The Gillard Government

[Julia]

I love the new dental scheme announced by the government.
Apparently the last one was being rorted, well why didn't change it? They have been in office for nearly six years.
No they are going to put in place a new system, there is a catch, it's after the next election.LOL,LOL
Priceless.

Because they have once again danced to the Greens' tune of the proposed dental scheme announced today, the Greens will give them the numbers to get the cancellation of the Coalition's dental scheme through the Senate.
The government has certainly tried to get rid of it more than once up to now. Probably rightly, in that it was open to people of unlimited wealth to get thousands of dollars worth of dental treatment free as long as they had a chronic disease. That's not good use of taxpayer funds imo.

However, we have yet to discover how the government intends this dental scheme should be paid for.
On top of the NDIS, the Gonski education reforms, and the ever increasing cost of the asylum seekers.
Here's the summary from Chris Urhlman on tonight's "7.30"

NICK XENOPHON, INDEPENDENT MP: This will lead to a multimillion-dollar black hole in the budget, but of course the Government can't say anything else because to do so would actually blow a hole in the budget surplus.

CHRIS UHLMANN: So in 2015 the Government faces the risk of a big revenue hole and that's right when a stack of bills will be falling due. A new dental scheme with a $650-million-a-year price tag, education reform at a cost of $3 billion a year, a National Disabilities Insurance Scheme that will eventually add $7 billion a year, a blowout in processing and detaining asylum seekers of at least a billion dollars a year and a fleet of new submarines billed at $36 billion.

The Government keeps saying everything will be accounted for, but it's all over the horizon, and this afternoon a large gap opened between the Health Minister and the Prime Minister over how it will fund the promised dental scheme.

So far no suggestions from the government as to how any of all this will be paid for.

We can only assume they have no plans for paying as they realise they won't be in government to worry about it, and in the meantime are hoping enough people are sucked in to the mirage of wonderful new initiatives to vote for them.

 

[DB008]

If someone has a AFR subscription, there was a great article about the Subs that they have planned for the future.

‘Arms race lost’ without nuclear subs (March 6th, 2012)

Nuclear physicist and former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski has warned that Australia risks losing a regional arms race unless it replaces its existing diesel submarines with nuclear subs.

http://afr.com/p/national/arms_race_lost_without_nuclear_subs_QZDceQC28xxiaCRXgH4ZWK

You think the NBN will be a cost blow out...wait until you read this.
Complete muppets in Government.
It would be cheaper to purchase the future Subs from the USA or Spain (complete), and pay tradies 100k to do nothing that what it being proposed, which is build them here at huge expense.

 

[drsmith]

We can only assume they have no plans for paying as they realise they won't be in government to worry about it, and in the meantime are hoping enough people are sucked in to the mirage of wonderful new initiatives to vote for them.

They have a plan, well, err, um, their Greem masters do,

RICHARD DI NATALE: Well, look, the Greens have got a range of spending revenue initiatives. We've already said that there are things like enormous fossil fuel subsidies where we could save hundreds of millions of dollars.

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3578968.htm

 

[sptrawler]

The dental spend would have been $4 billion better spent, than spending it on pink batts and plasma t.v's.
$300billion wasted and all of a sudden they come up with ways to spend money, that helps the voters.LOL

 

[bunyip]

It never stops with Labor.....as long as they're in power they'll keep splashing money around like drunken sailors.

 

[Logique]

Check your phones you may get a tweet from the PM
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/...mments/who_was_that_muscled_man/#commentsmore

 

[drsmith]

http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/05/08/the-speech-wayne-swans-2012-federal-budget-address/

This Budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time.

Is Wayne Swan so sure now ?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...-2bn-in-handouts/story-fndttws1-1226461145436

Coalition finance spokesman Andrew Robb said it was no surprise that commodity prices were falling.

"The terms of trade (the difference between export and import prices) are 40 per cent higher now than they were in the Howard years, which the government claims to be the golden era for tax revenue," he said. "The terms of trade don't have to collapse - they only have to come back 30 per cent or so and we're looking at $50bn to $60bn deficits for the next three or four years."

At the end of June, Commonwealth Government Securities Outstanding were ~$233bn and are now ~$243bn.

http://www.aofm.gov.au/

At the surface it would indicate that our budget position is still going backwards at a substantial rate, but I don't know how lumpy redemptions are on week to week figures.

http://www.aofm.gov.au/content/borrowing/commonwealth/Monthly_Changes_CGS/2012/06_june.asp

 

[drsmith]

More on the budget blues from the AFR.

http://afr.com/p/national/labor_bn_budget_blowout_oRUlSZkFhd65YJFFTzti9N

 

[Julia]

Surely it's inconceivable that the government really believe they don't have a problem with these numbers?

Are they just creating a political environment that will be ever more difficult for the Coalition when they take over, inevitably cancelling these unrealistic policies?

It's hard to believe that any government could be so irresponsible just to their own political ends, but I can't see any other explanation.

 

[bellenuit]

Surely it's inconceivable that the government really believe they don't have a problem with these numbers?

Are they just creating a political environment that will be ever more difficult for the Coalition when they take over, inevitably cancelling these unrealistic policies?

It's hard to believe that any government could be so irresponsible just to their own political ends, but I can't see any other explanation.

Yes, I think that is their plan. They know they won't be re-elected, so they are setting things up to facilitate their re-election for the term after that. The harder they make things for the coalition when the coalition get into office, the better for them.

It's not something they are trying to conceal. Witness their glee when proclaiming that the coalition will find it impossible to wind back the NBN and carbon tax when they get into power because of the way they have set things up

 

[DB008]

Surely it's inconceivable that the government really believe they don't have a problem with these numbers?

Are they just creating a political environment that will be ever more difficult for the Coalition when they take over, inevitably cancelling these unrealistic policies?

It's hard to believe that any government could be so irresponsible just to their own political ends, but I can't see any other explanation.

What happens when the Gov hits the 300Billion ceiling?

Going from these screen shots l have taken, Gillard and Co should get there before X-Mas....

 

[drsmith]

What happens when the Gov hits the 300Billion ceiling?

They'll test the lever arm on the jack a bit more.

 

[sptrawler]

Surely it's inconceivable that the government really believe they don't have a problem with these numbers?

Are they just creating a political environment that will be ever more difficult for the Coalition when they take over, inevitably cancelling these unrealistic policies?

It's hard to believe that any government could be so irresponsible just to their own political ends, but I can't see any other explanation.

Maybe someone can tell me, how the way they run the country is any different to how they ran the unions.
From all reports they didn't give a rat's about accountability then either.

 

[DB008]

They'll test the lever arm on the jack a bit more.

Isn't that when accidents happen?

I'm off to get some PPE...LOL

 

[drsmith]

Isn't that when accidents happen?

It is.

Our debt position, after four years of large deficits, is still the envy of the advanced world, with gross debts of just 24 per cent of GDP against an average, according to the International Monetary Fund, of 106 per cent. This has kept Australia on a AAA credit rating.

However Australia's deficits of the past three years, at about 4 per cent of GDP, are recession-sized, although the economy has shown continuous growth.

In 2006 and 2007, before the financial crisis, there was not a country in either the advanced or the emerging world with a deficit this large. Japan was the only country that came close. An outstanding feature of the past five years is the speed with which debt positions can deteriorate as deficits mount.

This should be a sobering perpsective for the Coalition as well.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...pending-rolls-on/story-e6frg9qo-1226461115620

My bolds.

 

[sptrawler]

It has been a self indulgent spree doc.
I just hope they enjoy their pensions, while we get hammered to pay for their wastefull spending and poor policy.
There is one thing for sure, as Craig Thomson has shown, they won't lose any sleep over it.

 

[sails]

It is.



This should be a sobering perpsective for the Coalition as well.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...pending-rolls-on/story-e6frg9qo-1226461115620

My bolds.

And then when the coalition are left with a massive debt problem, labor supporters will say it's all Abbott's fault...

It seems this labor government simply doesn't care about the future of this country. Perhaps if Gillard had children/grandchildren she would be more careful, but I suppose she will get her pension no matter what and her non-existent children/grandchildren won't suffer because of her inability to manage Australia's funds prudently.

This debt problem is a far worse problem for Australia than the unproven co2, imo

 

[DB008]

Looks like they will might their surplus target.....

SYDNEY””It is getting harder for the government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard to meet a promise to return to a budget surplus this fiscal year, as iron-ore prices plunge and the country's biggest mining company cancels billions of dollars in new projects amid a slowdown in Australia's resources boom.

Erasing a 44 billion Australian dollar (US$46 billion) budget shortfall is a pillar of the government's economic policy ahead of a general election expected late next year. The revenue to pay for this economic blueprint was supposed to come partly from a new tax on profits from the sale of mineral resources and higher corporate-tax receipts, driven by what the government still boasts is a once-in-a-century mining boom.

But the sharp slide in commodity prices and signs of retrenchment by Australian miners over recent months has put that plan at risk. From copper mines in tropical Queensland state to big iron-ore pits in the country's west, mining companies are idling equipment and laying off workers.

Treasurer Wayne Swan played down the impact of falling commodity prices at a Tuesday news conference, saying the government will hit its budget-surplus target.

Moreover, the controversial mineral-resources rent tax, or MRRT, which since July 1 has imposed a 30% levy on profits from iron-ore and coal production, is expected to miss a target to bring in about A$6.5 billion over the next two years.

Without deep spending cuts, Macquarie Securities is forecasting a budget deficit of about A$9 billion in this fiscal year as the falling commodity prices and lower company profits wipe about A$10 billion from forecast tax receipts.

The longer the government delays any decision on adjusting its budget based on lower revenue "the larger the cuts would have to be to rescue the surplus," said Brian Redican, a senior economist at Macquarie.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444327204577615083812315456.html

 

[Happy]

Modest surplus of $1B something will turn to dust and be replaced with not so modest deficit.

Let me guess who will be blamed for it?

Sure bet that Tony Abbot will be in pleasantries firing line, of course GLOBAL situation, possibly China will be blamed for not increasing demand for our holes digging income stream.

 

[IFocus]

There is no problem with the budget Abbott and Hockey will fix it with their 50 to 70bil black hole promises.