The Gillard Government has announced new Australian Personal Income Tax Rates in conjunction with their plan for carbon pricing. The tax changes come in two parts, firstly commencing in 2012-2013. Secondary changes will be introduced in 2015-2016.
The major changes include an increase to the tax free threshold as well as increases to the first and second marginal rates (from 15% to 19% for the first rate and from 30% to 32.5% and later 33% for the second).
2012 to 2013 Financial year Australia Personal Income Tax Rates:
$0 – $18,200 - Nil
$18,201 – $37,000 - 19c for each $1 over $18,200
$37,001 – $80,000 - $3,572 plus 32.5c for each $1 over $37,000
$80,001 – $180,000 - $17,547 plus 37c for each $1 over $80,000
$180,001 and over - $54,547 plus 45c for each $1 over $180,000
2011-2012 Personal Income Tax Rates
You know you're being conned in some way or form but they go about it in such a nice spinning way you cant quite put your finger on what it is. We've all been encouraged to look the other way at their Huge price reductions while they stealthily increase other items. Now they are trying something new.
Woolworths and Safeway supermarkets and pretty much the range of their stores like Big W, Dan Murphys and BWS have recently adopted the optional receipt strategy, whereby customers who purchase less than $30 worth of goods are asked if they want a receipt instead of being automatically offered one.
The reasons according to Woolworths are two fold.
Firstly because they care about the environment and want to save paper. Because 4 inches of very thin white paper is the difference in saving the environment - as opposed to the 16 page glossy brochure that appears in the letterbox every week which has no impact whatsoever.
Secondly it will save time for the customer. The extra one second (if that) it takes the checkout operator to hand you a receipt apparently adds up to 400 hours per store every year "...we expect this change to reduce time spent waiting by more than 400 hours each year in every supermarket" Forgetting the fact that the time saved for each and every customer is still just one second.
So for that odd time once a year when you are in a queue with 5 people ahead of you, spend those moments thinking what you will do with the extra five seconds gained. Its not as if the 400 hours are cumulative where at the end of the year customers are queued up for days to buy their bread. For a weekly visit, each customer waits less than one minute per year in total for a receipt.
Maybe customer service has become so specialised and the competition in the sector so intense that Woolworths care about the seconds. Or maybe it has to do with something else.
Could it be that Woolworths really don't want scrutiny regarding the accuracy of their pricing? Far too many times to mention i have arrived home only to discover that at least one item has been priced incorrectly. Sometimes i spot it at the checkout, but most times i don't notice it until Ive carefully looked at the receipt. How many other people don't notice the mistakes until they are home?
Pricing errors are more common than we might imagine. In my case, mostly they are in the supermarket's favour - Ive been charged too much. Very occasionally i get my own back, but never enough to make up the difference. Without a receipt i would never know - I'm acting on trust. And while i might not be bothered to go back to the supermarket to complain, id like that option. After all, if the product scans incorrectly Woolworth's will give you the item for free.
So I'm sure there is more to this than just a paper and time saving exercise. It comes down to scrutiny. This new initiative will in some way make Woolworths more money. No doubt about it. And if it will make more money, as sure as night follows day, Coles will follow. Cheap bread anyone?
A few weeks back i tuned into UK's Channel Four's web broadcast of a documentary regarding the final push by the Sri Lankan Government into the Tamil controlled territory back in early 2009.
To be honest, this documentary was one of the most horrific and eye opening pieces of journalism Ive seen. Its graphic. Very graphic. More than once it had me questioning how humans could do such things to each other.
These people are animals. Worse than animals.
That is not to say that there needs to be a defence for what the LTTE were capable of. Forced child soldiers and brutal acts of terrorism over decades. But it goes without saying that there are usually always atrocities on both sides. And generally propaganda to follow.
Arguments are now running that some of the footage from the documentary has been faked. Maybe, maybe not. But some of the most graphic footage certainly has not been. Women and children - innocents - running for their lives and sheltering in makeshift bunkers. Hospitals shelled. Women raped and brutally murdered.
How anyone can sit back and run a political argument about this is beyond me. This is not a question about whether someone supports the LTTE or the Sri Lankan government. This is a question of what so called human beings are capable of doing to each other and not just to enemy combatants.
Innocent people, probably in their thousands - maybe tens of thousands - were killed. Many died in the most awful way imaginable. However it happened and whoever perpetrated it, the west chose to look the other way. There was a clear duty to protect. We failed in that regard.
Whatever its shortcomings, the Channel 4 documentary is worth watching. Airs on ABC 4 Corners, 8.30pm, Monday July 4.
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