$200 voucher

[buggerlugs]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/q...46:doh:doh:doh
And we Australians voted these clowns in. Don't both sides of politics come up with some corkers , I thought we were supposed to be broke !! May as well throw in a plasma as well............

[Bushbasher]

...

[ford71V8]

Ridiculous stuff. Embarrassing actually.


This bit though:

Mr Gray joked: "I don't need a psychologist or a counsellor to tell me I should do what I'm told.''

haha, you got married son, you've already got someone to tell you what to do now!

[BHDOGS]

Long as ur not gay that is then abbot says no

[2011G6E]

Money for newlyweds, the baby bonus...

Makes you wonder how we all managed to raise kids in the old days...

[Franco Cozzo]

Wait until gay marriage comes through then we'll all marry each other, sell the vouchers for $100 on ebay and then divorce and split the $$$ between all of us.

[cheap]

Useless utterly useless.

Just wait for the bogans to exploit this looney scheme. I wonder how many goes you get till you find your perfect match...

[stev3n]

Might be time to start my own councelling business

[Polyal]

Thats pretty unreal...homeless on the streets and we are giving vouchers for newlyweds...you need that voucher after the first year atleast. Even then it will get you a 30 min session..LOL

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by Polyal

Thats pretty unreal...homeless on the streets and we are giving vouchers for newlyweds...you need that voucher after the first year atleast. Even then it will get you a 30 min session..LOL

When I got hitched just over 3 years ago the priest insisted we attend pre-marriage classes. He then gave me a leaflet of all the places these group style sessions were being run. It's actually astounding that within 5km of my place there were around a dozen accredited places running these courses. You needed to enroll by fax and per pay by credit card. Many were booked out, ours cost around the $180 mark.

Boring as all hell. Discussed respect, communication, family planning, we needed to get into groups and 'share'... you could see the look on everyone's face 'we are here caus we have to be, not because we want to be'. Asking around, all were forced to attend or the priest wouldn't marry them.

I have no clue as to what they think $200 will contribute to a wedding, the average cost of the last 4 weddings I have attended has been circa $40k.

[sneaky]

surely the $20mil could be better spent elsewhere.

do the churches run these courses or get kick backs? wonder if abbott's church mates got him to bring it in so they can get a slice of the money indirectly.

and as someone said the $200 will only get 30 mintes, or an hour at most - will that actually make any difference to a relationship? i've been married for 8 years this year and it didn't cost me $200 to learn that i had to do what i was told, i've paid my whole income for that pleasure

[ford71V8]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

When I got hitched just over 3 years ago the priest insisted we attend pre-marriage classes. He then gave me a leaflet of all the places these group style sessions were being run. It's actually astounding that within 5km of my place there were around a dozen accredited places running these courses. You needed to enroll by fax and per pay by credit card. Many were booked out, ours cost around the $180 mark.

Boring as all hell. Discussed respect, communication, family planning, we needed to get into groups and 'share'... you could see the look on everyone's face 'we are here caus we have to be, not because we want to be'. Asking around, all were forced to attend or the priest wouldn't marry them.

I have no clue as to what they think $200 will contribute to a wedding, the average cost of the last 4 weddings I have attended has been circa $40k.

Why would people do this rubbish if they don't want to? I never understand stuff like this - just say No?
Seems dumb.

Our thoughts at home on this voucher nonsense ended up being that most weddings will have an extra $200 thrown over the bar.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

Why would people do this rubbish if they don't want to? I never understand stuff like this - just say No?
Seems dumb.

Our thoughts at home on this voucher nonsense ended up being that most weddings will have an extra $200 thrown over the bar.

Priest wouldn't marry us unless we did it....

At the time, I asked around recently married friends (because we had never heard of such a thing), and 19 of the 20 or so couples at that time did the course.

[ford71V8]

I'd have been looking for someone else to marry us then :-)

19 from 20. that surprises me a lot.

I know my bro-in-law and dumb-sis did something similar before getting hitched.
I laughed at the idea. She thought it was important. I thought she was an idiot.
They divorced about 4 years ago.

[sneaky]

yep our friends married in the church had to go to the course. from what i rememeber of them telling me it was just asking each of them seperately about how many kids they want/who will raise them, who will be bread winner, etc. probably stuff people should think of or talk about before that stage in a relationship.

i however was married by a celebrant at a beach - no such course. we had a chat with her and a quick run through the ceremony a few weeks out. but our vows/promises to each other included stuff about me being able to spend money on cars and play xbox as long as she could spend what she wanted on hair products, etc.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

I'd have been looking for someone else to marry us then :-)

19 from 20. that surprises me a lot.

I know my bro-in-law and dumb-sis did something similar before getting hitched.
I laughed at the idea. She thought it was important. I thought she was an idiot.
They divorced about 4 years ago.

No time to shop around :-). Proposal to big day was 3 months. Lots of places were already booked out. Did well under pressure, arranged church, venue, cars, cake, flowers and suits in 3 weeks!

[ford71V8]

haha, 3weeks, good effort!

[cs123]

I'm going to become a counsellor. If you come and see me the course will involve drinking $200 of alcoholic beverages. We can also discuss how hot your future wife looks.

[ILLaViTaR]

ah yes.. the look after the already fortunate. Reminds me of work-choices. Except there's no need for this ridiculous expense from any side of the argument.

Suck from the 80% for the 20%.

[buggerlugs]

Mate of mine has been married 4 times. We call him Elizabeth Taylor. He reckons he is due for $800 worth of vouchers.........

[nuthin' fancy]

Check the ABN history of your marriage counsellor, they went from insulation to solar to marriage counselling.