Would Peter Costello make a good PM?

[twojacks28]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

TwoJacks, i know you are completly ANTI LABOUR...
But BSD has provided a very objective analysis that is definitely not pro labor...

I certainly agree with him... I would also like to add that the present day Liberals are Liberal in name only... They are one of the most interventionist govt's going around... just got to think of the FHOG, Baby Bonus, 30% health rebate, child care rebate, Fam Tax A, B, C, D, etc, etc... very Labouresq i might say... you only got to see the massive increase in business red tap, tax laws, both business and individual, etc, etc to see this!

This is one of the reason Labor look clueless in recent times, its cause major Liberal and Labor policies are almost identical, making Labor looks bereft on ideas... The Workplace Laws are the first time in the last 12 years that Labor actually has a chance to differentiate themselves from the Libs...

thats another topic in itself... so we won't get sidetracked...


Anyway...
Once the economy is opened up... free market, rates, fores, etc, (incidentally done by Labor) it doesn't matter who is incharge... the market takes care of it....




I vote for Politicians on the DOLE!!!

hahah you make me laugh rafa im not anti labor or anyone for that matter. the fact is that the government does influence the economy in a big way. since the liberal government took over years ago the economy has improved dramatically. bsd some of your points are true but to say that the government has nothing to do with the economy is absurd. for your information the gst was put in place to combine all taxes. if anything it has been good as it got rid of many taxes which we originally had. we have less now with the gst. it makes sense to have one main tax instead of many separate taxes.

 

[lukem]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

it makes sense to have one main tax instead of many separate taxes.

It would make more sense to have NO taxes..

 

[twojacks28]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

It would make more sense to have NO taxes..

ahh no that is not possible.

 

[lukem]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

ahh no that is not possible.

Why not?

 

[Smurf1976]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

It would make more sense to have NO taxes..

I can see the benfits in less government but IMO there would be serious problems in a situation with no government. Apart from making laws, some of which are necessary for the functioning of a civilised society, there are some economic activities where private ownership just doesn't work.

Imagine how privately owned and run road traffic control would work, for example. How, exactly, do you collect the money from someone who just happens to push the button at the traffic lights to cross the road? A toll on literally every road? That would send business broke real fast since the nature of traffic control is that it is necessarily a monopoly. A privately owned monopoly with no government to regulate it isn't going to be cheap...

And somewhat more seriously, who defends the country if not taxpayers? Do we see Woodside with its own defence force in NW Australia and Zinifex with another one in Hobart, all pursuing different strategies? A nhge cost that would send business broke. It just wouldn't work in practice. And who pays to defend the likes of the Gold Coast? Hotel owners with 100+ individual defence forces?

There is a legitimate role for government IMO, but not as much as we have now. Some laws yes, some direct provision of services certainly. But not all the red tape and pointless inquiries etc that we see today. Worth noting too that much of the welfare payments do nothing other than hand some tax back to the same people that paid it in the first place whilst adding expensive administration charges on top. Not very efficient.

How would this be funded if not through taxes? Nationalise a few key industries? Possibly an option that's not as silly as it sounds - look at how the OPEC countries fund everything through state-run oil companies. The Australian equivalent would seem to be uranium.

 

[twojacks28]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

also as many of you are saying the liberal government is the highest taxing government the reason is that most people are making more money per year now which means they pay more tax. they havent put taxes up or introduced lots of new taxes the fact is that most people make more money on average. therefore people pay more tax

 

[blinkybill]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

I think Costello has done his dash now and lost any credibility he might have had after expecting Howard to hand over the leadership to him when he knows full well that he doesn't have the numbers in his party let alone the general public to support him. Imo Costello should have either just challenged the leadership or shut up because he's come out looking very weak and stupid.

I don't think Costello will ever be the Liberal leader after the way he has handled the last couple of weeks, especially after he emphatically denied some time ago that a deal was ever done. He was either telling lies then or is telling lies now.

I think Howard will stay on now until at least 12 months after the next election before retiring and unless the coalition does something really stupid before the next election I think they will win quite easily inspite of the IR reforms.

 

[Rafa]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

hahah you make me laugh rafa im not anti labor or anyone for that matter. the fact is that the government does influence the economy in a big way. since the liberal government took over years ago the economy has improved dramatically.

TwoJacks,

Its fair to say, and most commentators are now saying it, that its the reforms of the Keating era that have really made the big difference to Australia in the last 10 years...

From the Editor of The Australian... (a definite pro-liberal paper...)
The prosperity Australians enjoy at present is in large part due to reforms put in place more than a decade ago by Paul Keating's national competition policy. Just as much as the China-led resources boom, it is those reforms that underpin Australia's record stretch of economic growth and the lowest unemployment rate for 30 years.

In terms of reform, the Liberals have delivered...
1. Tax Reform: with the move away from Income tax, towards consumption tax...
2. IR Reform: with the move towards individually negotiated contracts as opposed to collective negotiations
3. Privatisation....

The results of these reforms are still to be fully realised... In fact, we are really not going to know if they are any good for at least the next 5 years or so...

Funnily enough, most of these reforms are driven by the PM Howard (unlike previously, when Keating as treasurer championed them)... To come back to the topic, Costello has not shown any prime ministerial qualities and ideas to indicate he would make a good PM!

My vote goes to Howard to stays on as PM...

 

[twojacks28]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

TwoJacks,

Its fair to say, and most commentators are now saying it, that its the reforms of the Keating era that have really made the big difference to Australia in the last 10 years...




In terms of reform, the Liberals have delivered...
1. Tax Reform: with the move away from Income tax, towards consumption tax...
2. IR Reform: with the move towards individually negotiated contracts as opposed to collective negotiations
3. Privatisation....

The results of these reforms are still to be fully realised... In fact, we are really not going to know if they are any good for at least the next 5 years or so...

Funnily enough, most of these reforms are driven by the PM Howard (unlike previously, when Keating as treasurer championed them)... To come back to the topic, Costello has not shown any prime ministerial qualities and ideas to indicate he would make a good PM!

My vote goes to Howard to stays on as PM...

if thats what you believe then thats fair enough. costello hasnt shown much about becoming pm as he doesnt need to. just now that costello has improved the economy drastically. it wasnt just the keating government which made changes.

 

[Smurf1976]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

Funny how all this talk about improving the economy fails to mention our truly Third World high Current Account deficit.

It's not hard to improve your lifestyle by running up debt. The problem is when those lending the money say "enough".

But the government has repaid debt I hear you say. Certainly, they have repaid debt but to give a true picture you need to deduct the proceeds of asset sales from that. It doesn't look so impressive then... And of course I'm talking about the WHOLE economy and not merely the finances of the government itself.

It'll be easier to asses the situation once the effects of years of inflationary monetary policy, and more recently tax policy, filter through to the checkout and wages.

 

[Rafa]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

Yes, time will certainly tell.

Just as we all thought Keating was a Dill and have now been proved incorect, the reforms of the last few years will come home to roost in the next 5- 10 years...

We'll wait and see...

 

[twojacks28]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

Yes, time will certainly tell.

Just as we all thought Keating was a Dill and have now been proved incorect, the reforms of the last few years will come home to roost in the next 5- 10 years...

We'll wait and see...

haha yeh rafa then we can continue this discussion

 

[Rafa]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

hehe

yes, we certainly will two jacks...


i wonder what we will be doing then... :bier:

 

[twojacks28]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

hmm i can think of a few things

 

[lukem]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

Sorry, for the few days late reply, I haven't been on the 'puter.

Smurf, you bring up a couple of examples that I'm sure many people would probably agree private enterprise couldn't run. There are many other examples you could think of and ponder how the free market could achieve what the govt already does with them. I know for the two that you wrote - roads & national defense, I've thought previously to myself how they would function in a truly free market society. I of course don't have all the answers, but the more that I read, the more I find that people have thought about many of these same issues and have theorized as to how they would operate. What many people think are 'public goods' and solely the domain of government, could instead be better run if it was in private hands.

For roads, here is a link to an article in The Journal of Libertarian Studies by Walter Block: Free Market Transportation: Denationalizing The Roads. There is also a book that I haven't read yet (but I have put an order in for it at my library ) that is edited by Hans Hermann Hoppe called The Myth of National Defense. Here is a link to it on Amazon.

There is a wealth of information to be found on the Internet (it's just a matter of finding free time to read it!) vis-à-vis laissez faire capitalism, libertarianism, Austrian economics etc. If you're interested, you'll find a ton of interesting information on the von Mises Institute website. They have all kinds of thought provoking daily articles that are available to read on the site.

 

[Julia]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

Well, the question forming the title of this thread is now academic.

John Howard has just announced his decision to contest the next election as Prime Minister.

No surprise.

Julia

 

[Prospector]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

Unfortunately. I think Peter would make a good PM, he just has this unfortunate air about him that comes off as smugness. Surely it is time for John Howard to go - without sounding like a Gen X'er (or is that a Y'er : ) I just think we need someone a little younger!

 

[visual]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

Unfortunately. I think Peter would make a good PM, he just has this unfortunate air about him that comes off as smugness. Surely it is time for John Howard to go - without sounding like a Gen X'er (or is that a Y'er : ) I just think we need someone a little younger!

Oh Prospector,your ageist! :

 

[TimmyC]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

if it aint broke dont fix it, Johny should stay but i've got no problem with costello taking over when howards time is up

 

[The Mint Man]

Re: Would Peter make a good PM

he just has this unfortunate air about him that comes off as smugness.

cant agree more.