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  

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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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