Letters

In 1910 a land tax was introduced to collect money for all Australians to be able to access money to be able to live a comfortable life after they finished working at the age of 65 ,( A PENSION ). That pension was to be 50 % of the male basic wage , In 1915 personal tax was introduced , a proportion of that tax I believe 6.9% was also to go to the pension fund to insure that their was enough money in the fund to pay for the retirement of ALL pensioners regardless of their wealth . There was also a undistributed company profit ( dividend ) introduced to pay for the war effort .In 1916 there was an entertainment tax also introduced to pay for the costs of the them 1914 – 1918 war along with a half penny tax on postage stamps to go towards the war effort .

This happened again in 1941 but the taxes were never taken off after either war but the entertainment tax was abolished in 1953.

In all of those years the taxes collected for the purpose of providing a pension for retirees was a self perpetuating fund until I believe it was the Labor party raided the pension money and put it into consolidated revenue they a few years later the rate of payment was reduced from 50 % of the male basic wage to 25 %.

Now Jolly Joe Hockey is saying that there will not be enough money in the funds to pay pensioners of the future let alone current pensioners. This is your money , you paid for it with your taxes , you earnt a comfortable retirement regardless of how many assets you have, you earned those assets. How many politicians are going to go without when they retire sucking your money out of the country , money that at best is a very large over-payment for their limited services and knowledge?

Peter Schuback

Hervey Bay, Qld