Super funds prove less than wonderful

HUNDREDS of thousands of superannuation investors would have been better off forgoing the government's tax breaks on contributions and putting their money in the bank, internal industry figures have revealed.

Email from Vodafone

Hi Alan,

We're investing $1 billion to bring you better indoor coverage, faster downloads and a stronger signal than before from Vodafone.
We've been busy working in your area upgrading sites, replacing network equipment, and building a new 850MHz network great for smart phones and mobile broadband. There's a lot happening in your area - we hope you're noticing the difference. Check out the maps below to see what's happening where and when.

We've also been busy improving our customer care services, to make it more convenient for you to contact us and give you more control over your mobile and your bill.

Balance Alerts – now you can keep tabs on your bill with SMS Balance Alerts. We'll send you an SMS when your next bill is getting close to your chosen limit. Click here to activate.

24/7 Customer Care – we're now keeping our care centres open day & night, so you can reach us anytime on 1555 (free from your Vodafone mobile).

More to come:
We're not stopping here. We're committed to keep improving our network & customer care services for you. So keep an ear out for more improvements & new services coming soon.

Regards,
The Vodafone Team

Yes…I am a Vodafone customer. Thing is I have not had any problems with them, admittedly I am a light user of phone, TXT and MMS. I have the $20 SIM card with 50MB of data. This is GPRS not 3G and works well for my needs to read news and weather. I can even access my CCTV DVR system at home:

Above: Live CCTV camera video over the web from home.

Example of Camera 3 monitoring the backyard on my Nokia E63  over Vodafone GPRS accessing my CCTV-DVR PC at home on BigPond cable. You can see the system here:

http://alanm52.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/8ch-home-pc-cctv-system-dvr-card/

http://alanm52.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/cctv-dvr-updates/

Update: Telstra Home TV Bundle

One of the things I did back in July 2010 when I retired from work (nice) was to rationalise and consolidate all our finance stuff like banking and super, household utilities and – entertainment. After a bit of research decided to sign up for the Telstra Home TV bundle for $198/mth which includes HomeLine Reach, BigPond Elite Cable 25GB and Foxtel Platinum iQ.

Since then the bundles have been upgraded, 25GB is now 100GB,  so I jumped onto Whirlpool to see if people were getting free upgrades – they were. Rang Telstra and arranged for the upgrade to 100GB without any issues and was informed it would take 4 –5 days. That was on Saturday, today received a email from Telstra that the upgrade was complete and we are now on 100GB for the same monthly $198 – happy with that!

Sneaky smart-meter price hike on Melbourne Cup eve | News.com.au

MONEY-hungry power companies will hit households an extra $1.1 billion to install smart meters after winning approval for hikes on the eve of the Melbourne Cup.

 

The decision will lead to bill increases of about $60 a year just in meter charges, and will take the gloss off any interest rate cut tipped to be announced today, the Herald Sun reported.

The Australian Energy Regulator has been forced to back down on efforts to limit smart meter installation costs to about $760 million, between 2012 and 2015.

The Australian to charge for online content

 

Australian to charge $2.95 a week for all online content

Tim Dick

October 18, 2011 - 2:02PM

News Ltd will soon charge readers of The Australian $2.95 a week to view all content on its website and mobile phone and tablet applications, as the country's largest newspaper publisher experiments with alternative sources of revenue in the face of falling advertising receipts.

It will be the first paywall for a general newspaper in Australia, an experiment that has achieved mixed success overseas by newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, the Financial Times and The Economist.

CCTV-DVR updates

I purchased two of these kits (clearance items) from Officeworks online for $50 each.

MP pay boost

MP pay boost: One-off pay hikes of up to $300,000 a year for bureaucrats opens up moves to raise pay packets of Federal Members.

 

 

One-off pay hikes of up to $300,000 a year have been approved for high-ranking bureaucrats. Picture: Supplied Source: Herald Sun

FEDERAL politicians could be set for extraordinary pay rises, with the salaries of backbenchers tipped to almost double to $250,000.

Writing exclusively in The Daily Telegraph today, columnist Laurie Oakes said MPs expected backbencher and senator base salaries to rise $110,000 from $140,000.

The Prime Minister's, ministers' and shadow ministers' even bigger paypackets may also rise in line.

The Federal Remuneration Tribunal is expected to make an initial report on political perks before the end of the year, with politicians expecting to trade extra payments such as allowances for bigger personal pay packets.

Any pay rise would likely trigger anger among unions, already unhappy about revelations this week the Tribunal was set to award five key top federal public servants pay rises of $250,000 to $300,000 - taking the chiefs of Defence and Customs, the Tax Commissioner, Auditor-General and the Australian Statistician to $800,000.

MPs receive a raft of handouts on top of their salaries including electorate allowances of up to $50,000, printing allowances of $75,000, a resettlement allowance when they lose office and post-career perks such as life gold passes for free domestic travel.

Ms Gillard, who earns $366,366, could earn as much as $650,000 under any new system, while Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's $259,000 could rise to $479,000.

The Tribunal would not say whether any rises would flow on to state and local governments, as can occur with annual rises.

This week increases to NSW MPs' pay and entitlements were capped at 2.5 per cent.

Community and Public Sector Union assistant national secretary Louise Persse said such big pay rises were not a good look when its members were being told to accept pay rises of 3 per cent.

"There is no doubt that our public service heads and politicians work hard and should be paid appropriately," she said.

"However, for the thousands of public sector staff across Australia on modest incomes, these increases may seem a bit rich."

Opposition frontbencher Barnaby Joyce, who has called for the Prime Minister's salary to top $1 million, backed paying politicians more but said he would be surprised if the rise was so much.

MP pay boost: One-off pay hikes of up to $300,000 a year for bureaucrats opens up moves to raise paypackets of Federal Members | News.com.au