News Articles

THE VOICE Articles and Media Releases

Subscribe

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

News Article Categories

Latest Releases

Government MP denies Cashless Welfare Card risk to pensioners

28 April 2020

IN response to an earlier story on the Cashless Welfare Card, George Christensen MP sent CPSA the following email: "There is no intent by the Government to have welfare management for Age Pensioners. This has been repeatedly made clear. Please stop scaring your members unnecessarily. Your headline is really, really false and alarmist, and you should recall this email. Very disappointed." But Mr Christensen is mistaken, it seems.

Read more

Reverse mortgages no longer for spending the kids’ inheritance

28 April 2020

THE Banking Royal Commission continues to do good. From 1 July 2020, reverse mortgages will have to be marketed responsibly and ethically. Whether the best-interest test will weed out any remaining spivs is debatable, but the regulation of home equity release will certainly improve.

Read more

Taking super out early, a good idea?

28 April 2020

THE demands and pressures of the here and now may seem, and perhaps are more pressing than those of a distant future, but leaving your super alone if you can is the best strategy.

Read more

Hibernating aged care watchdog needs to wake up: pensioners

16 April 2020

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has suspended its regular compliance monitoring of nursing homes, replacing it with a ‘risk-based approach’, which appears to depend heavily on telephone contact and contact via Skype and Zoom with nursing homes. This means that the ACQSC to all intents and purposes has stopped entering nursing homes to do its statutory job of protecting nursing home residents when arguably their needs are highest given the coronavirus crisis.

Read more

Cashless Welfare Card for everyone, no ifs, no buts

24 March 2020

Australia seems to be headed towards an authoritarian form of social security with the Government telling people on a payment what they can buy and where they can buy it. A bit of cash pocket money is all they'll get. And the Minister for Social Services stubbornly refuses to rule out that Age Pensioners will maintain their current exemption.

Read more

Royal Commission: Make nursing home staff ratios mandatory!

25 February 2020

The biggest issue in residential aged care is staffing. Nursing home providers are against mandatory staff ratios, but unions and every right-thinking community group in Australia are in favor. Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is siding with the latter in his recommendations to the Commissioners.

Read more

Cashless welfare card for pensioners?

25 February 2020

Pensioners are becoming increasingly concerned about the cashless welfare card. It's bad enough for those forced onto it already, but pensioners rightly don't want to have a bar it. Problem is the Government refuses to rule out that pensioners, too, will have to shop with a card that restricts what they can buy and where they can buy it.

Read more

A good alternative to term deposits

25 February 2020

If you or someone you know is persisting with term deposits in the face of laughably low interest rates, there may be an alternative that is almost as safe but pays a lot more.

Read more