Brrrm! Brrrm! Both sides rev up the Budget chainsaw

PW says:

06:19am | 12/03/12

“You can not have an “independent” audit with an ex-conservative Premier (NSW, no less) at the helm without one becoming a bit cynical about the hidden agenda.”

Especially one who was forced to resign due to (in his own words) “technical corruption”. Interesting how these events have not in any way prevented Greiner commanding a massive salary in the private sector ever since and latterly as boss cocky of Infrastructure NSW.

By comparison, butter wouldn’t melt in Gillard’s mouth. Would Abbott really want this liability going in to bat for him?

acotrel says:

06:56am | 12/03/12

A conservative government promises to slash and burn and the current government plays ‘me too’ - why am I not surprised ?  A minute ago, at the same time the stock market took a hit,  Hockey, Joyce and Truss were talking down the economy to assist their own political aims.  Scant regard for business confidence !
Back in 2008 when Rudd used the stimulus to avert the worst of the GFC, the LNP whinged.  Don’t they yet understand that the game has changed ?
Everybody knows that Abbott is an idiot, why do the LNP persist with him ? That negativity is just what we don’t need in a downturn ! This latest effort is simply a continuation of ‘the biggest dummy spit in history’ !!

Labor is Toxic says:

08:12am | 12/03/12

@ Acotrel

Labor’s Budget that they took to the 2010 was supposed to generate a debt of $90B by the end of 2011-12. In the MYEFO Budget the debt is now budgeted to be $132B.

So with no Contingency Funding, literally no Disaster Relief Funding and, as I predicted, the economic growth is below that predicted ..... things are looking a bit grim.

So as you sit in your closet and you swallow what they feed you, I have to ask, “What part of ‘worthless, stupid, moronic, incompetent, useless, immature, obfuscating government’ don’t you understand??

Liberals Are Toxic says:

08:34am | 12/03/12

The Liberal Party today is an absolute disgrace compared to previous times. I and my family have voted Liberal all our lives but never never never again. This time I will be voting Labor the only party with progressive ideas and decent leadership

marley says:

08:38am | 12/03/12

@Liberals are Toxic - you said that yesterday, in one of your other identities.  And last week.  At least change the wording.  I’m getting bored with seeing the same posting over and over again.

John Lawrence ex 3RAR ( vietnam veteran) says:

09:13am | 12/03/12

@Marley, I would bet money that Acotrel and liberals are toxic are nothing more than Astroturfers paid to surf the net and attack the liberal govt.

David says:

09:19am | 12/03/12

If the Liberals are toxic , it would be impossible to find the words that would describe the utter poison that the ‘’ comrades ‘’ exude !!!!!

john says:

09:30am | 12/03/12

@Labor is Toxic “The debt is now budgeted to be $132B”

The real total picture is that total Australian debt is about 2.1 trillion dollars. Is that about 22 million dollars for each citizen?  LOL, No wonder labor wants more boats to spread the debt??

http://www.australiandebtclock.com.au/

Our external debt ratio is higher than the USA:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html

This will become a serious problem in the very near future.

Also the current US debt ceiling is 15 trillion and unless congress passes bills to lift the ceiling again the US won’t be able to pay its bills.

Now the USA is heading the way of Greece if it cannot turn the debt tide.

RyaN says:

10:02am | 12/03/12

—Labor party memo to propaganda agents—
—Cut and paste below onto as many forums as per your contract *remember not to include these comments.—

—Begin Script 12—

The Liberal Party today is an absolute disgrace compared to previous times. I and my family have voted Liberal all our lives but never never never again. This time I will be voting Labor the only party with progressive ideas and decent leadership.

—End Script 12 —

Labor is Toxic says:

10:09am | 12/03/12

@ Liberals are Toxic ....... $175B increase in debt over 4-years with liabilities now expected to exceed $400B, and not one of these “labor ideas” implemented, you just go bury your head in the sand.

@ John ..... that’s not national debt ..... it includes other forms of debt including, personal debt and company debt.

@ John Lawrence ex 3RAR ..... sorry mate, just a concerned citizen, not a member of party nor employed by any party, but we all know acotrel’s background.

@ Marley ....... when journalists start pubishing facts instead of conjecture, I will no longer need to reiterate these points. While I am often digusted by the Left Wing Platform that ‘The Punch’ provides the ALP for their propaganda and the unfactual comments published by ALP voters, I do appreciate “The Punch” for publishing the facts that I provide.

Shane From Melbourne says:

10:13am | 12/03/12

@John Lawrence- You mean there are people paid to bag the Liberal party? (Not a hard thing to do admittedly). Hell I was bagging the hell out of the Liberals just for kicks when I could have been paid for it… (sob)....

Craig2 says:

10:37am | 12/03/12

@marley: damn it! You beat me to it. Was going to say the same thing, absolute piss drivel and can’t even man up and write under one name. Shit effort.

marley says:

10:44am | 12/03/12

@Labor is Toxic - my comment wasn’t addressed to you, but to the astroturfer just below you on the thread.

Labor is Toxic says:

11:03am | 12/03/12

@ Graig

Wrote the whole fully referenced story for ‘The Punch” after the MYEFO was published. Still waiting for Journalists to “man up” and publish the truth!!

craig2 says:

11:42am | 12/03/12

@labor are toxic and dereck constantine: no connection in your thread from the weekend and today, no word for word, no name changing going on was there? Want to take both hands and feet out of your mouth now? Marley and I both picked you up, hell dereck, I even replied to your post on the weekend! Short memories mate.

Labor is Toxic says:

02:47pm | 12/03/12

Sorry Marley

Amused Qld says:

07:19am | 12/03/12

Well said, that is exactly the problem.

Mahhrat says:

07:28am | 12/03/12

@Sony:  I agree with this, nicely said - and I’m a public servant myself.

The biggest problem with the services at any level is the lack of performance indicators.  The second problem is management performing work - ie, non-management roles. 

Put more people “on the ground” and less people ” in the air”, set some realistic (hell, even generous!) targets and then ENFORCE THEM.

acotrel says:

07:54am | 12/03/12

@Mahrat
‘The second problem is management performing work - ie, non-management roles.  ‘

Ever heard of ‘leading by example’ ?  A good manager provides his workers with sufficient information and training, so that they can ‘self-manage’, effectively making his own role as manager redundant.  Then he can actually do some of the real stuff himself.
I agree with your comment about positive performance indicators and rewarding achievement by the team.

acotrel says:

08:07am | 12/03/12

@Sony
‘The democratic socialist experiment like all socialist experiments has been a failure. ‘

So China ,  Russia, North Korea, and Cuba have got it right ?
Perhaps the capitalist utopia will depend on slave labour ?

john says:

09:12am | 12/03/12

@Sony B Goode “Just look at Greece.”

That’s exactly where most countries in the EU & most likely the US & eventually Australia is heading its just a matter of different speeds for the race to the bottom. Australia as usual takes its time.

Not swimming in debt but drowning in debt.

That is why economic prosperity is about having a reasonable surplus every year, putting some away, and having a little splurge with the rest, to do things that make a country proud.

So far we are more inclined to stare down both barrels, just like Greece did, possibly apathy or as a sick joke to see what misery in debt “feels” like?

Have we sold out to asia,india etc., question remains what do we have left to fall back on, as the global “bust” bail out cycle takes hold, what will happen when the grand daddy of all debt from the US goes critical?

“Money” in all its forms is just an instrument to control rate of growth & act as an insurance policy not to screw the planet & inadvertently ourselves. Basically, for “money” to serve us well, we should not live beyond our means. It appears the Greeks might come out of it well compared to what other countries might end up like.

After all they have a few millennia of experience in these cycles.

Borderer says:

10:00am | 12/03/12

Well Gillard just seems to lump one tax burden after another on the middle income earners, using tag lines like “Rich” and “Capacity to pay”, then goes after those that are actually providing the jobs with super taxes and a union biased industrial law to drive their operations offshore. With a mining super tax, how many new mines will open? With unsustainable wage increases and industrial action how many big businesses will want to base operations here?

Shane, welfare isn’t welfare when you pay for it.
I get that you like the us v’s them idea, it allows you to externalise the perceived inequities in your life. We are all in the same boat, some of us row harder than the others, labor want to knock holes in the bottom to let the water out, they should not be in charge.

Shane From Melbourne says:

10:43am | 12/03/12

@Boarder- BS. No perceived inequalities, just plain fact that Liberal and Labor governments like to redistribute wealth from singles and childless couples to middle class families via the welfare system. If governments wanted to be fair and equal about it they would redistribute wealth via tax cuts applicable to all tax payers. As far as I’m concerned both parties can go to hell….each is bad as the other….

Call it like I see it says:

01:21pm | 12/03/12

If you don’t want to have children fine. Go live in a singles paradise. My children will pay for your medical up keep, defend you during a war, provide the services you will need as you and your generation grow old and retire. Shane you seem to be no different to acotrel. Full of hate and very little logic.

Shane From Melbourne says:

06:24pm | 12/03/12

@Call it as I see it….no, my taxes already pay for these things. Fail. Wealth redistribution is still wealth redistribution. Socialism is still socialism.

acotrel says:

08:03am | 12/03/12

That’s a good idea. Climate scientists don’t know what they are talking about.  We are currently experiencing a severe El Nina event after ten years of severe El Nino.  The same trend towards severe weather events,  is being experienced across the globe, so why should we worry about the next El Nino ?
‘Climate change is a load of crap !’ ? ? ?

Joan says:

12:02pm | 12/03/12

Acotrel: El nino and La nina climate events existed well before the Climate Scientist and his computer models and their 101 ways to make a profit scaring the day lights out of the gullible and suckers like Gillard falling for their tricks, headed by Brown and Flannery brain pool.  El nino and La nino will continue long, long after and forever as is mother Natures way.  Gillard carbon tax will not change anything - Gillard, Brown, Flannery on track to send Australia dead broke, owing, owned by China and El Nina and La nina will just contine to do what they have always done. Only the dim witted believe that a Gillard, Brown. Flannery thermostat can control world weather/climate.

Dan says:

08:42am | 12/03/12

You may be right. We may buck the trend of history, and never endure drought ever again.

We can continue to increase demands on the fragile river system, and hope it keeps on raining to meet our growing needs.

Or you might be wrong, we go back to average rainfall or even drought, and simply can’t sustain our farming needs.

History tells us it won’t rain forever. Science tells us it’s going to get warmer, and rain less. So we can take a punt and scrap the Murray Darling Basin Plan, and hope to God you’re right. Or actually take the precaution, listen to the advice, and plan for a future with greater demand for food, and less water to grow it with.

Personally, I’d rather cut costs elsewhere.

Radical Action says:

09:10am | 12/03/12

A cheaper plan to save the MD. Simply redraw the state boundaries so that the entire MD basin lies within one state (SA). That would give one state complete responsibility and end the interstate politics.

thatmosis says:

09:11am | 12/03/12

Dont stop there , lets get rid of the NBN, the Education revolution, the Green initiatives all which are costing money but doing nothing and we might just be able to survive until the Lib/Nats take over again.
  As for Climate Change, hell the Climate Changes every bloody day and the weather boffins are flat out getting that right. We are prone in this country to cycles of flooding rains and drought and no amount of rhetoric is going to do a damn thing about it, its what natyre does and we can no sooner control that than we can control the sun and the moon. There are those who believe in Climate Change as a direct intervention of man but go back cemturies and the same weather patters occur and occur. We may, and thats a maybe, be adding to the problem, but Australia isnt going to solve the world wide problem and the other countries will pay lip service but do nothing that will harm their bottom line, unlike our stupid Government who will insist that the Carbon Tax is a world saver when in fact by thier own words its a money spinner for the government.

Kev du jour says:

10:30am | 12/03/12

Good point Tell it Like it is. I don’t bother reading Mal’s partisan ravings anymore, just the comments. A bizarre distinction Mal…..

acotrel says:

08:13am | 12/03/12

When Peter Costello was Treasurer he lost $40B in one hit playing the money market.  OOPS ! ! SAWREE !

Little Joe says:

08:36am | 12/03/12

@ acotrel ..... keep dribbling

John Lawrence ex 3RAR ( vietnam veteran) says:

10:21am | 12/03/12

@ acotrel, I thought it was around $400million that he wasted not $40bn but i could be wrong.

John Lawrence ex 3RAR ( vietnam veteran) says:

10:57am | 12/03/12

@ acotrel, you have not answered my question, please tell us all where you got the figure $40billion that costello wasted.

Shane From Melbourne says:

12:12pm | 12/03/12

@acrotrel- If it was the sell off of Australia’s gold reserves under Costello, then he lost a lot more than 40 Billion at today’s gold prices…...If it was the shambles that was the sell off of Telstra 2 shares, then the mum and dad investors lost quite a lot…..

Call it like I see it says:

01:17pm | 12/03/12

A crap comment by acotrel. ALP supporters love their lies!

Against the Man says:

02:02pm | 12/03/12

So $60 million to the refugee fund oh sweet Labor today’s news, and acotrel have you backed up your rant. Thanks for helping my cause once a sweet more time

acotrel says:

08:20am | 12/03/12

Perhaps the easiest and best way to cut our administration costs, would be to rationalise the functions of the three levels of government, and get rid of the state governments ?  Surely local councils and the Commonwealth government would be sufficient to run the country if the critical functions of the state governments were shared between them ?

Fiddler says:

08:35am | 12/03/12

@ acotrel, true things would be a lot simpler with only two levels of government and probably more efficient, but councils would have to be a lot bigger than they are now and be run by competent people.

I wonder if the setup to go through all the required change would be worth it though (having to abolish ALL state laws and institutions)

Borderer says:

10:15am | 12/03/12

@acotrel,
The labor party excluded the state governments in their push for the mining profits super tax. They also excluded them in the BER and insulation schemes as well as the failed attempt to take over the various state health bodies. Given that this is current government policy (to exclude the states) and given how sucessful they are at it, I would consign it to the scrap heap for the immediate future, haven’t they blundered enough?

Tell It Like It Is says:

12:19pm | 12/03/12

But @Borderer which state would have wanted to be part of those poorly thought out and implemented ‘schemes’ (good word for it!) such as BER, Insulation?  What a booby prize they would have been for the states!!!

Phil says:

09:06am | 12/03/12

LIT. The answer to your last question, is = Possibly but far too many of them are labor stooges and as such cannot ask the tough questions.

Wayne says:

12:35pm | 12/03/12

What is more, Swann is rabbiting on about the mining tax saying it provides tax relief to small business. Is this deceit? From my understanding there is a bringing forward of write offs, which is purely a timing difference as the tax deduction for depreciation is brought forward rather than occurring over a number of years i.e. over time no difference. Also a reduction in corporate tax will be offset by the tax incurred based on the marginal tax rate for dividend recipients. So again no net effect. Why aren’t these issues publisised?

acotrel says:

08:38am | 12/03/12

When the LNP is in government it maintains a tight hold on the purse strings.  Government spending is anathema to them.  As a result we’ve never yet seen a conservative government initiate a major infrastructure project.  In fact they fought against Jack Lang building the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the depression, and recently opposed the NBN.  They often claim they are good business leaders, however they don’t even know the basics - ‘spend a dollar to make a dollar ! ‘

Where are Bob Menzies’s and John Howard’s monuments ?  It is as though they never existed ! They kept the seats warm until the next achievers came along ! !

Flubber says:

10:01am | 12/03/12

And John Howard, in which Cabinet Tony Abbott sat, gave Private Health Insurance Rebates for the Middle Class to pay for Aromatherapy and new Running Shoes.
  So,basically, I’d rather have my taxes paying for IT supplies for the nation’s children to keep up with the times, than them going towards paying for Plastic Surgery for the Ladies Who Lunch and play Tennis. Which Tony Abbott’s Rolled Gold Medicare Safety Net for Medical costs paid for.
  The only reason that the Howard Coalition government looked at all like ‘it governed responsibly’ was because they blew the proceeds of the first Mining Boom on handouts which created the facade of national prosperity but which eventually led to ‘The GFC the World & Australia Would Rather Not Have Had’, as a result of Neoliberal economic behaviour such as theirs and George W.Bush’s.

Knemon says:

11:49am | 12/03/12

Hear, hear…both acotrel and Flubber.

Slinky Dingo says:

12:15pm | 12/03/12

and hows that neo-socialism thing working out for Europe?

Steve says:

12:38pm | 12/03/12

Labor is circling the drain and acotrel and flubber know it.
The pigs are starting to squeal just thinking about having to get a real job.

Call it like I see it says:

01:24pm | 12/03/12

How many dollars has Labor made Australia acotrel? Well done in making yourself a great old fool!

Steve says:

06:38pm | 12/03/12

A few more years of Labor and there won’t be any welfare at all. And that includes the lower class welfare. But Im sure the fat public servants will look after themselves.

marley says:

10:51am | 12/03/12

Ummm.  You’re repeating yourself. Early onset Alzheimer’s perhaps?

John Lawrence ex 3RAR ( vietnam veteran) says:

10:53am | 12/03/12

@ liberals are toxic, you just proved my point, you are nothing but a astroturfer.

Steve says:

11:04am | 12/03/12

“Liberrals are toxic” Where does this spam comment come from?

Fiddler says:

11:15am | 12/03/12

ICB, you never voted for the Liberal Party in your life. You’re a rusted on ALP supporter who comes out with the whole “I would vote Liberal if Turnbull came back” line

Sony B Goode says:

11:56am | 12/03/12

progressive is the new stupid

Liberals Are Toxic says:

01:37pm | 12/03/12

The Liberal Party of today is an absolute disgrace compared to previous times. I and my family have voted Liberal all our lives but never never never never again. This time I will be voting Labor as the only party with progressive ideas and decent leadership for Australia. Come join me and my family.

marley says:

01:52pm | 12/03/12

I dunno. I think we have a spambot in our midst.  It certainly doesn’t seem to be related to an intelligent life form.

Farken says:

02:41pm | 12/03/12

Is electricity cheaper and the supply more reliable, as was promised when the Kennett government privatised the State Electricity Commission?

Under Kennett, Victoria embarked on the biggest privatisation program of any region in the world, selling public assets for more than $30 billion, and redirecting services valued at a further $10 billion into private hands
so the LNP in Victoria started it all.

thatmosis says:

03:17pm | 12/03/12

And your mummy sounds like she is a dumb as dog shit, with apologise to dog shit, like most Labor/Green/Independant Voters. Have a nice day take your meds and stay away from sharp items.