The year in comments

ninemsn readers were a vocal group this year and our debates and forums allowed them to share their thoughts with the world.

The federal budget in May drew the most comments this year, with more than 1100 comments on Money's pre- and post-budget forums post-budget forums. Many were angry at what they saw as a snub for seniors in Treasurer Wayne Swan's first budget. Delivered against a backdrop of high interest rates and soaring petrol prices, many readers felt pensioners had been left out.

"As usual the politicians talk the big talk and then at crunch time, the poor pensioner gets nothing again," said Lurch from Victoria on the post-budget forum. "We toiled for 50 years with the hope of being able to relax and maybe enjoy our senior years in retirement." Elsewhere, there was a mixed reception for Wayne Swan's budget, with many couples on a combined income of more than $150,000 per annum surprised to find themselves being labelled as "rich".

"I am well past the years of producing children but quite incensed by the implications that a couple on $150,000 per year is rich," said Sandi from Perth. "To remove the baby bonus for young professional couples who have strived to educate themselves — and pay astronomical HECS debts — is ludicrous."

Pensioners were also the focus of a raft of comments in September after politicians, including the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Deputy PM, admitted they couldn't live on the $273 per week provided by the single-aged pension.

Ash of Newcastle, one of several hundred contributors, had a chilling story of his experiences with pensioners as a medical student. "I am a medical student in Newcastle and almost every patient over the age of 70 that I see is suffering from malnutrition," he wrote. "Most of our pensioners cannot afford to eat properly, partly because the life expectancy has gone up more than 10 years in the last 50. Few of these people expected to have to save for 30 years."

Forums on interest rates were heavily patronised all year.

The first half of the year was dominated by rising rates and the rapidity with which retail banks passed on their own rate rises, sometimes independently of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The second part of the year, however, saw readers complaining about the snail-like pace at which those same banks were passing on the deep cuts to rates made by the RBA since September.

Petrol prices, which peaked mid-year, also got readers hot under the collar before the global financial crisis saw oil prices plummet in the second half of the year. Some of the more than 500 contributors to our forum at the time were alarmed at the speed at which rises in the oil price were passed on.

"I heard on the news yesterday morning that for the first time ever, a barrel of Jed Clampett's fortune hit $100," wrote one contributor in January. "Two hours later, I drove up Sydney Road (at 10am), [and] already the price per litre had hit $1.479 . I trembled with fear, 'Is this because of the $100 per barrel?' How did they get a delivery of the expensive stuff so soon? There goes taking the grandkids for a nice drive and a picnic."

The final topic that got ninemsn Money readers hot under the collar this year was the hotly debated subject of which government, since the World War II, has done the best job of running the economy.

More than 400 readers joined the debate, but there was no overall winner with Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, John Howard and Peter Costello all getting mentions as economic king.