LETTERS from readers, October 2019
26 September 2019
Email voice@cpsa.org.au , if you would like to write to CPSA to have your views and comments published online and in the monthly print version of THE VOICE, CPSA’s newsletter.
0% Term Deposits?
23 August 2019
Getting no interest or, even worse, paying the bank interest over your own savings, is that something retirees and intending retirees are now countenancing or is there an alternative?
Bupa Eden’s 11th hour escape
23 August 2019
The goings-on at Bupa's nursing home in Eden weren't as dramatic as the wholesale abandonment of frail elderly residents at the Earle Haven nursing home on the Gold Coast, but it demonstrated once again that the new-broom Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission is an impotent and inadequate defender of the health and wellbeing of nursing home residents. Bupa and the Commission played a game of chicken: Bupa won.
Nursing homes are understaffed period
23 August 2019
Guest contributor, Dr Michael Wynne of the unfunded, grass roots advocacy organisation Aged Care Crisis explains why increasing staffing levels in nursing home is a prerequisite, not the be-al-and-end-all, of quality care in Australia's nursing homes.
Health funding or health profiteering crisis?
23 August 2019
Public debate on health centres on private health insurance and how unaffordable it has become and how inadequate. CPSA is an unlikely defender of private health insurance funds, but the funds are only secondary culprits, enablers of the primary culprits.
Is the Pharmacy Guild protecting you or itself?
23 August 2019
Pharmacies are among the best protected small businesses in Australia. The Pharmacy Guild wants you to believe that that is for your own good. But is it?
Poverty waits for no one, not even inquisitive senators
23 August 2019
It may be the best our federal Parliament can do right now, but people on Newstart deserve better than a Senate inquiry which is to report sometime next year.
Who let public housing down?
23 August 2019
OVER the last decade State and Territory Governments have allowed for over 20,000 public housing dwellings to be lost. In order to pick up the slack, non-profit providers have increased the amount of homes they operate but it is not keeping pace with demand.
Downsizing? Here’s how to dodge dodgy apartment buildings
23 August 2019
Downsizing into an apartment may be an attractive idea, but how do you find an apartment building without significant defects? A few tips to avoid the worst disasters.
LETTERS from readers, September 2019
23 August 2019
Email voice@cpsa.org.au , if you would like to write to CPSA to have your views and comments published online and in the monthly print version of THE VOICE, CPSA’s newsletter.
Earle Haven and Bupa Eden: Australia’s first two rogue nursing homes
22 July 2019
No clearer case and example of profit-over-people was on display in Queensland this July, where 70 nursing home residents were simply abandoned in their beds and wheelchairs over a commercial dispute between a principal and subcontractor. But New South Wales is not far behind. Bupa Australia may also be planning an abandonment of frail older people in its Eden 'facility' on 16 August 2019.
How deeming rates really work: who benefits the most and who benefits the least
22 July 2019
Deeming rates are not as simple as many think and many who think they are affected are not. Has the time come to can deeming rates altogether?
Warning, Danger, Flashing Lights: avoid DomaCom equity release!
22 July 2019
Home equity release is a polite term for hocking your house. Now there's a new way of paying home equity release providers even more for the privilege of taking over your house before you have died.
Australia’s first Ageing and Disability Commissioner
22 July 2019
NSW is the first jurisdiction in which an Office of Ageing and Disability Commissioner has been established. Other states and territories would do well to follow NSW’s lead.
Will new rules keep energy retailers in line?
22 July 2019
Energy companies, once the stodgiest but most reliable companies in Australia, joined the ranks of corporate spivs and rip-off merchants some years ago. Will the latest initiative by the ACCC reign them in?
Are you embedded electricity-wise?
22 July 2019
An embedded supply system sounds kind of exciting, but it's only water, gas and electricity we're talking about. How exciting or otherwise are embedded systems?
Here’s how to self-manage your externally self-managed super
22 July 2019
Self-managed super has flourished as a result of action taken by millions of Australians who were determined not to be ripped off by the financial sector. But how badly do people really want to self-manage their super? Are they now being ripped off by accountants, auditors and unsavoury financial planners? Enter industry fund HostPlus.
LETTERS from readers, August 2019
22 July 2019
Email voice@cpsa.org.au , if you would like to write to CPSA to have your views and comments published online and in the monthly print version of THE VOICE, CPSA’s newsletter.
Lower pension deeming rates now!
26 June 2019
WITH one interest rate now announced by the Reserve Bank and another one or two coming, it’s time the Australian Government reviewed the deeming rates used to assess the income pensioners get from their bank accounts and term deposits.
Find your rebates and discounts!
26 June 2019
THE NSW Government is now helping you find rebates and savings that are relevant to you. Service NSW has rolled out its Cost of Living service, which can identify which of the 70 rebates and savings you are eligible for.