Tag: john howard

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Taxing the poor, for years

The media’s full of the Howard government’s magic $3.7 billion “extra surplus” today. It’s hard to know how to start making sense of it all. But here’s one thought which struck me: the tax-free threshold for personal income tax.

Democrat Senator Andrew Murray says in Crikey today that the amount you can earn before being taxed has stayed at the same figure of $6000 since the year 2000.

If it had been indexed since 2000, it would now be well over $7000. Had the 1980 personal threshold of $4,041 kept pace with earnings, the tax-free threshold would now be well over $15,000.

Senator Murray also points out that the minimum income required for basic subsistence is around $13,000. That is, if you earn less than that, you simply don’t have enough money to cover the basic living expenses of accommodation, food, clothing, education, medical care, transport and so on. Sure, you might be able to fake it for a while, but eventually something will give.

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Weekly Poll: Howard government annoyances

The Howard government’s done some strange things this year. It’s decided that the army can somehow combat child sexual abuse (if the people involved and black and poor). It’s spending $6 billion on fighter-bombers the air force doesn’t want. It’s selling uranium to India. And more…

Which do you find the most annoying? Go to the website to vote!

And if you think I’ve missed out an important one, please add it in the comments.

[poll id=”7″]

Last week’s results: No-one thought Bono was a statesman striding the world or an inspiration for the 21st century. Combining the most popular responses, we find that Bono is, in fact, a wanker — a major 20th century musician who’s past his use-by date. No surprises there.

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Three Friday Rants

Ah, yet another busy week! So that I have at least some content to offer, here’s links to three pieces I found worthwhile.

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iYomu: too late to beat Facebook?

iYomu logo

iYomu, that “social networking for grown ups” site I wrote about, officially launched today — with US$1M in prize money up for grabs. And I’ve just written an article for Crikey explaining why I don’t think it’ll fly. I also reckon Facebook will win out over MySpace.

My argument in the Crikey article is that the key to success on the Internet is massive, uncontrolled growth. That means attracting a lot of users fast — and then selling out to someone like Rupert Murdoch before it all implodes. The problem is, the very nature of iYomu works against that rapid growth.

Continue reading “iYomu: too late to beat Facebook?”

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A Taxonomy of Leaks: how weird will this election get?

Back in 1980, Yes Minister explained the use of irregular verbs in politics:

Bernard Woolley: That’s one of those irregular verbs, isn’t it? I give confidential security briefings. You leak. He has been charged under section 2a of the Official Secrets Act.

This week I was pleased to see PR strategist Ian Kortlang classify leaks to the media in four ways: Accidental, strategic, malicious and pyromania.

Christian Kerr explains:

Accidental included documents left on photocopiers and the like. Strategic meant a leak designed to achieve a positive advantage. Malicious was meant to undermine and disadvantage. And pyromania was “Stuff the consequences, this feels good.”

Korlang reckons this week’s leak of the Crosby/Textor research saying John Howard is perceived as “old” and “sneaky” was pure pyromania.

One aspect of all this I found quite bizarre was John Howard on radio on Monday:

Confronted with scathing polling describing him as old, sneaky, dishonest and out of touch, Howard said: “There’s nothing particularly new in that… I’m not particularly amazed.”

This election (pre-)campaign is getting weirder and weirder. What could be the weirdest thing yet to come?

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John Winston Howard, a new view?

John Winston Howard

Politics has dominated my writing these last few weeks — understandable given the Mohammed Haneef saga and the simple fact that it’s an election year. Last month wasn’t quite so politics-heavy. And a year before that things were much more personal — though I didn’t have time to write much.

But I’m sure the political threads will continue a while, because I’ve just started reading John Winston Howard by Wayne Errington and Peter van Onselen.

Three immediate observations:

  • JWH and I share a Methodist background and strict parents — how did we turn out so different?
  • After just one chapter, I’ve already gained a richer view of the man. I still don’t know that I like him, but I can see now why the late Janine Haines slapped me for being overly-critical. Perhaps linking to Anthony Albanese’s vitriolic anti-Howard rant from 9 years ago was a bit tough. (Then again, maybe not.)
  • Reading a book about JWH in Sydney’s inner west means that people give you funny looks. As I explained to one of them, though, “Hey, if I were reading a book about oncology, it wouldn’t mean I wanted to get lung cancer.”

I’ll write a proper review in due course — though I do like the irony of JWH’s childhood home now being a KFC outlet.