, anyhow, it will become self-explained as we write more articles about it. We want to say now that there are issues that need to be fixed from the federal government. So, this farmer’s problem and the assets-test for pensioner, is going to be a real problem for the politicians, if they want to help the people that have voted for them at the elections.

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 Let us look at the political reasons. 

Anyhow, I want to point it out to you, that in our previous articles we have started to talk about the farmers problems, but slowly we found ourselves to talk about assets-test and politics. Now, what is happening at the Australian federal government level is not right, they need to work better what the people need, and how the people are affected when they make their budgets, I believe that this is one of the reasons why Australia is having problems today, some of these political people that become treasurers are heartless and careless, they have made many mistakes that has affected the public adversely, some of these mistakes need to be fixed, the public is not going to forget easily what they have done, so, they are going to run the risk of losing their next elections, on this issue alone. But let us compare what is happening now to the past. I believe that in the past it was better, at least this is the way I have seen it happen.

Anyhow, in the past as far as I know there was no assets test in the seventies, it was introduced later to stop people that were abusing the system, also because the government needed more money. Now, let us try to see and discuss some of the reasons that apply today, which takes us to see that the federal government is greedy, because they want more money, and that is the problem.  

Anyhow, believe that I have said enough in this article, but we will write more articles that are going to highlight what we believe needs to be adjusted to make a better Social Security System. 

To see more click on this link, Australian Social Security  

See you next blog, when the rental problems started, in Australian pensioners alarmed. 

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Farming today is still a risky business.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED, TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. Anyhow, today things are changing, and this change is affecting me and my family, and in a way in my old age, we are looking more at what the government can do for us, that is why I will be writing posts about the Australian Security System.

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

 

Farming today compared to the old way, My life my struggles, 

Australia farming and their present problems. 

Farming has many problems, sometimes they are easy to solve, at other times they are hard. When you have animals in the farm, any animals you have you must feed and water, and do many other things. This could be easy if you are organized, and it rains enough, because the food grows, and the animals can it and drink. But what about when there is a drought? Then the farmer has to do it manually. 

Australia farming and their present problems.

Welcome to our article, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business

Dear readers, I am reposting this article, “Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business”, because I want to point out, what the politicians are ignoring, when they should do something about it. Anyhow, when this event happened everybody was talking about it, so me tell the story. 

The problem is the drought that is ruining farming and there is no end in sight. Now I want to say that I am writing this article for two reasons: One is to talk about the farmers problems that the drought is causing, and the failure of the government to help them; when they know that these things happen in Australia easily, because Australia is the driest continent on earth.

Now, this farmers problem gives me the opportunity to talk about the Australian government failure to help the farmers and other people, because they are in the same position as the farmer, according to the present, Social Security System, which I believe it is faulty; but it can be improved.

Now, let me explain, the farmers and some other people are cut off the Social Security System, because they own properties, so, the assets-test eliminate them to receive help, even when they need help like the farmers today. So, this article is going to be the first article, followed by several other articles about the Australian politician’s failure to help people in need.

We may argue that the farmers are rich people, so, they must be the last people to receive money from the government. Okay, you are right; but when the farmers reach a stage, where they cannot run their farms anymore, because they have no money; I believe that the government should step in and help them, even if it is a free loan, to be paid back when the farms produce enough, and they are able to pay back that loan. This is only a suggestion, and there are other ways that the government can help.  

I believe that what is happening to the farmers today, it has happened before, so, I want to point out that this is the same old failure that most governments have. You see, what is happening in Australia now, brings back my life-time memories, which are two folds: one is that farming is a risky business, because the nature of farming is risky, since the weather and other things influence the outcome, as we can see from this drought that today is crippling the Australian farmers; the other is about how the government fails to help the farmers even today, when help is urgently needed.

I believe that today we are more advanced, so, these things should be easier to understand and control, if everything can be worked out and organized, before these things happen. Now, I may have started to write this article for the farmers, but there are other things and places that the government is failing to do the right things, so, I will be writing several articles, to point out what I believe can be done to fix them; but let us go back to talk about the farmers.

Anyhow, I want to compare what I know from my life experiences, to what is happening now in Australia. I must say that it is like when I was young, the Italian government wanted only to collect the land tax from us farmers, because we owned some land, even when the land did not produce anything; they still wanted the land tax, and that was hurting us farmers. You see, we old people will always go back and compare present happenings to the past and then have our say, therefore, let me tell you part of my life story, to compare the past with the present.

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Compare old and new farming problems.

 When I was young, I have been working in our family farm in Southern Italy for twelve years, I gave up farming because we worked hard but made very little money. During the time that I was working in the farm, I remember two very bad years for us famers; one of this was in 1951 when we had a drought, and the wheat and other crops completely failed. We harvested what we could, but there was no much in it; the second time was in 1960, this time was too much rain, we again harvested what we could with the same result, we made about twice as much as the seeds we used for sowing, now that is bad because a good harvest is ten times plus what you sow, at least that is what we believed then. Anyhow, also the farm animals did not do well, because there wasn’t enough good food to go around; so, these events made me think to give up farming, since it is too risky, and you work for next to nothing.

But not all farms were the same, so, let me explain, some people that had more land and more money than us, had enough money to keep going, but I could not do that because my family didn’t own enough land, so, I had to find another way to earn a living. For this reason, I migrated to Australia hoping for the best. In Australia I switched job and instead of farming, I worked in the building industry; but in the back of my mind, I always thought about the farmers and their risky business.

Anyhow, most people in Australia were and are thinking that farmers are rich people; well, some of them are rich and some are not, when everything goes well, it is okay, but they are still running a risky business, and their business can lose money easily.

Now, the worst part of running a business and losing money; it is when people think you are rich, and therefore, nobody cares about you, even if you are starving. As it happens, farmers are at the top of this disadvantaged list, because farming is very risky; you see, most time it depends from the weather, but the farmers have no control over the weather, then, they own a lot of land, (they might even be paying tax because they own this land, (like we did in Italy in the fifties) but I don’t know much about this issue). The farmers are self-employed, so, they don’t qualify for help from the government, because they are self-employed and because of the assets-test. I believe that the assets-test should not apply in special cases, if you cannot make any money even if you work hard to earn it, the assets-test should not apply. I believe that this is what is wrong with the assets-test today, they don’t consider if you can make money, from what you have? And how much money you can make from your assets? We are going to say something about the assets-test later, where we will be talking also about the assets test for rental property owners. To do all this, we are going to write several articles, so, we invite you to follow us.

Now let me go back to the farmers issues because life problems never come alone. You see, it is the federal government that can help the farmers, but the federal government is having trouble today, as we will explain.

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Life problems never come alone.

Anyhow, today I am writing about what is happening in Australia to farming people, because there is this drought problem. So, the farmers need help, it is too much for them to keep going the way it is. I believe that they are not being helped enough from the government when the government can do more to help them. But as it often happens, our lives problems never come alone; so, troubles can increase other existing troubles, even when they don’t belong to the original trouble.

Anyhow, what I am trying to say here is that the federal government must help the farmers, but today they have their own political problems, so, instead of trying to solve the farmers problem, the politicians fight each other, they want to elect a new Prime Minister, believing that it is the fault of the PM the reason that people are leaving their coalition party; they don’t see that it is the party policies that people don’t like, and one of this I believe it is the assets test, because it puts the farmers and other people in a disadvantaged position.

About the political scene, I believe that changing their leader is not going to solve their political problem, unless those people that will be in charge, change their policies. But that is not all, because also, what I am trying to say here is what, senator Richard Di Natale, is talking about in this video, click the link to view.

Richard Di Natale flares up in the Senate - YouTube

OMG finally somebody is telling the truth. Wake up Australian politicians and think about the people that have voted for you first, it is your duty. Now, let us hope that this political problem is solved quickly, so that the politician can go back to work and solve the farmers problem, then solve the other problems. Anyhow, let me go back to talk about the farmers problem, since the farmer are neglected from the government.

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Farmers are neglected from the government.

When we compare today farming to the past, today it is easier than it used to be, because of the progress we have made in farming; good farming practice helps everybody, the proof of how the farmers help is written in this article, Farming today compared to the old way, we wrote this article some time ago, and it explain the benefit that modern farming brings to the people. Because farming helps us all, a good government must care about the farmers; but today the farmers are neglected from the government.

Now, as we have said, today farming is still a risky business, when it should not be that risky. You see, we need the government to intervene and make laws that help the farmers when they need help. After all, it is the farmers that feed the people of Australia, because all the food is grown in the farms; so, it is necessary that the farmers are kept farming and continue to feed the entire population, if that cannot be done, then one day food can cost a lot more. So, let me explain how I see this farming situation.

Australia is a vast country, but at the same time it is the driest continent on earth, for this reason the Australian farmers must be organized in a way that they can survive, when a dry spell happens like it is happening right now. They cannot copy anybody else to solve their farming problems, when there is a drought or something else that affects farming, because nobody else has got a problem as large as Australia, so, we in Australia must be the first in the world to find a solution to this farming problem.

I believe that the Australian government must make laws, which will help the farmers survive and be able to bring their farm back to produce whatever they produce, when the drought is over. Now, here we are talking about the drought, but it should apply to other things as well, because farming has too many ups and downs, so, they need to be organized in such a way that when things go the wrong way, like the drought they are experiencing now; this new future set up that we are suggesting, will keep hardship to a minimum.

At this point of time, let us imagine what can be done, then make some suggestions.

 

We can suggest helping the farmers. 

Today the most important thing that the farmers must do is think how they can survive the drought, or anything else that puts their livelihood at risk. Here we must admit that most of the farmers are good at doing that, because farmers are practical people, but that may not be enough, to save all of them, as we can see from what is happening today. Therefore, we must think about a helping solution. Here we suggest that an organization that collect things from the farmers, when farming is doing well must be created, this is where the government can step in, by setting up a collective organization, which for instance collect every year a portion of the farms produce, or even some money when they are doing well, before taxing them to collect their tax. Then this government organization, will keep this tax-free reserve of food and money in reserve, which then, it can be freely distributed, when it becomes necessary to help those farmers in need.

Well, this only a suggestion that we have written here. But this thing is not even new; we are all familiar with the story in the Bible, when the Pharaoh of Egypt dreamed about the seven fat cows that then were devoured by the seven skinny cows. Joseph interpreted the dream that in the land of Egypt, there were going to be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. The Pharaoh got Joseph to organize a collection in the years of plenty, to be distributed on the years of famine, and thus Egypt survived the years of famine.

What happened in Egypt was a long time ago, and the earth seasons then were more regular than today, because they did not have global warming to deal with, this global warming is an extra problem that we have created ourselves, so, today and in the future, we must create things that can overcome this global warming problem. Meanwhile, we must be careful what we do; perhaps we should create more social security for everyone including the farmers. Now, let us talk about our present farming and other problems that we are having today. 

Australia is having problems.

Anyhow, today what we want from the government cannot happen; because of what has happened in Canberra recently; since the federal government has had political problems; so, on the 24 of August 2018 they have replaced the Prime Minister; now the new PM. is Scott Morison, but he needs still to choose the other ministers and then swear them in, before they can talk about anything else. Anyhow, we can say here that today Australia is still the lucky country, because there are people that donate things, when people are in need; so, the farmer get some help that way. Thanks, God, for that!

Anyhow, meanwhile the farmers are praying for rain and praying that the people in Canberra will remember them, and then, do something about helping the farmers. Because, farming is a risky business even today, when things are easier to organize, for this reason, we need to look at the Australian security system to see who is responsible and what can be done.

I think I have said enough in this article, see you in our next article, where we will discuss about the Australian social security system that today is failing the farmers, but not only the farmers, because there are other people that can be served better. We believe that Australia can do better, if the Australian government can organize the resource better.

Anyhow, knowing about these problems, we have published a few articles, hoping we can suggest something useful; here are the links:

Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business

Australian Social Security

The Assets Test Dilemma

The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal

We have written these articles and we will continue to write them.

Anyhow, we are going to talk about the Australian social security system.  See you soon.  

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