When pensioners are ready to take off their tops and flash their bras to the world, you know they’re not going to be placated by one-liners from politicians along the lines of ‘we know it’s tough out there’.

Pensioners rightly feel ripped off by last week’s federal budget.

At a time when housing, fuel and grocery prices are soaring and many are struggling to even pay the rent, the government for so-called family battlers did precious little to help them.

And treasurer Wayne Swan did little to appease them when he admitted he couldn’t live on the basic pension.

Warana’s Bev Winiata, best illustrated the plight facing many elderly on the Sunshine Coast in a letter to the Daily published yesterday.

After getting her pension out last Thursday, she was sorting through the bills she had to pay.

The elderly guy next to her knew exactly what she was going through.

“His eyes filled with tears as he told me that his fortnightly rent was now more than his pension and so he was on his way to buy a tent but had no idea where he was going to pitch it,” Bev wrote.

“He openly sobbed as he told me he was 79 years old and had worked until he was 70. It broke my heart to see this old man in tears.

“Thanks prime minister Rudd for nothing.”

The sentiment was just as strong on Friday when up to 300 elderly citizens crammed the steps in front of the Flinders St Railway Station in Melbourne to push their cause.

After one man shed his top, other women joined in, putting aside their normal modesty to get their message across.

“If we don’t stick up for ourselves no one else is going to do it for us,” one grandmother said.

Pensioners told of how they struggled to pay bills and put food on their tables while politicians retired on pensions fit for kings. They are demanding the government give them another $100-a-week extra payment.

And if the results of an opinion poll published yesterday are anything to go by, this issue is not going to go away for our old Nambour High boys.

The poll found nearly 70 per cent of households with children fear they will end up being worse off or are unsure about last Tuesday’s budget. The survey found that people aged over 50 feel ripped off with 41 per cent pessimistic about the budget.

A total of 41 per cent of people aged over 50 believe they will be worse off, including 18 per cent who think they will be “much worse off”.

But those looking to the Opposition for a sense of hope will be sorely disappointed.

Opposition leader Brendan Nelson admitted there was a strong argument to increase the pension which can be as little as $270 a week for singles. But Dr Nelson, whose own government was not advocating a rise when it was in power, refused to make a commitment.

On the government side, Mr Swan argues there’s an extra $900 for pensioners and seniors in the budget, but admits many of them are doing it tough.

They sure are, and when they see politicians retiring on absurdly generous pension packages – or being given $300,000 a year overseas postings, it’s little wonder they’re ready to rage.

While every government has a responsibility to run a tight ship financially, if we can’t look after our most vulnerable, then what sort of a lucky country are we?

We owe our pensioners, many of whom have worked hard to build the country we now enjoy, a much better deal than the budget delivered.

Out of touch?
I really think our magistrates and judges need to get out a lot more.

Not only do they seem so out of touch on sentencing decisions, but some of their comments are just plain ridiculous.

Maroochydore magistrate Bernadette Callaghan took the prize last week when she suggested that violent assaults aren’t that prevalent in Mooloolaba and that she did not see that many of those sorts of offenders come before her.

The comments came just a couple of days after the Daily ran a headline questioning whether Mooloolaba was becoming ‘bash central’ after a series of incidents.

While police chiefs and magistrates seem always keen to downplay crime – and statistically speaking they may be right – I’d prefer to take the experience of cabbies – and cops on the street – as a far better litmus test of what’s really going on.

Terry Lawlor has been driving the streets of the Sunshine Coast for the past 15 years and was outraged at Ms Callaghan’s comments.

“In the last few months many of our cabs have gone into alarm because of passenger behaviour, a driver bashed, windows broken by a brick, panels kicked, fares not paid, and I think the worst and most dangerous of all, objects thrown at moving vehicles.”

Mr Lawlor believes a “short stay in the lock-up, community service, curfew and most definitely a no-alcohol clause” might be the best way to turn around the disturbing behaviour.

Couldn’t agree more Terry.