We knew older Australians on the pension were doing it tough, but had no idea the extent of the anger experienced in the wake of yet another budget without an increase in the base rate of the Age Pension. Our take on this issue was that the single Age Pension should be increased immediately – by more than a few dollars. Many @boutSeniors subscribers have sent us messages endorsing this stand – but we have also received comments from couples who believe their plight is every bit as severe. Read the many comments received on our Meeting Place and add your own.
The issue that seems to have really struck many of our respondents is the seeming exclusion of older people from the category “working” Australians. From pre-election, during the October-November campaign, right up to budget night, the Rudd Government seems to have focused very hard on working families and working Australians – and the media seem to have interpreted this focus to mean families with young children.
This inference that older Australians are not working is inaccurate, unhelpful, and totally misleading. Even those older members of society who are living on retirement pensions are usually working – either in a volunteer capacity, or as mentors, or child-minders, or carers, or perhaps still as part of the paid workforce. When will governments “get” it that older Australians have worked and paid taxes for decades? That current tax payers are not “supporting” these older Australians as they have already paid more than their share of taxes – without many of the support services now offered to young families. And that these same older Australians continue to contribute far more than they receive?
Just what does it take to get this message through to those who make the decisions about how the country’s cake is carved up?
We will continue to ask these questions on your behalf.

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Geoff’s Blog - Render to Caesar

Inevitably, the reality of how a government feels about itself and it’s budget shows. Not in the following day’s press, not in the television commentary, not even in the sales pitch which is massively conducted after delivery, but during the opposition’s reply speech.

It will be impossible to get a replay, but my memory of it is reasonably clear. Here is a government which considers itself effectively without opposition. The Treasurer relaxed and with a smirk that even the previous treasurer could not match even in his smirkiest days. The Finance Minister chatting away to an associate as if there was no speech going on.

And, for the first time, I glimpsed the inner soul of the Prime Minister through his body language and expression. All that was missing was a toga and a crown wreath. Caesar at his most remote. Slumped in his chair. Face immovable. Eyes fixed elsewhere and his mind asking him the question, “Do I really have to be here? Oh well, I’d better go through the motions!” The language on non-involvement was palpable, the indifference to an alternative view was fully on show.

As I sat there, having digested the social engineering of the budget which included the studied ignorance and neglect of retirees and carers- previous and present contributors to the marvelously rich society which the government is now meant to serve, I was tempted to commence all the possible avoidance action possible in my next return to this Caesar.

Which would put me at odds with the parable teacher, who when challenged about the level of financial commitment he and his followers should have to a hostile occupying power, uttered (unfortunately for me) the lingering words,” Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God, the things that are God’s.”

So now I am stuck. I have two obligations. One is clear. The Tax Commissioner and Treasurer get their take. The other is not so clear.
And what about me? I’m not even mentioned.  What does “render to God”
mean?

When I was three, my parents dropped me off at St Luke’s Narrabeen for Sunday School. I remember it as a typical pew layout church. The collection would take place. I had been given a penny. Into the brass plate it would go. The brass plate would then be marched down the aisle and given to the minister. He would then face the altar and lift the plate above his head as he intoned the prayer. For the life of me, as I strained around the end of the pew or stood on it week after week, I could not see the money rising up. Yet I heard the prayer asking God to take this money for His work.

Trying to sort this out, I’m not sure that I’ve grown up at all from there.  The rule for a God follower pre-Christ was a tenth of gross income and then some more on occasion, plus some specials for the poor.
And, I’m not being deliberately evasive now, but our modern Caesar has taken over some of that, but cut it back in this budget.  So what is my financial responsibility towards God as my personal economy tightens and Caesar becomes more demanding? And what of me?

The ancients gave their tenth to The Temple and its operations. Today, it needs to be considered carefully. Why today, give to support a moribund, irrelevant “Temple” structure which has lost its way? Equally, why give to get-rich slick televangelists in order to get a tacky lion statue by return together with a future lifetime of pleading Junk Mail for your trouble?

The God response should not be a puzzle.” Love your neighbor as you love yourself”. Walk through today alert to the possibility that someone near and visible may need my physical help and some cash. As well as the invisible children of Africa or Asia. As I can, and not beyond my capability, be generous and look after them. In doing this I am giving balance and meaning to both Caesar and to God.

And of me? The inherent promise of the parable teacher was that in doing this I could trust God forso it would be given to me. Surprisingly, unexpectedly and generously.

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