The Queensland Flood Tax Levy...thingy...

So at the moment there's been a huge debate as to where the government will get the money to rebuild the parts of Queensland that were destroyed by floods.

Queensland would also like you to know that just because the area flooded is the size of Spain, Queensland itself is the size of Europe. So please, please, please, pretty please come to Queensland, Home of the Floods Ex-Prime Minister Bob Katter um, Gold Coast.

Anyway. The fact remains that dear old God has left the Australian government the dilemma of pulling together billions from nowhere. Wherever they take it from they're gonna piss off somebody, and when you're a minority government you really don't want to piss off anybody.

Bob Katter, in his normal Mad Hatter way, is now claiming that if victims of the Queensland floods get monetary support than the people of his electorate should get money too. We really don't understand his logic - it's like Queen Victoria demanding the baby bonus. Bob Katter is...well, he's quite...he's nuts.

Tony Abbot has been whining on and on about how all our problems will be solved if we cut the promised Broadband scheme, but then again, just as we are in 2011 battling the floods he's in the last century battling the suffragettes and the first-wave feminists. Half the time he doesn't know what he's talking about and the rest of the time he's apologising/clarifying/denying things that he has said, and inexplicably surrounding himself with female family members to prove that he's all pro-woman and all of that, which he is not.

So far the government has cut some funding to education and teaching and all that jazz, and they're thinking of imposing a levy. For those of you who think 'Levy' and then 'American Pie', a levy is basically just an increase in taxes for a period of time.

I really don't know what to say on the matter because I am not a taxpayer, and from a non-taxpayer's point of view it seems reasonable that the nation pulls together and pitches in - it's supposedly a very Australian thing to do. But what I fail to see is that why, with all our 'Australian spirit' and all of that, a levy is necessary at all - surely if we were all 'dinky-dy' Australians with 'Australian values' those of us who could donate would have already, and so we really shouldn't impose a tax on people who may not be able to cope with it. It's sort of like imposed generousity, no? Hah, it's like society.

I personally think that the churches and the insurance companies should pay for it, because both of these organizations are clucking on about 'Act of God'. If it's an 'Act of God' why don't you do something godly about it, for God's sake?