So most of us will receive $950 from the rudd government...

[bourbon]

from what ive heard all of this is going in alphabetic order...not on when you done the tax return...

[SHANNON]

i got 1400 for the goverment...

950 back to school bonus for one child

and half of the ftb one...450 (i share custody)

[project.r.racing]

not bad shannon. and you'll get another $900 soon also. yippee for you.

[Rhys_Mazda323]

Originally Posted by bourbon

from what ive heard all of this is going in alphabetic order...not on when you done the tax return...

nooooo! lol

that blows

[bourbon]

not for Aaron A. Aaronson!

[Rhys_Mazda323]

dam him haha

[karamello]

is there somewhere on the net that has the info we need coz ive been hearing all sorts of rumours...

[project.r.racing]

ato website has all the details

[marcs_sp20]

This will clear this up: Straight from the ATO website...

Payments will start from early April 2009. People who have already had their tax returns assessed will be the first to receive their payment. The fastest way to receive payment is directly into your bank account.

The later you lodge your 2007-08 tax return, the longer it will take for you to get your payment.

So if you did your return on the 1st of July, you will receive your payment faster then someone who did it on the 18th of October...

[70NYD]

as per what i said before

[zappy65]

So are we actually getting this or not?....been hearing mixed opinions on whether or not it will happen?...

[bourbon]

its goin ahead...was goin through court yesterday...but passed again... theyll be doin themoney from next week...

[70NYD]

lol yeah i heard about the might not go thru.. aparently some ppls said that its unconstitutional and against the commonwealth for government to give out sums like this.. but i dont get it cus england is THE commonwealth and they allready gave two stimuli packages i beleive as did america (who WAS the comonwealth) but as per what bourbs said its going thru yay

[Clean_Cookie]

got it via centrelink yesterday.

[mussing]

Originally Posted by 70NYD

lol yeah i heard about the might not go thru.. aparently some ppls said that its unconstitutional and against the commonwealth for government to give out sums like this.. but i dont get it cus england is THE commonwealth and they allready gave two stimuli packages i beleive as did america (who WAS the comonwealth) but as per what bourbs said its going thru yay

When they say 'Commonwealth' they mean Commonwealth Government, ie the legislature in Australia. Have a look at the wikipedia entry for 'commonwealth', it'll clear up what it means.

As for the challenge to the economic stimulus package, basically, the Commonwealth is vested with the power to make legislation for a range of areas in Section 51 of the Constitution. So for example, there's a trade and commerce power, a taxation power, a corporations power, all this stuff dictating what the Australian federal government can legislate for, as opposed to the states, which can legislate with regard to health, education, emergency services etc that can't be dealt with at a federal level.

The challenge came from an academic who was concerned about the expansion of Commonwealth power, based on the belief that the Commonwealth could only justify the economic stimulus package under the taxation power in Section 51. The issue was the idea that the payments do not actually deal with tax, rather they are technically 'gifts' as they are tax-free. The problem was for the government to justify the legislation under a head of power in the constitution, which they managed to do in court just now. But as for their exact reasons, we won't know until they release the full judgements (usually months afterwards).

(Sorry sometimes I just feel compelled to jump into law student mode).

tl;dr - yes we are still getting teh monies. I already got $950 on Wednesday for being on youthallowance, and I'm in line for another $900 for the income bonus ^_^