Tony Abbott for PM

[shermerhorn]

Haha!
Sorry orr.

Forgive the crappy reply to such a clever post.

Fantastic imagery there, but I honestly didn't mean to lift the tone. If I could only flog 'the right stuff' I'd love to make some of the dosh the tabloid pedlars do - albeit indirectly through background influence rather than mag sales.

 

[IFocus]

Haha!
Sorry orr.

Forgive the crappy reply to such a clever post.

Fantastic imagery there, but I honestly didn't mean to lift the tone. If I could only flog 'the right stuff' I'd love to make some of the dosh the tabloid pedlars do - albeit indirectly through background influence rather than mag sales.

I only just read though, Orr's was clever (nice change) thanks for your contribution as well Shermerhorn.

 

[sptrawler]

At last someone is thinking of the future.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...ater-plan-leaked/story-fndo1uez-1226577466336

If we don't go down this path, I think Australia will end up a third world country.
We can't get manufacturing off the ground, we can't compete on a technological front.

We are fortunate that most of our mineral wealth is on the surface, however it is finite and will be extracted quickly.

We have to look ahead and put in infrastructure, that will give Australia sustainable growth and a replenishing income source.

 

[DocK]

At last someone is thinking of the future.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...ater-plan-leaked/story-fndo1uez-1226577466336

If we don't go down this path, I think Australia will end up a third world country.
We can't get manufacturing off the ground, we can't compete on a technological front.

We are fortunate that most of our mineral wealth is on the surface, however it is finite and will be extracted quickly.

We have to look ahead and put in infrastructure, that will give Australia sustainable growth and a replenishing income source.

At last, something in the land of politics to get excited about. Naturally, The Greens will be dead against it, but it makes a hell of a lot of sense to me! I saw a doco on tv some time ago about a Japanese rice grower who was growing rice up in the Burdekin, due to shortages because of the Fukashima radiation. So many said it couldn't be done, but they were proved wrong. There's so much potential presently untapped (pardon the pun) in the top end. http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2012/s3511309.htm

 

[sydboy007]

At last someone is thinking of the future.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...ater-plan-leaked/story-fndo1uez-1226577466336

If we don't go down this path, I think Australia will end up a third world country.
We can't get manufacturing off the ground, we can't compete on a technological front.

We are fortunate that most of our mineral wealth is on the surface, however it is finite and will be extracted quickly.

We have to look ahead and put in infrastructure, that will give Australia sustainable growth and a replenishing income source.

* Who will the pay for it?

* How will they determine areas for new dams? My understanding is there's not a lot of good areas left to dam, though that might be just talking about where the current population is.

* How will they deal with soil salninity due to rising water tables once they start to irrigate large areas?

I'm sure Barnaby and the Nats are jumping with joy over this, but i can see it sucking huge amounts of tax payer funds to socialise teh costs, and leave all the profits privatised.

It's a strange world we live in when a "left" Govt seems to be more market oriented than the "right" opposition.

 

[DB008]

Combet unloads on 'bull**** artist' Abbott

 

[explod]

How will they deal with less than a dollar an hour or in some places less than a dollar a day labour costs from overseas countries.

And in some places the water comes down now so fast it will wash the dams away and in others due to lack of rain they will never have much water in them.

Everyone is dreaming.

 

[IFocus]

* Who will the pay for it?


It's a strange world we live in when a "left" Govt seems to be more market oriented than the "right" opposition.

Its a strange world Labor want market forces to develop the north and the Coalition are throwing up grand government funded schemes looking forward to a Abbott government more Labor than Labor now there is a thread title if I could start one.

 

[bellenuit]

Its a strange world Labor want market forces to develop the north and the Coalition are throwing up grand government funded schemes looking forward to a Abbott government more Labor than Labor now there is a thread title if I could start one.

If you are taking about the dams discussion topic, the few Coalition people I have heard talk about it have all said that they would expect most of the development to be funded and done by private enterprise.

 

[drsmith]

Combet unloads on 'bull**** artist' Abbott

Append the following to the end and it's the best Liberal ad yet,

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Good one Doc.

It looks as if it will be a cheap electoral campaign for the Coalition. The ALP have provided the youtubes.

gg

 

[drsmith]

Good one Doc.

It looks as if it will be a cheap electoral campaign for the Coalition. The ALP have provided the youtubes.

gg

Perhaps Greg Combet has decided to change sides and work under cover for the Libs.

It would be a lot easier if he just crossed the floor.

 

[Julia]

It looks as if it will be a cheap electoral campaign for the Coalition. The ALP have provided the youtubes.

If there's any sign of our Kev being received back as Leader, what a wealth of Utube clips the Coalition have of his colleagues describing him as completely dysfunctional etc.
It's a basic reason why I just can't see them having him back in the top job.

Also, as far as the electorate is concerned, I reckon it would take them about a minute and half to remember how much they disliked him. I heard him in a couple of radio excerpts today and just a couple of sentences from him in that arrogant tone was enough to prompt me to think kindly of Ms Gillard.

 

[drsmith]

Who did Greg Combet vote for in last year's leadership spill ?

 

[sptrawler]

* Who will the pay for it?

The same people who are paying for the NBN, the pink batts and laptops in bedrooms.

* How will they determine areas for new dams? My understanding is there's not a lot of good areas left to dam, though that might be just talking about where the current population is.

One would think it would be determined by scientific and topigraphical modelling. They are talking about the north of Australia where catchments are huge and a lot flow toward the centre

* How will they deal with soil salninity due to rising water tables once they start to irrigate large areas?

One would think if you know this is a problem, it would be taken into consideration when being developed, or else they need you on board.

I'm sure Barnaby and the Nats are jumping with joy over this, but i can see it sucking huge amounts of tax payer funds to socialise teh costs, and leave all the profits privatised.

What! something like the NBN.

It's a strange world we live in when a "left" Govt seems to be more market oriented than the "right" opposition.

Very true, when the market is being supplied by their mates.IMO

 

[sptrawler]

How will they deal with less than a dollar an hour or in some places less than a dollar a day labour costs from overseas countries.

And in some places the water comes down now so fast it will wash the dams away and in others due to lack of rain they will never have much water in them.

Everyone is dreaming.

Would that be from the greens, who have shut down most income earning industry in Tassie and made it welfare dependant.
What happens when you shut down Australia. China's not going to pay your welfare

What's your answer adopt a tree and hope it looks after you?

 

[sydboy007]

The same people who are paying for the NBN, the pink batts and laptops in bedrooms.

At least it's a fully user pays NBN, unlike the though bubble of move north young man, move north.

Michael Pettis had a very interesting article in macrobusiness yesterday looking at the US growth model that has been emulated by quite a few other countries. These days it's been boiled down to infant industry protection with mercantilist export oriented growth.

A lot of commentators hold up the US expansion into the west as a way for a country to encourage economic development. What they don't ever examine is the number of countries that tried a similar expansion that failed - Russia into Siberia, Brazil into the Amazon. The difference was that the private sector moved west in the US, and the Govt then followed building the essential services required to support that expansion. In other countries the Govt moved first, business followed, but only so they could get the public funds on offer. As soon as the Govt stopped spending the business generally moved out and the area was left to economic decline.

He summarises this well - "Every country that has become sustainably rich has had significant government investment in infrastructure, but not every country that has had significant government investment in infrastructure has become sustainably rich. On the contrary there are many cases of countries with extraordinarily high levels of infrastructure investment that have grown for a period and then faltered."

Considering how well the LNP picked spending based on economic criteria in their last 2 terms /sarc I have little faith that the billions that would be spent on this grand scheme would be based purely on getting the best economic return for tax payers.

ps - I paid for the pink batts, though mine are a conservative friendly beige, and have seen my avg annual electricity consumption drop by ~ 2kWh / day. Not too shabby a return for something that should have a 20 year life span. If I used aircon I'd say the benefits would be multiple times higher.

 

[moXJO]

Considering how well the LNP picked spending based on economic criteria in their last 2 terms /sarc I have little faith that the billions that would be spent on this grand scheme would be based purely on getting the best economic return for tax payers.

ps - I paid for the pink batts, though mine are a conservative friendly beige, and have seen my avg annual electricity consumption drop by ~ 2kWh / day. Not too shabby a return for something that should have a 20 year life span. If I used aircon I'd say the benefits would be multiple times higher.

LNP invested into mining back in the late 90's when Labor was crying out how it was a waste of money and time as mining was not going to make any money. Great call labor. Tony is spot on about becoming a food bowl. And considering Asia is right on our northern doorstep it makes sense.

Pink bats were a failed joke when it came to roll out.
Destroyed some mates businesses that were around for 20 years plus, rubbish was imported and installed from China by the ton. And from what I have personally seen a high % not installed properly.
A mate from the sparky council went to Canberra with safety concerns at the beginning and was fobbed off. But admittedly it was an awesome way to make money at the time.
I like some of Labors ideas but they just seem to have trouble implementing policy. Some of it seems to stem from arrogance.

 

[sydboy007]

If this is the level of Abbott's economic understanding then we should all be VERY worried

"We know that the private savings ratio is massively increased. It’s at the highest level in two decades because people don’t trust the Government to save, that’s why they are saving so much themselves. People don’t feel rich, that’s why they are saving so much themselves. We know that real wealth per head has actually declined over the last five years because of stagnant property prices and because of falling share prices and that’s led to so much more restraint in spending which is why so many of our main street retailers and businesses feel under such pressure today."

By my reading he's saying the return to the historical average (10%) household savings rate is bad, and he would like to see asset prices, especially housing, take off again. Now the only way I can see that happening is if Australians save less, which ain't going to happen because the banks wont be able to borrow too much more than they are from overseas. The ratings agencies have made it very clear they will drop the banks from AA if they increase off shore funding too much.

I'd argue people are saving more now because they realised that spending more than you earn year after year leaves you vulnerable to any economic challenges that might come in the future. Considering the puny surpluses the Howard Govt ran, they are a drop int he ocean compared to the private debt tsunami that occurred post CGT halving.

"The Coalition’s strategy to boost economic growth is really quite straight forward and it starts with getting taxes down. There’s been a lot of talk about the carbon tax. There’s a lot of talk from the Government that the carbon tax hasn’t really been noticed. Well, everyone notices a new tax and people are particularly conscious of a new tax which doesn’t serve any reasonable economic purpose."

Just plain wrong. The Government provided compensation tax cuts BEFORE the tax came fully into effect. It was plain to see via retail sales data that growth was higher, and as can be seen by the latest polling, LNP supporters are now feeling a lot more optimistic since they've seen Abbott's wrecking ball / python squeeze has not occurred.

"Now, the Coalition will get spending down. We will do it in ways which we believe are responsible. Some of the ways we will do it will be controversial. For instance, we’ve announced that the so-called school kids bonus will go because this is a cash splash with borrowed money that has nothing necessarily to do with education. We won’t go ahead with the 6,000 person a year increase in the refugee intake because that would send the wrong signal to the people smugglers and in any event, at the moment the people smugglers are determining that intake. We will trim back the Commonwealth public sector, not because we fail to respect the work of public servants – as a minister for nine years I very much respect the work of public servants – but there’s 20,000 more in the Commonwealth public sector than there were five years ago and there hasn’t been a commensurate increase in service delivery or efficiency. So, just those changes will save about $10 billion over the forward estimates period."

So just as the peak in mining investment hits around September this year, Abbott plans to cut spending, cut public service employment, somehow cut taxes, and produce a surplus. Lets see how well that kind of policy is working in QLD by then.

 

[drsmith]

By my reading he's saying the return to the historical average (10%) household savings rate is bad, and he would like to see asset prices, especially housing, take off again.

My reading is that he's saying the electorate has lost confidence in the current government's economic management.

We do wear different hats though.