Monday 19 May 2008

THE PASSION AND THE PENSION

This ...

Aged pensioners have slammed the Budget calling it "contemptible" for not raising pensions but the weekend's survey showed Labor's problems with mature Australians run far deeper.

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson admitted there was a strong argument to increase the pension which can be as little as $270 a week for singles.

But Dr Nelson, whose own government was not advocating a rise when it was in power, refused to make a commitment.

Mr Swan said the Government would listen to pensioners' concerns but insisted the Government had assisted the elderly.

"There's something like $900 (per head) additional in this Budget for pensioners and seniors, but I accept that many are doing it really tough, and that we do have to look at the underlying issues," he said.


And this ...

Angry pensioners and a Family First senator have stripped off and stopped traffic on one of Melbourne's busiest intersections in a protest against a lack of support for seniors in this week's Federal Budget.

Well, excuse me ... BUT.

Where the fuck were all you "angry pensioners" the last 11 years? Asleep? Comatose? Out bowling? Did you, a mere 6 months after the election of a new government, suddenly realise that your pensions were but a pittance and have been so for the best part of a decade? Where were your voices then? The protests, the activism, the placards, the stunt-parades of drooping and withered flesh?

What have you been doing all that time? Were you, instead, simply content to wrap yourself in a knitted shawl and shiver in terror as the now-flushed, previously unflushable turd in a tracksuit spun tales of terror about the imminent invasion of the country from yellow hordes of religious fanatics hell-bent on raping our women and force-feeding us all falafels for forever and a day? Fuck off.

Yes, of course your pensions are rubbish. But pardon me if I cannot, at this point, share your sudden and passionate surge of outrage over the situation when you could've easily made your voices heard at any time, and at the polling booths, the previous 11 years.

And precisely which part of "$900 (per head) additional in this Budget for pensioners and seniors" has flown underneath your rippled and wrinkly radars?

2 comments:

Zombie Mao said...

Yes, its all a bit weird.

Apparently its ok to be ignored and taken for granted by the Coalition.

I blame dementia.

cosmicjester said...

The pensioners have been hyped up by the RWDB's of the non-intertubes. Today Tonight, Alan Jones, Steve Price and ACA have all been doing a hard luck pensioner story every week or so for the last 6 months.

Its a pity its not pc to criticise pensioners, why cant Rudd just tell them he will lower their pension if they dont stfu.

I fear the day the boomers have all retired. You cant get a boomer to cut back on expenses. They will probably insist the pension has to be tripled.