John Coward is a hunt | Wednesday, May 10, 2006 |
Heading home in the car a couple of evenings ago there was a program on the radio about graffiti. This was a piece that had a small panel of learned people on the subject either from an artistic perspective or from a sociological standpoint.
Lines were opened to callers and there was the predictable too and fro of opinions on the matter. One recurring theme was that some grafitti was politically motivated and one of the callers used this posts title as an example.
On a related note, last night Gillian and I went to the NSW parliament to attend a talk on how state government is structured, a bit of a look around (including entry to the public gallery of both houses) and Q+A session with three sitting MP's.
Well, to be honest it all seems a little overly complex. NSW has the upper and lower house for state level, and there is a similar arrangement at the federal. The electoral process is different for each house (so it's rare to have the same party in control in both). Add in local council activity and there are five layers of government. Frankly its a wonder that anything ever gets done.
Decoration in the chambers is modelled on the UK style, green for MP's and red for the legislative council. The legislative council have their own "Black Rod", and a throne for use by the Queen or the Governor General.
In the lower house someone thoughtfully gouged into the back of the seat in front of me, "John Howard Sux". He's a bit of a windbag, but his governement delivered $36.7 billion in tax cuts last night in their budget.
Commentary this morning has found it very difficult to find anything wrong with it. Even Labour applauded most of it.
For me, it means that I no longer dwell in the upper tax bracket. This from the SMH.
The paper indicates that this will equate to tax saving of $4100 per annum, which if true, is nearly two months rent. It's hard for me to agree with the grafitti guy at this point even if he is a windbag.
Lines were opened to callers and there was the predictable too and fro of opinions on the matter. One recurring theme was that some grafitti was politically motivated and one of the callers used this posts title as an example.
On a related note, last night Gillian and I went to the NSW parliament to attend a talk on how state government is structured, a bit of a look around (including entry to the public gallery of both houses) and Q+A session with three sitting MP's.
Well, to be honest it all seems a little overly complex. NSW has the upper and lower house for state level, and there is a similar arrangement at the federal. The electoral process is different for each house (so it's rare to have the same party in control in both). Add in local council activity and there are five layers of government. Frankly its a wonder that anything ever gets done.
Decoration in the chambers is modelled on the UK style, green for MP's and red for the legislative council. The legislative council have their own "Black Rod", and a throne for use by the Queen or the Governor General.
In the lower house someone thoughtfully gouged into the back of the seat in front of me, "John Howard Sux". He's a bit of a windbag, but his governement delivered $36.7 billion in tax cuts last night in their budget.
Commentary this morning has found it very difficult to find anything wrong with it. Even Labour applauded most of it.
For me, it means that I no longer dwell in the upper tax bracket. This from the SMH.
For the first time in 16 years, the top personal income tax rate has been cut. From July 1 this year, it will fall from 47 per cent to 45 per cent. And the threshold at which it applies has been lifted from $95,000 to $150,000, instead of the $125,000 announced in last year's budget. The next highest rate of 42 per cent has been dropped to 40 per cent, and it will apply until the $150,000 threshold.
The paper indicates that this will equate to tax saving of $4100 per annum, which if true, is nearly two months rent. It's hard for me to agree with the grafitti guy at this point even if he is a windbag.
