2004_05_may_forum for saturday professions

This column is written by a journalist. We rank 22 in a list of 26 in an Australian Readers’ Digest survey published this week about Australia’s most trusted professions.

Politicians are at the bottom, just above them are car seller and real-estate agents. Lawyers are on 21. Ambulance officers, fire-fighters and assorted medical and help-giving professionals are on the top.

The poll sampled 1500 Australians in a population of 20 million. Pollsters were not rated among the professions. Perhaps that is because the vast majority of the population, asked about the accuracy of a poll of a mere 1500 people in a population of 20 million, would laugh at the poll’s obvious absurdity.

And they would be wrong.

The problem with polling is not so much whether the sample is representative of the whole, but whether the opinions extracted are worth anything.

A sample of 1500 people, if selected randomly, will provide a chillingly accurate assessment of the opinion of 20 million people’s often-worthless opinions.
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2004_05_may_forum for saturday job adverts

Are you an outward-looking, achievement-oriented professional with excellent representational skills? Can you provide strategic advice on complex issues? Have you a proven track record in management and leadership?

This is a direct quote from a job advertisement from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations for a Senior Executive Band 1. It appeared in The Canberra Times last Saturday. The advertisement told us that the department “is recognised world leader in the field of innovative employment policy and service delivery using advanced technology to support a major national network of contract service providers”.

The person who gets this job “will manage a Branch within one of the Groups focussed on increasing labour market participation, maximising employment outcomes, or reducing frictional unemployment, through strong policy development and managing a wide range of employment services . . . ”.

And so the sludge goes on.

It is almost impossible to tell what the job is. We are told it pays an astonishing $160,000 a year.

Next to this advertisement, the Health Insurance Commission advertises for “team leaders”. The advertisement says: “Focus: Lead a small team responsible for undertaking HIC’s financial management functions with strategic focus on internal management reporting or business pricing and modelling in accordance with the Branch Business Plan.”
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2004_05_may_forum for saturday budget tax

The laudable aims of the 1970s and 1980s tax changes are now a mess of inefficiency and political corruption, as the Budget highlights.

The Government will bombard households with cheques in the next few months.

“Look what a wonderful Government we are. Vote for us before you realise it is all a mirage.”

What were these laudable aims?

The way the Government treated families with children changed.

Before, a taxpayer with a dependant child got a tax deduction. Usually, the higher-earning member of a couple (usually the man) took the deduction. The theory was that because it was controlled by the man it did not go to children, or at least not without a fuss, so it should go directly to the mum – sorry, principal carer.

The Government also recognised that sole parents had special difficulties which the tax system should provide for.

Nowadays both these benefits have been directed to the person (usually the woman) who does most of the bringing up of children – more accurately directing the help. Very laudable.
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2004_05_may_forum for saturday ageing and the gst

I was privy recently to a conversation between two recently retired women (mid to late 50s).

They were complimenting each other on their hairdos. Before long each had admitted she no longer used fancy shampoos and conditioners, but just soap.

The conversation then went to clothes, household gadgets and all the paraphernalia of the modern consumer world. It seemed they were impervious to the babbling of advertsing. Since then, I have noticed that retired, partially retired and portfolio workers in general consume much less though they are capable of treating themselves to something special every now and then.

The portfolio workers are those who no longer work in a full-time job but have several part-time jobs or consultancies and have to wonder where the next dollar is coming from.

It is difficult to get detailed spending habits according to age and employment status, but the anecdotal evidence suggests the obvious.

What this means for government worth looking at especially in this week of Budgets (Federal, ACT and Victorian).
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