We are lucky the Australian Productivity Commission are idiots, this is a politicians death trap. A better policy is to move weekend penalty rates for hospitality and retail to Monday, Tuesday. The quietest times in that sector.

One could argue that their working roster does not work with this old system that was suited for manufacturing, energy, resources, finance sector.

They wouldn't be poking a hornets nest by suggesting this and still achieve similar results.

I do think you deserve Sunday penalty rates, I survive on it myself. But I'm looking about this from their point of view.

Telling people that they are going to scrap something is a lot different from telling people they are going to move it. It's about pissing less people off.

RandomCrook wrote on Sep 20^th, 2015 at 12:13pm:


Yes - but moving it to a day when they wouldn't be working anyway is just a sneaky move to get the same result.  They don't run football finals on Monday - all the best entertainment over holidays is not on off days of the week when everyone else is working -  all the best parts of the Royal Easter Show, the New Year's fireworks etc.. are all on Sundays/Saturdays or Public Holidays - this strand of penalty rates is to compensate for losing the chance to do those things, etc.  It's a long-established system and has no need for change.

What IS needed is - as someone here says - more capital productivity -meaning we need to chop off at the knees all this wazste on boards and ceos and such from 'privatisation' and chop off offshore investment that Australia and Australians could invest in for themselves.

Australians are just as capable of taking a business plan to banks and getting the investment capital to develop resource mining etc - allowing offshore companies residing in tax havens to come in and do it is only robbing yourself, without even the chance of getting it back on insurance.

Only a fool would do that, and that sums up the approach of respective governments here over the past thirty plus years.

BOTR.

Grappler Deep State Feller wrote on Sep 20^th, 2015 at 12:52pm:


"Sneaky move to get the same result" what do you think politics is about, without it William Wilberforce would of never been able to implicitly ban slavery, though a lot of bad policies have come in because of it eg Thatcherism/Reganism
Businesses don't care about how you spend your weekends(unless it affects your work ability) or what sports team you support, they are only after the bottom line.
Think about the industry at hand manufacturing, finance, accounting, resources, logistics, ICT, IT and energy. There busy days are from Monday to Friday. So it makes sense to have penalty rates on Sunday and Saturday.
But Hospitality and retail busy times are from Thursdays to Sunday.Therefore it is reasonable that there penalty rates should be Monday, Tuesday.
What's hindering businesses from opening for longer hours and hiring extra staff to churn out more customers is wages, so you won't have to be waiting in an hour long queue for food and beverages for "all the best entertainment over holidays ".

It's people like me that's the problem, I complain about these situations.

The thing is they know what they are doing. But I haven't done a single thing or participated in any political event/movements to try to stop them.

So It's people like me to blame for letting dickheads get away with these things.

It's not only about being strong enough to handle it.

It's also about how you can make it easier for yourself eg being financially secure for the rest of your life. Friends and businesses that support your cause and spread your message. The amount of time campaigning takes.

But yes strength is still needed to put these bullies in their place, all it takes is a bit of practice and vigor.

I really hope you do take a stand but don't walking into a gun fight with a wooden spoon.

crocodile wrote on Sep 20^th, 2015 at 10:10pm:


I will be advocating smaller government and a more even tax regime - one that takes full measure of all who should be contributing tax into revenue, and under the same rules.

You earn - you pay.  There is a lot of room for determining HOW the tax system will operate - and I've been saying for a long time there is a desperate need for a total overhaul and review of taxation as it now works.  For example, a single unit GST would work better than the plethora of taxes and excises now in play.... but that needs some very careful tuning, in regard to those who currently enjoy tax havens (internally to Australia) and those who do not.

What we need now is full import from people who really know how it works.

RandomCrook wrote on Sep 20^th, 2015 at 9:06pm:


I am proud of saying that the carer benefit I receive for my ex - who has no body else - goes into her bank account to pay for physio, heated pool fees, and doctors and fuel to run around.

I have no great horde of money - indeed I am one of those defined as ' below the poverty line - and still I have no great need for it.

When contending with liars and thieves - state the truth and let the public decide.... like Robert Redford's character in "The Candidate" - at least I'll give 'em a shakeup!