The Abbott Government

[IFocus]

You've found the high perch but the sound is much the same.

Personalisation of attacks on others comment is always disgusting, I am no virgin either but it needs toning down.

 

[IFocus]

No one has commented on the extra $3 bil plus to the deficit thanks to paying the wealthy more super etc.

 

[sptrawler]

No one has commented on the extra $3 bil plus to the deficit thanks to paying the wealthy more super etc.

No, not even the SMH.
Or the unions.

 

[Whiskers]

...The idea that we can't manufacture anything in Australia is BS. They still manufacture Faber-Castell pencils, yes PENCILS, in Germany. Personally, I think we are a small enough country, with a name for safety and quality in Asia that we can devote ourselves to developing higher quality manufactured goods and food. A mate of mine has recently started selling Australian beef in Asia, it's all slaughtered and pre-packed in Australia and sold as a premium product. He has no trouble moving it.

I would also endorse that with a passion.

Aus Agricultural products have a reputation for having much less infectious disease, contamination from impurities, industrial chemicals, hormones, antibiotics etc. That is all put at risk as I've mentioned before, such as with the Citrus Canker disease that wiped out a significant industry at Emerald a few years ago. The orchard where the outbreak started was foreign owned and they secretly imported the infected seedlings around quarantine to save costs. The whole Aus industry paid a heavy price for one dishonest foreign owned farm.

I could also point to many local agricultural properties, including fruit and veg, who with a bit of help from local research, value add things like chile and avacodo paste, some to special requirements for export to places like the middle east.

A classic example of foreign investment takeovers: Golden Circle was a proud Australian company. It was allowed to be taken over by US Heinz on the premise that it could not compete with imports. Heinz utilises the Aus brand for marketing but... yes, it now imports product to sell under our brand name and leeches the profits back to the US multinational home base.

We do the hard work to develop the brand and infrastructure, but we allow multinational cooperation's, typically US based to buy the company, use it as a vehicle to import cheap product pushing local producers out of the industry and exploit our brand name to market it to our consumers in the guise of being an 'Australian' product.

You could well ask why didn't the Aus owners of Golden Circle import product. In this case it started out as a local grower owned cooperative in the 1940's... but as delusion of free trade grew it got ignored in terms of the illusionary 'level playing field' or 'free trade' by government, until certain interests got control and sold their soul for a quick buck.

This is the sort of work the CSIRO has done over the years to develop and grow our industries, just to have it all exploited by under regulated foreign investment and the financial benefits go overseas.

We really have to get over this inferiority complex that we can't create and run competitive agricultural, mining or manufacturing businesses in Aus. Of course we can. The problem is the short-sightedness of our lazy politicians and unwillingness to protect our small businesses (until they become big enough for economies of size) with subsidies and tax breaks like the countries that we do so called free trade with do, or at least tougher foreign investment laws.

 

[IFocus]

A mate of mine has recently started selling Australian beef in Asia, it's all slaughtered and pre-packed in Australia and sold as a premium product. He has no trouble moving it.

View attachment 55174

My wife and I were eating in a 4 star resort in Bali recently......we were the only whites rest were Balinese or Indos.

Stop over in Jakarta, hotel full of wealthy Indos with money to burn.

What made us smile is we were eating Asian food and they were all eating steak or western food.

 

[sptrawler]

I would also endorse that with a passion.

Aus Agricultural products have a reputation for having much less infectious disease, contamination from impurities, industrial chemicals, hormones, antibiotics etc. That is all put at risk as I've mentioned before, such as with the Citrus Canker disease that wiped out a significant industry at Emerald a few years ago. The orchard where the outbreak started was foreign owned and they secretly imported the infected seedlings around quarantine to save costs. The whole Aus industry paid a heavy price for one dishonest foreign owned farm.

I could also point to many local agricultural properties, including fruit and veg, who with a bit of help from local research, value add things like chile and avacodo paste, some to special requirements for export to places like the middle east.

A classic example of foreign investment takeovers: Golden Circle was a proud Australian company. It was allowed to be taken over by US Heinz on the premise that it could not compete with imports. Heinz utilises the Aus brand for marketing but... yes, it now imports product to sell under our brand name and leeches the profits back to the US multinational home base.

We do the hard work to develop the brand and infrastructure, but we allow multinational cooperation's, typically US based to buy the company, use it as a vehicle to import cheap product pushing local producers out of the industry and exploit our brand name to market it to our consumers in the guise of being an 'Australian' product.

You could well ask why didn't the Aus owners of Golden Circle import product. In this case it started out as a local grower owned cooperative in the 1940's... but as delusion of free trade grew it got ignored in terms of the illusionary 'level playing field' or 'free trade' by government, until certain interests got control and sold their soul for a quick buck.

This is the sort of work the CSIRO has done over the years to develop and grow our industries, just to have it all exploited by under regulated foreign investment and the financial benefits go overseas.

We really have to get over this inferiority complex that we can't create and run competitive agricultural, mining or manufacturing businesses in Aus. Of course we can. The problem is the short-sightedness of our lazy politicians and unwillingness to protect our small businesses (until they become big enough for economies of size) with subsidies and tax breaks like the countries that we do so called free trade with do, or at least tougher foreign investment laws.

Agree 100%.

 

[Caveman]

"You are arguing with a galah" ... says it all for me. Opined or not the Labor stench will permeate the voting public psyche for few more elections to come.

How Taxes Work . . .

This is a VERY simple way to understand the tax laws. Read on ”” it does make you think!!

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men ”” the poorest ”” would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1, the sixth would pay $3, the seventh $7, the eighth $12, the ninth $18, and the tenth man ”” the richest ”” would pay $59.

That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement ”” until one day, the owner threw them a curve (in tax language a tax cut).

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." So now dinner for the ten only cost $80.00.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six ”” the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?"

The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59. Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free.

But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man who pointed to the tenth. "But he got $7!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man, "I only saved a dollar, too . . . It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!".

"That's true!" shouted the seventh man, "why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late what was very important. They were FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS short of paying the bill! Imagine that!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore.

Where would that leave the rest? Unfortunately, most taxing authorities anywhere cannot seem to grasp this rather straightforward logic!

T. Davies
Professor of Accounting & Chair,
Division of Accounting and Business Law
The University of South Dakota
School of Business
414 E. Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069
Phone: 605-677-5230
Fax: 605-677-5427

Who`s the Galah Mate?
It sounds to me you are comparing income Tax to a GST, consumtion or sales tax etc,its not how tax`s work at all,I mean its just plain silly.

 

[sails]

I hate to admit it, but as I have been raising concerns about the psychology of the behaviour of Abbott's Libs since the election I fear many Aussies may come to believe they endorsed a 'lemon' with Abbott.

Haha... In your dreams...lol. Don't forget the majority voted Abbitt in to fix the mess labor left behind and he's getting on with the job. I think he's doing pretty well so far given the horrific mess they inherited.

Heavy handed thuggery and spying are just not in the recipe for good Indonesian relations to stop the people smugglers or improve trade relations.

I understand the spying problem is something that was going on under labor and was not something the libs started. Why not try to get your facts straight? Or doesnt that suit your propaganda?

 

[Whiskers]

Haha... In your dreams...lol. Don't forget the majority voted Abbitt in to fix the mess labor left behind and he's getting on with the job. I think he's doing pretty well so far given the horrific mess they inherited.

The first point that I've made a number of times is that Abbott did not win a majority, least of all of first preference votes. Labor got more first preference votes, 33.36% to 32%. The coalition didn't even win a majority, about 45%.

The second, they only had a swing to them of abt 2.5% ( abt half that as I recall after preferences) of the 4.5ish that deserted Labor.

Thirdly, do the maths... many of those seat gains are very marginal and it won't take very many voters to change their mind and Abbott is gone.

I understand the spying problem is something that was going on under labor and was not something the libs started. Why not try to get your facts straight? Or doesnt that suit your propaganda?

Yes, spying has always been going on...but without Abbott denying or explaining the allegations made by Indonesia, it seems what they have really taken offence to is some stepping up of operations to secretly find people smugglers and try to seek out boats to buy without Indonesian involvement plus closer collaboration with US intelligence needs recently. Whether or not it's true, the fact that the Indonesians raise the stakes with such a complaint is proof enough that they are pretty p!ssed off over something and that Abbott is NOT charming them over with 'diplomacy'.

Regardless, Abbott clearly hasn't won the support and cooperation of the Indonesians as he pretends.

Further, how do you reasonably expect to improve our trade relations such as reinstate live cattle exports for starters, while he's aggravating Indonesia, or don't you think our exports are important?

Is throwing away intelligence cooperation with Indonesia on people smuggling and terrorism a worthwhile trade off as well?

 

[sails]

No point having a discussion with someone who clearly cherry picks data to suit their propaganda. Over and out...

 

[IFocus]

Budget emergency....sure is one coming with these dimwits seems Hockeys magic calculator wont work in real life.


Extra $300 mil a year in interest payments for a political stunt the arrogance is just stunning.

Federal budget: New report predicts $10 billion deficit blowout

The PEFO estimated a deficit of $30 billion, but since then the new Coalition Government has scrapped some tax windfalls and handed $9 billion to the Reserve Bank.

Deloitte's Chris Richardson says those decisions have significantly contributed to the size of the deficit.

"That is a cost to the budget, it's all fallen this year. It's a lot of dollars," he said.

There will be a surplus every year under a Coalition government..........what a joke, still we can slash the CSIRO funding that will work get rid of some of those lazy public servants.

We don't need a Science Minister or a future what we need is more creationist belief.

That will allow us to give money to the rich Coalition superannuates helped by stripping money off the very bottom wage earners sheer brilliance by the time they retire it will cost x 4 these guys are geniuses.

Hockeys magic calculator still comes up $3 bil short.

"Unless you see difficult decisions taken in Canberra and announced relatively soon you actually won't see a surplus in the foreseeable future," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-09/new-report-predicts-2410-billion-deficit-blowout/5080820

 

[IFocus]

This will be interesting to see how the front bench go


There's nowhere to hide in Question Time

Of principal interest will be how the Coalition adapts its low/no information approach to the demands of parliamentary scrutiny. It's no revelation that very few of the new ministers are strong parliamentary performers. While it's one thing for the Prime Minister to keep newbie ministers away from the risks of media events and other public appearances, it's more difficult to protect them from a brace of ex-ministers on the opposition benches bristling with knowledgeable questions.

Mean while Kelly O'Dwyer sits on the back bench............faceless men anyone?

 

[sails]

Budget emergency....sure is one coming with these dimwits seems Hockeys magic calculator wont work in real life.


Extra $300 mil a year in interest payments for a political stunt the arrogance is just stunning.

Federal budget: New report predicts $10 billion deficit blowout




There will be a surplus every year under a Coalition government..........what a joke, still we can slash the CSIRO funding that will work get rid of some of those lazy public servants.

We don't need a Science Minister or a future what we need is more creationist belief.

That will allow us to give money to the rich Coalition superannuates helped by stripping money off the very bottom wage earners sheer brilliance by the time they retire it will cost x 4 these guys are geniuses.

Hockeys magic calculator still comes up $3 bil short.



http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-09/new-report-predicts-2410-billion-deficit-blowout/5080820

Don't forget labor has left a massive financial mess which they created over six and won't be fixed in a few weeks. They have left something like a $12 billion interest bill on their own massive borrowing plus they have left a costly border security problem. All your galah screeches and name calling will never distract from the huge fiscal damage inflicted by labor on this country.

Let's see how the coalition go over this next term as they gradually untangle the mess. It's way too early yet...

 

[sails]

This will be interesting to see how the front bench go


There's nowhere to hide in Question Time

Of principal interest will be how the Coalition adapts its low/no information approach to the demands of parliamentary scrutiny. It's no revelation that very few of the new ministers are strong parliamentary performers. While it's one thing for the Prime Minister to keep newbie ministers away from the risks of media events and other public appearances, it's more difficult to protect them from a brace of ex-ministers on the opposition benches bristling with knowledgeable questions

Lol - when did labor ever bristle with knowledgeable questions...

 

[IFocus]

See Abbott to busy attending party functions and having photo opportunities (running the country) to face questions from anyone never mind a hard interview.

 

[trainspotter]

Who`s the Galah Mate?
It sounds to me you are comparing income Tax to a GST, consumtion or sales tax etc,its not how tax`s work at all,I mean its just plain silly.

Have a look at IFocus handle for crystallisation on the Galah thingy ! Care to elucidate on your missive Caveman?

 

[trainspotter]

The first point that I've made a number of times is that Abbott did not win a majority, least of all of first preference votes. Labor got more first preference votes, 33.36% to 32%. The coalition didn't even win a majority, about 45%.

The second, they only had a swing to them of abt 2.5% ( abt half that as I recall after preferences) of the 4.5ish that deserted Labor.

Thirdly, do the maths... many of those seat gains are very marginal and it won't take very many voters to change their mind and Abbott is gone.

Yes, spying has always been going on...but without Abbott denying or explaining the allegations made by Indonesia, it seems what they have really taken offence to is some stepping up of operations to secretly find people smugglers and try to seek out boats to buy without Indonesian involvement plus closer collaboration with US intelligence needs recently. Whether or not it's true, the fact that the Indonesians raise the stakes with such a complaint is proof enough that they are pretty p!ssed off over something and that Abbott is NOT charming them over with 'diplomacy'.

Regardless, Abbott clearly hasn't won the support and cooperation of the Indonesians as he pretends.

Further, how do you reasonably expect to improve our trade relations such as reinstate live cattle exports for starters, while he's aggravating Indonesia, or don't you think our exports are important?

Is throwing away intelligence cooperation with Indonesia on people smuggling and terrorism a worthwhile trade off as well?

Well DERRRRRRRRRR ! That's what preferences are for! By the way ... what happened in the previous election? Hmmmmmm ??? Care to go and get some FACTS about that? Who won the primary vote but some dodgy deals with 4 independents gave the balance of power to whom again?

Before you start cherry picking first of all you must have a cherry to pick.

 

[trainspotter]

Budget emergency....sure is one coming with these dimwits seems Hockeys magic calculator wont work in real life.

Extra $300 mil a year in interest payments for a political stunt the arrogance is just stunning.

Federal budget: New report predicts $10 billion deficit blowout

There will be a surplus every year under a Coalition government..........what a joke, still we can slash the CSIRO funding that will work get rid of some of those lazy public servants.

We don't need a Science Minister or a future what we need is more creationist belief.

That will allow us to give money to the rich Coalition superannuates helped by stripping money off the very bottom wage earners sheer brilliance by the time they retire it will cost x 4 these guys are geniuses.

Hockeys magic calculator still comes up $3 bil short.



http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-09/new-report-predicts-2410-billion-deficit-blowout/5080820

I do not know what you are putting in your bird seed but I would be laying off the hard liquor if I were you !

You do realise that LABOR created this mess and it is the LIBERAL governments job to restock the shelves?

6 years of LABOR raiding the corporate credit card and you expect Hockey to fix this in 6 weeks. Get a grip of ya perch ya silly duffer.

 

[drsmith]

Personalisation of attacks on others comment is always disgusting, I am no virgin either but it needs toning down.

Is that the high perch cracking under the weight of self assessed hypocrisy ?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On matters of government,

As the $8.8bn cash injection into the RBA has been raised in this thread again, I refer to the following article which offers some background,

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-23/government-gives-rba-one-off-grant/5039848

And today, a policy announcement from the government on entitlement claims,

Parliamentarians will be forced to pay a loading of 25 per cent on any expenses they incorrectly claim, and face more stringent guidelines under new parliamentary expenses rules announced today.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-...rnment-prepares-to-announce-new-rules/5080914

 

[IFocus]

More Coalition members getting in on the act

WA politicians on the gravy plane

Taxpayers will be stung with a hefty bill to fly WA-based ministers and Liberal MPs, spouses and children to Canberra on a luxury RAAF jet for next week's opening of Parliament.

The Weekend West can reveal one of the Government's 737 Boeing business jets has been booked to fly three Abbott Government ministers, six Liberal MPs and seven of their family members to the nation's capital.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/19748655/wa-politicians-on-the-gravy-plane/