BF2S Forums Australian politics thread.

If a Nick Xylophone candidate stood I think he'd be in with a chance, otherwise yes they're human garbage.

I'd be happy to wipe the ballot paper across my arse, whoever licks the streak off would be free to place an X where they like.
I guarantee every one of them would fight for the chance.

Well right now that doesn't look like it's going to be smooth sailing.

Fact is that the Coalition's budget, as harsh as many people called it, put it in exactly the same position that was projected for Labor. It was a reshuffling of priorities, little more. For all their talk of cuts and belt-tightening the Coalition only did just enough cutting to pay for their own measures like Tony Abbott's PPL, planned road infrastructure, and cutting the carbon and mining taxes. The prime example is it's GP tax which as it proudly said wasn't about revenue-raising but for a medical health research futures fund.

It wasn't a budget that made savings to avert or curb a budget emergency, it was at its best a stabilising budget. Same in, same out. But given that the Coalition is going to give ground on several things, (it already seems to have shelved the fuel excise hike, it's GP tax is widely unpopular) they actually face being in a worse position.

And with Clive dancing around singing "It puts the lotion on it's skin or else its bill is fucked again" and pretending to be the champion of the common man I very much doubt a surplus is in the Coalition's future. We'll see if Joe comes through on his threats to put in place measures that don't have to go through Parliament. I doubt they're going to be popular.

But that's my point, they're not trying. They're pretending to try. The substance of the Coalition's budget position hasn't actually moved past Tony Abbott's "Budget surpluses are in our DNA" quote. The actual numbers don't show any improvement on Labor's bottom line and depending on who you listen to are actually worse. When you compare costs to savings the belief that the Coalition is on a path to sustainable financial management is ludicrous.

157 asylum seekers kept on an Australian customs vessel in prisonlike conditions to be moved to detention centre in Curtin WA.

*raspberry*

All that unconscionable cruelty for nothing Scott, what a shame. His press conference is on mute on the TV at work at the moment but I think I can guess the gist of it anyway.

better than my david cameron

That's not saying much. Abetz is German, most German's have a link to WW2 and the Nazis on some level.  My best mate's grandfather was a high-ranking officer in the Luftwaffe. He even won an Iron Cross.

I noted while I was in Australia that unemployment is now 6.4% - over the 6.25% that was projected for around this time and beyond what the Abbott Government was essentially blaming Labor for since they took over in order to prepare people for the act of blame-shifting when the figure arrived. I wonder how much of a dent that's put in Abbott's promise to create a million new jobs - already the job-seekers to vacancies ratio is well over 4:1. Businesses and consumers aren't just going to base their behaviour on the message that "Australia is open for business". Apparently it's not enough to just say that and watch the issues solve themselves. Apparently if you deliver an inconsistent, inequitable, deeply flawed budget and have little to no idea of how to pass enough of it to even have a remote chance of delivering the promised sustainable surplus the economy will start to react negatively.

Some pretty deep cracks have been forming over the last few weeks with pretty much every main area of Government focus. The budget issue is dragging on with no real glimmer of light in sight. The carbon tax was repealed but there's been a complete lack of even any talk about what to do going forward. The border protection stance has had a real hole torn into it and Morrison is looking stupider and stupider the more he uses the words "shocking" and "offensive" to say nothing at all. Joblessness is up. Confidence is down. Ministers are making absolute tits of themselves on TV. Essentially the only thing the Abbott Government has going for it is a plane that was shot down in Ukraine giving Tones the opportunity to me Mr. Tough-And-In-Charge. And the only reason he can really do that is because Labor ignored the his and the LNP's protests and gained Australia a seat on the UN Security Council.

Costello publicly criticising both Hockey and Abbott in the same week, that was unexpected.

Its like watching two slow-motion car-crashes on the back of rail cars both heading towards a bus of school-children stuck on a rail crossing.

At least the wildlife is friendly.

This government is fucked.

i r confused

The mining tax was supposed to bring in no money at all, and yet cancelling it has put a A$1bn/year hole in the budget.

Mining Tax - A History

Mining tax brought in but seriously watered down by Julia Gillard due to its minor role in ending Kevin Rudd's Prime Ministership. Gillard wanted to be seen as working with mining sector. Mining sector took advantage of that and put in as many loopholes and exceptions as it could. Result was that many miners didn't end up paying anything - especially as it sort of came in too late and missed the "boom" of investment, coming in to place when the mining sector was in the production phase.

However Labor still talks up the revenue from the tax with Treasury predictions based on a scenario where the boom would continue for a few years at least. They announce a lot of spending measures linked to the tax including the school kids bonus and payment for children of injured/killed veterans.

Coalition complains that the tax unfairly punishes miners and will lead to job losses and mine closures.

This does not happen.

Coalition changes tack, points out that mining tax isn't punishing miners enough, (i.e. isn't bring in enough revenue,) and attacks Labor for fiscal irresponsibility. However their argument is still that it should be scrapped rather than strengthened.

Coalition wins. Moves to scrap the mining tax.

Bizarrely, mining magnate and MP Clive Palmer gets in the way so he can play at being the champion of the people insisting that the Government keeps mining tax related spending measures.

Government and Palmer eventually agree on a deal which sees mining tax scrapped, (as both want,) and a few spending measures kept, (though measures like the school kids bonus will be phased out as opposed to being scrapped.)

However while the mining tax wasn't bringing in as much money as predicted, it was bringing in money. The result of scrapping it is that the money the mining tax DID bring in is lost and many of the spending measures that were costing the budget remain putting the budget in a potentially worse position than it was - but at least without big miners having to put their hands in their pockets to contribute anything.



Overall though the concept of "linking" programs or expenditures to particular taxes is a complete fiction. Revenue is revenue and expenditure is expenditure. The Abbott Government cut a revenue-raising initiative and couldn't get rid of a bunch of spending initiatives. Little less in, little less out. How it all balances out will be for next year's budget figures.