It's tough being super wealthy

We're one of the forgotten minority groups actually: the wealthiest 1%. Even the gays are at 4%. It's lucky my good mates Joel Fitzgibbon and Tony Abbott are sticking up for us. And Simon Crean I guess, but recently he's a bit of a liability. Poor bloke.

Sure, we earn more than 99% of Australians, but every cent counts. That's why it's good to avoid tax, and superannuation contributions are unbeatable for that. On top of the super we've saved for ourselves, the Government gives us a lovely tax break - $16,000 a year on average, for your whole life! It's like the aged pension that the poorer folks get - except more money, and you don't actually have to live on it. It's swell!

Some group called GetUp started a campaign on FaceTube for "fairer" super last week and it's really got me worried. Their video (which looks perfectly fair to me - I love cake) is one of the most watched in the country. They're claiming it's unfair just because we get more tax breaks, while the rest of the country gets a pension below the poverty line. I think it's unfair that the newspapers we own keep covering their campaign so much.

Check out this delicious video they've made (but don't share it around because I want to keep having my cake and eating it too):

Super vid hero
http://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/superannuation/super-for-some

Fortunately we have a plan: misinformation. It's actually quite clever. Tony Abbott and Simon Crean have come out with some brilliant media lines about "raiding superannuation". Not to brag, but I was actually the person who suggested putting the word super in front of "dumb" in today's Daily Tele...nailed it! We want everyone to think that the plan is to withdraw money from our accounts - it's not true, but only idiots let the truth get in the way of a good story! There actually is no plan to raid anyone's super (including mine) but there are plans to make a dent in my huge tax break and I'm not about to let that money go to some hippy new age cause like education without a fight!

Anyhoo - our misinformation campaign is working a treat, because the Government are so hopeless at explaining things! They're not even talking about it, they're just letting Tony Abbott and bitter Labor backbenchers describe their plan for them!

My main concern now is what to do if people actually start listening to information put out by economists and social justice groups instead of the politicians and the conservative media. Information like this GetUp video and this new report by the economists at The Australia Institute. I've just learned that there are hundreds of thousands of GetUp members - if they all start forwarding the video around to their friends on the interwebs, people might start to think that our tax breaks should be used to help kids and disabled people!

I forgot to mention - my mate Tony Abbott is reforming superannuation too, but his plan is genius. Instead of cutting tax breaks for the super wealthy, he's going to scrap the low income tax contribution. Sure, 3.1 million of the least well off Australians will have less super as a result, but that's only fair. After all, if they just stopped taking time out to care for kids and ageing parents they could be super-wealthy too. Thank god for Tony.

Please, help me stand up to GetUp and protect government handouts to Australia's long suffering minority - the richest 1%.

Thank you,

Ima Very Richman

PS - For the straight facts (untarnished by Ima) please click here to watch and share the video, read the FAQs and the new Australian Institute research, watch GetUp National Director Sam McLean's media response to Joel Fitzgibbon's claims and sign the petition which we will deliver to Canberra (it may involve some cake) next week. http://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/superannuation/super-for-some

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you'd like to contribute to help fund GetUp's work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Authorised by Sam Mclean, Level 2, 104 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010.

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