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Andrew Dickens: It's time for the Government to back our seniors · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Yesterday, pension has marched on Parliament demanding that politicians remember them.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't covered on the one news and I don't
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  Speaker 1: know why. Actually I do know why. Doesn't surprise me anyway.
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  Speaker 1: But what were they worried about. Well, one of the
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  Speaker 1: biggest things on their mind is the rules around retirement villages.
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  Speaker 1: And here is an example that has been quoted about
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  Speaker 1: a couple who've been in a retirement village for ten years,
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  Speaker 1: but they realized that they needed more care, so they
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  Speaker 1: decided to move out and find a more appropriate place
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  Speaker 1: to live. Now back in the day, ten years beforehand,
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  Speaker 1: they bought their villa for six hundred thousand dollars, but
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  Speaker 1: under the current situation, they'll only get four hundred thousand
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  Speaker 1: dollars of that money back, so no capital gain at all.
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  Speaker 1: The village is then free to on sell the villa,
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  Speaker 1: which is now valued at one point two million, and
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  Speaker 1: they don't have to pay the couples four hundred thousand
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  Speaker 1: dollars back until they find someone to take over the license.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes that can take up to two years. So the
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  Speaker 1: couple bought a six hundred thousand dollars house that's being
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  Speaker 1: sold by the village for one point two million, and
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  Speaker 1: all the couple get is four hundred grand and it
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  Speaker 1: may take two years. That's harsh, right, No capital gain
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  Speaker 1: in fact a loss, no funds at all on the
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  Speaker 1: bank until the village decides to relcense. The only way
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  Speaker 1: a village works for you is if you stay in
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  Speaker 1: it till the day you die. But you will not
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  Speaker 1: be passing on any capital gains to your kids. You're
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  Speaker 1: going to lose half your capital at least. That is
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  Speaker 1: the deal, and that's the way it's been running for
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  Speaker 1: a while now. Back in the day, Labour's Ingrid Leary
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  Speaker 1: promised to do something about this, but of course they
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  Speaker 1: lost the election. Now the government continues to say they
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  Speaker 1: support our seniors. They also say they're railing against taxes
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  Speaker 1: on capital gains, but nothing's really been happening. Our seniors
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  Speaker 1: are being hit with basically a de facto capital gains
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  Speaker 1: tax that far exceeds anything Labor has suggested. So I
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  Speaker 1: think it might be time for the current government to
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  Speaker 1: walk the walk that you've been walking and talk the
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  Speaker 1: talk that you've been talking but also not doing. Let's
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  Speaker 1: do something about it. Let's not ruin our seniors last
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  Speaker 1: days by taking too much of the money they spent
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  Speaker 1: their whole life working to have. For more from Early
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  Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks at
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