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Look at these tax rates

I can't believe anyone lives in Australia with these outrageous taxes.

Individual income tax rates

Quote:

Tax on income.

0 – $6,000 = Nil
$6,001 – $37,000 = 15c for each $1 over $6,000
$37,001 – $80,000 = $4,650 plus 30c for each $1 over $37,000
$80,001 – $180,000 = $17,550 plus 37c for each $1 over $80,000
$180,001 and over = $54,550 plus 45c for each $1 over $180,000

Not to mention the unemployment rate:

Economy adding 1200 jobs a day

Quote:

Economy adding 1200 jobs a day
Peter Martin
April 8, 2011

AN AVALANCHE of new jobs piled on at the rate of 1200 a day has put a ''4'' in front of Australia's unemployment rate, returning the labour market to the golden days before the financial crisis took hold.

The March unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent is the lowest since January 2009, when cutbacks in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the United States ended 35 straight months of rates beginning with ''4''.

''This is a really strong result,'' said Jobs Minister Chris Evans. ''It means we are now very close to full employment. We've created 32,000 full-time jobs in just the past month, more than 750,000 new jobs since Labor took office.''

The news sent the dollar to a new post-float high of US104.82¢ and saw the futures market all but eliminate the previously priced-in small probability of an interest rate cut.

Victoria's unemployment rate is now the second lowest of any state at 4.5 per cent, beaten only by Western Australia at 4.2 per cent.

In New South Wales, the unemployment jumped from 4.8 per cent to 5.1 per cent.

The dive in Victoria's unemployment rate from 5 per cent to 4.5 per cent was brought about by a jump of 6500 new jobs, propelling the rate well below 5 per cent for the first time since 2008.

ICAP economist Adam Carr said the news showed jobs growth was back on track. ''I think what we saw over the December and February period was a weather-distorted lull,'' he said.

If the jobs growth continues as this rate, Mr Carr expects the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates by June.

ANZ economist Riki Polygenis said the unemployment rate could now dive more quickly than had been expected. ''The available workforce is growing more slowly as population growth slows,'' he said.

Forgot about religion in Australian public schools. What would the bible bashers here do for this kind of access?

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/st...407-1d698.html

Quote:

ThE state government will boost funding to Christian education classes in schools in the budget, with Education Minister Martin Dixon ruling out changes to the controversial program.

Mr Dixon said Christian education provider Access Ministries would receive an extra $200,000 a year from July 1 for training, administration and the supervision of volunteer instructors.

While other courses, including Baha'i, Greek Orthodox and Islamic, are also accredited, Access Ministries runs 96 per cent of special religious instruction classes in Victoria.
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The funding boost comes as Access Ministries called on Christians to take urgent action, saying its very foundation was being challenged by a court case that questioned the Education Department's guidelines on the teaching of faith in schools.

The agency called on Christians to write a letter of support for special religious instruction to Mr Dixon, Premier Ted Baillieu and their local MP.

''For many children, [Christian religious education] is their only introduction to the values that underpin a biblical understanding of God, the world, themselves and others,'' the group says on its website.

Primary students must attend religious education classes, which are run by volunteers, for half an hour every week, unless their parents choose for them to opt out.

Three parents are claiming in the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission that the Education Department segregates children on religious grounds and discriminates by forcing children to opt out rather than opting in if they want religious education.

They are also questioning the interpretation of legislation that says religious instruction ''may be given'' in a government school, which the Education Department says means ''must be given''.

Mr Dixon ruled out changing the program to ''opt in'' rather than ''opt out'', or introducing ethics classes as a secular alternative, as is the case in NSW.

''It's not on our agenda at all,'' he said.

''Other than a flurry of discussion at the moment, it has never really been raised as an issue.''

Mr Dixon said volunteers understood that proselytising was not allowed under the special religious instruction guidelines. ''It is important for Access Ministries to be resourced well enough to offer training and also to monitor the instructors,'' he said.

One of the parents in the court case, Sophie Aitken, said her son was given Lego to play with at the back of the classroom after she and her husband chose to have him opt out of special religious instruction at Ivanhoe East Primary. ''I think he must have listened in to the special religious instruction, because I remember him coming home and saying things like ''God made the world'', said Ms Aitken, an atheist whose father was a Holocaust refugee.

''In a multicultural society like ours, I am appalled that our state schools would promote one particular faith over all other world views, and would remove children whose families have different beliefs from the class.''

Ms Aitken could not believe her son was told he was not allowed to work on a school project while the rest of the class had their religious instruction: ''This is clearly discriminatory.''

She said children should be taught by qualified teachers during school time, not volunteers from a church.