The fact is folks - the GST will rise to 15%.
You've had evidence of this from both sides of politics on one TV show:

Amanda Vanstone from the Libbos
& Graham Richardson from Labor.

This was their way of letting us all know so it won't be too much of a surprise. 

There is nothing much we can do about it.

Torpedo wrote on Apr 24^th, 2013 at 9:15pm:


It's not me. I don't have kids yet. I'm looking back at my parents' approach to my education.

Torpedo wrote on Apr 24^th, 2013 at 9:50pm:


It's a tough financial road to go through and I just don't think it's the only way to give your kids a good education. The alternative is a kind of "intensive home-schooling" outside of school hours, where you do your own teaching. I am sure there are educational shops out there that sell books with exercises in them to teach you maths and literacy. .............. Well, that was around 18 years ago, it's software, not books now. .................. Get your kids to stop watching those cartoons. Make them spend hours reading and doing maths problems. It doesn't matter if they get sleepy. You don't allow them to do anything else until the work is done. Who knows? They might be faking it. That's what my parents did. I hated it, but that was my education. My parents forced me to learn.

I think the shop where they bought the exercise books was Dominie and apparently it's still in business.

https://www.dominie.com.au/

If the kids become resistant, you might offer lollies or pocket money as motivation, but not too much. My parents only paid me two dollars for five hours of doing maths problems, reading and studying phonics/phonetics (or whatever it was) at home. It was like working in a sweat-shop. You could also get the older kids to teach the younger kids so you don't have to deal with them all at once. Also, don't forget to work on your kids' handwriting. Sloppy and messy handwriting is not acceptable.

When they become teenagers, don't allow them to have boyfriends or girlfriends. No sex or dating. Keep their social life at a minimum. No partying. This is the price you have to pay for success and if it's not financially crippling debt (from private education), it's their social life that has to suffer. Teach your kids not to follow bad examples from bad friends. My dad would constantly remind me of what he considered "low class people," despite the fact that we weren't rich. You have to enforce your standards on your kids. Life may become dull, boring or not worth living, but you have to focus on the goal. That's the reward at the end.

If you're not going to send them to private schools, you have to become your kids' worst enemy. They will hate you for it, but it will be for their own good. You have to be like Sarah Connor. My mother reminded me of her.

Torpedo wrote on Apr 24^th, 2013 at 11:00pm:


Well, I can see why you want a private education for your kids. You want to get away from the scum in our society, but like I said, not all public schools are that bad. There's scum for sure, but not all of our public schools are full of them.

Torpedo wrote on Apr 24^th, 2013 at 11:05pm:


Hey, Torpedo. I'm sorry to hear that. The public school I went to was in the top 10% of my state when ranked against both public and private. There was still bullying in my school and even people who smoked, but not bad enough to ruin your life for good. You wouldn't commit suicide over it or turn into a thief, drug addict or bum. It was just annoying -- for most people at least. I think what you experienced was the worst case scenario (I hope). I was probably one of the worst treated people there. Strangely enough, the bullying didn't affect me until years later (after finishing my university studies, would you believe) because I was studying too hard to really care. It was only because of a few recent setbacks that those memories resurfaced. I started thinking about the embarrassing situations I got into and that was when the pain struck. I thought I was over it, but apparently they had simply been hidden away at the back of my mind as blocked memories. Pop went the weasel!

Torpedo wrote on Apr 24^th, 2013 at 11:05pm:


I think this is why public education needs more funding and they should shift it away from private schools. It would be better for you if you could get the rich taxpayer to pay for your kid's education, instead of you sending them to a private school and burdening yourself with crippling debt.

This web site gives you a ranking of public and private schools. It may help you choose between public and private.

http://bettereducation.com.au/SchoolRanking.aspx

Back to the discussion on schools. I hate that word public school, A public school is a private school or a pay for you education one. with yearly fees,

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Apr 25^th, 2013 at 6:00am:


Spot,
Private schools are a form of apartheid -
instead of skin color people are separated according to how wealthy their families are.
It encourages class warfare & denies the poor the best possible chance in life -
where they will be entrenched in poverty.

dingo2 wrote on Apr 25^th, 2013 at 5:27am:


In Mother England it is - but not here. Public means public.

dingo2 wrote on Apr 25^th, 2013 at 5:27am:


In Mother England it might be. But here public means public.

Bobby. wrote on Apr 25^th, 2013 at 7:44am:


That's life. Those that have money join the clubs that lower paid workers cannot. They drive the exotic cars that others cannot afford.
It's what comes with living in a free country!!