Re: Aus Federal Politics thread (V)

[G.Wood]

Anyone think this government resembles a problem gambler?

That's a neat fit with the Bligh government.

.

That would make my company BetFair

[bodyline]

Qld health payroll - budget around $200m actual cost $1.24b. Now that's some nice project management.

[JGK]

Didn't ljh try to undo keating's work of trying to integrate Australia into Asia. You known engagement with Asia and all.

Still want to know what reforms he put in place that we are still benefitting from today. At least I can point to superannuation from the pinkos as a benefit all these years later. All I see us the petrol excise debacle costing the budget $5 billion a year. Yeah good on you Johnny!

GST was good although should have been better.

Costello also completed the move to cede the control of monetary policy from the Treasury to the RBA. That is a positive because if the same thing was happening at the moment, Abbott would almost certainly vow to reverse it when he got elected.

The Petrol Excise cave in by Howard was a freaking disgrace. At the very least it should have had a sunset clause.

[Mick Sawyer]

That would make my company BetFair

..........or Cardyeahbaby............

[JGK]

But I'd rather a politically inept government delivering the World's best economy than the policy vacuum of a political bruiser whose only "vision" for Australia is an Australia where he is the Prime Minister.

See, even you can't break the current Pinko mold. You are part of the 26% that are somewhat immune to the slow side of 2-speed economy, as the Pinko pollies are, and you continue to play the man.

As a smart man, I think you should be postulating means of converting a politically inept government delivering the World's best economy into an effective goverment delivering the World's best multi-speed economy.

"Meh" hardly becomes you. Or have you simply given up?

I've given up.

The ALP are beyond saving politically and have been utterly butt farked by Abbott in this regard. But that's my point - this isn't a game of football, it is about what is best for the country and so far the ALP have delivered pretty well by any objective measure (not perfectly of course and there will always be philosophical complaints) while the LNP have not shown anything to suggest that they will be any good with the actual job of running the country compared to winning elections and leading in the polls.

I would be happy for you or any of the other Tories to show me that I am wrong re the LNP.

[Mick Sawyer]

The ALP are beyond saving politically and have been utterly butt farked by Abbott in this regard. But that's my point - this isn't a game of football, it is about what is best for the country and so far the ALP have delivered pretty well by any objective measure (not perfectly of course and there will always be philosophical complaints) while the LNP have not shown anything to suggest that they will be any good with the actual job of running the country compared to winning elections and leading in the polls.

I would be happy for you or any of the other Tories to show me that I am wrong re the LNP.

[Mick Sawyer]

Qld health payroll - budget around $200m actual cost $1.24b. Now that's some nice project management.

aye bl, it's a Royal Commission scale disgrace.

[G.Wood]

while the LNP have not shown anything to suggest that they will be any good with the actual job of running the country compared to winning elections and leading in the polls.

I would be happy for you or any of the other Tories to show me that I am wrong re the LNP.

I don't think there is any doubt that losing the last election was the best campaign tactic for the next election that the tories could have come up with

[skully]

[Mick Sawyer]

while the LNP have not shown anything to suggest that they will be any good with the actual job of running the country compared to winning elections and leading in the polls.

I would be happy for you or any of the other Tories to show me that I am wrong re the LNP.

I don't think there is any doubt that losing the last election was the best campaign tactic for the next election that the tories could have come up with

I can't tell why you bothered with the JGK quote, but fwiw; you are 100% correct, not being in government is the only way the might be elected next time round.

[horace]

expect ljh to be made gov general and bronny's hair to be classified by the National trust

[bodyline]

expect ljh to be made gov general and bronny's hair to be classified by the National trust

How about Keating or Brown as queen?

[G.Wood]

while the LNP have not shown anything to suggest that they will be any good with the actual job of running the country compared to winning elections and leading in the polls.

I would be happy for you or any of the other Tories to show me that I am wrong re the LNP.

I don't think there is any doubt that losing the last election was the best campaign tactic for the next election that the tories could have come up with

I can't tell why you bothered with the JGK quote, but fwiw; you are 100% correct, not being in government is the only way the might be elected next time round.

Because he likes the attention. It is the equivalent of patting Nath on the head

[Mick Sawyer]

Because he likes the attention. It is the equivalent of patting Nath on the head

**chortle**

Well played.

[JGK]

Tories will probably stop reading when they see the word "Crikey" so there is no point asking them to comment but the rest of us can have a cry into our beers at the fact that these chumps will be running the economy in a year or so:



1. The numbers are the numbers: Joe versus the economy
Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

It's been a rough week at the office for Joe Hockey.
The shadow Treasurer has grown in stature this year, as apparently one of the few senior figures in the Coalition to understand the magnitude of the task the opposition has set itself in promising personal tax cuts while repealing two significant taxes but keeping many of the associated spending initiatives. Once ridiculed as a buffoon by business, he increasingly looks like the hope for commonsense and discipline in a government led by the economically irrational Tony Abbott and the lunatic from St George who'll likely be deputy prime minister.
This week, like many commentators and analysts, he's been caught out by two contradictory pieces of economic news that are both good for the government, a product of our weird economy, which is apparently going gangbusters but that needs some monetary stimulus.

On Tuesday afternoon he had to deal with the problem that an interest rate cut is, at last in the media playbook, an unalloyed good. How to spin it? Well it wasn't too hard -- the cut was evidence of a weak economy, ideal for the Coalition line du jour, that now isn't the time to introduce a carbon tax.

Alas, Hockey was (inexplicably) joined at that press conference by Abbott, which reduced the average economic IQ of the room by 20 points. Abbott proceeded to lay out his understanding of the rate cut. Abbott thought the RBA had cut rates because "economic conditions are soft. The stock market is down. Profits are weak. Retail sales are weak. The property market is down." Glenn Stevens' statement that the bank had cut rates because of "modest" domestic growth, a weakening international environment and low inflation was politely ignored.

Amid some less-than-robust questioning from journalists -- one asked Abbott a question based on what his cab driver had said on the way over -- Abbott went on to suggest the government was making things worse, and therefore increasing the justification for an interest rate cut, with its "carbon tax, with its mining tax, with its failure to address productivity issues in our economy and with the monumental increase in red tape". By that logic, the more red tape there is, the more the RBA will cut interest rates. The Coalition's plan to "slash" red tape (red tape is always "slashed") therefore looms as a key source of upward pressure on interest rates.

With each word about the weak economy -- which was Labor's fault -- Abbott was unknowingly making life more and more difficult for his shadow Treasurer, who yesterday had to come out and "welcome" -- the sort of welcome you give your in-laws arriving to stay for a week -- a strong GDP result.

There was a way out for Hockey -- he could have said the GDP number was for the start of the year and the RBA was evidently concerned about a weak economy over the next 12-18 months. Or he could have run the line offered by a desperate Daily Telegraph today, pretending the restructuring going on in the retail sector is reflective of a "real" economy that is weak. But instead he appeared shellshocked, repeating "extraordinary" eight times. "The numbers are the numbers" he said at one point. "I totally accept that the numbers are the numbers."

When he resorted to saying "imagine how well our country could do if we had a good government", you had to have some sympathy for the bloke. We can't imagine, Joe, because pretty much it doesn't get any better than this in the developed world -- a strong economy with no inflation, low unemployment and falling interest rates. And we'll politely overlook that a weak economy was Wayne Swan's fault on Tuesday but a strong economy had been achieved despite Swan on Wednesday.

And the entire rationale from Tuesday -- that it was a weak economy that couldn't take a carbon tax -- had vanished. This is the particularly problematic aspect for the Coalition, since this is a key element of its current attack on the carbon price, along with cost of living issues.

Things didn't improve this morning. Unemployment figures showed a rise back to 5.1%, but the best sort of rise, one driven by a big lift in our participation rate, which has been the one black spot on the government's employment record. Nearly 40,000 jobs were created in May, but they just weren't enough to soak up all the job seekers who'd re-entered the employment market.

Joe's week from hell just got longer.

[embee]

The rise in unemployment is just the Qbanjo state Labor Party registering for the dole

[JGK]

The rise in unemployment is just the Qbanjo state Labor Party registering for the dole

Nice.

[JGK]

And in case you missed it:


Yesterday's data significantly changed what we know of GDP per hours worked (ie: labour productivity) over the past year. The March quarter saw GDP per hours worked rise by 0.9%. And the upwards revision of GDP in previous quarters also saw GDP per hours worked from 2011 rise. The December quarter saw a rise of 0.9% as well, and the September quarter 0.7%. Market sector gross value added per hours worked rose even faster -- by 1.2%, 1.2% and 1.0% over the March, December and September quarter. In fact, the past year has seen the fastest GVA per hours worked growth since 2003.

So, memo to the worry warts at The Australian, Fairfax (especially the Financial Review) and Business Spectator (especially Bob Gottliebsen): right through the whole time we've been hearing economists and the business community whingeing about labour productivity over the past 12 months, it's been going up at a faster rate than at any time in a decade. Where to now for the IR deregulationists?





But just imagine how much better off we'd be if we had a competent government.

[embee]

productivity up at the same rate as FB posting going down ... I blame skully

[Paul Keating]

As always the Libs will sneak into government and reap the rewards of Labor's efforts.

LJH did it and Abbott will do it.

[embee]

I can see that he might get some use out of a big screen tv but what's Abbott going to do with dead sparkies and unnecessary school buildings?

[G.Wood]

and he can hardly takeover the points from the rewards scheme on Thomson's credit card

[horace]

those points will be transferred to Sophie Mirabella...it would appear she needs friends these days and the points may help her acquire some

[JGK]

those points will be transferred to Sophie Mirabella...it would appear she needs friends these days and the points may help her acquire some

Why - what's she done (other than that unsavoury business with her former lecturer)?

[horace]

that story will keep running ...the dead bloke's kids are still not happy...the widder in black might have a history

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