Your tax return

may be a disappointment this year, a big disappointment for some of you.

During the pandemic the federal government put a number of measures in place. Among them were certain temporary tax measures which meant that some people were getting as much as $1500 extra on their returns.  They have now ceased. This was always intended to be what would happen. 

So why are people screeching and screaming? There was plenty of warning. They were told and they were told again, more than once.

One of my neighbours works in the Taxation Office. He works in the "fraud" area. I suspect it is the big fraud area not the little fiddles that so many people try to get away with because they resent paying tax. 

The Senior Cat did not resent paying tax but he did resent paying such a lot of tax. He was one of the people required to be on the "old" superannuation scheme. It was in many ways a very generous scheme. You paid in a set portion of your salary. The government paid in an equal amount. You were taxed on your entire salary, not just the portion you had left after paying superannuation. It still worked to your advantage if you stayed in the system long enough. At the end of it you had a guaranteed, index linked pension for life. When you died your partner (if you were married) was eligible for two-thirds of what you were getting. It was, for most people, a very good deal. It represented security. That system has long since gone. It could not be sustained.

But the Senior Cat had spent most of his teaching career in places, some of them very remote, where there were problems. He was sent as a "trouble shooter". He would sort out issues and set up a program or two and then be sent on to yet another location to do the same. Unlike most teachers who came back to the city after some years he stayed in these more remote locations. There was no chance to buy a house or develop social contacts and activities. His children had to board in the city simply because it was the only way they could finish their education. He accepted all that.

Come tax return time however he would worry himself almost sick that he might make a mistake on his return. Eventually he was persuaded to use a specialist tax accountant. He was fortunate in being directed to someone who was both able and honest. He discovered there were things he could have claimed for many years but had been wrongly informed about - wrongly informed by Tax Office employees who simply didn't know how to do the job. Of course he never received a return for all that extra tax he paid.

There is a reason for that. Our taxation legislation is perhaps the most complex in the world. It is printed in two large volumes. The government of the day simply adds something to it when someone finds a loophole or how to exploit the subsection of a subsection of a subsection. When I was at law school it was a major area of study and the lecturers concerned admitted that "something needs to be done" but, all these years later, nothing has been done. 

The last tax return the Senior Cat worried about was the one Middle Cat and I did for him. We went to see the accountant instead of him. The Senior Cat paid all his tax as he had done all his life but he still muttered furiously for him, "Blood sucking leeches. I wouldn't mind if they didn't waste so much of it." I imagine a lot of people feel the same way.

Working from home

is now a "right" for many of our "public servants" - but is it something to be recommended? 

A former Premier of a neighbouring state had a piece in yesterday's paper saying that people who work from home should be paid less. His argument was that the cost and stress of getting to and from work was so high people who worked from home were at a financial advantage. 

I suspect he is right about the stress and the financial advantage. Of course other people immediately came back with the "he's wrong" argument. They tried to suggest that people who work from home work longer hours and they are more efficient. Really?

I have "worked from home" since 1989. It is not something I have done by choice. I did it out of necessity and I would not recommend it.

In the early years of working from home - before the widespread use of the internet I would go into the city once or twice a week. I went first to our "state library" and read the newspapers I needed to read - or the articles in them. I then went on to the university (just down the same road) and did any library research which needed to be done. I sometimes talked to staff in two relevant departments. Sometimes I took a tutorial group. I saw students for supervision if necessary. The rest of the time I worked from home using a fax machine to send off materials and receive them from around the world.  

I did all this while trying to keep my parents safe and well in a highly stressful situation. There were also many of the usual household tasks to contend with because my mother was so stressed she sometimes made basic errors...putting vegetables on to cook with no water in the saucepan happened more times than I care to count. I didn't really have a social life but the internet was coming. Brother Cat knew, and still knows, about these things. I had one of the first internet connections available...a short dial up connection each morning and another in the evening. It was good, very good.

A problem soon became evident. I did not need to go into the library to newspaper articles. People just sent them to me. I downloaded them to read during the day - every day of the week. There was more work, not less. I no longer needed to use the university library as much, people simply sent me what they thought I should be looking at. I still had tutorials to run and students to supervise but, if I was well organised, that could be done in an efficient time-flow.  I was becoming more and more isolated and the demands on the home front were increasing.

When my mother died in 2000 I knew things had to change. The Senior Cat and I had known this was coming. We had discussed it quietly, out of my mother's hearing. 

I don't drive. The Senior Cat was still driving but I did not want him acting as a taxi service so I found a group which met two Saturday afternoons a month. For a number of reasons I no longer belong to the group but it was good at first. I needed it. I could pedal off for a few hours and think about something entirely different. I made some good friends with people who have a common interest. It wasn't something I found easy to do but I don't regret having done it.

I thought of all this when I read the article about working from home and then the news that union which represents our federal public servants had "won the right" for people to work from home. They are suggesting it is a good thing, that it will result in a more efficient work force. I doubt this. 

Unless people are very aware the workforce will stagnate. There won't be the same flow of ideas that comes from face to face interaction. The office dynamics will change. Some people will find they are taken advantage of, others will manage to skive off at times. The "working from home and I don't have the relevant document" excuse will get used more often. (I am so tired of that one.)

There will be a higher incidence of anxiety and depression too - unless people really become aware that so called "social interaction" on a screen is not the same as social interaction on a face to face basis. 

After reading today's editorial I have sent a letter off to the state newspaper saying "The boss needs to know you and you need to know the boss." You can't do that even via Zoom meetings. I suggest getting out of your bunny slippers and going to work in the office at least once a week.

   

The cost of saving a life

in hospital varies enormously but I had reason to do some rough calculations yesterday.

"Computer S...." phoned me yesterday. He is the morbidly obese man I mentioned some days ago. 

He had already spoken to Middle Cat. Middle Cat had moved things along a little. She had spoken at length to a member of the medical team. (Whether this should have happened or not is dubious. She has been his physiotherapist in the past and she told them this but she has no actual role in his current treatment. I suspect it was desperation which made them talk to her and try to find out more.)

S... called me after that and I have sought his permission to say something here. He has been in hospital for too long now. He is taking up a very rare private room in a public hospital. The reason for this is that he is so obese he cannot fit into a normal hospital bed in a normal ward. The little cubicles on wards are simply too small. He weighed 198kg when he went in. Over the last three weeks he has managed to lose 14kg. It is not nearly enough. 

S....has multiple medical issues. He is now on fourteen different medications. (I wonder how these are interacting.) He still cannot go to the bathroom unaided as he has a stress fracture in one foot - brought on by his obesity.  Despite that they suggested he might go home today...and then on Friday. 

Yes, they could send him home but he will need help. Middle Cat and I are not offering right now. There are several reasons for this. One is that we don't really have the ability or time to do what is needed. Another is that we think he needs to really have to face his issues. A third is that we believe it is the role of the medical and allied professions to work on this. It will be all too easy to send him home with some sort of minimal "care package" and just hope things sort themselves out.

They won't. While I was talking to him the afternoon tea trolley arrived. I know, having seen it many times, you can get a cup of tea or coffee or something we call "Milo" - a sort of chocolate milk drink. You can also have biscuits or fruit.  I could hear what S... was asking for of course. It was the Milo and a banana because there were no biscuits left. He could have had tea or coffee (he drinks both) and an apple or a mandarin - both of which were also offered. The Milo is sugar laden. Bananas are good food of course - but not if he supposed to be losing weight. I doubt he has really lost any actual body fat, just some of the excess fluid which has accumulated due to his poor kidney function. 

I wonder what the hospital has been doing about all this if anything. Perhaps they have just given up? 

When he goes home he can eat whatever he likes of course. His diet is not good. If he manages to get himself to the supermarket he will continue with old habits even when he knows he should not. It is very hard to change those things. If someone else does the shopping for him he is going to crave those things he should not have and he knows he should not have.

Somehow I don't think all our suggestions like having Meals on Wheels (for which he would be eligible in the short term) are going to work. His current hospital stay has cost the taxpayer close on $200,000 minimum but it will be wasted if there is no long term follow up and his cooperation. I don't think it is going to happen and I am wondering what it would cost to save a life in these circumstances.

Political advertising

appeared in my Facebook timeline yesterday. Apparently the government is permitted to bypass my ad-blocker and tell me how I must vote in the upcoming referendum.

I am becoming increasingly concerned about the pressure which is being placed on people to vote "yes" and the attempts to block out anything which supports "no" or any sort of balanced discussion. People have strong opinions about the issue but it seems that only one answer is considered "acceptable". Anyone who dares to disagree with the "yes" camp is being told they are "racist" - and that is perhaps the least pejorative word being used. 

I am also becoming increasingly concerned about the millions of dollars being spent on the "yes" campaign and the very real efforts to prevent the "no" campaign from obtaining funding. "Big business" is pouring millions of dollars into the "yes" campaign. "It's the right thing to do". There are all sorts of sports people, people in entertainment and others being hauled in to support the "yes" campaign. They are all telling us that "voting yes is the right thing to do". 

When my very definitely indigenous friend M... told a group of people he would not be voting "yes" because he believes it is a racist, divisive move no better than South African apartheid he was asked to leave - and not come back. It is a group he has been a member of for many years. He has been President and Secretary of the group but feelings are so strong about this "need to vote yes" that he has now been ostracised.

So what in the heck is going on here? I have read arguments for both sides. I will continue to do so. If I am asked I try to engage in a balanced way but I am more and more concerned. The present government is telling us that there is only one answer but look more closely at some of those who are pushing for this answer and I am alarmed by some of the things they are saying. Is "yes" the answer or just a first step? Will "yes" lead to unintended consequences? What will "yes" actually change? More importantly, what will "yes" change that could not be done now?

There are so many people I know who want the referendum question to be divided into two - recognition and then "the Voice". The first would pass without the need for all this divisive talk. The second might but that is much less certain because so much of it can be done without adding it to our Constitution.  It would not suit those who have a much bigger agenda but it would have been a very positive step. 

It is the bigger agenda which worries me. I doubt it is going to benefit many of those it is claimed will benefit.  

There are too many migrants

coming into Downunder this year. The present government plans on bringing in 400,000 more people - and that does not include people who try to get here illegally. 

Our present population of around 26.5m people simply cannot absorb that number in one year. We don't have the ability to do it. We already have a severe shortage of housing. That alone should be enough to make any government stop and think, "How do we house all these extra people?" Apparently it isn't something they feel they need to think about.

But it isn't just that which worries me. There are other things we don't have and that we need to do much more about before we bring in large numbers of people. Housing is an issue which something can be done about. We can do something about all the other infrastructure needed to support that number of people - the transport, the health services, the education facilities can all be dealt with but we will also need the jobs which support these things. Yes, perhaps we can even manage a great deal of that, especially if we lower our current standard of living.

The present government believes it can absorb this year's 400,000 people by spreading them "out across the regions". This is not where migrants want to live. They want to live in cities where all the services are available, where there is all the support they need. They want to live where there are people from the country they will go on calling "home" even when they become citizens of another country. Unless we have done it ourselves it is impossible to understand how hard it is to move to another country. Even when we want to do it there are many difficulties and many adjustments to be made. When people feel compelled to do it for reasons of security it can be even more difficult. 

We all know these things. Our lives are much more interesting than they might be because of all this cultural diversity. I don't want to see it halted but I think we are taking in too many people too quickly. It seems to me that there is a very big problem we are just not giving enough attention to. We cannot supply an essential. 

What we cannot supply is something which is absolutely vital to life - and that is water. There is a reason why our population is concentrated around the coastline - and just some of the coastline at that. It is because water is scarce on this continent. There are vast areas of desert. If we had water in those areas then we might be able to sustain a much greater population. We need to think about water before we continue to bring in so many people. It can be done but it is going to take work which is not yet being done. If we really want to help then we need to start working on water resources now.  

A rescue at sea

appeared in my time line yesterday. There were some very anxious hours for many people as they waited to see if a young man endeavouring to sail alone around the coastline could be rescued. He was out in the "Bight" in some extremely rough weather. I am not exaggerating when I say "extremely". 

The "Bight" is known for high seas but these were extraordinary. The weather had come up far more quickly than anyone had apparently reckoned on. 

He might have been able to cope even then but it seems he was flung backwards and hit his head. Having recently hit the back of my own head I was more than ready to sympathise. He then did the sensible thing and set off his emergency procedure.

Rescuing him was not simple. A huge container ship, some 228m long, was diverted to see if they could do the job. Two other ships were also called in. The container ship managed to do the rescue after three attempts. It is surprisingly difficult to rescue someone in those circumstances. Do the wrong thing and you could end up killing someone very easily. (No, he could not be winched to the safety of a helicopter. He was too far out to sea and the weather was too rough.)

It was also a very expensive exercise. There have been the usual complaints today about the cost of the exercise and the usual demands that people be stopped from doing "that sort of thing" in the same way in which they objected to the search for the ill-fated Titan.

I thought of all this and thought of how I would not be here if it had not been for an incident which had a much more tragic outcome. It involved my paternal great-grandparents. Great-grandpa was first a sailor who became a ship's pilot and a marine-cartographer. In his early sailing days he went in and around the ports of northern Scotland. Then he ventured further afield to see something of the world. He met and became friendly with another young sailor doing the same thing.  They went into the navy together during the first world war.

During a massive storm at sea the other young man went overboard and was lost. My paternal great grandfather returned to Scotland at the end of the voyage and went to find the young man's relatives in Caithness. There is a family record of his visit of condolence to the family. And yes, it was there he met my great-grandmother in a crofter's cottage which is lived in to this day.

We don't know much about their courtship but it must have been very satisfactory because, some time later, my great-grandmother came out here alone to marry him. It was apparently a happy marriage and certainly a productive one. (There were eleven children.) If there had not been that storm and a man overboard I would likely not be here today.

Going to hospital

is something we all want to avoid if we can. Going to hospital and going into "intensive care", or "ICU" as we call it here, is something we all really don't want to do.

It is where my friend Computer S.... has apparently been. I am not surprised. He is morbidly obese and I mean obese. 

Middle Cat called me yesterday. He normally lives diagonally opposite her. The neighbour who lives directly opposite and mows S...'s patch of lawn came in to see her and told her S... was in hospital. He has apparently been there for over two weeks. Nobody was too concerned when the old Volvo was not out during the day. S... is a "night owl". I suspect it is because, that way, he doesn't need to see too many people. Yes, he is that obese.

When it comes to computers there is very little S... does not know. He has fixed problems for me over the years. He tried to teach the Senior Cat how to do things too. They liked one another.  S.... was in tears when the Senior Cat died. His own parents are no longer alive. He has a brother here. His brother is terminally ill with cancer. His sister lives in the United States. S... doesn't have a lot of contact with either sibling. He seems more concerned for them than they are for him. He was the one who cared for both their parents. 

Middle Cat and I have both tried to help S.... but, by the time we tried, his weight had reached that level where only serious medical intervention could help. He didn't want anything to do with that. Occasionally he would lose a few kilos and then he would put it on again and put on even more. It did not surprise Middle Cat or me. We were concerned but it seemed there was nothing we could do about it.

We like him in many ways. He is the sort of person who will do what he can to help someone else. When he was here several months back and I needed to go to an appointment his response was, "If your sister can't take you then let me know. I will." He would have done it too. He made a special trip to get a spare part the Senior Cat needed to repair something. Then the two of them did it together. He likes to feel needed and wanted.

So, we are concerned. Middle Cat made seven attempts to speak to someone in the ward he has now been sent to but nobody was answering the phone. They are almost certainly understaffed and overworked. We would go for a quick five minute visit if allowed - just to reassure him we are still there for him and ask if there is anything we can do.  But we don't know what his actual condition is. I suspect he is still extremely ill and may not even be allowed visitors apart from family. That's all very well but we might be best placed to help. 

Middle Cat, being Middle Cat, will clear his letter box and see if any  of his plants need watering. It's all we can do. If he survives I am going to insist he signs the Power of Attorney I helped him prepare the last time he was here. I think he may need it but the friend he was proposing to use was away. I just hope he needs it and we won't be going to his funeral.