Cannabis use rises in indigenous areas...

[Guest Urbanhog]

I think we pay enough taxes, we are one of the highest taxing countries in the world, 47% for wages over $50,000, it was on "Today Tonight" current affiars on TV other night, and in Singapore they only tax 24% if you earned more than $400,000, unbelieveable.........

[Dr Doug]

So if pot is legalised Pot growers should be exempt from paying tax and use roads and hospitals for free. I know about paying tax I earned $46000 in one year and had to pay $14000 in direct income tax leaving $32000. Austaralia is one of the best,if not the best,place to live in the world. It doesnt come cheap. One of the biggest wastes of taxpayers money is the huge cost of policing the drug problem. If no one paid tax there would be on rule for the rich and one rule for the poor.Mind you if the polies stopped wasting taxes things would be a lot better.

[Green Finned Demon]

'Today Tonight ' is not a current affairs program. It is a very dumbed down infotainment show that is totally unreliable and presents a simplified reflection of the world view of the super rich station owners. Singapore is a 3rd world dump where huge numbers of people live in filth misery and poverty and Australia should not be compared to it.

 

A proper comparison would be with other OECD countries. We are now one of the least taxed developed nations because everyone believes all this tax crap and the way to get elected now is to make simplistic tax cut promises and promise to defend us from the evil Saddam Hussain RFLMAO. We should go back to the level of taxes we had in the 70's. Look at the schools, hospitals, services, universities, roads and our joke of a defence force. Why do they stink now when they used to be excellent? Too many tax cuts and moving the weight of tax from the rich on to the poor through mechanisms like the GST.

 

Yes smoking is a better option than alcohol or petrol for aborigines.

[Dr Doug]

Our Defence force is not a joke. The problem with defending Australia is the sheer size of the country and the limited population. As for the evil Saddam Hussaim after terrorists have been kicked out of Afghanistan no of course they would not go to Iraq.No Hussain would not provide them the means to strike at Australia or America. As for simplistic measures trying to go back in time to the seveties or fifties or some other golden age is just that.If you want to have a go at tax why do you bring up labours old provisional tax.pay tax before you earn any money or getting tax at the highest rate when you get a second job. You complain about too many tax cuts not enough I say. Kick a few of these politicans off their overpaid pensions. Why is the schools,hospitals etc need taxes but these tax-payer funded studies that say drugs are the root of all evil dont have a problem getting funds? Any studies that say change the laws are buried or cut to due to lack of funds.My point with the aborigines (Im 25% honorary aborigine My great-grandfather founded Cherbourg mission in Queensland in 1901)is that like any community exposed to drugs leagal and illegal is that they end up smoking pot because of the it has the least side-effects.The classic statement is usually "it doesnt give me a hang-over". Friends and relatives like them smoking because they do stupid things when they are drunk or on other drugs. Yes me and my friends are classic examples of this. This is why we smoke.The Amphetamine problem is due to the age-old senario of buying pot illegaly and putting exposed to crime though the act of the sale not through the nature of pot itself.