iamthecreaturefromuranus

If a man speaks in a forest, and there is no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?

BigH68

but its up to us to read the fine print before we commit

fish.01

See post 73.

fish.01

The appeals were for the affected people.

The levy is for government reconstruction of major infrastructure stuff to keep the nation going - railroads, bridges etc.

ozzieeagle

I wonder if we would have seen as many complaints if the Net had been around, when Howards gun buy back levy was on.

I reckon thats where Gillard must have got the idea from.

It will be for one year, Anything extra will be politcal suicide.

Theres a Carbon Levy waiting in the wings though. Now that one I will be against.

hevs

You need to ask?

cresta57

Levy's for levees sweet

Sherlock Holmes

Levys for art's sake...

HelenTD

The trouble is, those on roughly $100k mostly do not get any benefits, such as FTA, FTB, Education Tax Rebate, etc. This group are busy paying out for others, but get little back and a lot in this category are struggling. The govt and general community really need to forget about $100k being a high salary for a family, or that someone on this salary is rich. I also know that others in a much better financial situation can claim all sorts of costs and reduce their apparent income so that they do qualify for these benefits. It is the group in the middle that seem to pay for everyone else, even the rich.

Colin Barnett needs some of the funds to repair damage caused by floods in the Carnarvon area, very important for fruit & veg supplies to the rest of WA.

renth

I heard on the news that Carnarvon won't be getting any of the money despite its agricultural industry getting decimated.

John_R

How about fining the local councils for giving planning permission to build on flood plains. I hear it's supposed to be only for a year, the Germans were told that when solidaritry tax was brought in when the wall came down, their still paying!!

John

fish.01

wouldn't help re the levy....the levy is for major infrastructure like bridges and rail lines - not for houses on flood plains - those people have lost their money.

All John Howard's levies have been discontinued.

Vegemite Kids

They have to raise the levy cos the levee failed


Personally I dont have a problem with paying this, happy to do so. Thats the benefit of federation - states dont have to go it alone in times of emergency / disaster, and who knows in a few years time it could be my area needing assistance.


But...I do have a few concerns

1. I am concerned that only QLD has been mentioned so far. As others have said, will the flood affected infrastructure in NSW, VIC, SA, WA also be covered by this? and if not, why not? If its only QLD then its an unfair levy to the other affected areas, especially northern NSW.

2. I am concerned that the owners of the multi multi million dollar mansions overlooking the Brisbane river will be exempted from this. Yes they are flood affected, but they're still probably in a better situation financially than 99.9% of Australians to pay this levy.

3. I am concerned that single income families will be hit harder for this levy than dual income families. (i.e 1x income of $110 will pay so much more extra tax than 2x income of $55k each) But I guess thats just taxation all over.

4. I am concerned that some people will use it as an excuse to stop giving donations to the flood affected people and deliberately 'misunderstand' the purpose of the levy. Also that existing non-flood related charities will be affected by that misunderstanding.

Pollyana

The Body Shop seems to have introduced its own flood levy - don't know if its everywhere, but the staff in the Queen Street mall have been told to suggest to every customer that they should round up their purchase to the next $ and give the change to the flood appeal. Not many customers that are going to say No when confronted with that at the till are there ;rolleyes: Although the woman next to me said in that case she was changing from cash to paying by card so that there was no change

I object to that kind of charity giving, its like the people who come up to you in the pub and shake a tin under your nose. I give when i want to who I want, I don't want to be made to feel obliged to give.

Vegemite Kids

We lived in Germany for 5 years prior to moving to OZ and I have to say the vast majority of Germans that we knew understood why the tax had not be removed and as such were willing to continuing paying it.

BTW, Its a totally different situation and you are comparing apples to carrots by even mentioning it.