It was good to hear of a move at last on this section of tax avoiders.  

During his announcement he said ‘‘those who don’t pay their fair share of tax are putting a burden on those that do’’. 

 This reminded me of the late Kerry Packer boasting how easily he could beat the tax system by only paying 5¢ in the dollar; was he challenging the government to close the absurd tax deducting loopholes?

If Joe Hockey really believes what he says, why doesn’t he close the lucrative loopholes and tax deductions the wealthy have enjoyed for decades? Come on Joe give us a level playing field.

R Connell, Dapto

The Abbott government’s generous incentives towards paid child care allowances for families is to discourage parental care and entice more young people to go back to work after having children, so that they can continue to pay taxes and work longer hours for fixed wages.

  How else can we support our increasing population who are retired and on the pension?  

These young people are already paying for their education and retirement; they need support, not servitude! 

 Instead, we need the government supporting families to look after their children and the elderly; this would inevitably save billions of dollars spent on building childcare centres, aged-care facilities and hospitals.   

Patricia Bohackyj, Towradgi

The level of importance the government places on NAPLAN was easily identifiable last week.

During the first test on language conventions, one particular year 5 class from a local public school had a battle with the Z-grade pencils issued.  

Rather than spend the first 15 minutes concentrating on the test,  many students were fighting to maintain an unbroken piece of graphite (lead pencil). 

 Well done to the government officials who thought best to cut costs and supply the students with crap materials.  Only a minor added stress I hear you say, nevertheless an added one.

Students first!  

That’s as laughable as the pencils. 

Col Jones, Dapto

Joe Hockey is wrong when he says some workers are double-dipping paid parental leave, vowing he will stop this practice when his government’s paid leave scheme commences in two years’ time.  Woolworths workers get an additional eight weeks over and above the government paid 18 weeks’ leave.

Victorian nurses get an additional 10. 

Myer workers get six weeks and McDonald’s workers get eight weeks, for example.

 Working families have included extra parental leave in their enterprise bargains with employers, but they have sacrificed pay increases to get it.

 Under the new scheme the government will only pay Victorian nurses eight weeks’ maternity leave. 

In other words Joe’s going to take the nurses’ hard won extra entitlement money and put it in his pocket.

Employers pay extra parental leave because it helps attract good workers. 

This will cease when the government grabs the money.

 What a lousy penny pinching government we have.

John Macleod, Berry