It's a storm in a tea cup. People want to be whinging about how awful the budget is but the budget hasn't been released so this is the next best thing. Even though not a single recommendation of the report has been implemented, people are saying the government is horrid, the budget is horrid and they want to move overseas. #firstworldproblems
Commission of Audit released Today.
- Thread starter RPI
- Start date
It's a storm in a tea cup. People want to be whinging about how awful the budget is but the budget hasn't been released so this is the next best thing. Even though not a single recommendation of the report has been implemented, people are saying the government is horrid, the budget is horrid and they want to move overseas. #firstworldproblems
Same boat. I haven't had time to actually read the document, and I'm going to wait until I read it before making specific comments.
As a general rule, I'll probably agree with some, disagree with others, like most other documentation of this nature.
Obviously, the actual budget will be a significantly scaled down version of this document.
I am interested to note that the author of the report noted that the budget situation, whilst not amazing, is also not particularly bad, so these recommendations may be coming from an ideological rather than necessity, which makes it interesting.
I'll try and read some more info on it over the weekend otherwise it is just idle speculation.
"In January Treasurer Joe Hockey said he would expect the government to adopt a ?vast number? of the recommendations contained in the Commission of Audit, but the government has already ruled out a number of options, such as including the family home in the assets test for the age pension."
Interesting how he said that in January, its almost like he knew what would be in there.
afr.com
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A couple of things, out of 139 (I think) recommendations.
First Dog on the Moon is hysterical today. Takes digs at everyone, from 'ideological wish-list', 'Amanda Sevenstone' to 'Bill Fasten' 
'And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouching towards Barton to be born'
W.B Yeats 'The Second Coming'
'And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouching towards Barton to be born'
W.B Yeats 'The Second Coming'
The only interesting thing is that you belong to the tiny 8.6% minority that support the Greens, and hence you are a massive part of what caused this national problem in the first place.
You should hang your collective heads in shame and quietly sit there in the sin bin whilst the sensible adults who were elected by the majority of Australians to once again go about the extraordinarily difficult task of mopping your filthy mess up.
Your appetite for debt is once again costing the country $ 10,000 million every year just in interest to hold the constant. As investors, we all understand that.
More than $ 27 million every day flying offshore into some overseas Bank. That's $ 27 million every day that isn't being spent on services and infrastructure for Australians.
Of course, that's to say nothing about paying any of the debt mountain off. That's just to keep the debt mountain from getting any bigger.
Remember, when Howard and the Liberals got kicked out of office for wunderkid Rudd and the unions in Nov 2007, Australia had no debt, it had $ 22 Billion in cash earning the country interest, and it had $ 60 Billion put away in the Future Fund.
The Australian public under Labor and the Greens have been spending waaaay more on everything than they could afford. Deficits of $ 123,000 million in the 4 year forward estimate period and projected deficits as far as the eye can see, mountains of debt heading towards $ 667,000 million if nothing different is done, no cash anywhere put away and a media and public screaming that more needs to be spent !!
I noticed no-one ever asked the Greens or Labor prior to the election what they were planning on doing to tackle the Budget and debt issue. That's right, not their problem. See Qld, see NSW, see Tasmania, see SA, and the big one, see Federally the trail of debt and destruction......wherever they have been in charge......mountains of red ink with untold Billions racked up in debt, and not an economic shred of management in any of their Parliamentary representatives, who are either old union hacks or lefty protest warriors.
Shame on the lot of them.
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No, please don't give them any responsibilities.
So you're suggesting the other side of the coin then? Where splurging billions more than our incoming, is the answer?
See WA....?
Last I heard WA treasury was forecasting the state's debt to hit $28billion by 2017, up from $3.6billion when Barnett and the Libs took office in '08. Admittedly the Horizontal Fiscal Equalisation (HFE) screws WA and has stunted it's revenue growth while it's booming, but the infrastructure spend and choice of projects undertaken in WA rivals the madness of Anna Bligh in Qld in her term and a half as premier.
If debt does get to $28billion in WA, it will be pretty close per-capita with Queensland's debt (Circa $64billion last I heard). It'll be an ugly and unpopular mess to clean up, just as it's proven to be here in Qld.
Labor logic - according the gospel of Labor supporters
Sometime this year, we taxpayers may again receive another 'Economic Stimulus' payment.
This is indeed a very exciting program, and I'll explain it by using a Q & A format:
Q. What is an 'Economic Stimulus' payment ?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.
Q. Where will the government get this money ?
A. From taxpayers.
Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen of it.
Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is for you to use the money to purchase a
High-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.
Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.
Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the Australian Economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:
* If you spend the stimulus money at K-Mart, Big W , Target or the host of $2 shops we have, the money will go to China, Vietnam or Sri Lanka .
* If you spend it on gasoline, your money will go to the Arabs.
* If you purchase a computer, it will go to India ,Taiwan or China ...
* If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to China, India, Peru.....
* If you buy an efficient car, it will go to Japan or Korea .
* If you purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan .
* If you pay your credit cards off, or buy stock, it will go to management bonuses and they will hide it offshore.
Instead, keep the money in Australia by:
1) Spending it at garage sales, or
2) Going to footy games, or
3) Spending it on prostitutes, or
4) Beer or
5) Tattoos.
(These are just about the only Australian businesses still operating in OZ.)
Conclusion:
Go to a footy game with a tattooed prostitute that you met at a garage sale and drink beer all day !
No need to thank me, I'm just glad I could be of help.
Sometime this year, we taxpayers may again receive another 'Economic Stimulus' payment.
This is indeed a very exciting program, and I'll explain it by using a Q & A format:
Q. What is an 'Economic Stimulus' payment ?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.
Q. Where will the government get this money ?
A. From taxpayers.
Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen of it.
Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is for you to use the money to purchase a
High-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.
Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.
Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the Australian Economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:
* If you spend the stimulus money at K-Mart, Big W , Target or the host of $2 shops we have, the money will go to China, Vietnam or Sri Lanka .
* If you spend it on gasoline, your money will go to the Arabs.
* If you purchase a computer, it will go to India ,Taiwan or China ...
* If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to China, India, Peru.....
* If you buy an efficient car, it will go to Japan or Korea .
* If you purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan .
* If you pay your credit cards off, or buy stock, it will go to management bonuses and they will hide it offshore.
Instead, keep the money in Australia by:
1) Spending it at garage sales, or
2) Going to footy games, or
3) Spending it on prostitutes, or
4) Beer or
5) Tattoos.
(These are just about the only Australian businesses still operating in OZ.)
Conclusion:
Go to a footy game with a tattooed prostitute that you met at a garage sale and drink beer all day !
No need to thank me, I'm just glad I could be of help.
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Yes but they had no way of knowing that at the time. It's only when Treasury reviewed actual historical figures that they determined that to be the case.
It would have been impossible to warn Costello at the time he formed his budgets that some of their decisions of 6 tax cuts followed by Labor's election promise to honour the next 2 scheduled and all those tax concessions would lead to a structural deficit. They would have presumed that the rate of income growth would be maintained.
That's a problem that WA are facing but they have had fair warning. IIRC WA have made a conscious decision to maintain spending growth to accommodate the needs of a growing community with some more recent decisions to taper spending to keep the credit rating agencies happy.
Then again it's not unreasonable for a State to borrow money to build infrastructure and let the next generation help pay for it seeing that will be benefiting from the investment.
Historically income was growing at a faster rate than rate of growth for expenditure. Once the rate of income growth reduces but expenditure growth is maintained at some point you will end up in deficit.
I rate the IMF and (relatively) impartial bureaucrats above a politician defending his own record.
I wouldn't trust Swan defending his record. I wouldn't trust Costello defending his.
Crabnet. Very fair analysis.
Isnt that what Thompson did ? Maybe should let him off...?
I guess it felt right at the time.
