I was really incensed that the government chose to raise unemployment benefits by such a measly amount (around $4.00 a week for a single), thereby ensuring that more and more people become reliant on Foodbanks and/or end up living on the streets.

Hardly a day goes by without a manufacturing plant or factory closing, thereby ensuring a continuing increase in the number of people dependent on welfare.

Dumping sole parents on the dole when his/her youngest child turns 8 is further evidence of this government's lack of interest in looking after the poor, and its minuscule level of concern for the country's most disadvantaged children.

At the same time as the government is supporting a National Disability Insurance Scheme, it is also continuing to cut off Disability Support Pensioners.

The government is offering $1000 to 50,000 employers to provide work for an older Australian for a period of 3 months. Surely Wayne Swan should be aware that businesses are not run on "chicken feed" donations.

While paying mainly lip service to job creation, this government seems more hell bent on bringing the nation, along with individuals and families, to its economic knees.

It is certainly a "smoke and mirrors" budget which is unlikely to deliver a budget surplus any time soon.

However we can be fairly confident it will deliver a huge surplus of homeless people trying to live on peasants' rations, mostly supplied by the rest of the community.

See, the problem is, if the poor Australians have no cash, well you know the Robin Hood theory, and all the sheriff's of nottinghams Treasury was robbed, when all of the Kings men forgot about that very important word from the history pages of life....now what was that word?

"I remember...disparity"

And Robin said" we take from the rich and give to the poor, and its that what the Labor/greens are doing?

Be very careful.

The people aren't that thick:)but they are getting hungry.

If the people have money, the crime rate goes down considerably.

Tony habbit...oh dear.

Maybe tony should invest in a better alarm system:)

cc

I have now given further thought to the handouts being made to parents for their children's education.

The idea that they are a lump sum sweetener to lessen the blow of a Carbon Tax seems to have value, but I also think it is a pre-election bribe.

With both Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper in serious trouble, it may be only weeks before a fresh election is called.

The best time to give parents a lump sum for their children's education might be at the beginning of November, when parents can generally pre-order books, stationery items, uniforms and schoolbags from their local schools.

This would also give schools some excellent early income to enable planning for better school programs in the following year.

I agree with this article.

The budget is a joke and a sad reflection of why federal Labor is not up to it.

They know the problems ahead, but what do the deliver, handouts to prop up their support.

It is obvious that Australia needs to reduce costs and this means that both sides of politics have to be smart about the refroms and adopt change in fair way that can apperal to voters.

For Labor, how about starting with a recognition of the truth, and not wishful thinking about a reliance on a mining boom forver.

All i hope for now is that the next Coaliton govt is better.

If I were a Labor voter I'd throw that insultingly measly support back at Gillard & Swan. Their recent pay rise including all the other Parties was in the hundreds of Dollars a week & these disgusting creeps want to big note themselves of giving families $4 bucks ? Disgusting is the only fitting description.
Get them out of office as soon as possible.

This Govt makes Gough Whitlam look good.Why does not the Queens Rep sack them? Ans; because Gough sought loans ;ie Kemlani of Arabic origin which defied the British Aristocracy monopoly on currency creation.In all reality the Arabic money has something of real wealth backing it;ie oil.

Labor are beyond being farcical.May they drown in the cesspool of their own making.