You have to laugh when you look at the economic record of this government. Either they just can’t win a trick or they really are economic imbeciles.
I’m backing the latter because no one with an ounce of credibility could get it so wrong, so often.
The latest faux pas has become evident in the Wage Price Index for the December quarter, released by the ABS this week. What it tells us is that wage growth in the private sector was 0.5% for the quarter and just 2% for the year.
This is the lowest recorded level of wage growth since 1997.
The result has serious ramifications for the deficit this year, given that Scott Morrison’s MYEFO last December assumed wages growth would be 2.75% in 2016-17.
They also assumed real wages (the difference between the Wage Price Index and the Consumer Price Index), would grow by 0.5% in 2015-16. All indications, at the moment, suggest this is not going to happen.
That means the December MYEFO projections will not be realised and an even larger deficit is now on the cards.
The irony here is that suppressing real wages growth over the last two or three decades, has been a deliberate ploy of the neo liberal mindset intent on exploiting unemployment and rising underemployment.
Scott Morrison’s own ideology has come back to bite him and his government where it hurts; their own credibility as economic managers is in tatters.
On its own, a larger deficit is not an issue. It’s better than a surplus which takes money out of circulation and forces people to replace that money by taking on private debt. The rising deficit is just responding to a generalised decline in economic activity, falling employment and suppressed wages growth.
The problem is that the current deficit spending is not contributing to the economy. It is not adding value to the bottom line, our GDP.
In that sense therefore, it is wasteful. It is wasted on maintaining offshore detention centres, on excessive tax expenditures like superannuation, mining subsidies, negative gearing and private health insurance rebates.
It is also wasted on excessive payouts and entitlements to politicians, not just in parliament, but also when they leave. Funny how that is never an issue.
With the government now having boxed themselves into a corner on tax reform and some ministers, e.g. Kelly O Dwyer, appearing confused as to what Labor’s tax policies will do for the economy, they are increasingly looking like lost sheep.
And all this is of their own doing. So intent, it seems, are they at introducing reforms in the senate to block minor parties gaming the system, they have dropped the ball on actual government allowing Labor to step in quickly and fill the vacuum.
One suspects history will look back on the past two and a half years and judge it as one where golden opportunities were plenty but affirmative action went missing.
The budget deficit will be no more than a by-line, but the incredible incompetence demonstrated by a bunch of amateurs posing as economic saviours, will be the headline.
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Absolutely true – they are a bunch of amateurs!
Thanks John. These nubs have absolutely no idea. I didn’t have high hopes for Turnbull to begin with but he’s actually managed to fall short of my low expectations (I had no confidence in Morrison so he’s lived up to those expectations!). How poor is turnbulls political judgement that he has let an opposition lead it around by the nose all the while emphasising the Coalition’s lack of policy agenda. He has not learned anything since his last disastrous tilt at being leader of his party.
You think they know what they’re doing
You think they understand
Well I’ve come to the conclusion
They really have no plan
Sure they found a way to power
Through lies and pure deceit
but now they’re all but drowning
In their neo-con conceit
They had a list from the IPA
Kiss the rich and punch the poor
This manifest was not revealed
in their glossy sales brochure.
They’re no smarter than the rest of us
But with unmitigated gall
They’re only skill is telling lies
In fact they know stuff all
They don’t know how to govern
They don’t know how to lead
Their snouts are so far in the trough
They’re stupefied with greed
They take orders from those who pay
To screw the common man
They’ve no idea of what to do
They really have no plan
Problem is their backers
Who pull upon the string
Also have got no idea
Of what their greed will bring
We’re led by a kakistocracy
Made of the worst of men
In good time we’ll throw them out
And start all over again.
Thanks Graeme. Yes, we will start again but these selfish, clueless, ideologically blinded idiots will have wasted 3 years of Australia’s prosperity with one of the most egregious acts being denying climate change. We have thrown out a working cost on pollution and decimated Australia’s fledgling (and world leading) renewable energy sector. Bastards, the lot of em!
The LNP is an updated version of The Goon Show from the 50’s and 60’s.
And as I’ve been saying for awhile, it’s One Term Mal. A very safe bet.
How will we repair the extensive damage done to our society, democracy, environment, economy, reputation, and our disregard for human rights once we dump the LNP govt? The senate voting changes could give the LNP permanent control of the senate. Their wreckage over the last 30 months is massive; any advantages we had as a nation have been trashed. How do we recover from this, and will the next LNP govt destroy every good thing Labor has built, once again?
Well put …. and, I believe a very succinct description of the Australian governments since 2013 …. “A Government of Amateurs” …..
It amazes me that these neoconservatives continue to believe the USA gospel of right-wing trickle-down economics. They are stumbling around in the dark, hammering what they think is the light switch, never seeming to even consider that the actual light switch is on the other side of the damn room.
If USA-style economics was the right way to go then USA would be doing really well instead of having third world levels of health, corruption, violence, poverty, and education. The same would be true of England, which has adopted those harsh economics with a vengeance.
The 2016 Mercer Quality of Living Index is out. Every year Mercer classify 450 of the world’s cities on ten measures of quality of life. Not one city in USA made the top 23. Not one! Nor any in England. Australia has 3 (Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth) on the top 23. New Zealand has 2. Germany has 5. Canada, just on the other side of the border from USA has 4. Putting the lie to notion that multicultural populations fail, Vancouver, the fifth best city to live in is extremely densely populated and one of the ethnically most diverse in Canada, with 52% of its people having a first language that is not English. The only city in USA that placed anywhere of note is, at 28th, San Francisco — you know, that god-cursed place where there is a very high concentration of gay people.
Right-wing economics always did kill the goose that laid the golden egg. It has always been the essence of short-term greed, damn the long-term consequences. Robbery might generate a quick flash of money, but it is not a good long-term solution because sooner or later someone has to actually put something back into society. Without some socially responsible left-leaning policies to periodically rescue them from themselves and repair the damage, the neo-conservatives just cannibalise their own economies and hack away at the living standards of the people those economies depend upon.
But don’t wait for them to wake up. They won’t. They are the true believers, blind to all but the illusions they fancy they see dancing before their eyes.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz two years ago:
“we risk seeing something akin to the wages explosion of the pre-accord era when unsustainable wage growth simply pushed thousands of Australians out of work.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-29/eric-abetz-warns-of-wages-breakout/5224382
Miriam, you may be interested in George Christensen’s latest post “Where Amercia (sic) goes, Australia follows”. There follows an exhortation for the Nationals to become more like Donald Trump.
Oh god! Donald Trump. The man who encapsulates so much of what is wrong with USA today. He is a complete embarrassment to his country. He is to USA what Abbott is to Australia: brash, stupid, aggressive, lies often and unpredictably, insulting, relying upon anger, xenophobia, and nationalism, and with his foot seeming to spend more time in his mouth than on the ground. Poor USA if that idiot gets elected president. Ugh.
George Christensen is a perfect example of what I mean about the rabid neo-conservatives being blinded by their own illusions. Evidence has no part to play in their world-view. Christensen is such an imbecile I actually feel sorry for him. It must be awful in his head. Imagine seeing the world the way he does.
I really hope the USA is able to pull itself out of its nosedive. I have a lot of friends over there and hate to see them suffer. It strikes me as doubtful in the near future though. The right-wing (which now includes many traditionally on the left in USA) have this self-inflicted blindness. And they have that “if she’s a witch she’ll float, if she’s not she’ll sink” attitude. If their policies cause USA to crash and burn they will be wailing the loudest that progressive elements are what brought them undone, and especially that god is punishing USA because, you know… gays. Oh brother!
Miriam,
George says “I firmly believe the time is right for the National Party to become THE Australian political party that stands for economic populism and “Australia first” nationalism.”
He then links to this article
“If Beltway Republicans think they can stop Trump and turn back the movement behind him, and continue on with today’s policies on trade, immigration and intervention, they will be swept into the same dustbin of history as the Rockefeller Republicans.
America is saying, “Goodbye to all that.”
For Trump is not only a candidate. He is a messenger from Middle America. And the message he is delivering to the establishment is: We want an end to your policies and we want an end to you.
If the elites think they can not only deny Trump the nomination, but turn back this revolution and re-establish themselves in the esteem of the people, they delude themselves.
This is hubris of a high order.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-23/nationalism-and-populism-propel-trump
they know alright , they are running the country into the ground to justify their ongoing austerity measures , break the unions , privatize the public service and drive our wages and standard of living too a lower level . they know exactly what they are doing. create a war , turn people against each other . create a large pool of unemployed , ect , ect the list goes on
I’m just wondering how Australia First nationalism gels with Free Trade Agreements. And apparently George thinks the “common man” should be dictating economic policy. Who needs leftie experts when we have people like George and Donald at the helm.
Great read John
“the incredible incompetence demonstrated by a bunch of amateurs posing as economic saviours, will be the headline.”
Must be time for some diversion tactics, maybe a terrorist alert or some other contrived non event to take the focus away from the budget.
I wonder if the Liberals and capitalists who pull the strings have ever heard the saying “You have to spend money to make money”.
they not interested in educating our children ,our job system except punishment , our health system or disabled and elderly , but can spend a trillion dollars on defence against what china , Indonesia , and japan .. this government is such a joke . really gets up my nose don’t know bout anyone else
Like I said, George is a fool. If Trump wins, it may well be the end of the Republicans for a long time. He would be an even worse President than Bush Jr was — certainly a more dangerous one. If he loses, the Republicans and their racist, bigoted ilk seem destined to become a festering sore in the side of USA for a long, long time.
It sure doesn’t look good for poor old USA. This is what comes of encouraging xenophobia, hatred, racism, aggression, and nationalism. Sadly, I can’t see things improving much for them, even if Bernie Sanders becomes President. The country has swallowed too much poison. We in this country would do well to learn from this. Unfortunately George Christensen has learned the wrong lesson. He sees a quick exploit for short-term success. He would happily burn everything to get it.
they know what their doing alright , do you really think bucket mouth o Dwyer really made a mistake yesterday , turnbull knew exactly what she said and the press made a hum and ha and gave them the perfect platform too push their scare campaign down peoples throats . whole thing has been well thought out scam from well before the last election
What does that say about the people who elected this mob? What does that say about those who still defend these clowns?
The business lobbies will always defend these clowns because they installed them to do their bidding. It’s a shame for them that the details about how little tax they pay is cruelling their pitch for lower company tax rates. It will be interesting to see if Scott caves in and grants this boon in the budget. It would make for good election campaign fodder.
Medicare Rebates? Don’t you mean the rebate for Private Health Insurance?
Yes Marcus, I do. Thank you for the correction.
Finally, we are starting to see the glimmer of some common sense
“The figures highlight that the lack of demand in the economy, rather than bracket creep, remains the major economic problem in Australia.
The lower than expected wages growth and the utter lack of real wage growth also suggests the pressing need for government is not bracket creep. Rather it should be looking at how to raise demand such that wages may actually grow in a way that sees bracket creep once again something to worry about.”
http://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2016/feb/25/wages-have-stalled-and-the-coalition-is-worried-about-bracket-creep
To use my mother’s saying, blind Freddy could have told them that a long time ago. Supply side economics does not work. Let’s start by increasing Newstart by $50 a week and see what happens as every cent of that gets recycled through the economy and the unemployed have just a little more to help them manage while increased demand provides more jobs. Increase pensions and health costs will fall as they seek the primary healthcare they need. Fund needs based education to break the cycle of generational unemployment. Keep penalty rates as more jobs are going part time.
Malcolm might be good at legal contracts and smash and grab venture capitalism but this is indeed a government of amateurs in the field of social contracts. They don’t understand the concept. The market will provide. Well that plan hasn’t worked. What it has done is widen inequality which all agree is a drag on growth and productivity.
Kaye Lee
If common sense could prevail everything you suggest would have already happened.
Unfortunately the LNP have no sense at all, common or otherwise.
Turnbull has started his scare campaign against Labor, claiming its negative gearing policies would smash the economy, wiping $278 billion off the national balance sheet through a 5 per cent plunge in housing values.
The government’s final package, due to be presented within weeks, will not restrict negative gearing to new houses, as Labor has proposed, but merely impose caps on the dollar amount of losses claimable, while also reducing the amount able to be directed into superannuation contributions.
The proceeds, perhaps just a few billion per year, will be available to fund an upward adjustment of the $80,000 tax threshold, providing relief to only the top 25 per cent of earners.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/turnbull-walks-away-from-tax-reform-only-caps-on-super-negative-gearing-left-20160224-gn2i13.html#ixzz4199RqQDZ
And things just got worse. They want to INCREASE military spending by $26 billion over the next 10 years. Yes, let’s spend money on buying stuff from overseas that either doesn’t get used or that destroys things. That sounds like a lovely idea to boost the local economy.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/feb/25/malcolm-turnbull-to-release-a-new-defence-white-paper-politics-live
Where are these idiots getting their advice from????
Miriam English:
Imagine my surprise that the government announced a vague “terror alert” for Australian travellers to Bali. Just as the sheen starts to wear off Turnbull…
The huge amounts to be spent on defence are incredible, but we can’t spend enough on health and education. What is there going to be to defend with all this new hardware if the country is so depleted in vital areas?
As for negative gearing, when do we start to see that the main purpose of buying a house is to provide somewhere to live, rather a mechanism to be used for tax reduction? And when do we start to realise that taxes are necessary for the provision of services we can’t provide for ourselves, and so if we want a civilised society taxes aren’t something to be avoided at all costs?. Our views of society and how it operates have been totally overrun by desperate grabs for more and more by those who have most, but don’t consider themselves rich if they earn $100,000 plus. The rest of us simply don’t matter. Incredibly depressing.
Miriam and Kaye,
George has been known to spend a lot of his spare time sitting in a tree playing Duelling Banjos.
Christine, more people are likely to die from measles than a terrorist attack.
It gets really weird when you look at the figures:
– terrorism kills less than 600 people per year worldwide (the number is an admitted over-estimate by USA’s State Dept.).
– conventional weapons (not weapons of mass destruction) kill about 500,000 people every year, mostly civilians.
– cars kill 1.2 million.
– AIDS kills more than 3 million per year.
– smoking kills about 5 million per year.
– starvation kills more than 16 million every year.
We could end starvation this year if the world stopped paying for weapons for just one week out of the year.
We could eliminate poverty (probably one of the major causes for wars) by ceasing to spend money on the criminal waste of war — and war is criminal — organised mass murder. We could even keep the armies, but have them doing useful things, like helping with major public works, assisting people in emergencies, and so on.
If we eliminated poverty, the major driver for population growth would be gone and pressure on the planet might start to reduce in a decade or two. Sadly though, we’ve left it so long and our position is now so precarious that no matter what we do our poor children are in for a rough ride.
But with the fools in charge, there is no chance of any sensible policies being taken.
Clown car politics. Tragic.
Miriam English
“starvation kills more than 16 million every year.” “if the world stopped paying for weapons for just one week out of the year”
That is a staggering statistic and the solution you suggest is so simple. Another option would be to stop firing bullets for 4 months of the year saving about 150,000 dying from being shot and the savings could be used to stop millions from starving.
I love your poetry, Graeme Henchel 🙂
Miriam English – i read some months back a suggestion that instead of trying to eliminate poverty, we eliminate extreme wealth. It makes so much more sense to target the cause (extreme wealth) and not the effect (poverty)
Extreme wealth is of course ecstatic that the world focus is resolutly on poverty instead of shining the light on the reasons for their extreme wealth.
Phil, I agree. If there is only a certain amount of money and most of it becomes concentrated in the hands of just a few people, it is easy to see that the more those few have, the less that remains for the others. The change is something that will naturally come about, I believe, as people come to see extreme wealth as obscene and ugly.
But as absurd as that kind of wealth is, it is really peanuts when compared to the money splashed about by the arms industry. I read today somewhere that the Koch brothers have accumulated about 80 billion dollars. Those two are about as evil as two people can be without becoming cartoon characters. But their wealth is a fraction of what the arms industry in just USA alone spends EACH YEAR. That country is sadly degenerating into a fearful, paranoid, warrior culture.
The rest of the world wastes on arms every year a bit more than the USA does. I haven’t been able to get solid figures, but I think the entire world, all together, spends in the vicinity of one and a half thousand billion dollars every year in the insane pursuit of the tools of death and destruction.
These kinds of numbers are difficult to grapple with.
The thing that I find hardest to understand is that for the people involved this ridiculous wealth is never enough. There is something fundamentally broken inside of Gina Rinehart or the Koch brothers, or the Waltons family that they can be so disgustingly wealthy but they are always slavering for more. Gina refuses to let her kids have any, the Koch brothers want to bribe their way into control of the US government, the Waltons family pushes employees into poverty by refusing to pay wages people can live on. What the hell is so damaged inside of these people?
The people in the arms industry always want more too. And with bigger arms budgets comes the need for new wars or rekindling old ones in order to justify their expenditure. Scaring or bribing politicians seems to be easy. Scaring the general population is a little harder, but that’s where having a propagndist like Rupert bloody Murdoch in your pockets comes in handy. (His companies seem to be making massive losses each year, yet he never seems to actually go broke. I wonder how he performs that particular feat of magic.)
One of the worst effects of wars, apart from the pure human and ecological damage, is that the uncertainty and insecurity wrought on people (who are often the world’s poorest) leads to high birthrates. The only way to bring those birthrates down is to give those people stability and some measure of comfort.
Great idea, Phil, but how does one go about capping wealth?
Miriam, you raise some very interesting points that should outrage us but which politicians are always able to overcome through double speak. I once asked a very rich man, how much he thought was enough. He answered: more. How do you counter that level of absurdity?
I remember decades ago hearing of a survey of people who were asked which of two wishes would they want to be granted. The choices they had were to wish for millions of dollars, or to wish for world peace. Apparently the results of the survey correlated strongly along personal wealth. The richer people overwhelmingly wished for more money and the poorer for world peace. At the time it surprised me. I mean, the rich already had lots, surely they would move on to the other, more lofty aim. And I could understand if the poorer people wanted money, screw the world, but they didn’t. It bothered me for a long time.
Eventually I think I worked it out. The rich are often rich because they are especially focussed on that, so it is no great surprise that they want it more. Those who are outlandishly rich are more likely to have a unhealthily pathological obsession with wealth. Add to that, the fact that wealthy people often don’t consider themselves particularly rich. There is always someone more wealthy and people tend to notice what they don’t have, rather than what they do.
I live below the poverty line here in Australia, but by simple accident of geography, being born in Australia, I am still one of the wealthiest people on the planet. I have no money beyond the dole, but I have a warm, dry, comfortable place to live (I rent), I don’t lack for clothing (even though it is mostly second-hand stuff), I have thousands of books and access to tens of thousands more on the internet, as well as easy communication to friends all over the planet, the only way I go hungry is deliberately (we Westerners have a problem in avoiding eating too much, rather than starving — I intentionally eat little and stay thin), if my computer breaks I just build another from junk, installing the Linux operating system which, along most of its software, is free, and I write some of my own programs. I also have the privilege of contribute to half a dozen charities. I deliberately look at what I have instead of what I don’t, and it makes me more satisfied than pretty-much anybody I know.
By comparison, an old girlfriend of mine is considerably better off than I am. She and her partner own the house they live in, and they live fairly lavish lifestyles, yet she is continually complaining to me that she is broke. My sister owns her house, has three wonderful children, and has a safety backup of shares that she can draw upon in emergencies, yet she is convinced that she has a terrible life, just barely keeping ahead of the bills. She becomes quite angry at me, and thinks I have no problems, when in truth I have plenty of obstacles to surmount; I just don’t worry about them and I make sure I give time to being grateful for what I have.
I grew up in what was probably an upper-middle-class house. It was hard for me to tell, because we lived in the bush so there was not much to compare with, but my experiences at school gradually made me realise that I was far better off than most of my friends. But it never seemed to me that we were wealthy; we were always having to miss out on this or that because we couldn’t afford it. I think this is how it is for most people. They see the gaps instead of what they have, and there is always someone who has so much more than they do. What we never see is that those others always seem to be struggling with bills too.
Someone who has a home plus a holiday home somewhere, a three or four car family, an overseas trip at least once a year, and attend concerts and talks and movies whenever they wish… they don’t generally think of themselves as wealthy. They think they are barely keeping the bills at bay and struggling to do the best by their family. Even those we would think are ridiculously wealthy think this too. Though by that time it has, in truth, become more of a pathology. But it is always something slightly crazy. I have thousands of books. Do I need that many? No. Of course not. But I have them. We humans are kind of insane.
Most of us could do with more time spent realising how incredibly well off we are. We would all be happier for it. And sharing the wealth would improve the world for all. Perhaps obscenely wealthy people simply need to have their unhealthy obsession fixed not only for others’ good, but for their own as well.
At the risk of sounding critical, they are not amateurs. They are amongst the highest paid politicians on the planet, before you factor in their “entitlements”.
Their amateurish incompetence, however, is now definable as negligent, bordering on criminal.
When the announcement of a major company, such as BHP earlier this week, can be considered of significance to both the stock exchange and the budget, but doesn’t even rate a mention by these fools exemplifies their incompetence.
The release of the defence white paper has been ridiculed by many ‘defence experts’ due to its extraordinary deficiencies in not defining specific proposals but establishing financial targets. I thought it highly amusing they wish to increase the focus on cyber crime, in the full knowledge that our deficient NBN is likely to frustrate the cyber criminals far more than anything they are going to spend. Pity the poor hackers in North Korea, China, America, Russia etc. They will be drawing straws to see ‘who gets Australia’ in the knowledge the download speeds will seriously impact their productivity.
Pick any policy example you want to. Their discussion is devoid of logic or fact. And therefore devoid of credibility. None of their ideologies have substance beyond an initial mantra.
When everyday is a ‘new’ groundhog day, it should rightly outrage the observer. When it goes for nigh on three years, it is wearying to maintain the rage.
Thank you, Mr Kelly. Great work, as always, Mr Henchel. Thank you Ms English. Your reminders of what the important things are makes it that much easier to remain vigilant to their bastardry. Take care
The problem isnt their record which is appalling it is the fact that the media as a whole keeps the whole sorry mess of the Abbott/Turnbull experiment from the people who need to figure out this year if the rebel without a clue is worth keeping.
It is more than obvious that Turnbull was thinking he could charm the public into giving the right wing everything they want so Turnbull could be PM,
Miriam English 9:22 am
There is a big difference between being rich and being wealthy, I much prefer the latter.
When a workplace injury forced me out of the workforce it was extremely difficult for the family and myself to adjust. Running a business is difficult, I always had money owed to me, bills waiting to be paid and employees who had to be paid on time every week but there was generally enough cash flow to ensure my family had more than we needed.
By contrast living on austudy with 3 kids at school changed how we lived and our appreciation of what we had. Our financial circumstances have improved, we are certainly not rich but my wife and I have enough to live the way we want to mainly because in the hard times we learnt how to manage our finances better. We eliminated waste, invested in solar to reduce regular expenses and along the way we learnt how to enjoy life without spending money.
We are now wealthier than we ever have been despite having much lower income and we appreciate what we have much more.
Miriam English – you are a beautiful person ! May your tribe increase!
Wally, “we learnt how to enjoy life without spending money”. Yes. I am constantly amazed at how few people seem to understand how to do that. Not long ago it was something everybody had to know how to do, but something seemed to happen with my generation (the Baby Boomers) and perhaps a little earlier. We forgot that simple skill and something bought became seen as better than something old and repaired, even if the new thing clearly was not built to last and consisted of not much more than a flashy exterior. Astonishingly, “disposable” even became seen as a positive thing.
Sometimes I despair of the general population waking up to the lies they are fed by a mainstream media complicit in keeping this corrupt mob unaccountable. We can only keeptelling people and petitioning those in power and using social media. Thank goodness for AIMN, the Guardian, and various other places on the net.
“terryFebruary 25, 2016 at 11:52 am
they know alright , they are running the country into the ground to justify their ongoing austerity measures , break the unions , privatize the public service and drive our wages and standard of living too a lower level . they know exactly what they are doing. create a war , turn people against each other . create a large pool of unemployed , ect , ect the list goes on”
You got that right.
Their goal is to trash the place completely so they can rebuild it into their little neocon utopia, where upward mobility is totally contained.
well you have to love a government that thinks handing out more and more 457 visa’s when unemployment is so high , dont get me wrong , i have no trouble with those foreigners that travel here to work (but not for less pay than they would pay an Australian) , I just have a problem with the sense of it , about 739,000 unemployed here against (approx) 400,000 457 visa holders , now this government has made extreme cuts to disability , health ,age care and pensions , medical , research , public broadcasting and so on to save billions of tax payer money .. then it moves the retirement fund (that all tax payers pay towards ) for the age pension to the future fund then announces the age pension wont be available to those under 71 years off age , what we can see is about 170 billion dollars moved , the privatizations of medicare has been on their books since day one (I published this fact two years ) , also on the books is to find an excuse to privatize the public school system (no joke ) , since day one since they got into power they have been blaming all these cuts due to the “huge” deficit left from the previous labor government and now wow the deficit is twice as large , in a desperate attempt to regain some measure of financial control they either start selling of giant chunks of Australia to foreign countries , saving more money by having contracting out keen major assets to foreign governments or companies changing the laws of foreign ownership and environmental laws to help those companies settle here , well all that said and done they said it would increase employment … O wait they forgot about the free trade agreement .. ooopppsss sorry more 457 visa’s need to be issued … , now those very counties that they have invited open handily that are running our major assets are a danger to us ..what are we going to .. I know , lets distract everyone with a needed giant boost to our military forces , ok we need more planes because the billions we have spent on no functional jets just isnt enough , mmm scratching their entitled heads , lets make new submarines , our new foreign friends could help us out there , after all if you cant trust a foreign government who can you trust , they wont look at the secret information of those subs while building then or put something extra into the microchips would they , now we need to arm our forces , so where o where are our new guns going to come from … not here thats for sure … 1 trillion over 20 years and for who . This government was right about one thing , this country is in dire trouble but not from out side or from the population of Australia , it is this government that we need protecting from
A telling piece John.
Where have all the grown-ups gone? Where is the ‘adult government’ we were promised? Where are the economic wizards hiding, the ones who said they would have a surplus in their first term?
When will the electorate wake up to the fact that the LNP is fraudulent in its claims, and incapable of fulfilling them now, or in the foreseeable future?