Taxation Cruelty

Retired Papuan Officials

MANY people who are compelled to live in Australia complain of the extreme harshness of the Australian taxation sys tem, and Mr. J. T. Bensted, a retired offi cer of the Papuan Public Service, has drawn attention to a particularly flagrant example of taxation cruelty.

Papua is staffed by Australians; and when Papuan officials reach retiring age they naturally prefer to live in Australia, particularly as their pensions are paid in Australian currency. Certain of the earlier Papuan officials spent the better part of their lives under unenviable con ditions, and the retiring allowances actually were purchased by the officials from their meagre savings. Yet, the Tax ation Commissioner of New South Wales forces these men to pay unemployment re lief taxation upon their pensions.

“Surely,” says Mr. Bensted, “there is no equity in the State taxing an income to the earning of which it made no contri bution, and which was earned in the long ago outside the State, and under ex tremely adverse conditions: and further, for which tax the State will give abso lutely no return to the taxpayer? Actually these allowances represent ‘new’ money coming into the State, and, instead of driving these men away, one would expect the State to encourage them to settle here.”