It may have escaped the Coalition’s attention, as they concentrate on yet another swearing in, that their term in government is close to expiring and all we hear is that we will be told in good time what they intend to do.
Are we to understand that they had no plan on entering government other than rip it up and tear it down? Is the entire three years to be spent on devising their election campaign?
They got rid of the carbon tax and anyone who still thinks that was a good idea is in denial.
They have spent billions stopping asylum seekers from arriving here, even to the point of employing people smugglers to take them somewhere else or setting them adrift in very expensive one-use-only life rafts. Billions more is spent on torturing those who had already sought our help as a reminder to others of our bastardry.
They have signed Free Trade Agreements with undue haste. You have to worry when negotiations that had been going on for years all of a sudden came to agreement, resulting in budget write downs in the billions, and the man responsible refuses to submit them for a cost benefit analysis, and then quits. Our new Treasurer is likewise resistant to any independent scrutiny saying he’s focused on going forward and doesn’t want to look in the rear view mirror, unless it’s to blame Labor of course.
They have reannounced a lot of roads that had already been budgeted for and have wasted billions on an NBN that is inadequate before it is even built. Public transport was off the agenda completely until a day or two ago.
They claim to have created hundreds of thousands of jobs when, in reality, they have decimated the public service and the CSIRO, destroyed the car manufacturing and renewable energy industries, and caused the closure of many advisory, advocacy, and community groups. Any jobs created have certainly not been by the government. Part time jobs have replaced full time jobs and the increase in the number employed has not kept pace with population growth.
As we are told about the supposedly widespread corruption in unions and fraud by welfare cheats, corporate fraud and questionable/corrupt behaviour by politicians continue basically unchecked.
The removal of the mining tax and the carbon tax was supposed to see a surge in mining jobs and investment instead of which we saw the opposite with thousands of jobs lost and investment plummeting. Whyalla survived the carbon tax but will it survive the Coalition’s term?
They’ve approved many new coal mines which, if they go ahead, can only contribute to the glut thus forcing down the price even further in a time of falling demand.
We are told we are on “a credible path to surplus” but each budget has put it further over the horizon.
In Tony Abbott’s victory speech, he said “The time for campaigning has passed, the time for governing has arrived.”
Two years later, Malcolm Turnbull gave his damning assessment, “the Prime Minister has not been capable of providing the economic leadership our nation needs.”
Mr Turnbull promised to provide a style of leadership that “explains the challenges and opportunities and then sets out the course of action we believe we should take and makes a case for it.”
As he reminded us, “The fact is we are maybe 10 months, 11 months away from the next election. Every month lost is a month of lost opportunities.”
Half that time has now elapsed and we are no closer to a course of action. In fact, every day it becomes more unclear what this new iteration of government intends to do, let alone actually achieving anything.
Tony Abbott said the government accepted “that it will be judged more by its deeds than by its mere words.”
Malcolm might have a nice smile and a pretty turn of phrase but, with an election rumoured to be less than 5 months away, he is captain of a rudderless ship on a voyage to nowhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g83IfdUzcg
Turnbull should go to Centrelink to find his new ministers. They’d do a better job than the misfits he needs to keep replacing!!! Talk about corruption on the march….. Good grief!!!!
Standby for more fear and terror alerts, they are on their way. These Lying Libs haven’t got a financial leg to stand on, the economy in absolute tatters, their rich mates getting richer, international corporations still laughing at us and still paying no tax. Sick people dying through lack of treatment which was once available to them, our aged having the shit kicked out of them, our veterans mistreated and abused and we still an international joke.
Federal ICAC NOW!!!!!!
#ShameTurnbullShame #WorstGovernmentEver #2ndWorstPMEver #Leaners #Bigots #Racists #Fascists #Misogynists #Rogues #Thieves #Disgrace #LIARS #Sociopaths #Rorters #Cowards #Losers #ProudofLying #InternationalEmbarrassment #Boofhead #DDNow #VoteLNPLast
The BGs are all you need to say! A stroke of brilliance to sum up our goverment
A brilliant summation Kaye. What hope is there for the future if our leaders continue to follow a discredited economic ideology and govern for narrow sectional interests with little concern for the greater good?
A perfect summation of this government’s lack of achievement for the Australian people.
Their only achievement has been the feathering of their own nests and the nests of their donors.
That’s one of my favourite songs! You’ve ruined it for me!
Well said Kaye, and spot on!
And now that Abbott’s gone, at least for the moment, the problem is “The Waffling Wanker from Wentworth”
……………………….
The Waffling Wanker from Wentworth
Said, for the economy, I am your man
The Abbott is just a pretender
He can’t do all the things that I can
I’m a man for all seasons with a million good reasons
Why everyone should vote for me
It’s not rocket science to show your compliance
Cos I’m fabulous you will agree
……………………
The rest might be somewhat risque, in places. but can be read by clicking the link below 🙂
Cheers 🙂
Despite the gray twits of WA, it is now only 70% labor’s fault leaving the world to pick up the rest.
Wouldn’t it be nice if labor could emphasise that anthony and joey are the policy duds still running Turnbull and Morrison?
Kaye I wish we had an open and free press in this country, and the articles you and others write for TheAIM would be the headlines that people get to read, not the one-owner-one-man-band stuff Australians are fed on a daily basis. Which is then picked up by other (lazier?) outlets and repeated ad nauseum. Unfortunately I have to include the ABC in this. They repeat the Murdoch slogans as if they were facts, when framing questions, for instance.
Bloody hell, yet another swearing in ceremony, more new inexperienced Ministers they are an absolute shambles, they must go asap.
A ship going nowhere, yet the people still suffer, from all of the bad choices made.
The MSM have all decided to tell us that it is inevitable that the Coalition will win the next election. The ONLY thing on which they could possibly base this opinion that they ALL share is the preferred PM poll. Malcolm is only running in one seat.
Perhaps it is time for our journalists to stop making polls the story and start talking about policy on the odd days when no-one has resigned.
This should be copied & pasted into Shorten’s election launch speech if his minders have two neurons and a synapse; and committed to memory and repeated by every Labor candidate if they’re lucky enough to have a TV camera pointed at them.
We have allowed 26 of proposed 12.000 refugees from Syrian camps. Excuse of sour faced Dutton is we have to be careful not to let terrorist in. Bullshit.
Many of these people have been in the camps up to four years. Many have already gone through process system, making applications to join families in other countries, including ours I presume.
The camps are overcrowded, short of food and health services. Are tents in muddy fields and snow bound most of winter.
The young and old are dying.
Suspect any terrorist wouldn’t survive long in this environment.
26 in more than six months when promise was made.
One would think don’t have in place people and organisation that have been doing this job for generation or more. Why does Dutton believe he has to reinvent the wheel.
I can only come to the conclusion, this government has no intention of letting many in. .Are using threat terrorism as excuse not too.
Most terrorism in many countries, including our dubious examples have been home grown.
To leave young families to freeze, facing food and health shortages for another winter is more than cruel.
Those fleeing from these camps, facing death feel they have no choice.
The smug looks in that photo soon disappears once reality hits them. Yesterday I have never seen so many sour faces of government ministers. From Dutton and Brandis in US, to Bishop, China I think, to the floundering Morrison in every media outlet that would have him on.
Morrison so desperate that by nightfall was suggesting when he could get PM to agree, would be revealing new super policy.
Election is set for early July. Anyone expecting a budget has rocks in their head,
None of it make sense.
Right now I am more interested in the talks that Turnbull had with Obama. Now all of a sudden we are hearing about a Nuclear Waste Facility being built in SA and how it’s going to create thousands of jobs. Anyone with a brain in his/her head would know that the USA don’t do anything unless there is something in it for them and it’s no secret they have wanted to use Australia as their dumping ground for their nuclear waste. So when will Turnbull start telling the Australian people the truth behind his meeting with Obama.
Turnbull is I believe meeting with NZ PM. How far off is announcement that they will be taking Australian born refugees? Shorten out hitting the spot today. Plenty of passion on display,. Should please some.
Surely we would be better off investing in renewable energy than becoming a nuclear waste dump. As they pointed out in the Guardian, if managing nuclear waste was so straightforward or lucrative then it would have already been done.
Labor are taking control of the public debate, they are leading the issue discussion. How is the MSM going to handle that I wonder?
I’m sure the LNP will come up with terrorism alerts, increasing in frequency as we get closer to the election date……
“destroyed the car manufacturing”
Wrong. In 2005, 25% of cars were made in Australia. Not great but not bad. In 2013 only 10% of cars were made in Australia. Car manufacturing died under Rudd/Gillard. They were always going to leave. When Ford left under Labor that was it. It was all over red rover.
Florence, I suspect the reason Australia has taken so few refugees is media focus on the refugees’ plight has died down over the northern winter. Dutton is keen to milk every drop of kudos from this situation. I would expect him to start moving again slowly to take more refugees once the outflows from Turkey and Lebanon start in earnest in a few months’ time. That way he can claim Australia is doing its bit when the pressure is highest.
Of course refugees are still dying, but the media aren’t interested, because it doesn’t make good copy.
“Whyalla survived the carbon tax but will it survive the Coalition’s term?”
Australia survived the carbon tax but it will be a long bloody time before we get over this government. I still have counselling cessions to stop the nightmares that began when Abbott became PM. Last night I dreamt that he came back for a second term just to stick it up us again.
Neil of Sydney
Must be the 10th bloody time I have read this crap. “Car manufacturing died under Rudd/Gillard.”
The demise began long before that when local councils, government agencies and politicians stopped buying locally made cars. In fact Gillard tried her best to change the attitudes of local government requesting that they buy locally manufactured vehicles and she did what could be done to financially support the industry.
http://www.governmentnews.com.au/2013/06/pm-burns-rubber-on-campaign-for-councils-to-buy-australian-cars/
Your mate the Mad Monk did absolutely SFA to retain the car industry, if Tony and Joe had tried any harder to close down our biggest industry they would have to have put advertisements in the newspapers. Part of the ploy in the LNP war against unions is to close down every non essential industry that has a strong unionised workforce and attack a weakened union movement head on. The LNP will never win this war, eventually if they stay on this track there will be a revolution against the extreme right.
The worst part of losing the industry is how it affects low income earners who rely on buying ex fleet vehicles at a reasonable price to provide cheap, reliable transport that is extremely versatile for towing and comfortable long distance travel. Front wheel drive cars do not provide what a rear drive does, ask BMW and Mercedes why they still build rear drive cars.
Only the 10th, Wally? You must have missed the other 472.
It wasn’t even his first time of posting it on this article. When I saw it pending earlier I trashed it because I have heard this discussion 5 million times before. The broken record cannot possibly move to the present government, nor will he listen to any discussion. he will just repost the same comment over and over and over and over,,,,
I think the bin is the best place for them. They belong in the ‘Blame Labor’ bin.
One would have thought the closure of Ford would have freed up more funds to assist Holden and Toyota because there is no car industry that is not subsidised by its government. The dollar coming down would have helped them but the FTAs were the final nail in the coffin. Forward thinking governments recognise the value of manufacturing skills. We should have had the CSIRO working with them on developing energy efficient cars.
Maybe they’re taking Gary Gray’s word for it.
Perhaps Gary Gray is taking THEIR word for it
Haha. No, I suspect, sadly, that Gray is expressing a view all too many hold in Labor ranks. Mind you, Labor is showing its curious ability to find members who can’t keep their f&^king mouths shut. As a Party they really have to work on that.
They.. the ruling rabble, haven’t even a “me-too” policy position now. We have never ever had such a corrupt and incompetent mongrel bunch in Canberra. They are truly frightening in their slavish bungling implementation of the IPA wish-list …I doubt that this country would survive another 3 years of this madness.
QUOTE:
“Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our own society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture, and cinema to politics and the law. Our enemies have always hated this whirlwind of energy and creativity, which menaces their traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for their inability to keep pace. Seeing America undo traditional societies, they fear us, for they do not wish to be undone…” ~Michael Ledeen
Unfortunately this government is entirely without the knack for prudence, foresight or creativity….!
Turnbull must have a very large version of the table Abbott had. Everything seems to still be “on it”. It must be groaning under the weight by now. Ah well another Jamie Briggs inebriated tackle should clear the way for more insightful and innovative policy thought bubbles to be placed thereon. Piss mal or get off the pot.
Gillard became PM because the cross benchers agreed that they could work with her but not with Abbott. Another hung parliament would mean they had to choose between Turnbull and Shorten. So now is the time for the ALP to start building alliances with the Greens and Nick Xenophon and looking more closely at the policies which would have most appeal to the centre-left candidates.
Our adventure in electing a government without policies or even shame, has not worked out well. It is time we relegated pollsters to the bin where they belong and learnt from this huge mistake.
Malcolm Turnbull is saying that Labor’s negative gearing policy will remove all investors from the established real estate market thus reducing the value of your home.
This implies that you only ever make an investment in property as a tax dodge. Whatever happened to buying property for the rental income and future capital gains? Must it make a loss for you to be interested? I would suggest there will be plenty of buyers still even without the tax dodging negative gearers. He has also thereby admitted that investors are forcing up the price of housing. Do we want to encourage that behaviour?
“Is the entire three years to be spent on devising their election campaign?”
Apparently so. The ‘successes’ of this government have been subjected to scrutiny, and found wanting. As my lad’s say, epic fail.
Ms Florence made reference to Dutton’s fear of refugee’s, ie, we can’t let them in too quickly, they may be terrorists. The notion that a terrorist will wait a few years in one of those hell holes to score a ‘point’ against Australia is nothing short of insane. In November, 2015, Canada said they would take 25k refugee’s, and they are up to 20,490. By way of comparison, in September, 2015, Australia said it would take 12k, and we are up to 26. All of the money we are spending on our security farces, and they work 800 times slower than Canada’s.
With regard to the car industry, both Ford and General Motors in America went for bankruptcy protections during the GFC. Both exempted their Australian operations from the protections, because they remained profitable, all through the GFC.
With regard to Gary Gray, the full interview was played a lot on RN yesterday. His premise was that there has not been a one term federal government in Australia for over 80 years. Statistically, the odd’s of an ALP win are, therefore, relatively low. He was emphatic in stating current ALP policy settings could change that stat. He rattled off many names as ‘up and coming’ who may benefit from his vacating the seat, one of whom is Kim Beazley’s daughter. Out of 15 seats, they currently hold 3. They have nothing to lose and a lot to gain if this does become a one term non government.
I am not advocating for the ALP. But context is important sometimes. Thank you, Ms lee (and commenters). Take care
Another excellent article, Kaye Lee. Thank you. I have nothing to add because you have said it all. And we have all been saying this for the last two years. There is yet another Rally against cuts to Medicare in the streets across Australia tomorrow. Another against cuts to Family Payments and against the Income Management Cards (Economic Apartheid Cards) on 12th March. Why is there no other way to get them to hear that there are human beings out here, not just “economic units” to be trashed and trodden down? Why does nobody call out Malcolm Turnbull on why he does not pay tax on all of that wealth, instead of hiding it in a tax haven somewhere. This should be illegal for a Prime Minister, especially one bent on cutting everything but tax perks for the wealthy. How much does he and other parliamentarians cost the country in unpaid taxes, I wonder?
I think it’s an excellent sign that Labor is addressing the issue of Negative Gearing, even if only in a “it’s a start” fashion. The fact is, it is a start; a start to something that badly needs attention and reform. I hope the political courage involved in engaging with a somewhat contentious issue pays off for them. It would be deserved.
In a more general sense, I’m increasingly pleased with how Labor is going on a number of policy fronts.
Ms Lee, @ 4.02. The negative gearing changes proposed by the ALP contain the most generous ‘grandfather’ provisions I can remember in legislative history. They seem to know something.
http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiy5Mvgk4PLAhWFbD4KHX3tDM4QFgglMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Fnews%2F2015-05-06%2Fhockey-negative-gearing%2F6431100&usg=AFQjCNHcl03fQFH_noCsN69Zm7QSqM6mhQ
On the other hand, you have the current treasurer, who isn’t sure if his version may be retrospective. He does not even seem to understand ‘retrospectivity’.
“This implies that you only ever make an investment in property as a tax dodge.”
And they are supposed to be running the country. Take care
Never take investment advice from the Liberal Party. Several Liberal Party luminaries were highly critical of the Australian National University for divesting themselves of Santos shares in August 2014 :
From Crikey :
” The then-prime minister himself, Tony Abbott, described ANU’s decision as “stupid”, while other ministers like Jamie Briggs, Christopher Pyne and Joe Hockey all attacked the university. And the Financial Review joined in, running a nasty little campaign against the university over its decision. So if ANU had followed all that expert political and media advice and retained its investment in Santos, how would it have fared? Since Abbott’s “stupid” remark, Santos’s share price has fallen over 72%. And this morning, the company announced a whopping $2.7 billion loss as it struggles with a collapse in oil prices, prompting another slide in its share price.”
Backyard Bob
“it is a start; a start to something that badly needs attention and reform”
What changes and/or reforms do you suggest?
Wally,
I would like to Negative Gearing abolished altogether, but so many are so locked into it now it requires a “grand-parenting” approach to avoid unduly harming people financially reliant upon it. What Labor is proposing seems to be a step in the right direction.
Backyard Bob
“I would like to Negative Gearing abolished altogether”
That would cripple Australian businesses that lease premises from property groups who negative gear the properties and it would also affect businesses that buy the business premises and offset the interest charges against tax payable. I agree there should be changes but we need to be weary of the affects that will follow.
People debate if rents increased when the Hawke government abolished negative gearing are flawed because negative gearing was not abolished. From the link Kyran referred to “could not be used to reduce tax on other sources of assessable income”., but the accrued losses could be used to offset tax payable on income from those properties in the future. So when rent is greater than the deductable costs the accumulated losses are used to avoid paying tax. There is no difference except for the point in time when the tax deduction occurs.
The other issue with abolishing negative gearing is collecting tax from rental property income, if there is no tax benefit landlords will not declare rent paid in cash, this may decrease rent to a tenant who agrees to protect the landlord. Can you tax the rental income without allowing deductions on monies spent to generate the income? That is a big question because of the ramifications and how it could affect a business. Many people who oppose negative gearing believe that the tax deduction is applied directly to reduce the tax payable rather than it reducing the income and thus the tax payable so it operates no different than any other business.
Another consideration is capital gains tax introduced on all properties in 1985 was part of the changes made when negative gearing was introduced. Properties purchased before 1985 are not subject to capital gains tax so do we remove capital gains tax if negative gearing is abolished? Not removing capital gains tax could open the Pandora’s box of paying capitals gains tax on the family home, some rumours suggest the extreme right have considered this.
John Howard caused the problem with negative gearing when he reduced capital gains tax.
Four capital gains tax concessions for small businesses presently exist, introduced 21 September 1999.
15-year exemption. Exemption from CGT for an owner who had a small business for 15 years and is selling due to retirement (must be over 55 years old) or due to permanent incapacitation.
50% active asset reduction. Capital gains are reduced by 50% for assets actively used in the business (including intangibles). The normal 50% discount rule for assets held at least 1 year applies too, in that case it is 50% off then 50% off the remainder, for an overall 75% discount.
Small business retirement exemption. When selling a small business and not over 55, CGT is not payable on net capital gains paid into a superannuation fund. There’s a lifetime limit of $500,000 on this exemption.
Small business rollover. The net capital gain resulting from the sale of an active asset can be reduced by the amount spent on a nominated replacement asset. This is only a deferral of the gain, it is crystallised if the replacement is sold or its use changes (but a new further rollover can then be made if desired).
There are rules to apply for what constitutes a small business. The key elements are:
Up to $6,000,000 net assets. “Related entities” are counted against this limit too.
One “controlling individual” having 50% or more voting plus 50% or more economic interest. Or two such individuals if they own half each. But notice three individuals with equal stakes would fail the test, because none of them is in a controlling position.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_gains_tax_in_Australia#Small_business
We need to revoke Howards changes to capital gains tax they are costing as much as what negative gearing does and they are unfair.
Car Industry : Who is really to blame? I am not sure but I do recall that at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Holden and CSIRO showed off a hybrid petrol-electric car. Did they take that any where further? No. I suspect the problem is that we have “Senior Management” in Detroit or some other location, totally unconcerned with and unaware of the local conditions. Just another example of how the private sector often gets it wrong (as opposed to the myth that they are the best).
totaram
Sales of Hybrids are disappointing globally so it is no surprise that local manufacturing was never considered, The car you refer to did not go into production but some of the technology flowed onto the Chevrolet Volt which by automotive standards has sold very poorly most likely due to the high cost and short range on battery power.
Sales of the 2011 Volt began in the U.S. in mid-December 2010 followed by various European countries and other international markets in 2011. Global combined Volt/Ampera family sales passed the 100,000 unit milestone in October 2015, with the U.S. as the leading market with over 84,600 Volts delivered. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Volt#Concept_vehicle
Our car industry began to struggle when politicians began buying their own vehicles instead of using government cars that were locally produced and the trend to move away from locally produced cars flowed through to local government, government agencies and business fleets and you have to wonder why. One example is mobile speed cameras, when the police operated the cameras in Victoria they used commodore/falcon sedans, the agency who operate the cameras now use imported SUV’s that are more expensive to buy and run than the locally produced cars. If there is a case for all wheel drive vehicles the Ford Territory would be a perfect fit with petrol, dedicated LPG and diesel varieties available off the shelf, the Police use lots of them.
When you look at the cost of hybrids Holden and Ford produced dedicated LPG and dual fuel vehicles that have lower emissions and a much lower price tag than any of the alternatives. One of the biggest problems with large locally produced sedans is that most of the demand is on the second hand market, younger drivers in particular families with low incomes prefer a solid reliable proven performer to a budget priced new vehicle for many reasons. Dirty smelly diesel trucks are bad enough in our cities so why do we allow manufacturers to sell diesel cars in particular considering diesel vehicle emissions link to cancer.
The senior management in Detroit and Japan know very well about our conditions and that is one of the main reasons that government support is needed to develop platforms that work in Australia. Without government funding and bolstering sales it is impossible for the local industry to produce a product that is viable in the market place or financially viable. When I worked in robotics I spent my working hours on vehicle production lines and at parts manufacturers factories and I would estimate that for every job on the production line there are at least 20 jobs in support roles, management and parts suppliers, then the supply chain includes shipping, transport and much more.
We will forever regret losing our manufacturing base.
Nailed it again Kaye Lee, love your writing