The Abbott Government

sydboy007 said:

So the $111B in deficit spending the Liberals have provided the economy, how was it spent wisely?

I don't believe the infrastructure PM has gave us much. Certainly the NBN is crawling along. Renewable energy infrastructure has stalled. Definitely no rail projects funded.

To say the Liberals would always spend wisely seems to forget the allowance scandals, forgets the infrastructure projects Abbott said he'd do a CBA on before investing in, broker that promise before the election, and never had the guts to let IA actually do an audit and confirm we were getting value for money. You continually complain of Labor not backing the economically irresponsible $1M per meter tunnel in Melbourne, a tunnel that was forecast to generate a net negative return on the investment. If I said to you Noco I have an investment opportunity. For every $1 you invest I'll return to you 55c what would you say? But when Abbott says he'll fund a tunnel with that kind of return you consider it to be spent wisely.

We're slowly going broke. The last thing we can afford is to "invest" in infrastructure that doesn't generate a positive return to the economy. IA has quite a few projects on it's books that would provide a decent return, but so far Abbott has shown no interest in investing in them. Why do you think that is?

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Syd, instead of listening to your LUG party comrades and then coming up with your rhetoric condemning Abbott and the Liberal/National party government on infrastructure, perhaps it might be wise of you to do some research of your own first to avoid further embarrassing yourself.

You talk about an investment of $1 to return 55 cents is not a private investment and is a long term project to benefit motorist for decades to come as more vehicles go on the roads.... Liberals normally think further ahead than Labor who generally make policies on the run....The NBN is a typical Labor Party policy on the run which was done on the bcak of a serviette


I don't know of any public transport whether it be rail, road or bus that runs at a profit.....They are all highly subsidized.



http://australianpolitics.com/2014/04/30/warren-truss-npc-infrastructure-address.html

Our investment will leverage similar levels of funding from other tiers of government and the private sector.

By now, I hope you know our headline city investments well:

$3 billion for Melbourne’s East-West Link—stages 1 and 2,
$1.5 billion to get Sydney’s WestConnex underway and another $405 million for the NorthConnex project,
$3.5 billion for the roads of Western Sydney,
$1 billion to upgrade the Gateway Motorway North in Brisbane,
$686 million to finish the Gateway WA Project in Perth and $615 million for the Swan Valley Bypass, and
$500 million for the upgrade of South Road in Adelaide.

But our transport package also includes record amounts for regional roads, recognising that connecting our regional towns and cities to their capitals and getting our farm and mining exports to markets in the most efficient way possible, especially in this the Asian Century, must be a priority.

This investment includes:

$6.7 billion to upgrade the Bruce Highway to make it safer and better protect it against regular and costly flooding;
$5.6 billion to finally finish the duplication of the Pacific Highway within this decade;
Up to $1.3 billion to build the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing as the first major road PPP project in regional Australia;
$400 million to continue the Midland Highway upgrade in Tasmania; and
Almost $500 million for the Great North Highway and North West Coastal Highway in WA.

And there’s more to come.

We have committed $300 million to finalise plans, engineering design and environmental assessments, as well as start construction on the iconic Melbourne-to-Brisbane Inland Rail project.

I remind you that it was the previous Coalition Government that had the vision to champion and begin work on the Inland Rail and not much as happened over the past six years.

It’s part of our holistic infrastructure effort combining all transport modes. It recognises the reality that, nationally, our freight task will double over the next 20 years, but that it will treble along the eastern seaboard.

The Inland Rail will join Brisbane through Toowoomba, southern Queensland, regional NSW and Victoria, and on into Melbourne.

That means less congestion on our highways, but also the local roads that service our metropolitan and regional ports.

Speaking of local roads, we have a renewed commitment to the Roads to Recovery Programme, locking in its future for a further five years with $1.75 billion of funding.

As most of you will be aware, Labor and the Greens are now playing games with this funding. They opposed the legislation to deliver it in the House and are poised to do the same in the Senate.

If this legislation does not pass the Senate by 30 June this year, that $1.75 billion, which Australia’s 565 local councils depend on for their roads and streets will be road kill.

It’s something that regional Australians understand only too well. Of the 17 seats that changed to deliver the Coalition government last September, 11 were regional.

Now they look to the Coalition to help the regions build a better future.

The Government has also committed $300 million to the Black Spot Programme addressing road sites that are high risk areas for serious crashes, in addition to our new $300 million Bridges Renewal programme to restore dilapidated local bridges.

Rail

In addition to the Inland Rail project, we continue to upgrade our nation’s rail system.

$50 million is being injected into the Australian Rail Track Corporation to deploy its Advanced Train Management System (or ATMS) from Port Augusta to Tarcoola in northern South Australia.

Once operational, this system can be extended to other parts of the ARTC network, bringing interstate rail into the modern era by replacing physical train control and signalling systems with an advanced digital system using global positioning, 3G broadband communications and satellite technology.

We are also investing in our rail freight links to our ports.

We are delivering a $75 million investment in the next stage of the Port Botany Rail Line Upgrade in Sydney and we are working with the private sector to deliver the much-needed Moorebank Intermodal Terminal.

In Melbourne we are committing $38 million to the Melbourne Metropolitan Intermodal Terminal system.

And, in Brisbane, we are partnering with the Queensland Government to plan a new 24/7 rail freight link to the Port of Brisbane—the country’s fastest growing container port.

This line would not only feed the Port but also link to the Inland Railway connecting the mines and agricultural regions of South East Queensland and Northern NSW to international markets.

I might add that, in Perth, we will shortly complete the North Terminal Rail Quay at Freemantle, which will significantly improve the rail connections between the Port and the key freight hub of Kewdale.

These appear to be back to the future proposals Noco. Have you investigated to see if any or all have actually begun since April 2014?

Things like the Melbourne to Brisbane inland rail are pretty much just nonsense rhetoric that are wheeled out as election "non core" promises aren't they?

I find myself uninclined to check out anything this secretive govt says it's gunna do, because finding the facts and unravelling the truth is so tortuous. Of course come a few weeks and my activities searching the govt dept sites will be tracked by the LNP police and my identity red flagged as a busy body....especially when they do a retrospective "metadata" dump.

noco said:

http://australianpolitics.com/2014/04/30/warren-truss-npc-infrastructure-address.html

Our investment will leverage similar levels of funding from other tiers of government and the private sector.

By now, I hope you know our headline city investments well:

$3 billion for Melbourne’s East-West Link””stages 1 and 2,
$1.5 billion to get Sydney’s WestConnex underway and another $405 million for the NorthConnex project,
$3.5 billion for the roads of Western Sydney,
$1 billion to upgrade the Gateway Motorway North in Brisbane,
$686 million to finish the Gateway WA Project in Perth and $615 million for the Swan Valley Bypass, and
$500 million for the upgrade of South Road in Adelaide.

But our transport package also includes record amounts for regional roads, recognising that connecting our regional towns and cities to their capitals and getting our farm and mining exports to markets in the most efficient way possible, especially in this the Asian Century, must be a priority.

This investment includes:

$6.7 billion to upgrade the Bruce Highway to make it safer and better protect it against regular and costly flooding;
$5.6 billion to finally finish the duplication of the Pacific Highway within this decade;
Up to $1.3 billion to build the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing as the first major road PPP project in regional Australia;
$400 million to continue the Midland Highway upgrade in Tasmania; and
Almost $500 million for the Great North Highway and North West Coastal Highway in WA.

And there’s more to come.

We have committed $300 million to finalise plans, engineering design and environmental assessments, as well as start construction on the iconic Melbourne-to-Brisbane Inland Rail project.

I remind you that it was the previous Coalition Government that had the vision to champion and begin work on the Inland Rail and not much as happened over the past six years.

It’s part of our holistic infrastructure effort combining all transport modes. It recognises the reality that, nationally, our freight task will double over the next 20 years, but that it will treble along the eastern seaboard.

The Inland Rail will join Brisbane through Toowoomba, southern Queensland, regional NSW and Victoria, and on into Melbourne.

That means less congestion on our highways, but also the local roads that service our metropolitan and regional ports.

Speaking of local roads, we have a renewed commitment to the Roads to Recovery Programme, locking in its future for a further five years with $1.75 billion of funding.

As most of you will be aware, Labor and the Greens are now playing games with this funding. They opposed the legislation to deliver it in the House and are poised to do the same in the Senate.

If this legislation does not pass the Senate by 30 June this year, that $1.75 billion, which Australia’s 565 local councils depend on for their roads and streets will be road kill.

It’s something that regional Australians understand only too well. Of the 17 seats that changed to deliver the Coalition government last September, 11 were regional.

Now they look to the Coalition to help the regions build a better future.

The Government has also committed $300 million to the Black Spot Programme addressing road sites that are high risk areas for serious crashes, in addition to our new $300 million Bridges Renewal programme to restore dilapidated local bridges.

Rail

In addition to the Inland Rail project, we continue to upgrade our nation’s rail system.

$50 million is being injected into the Australian Rail Track Corporation to deploy its Advanced Train Management System (or ATMS) from Port Augusta to Tarcoola in northern South Australia.

Once operational, this system can be extended to other parts of the ARTC network, bringing interstate rail into the modern era by replacing physical train control and signalling systems with an advanced digital system using global positioning, 3G broadband communications and satellite technology.

We are also investing in our rail freight links to our ports.

We are delivering a $75 million investment in the next stage of the Port Botany Rail Line Upgrade in Sydney and we are working with the private sector to deliver the much-needed Moorebank Intermodal Terminal.

In Melbourne we are committing $38 million to the Melbourne Metropolitan Intermodal Terminal system.

And, in Brisbane, we are partnering with the Queensland Government to plan a new 24/7 rail freight link to the Port of Brisbane””the country’s fastest growing container port.

This line would not only feed the Port but also link to the Inland Railway connecting the mines and agricultural regions of South East Queensland and Northern NSW to international markets.

I might add that, in Perth, we will shortly complete the North Terminal Rail Quay at Freemantle, which will significantly improve the rail connections between the Port and the key freight hub of Kewdale.

Click to expand...

noco said:

Syd, instead of listening to your LUG party comrades and then coming up with your rhetoric condemning Abbott and the Liberal/National party government on infrastructure, perhaps it might be wise of you to do some research of your own first to avoid further embarrassing yourself.

You talk about an investment of $1 to return 55 cents is not a private investment and is a long term project to benefit motorist for decades to come as more vehicles go on the roads.... Liberals normally think further ahead than Labor who generally make policies on the run....The NBN is a typical Labor Party policy on the run which was done on the bcak of a serviette


I don't know of any public transport whether it be rail, road or bus that runs at a profit.....They are all highly subsidized.

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But you provide a "list" of infrastructure "investments" but then don't know how many are actually currently funded and currently being worked on.

If infrastructure isn't self liquidating ie provides a net economic return above the cost of capital, how do we continue to fund infrastructure in the future. Since the Govt is currently running a budget deficit, any funding for investment has to increase the deficit. So if the debt to fund the infrastructure is not self liquidating, how do we pay it off? Wouldn't long term thinking consider the issue of whether the infrastructure will eventually pay for itself?

If you don't know of toll roads then I'm quite surprised. Possibly do some research on Transurban to see roads that pay for themselves. It's the expensive option IMHO. I'd prefer Govt to borrow cheaply and use low tolls to pay off the road over it's economic life, but then the financial industry and rent seekers wouldn't be able to tax citizens just like the Govt if we went for that option. For what is a toll if not just another word for a tax / tariff / levy.

Does it matter how long an investment is around for if it never provides an economic return?

So I'll go back to the east west link that you are so highly supportive of. It's always good to deal with a specific real world example.

Using the most basic methodology preferred by Infrastructure Australia, the project was assessed as having a benefit-cost ratio of just 0.45 in March 2013. Note, the Liberal Govt was too scared to have IA actually vet the project.

In other words, it was a dog: according to the government's own numbers, the project involved a loss-making return of just 45 cents for every $1 spent. Why do you compliment Abbott for supporting such a poor investment. Would you let him manage your super with those kinds of returns?

Now, the Vic Liberals tried to include all those long term benefits you use to justify the Liberal investment philosophy.

To boost the numbers, the government added in three so-called wider economic benefits, resorting to a controversial branch of analysis known as "agglomeration economics".

In doing so, it assumed that the project would cause businesses to "cluster", leading to efficiencies associated with a higher density of activity.

It also - somewhat dubiously - claimed the road would increase the number of hours worked because of reduced travel times, resulting in higher tax revenue, before adding in an extra productivity gain for good measure stemming from higher labour productivity.

But even after adding in those three "wider economic benefits", according to the government's own numbers the project did not stack up, producing a benefit-cost ratio of 0.84, suggesting a loss-making return of 84 cents for every $1 spent.

I'll give it to the Vic Liberals, when they set themselves on a path, nothing, not even the facts, will dissuade them from their pre-planned course.

Three months after producing a first business case, the former government released a second, revised version, in which it dramatically increased the claimed benefit estimates.

It achieved this by including a range of "complementary" projects in the analysis, including widening the Tullamarine Freeway, widening the Eastern Freeway and a range of "north-south" public transport improvements.

Despite these projects arguably being completely separate measures for Melbourne's transport network, the Coalition was finally able to product a positive benefit-cost ratio of 1.4, which it selectively spruiked in a glossy "short-form" business case.

In an extraordinary admission, cabinet documents reveal the former government decided not to release the full business case to Infrastructure Australia – the independent umpire – because it was worried the low benefit-cost ratio "may be used as a justification for not supporting the project".

Instead, the Vic Liberals decided to dodge scrutiny by providing "updated strategic material". "The Victorian Government can then state that it has submitted updated project information to IA for assessment," the cabinet assessment says, also suggesting this would allow it to lobby the Commonwealth for cash to build the road.

Now if it had been a Labor Govt going to those kinds of lengths to hide the truth, and it had been a Labor PM throwing billions of dollars in support to the project, what would your attitude be? I'm pretty confident you would not be defending it like you are.

Take a look at the list that IA has produced, and regularly updates, on proposed infrasctructure investments.

https://www.nics.gov.au/Home/PriorityProjects

I would suggest that projects that have progressed to the real potential and threshold stages are where we should prioritising funding. To do otherwise means we are setting future generations with high debt levels for the sugar hit of some growth during the construction phase. That is short term thinking at it's worst!

Yet another example of the Abbott government's commitment to the "truth" and to the Australian workforce.

Apologise and withdraw, Opposition tells Federal Government over proposed new shipping laws

Government officials have admitted they suggested an Australian cruise operator could replace local staff with foreigners to survive under proposed Federal Government laws.

The Coalition has a bill before Parliament to deregulate the industry, paving the way for foreign-flagged ships to spend more time in Australian waters.

Bill Milby from North Star Cruises, which runs a luxury passenger ship along the Kimberley Coast, has previously claimed Government officials told him to consider hiring foreign crew to survive under the new laws.

"That suggested advice was that we re-flag ... take [the ship] away to a flag of convenience ... lay off our senior crew... put on a foreign crew and bring it back," he told a parliamentary hearing.

"That was how we could compete with the foreign ships that would come down and operate on our coastline."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Mr Milby's account was "just not true" and Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told Parliament it was "inaccurate."

"I have spoken to the secretary of my department who has assured me that the comments ... are inaccurate and do not reflect accurately the words of the conversation entered into by the staff member concerned," Mr Truss said in Question Time.

But the government officials, Judi Zilkie and Michael Sutton from the Department of Infrastructure, have admitted the issue was raised with Mr Milby.

Asked in the same parliamentary hearing if she "discussed with him [Mr Milby] the option of going offshore", Ms Zilkie replied: "Yes."

But she said while they "did talk about the various options" she denies she "provided advice that he should take that action."
Proposed changes will threaten local shipping companies: Milby

Mr Milby made it clear he was angry with Mr Abbott and Mr Truss, not the departmental officials.

"I'm not trying to pick a fight with the Prime Minister or the Deputy Prime Minister, but I don't like being told I'm lying," he said.

"I take offence of that ... I take very strong offence of that."

Labor's infrastructure and transport spokesman Anthony Albanese is demanding a retraction.

"The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister both owe Mr Milby an apology. Warren Truss clearly has misled Parliament," he said.

Mr Albanese said the legislation, which is currently being considered by the Senate, should be withdrawn.

"When the Government introduced this legislation, they said it was about Australia's national interest," he said.

"Quite clearly it's not. Australian-based ships won't be able to compete with foreign-based ships if they're allowed to pay foreign wages."

Mr Milby said the changes would threaten local shipping companies and the tourism industry.

"We don't want to hire foreign crews for an Australian operation that takes tourists to iconic locations in Australia," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-08/opposition-demands-apology-over-proposed-shipping-laws/6756760

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Well, seems what the Govt says and reality don't line up too well

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...ing-for-nurses-engineers-20150907-gjgv1q.html

Department of Immigration and Border Protection first assistant secretary David Wilden said that if the free trade agreement came into effect, there would no longer be labour market testing for Chinese nurses, engineers, and other Skills Category 3 occupations…

Labor MP Kelvin Thomson said the admission showed the Abbott government was “guilty of seriously misleading” Australians about the impact of the agreement.

“The Prime Minister and others are misleading the Australian people in general and engineers and nurses in particular,” he said.

“The labour market provisions of this deal go far beyond business executives and martial arts practitioners. We are permanently giving away our capacity to require labour market testing in a whole range of trades and occupations.”

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But it gets worse. Way worse

http://www.theguardian.com/australi...es-it-hard-to-protect-local-jobs-in-china-fta

The problem with the legislation approach is that these 457s are very complicated. In fact, about 84% of all of the 457s coming in are excluded from market testing” [Robb said]…

Government statistics show 38,130 visas were granted under the 457 program in the nine months to March 2015, of which 27,450 (72%) were in the exempted skill levels one and two. About 8,930 (23%) were in skill group three, described as technicians and trades workers.

Robb said the provisions for skilled foreign workers were “designed by Labor to be governed by regulation under overarching legislation”.

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Just wow. How is it possible Labor designed such a system. Mind boggling. Bit hypocritical to just start complaining about it now, but just as despicable the Govt is being so untruthful about the rorting of 457 visas.

The differences between the various skills classifications are defined below:

• Skill Level 1: Managers and Professionals – bachelor degree or 5 years of relevant work experience
• Skill Level 2: Associate Professionals – diploma (2 year qualification) or 3 years of relevant work experience
• Skill Level 3: Trades and Technicians – Certificate IV (1.5 year qualification) or 3 years of relevant work experience or Certificate III including 2 years of on-the-job training

So we have roughly 800,000 Aussies unemployed at present. The Govt wants to force the under 30s to wait longer, while providing $$$ for employing the over 50s unemployed more than 6 months. Wonder which vote the Govt is courting.

And now we can see that there's roughly 39,000 457 visas a year issued to any employer that says they can't get a local to fill the position, and they don't have to prove it.

Even the Department of Employment also revealed on Tuesday that skills shortages have all but vanished, with

“more than enough applicants with relevant qualifications, or appropriate skills and experience, for vacancies in almost every occupation”. It also noted that “in 2014-15, there was an average of 13.6 applicants for each skilled vacancy (15.8 for professions and 12.1 for technicians and trades), of whom an average of 2.2 were considered by employers to be suitable”.

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Seriously, what other country would allow companies to actively import workers when there's plenty of locals that could do the job. Gina may yet get her Roy Hill wish of $2 a day African workers.

Scorecard:

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2015/sep/09/jason-clare-labor-mp-tirade-against-abbott-government-goes-viral-video

and

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2015/sep/10/tony-abbott-leigh-sales-interview-economy-730-abc-video

Today in Parliament Warren Truss said that we do $150 billion of trade with China per year.

They pay $100 billion for our goods and we pay $50 billion for theirs.

That's a profit of $50 billion pa to us.

If it aint broke, don't try and fix it I reckon.

SirRumpole said:

Today in Parliament Warren Truss said that we do $150 billion of trade with China per year.

They pay $100 billion for our goods and we pay $50 billion for theirs.

That's a profit of $50 billion pa to us.

If it aint broke, don't try and fix it I reckon.

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meh

that's a very backward looking figure. Give it another year or two and the "surplus" will be mr creosote wafer thin.

rebalancing within china means more consumption and less resource intensive growth.

good for china, good for the world in general, very bad for Australia and Brazil.

that's a very backward looking figure. Give it another year or two and the "surplus" will be mr creosote wafer thin.

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Is that with or without CHAFTA ?

SirRumpole said:

Is that with or without CHAFTA ?

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Considering the promises of the AUSUS FTA and the reality, I doubt Australia will get much benefit from it

The fact is that our economy has been hollowed out. Much of the manufacturing that could have taken advantage of the lower AUD is gone. Only so much tourism we can handle, those jobs don't pay too well, and it seems a lot of those jobs are available for 457 visa holders with little labour market testing, so we might see a bunch of Chinese funded resorts filled with Chinese staff, so the money comes in then goes back to china.

I'd say any lifting of access restrictions by the Chinese would be worth the paper they're written on, maybe less. State champions will stll be pampered and any Aussie company that gets too successful would be trgeted pretty quickly. Definitely wouldn't want to be working in China if the company is going great. Probably end up in jail.

This why you don't see Abbott take any real questions

Tony Abbott says stopping boats has helped economy towards 'sustainable surplus', calls on ABC to talk up economy

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called on the ABC to talk up the economy, and sidestepped questions on key economic indicators by citing the Government's record on stopping the boats.

In an interview with the ABC's 7.30 program, Mr Abbott was questioned on why the language key ministers use to describe the economy had shifted.

"When Labor left office, unemployment was at 5.8 per cent, it's now 6.3 per cent," presenter Leigh Sales said.

"Growth was 2.5 per cent, it's now 2 per cent, the Australian dollar was 92 cents, its now around 70 cents, the budget deficit was $30 billion when you took office, and now it's $48 billion.

"How do you explain to the Australian people that you were elected promising, in your words, to fix the budget emergency, yet in fact Australia's economic position has worsened under your leadership?"

Mr Abbott responded: "I don't accept that.

"The boats have stopped, the carbon tax has gone, the mining tax has gone, we're now on a path to sustainable surplus, and we've got three free trade agreements finalised.

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IFocus said:

This why you don't see Abbott take any real questions

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If the above is an accurate representation of the flow of conversation, Leigh may have been better to give TA an opportunity to respond to the specific questions before following up with the more generalised question.

Its pretty straightforward, question was,

"How do you explain to the Australian people that you were elected promising, in your words, to fix the budget emergency, yet in fact Australia's economic position has worsened under your leadership?"

His reply was,

"I don't accept that.
The boats have stopped, the carbon tax has gone, the mining tax has gone, we're now on a path to sustainable surplus, and we've got three free trade agreements finalised."

What doesnt he accept, its unarguable that the economic position is worse. Then he flies off at a tangent raising 3 points entirely irrelevant to the question. (all of which arguably made the economy worse.)

Its just a desperate man, totally out of his depth, bereft of leadership, flailing about madly.

He looks like a dead man walking.

galumay said:

Its pretty straightforward, question was,

"How do you explain to the Australian people that you were elected promising, in your words, to fix the budget emergency, yet in fact Australia's economic position has worsened under your leadership?"

His reply was,

"I don't accept that.
The boats have stopped, the carbon tax has gone, the mining tax has gone, we're now on a path to sustainable surplus, and we've got three free trade agreements finalised."

What doesnt he accept, its unarguable that the economic position is worse. Then he flies off at a tangent raising 3 points entirely irrelevant to the question. (all of which arguably made the economy worse.)

Its just a desperate man, totally out of his depth, bereft of leadership, flailing about madly.

He looks like a dead man walking.

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I was surprised he didn't list the Grocery Code of Conduct as another achievement that was helping toshield us from the travails in China. Possibly Peta forgot to add that to his tape.

IFocus said:

This why you don't see Abbott take any real questions

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Look back a couple of posts and you will see the link

Abbott, Truss, Hockey, Dutton - dumb, dumber, even dumber and even more dumb that that.

What a hopeless lot.

Stand up Turnbull , Bishop(J), Ley and Morrison before it's too late for the country.

I don't really care about the Libs or their moronic offsiders the Nats, but the country can't take much more of this rubbish.

SirRumpole said:

Abbott, Truss, Hockey, Dutton - dumb, dumber, even dumber and even more dumb that that.

What a hopeless lot.

Stand up Turnbull , Bishop(J), Ley and Morrison before it's too late for the country.

I don't really care about the Libs or their moronic offsiders the Nats, but the country can't take much more of this rubbish.

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I would join you heartily where and when can we sign..and no Labour has no answer either
This country needs some leadership with brain: bring me a keating or a costello anytime

qldfrog said:

I would join you heartily where and when can we sign..and no Labour has no answer either
This country needs some leadership with brain: bring me a keating or a costello anytime

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I'd argue for a Keating. Much of the changes that Costello implemented are now being wound back. One could argue they were more Howard's mistakes, but as treasurer if you can't get the PM to understand the long term consequences of changes to various forms of taxes and spending initiatives, you shouldn't be in the job. Hope hockey heard that.

Did Costello actually implement any long term beneficial reform for the economy? I've racked my brain and can't really think of anything. No idea how much his support of the GST got Howard to push for that reform. He certainly helped to juice the boom, and helped give us the highest mortgage rates in a generation though. Funny how the tens of billions in extra interest costs is forgotten by the public. Tax cut in one hand, higher mortgages costs out the other.

Abbott has so far had to roll back the fuel indexation freeze and the reduced tapering of the pension assets test. He also needs to fix up the CGT concession and do a decent job of looking at the super tax expenditures, pensions, pension incomes to try and reduce the growing impact of tax free super and escalating super tax expenditures. All these have been captain's picked off the table.

Sadly Labor hasn't been doing much in the ideas department, even though this was supposedly the year we'd start seeing some serious policy being released.

It's a strange world we live in when the centre left party has more market based policies than the moving from the centre right party, and even stranger still when it's the Greens that has gotten much of the sensible reforms through the senate ie removing the freeze on fuel excise indexation and pension asset test tapering rates. My hope is they release some more economically rational and socially equitable policies to force the hands of the laberals.

made me laugh. then despondent about how true it all was.

[video=youtube_share;_eAx9YWTwLU]http://youtu.be/_eAx9YWTwLU[/video]

"Someone's building a coal mine on the nature strip and Tony approves"

"Tony wants to go and bomb some place"

"I just need one more second chance"

"Tony you have degraded the very very senior position that you were given"

"I'll get a photo taken with the army"

"Getting your photo taken with the army isn't going to help. It didn't before and it wont now"

"I'll get Joe to give you some of his lunch"

"Joe can't even get home without hurting himself. You know that"

"Shorten isn't in your class" "Well what's that supposed to mean"

Whatever TA does regarding his own future, he's now a dead PM walking.

With a story today about a major cabinet reshuffle in the News Limited press, it's likely my view that this has been leaked by a person or persons within his own party and is about trying to facilitate a bad result in the upcoming Canning by-election.

Today in particular has had all the hallmarks of the final days of Julia Gillard. He's tried his best but it's time for TA to walk the political plank and not leave it to the party to suffer the indignities that Labor inflicted on itself during its time in office.