I wonder what has happened, and gone wrong with the world. While I missed the Q&A episode in which Duncan Storrar asked a question about lifting the tax bracket for those on $80K, but no lift in the tax bracket for lower income earners, was a reasonable question.
However, Q&A made it appear he was hard done by, and couldn’t afford to give his children some special treats like going to the movies. The Australian, see article on Duncan Storer, and followed through and did some fact checking on the information and published. To date, there has been a wild fire with abuse from both sides of the debate as to digging up dirt, to threats against the newspaper etc.
While I have no issue with Duncan’s question about whether the tax threshold could be raised for low income earners, as there were concessions given at the higher levels, as well as corporations put on notice for shifting income off-shore, the issue I have is that Q&A, the ABC and those that do the fact checking missed that Duncan (from all appearances), hasn’t paid income tax for a while, which would make his statement that raising the tax-free threshold would have helped him, but it also appears that he is a company director, which means if he is in receipt of Centrelink payments, that he may have obtained those payments illegally.
So, we have a very good question being asked on one hand, yet the person asking it (who in turn has said that he is being impacted by it not being done), has not only muddied the water around the actual question, but has given the public a false sense of who he really is.
Does this give everyone the right to resort to violence, and threats of violence. Not at all. Should Duncan be vilified. No. Should Q&A and maybe the ABC be held accountable for making sure that people asking the vetted questions won’t make a fool of them. Yes.
Have any of us, done things that we wish we hadn’t done. Of course.
Should we all expect a hand out – no. Centrelink benefits are there to help people out in times of need, and there are rules around those who get the payments. If you falsify your background etc to get those payments, and then are found out, then expect to have to pay the monies back.
If it had been a ‘Malcom Turnbull’ or ‘Rupert Murdoch’ that had said we need a tax break because we are doing it has and had claimed benefits from Centrelink, and it is being investigated, then there would be an uproar about it, and wanting their heads, but because Duncan (who had his 15 minutes of fame) because of Q&A and the ABC, has been caught up in legal issues now, everyone else who has said he’s not the hero that he is being made out to be is a villain and his background shouldn’t have been questioned.
It was his family that came forward, and said, hey – he’s not what people are making him out to be.
So please think of this – the question Duncan asked was valid – but the fact he said he was doing it hard, and couldn’t afford to do things with his children, on the surface appears to be a fabrication and that he is actually rorting the system that is in place to help those in need.