au
Pension Drawdown Relief for Retirees

Pension Drawdown Relief for Retirees

Treasurer Wayne Swan and Senator Nick Sherry, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, yesterday announced relief from minimum account-based pension draw down requirements. The measure responds to concerns that meeting the minimum draw down amount in 2008 09 will mean having to sell investments assets and realise losses in a depressed market. \"The Government recognises that the significant downturn in global financial markets has had a negative effect on retirees\' superannuation capita.

  • Sexual Suicide

    The dramatic erosion of marriage and the explosion of out-of-control sexuality are not without their devastating consequences. Many acute observers have noted this. In 1968 Will and Ariel Durant's important book, The Lessons of History appeared. In it they said, "The sex drive in the young is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the group."

  • Health & Religion

    If one attempts to assign to religion its place in man\'s evolution, it seems not so much to be a lasting acquisition, as a parallel to the neurosis which the civilized individual must pass through on his way from childhood to maturity (Freud)

  • Politics Stymie Bushfire Response

    Historically, playing the blame game is one of the most predictable responses of all to Australian bushfires. It happens after every major event. Usually a government agency of some sort or a specific group of people is blamed for either what it did or didn\'t do.

  • A review of The Challenge of Islam to the Church and Its Mission. By Patrick Sookhdeo

    Patrick Sookhdeo, who was born a Muslim, is now a Christian convert living in England. He is a world authority on Islam, jihad and terrorism, and has been warning the West and the church for decades now about the threat they face from militant Islam. This book is perhaps the best brief summary of these issues now available.

  • No St Valentine's Day Cards Please

    I neither send nor receive Valentine's Day cards these days. However, I do my bit to help the florist industry and so buy some roses for my true love, although I think the whole concept is a greeting card company scam to keep business rolling between Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year and Easter.

  • Putting the Flame to Blame

    Through all the stories of the bushfires runs a disturbing thread. It is the gap between almost casual human actions and their consequences. This gap can burden us with terrible guilt or anger as in our imagination we relive and reverse the actions we or others have taken.

  • On Social Workers and Arsonists

    There was a lead letter in today's Melbourne Age which caught my attention. It is a letter so very typical of the Age. The newspaper is a hotbed of trendy radicalism, secularism, and feel-good liberalism. Its editorial stances are almost always wrong. Those responsible for the Age are a perfect example of how our Politically Correct elites have lost touch with reality and common sense.

  • How Motor Racing Chaplaincy Was Initiated

    Baptist minister Mark Tronson 57, pioneered the Sports and Leisure Ministry in 1982. During his 18-year tenure there, he appointed 150 chaplains to Australia\'s professional sports.

  • Are You Ready to Invest on the Upturn?

    New research released by Macquarie Group and research house Investment Trends concludes that many investors are cashed up and, whilst they remain cautious, are ready to invest when signs of an upturn appear.

  • Children as Guinea Pigs

    The desire for people, especially women, to have children is of course normal, but one has to ask if homosexual or lesbian parenting is desirable. Homosexuals may claim that there is no reason why they should not raise children, that sexual preference has nothing to do with the issue of good parenting. But does the evidence bear this out? Initial research is beginning to show that children do suffer from being raised by same sex parents.

  • On Wild Fires and Other Tragedies

    With Australia's greatest fire tragedy still unfolding, (not to mention terrible flooding in the north of the country), all sorts of questions arise. Attempting to answer them may be the height of foolishness. What new or original insights can anyone offer in the face of such suffering and misery?