Well, after the launch the difference is easily above 7bill... that is approaching 1% of GDP, which is quite significant Julia.
But its also the difference in the spending, beyond the base 40billion in tax cuts/aged pensions. Most of the the further Liberal spending is in handouts under to guise of letting the people decide where they want to spend their money rather than the govt... whereas the labour spending is directly in infrastructure, equipment or personell.
Julia, surely you agree handing back money directly back to the people, be it baby bonuses, FHOG, and now education rebates is more inflationary that actually pumping it into services and infrastructure where you are atleast getting some output for it?
Rafa, thanks for providing the correct figure. And yes, I agree that 7b
is significant.
Has Labor said they will discontinue the baby bonus, FHOG?
Let's not forget that, at least in the beginning, everything the Coalition promised, they echoed that they would do the same.
You won't get any argument from me about some of the promises made by Mr Howard. I mentioned earlier in this thread (I think) that he lost me with that TV grab of $500K to save the orangutangs in Borneo where he went to visit the disabled child who had written to him (supposedly) about it.
And so many other things the Libs have come out with in the last few weeks -complete bribery.
To be quite honest, I am so fed up with all of them that most of the promises have just gone over my head so if you - or anyone - could clarify for me what Labor has actually promised to do in terms of services and infrastructure and the approximate value of those promises, I'd be grateful.
Are they, e,g, going to do something to help with our dwindling water supply?
This is a problem now in most of our capital cities.
And health/aged care? My local member (National) has sent out a leaflet saying they will establish 24 hour medical clinics in all regional cities.
There is no stated amount for funding this. I phoned to ask how they are planning to staff these clinics because all the local GP's are overworked now and people new to the district find it very difficult to get a doctor. The person I spoke to didn't know but promised to find out and get back to me. She hasn't. This is the sort of thing which makes me so cynical about both sides. It's just so easy to say "we will do this" but often not so easy to actually implement the policy. Ditto aged care - we will provide additional aged care beds. OK, fine. They can't get sufficient staff for nursing homes now, where are all the extras going to come from?
I do recall hearing Mr Rudd announce that Labor will reinstate the Commonwealth Dental Scheme. Great. Very much needed.
But there is also a shortage of dentists. The local State funded and run free dental clinic here (Qld) has a 6 year waiting list. The staff say that is because they just cannot attract the required number of dentists to service the demand. So where are all Mr Rudd's extra dentists going to come from?
And then there's mental health. We shouldn't be saving apes when we have mentally ill people who are homeless and being abused in miserable caravan parks. Is either side going to do anything for these poor souls?
Obviously some of these questions are rhetorical just to illustrate my complete lack of faith in both sides. But the infrastructure ones, e.g. water may be something someone can answer.