I guess this 'slip of the tongue' shows how Malcolm really feels about the aged
Australian politics live with Amy Remeikis
Returning to the aspirational debate, the problem is, when prosecuting it, you are going to say things which come across as a bit, well, elite.For example, among the loud noises Malcolm Turnbull made in relation to Bill Shorten’s question on this: I refer to the prime minister’s earlier answer when he said that his government rewards aspiration. So under this prime minister should a 60-year-old aged-care worker from Burnie aspire to be an investment banker from Rose Bay just so instead of their $10 a week tax cut from the prime minister, they can get the prime minister’s $7,000 a year tax cut for investment bankers?
Was this answer: The honourable member should remember that the 60-year-old aged care worker in Burnie is entitled to aspire to get a better job, is entitled to get a promotion, and earn more. Is entitled to be able to earn more money, and working in aged care is a good job, but you are entitled to seek to earn more. Everyone is entitled, everyone is entitled to ... every worker, every Australian is entitled to aspire to earn a better income.”
Because not only does it sound like, for a moment, the prime minister was suggesting that an aged-care worker could get a better job, thereby, for a moment (he did correct himself in the whole quote, and just like with Tanya Plibersek it is important to have these things in context) implying aged-care work wasn’t a good job, he also just said that a 60-year-old worker could aspire to a better job/income.
A 60 year old. This is despite government policy in the last budget to help over 50 year olds get work, because we all know how hard it is to be employed as a mature-aged worker in this world.
I aspire to be adopted by Beyoncé or Rihanna, as well as to ride a unicorn, but there are some dreams which will remain just that, no matter how much you aspire to them.
However, this is also the typical non-answers our PM and Ministers give to all Questions from the Opposition in Question Hour - a complete waste of taxpayer money and time - unless the Speaker is an Independent who can give penalties for not answering questions!
Shorten also is complicit in not asking the right question - he should have asked whether it is FAIR that a hard-working and useful Aged Care worker will get $530 / year tax cut, whereas a devious Investement Banker already likely avoiding taxes will get $7,000 / year tax cut?
BTW, it is also to be noted that the tax cut bill is in serious danger of passing, as ALL MPs will also get $7,000 / year tax cuts - GREED is always running rampant in Canberra (we have all heard of the many expenses rorts)! We already have a number of MPs rolling over pretending to be reluctant about it! Vote them all OUT (all current seat-warmerrs) - if voters have any sense!
Yes, let's return to the aspirational debate!
The Guardian Journo who wrote this rubbish in an attempt to inflame the class warfare nonsense does not realise how demoralising and condescending her view is. I'm sure a few aged care workers in Burnie would be wondering why some people have no faith in them.
I'm sure Bill Shorten doesnt realise how demeaning and age discriminatory his statement appears. Why shouldnt a 60 year old age care worker aspire to any career change?
Why shouldnt people have dreams? Why shouldnt we all have dreams which can become aspirational goals??
If your child wants to be Prime Minister, are you the one who tells her she cannot?
It's difficult to incite hatred of those who are more successful without putting down those who arent, so why try???!!! That is the question we should be asking our Labor politicians, most of whom have become union bosses and then MPs on the back of their own aspirational goals.
The above article demonstrates quite clearly why Bill Shorten is no leader.
Of course Adrianus; so much rubbish being placed on the word 'Aspiring'' by ex-workers who aspired to be Union leaders then Pollies;
Listen to them on question time in Parliament and try and avoid being despondent with the whole set-up.
I aspire to be a banker to aspire to becoming a white collar criminal. ..
Obvious responses from the right wing group who post their propagnada here.
Turnbull did not take kindly to being called out. Tax cuts anyone? How much? Plenty of course.
Oh yes....wage cuts and new taxes for the rest? Of course. Can't have the gentry rubbing shoulders with the peasants can we or giving ordinary Australians enough money to live off.
Class war in progress. One day the troops will wake up and be angry.
Adrianus needs a reality check. Clearly he knows nothing about mature aged people trying to secure employment when ageism is alive and well and living high in Australia.
Turnbull knows nothing about every day Australians let alone every day workers. Turnbull demonstrates his ignorance as Burnie Tas has an unemployment rate of 7.4% which is 2.0% higher than the national unemployment rate. Anyone looking for any type of work in Burnie is challenged let alone older people.
Adrianus is a cash for comment liberal troll. Working for the man. Nothing what he says has any basis in fact.
Chooky - Turnbull likely does not care. Only for himself and his wealthy colleagues. You and I are chaff to him.
Turnbul managed to hide his own affairs from public scrutiny. Now not even the media can investgate the rich in this country. They have managed to become invisible as they launder their money in offshore tax shelters and schemes none of us can ever imagine. The game will go on until an insider leaks something. Until then you and I are expected to pay taxes whilst the cretins at the top will not. I am as mad as hell about that.
Turnbull and the rest of his smirking lot are talking a load of utter rubbish, and seem to talk more each day of late.
I would even think a GOOD aged care worker was of much more value than ANY investment banker!
"I would even think a GOOD aged care worker was of much more value than ANY investment banker!"
My thoughts exactly PlanB
I think a good aged care worker is of the same value as a good investment banker. I also believe a good aged care worker is valued more highly than a poor investment banker. If only we had leaders who could encourage that culture, rather than take advantage of the vulnerable. :(
And one day in the not too distant future the Prime Minister and his cronies will need aged care workers to care for them and clean up their shit they leave in their bed.
Oh,hang on, they do this now anyway.
Ha ha, good one HS. :)
Where would we be without our aged care workers? They work hard for little money and their work is meaningful. So many I have met have big hearts for their job of caring for the elderly and disabled. It appears that our mega rich PM who grew up in a wealthy suburb, attended Sydney Grammar School as a boarder, went to Oxford University and made a mint in investment banking, views some areas of employment as having less value than others. It all comes back to worshipping the almighty dollar! Aspiration and worth is defined by how much one earns? Really? Why can’t one “aspire” to work in a low paid caring profession simply because they value and love the work? I hated the way Malcolm Turnbull went on in parliament yesterday! He really has no idea about ordinary workers struggling to get by. Their problem is not the work they do, it is how poorly they are paid. We need Unions to improve pay and conditions for workers, not “aspiration” to leave meaningful work to chase bigger dollars.
If "ordinary workers" are struggling to get by and Bill Shorten is the friend of "ordinary workers," then why has he voted against a tax cut for them?
He hasn’t. He has voted against tax cuts for the wealthy. You are skewing the facts Adrianus. It is the LNP that is refusing to split the Bill into parts.
I remember a few years ago when Turnbull was being interviewed on his very nice farm -- and he was saying how hard he and his Dad did it when he was a kid and his Mother left, money wise -- GIVE ME A BREAK FGS!
This is something I was taught before Martin Luther King Jnr.
'IF A JOBS IS WORTH DOING ITS WORTH DOING WELL'
Not to be demeaned by the likes of Bill Shorten.
That quote Sen.Cit.89 was the quote my Dear Mother brought me up with.
Yes, most workers aspire to better jobs and money but it won't happen. I see no one has said a thing about the Pollies latest PAY RISE. Thousands of dollars and we poor folk get Bu**er all. The only thing these Pollies care is about their own back pocket or should I say bank account. These people would not have a clue about how normal people live and never will!
AND they get the large pay rise every bloody year come rain or shine.
I also note that Joe Hockey spent $70.000 on grog and babysitting -- who's a leaner now what a scum he is!
Yep, bring back Tony Abbott I say. He was the only PM to knock back a pay rise for the pollies. Its the leftist mantra to give themselves big pay rises. The ABC and other Public Services need to reign it in. Nobody else is getting thsee sorts of rises.
Tony Abbott is a deadhead idiot and a dead set LIAR he is a disgrace to the country
No Adrianus, Rudd knocked back a pay rise in his first term. What happens is that the pay rise is not cancelled, it is merely delayed and in both cases the deferred pay rises were subsequently enacted. Just an exercise in PR.
An awful lot of aged care workers aren't paid at all. More and more 'not for profit' organisations which cater to the needs of aged and infirm people are relying on volunteers for the most part.
There are a number of these sort of community organisations around here. My recently retired partner volunteers at a couple of them.
The Red Cross for example has volunteers who call on elderley people to help them with various little things they might need, like being driven to doctor's appointments, or to the bank etc. Even help in checking out nursing homes.
Another one does much the same thing, driving renal and cancer patients to their appointments and picking them up, freeing up the ambulance service a little.
These services (and the people who volunteer in them) are worth their weight in gold, but I sometimes wonder what we are coming to as a society. When my mother needed that kind of service I did it. Most of my friends could say the same. From what I am hearing, most of the people taking advantage of this wonderful service these days actually do have families, but they are too busy trying to keep their own heads above water to have the time to do the things for their parents that we did.
I can see that my own children would be in the same boat. I am grateful that these services exist, and I will definitely take advantage of them when I feel I need them, but like I said, I sometimes wonder what kind of society we are becoming.
And then we get these elitist politicians making these kind of stupid statements. It makes my blood boil.
What a lot of rubbish the statment that Labor will help those who earn less than $95,000! Labor party wants to tax self funded retirees 30% on their low income that no one else pays tax on at all.
Pensioners are also aspirational
those who invest wisely and pay taxes should be rewarded as well
they are funding other OAP’s who aren’t aspirational
What Turnbull said was abosooutely the right thing
Shorten is a sickening slimey worm who cares nothing for Australians .
Any tax cut has to trickle up to the top brackets as well
Let's hope Pauline does the right thing ans supports the governments package.
Pauline has changed her tune and flips and flops -- I thought she was for the workers -- but seems I was dead wrong -- if I had wanted Liberal thoughts I would have voted for them
Some things can be interpreted in such a way that they mean anything.
Rational human beings are expected to keep things down to a likely probability.
In hindsight, I wonder if the more telling 'slip of the tongue' was the number of times he used the word 'entitled'.
I think that word -- entitled -- seems to be the lastest IN word
This article is a leftie beat-up. There is nothing wrong with saying that a 60 year old person cannot be looking to improve themselves. This forum has, on a number of occasions, raised the topic of older employees looking for work and how difficult it is. One of the suggestions that is usually mentioned on that topic is to upskill to make the applicant more attractive to an employer.
As regards the mention about Plibersek, she may have been quoted out of context but she has always claimed to be on the side of the worker and, as Turnbull pointed out, she would know very little about the aspirations of a worker because the average income into her household is almost $1M per annum.
$1 million PA? How can Tanya Plibersek possibly know what its like for a pensioner on $35k pa who relies on a few thousand dollars in franking credits?
Adrianus, you quoted $35K for a pensioner -- we get $23597.60 -- thats $453.80 per week
Quote Old Man: “....as Turnbull pointed out, she (Plibersek) would know very little about the aspirations of a worker because the average income into her household is almost $1M per annum.”
Turnbull could very well apply the same rationale to himself, yet he has a hell of a lot to say about the aspirations of workers.
I watched parliament today. The word ‘aspirational’ was constantly bandied around by the Liberals. I don’t know which communications guru has suggested this but young people may want to be aspirational, older workers have already achieved, and in many cases are just happy to be able to keep the jobs they’ve got. They are still pitting lifters and learners against each other. It won’t get my vote!
My vote either. Just more bullshit!
Sundays, your comment about older workers being just happy to keep the jobs they've got (I agree BTW) is sadly ironic, as the news tonight reveals Telstra plans on shedding 8000 jobs.
They talk abut lifters and leaners -- they are the greatest lot of leaners we have and do VERY well on OUR money
Looks like the tax cuts will go through
Aussies will thank this government down the track as everyone has higher disposable income and the economy goes gangbusters
I agree, the economy will have more money circulating, which will drive growth, Wages, which will in turn drive the RBA to try to keep it in check. But more importantly tax receipts to the ATO will hopefully increase.
The outlook for Australia looks really good. Its just so disapointing to see Labor and the Greens opposing Australia's future prosperity based on envy. A worker paying high taxes will have more pocket money than a worker who pays low taxes. They cannot see the big picture.
I'm afraid old Malcolm loves to hear himself talk without listening to his brain thinking.