The head of one of Australia's most prestigious medical schools has described Joe Hockey's comment that children born today could live to 150 years of age as a "reasonable assumption", while Labor has called it the Treasurer's "Sarah Palin moment". 

On Monday, as Mr Hockey renewed his push to sell the budget, he raised the prospect of Australians living to 150 to explain why they should accept cuts to government benefits and pay a greater share of their health costs.

Speaking to Melbourne's 3AW, the Treasurer flagged a frank approach regarding the longer term economic challenges confronting the nation's finances, in the hope of securing greater voter support for sometimes painful changes.

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/joe-hockeys-comments-on-living-to-150-a-sarah-palin-moment-says-bill-shorten-20150119-12tbvn.html

I agree with the old prof... Living with metal plates everywhere in the joints, memory chip implanted in the caboosh, artificial hands and a Cassadra (see Dr Who) moisturised skin stretched between goal posts, is possible... I'd like to see that.

The treasurer, Joe Hockey, has again said Australians work six months of the year for the government – a claim that is untrue since the top marginal tax rate of 45 cents in the dollar cuts in only for earnings over $180,000.

Hockey said in an interview on Melbourne’s 3AW: “I want to give families a bit of a break with cost of living and that’s certainly Tony Abbott’s very strong view. We should put more money into the pockets of Australians. It’s their money. When Australians spend the first six months of the year working for the government with tax rates nearly 50 cents in the dollar, it’s a disincentive.”

“You’re working July, August, September, October, November, December just for the government and then you start working for yourself and your own household income after that for another six months, it is a disincentive, so we’ve got to bear that in mind. We’ve got to bear in mind that bracket creep is going to take middle-income Australians into the second-highest tax bracket over the next few years, which is a disincentive for people to work,” he said.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jan/19/joe-hockey-repeats-incorrect-claim-that-half-of-peoples-income-goes-on-taxes

Billionaires and politicians gathering in Switzerland this week will come under pressure to tackle rising inequality after a study found that – on current trends – by next year, 1% of the world’s population will own more wealth than the other 99%.