Time for a Mini Budget?

[GeorgeH]

Nah.

Can we get back to the minibudget Hokey has now conceded is necessary?

[Rorschach]

Well so far it looks like my opening is the only real political commentary here.
As for you Aussie you actually have to say something worth commenting on first.

[Lucas]

Must be a slow night on monks blog eh. It beats posting to yourself I guess.

[GeorgeH]

Falling real wages, rising unemployment, and fears about their job prospects are keeping Australians away from major department stores.

After retail spending grew by a paltry 0.1 per cent in August – the worst result in months – the dollar has plunged to an eight-month low.

Surprisingly weak sales last month put the brakes on a short burst of growth over June and July.

It comes after annual real wages growth fell to -0.5 per cent in the June quarter.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/poor-ret ... z3Ew0gT8Tv

People are not spending because of:
1. A hangover of the private sector indebtedness due to Howard & Costello.

2. Swan’s over–eager fiscal consolidation, especially the lunatic drive for a surplus, started unemployment growing

3. The relentless talking down of the economy by monkey & Hokey while in opposition

4. The relentless talking down of the economy by monkey & Hokey since they formed government

5. A harsh and unfair Budget, then the mishandling of it and the Budget fraying into tatters. $30Bn of savings over 4 years, GONE!

Deflation and recession are just about here as is high unemployment and high inflation due to the falling dollar. Christ you read those economists talking in the linked article and you have to wonder what the hell they are smoking. One idiot said that people will be less likely to buy online from overseas when the prices in shops will be closer to the overseas price. Hello? Where does the idiot think the shops get their stuff from? Overseas! Yes, genius! Online buying will always be cheaper.

As the dollar falls petrol gets dearer petrol (petrol, diesel, aviation fuel whatever—petroleum products) gets dearer and this feeds into all sorts of costs—the farmer pays more for diesel for his tractor, the trucky pays more for diesel for his truck to haul the produce to market or processors etc. Use of renewable energy in remote towns will allow them to switch their diesel generators off more often, diallowed by this miserable excuse of a govt.

Then the mini–Budget, needed not because the economics changed but because it was a bad Budget deservedly mauled in Parliament. So what nasties will the worst Treasurer after Howard then Costello bring in in December and will they get through the Senate or will we need a miniminiBudget. The stupidity just goes on.

[Rorschach]

Falling real wages, rising unemployment, and fears about their job prospects are keeping Australians away from major department stores.

After retail spending grew by a paltry 0.1 per cent in August – the worst result in months – the dollar has plunged to an eight-month low.

Surprisingly weak sales last month put the brakes on a short burst of growth over June and July.

It comes after annual real wages growth fell to -0.5 per cent in the June quarter.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/poor-ret ... z3Ew0gT8Tv

People are not spending because of:
1. A hangover of the private sector indebtedness due to Howard & Costello. Rubbish, private sector indebtedness was not due to Howard and Costello.

2. Swan’s over–eager fiscal consolidation, especially the lunatic drive for a surplus, started unemployment growing. Rubbish, considering Swan never managed to get a surplus anyway.

3. The relentless talking down of the economy by monkey & Hokey while in opposition More rubbish....

4. The relentless talking down of the economy by monkey & Hokey since they formed government More rubbish...

5. A harsh and unfair Budget, then the mishandling of it and the Budget fraying into tatters. $30Bn of savings over 4 years, GONE! More rubbish... decisions in the Budget have either; 1/ not been implemented, 2/ have had little effect on consumers or 3/ have not increased the already existing conservative spending habits people have adopted since labor first got in in 2007.

Deflation and recession are just about here as is high unemployment and high inflation due to the falling dollar. Christ you read those economists talking in the linked article and you have to wonder what the hell they are smoking. One idiot said that people will be less likely to buy online from overseas when the prices in shops will be closer to the overseas price. Hello? Where does the idiot think the shops get their stuff from? Overseas! Yes, genius! Online buying will always be cheaper. Not if the retailers have their way and they start being taxed more.

As the dollar falls petrol gets dearer petrol (petrol, diesel, aviation fuel whatever—petroleum products) gets dearer and this feeds into all sorts of costs—the farmer pays more for diesel for his tractor, the trucky pays more for diesel for his truck to haul the produce to market or processors etc. Use of renewable energy in remote towns will allow them to switch their diesel generators off more often, diallowed by this miserable excuse of a govt. petrol? What planet do you live on. The dollar goes up, petrol goes up, the dollar goes down petrol goes up.... production stalls petrol goes up... when was the last time you remember petrol going down?

Then the mini–Budget, needed not because the economics changed but because it was a bad Budget deservedly mauled in Parliament. So what nasties will the worst Treasurer after Howard then Costello bring in in December and will they get through the Senate or will we need a miniminiBudget. The stupidity just goes on. More biased rubbish from the ALP rusted-on.... get a real life will you, you have no credibility... back to your backwater blog where you can lie to yourself with complete impunity.

Is the Budget bad.... not as bad as it could have been.
Are restructuring changes necessary, yes they are.
Are some measures poorly thought out or based on myths... my oath they are.
But if it wasn't for the Labor/ Green-Labor governments under Rudd and Gillard, we probably wouldn't be in this situation.

[GeorgeH]

The reply of a rusted on Lib.

Saying something is rubbish is not the same as proving it is rubbish.

If we didn’t have the Rudd & Gillard govts and Howard & Costello had won in 2007 then when the GFC hit we would be about where Greece is now. Huge cash deficits, huge actual debt, unemployment over 10%, dollar under $US0.50¢, at least one bank fallen over. Depression not recession the order of the day. Thanks to WorstChoices wages would be depressed leading to even lower levels of spending.

And the structural Budget deficit we have courtesy of Costello would still apply, of course.

Re petrol it was reached $1.50 under Howard, I have bough petrol for as low as $1.315 last week. So you are wrong there as you are wrong everywhere else.

[Rorschach]

No it's the result of knowledgeable consideration unlike your rabid political bias.
Just because you make an idiotic statement doesn't make it a fact.
As for the GFC if Howard and Costello had not left the country in such good shape and with surplus funds Labor would have been up the creek without a paddle. You have NO CREDIBILITY whatsoever.
Petrol is $1.64 here and on the weekly cycle it averages between $1.54 and $1.64 and has done so for years. In fact at the last high value of the dollar prices increased because of a fall in production and before that the surplus occurred when the dollar was apparently week, yet another increase... apart from the weekly cycle prices are not and have not come down.... now back to planet backwater blog with you where you can tell yourself political fairytales

[GeorgeH]

Good shape—a structural Budget deficit of $20-30Bn a year? Good shape with an infrastructure deficit of $900Bn on one estimate?
Good shape with a highly indebted household sector?

We had a boom. It bust as booms do. Too much of Howard’s reckless spending is still in the Budget, too many of Costello (and one by Rudd/Swan) tax cuts bedevilling revenue to this day.
Good shape with public assets sold at firesale prices so their revenues are denied to the govt of the day?
Good shape with Telstra privatised as a vertically integrated monopoly?

[5.56 NATO]

pop up a link to your blog monk I love unbiased well informed political commentary made by people of credibility

[mantra]

Is the Budget bad.... not as bad as it could have been.
Are restructuring changes necessary, yes they are.
Are some measures poorly thought out or based on myths... my oath they are.
But if it wasn't for the Labor/ Green-Labor governments under Rudd and Gillard, we probably wouldn't be in this situation.

You can't blame the previous government all the time. If you do - then you may as well go further back and blame Howard for his earlier porkbarrelling which is no longer sustainable.

The government is already restructuring as much as they can without Senate approval. Changes to welfare, tax concessions, federal funding to hospitals, schools etc. are continually and quietly being made and we won't know what they are until they affect us personally.

Abbott has already said he's not going to make any changes to the original budget. It will stay in the background in its current form until the next election, where he's assuming he'll win and then it will be automatically passed. As he hasn't got any effective opposition, the chances are that he will be returned.

If the Coalition is voted in again - my main objections are the budget's medical co-payments and the cuts to the safety net for the unemployed. Expect a massive increase in crime, suicide and people dying in their homes simply because they can't afford medical treatment. I know people who will be seriously affected by this budget. Surprisingly to all those who live comfortably - $7 to the doctor, pathology and/or nuclear medicine will be unaffordable to a large section of the population. With such serious funding cuts by both state and federal governments to our hospitals - people will be queued up out into the street to get medical attention.