The Gillard Government

[drsmith]

I feel about as sorry for Labor as they do for the electorate as a whole under their government.

 

[MrBurns]

Labor are absolutely destroyed, I don't know how long it will take for them to come back from this.

The decision to axe Rudd was catastrophic, Gillard has been the worst thing to happen to Labor....well.....ever.

Makes one wonder about the boneheads that run that party, how inept and positively unworthy are the people behind the scenes in there ???

Labor has nothing left and more importantly no one to help them recover down the track.

 

[drsmith]

Labor has nothing left and more importantly no one to help them recover down the track.

They still have a 7% rise in revenue this financial year despite the now estimated $12bn shortfall, but that revenue gain and the end deficit result only adds to the sense of their fiscal incompetence.

 

[MrBurns]

They still have a 7% rise in revenue this financial year despite the now estimated $12bn shortfall, but that revenue gain and the end deficit result only adds to the sense of their fiscal incompetence.

Wayne Swan is looking increasingly and embarrassingly out of his depth, even to the average punter.

 

[Knobby22]

Labor are absolutely destroyed, I don't know how long it will take for them to come back from this.

If the Libs govern properly you are looking at a generation. 4 elections terms. they have really blown it. I have to agree, Gillard really has been terrible for them. People say that women would be better than men in governing - and that may be true in places like India, GBR and New Zealand but when you look around at Australia's experience Carmen Lawrence, Joan Kirner (she was truly terrible) and now Julia Gillard I would have to say I would never vote for a female leader (especially on the Labor side) without getting a checkup from a psychologist.

People say that Thatcher did nothing for helping women become leaders but at least people can point to her as a success. Lawrence, Kirner and Gillard have set women back to the point where I am wondering whether they should vote women into parliament at all! think of some of the others, Cheryl Kernot, Natasha Party Destroyer, the list goes on. There was that female Lib MP who rigged the voting in her seat 2 elections ago also.

A bit unfair I know, but it seems the ones that get to the top are the ones with the least capability.

Other countries don't seem to suffer from this problem.

 

[drsmith]

Bearing in mind the ever sinking state of the federal budget, the following Fairfax poll on Gonski and NDIS is interesting,

Poll: Should the government proceed with the NDIS and Gonski school reforms despite the growing shortfall in revenue?

Yes, such important reform is worth a short-term budget deficit
23%
Yes, but only if they can find other savings in the budget to fund them
13%
No, put them off until we can afford it
44%
No, scrap them altogether
20%

Total votes: 4446.

The results might be even more skewed if the first option recognised that our budget deficit is likely to be a little more than short-term.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/loss-blows-12b-hole-in-budget-20130428-2imsv.html#poll




















Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/polit...e-in-budget-20130428-2imsv.html#ixzz2RoF9aht8

 

[moXJO]

I have noticed the left media trying their hardest to spin labor into looking good. All the ex labor supporters seem to be out in force in the opinion pieces.
Just noticed swan bringing out the farmers loan. This was a few years to late after they destroyed farmers with the knee jerk export ban. Yet another section the managed to destroy

 

[McLovin]

Finally, some reality. This is the first time either side has admitted that normal is where we are now, not where we were pre'07

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said “urgent and grave” decisions need to be made at the May 14 budget and all sections of the community – business, families and institutions – will have to help share the burden.

Announcing a $12 billion write-down in company tax revenue since the last budget update in October, Ms Gillard said that revenue would not be replaced with spending cuts at the budget.

But she said the long-term, multibillion dollar investments in school funding reforms and the National Disability Insurance Scheme would be paid for by cuts, and “the burden of our decisions will be shared across the whole Australian community’’.

“Business, families, institutions. Everyone benefits so everyone contributes,’’ she told the Per Capita lunch in Canberra on Monday.

“Guiding us as we make these decisions is the key principle of burden sharing,’’ she said.

Ominously, Ms Gillard said “every reasonable option’’ was on the table, “even options previously taken off the table’’. This brings into play cuts to business tax concessions and family benefits, as well as tax increases.

http://www.afr.com/p/national/budget_burden_must_be_shared_by_iQ2tyboC2dBJKMolGNlIZM

Hopefully, with the government admitting it has been, to put it kindly, optimistic, Abbott can tone down the hollow rhetoric and we can actually get some sort of policy debate.

 

[MrBurns]

Finally, some reality. This is the first time either side has admitted that normal is where we are now, not where we were pre'07



http://www.afr.com/p/national/budget_burden_must_be_shared_by_iQ2tyboC2dBJKMolGNlIZM

Hopefully, with the government admitting it has been, to put it kindly, optimistic, Abbott can tone down the hollow rhetoric and we can actually get some sort of policy debate.

So you mean now that Gillard can no longer hide the fact that they stuffed everything up, everyone must pay, how noble of her. Things must be even worse than we know now.
The budget will be a shocker , thanks Gillard you lying incompetent curse and Swan you ignorant dope.

 

[McLovin]

So you mean now that Gillard can no longer hide the fact that they stuffed everything up, everyone must pay, how noble of her. Things must be even worse than we know now.
The budget will be a shocker , thanks Gillard you lying incompetent curse and Swan you ignorant dope.

Nope. Just what I've been saying for ages on here. The budget was set to boom mode for too long (thanks to Rudd and Howard). It's finally being unwound to SNAFU mode.

Did Gillard make mistakes, absolutely! I think she and Swan will go down as the worst pair running the country since God knows when.

 

[FlyingFox]

Nope. Just what I've been saying for ages on here. The budget was set to boom mode for too long (thanks to Rudd and Howard). It's finally being unwound to SNAFU mode.

Did Gillard make mistakes, absolutely! I think she and Swan will go down as the worst pair running the country since God knows when.

+1.

 

[drsmith]

The latest Essential Media poll still has Labor in the pine box with no sign of a pulse.

2PP unchanged at 55/45 in favour of the Coalition.

http://essentialvision.com.au/category/essentialreport

In relation to Labor's budget problems, one question that comes to mind is why Julia Gillard fronted the media today instead of Wayne Swan ?

 

[bunyip]

Gillard and Swan can blame falling revenue until the cows come home, but it’s the wasteful and irresponsible spending that has landed this Labor government in such a mess. They could have delivered a budget surplus in spite of the falling revenue if they hadn’t splashed money around with reckless abandon.
Just think of the dough they wasted....20 billion on overpriced and unnecessary school buildings alone (which Gillard herself presided over), the home insulation debacle, the boat people fiasco – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Scores of billions of dollars.
A business manager who did what this Labor government has done would be sacked. Just like the Labor government will be in September.

They haven’t even had enough brains to change their leader – a move that may have at least given them a slim hope of pulling off an election victory. Instead they seem intent on following Gillard over the cliff.

Never elect of bunch of unionists to run the country - they're just not up to the job.

 

[bigdog]

$12b Budget black hole

Gillard is blaming Treasury!!

Gillard and Swan provides the assumptions and policy to Treasury to calculate the forecasts!

 

[MrBurns]

$12b Budget black hole

Gillard is blaming Treasury!!

Gillard and Swan provides the assumptions and policy to Treasury to calculate the forecasts!

I really want to see the polls throw them even lower, they deserve it, but perhaps there's a floor under which it's hard to descend from..............

 

[drsmith]

Imagine a wage earner, John, employed in the same job throughout the last 20 years.

For a period in 2003 to 2007 every year his employer gave him a sizeable bonus.
He was grateful but in his bones knew it wouldn’t last.....

In Julia Gillard analogy, John's smarter than Labor, on more than one front.

John realises that a cash handout financed from the credit card has to be paid back some time, with interest. He also realises that pink bats and school halls don't grow on trees.

John wouldn't be foolish enough to sign up to long term recurrent subscription expenditure to be financed from gambling revenue.

He wouldn't be silly enough to volunteer for a green energy premium on his electricity tariff while the credit card debt was spiralling out of control.

He wouldn't be paying money to the local feel good Green mafia to satisfy his conscience.

He also wouldn't be supporting an unrelated additional member in his home who has illegally paid someone else for that privilege.

To respond to this temporary loss of income by selling his home and car, dropping his private health insurance, replacing every second evening meal with two-minute noodles.
Of course not.

A rational response would be to make some responsible savings, to engage in some moderate borrowing, to get through to the time of higher income with his family and lifestyle intact and then to use the higher income to pay off the extra borrowing undertaken in the lean years.

Labor still doesn't get it.

They expect unrealistic growth rates in revenue to return to support their wasteful expenditure.

http://resources.news.com.au/files/2013/04/29/1226631/586812-130429-pms-revenue-shortfall-speech.pdf

 

[sails]

...Labor still doesn't get it.

They expect unrealistic growth rates in revenue to return to support their wasteful expenditure.

http://resources.news.com.au/files/2013/04/29/1226631/586812-130429-pms-revenue-shortfall-speech.pdf

From the quote:

A rational response would be to make some responsible savings, to engage in some moderate borrowing, to get through to the time of higher income with his family and lifestyle intact and then to use the higher income to pay off the extra borrowing undertaken in the lean years.

Lean years indicate a fall in revenue - agree Labor does not get it. Revenue is fine - it's the out of control spending that's the problem. Now it seems she will try to grab more taxes rather than curtail the spending. Unbelievable...

Surely there should be some qualifications necessary to run the country. It seems they have no idea.

 

[Julia]

Gillard and Swan can blame falling revenue until the cows come home, but it’s the wasteful and irresponsible spending that has landed this Labor government in such a mess. They could have delivered a budget surplus in spite of the falling revenue if they hadn’t splashed money around with reckless abandon.
Just think of the dough they wasted....20 billion on overpriced and unnecessary school buildings alone (which Gillard herself presided over), the home insulation debacle, the boat people fiasco – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Scores of billions of dollars.
A business manager who did what this Labor government has done would be sacked. Just like the Labor government will be in September.

They haven’t even had enough brains to change their leader – a move that may have at least given them a slim hope of pulling off an election victory. Instead they seem intent on following Gillard over the cliff.

Never elect of bunch of unionists to run the country - they're just not up to the job.

Agree completely.
In addition, Gillard has set back eons the case for women in positions of power.

 

[sails]

Agree completely.
In addition, Gillard has set back eons the case for women in positions of power.

Agree... and I think there is nothing worse than a power hungry female who is not competent.

And, I believe gender does not matter if a person is competent.

 

[dutchie]

The ALP = Economic Vandals