Get Off Your Backside & Take Responsibility For Yourself

That probably got your attention. I should add its not personally directed at you, unless you are in one of the groups on my hit list.

A few things have happened recently regarding the culture of entitlement and victimhood. We really need to be talking about this stuff. Freely, openly and, honestly.   

I’ll start by saying I was delighted with the announcement from the High Court of Australia confirming they have thrown out the challenge by four former federal MP’s to retaining Gold Passes entitling them to free travel for life. They are now entitled to 10 domestic free trips per year. This greedy bunch; Barry Cunningham, Tony Lamb and Barry Cohen (Labor) John Moore (Liberal) wanted more.

It has emerged, this High Court decision has saved taxpayers MILLIONS on top of our annual $40MILLION pension bill; current payments to former politicians.  Had the High Court upheld the appeal, 350 ex-MPs and 100 spouses would have benefitted. So well done and three cheers to the seven member bench of the Court.

Yesterday, Linda Burney, Labor MP was in printed sprouting on about domestic violence within the indigenous community. Ms Burney highlighted one particular case that resulted in the death of a young woman. Yes, it is both very sad and appalling. Yes, there’s a problem. But I object to this statement.  “The blame for that murder lies firmly with the person who committed the crime but the failure of the system is the result of government funding cuts.” Every time it comes back to money.

Ms Burney went to say, “The violent history of colonisation, policies of forced removal and the breakdown of kinship structures have long-lasting legacies. It must engage those in communities already battling the issue.”

Ms Burney goes on to lay blame at the feet of Liberal state and federal governments. Stating Policy failures rest with government, not communities who have been crying out for decades offering solutions, only to be ­ignored.

These problems are not new. Ms Burney wants to blame the problems on our violent history, forced removal and the breakdown of kinship structures, they didn’t happen yesterday. How many more years have to be spent on trying to fix these issues? We already contribute millions and millions annually to indigenous causes. So from where I sit, it’s not about money or which government is in power. It’s about the status of victimhood and entitlement. Take ownership and fix the problems yourselves.

I read an interesting article recently. It was about peacekeeping and justice. They made some excellent points. This one really resonated; it was about claims of deservingness. How that can lead to societies where rights and access to state resources depends on what group you belong to rather than on fairness and equality. So, special rights can present a problem for social justice.

Based on research conducted by Vamik Volkan the article also highlighted victims tend to behave selfishly. This is led by a sense of entitlement to ‘equal the score’. We see this behaviour a lot during the indigenous discourse. I’ve been wronged so you pay. Professor Volkan observed such “exaggerated entitlement” in studying groups of victims that make claims for their own group regardless of the costs and consequences for others. In the globalised field of peacebuilding, the status of victimhood has experienced an “upgrading”. Victims have had an almost sacred “aura” now.

We are really struggling as a society in Australia to keep up with the demands on the public purse. We have been warned time and again we are living beyond our means. But still they line up for more. This is the point Professor Volkan is making. Where we have entrenched entitlement it is all about them and their group. They don't consider or care about anyone else. It's so selfish.  

How many times do we have to hear I’m entitled because of what happened two hundred ago? Or  the stock standard I’m entitled because I can’t get a job. More likely far too many are not prepared to sacrifice anything in the efforts to actually get a job. Then we have those who are ripping off the system based on both entitlement and victimhood. The list is too long. To long to cover each group but disability cheats are way at the top.  

Get off your bums and do something constructive with your lives should be the message we send. Whenever sobs stories emerge I am reminded of the wonderful Nick Vujicic. Nick is an Aussie. He was born with no arms or legs. His motto, “No arms, no legs, no worries.” Nick has a career, a family and a wonderfully productive life. Pity more didn’t follow his lead. If he can do it. So can so many others who will never have to face the challenges Nick has.

Whilst the example of greedy politicians and, our indigenous are coming from different standpoints the mindsets are the same. My group deserves more than your group. We see the same with many welfare recipients. Recently we were made aware of whole families feeding off the public purse, year, after year, after year. The trouble with these entitlement parasites is people who really need and deserve help are struggling to get it. Worse still, they have political parties doing their bidding for them. It’s galling when you think it about it. We pay politicians (who rip us off) to do the bidding for the ‘entitlement’ “victimhood’ industry to rip us off even more.

“A society where victims become the protagonists based on the ‘compassion and entitlement economy’ based on the ‘commoditisation of so called suffering’. Entitlement and victimhood has become extremely profitable bringing with it self-appointed moral authority crusaders, contrived political legitimacy and significant economic victimhood industry benefits.”

Oh what an incestuous society we have created.

What Happen To The Fair Australia?

The headline that grabbed me today was this one from the Australian written by Adam Creighton and Sid Maher. “ONE IN TWO VOTERS IS FULLY RELIANT ON PUBLIC WELFARE.” 

I posted the story on  social media and I received a number responses. The one that really struck a cord with me, came from Nellie. Nellie is one of the more responsible political posters on Twitter and she made a simple statement. So unfair. 

If you are one of the thousands of Aussies who believe in a fair go, you would be hard pressed to disagree with Nellie. It is unfair that 50% of Australians are carrying the other 50% or paying the other 50%. We are frequently reminded our population is ageing.  Whilst pushing the pension entitlement age up will have some impact it’s reasonable to assume that at some point the 50% who are carrying the load becomes 45% then 40% down, down, down. Where does it end?

“Analysis by The Weekend Australian has revealed that more than 44 per cent of voters, almost 6.4 million people, are ­either public sector employees (1.89 million) or wholly dependent on federal government pensions, allowances and parenting payments (4.48 million). The figure grows further when private sector workers who receive more in welfare than they pay in tax are added.”

1.89 million public servants equals 7.9% of the entire population. Sure some are essential services rightly so, but a huge percentage aren’t. 

Scott Morrison has been sending very strong signals that expenditure has to be controlled. Rating agencies have been sending the same signals. We better start listening the old “she’ll be right mate and I’m OK mate” isn’t cutting the mustard. 

There were a lot of comments to the Australian article, some more worthy than others. This one is worth sharing. I hope Richard doesn’t mind me using it. 

“What are you all doing this weekend?

Personally, the wife and I are doing our BAS so the GST can be paid on time for our small business.Then payroll reconciliations so the PAYG withholding taxes can be paid on time.Then PAYG installments so the company tax can be paid on time.Then reconciling superannuation so the 

superannuation can be paid on time.

There are no public servants on hand to answer queries on difficult issues from complex legislation, so we will battle through the weekend on our own.

To all those who enjoy living off welfare handouts .... please enjoy our weekend for us. We are too busy supporting you and battling the red tape to enjoy it for ourselves.”

Hard to argue with that. 

When I’ve raised these points in the past I’ve received the “I paid my taxes I’m entitled” rebuttal. Well, no you aren’t. Your taxes aren’t your savings fund. You pay taxes for services you receive through out your whole life. It's not a fund where you pay and receive services and then you line up to withdraw what you paid for services you received and will continue to receive until you drop dead!! Whew that was long. Seriously, we need a change of attitude if we are to prosper in the future and not end up like Greece. 

When I get push back I’m reminded of a friend of mine who migrated here from Malaysia 7 years ago. He didn’t have much when he arrived with his wife and three children. He had a job. But it wasn’t the highest paying job in the world. Still isn’t for that matter. He works unbelievable hours at times. But the family scrimped and saved and after 2 years they had enough for a deposit on a modest house. It was cramped with five people; three growing teenagers. Last week he showed me the extension they have completed. He has a plan, and that is not to be a drain on the public purse of the country that has given him a new life. If he can do it why can't others? I think we know the answer to that. 

They say democracy exists up until the time voters discover they can vote themselves more and more generous gifts from the public treasury and that irresponsible governments keep appeasing them. Maybe I don’t know. But it sounds plausible. 

I wonder how different the system would be if receivers of welfare or employees of the tax payer didn’t have the right to vote. Only tax payers who don't take from the public purse and self-funded retirees could vote. If nothing else it would be interesting and I bet it would be fairer. I suspect if this was proposed regardless of how off the wall it is, it would receive support. 

So back to Nellies comment. No Nellie, it isn’t fair, and it isn’t sustainable. In so many ways it's unbelievable that parents and grand parents feeding from the public trough are happy to burden their children and grand children with such an unsustainable future for a bag of silver now. 

Sadly the "Fair Australia" has been replaced by the "Everyone For Themselves Australia."  I hope and pray we have a government with the guts to take this head on.  But I fear even if they do and they are reelected we'll end up with another unworkable senate. Unless of course we wise up and give the LNP the mandate and the senate to get stuff done. The alternative is Shorten and you can bet your life he'll be maxing out the credit card. We simply can't afford that and neither can the future generations who will carry the burden.