The future fund I mentioned in my letter to The Age newspaper yesterday, was set up from the proceeds of the sale of our home grown Telstra. It represents most of the second half of the sale. The idea is that it will be invested by the future fund managers for the next decade and then be worth $140 billion. The current government thinks this should be used to pay the unfunded liabilities for the super-annuation for the Public Servants.
The Public servants have a very generous super and currently are paid out of pay as you go government payments. This could continue into the future.
When the government sold the second half of Telstra they had to bribe the investors with generous dividends. The money they raised should of been used for the benefit of all of us. It was part of our common wealth and should of been seen as that. Historically we have used our common wealth to pay for large infrastructure projects and through taxes and charges the costs are repaid over the decades by all of us.
The profits from the sale of Telstra should never of gone into a future fund that couldn't be used to help all of society. From memory the Super fund wasn't ever debated properly and the government used their numbers in the house to get it though.
Shame on them. And for Mr. Costello to talk about opposition members getting their hands in the honey pot, he was seen to be playing the international money markets with our money and loosing millions. He's no genius when it comes to money management, though he likes us to think he is.
Woof.
Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com
