If this pushes through, there will be more than $30 billion superannuation tax breaks affected.  And as the review committee on expenditures is going over the final budgets, a reduction of other benefits is also being considered.

According to reports, the labor department is eyeing to make these changes for high-income earners who only contribute to about 15 percent of their super. Low-income workers, on the other hand, should not be affected by any of these plans.

Since Labor adapted a super guarantee levy in 1993, tax breaks risks have increased to billions of Australian dollars. This year, the government has passed a new legislation wherein employers are required to increase their super contributions from 9 percent to 12 percent until 2020. But it is still not decided whether this will be based on company profits or employee wages.

Bill Shorten, the Financial Services Minister, said that this increase is supposed to be a “deferred wage increase” that employers need to discuss with their workers. He added that superannuation is part and parcel of an employee’s remuneration.

Unions are not in favor of this, however, as they demand employers must absorb the whole cost of this contribution.

The Greens are pushing for the tax on super funds to be based on the individual worker’s income tax rate, less 15 percent. This invariably guarantees low-income earners as tax-free.

The Economic Potential of Senior Australians presents the advantages of employing more mature-aged Australians. Panel chair Everald Compton, said that the country would greatly benefit from the wisdom, talents, and experience of baby boomers.

The Federal Government is set to offer $1,000 to 10,000 business owners in exchange of hiring employees aged 50 years and older. The companies should employ mature-aged Australians for at least three months.

The scheme is scheduled to start July 1, 2012 and would be implemented in the next four years.

Treasure Wayne Swan said it’s time to give more opportunities to baby boomers. Swan added that it’s important they are given the chance to secure their finances and, in the process, their families.

Baby boomers have been feeling the pinch in the last 10 years. Job demands for them have declined sharply especially in the last three years.

Studies have also shown that when a baby boomer is retrenched, it becomes a lot harder to find another job. The situation is further aggravated when the baby boomer is an unskilled worker.

Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development revealed that the mature-age participation rate is the biggest recorded in the country. The rate exceeds the media for all age brackets.

The report also praised the work ethics of older workers, saying that they post lower rates of absenteeism and possess high retention rates. Better access to health also allows them to live healthier and longer.

940 staff was surveyed for this study. Two-thirds of the respondents said they experienced hostility from customers in the past six months. Others said they experienced aggression. 

Rehabilitation services, Child Support Agency, and Centrelink were rated highest in terms of customer aggression. Centrelink is the government department that deals with welfare payments. Customs agencies and Medicare workers also experience high levels of aggression from their customers. 

Interactions with customers include face-to-face and phone conversations. 60 percent of the respondents said they received abuse over the phone while the rest said they experienced face-to-face aggression. 

One staff answered the survey, saying that a customer threatened him with physical harm, saying he was once imprisoned for murder. Other workers said their offices had to hire security guards to help keep angry customers at bay and maintain order in the offices. 

Staff and budgets cut didn’t help the situation. The government has imposed budget cuts to save money. Employees of the Department of Human Services have been reduced to 40,000 in 2011. The number is expected to go down to 38,000 this year until 2013. 

The cuts have also resulted to work backlogs and slower decision-making process. These delays have certainly contributed to customers’ hostility and aggression to workers. 

Nadine Flood, National Secretary of the Community of Public Sector Union, said the report is an eye-opener. Flood added that these issues must be addressed soon.

The Prime Minister said there is a likely possibility of further cuts to Medicare Safety Net. This provides as much as 80 percent refund for healthcare costs of over $1,198 annually.

Medicare Safety Net has mainly benefited high-income earners and cost of maintaining it has risen to 20 percent annually. Further rebate caps are also expected for medical procedures in the areas of obstetrics and in-vitro fertilization.

The Federal Government said more Budget cuts will be implemented this May to make sure that the Budget posts a surplus for 2012.

Treasurer Wayne Swan said because of the cuts, some programs of the government might get the boot. Swan furthered that welfare for those who don’t need it.

The Prime Minister, however, was quick to defend the government’s handout to the car industry. Many believe that the car industry is dying especially in the southern states.

Gillard also discussed Queensland’s tourism industry, which is facing tough times. She said if Labor does not pass its planned tax cuts, the tourism industry may suffer even more. Among the suggestions she raised include tweaking visa rules and providing training programs for travel operates.

The news of more cuts does not sit well to many families and the government is facing much criticism. It, however, is keen to manage its Budget to ensure uninterrupted services to citizens.

The trend is is being followed worldwide and has come about by the need for austerity in the increasingly uncertain world economy. Up until now, the funding of new science and research initiatives has withstood the pressures of  fiscal restraint and has helped make Australia one of the world’s leading suppliers of new technologies. One of the discoveries that  has reaped the Government a fortune in royalties is the discovery of the technology that the world’s WiFii is built on. That technology alone has earned the Government hundreds of millions of dollars.

It is expected that whilst operational funding to the CSIRO will not be cut, the discretionary awarding of grants will be more heavily scrutinized by bureaucrats which will likely lower overall funding to the organisation. Whilst scientists will inevitably complain that research direction could become corrupted by the commercialization of grant requests, there will still be a large pool of funds for the CSIRO and other leading research bodies to draw from. The Government’s aim is to merely put the pressure on those bestowed with Government grants to be careful with their spending.

As much as the funding of scientific research is a key component of Australia’s future economy, the reality is that the fiscal belt tightening will affect everyone, no matter how noble their cause.

Huawei Technologies is one of the world’s largest providers of telecommunications equipment. It provides services to major telecoms company in the different parts of the world. The decision of the Federal Government’s to exclude Huawei stemmed from security concerns on different cyber attacks that apparently originated from China. Prime Minister Julia Gillard explained that the $36-billion NBN program is a major and vital national infrastructure project and all aspects must be considered.

The office of Attorney General Nicola Roxon issued a statement saying the IT infrastructure would serve as Australia’s backbone and that it is the Federal Government’s duty to secure information and maintain its integrity.

Andrew Robb, opposition Finance spokesman, said that the decision to ban Huawei would have a negative impact on Australia’s relations with China. He added that he had a chance to tour Huawei’s facilities and was impressed by them.

Robb added that Huawei was instrumental in the growth of Britain’s telecommunications industry and the Federal Government must take this into account. Huawei was also part and parcel of at least eight NBN implementations around the world.

Huawei has released a statement saying it is open to inviting all MPs and the media people to visit its facilities. Jeremy Mitchell, spokesma of Huawei, said that the country has not gotten used to having relations with privately owned Chinese companies.

He added that despite being a Chinese company, 70 percent of Huawei’s operations are outside of China.

In an industry that is expected to be worth $1.1 billion to NSW by 2020, the State is being hampered by the lack of available docking ports east of the harbour bridge. It is estimated by 2015, close to half of all visiting cruise ships will be too large to sail under the Harbour Bridge, making the availability of deep water ports limited.

Currently, the Navy has an agreement with Carnival Australia granting access to its largest ships, but the top brass is said to be dissatisfied with the arrangement was is not planning on extending this agreement past 2013. The current arrangement sees passengers bypassing the Garden Island Dockyards and travelling on tenders to the Overseas Passenger Terminal. A more permanent facility would allow passengers to be processed and cleared on site.

Ann Sherry, Carnival Australia CEO claimed

Sydney needs a three-cruise berth solution with one berth west of the Harbour Bridge and two in the eastern Harbour to accommodate an increasing number of cruise ships too big to sail under the bridge.

It appears she has her gaze firmly set on Garden Island which was established in 1856.

Allan Hawke, who is conducting a review into the arrangements, will recommend the Government direct that during the peak October to March cruise season the Navy share the wharf.

However, the Navy is expecting to take delivery of two 230 metre long ships in 2014, and being forced to share their only Sydney super port could severely restrict their operational planning. A possible solution would be to base these Helicopter Landing Ships out of Brisbane, which would make operation sense anyway.

The problem is yet another example of NSW’s struggle to maintain suitable infrastructure to support economic demand.