Bill Shorten - not a good look

[Rorschach]

Waiting for you to do some research and post some facts, not just your opinions.

You read the papers. Government debt and deficit has reached record highs in the last couple of years. While we concentrate on terrorism, we're not supposed to notice how bad the economy is. You might not like the Guardian as a source, but you can't dispute the Financial Review or Trading Economics.

As at the end of March 2015, Australia’s net foreign debt stood at $955bn, a record high. As a share of GDP, this was equal to 59.5%, also a record high.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... lia-undone

The hard facts are dumbfounding. Since the budget's underlying cash balance slipped into deficit in the 2009 financial year, the cumulative shortfall between what the Commonwealth spends and what it earns will total a record 19.5 per cent of GDP by June 2015.

And based on Treasury's forecasts, the cumulative underlying cash deficit since 2009 will add up to 24.3 per cent of GDP by June 2019. That heroically assumes Australia benefits from above-trend real GDP growth between 2017 and 2019, noting Treasury's very wide 90 per cent "confidence interval" over this horizon implies we could be on the brink of either a boom or bust. That is, Treasury has no idea.

http://www.afr.com/news/policy/budget/f ... 512-gguuug

Government Spending in Australia increased to 70330 AUD Million in the first quarter of 2015 from 70032 AUD Million in the fourth quarter of 2014. Government Spending in Australia averaged 34113.84 AUD Million from 1959 until 2015, reaching an all time high of 70330 AUD Million in the first quarter of 2015 and a record low of 8769 AUD Million in the second quarter of 1960. Government Spending in Australia is reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/austral ... t-spending

I said post some facts that back you up, not LW prog mainstream propaganda or stuff that doesn't.
Which governments policies put us where we are and whose policies and their trajectory has us on a higher spending lower revenue path? Which parties have stopped legislation and reform meant to cut spending and increase revenue?
oh right....

[Andrew Bolt]

IT’S the cover-up that kills you in politics, and defending Bill Shorten is killing Labor.

Tragically, the Labor leader is trashing the reputation of the colleagues obliged to defend dodgy deals he made as head of the Australian Workers’ Union.

This became shockingly obvious to me when I saw even Gary Gray trying to defend a personal donation Shorten took from a boss whose workers his union was meant to be representing.

I know Gray, Labor’s former national secretary. We were mates and worked together in Darwin on Labor’s 1984 federal election campaign. He later gave me a job on Labor’s 1987 campaign, too.

Gosh, we loved fighting the Liberals, stopping at nothing to win every vote — that is, nothing short of breaking the law or shaming Labor or ourselves.

Because here’s the thing. Gray is as straight as a die. He is so decent and reasonable that, despite his talent, Shorten has given him no better job than shadow minister for Northern Australia.

Yet there was Gray on the ABC’s 7.30 trying to salvage Shorten’s reputation from the wreckage of his testimony to the royal commission into union corruption.

[mantra]

Waiting for you to do some research and post some facts, not just your opinions.

You read the papers. Government debt and deficit has reached record highs in the last couple of years. While we concentrate on terrorism, we're not supposed to notice how bad the economy is. You might not like the Guardian as a source, but you can't dispute the Financial Review or Trading Economics.

As at the end of March 2015, Australia’s net foreign debt stood at $955bn, a record high. As a share of GDP, this was equal to 59.5%, also a record high.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... lia-undone

The hard facts are dumbfounding. Since the budget's underlying cash balance slipped into deficit in the 2009 financial year, the cumulative shortfall between what the Commonwealth spends and what it earns will total a record 19.5 per cent of GDP by June 2015.

And based on Treasury's forecasts, the cumulative underlying cash deficit since 2009 will add up to 24.3 per cent of GDP by June 2019. That heroically assumes Australia benefits from above-trend real GDP growth between 2017 and 2019, noting Treasury's very wide 90 per cent "confidence interval" over this horizon implies we could be on the brink of either a boom or bust. That is, Treasury has no idea.

http://www.afr.com/news/policy/budget/f ... 512-gguuug

Government Spending in Australia increased to 70330 AUD Million in the first quarter of 2015 from 70032 AUD Million in the fourth quarter of 2014. Government Spending in Australia averaged 34113.84 AUD Million from 1959 until 2015, reaching an all time high of 70330 AUD Million in the first quarter of 2015 and a record low of 8769 AUD Million in the second quarter of 1960. Government Spending in Australia is reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/austral ... t-spending

I said post some facts that back you up, not LW prog mainstream propaganda or stuff that doesn't.
Which governments policies put us where we are and whose policies and their trajectory has us on a higher spending lower revenue path? Which parties have stopped legislation and reform meant to cut spending and increase revenue?
oh right....

Of course the Financial Review and Trading Economics aren't as credible as Piers Akerman or Andrew Bolt in your opinion. How about you provide some proof that those sources I posted are incorrect? You can't because you know I'm right.

[Lucas]

[Andrew Bolt]

Labor under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard enraged Indonesia by:

- banning overnight live cattle exports to feed Indonesians.

- putting “sugar on the table” that encouraged tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to go to Indonesia to catch boats.

- spying on the Indonesian President and his wife.

Yet Labor under Bill Shorten is shameless:

Australia’s live export industry is in shock after Indonesia has drastically reduced the number of import permits for cattle for the current quarter, with Labor leader Bill Shorten describing it as a “grave concern” that he hopes is not due to tensions in the bilateral relationship.

[Andrew Bolt]

The CFMEU has been a no-show so far at the latest hearings of the royal commission into union corruption:

Allegations of corrupt payments, intimidation and cartel behaviour have been heard on the first day of hearings in Canberra for the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.

The commission heard from three witnesses who alleged they felt pressured to pay money to the ACT branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) in order to get access to the Canberra construction market....

The CFMEU today said that it would not attend the commission until at least Thursday… In a letter sent to the commission, the CFMEU said its legal representatives would not be attending the hearings until later this week because of what it called an “unreasonable timetable”.

This prompts a change of tune from the Opposition Leader.

Bill Shorten on July 13:

JOURNALIST: Do you [inaudible] on the CFMEU’s boycott of the Royal Commission?

SHORTEN: That’s up for the CFMEU and the royal commission to sort out.

Bill Shorten on May 22:


QUESTION: On the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, do you think that George Pell should be compelled to give evidence?

BILL SHORTEN: I do believe that George Pell should cooperate and help the royal commission deal with these problems which have been going on for far too long. If that means that he should come home to Australia to help the royal commission, Cardinal Pell should do that … I do believe that George Pell should help the royal commission and if that means coming back to Australia to cooperate with the royal commission he should.

[Rorschach]

Waiting for you to do some research and post some facts, not just your opinions.

You read the papers. Government debt and deficit has reached record highs in the last couple of years. While we concentrate on terrorism, we're not supposed to notice how bad the economy is. You might not like the Guardian as a source, but you can't dispute the Financial Review or Trading Economics.

As at the end of March 2015, Australia’s net foreign debt stood at $955bn, a record high. As a share of GDP, this was equal to 59.5%, also a record high.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... lia-undone

The hard facts are dumbfounding. Since the budget's underlying cash balance slipped into deficit in the 2009 financial year, the cumulative shortfall between what the Commonwealth spends and what it earns will total a record 19.5 per cent of GDP by June 2015.

And based on Treasury's forecasts, the cumulative underlying cash deficit since 2009 will add up to 24.3 per cent of GDP by June 2019. That heroically assumes Australia benefits from above-trend real GDP growth between 2017 and 2019, noting Treasury's very wide 90 per cent "confidence interval" over this horizon implies we could be on the brink of either a boom or bust. That is, Treasury has no idea.

http://www.afr.com/news/policy/budget/f ... 512-gguuug

Government Spending in Australia increased to 70330 AUD Million in the first quarter of 2015 from 70032 AUD Million in the fourth quarter of 2014. Government Spending in Australia averaged 34113.84 AUD Million from 1959 until 2015, reaching an all time high of 70330 AUD Million in the first quarter of 2015 and a record low of 8769 AUD Million in the second quarter of 1960. Government Spending in Australia is reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/austral ... t-spending

I said post some facts that back you up, not LW prog mainstream propaganda or stuff that doesn't.
Which governments policies put us where we are and whose policies and their trajectory has us on a higher spending lower revenue path? Which parties have stopped legislation and reform meant to cut spending and increase revenue?
oh right....

Of course the Financial Review and Trading Economics aren't as credible as Piers Akerman or Andrew Bolt in your opinion. How about you provide some proof that those sources I posted are incorrect? You can't because you know I'm right.

Wassup? Can't read? Can't address what I actually said?
I keep telling you... when you are right I' agree with you... I agree with the facts just not your incorrect interpretation of them.

[Rorschach]

yeah heard Shorten this morning on the ABC... he's getting worse and worse.
Soon everyone who is not rusted on will just tune out completely

[Andrew Bolt]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion ... 7441876571" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
James Jeffrey:

Last week we paid some attention to the royal commissioner Dyson Heydon and his apparent shock at encountering pollie speak. “A lot of your answers are non-responsive, some are responsive, but then you add something that isn’t responsive,” he told Bill Shorten ...

But if he was hoping to have some sort of reforming effect, he would have been disappointed yesterday.

Too true, as the transcript shows:
http://billshorten.com.au/category/transcripts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

JOURNALIST: Do you think that the Shenhua mine should be built?

SHORTEN: Labor will rely upon the best science evidence. Clearly there’s a lot of concern, legitimate concern out there by agricultural land users in the Liverpool Plains. I think the Government needs to, you know, they can’t keep passing the buck and blaming the New South Wales Government, the Federal Government should stop blaming New South Wales. You’ve got Mr Hunt and you’ve for the Prime Minister saying, Mr Abbott saying this is not prime agricultural land; you’ve got Mr Joyce saying this is prime agricultural land – they both can’t be right. It’s time for the Government to stop fighting amongst itself and start focusing on the future jobs of Australians including in agriculture and renewable energy and all the other important jobs of the future which this Government just simply isn’t focused on. Thanks everyone.

JOURNALIST: Do you support the proposal or not?

SHORTEN: Well we want to – we want to see the scientific evidence is and we want to see the Government provide the information to us, but one thing is for sure, this Government doesn’t know what to do with the Liverpool Plains and they’re busy blaming each other and I just want them to get on and focus on the jobs of the future, not just fighting each other. Thanks everyone, see you later.

[Andrew Bolt]

THANK God at least one person in Bill Shorten’s team knows Labor has gone mad with global warming and must be stopped.

That’s obvious from that anonymous person’s decision to leak Labor’s plans for a new carbon tax to the Daily Telegraph.

This paper was never likely to treat the plans gently and indeed ran them on Wednesday with an illustration of Shorten, the Opposition Leader, as a zombie crawling from the grave of Labor’s last carbon tax.

The leaker’s aim was plain: to either destroy the embattled Shorten or to embarrass Labor into dropping a tax that will cost it any chance of winning next year’s election.

Disloyal, maybe. But at least someone in Labor still has brains and bad luck for Labor it’s not Shorten.

Because here is what you won’t hear from the ABC and many other media outlets. Labor under Shorten is proposing a new carbon tax that would hurt workers and consumers yet do nothing to stop global warming, which actually stopped nearly two decades ago anyway.