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Cobretti2 on 02 September 2012
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fordy said:


- So it must follow the same brackets as income tax, since the tax bracket was changed this financial year. The reason why the levies are also progressive is for the same reason: it has nothing to do with rate of use, it's more related to the fact that a flat rate will push low income earners further into poverty. People have related the legal system in a similar way (though they usually forget that big business relies on legalities as much as the lower class, for things such as enforcing contracts, etc.) 

I don't want to sound pushy, but if you want my advice, buy when the market is good, deposit or not. Having under 20% means you will need to pay mortgage lender's insurance, but that's generally another $7k - 10k on top of your loan. Right now with renting, you're paying for someone else's dream instead of paying towards your own. Even if the repayments are $100 per week more than your rent, that's still putting you closer towards owning something with that money.

The carbon tax is a lot like the health setup, in that the people who would be put in the most danger of poverty are compensated. However, I think they went a little too far to soften the blow, maybe because of the massive backlash led by the opposition. Now we see the steel industry etc getting handouts to help them through it (this is on top of some other exemption they're already receiving. I can't remember which, right now). I'm hoping by the time it becomes an ETS, it will be a bit more organised.

Fully agree with the investing in infastructure with the mining boom. In fact, that's the basis of the mining tax that was imposed (whether it will be used for it or not is another matter. I'm hoping the NBN and Very fast rail could both come to fruition because of it). However, a lot of people are being convinced by the News Corp media that this mining tax is nothing but a very bad thing. In the meantime, we suddenly have some of the world's richest here now, a sudden spike in disparity from the rest of the country. Now that there's talk about taxing mining, are we suprised that Gina is loooking to dip her fingers into Channel Ten and Fairfax for media influence?

I will be buying soon. I just moved to Melbourne so I wanted to ensure job stability for my partner and I before committing. We looked at the mortgage insurance option and was told we would need $30,000 extra ontop of the loan. This was a while ago now.  Also ATM, I got spinal injury, so don't want to commit to a big loan if I cannot go back to full time work.

Sadly I work in melbourne CBD, so  It will be tough finding something in a decent suburb with good internet, transport and within say 45mins of the city below $500,000. Further out is cheaper, but people tell me bad stories about neighbours and over crowded housing with congested roads which are used daily to get to a train station. HENCE WHY YOU AND I BOTH AGREE OUR ROADS AND PUBLIC SUCK IN THIS COUNTRY. I would happily live in Geelong or Sheparton if I could get a bullet train into work that takes an hour each way.

The minning boom (or rather resource boom) is an interesting one. Our governemnt only looks at short term gains so  over the years they allowed more and more forein investors to run majorty shares of the mines. North Qld is a good example. They found some pocket of GAS (OIL) and they are going to use a british company to build and operate the place. Why not invest the majority share in this venture locally? That way more money stays in the country and gets paid directly to governemnt as profi.

Another good example is most our electricity networks have been privitised and are now owned by Asian countries and our generation by America and China. Because they are private, they are run to fail to maximise profits meaning our reliaiblty over the years has actually gotten worst in some areas.