Reasons not to vote LABOR.

[Rorschach]

Government faces budget deficit as tax take plunges
October 20, 2012
Peter Martin

THE federal government is facing a massive challenge to meet its promise to deliver a budget surplus, next week's budget update will reveal.

An extraordinary $21 billion has been wiped from its projected tax revenue in a matter of months - $4 billion from this year's forecast - as a result of deteriorating international conditions and collapsing export prices.

The cut means that to deliver this year's promised $1.5 billion surplus the government will need to find an extra $4 billion - a task made all the more difficult by the fact the financial year has just eight months left to run.

Treasurer Wayne Swan has reaffirmed his commitment to balance the budget next week but says he will cut with care, doing ''everything possible to protect jobs and help pave the way for classic Labor reforms''.

''In balancing the budget, the Gillard government has made sensible spending cuts while winding back inefficient and outdated tax concessions. We have balanced fiscal discipline with continuing investments in people - our most valuable natural resource - through vital reforms in skills and education, a national broadband network and the National Disability Insurance Scheme,'' he writes.

The Saturday Age believes the revenue downgrades overwhelmingly result from weaker international conditions.

The Australian forecasts remain strong, with economic growth of 3 to 3.5 per cent over the next two years, continuing low unemployment and contained inflation.

The publication of the virtually unchanged domestic economic forecasts will further pressure Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who has already been asked to explain why his predictions of ''almost unimaginable'' inflation and job losses resulting from the carbon tax have not materialised. But Abbott has said the carbon tax will be a slow squeeze... and it will the first signs would have only just started to appear in quarterly billing.

A Bloomberg survey of 25 market economists before Wednesday's release of the first inflation data since the July 1 introduction of the tax finds that most expect a low yearly inflation rate of close to 1.6 per cent.

The tax collection data suggests that, if anything, the domestic economy is somewhat stronger than expected at budget time. Both taxes collected from wages and goods and services tax collections are running ahead of projections. Dramatically lower company tax collections account for most of the $21 billion write-down.

Treasury official David Gruen told a Senate hearing on Thursday the spot prices of iron ore, thermal coal and coking coal have fallen 15 to 35 per cent since the May budget. These were the three big commodities that drove Australia's terms of trade.

The budget had forecast a slide in the terms of trade of 5.75 per cent. The update will say that although some of the slides have been partially reversed they are no longer expected to return to the levels forecast in May.

It will revise down revenue forecasts for the new minerals resource rent tax and the petroleum resource rent tax in addition to cutting forecast company tax collections.

It will also revise down forecast income from non-resource companies, acknowledging generally weaker corporate profits across the economy. Profits from unincorporated businesses will also be revised down.

[IQS.RLOW]

I'm trying to find a press interview Gillard did where she blatantly lied and obfuscated (I know...like trying to find a particular piece of straw in a haystack)

She was standing in front of the press corps and in it she said "check the transcript" when questioned on it. I think it was on either something she said about Abbott or Timor but I am unsure.

Anyone remember?

[IQS.RLOW]

[IQS.RLOW]

Quite right... I might email him.

You can add the Australia Network debacle as well to that list

...I'm sure there are many more

[Rorschach]

Time to curb this wasteful spending
* by: Jessica Irvine, National Economics Editor
* From: News Limited Network
* October 24, 2012 12:00AM

There have been 67 separate revenue measures and a whopping 229 expense measures taken since the May Budget. Source: The Courier-Mail

A CRACKDOWN on government-funded liposuction; tax cuts for Mongolian, Tongan and Tunisian diplomats; a cut to the cherry and stone fruit export levies; a tax holiday for the Cricket World Cup; tax-free donations to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Fund; money for Afghan soldiers; a rock and roll program for schoolkids; $2 million for an Australian Ballet production centre in the Prime Minister's home suburb of Altona...

Think you've heard the full story of the government's mid-year budget update? Think again. The devil of this budget update is in the detail. Appendix A to the Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook is where all the bodies are hidden.

Over 133 pages, it details literally hundreds of government spending and taxing decisions, some so small their impact on the budget cannot be quantified.

There have been 67 separate revenue measures and a whopping 229 expense measures taken since the May budget. Some involve spending money and some saving it. Some come from existing pools of money.

Together, they reveal the extent of government intervention in our lives. It's astounding, and costly. And if you don't have the stomach to comb through the 133 pages, don't worry, I've done it for you:

For the sports fans, the government will forgive some debt of the Football Federation of Australia, provide assistance for the Asian Football Club and build a Centre of Excellence for Hockey. How discriminatory/racist of them

There's a $20 million advertising campaign on the National Broadband Network. A $50,000 "ex gratia payment'' for legal assistance to the Queensland coroner amid calls for an inquiry into a home insulation death. There's $100 million a year for the Afghan National Security Forces as part of an international funding boost.

There's assistance for laid-off workers at Caltex, OneSteel and (somewhat cheekily) for Queensland Public Sector workers sacked by the Liberal state government.

For industry there's $42 million for Alcoa's Point Henry aluminium smelter in Geelong, Victoria; $9.5 million for Australian Paper's Maryvale Pulp and Paper Mill in Gippsland, Victoria and $300,000 for vegetable company Premium Fresh Tasmania.

[Brief pause for an intake of breath]

And it continues

An arts centre for Moonah, Tasmania. A centre for Rowing Education in Hobart. A down payment on the construction of a powerful radio telescope in West Australia. A recreation reserve at West Beach in Adelaide. An upgrade to community facilities for children in Tamworth.

Nearly $1 million for the Australian Workers Heritage Centre in Barcaldine, Queensland the headquarters of the 1891 Australian shearers' strike and regarded by some as the birthplace of the Australian Labour Party. Perhaps that's what Wayne Swan means by protecting labour values?

There's a program to collect data on kids wagging from private schools. A $14.3 million funding boost for a program helping young parents interact with their kids. There's $200,000 to get women on company boards (when they're not interacting with their kids, that is).

On a sadder note, $3.3 million to assist victims of the Bali bombings and their families to attend memorial services.

[Stay with me, I'm almost done]

There's money for the United States Studies Centre at Sydney University, for the World Parks Congress in 2014, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation (which looks after the sites of the former concentration camps in Germany), the Asia Pacific Financial Forum and a new G20 Studies Centre at the Lowy Institute

The list of demands on government is endless. The process to decide who gets funding is anything but transparent.

I don't even disagree with some of this spending. There are some worthy things here. But it's important to realise the size and intricacy of the tax and churn that is going on. There is a cost to all this.

Bureaucrats in Canberra approving Centres for Excellence in Hockey could be teachers in state schools, or doctors providing front-line services.

Could there be any clearer indication of the bloated nature of our federal public service than Appendix A?

As well as curbing wasteful spending, it's time to have a national conversation about what government is for in the first place. Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey, attempted to do so with an insightful speech earlier this year titled "The end of the age of entitlement'' which was dismissed all too quickly.

As the mining boom running out of puff, it's clear we will soon no longer be able to afford everything we want government to do for us. Every dollar spent is a dollar that must be raised in tax, either from workers, companies or foreigners. Given the upcoming pressure from an ageing population, if we want to keep the budget in balance from here we're going to need lower spending or higher taxes.

This means painful budget cuts for some as we strip away some entitlements to which we have become accustomed to. The baby bonus is one example. But affected parents should ask themselves: "what would I prefer: the baby bonus or lower taxes?'' Or to keep the baby bonus and pay higher taxes?

Conservatives have always believed government should butt out of family lives. Socialists think money should be better targeted at the truly disadvantaged. Truly?

Only fantasists think we can increase spending and taxes in an endless tax churn that a dollar spent isn't a dollar taken from someone else. That the baby bonus you receive isn't being pinched out of your, or someone else's, back pocket in higher taxes.

Government should return to its original purpose: to maintain law and order and provide a social safety net through public education, health and temporary income support.

It's not about providing permanent middle-class welfare. And it's certainly not about government-sponsored liposuction or providing a more comfortable life for Mongolian diplomats.

[Rorschach]

Julia Gillard baulked at ETS 'poison' in climate showdown with Kevin Rudd
* by: PATRICIA KARVELAS and EWIN HANNAN
* From: The Australian
* October 25, 2012 12:00AM


JULIA Gillard warned Kevin Rudd in writing that under no circumstances would she support taking an emissions trading scheme, which insiders say she thought had become electoral poison, to the 2010 election.

In Tales from the Political Trenches, former Labor MP Maxine McKew says Ms Gillard met Mr Rudd at Kirribilli House, where the then deputy prime minister cited Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce's campaign against the ETS, which the prime minister then dumped in April 2010.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nationa ... 6502736782" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Neferti]

Foreign Minister Bob Carr's wife Helena has cost taxpayers $120,000 in six months on overseas trips

FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has vowed to keep taking his wife on his taxpayer-funded overseas trips, describing her as an ''asset for Australia''.

Senator Carr's wife Helena has accompanied him on almost every overseas trip he has made as foreign minister, costing taxpayers about $120,000 in mostly business class airfares in just six months.

Documents released under Freedom of Information laws show Mrs Carr travelled with her husband on eight of the nine trips he took in the months between late March and early September.

The Federal Opposition says Senator Carr appears to be in breach of ministerial guidelines.

But Senator Carr has defended the arrangement, saying the cost is "absolutely justified".

"I'm proud that Helena has accompanied me on every trip I've done. Because while I'm talking to the foreign minister, she's inspecting aid projects, or talking to groups of women," he told reporters in Sydney today.

"She'll continue to accompany me. She does a job for Australia and she's an asset for Australia."

The arrangement is highly unusual for a foreign minister. AAP understands Senator Carr's Labor predecessors Stephen Smith and Kevin Rudd rarely if ever took their wives on official overseas trips.

The total cost of Senator Carr's nine trips was an estimated $828,754, the documents obtained by AAP show.

Of that, Mrs Carr's airfares - the vast majority of which were business class - accounted for an estimated $123,928. Her meals and incidentals cost a further estimated $8000.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/money/foreign-mi ... z2AHk6ZG3B" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"





.........

The only trip listed in the documents that Mrs Carr did not go on was a 24-hour visit her husband made to Fiji - at a steep cost of more than $42,000.

For that trip, Senator Carr took a special purpose aircraft at a cost of about $35,000 rather than fly commercially.

Senator Carr's spokesman said he opted for the private plane because he had to be back in Canberra for pre-budget cabinet meetings and commercial schedules were not suitable.

Overall, Senator Carr is spending more days abroad than Kevin Rudd, who was sometimes called Kevin 747.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/money/foreign-mi ... z2AHkO0naO" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"

[Neferti]

It is absolutely disgusting that this useless piece of shit, and his wife, is travelling around the World on Australian Taxpayer's money. Kev07 was bad enough but Bob Carr?

[Rorschach]

Terminal Cronyism...
NSW Labor being put through the wringer by ICAC, possibly for the next 5 months, 3 Premiers, several Ministers and their mates.

[Neferti]

Terminal Cronyism...
NSW Labor being put through the wringer by ICAC, possibly for the next 5 months, 3 Premiers, several Ministers and their mates.

Bob Carr .... spending Australian Taxpayer's money to have his Asian wife, decked out in Designer clothes, etc and travelling First Class around the Globe. Can't he go a week without? Or is his right hand arthritic like Monk's?