Flood levy (3 Viewers)

[davidbarnes]

against. why the fuck should we have to raise taxes to pay for the floods when all these charities are raising hundreds of millions of dollars?
to me it just seems like another excuse for revenue raising.

fucking julia gillard

I understand what you are saying there. Many people have donated out of the kindness o their hearts and may not be so kind next time a major disaster strikes Australia. I would agree that this is the most concerning aspect about the levy and whether people will doante next time or not or simply expect a levy to be imposed then also.

 

[SeCKSiiMiNh]

Taxes are obviously bad in general and no one likes paying taxes. In principal however, the levy is needed and we all understand that Qld and flood affected areas are a national priority and do require financial help in rebuilding critical infrastructure.

How the levy has been applied (in its current form anyway, its almost surely going to change a bit still) is that if you earn less than $50,000 you don't pay anything, while the higher your income, the more you pay (as it should be).

I personally earn less than $50,000 a year currently (as I imagine most users of this site do also) and thus it won't really affect me.

I agree with user boris in that many of the houses constructed in the past 30 years never should have been allowed and the areas affected should have been more prepared (with the exception of those towns hit by the flash floods which were not as predictable). The last major flood in Brisbane was in 1974, over 35 years ago, plenty of time to plan and prepare. 10 years ago (early 2000's), a hydraulic/drainage engineer at Brisbane Council noted the flood modelling for the area was 1m below the correct height and the one in a hundread year flood would in fact be potentially 1m higher than the flood maps indicated. That is a huge issue that should have been cleared up years ago and have given some warnign to residents in the new affected zone perhaps.

To do what Tony Abbott says though and scrap the NBN to pay for it is ridiculous. It is also rather hypocritical considering Abbott wants to raise the Medicare levy by 1.0% ('great big new tax') to pay for his planned maternity scheme.

So ultimately, I do support the levy. Its only for one year after all and helps those most affected by the recent flooding disasters.

Well I will certainly reconsider the next time I plan on donating half a days wage.

 

[cosmo kramer]

arent those likely to be most affected the r-tards who lived right next door to the fuckin river and on the flood plains

i made a donation but i wish i could have specified to only give it to people who arent retardo

 

[Aquawhite]

arent those likely to be most affected the r-tards who lived right next door to the fuckin river and on the flood plains

i made a donation but i wish i could have specified to only give it to people who arent retardo

Did you ever think that those places were some of the only places available to live, and also that these floods have affected way more than those near the river, and even those away from flood plains are getting inundated with water (by the actual definition).

 

[Jaundice]

the sad fact is is that this government has wasted a fuckload of money so they inevitably will find some sort of way to raise money and the easiest way is to raise our taxes

 

[Lolsmith]

The NBN is not a waste of money, it will actually turn a profit (between 6 and 7%) while also offering far superior broadband/phone access at prices cheaper than or equivalent to today's prices (while also offering a lot more in terms of speed, data and quality).

This

I have no idea what you are trying to say here. Are you saying everyone should pay the same flood levy? You are really suggesting the teenager earning $3000 a year should pay the same as the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank earning 9 million a year? Ridicilous. Paying a percent of income (0.5%) makes it fair on all as it is adjusted to match their level of income.

combined with this, shows how stupid you are.

I was saying that just because someone earns more than someone else doesn't mean they deserve to be taxed more than the suburban housewife who works at woolworths just because their skill sets are more valuable and worthwhile. Kids that earn 3 grand a year aren't even getting taxed for starters. Progressive tax ("the more valuable you are, the more you have to contribute to stay") is leftist working class hatred (re: jealousy) of the wealthy carried through to the government and is disgusting.

Did Ms Lizard till you that there was profit in the NBN or do you just ignore common sense and independent review

 

[Lentern]

I am not a 'lefty' as you put it, I don't favour any side of politics. I go with what makes sense. In this case the government needs money to rebuild Australia and help our fellow Aussies out and a levy had to be imposed. If we had the money sitting there doing nothing then I would obviously oppose a levy, but we don't. Scrapping nation building projects such as the NBN is not an option also. I am also not in favour of the government scrapping some of the programs they have announced either.

I see so basically you're only in favour of taxation if there is a worthy cause to spend the revenue on, that's not left at all.

 

[Rothbard]

Taxes are obviously bad in general and no one likes paying taxes. In principal however, the levy is needed and we all understand that Qld and flood affected areas are a national priority and do require financial help in rebuilding critical infrastructure.

Bullshit it is given how little it brings in. It just shows how Labor's natural reaction is to increase taxes to make up for their retarded economic management. It's smart politics (It attacks those who won't vote Labor) but it's stupid from an economic standpoint.

How the levy has been applied (in its current form anyway, its almost surely going to change a bit still) is that if you earn less than $50,000 you don't pay anything, while the higher your income, the more you pay (as it should be).

Oh shit I didn't realise these guys don't ALREADY pay taxes.

I personally earn less than $50,000 a year currently (as I imagine most users of this site do also) and thus it won't really affect me.

Sweet dude I'm not a woman but I'm pro-choice but I shouldn't have an opinion thus it won't affect you. Dude if it doesn't affect you then stop fucking offering other people's money up.

To do what Tony Abbott says though and scrap the NBN to pay for it is ridiculous. It is also rather hypocritical considering Abbott wants to raise the Medicare levy by 1.0% ('great big new tax') to pay for his planned maternity scheme.

Or scrap our increased military expenditure, or the money we spend to stay in afghanistan, or the money we spend on detention centres or any of these things.

So ultimately, I do support the levy. Its only for one year after all and helps those most affected by the recent flooding disasters.

Bullshit it does, it helps rebuild 'some key infrastructure' which the govt could fund with a few more cuts to the budget. It's just setting a dangerous trend but it doesn't really matter because next election Labor is going to be out for a generation.

 

[Rothbard]

lentern is starting to let his real politics shine through

 

[Lentern]

I don't think I ever denied being a lefty.

 

[funkshen]

Floods are pretty bad for the wider economy because they'll accelerate wage inflation. The workers for flood reconstruction are the same skilled workers required for the mining sector. A flood that would be good for the economy would be a flood that specifically washed in about 100,000 trained electricians, builders and plumbers. Or a flood that shut down about half the mines in Australia for about 5 years while we train 100,000 electricians, builders and plumbers. Aggregate demand is not the problem, it's labour reallocation and the shut down of secondary industry. This mining boom is a pyrrhic victory, the longer it goes on for, the worse off we're going to be when commodity prices crash.

To claim that the employment of skilled labour for the flood reconstruction effort will have a significant impact on wage inflation is dubious. This flood levy is to raise revenue to (mostly) replace or repair public infrastructure and assets. Most of the engineering and construction labour required for this effort will be from firms not employed by the mining sector. Wage inflation could only thus be observed for skilled labour commonly employed in mining (electricians, mechanics, industrial plumbing/HVAC, other engineers etc). However, because of the floods this labour faces reduced employment due to infrastructure damage (rail and road damage etc) so the reconstruction effort will fill in for their reduced demand. I've actually recently returned from being between Rockhampton, Blackwater and Gladstone for the past few weeks for work, and I'm led to believe that most of the reconstruction effort will mostly be carried out by civil construction firms unaffiliated with the mining sector. This is mostly due to the nature of the work: road, rail and bridge reconstruction, civilian energy transmission infrastructure etc means a lot of skilled labour with non-mining skillsets are required. So my conclusion is that combined with the dampening effect of the levy, the impact on wage inflation will be minimal. This flood is a huge bonus for GDP growth for the next few quarters though, assuming access from mines to ports returns to normal asap (I have no doubt this is a Government priority).

It also seems that a lot of people are pointlessly lambasting the 'idiots' who lived in the Rockhampton swamps etc. This flood levy isn't to help individuals - that's what the private donation effort is for. Most of the affected people in Rockhampton have flood insurance and the current private donations are to meet the immediate needs of those affected. The individuals that really got fucked over were those in the Brisbane-Ipswich area who didn't have flood insurance and aren't covered. Many people are going to face real hardship for a long time.

edit: come to think of it the flood levy will probably provide for repair efforts for civilian recreation infrastructure like the Rockhampton Botanic Gardens and shit. eh, deal w/ it

 

[davidbarnes]

This

combined with this, shows how stupid you are.

I was saying that just because someone earns more than someone else doesn't mean they deserve to be taxed more than the suburban housewife who works at woolworths just because their skill sets are more valuable and worthwhile. Kids that earn 3 grand a year aren't even getting taxed for starters. Progressive tax ("the more valuable you are, the more you have to contribute to stay") is leftist working class hatred (re: jealousy) of the wealthy carried through to the government and is disgusting.

Did Ms Lizard till you that there was profit in the NBN or do you just ignore common sense and independent review

Western society functions with on income based tax system. The more you earn, the more tax you pay. That is how it should be.

I think it is ridiculous with regards to what you propose where the checkout assistant at Woolworths should pay the same tax as the executives earning millions of dollars a week. You would simply bring back the class structure (working class and gentry) of the 19th century and modern, western society would fall apart under a regime like that.

 

[cosmo kramer]

i bet you vikraman is a brownster

 

[davidbarnes]

Bullshit it is given how little it brings in. It just shows how Labor's natural reaction is to increase taxes to make up for their retarded economic management. It's smart politics (It attacks those who won't vote Labor) but it's stupid from an economic standpoint.

How, in your opinion, is it 'stupid from an economics perspective'?

Sweet dude I'm not a woman but I'm pro-choice but I shouldn't have an opinion thus it won't affect you. Dude if it doesn't affect you then stop fucking offering other people's money up.

So do you pay tax personally on more than $50,000 of income a year ay? I too support pro choice and women's rights.

Or scrap our increased military expenditure, or the money we spend to stay in afghanistan, or the money we spend on detention centres or any of these things.

I agree with you in principal there.

Bullshit it does, it helps rebuild 'some key infrastructure' which the govt could fund with a few more cuts to the budget. It's just setting a dangerous trend but it doesn't really matter because next election Labor is going to be out for a generation.

Considering it is to help rebuild key infrastructure, then I'd say it is clearly doing its job as you concur to there.

As for the dangerous trend, it could potentially well be. However lets not forget the Howard government introduced a levy for the gun buyback scheme after the Port Arthur incident, and they also introduced a levy to pay for the peacekeeping mission in Australia. Even thoguh a levy was introduced for the peackeeping mission in East Timor, no levy was introduced for the Afghanistan/Iraq wars so the East Timor levy did not set a precedent. There is no reason to thus assume this flood levy will set a precedent for future levys either.

 

[davidbarnes]

i bet you vikraman is a brownster

Huh?

 

[cosmo kramer]

i said i bet you, vikraman is a brownster

 

[davidbarnes]

i said i bet you, vikraman is a brownster

Okay.... no idea what that means..... but if little Kramer is happy..... yay

 

[cosmo kramer]

vikraman = poster on this forum

brownster = indian, bangladeshi, paki, malay, indonesian, etc.

 

[Lentern]

Western society functions with on income based tax system. The more you earn, the more tax you pay. That is how it should be.

I think it is ridiculous with regards to what you propose where the checkout assistant at Woolworths should pay the same tax as the executives earning millions of dollars a week. You would simply bring back the class structure (working class and gentry) of the 19th century and modern, western society would fall apart under a regime like that.

Again these are left wing concept you goose. David Barnes is our Barnaby.

 

[cosmo kramer]

I'm not concerned about boat people because I'm not a demented, hysterical imbecile.

yeh mate im not concerned if their boats hit rocks or whatever and they die