Gillard … Resurrects DEATH Duties By Stealth with New TAX!

Well DEATH DUTIES folks is making a comeback it seems as the Labor government under madam Julia and The Greens now seek to bring this back. But in a very sneaky and typically underhanded way, they will not be directly hitting us when we die.  No.

They will be attacking our second largest asset – our superannuation fund!

Under Income Tax Ruling TR 2011/03 when a person dies having a superannuation account, the Australian Tax Office will seek to assess the underlying assets of a superannuation fund for Capital Gains Tax on top of any lump sum tax that will be payable at least at 15% plus medicare.

This effectively implies that your superannuation fund death benefit could by the time this goes to your family be short of up to as much as 40% of your account balance.

So I went to the source, Labors own website to remind myself of those words….Labor Values and I read and of course reflected on their own words.

This government according to Madam Julia “ I’m the best person for this job” Gillard states on Labors Website that:

“ Australia’s superannuation system is unique and provided an important source of finance for Australian businesses during the global financial crisis. But we need to ensure our superannuation savings are enough to provide a secure and dignified retirement to working Australians in the future.”

So I ask simply – why thieve money we have saved for our retirement and ultimately our family with this death tax ? – How simply disgusting and cruel is this thought bubble.

Surely we should be allowed to leave our hard earned asset, for most of us this is our second largest asset to our family.

While perusing the slogans of Labor via their own website on the topic of retirement, it says:

“The Government will increase the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent. This is expected to benefit around 8.4 million employees. The Government will also extend the superannuation guarantee to cover older workers up to age 75.”

The fact is that a 33% rise in superannuation payments does not come magically from the government.  It comes from the small business owners who are struggling to survive.  If costs increase to business, jobs will be lost.

Also the reason why the government has extended coverage to older Aussies is simply because many are struggling to make ends meet and are back in the workforce at such a late stage in life because the bills are getting larger than the age pension affords them and as a veiled admission of this governments incompetence in pursuit of a Carbon Tax, they also realize that many older folk will be hit hard by such an abhorrent tax which is the largest of its type on Planet Earth.

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'Cairns hospital system has let patients down'

PATIENTS suffering acute heart failure were among almost 50 emergency attendees waiting on stretchers outside Cairns Base Hospital for more than two hours, a three-month snapshot of ambulance ramping at the facility reveals.

A 59-year-old suffering acute cardiac failure waited almost three hours to be admitted to the Emergency Department in March because there was no available bed, documents obtained by The Cairns Post under Right to Information laws show.

A 100-year-old with heart failure waited more than an hour in May.

Craig Crawford, FNQ state councillor for Queensland's ambulance employees union United Voice, said the cases highlight the dangerous strain on the hospital and the failure of the system to provide timely care for critical patients.

"Two hours is quite an alarming time to be waiting, especially if the reason for you being there is for any cardiac problem," he said.  "The system has let them down."

The documents show almost 60 patients were ramped outside the hospital ED between March 1 and June 1 of this year, waiting between an hour to almost eight hours to be admitted.

Ten patients waited more than two hours with either chest pain or cardiac failure.

An 81-year-old stroke victim also waited more than two hours on a stretcher in May.

"Code Black", the term used to describe ambulances being ramped outside the ED, was called at the hospital every day – and most days multiple times – between March 22 and March 27.

Cairns anaesthetist and Together Queensland union vice-president, Dr Sandy Donald, said the critical patient levels at the hospital demonstrated the need for increased "surge capacity".  "You have to be able to deal with the urgent workload," he said.

The snapshot of the ED comes after hospital management last month revealed the facility was regularly at critical patient levels and was struggling to cope with a 15 per cent increase in admissions to the ED in the past year.

Earlier this year, a 12-bed unit was opened in the former oncology unit to relieve pressure on the ED.

Cairns and Hinterland Health Service acting CEO Mary Streatfield said a team began working this month to identify ways to boost efficiency and improve patient care at the hospital.

Ms Streatfield said a new patient flow management program would also be implemented soon.

"Staff at the Cairns Base Hospital are committed to improving emergency department wait times and patient flow to meet increased demand," she said.

Figures for last month show 50 per cent of ED patients across all five categories waited 17 minutes for treatment, and the most critical patients waited less than a minute.

Under sweeping reforms to reduce ramping, hospital management must implement major procedural changes in the ED by January 1 next year.

The reforms are based on 15 recommendations contained in a Queensland Health-commissioned report on ramping, which Health Minister Lawrence Springborg last month promised to adopt.

Under the reforms, all state hospitals will be banned from returning assessed patients to ambulances to wait for an emergency bed, and patients must also be handed over from paramedics to hospital staff within 30 minutes of their
arrival.

The reforms also call for improved processes to discharge sub-acute patients to free up in-patient hospital beds.

Health board chairman Bob Norman has said a contributing factor was that at any one time there were 20 to 30 patients not needing acute care but waiting for disability services or nursing homes.

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Top Queensland cops face Newman Government axe to bolster frontline

A THIRD of Queensland Police Service's top brass is in the firing line as the State Government looks at new ways to save money and get more officers on the frontline.

The Courier-Mail understands an internal review found 143 police officers ranked inspector or above were superfluous and could be shed by restructure or natural attrition.

Of about 10,600 officers in the Queensland Police Service, more than 400 are commissioned officers after 63 more were promoted last year.

Their ranks include Inspector and Superintendent, whereas the Commissioner and his deputies and assistants are ranked as executive officers, of which there were about a dozen.

The Queensland Police Commissioned Officers Union president John Pointing said if the Government did proceed with such a huge cull, it would adversely affect service delivery.

"In this brave new world, if they're going to shed these vast numbers, we'd like to be involved so we know whether now we're focused on productivity as opposed to process," he said.

"I hope any decisions they make are evidence- based, not a dollar figure.

"We've got people all over Queensland and they've got families. We'd hope to be engaged very early to minimise the impact on the families." Commissioned officers' responsibilities are the buffer between the rank and file police, who deliver frontline services, and the senior executive.

Mr Pointing said their importance was widely recognised post-Fitzgerald and his members were almost exclusively very experienced officers.

"It seems to us to be a breach of trust; the Government promised to increase police on the frontline and when you have more workers, you need more supervision," he said. "If these positions are removed we won't be able to provide that high-level overview.

"Historically there's been an unwritten agreement that the number of commissioned officers would be 4 per cent of the entire service.

"Inspectors inspect the work of the police to make sure it's done properly."

Mr Pointing said in many cases his members were the ones who ensured service policy was executed to the letter of the law and acted as the conduit to other government departments, as well as running service programs such as crime prevention, DrinkSafe projects and overseeing internal integrity investigations.

The Queensland Police Union said it was also aware of the review.

"While this is very concerning as it's promotional opportunities for police, we will hold discussions with government in coming months," president Ian Leavers said.

A spokesman for Police Minister Jack Dempsey didn't rule out the proposal, only saying that a review was under way into QPS but it wouldn't be completed until the end of the year.

"He will not be making any decisions about it until then,'' he said.


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Huge bills run up for travel and luxuries by bloated railway bureaucracy

Great that a lot of them are now being made redundant

TAXPAYERS footed the bill for travel bags, clothing and even an umbrella so top executives at Queensland Rail could travel comfortably overseas.

Credit card records of the government-owned corporation's top bureaucrats, obtained under Right to Information laws, have detailed the high-flying life enjoyed by the fat cats.

Under former chief executive Paul Scurrah, senior bosses spent more than $100,000 on lunches, dinners and catering, and on one occasion bought up $406 worth of alcohol for a network planning and strategy meeting.

Among the trips taken were a jaunt to London to meet with Queensland Rail's insurer, a European tour taking in Luxembourg, Madrid, Amsterdam, Zurich and Vienna, a visit to the US for a training course and a speaking engagement in Singapore.

The items executives claimed ahead of these trips included a coat, scarf, gloves and umbrella totalling $514.83, a Trent Nathan travel bag costing $299, and $67.85 worth of travel goods from Zelows.

Travel kits, carry bags, iPhone accessories and toiletries were also charged to taxpayers, and one executive successfully claimed a $750 set of tailor-made multi-focal lenses.

Monthly personal training sessions at $38 each were part of the executives' salary package, said acting chief executive Jim Benstead.

Despite being entitled to free train travel, the executives made good use of taxis, even catching cabs between Central and South Bank stations.

Almost all meetings were catered for with coffee, sandwiches, fruit, biscuits or cashews, and executives regularly dined at Brisbane's top hotels and restaurants including the Hilton, the Sofitel, the Port Office, Il Centro, Sono and Zen Bar.

Transport Minister Scott Emerson said in his opinion, many of the expenses and purchases under Labor "were wasteful and would shock many train users".

"Former transport minister Annastacia Palaszczuk wasn't focused on running an affordable, reliable and frequent rail network," Mr Emerson said.

"Shortly after coming to government, Queensland Rail was told to reduce this type of spending and waste.

"As a result they have found $42 million in consumable savings this year."

The Government is also slashing the executive structure, reducing the number of senior bosses from 77 to 32.

Mr Benstead said his leadership team was well aware that all expenditure would be closely scrutinised.

He conceded some of the items charged to taxpayers would not necessarily be expenditure he would consider appropriate for approval.

SOURCE