The Australian politics thread

[Spikey]

why don't you just marry uranium if you love it so much




(hey if gays can marry)

[Redbacks]

What's the next arguement:

He's a great big doody head?

[Spikey]

giving abbott ideas tbh

[stephen]

Originally Posted by Spark

Excellent to see the ban on uranium export sales to India overturned.

If it's the first step in a sensible discussion about nuclear power and the NPT, that'd be swell (the NPT which, by the way, has to be one of the most useless treaties ever devised)

AWTA. The NPT hasn't prevented a single power who want nuclear weaponry from getting it. The only thing stopping Iran is the Israeli strikes and American computer viruses.

[Spark]

Was Stuxnet American? I thought it was Israeli too. Or maybe both.

I guess the Americans are the ones with the resources for that sort of thing.

[Burgey]

Interest rates now at the level they were when John Howard declared them at "record lows".

This with inflation within the RBA target band, unemployment at five per cent, record investment in the pipeline, record terms of trade, low debt, labour market pressures outside the mining sector now easing (take that Reith you ****), our economy the envy of the world and the government taking 4% of GDP less in tax than it's big spending, big taxing predecessor.

We await Joe "Audit" Hockey's response to these figures. He's got it lined up already:

Rates down - "Bad mangement means the economy is going poorly, so rates come down. The government is bad"
Rates up - "Bad management means debt related pressure on inflaiton, rates up. The government is bad"
Rates on hold - "No relief at all for borrowers. The government is bad".

**** I hope some **** goes him for his blatant lie on their costings. the bloke makes Jim Carlton circa 1986 look like the greatest Shadow Treasurer ever.

[Top_Cat]

Well, he does cast a great shadow.

/obviousfatjoke

[Redbacks]

Originally Posted by Burgey

and the government taking 4% of GDP less in tax than it's big spending, big taxing predecessor.

Whilst I agree that the Coalition were a big taxing and spending governmenrt, aren't we $220 billion in debt though?

Don't tell me you're trying the Keating/Howard trick of 'all my failures are a success' and linking a massive fall off in revenue from the GFC (no parties fault) to a drop in tax revenue. At the very least you should be looking at Expenditure for the full picture.

2007-2008 - $271,843
2008-2009 - $316,046
2009-2010 - $336,900
2010-2011 - $346,102
2011-2012 - $370,090

[Burgey]

Originally Posted by Redbacks

Whilst I agree that the Coalition were a big taxing and spending governmenrt, aren't we $220 billion in debt though?

Don't tell me you're trying the Keating/Howard trick of 'all my failures are a success' and linking a massive fall off in revenue from the GFC (no parties fault) to a drop in tax revenue. At the very least you should be looking at Expenditure for the full picture.

2007-2008 - $271,843
2008-2009 - $316,046
2009-2010 - $336,900
2010-2011 - $346,102
2011-2012 - $370,090

Our Debt:GDP ratio is about 6% mate. It's miniscule in the scheme of things.

We'd still have a surplus if Costello and Howard hadn't gone around with a goody bag for eight years pissing away the first mining boom revenue on middle class welfare.

Of course a lot of money was spent during the GFC. There'll always be arguments about whether it was spent properly or if too much was spent. The question is where do you draw the line, I suppose. I'm more for having millions employed than billions in the bank, when you have to make a choice between the two, but others take a different view.

We're at a point now where the RBA still has a fair bit of interest rate fat to work with as the world economy slows (thank goodness). Not many other places have that luxury.

[howardj]

Originally Posted by Redbacks

Whilst I agree that the Coalition were a big taxing and spending governmenrt, aren't we $220 billion in debt though?

Don't tell me you're trying the Keating/Howard trick of 'all my failures are a success' and linking a massive fall off in revenue from the GFC (no parties fault) to a drop in tax revenue. At the very least you should be looking at Expenditure for the full picture.

2007-2008 - $271,843
2008-2009 - $316,046
2009-2010 - $336,900
2010-2011 - $346,102
2011-2012 - $370,090

You're a good good man.

Labor hacks want to claim credit for low interest rates and inflation on the one hand (superb management of the economy, nothing to do with the global outlook) but want to blame the massive debt on external factors (all to do with the global economy and nothing to do with wasteful spending....they want to have it both ways)...

and before people chime in with "the fiscal stimulus was necessary"...the Coaltion supported the first stimulus package, they just didn't support the million dollar school tuckshops).

[Burgey]

And all the Liberal hacks want to claim every good economic point is due to the fact Costello regulated the banks (mind you he did sweet **** all else), that everything which went right with the response to the GFC had nothing at all to do with any post-2007 policy settings. Nothing at all.

[Spikey]

i'm pretty chill with the economy tbh

[Spikey]

i mean if the biggest problem is being in 6% of debt and reducing it. seems pretty good tbh

[howardj]

Costello also introduced an expanding revenue base (i.e. it expands in line with the economy) that will fund essential services well into the future - the GST. Something which Keating never had the balls to go anywhere near. He also was responsible for the full independence of the Reserve Bank, as well as as you say ensuring that the banking system was properly regulated. This record, combined with paying back Labor's crippling debt and putting away billions in order to get us through a GFC-like emergency, is a good one in anybody's books.

But, apparently he was so bad at his job, that Labor made him Chairman of the Future Fund...a job that's probably redundant now anyway given that Labor will blow most of it too.

[Burgey]

So Costello never met a tax he didn't like, or a tax he didn't hike