In sneeringly arrogant costello's budget the liberal voters and liberal donors got most of the tax breaks as I see it. The same at election time the bribes - as some so cruelly call them - will go to marginal seats and those loyal coalition voters,those who like being paid for their vote as some have very nastily said.
I am a 70 plus pensioner who did not have super in my working days and who now along with others must subsist on around $200 a week about the same amount that sneering arrogant costello and his miserable, mean-spirited, uncaring ilk pay for their lattes with tasty cakes. Yes we pensioners who laid the foundation for this nation's wealth - NOT sneering, arrogant costello - get hungry and cold so need to eat and heat. Also we have to purchase fuel for our vehicles. All this and more at the same prices those who get $1,000 a week. But pensioners don't matter in this age of wonderful national prosperity. Oh there's some mention of a once only munificent grant to us bloody useless parasitical wrinklies. This munificent grant would be the price of a sneering, arrogant mean spirited, uncaring costello lunch. BIG BLOODY DEAL! At least they haven't got us sweeping the streets or cutting the grass on nature strips for our miserable pensions YET! numbat (A cast aside whingeing aged pensioner)PS And it's not only the liberals who do not care it's all of you well-fed selfish workers as well.

Numbat, I'm one of those "selfish" workers you're having a go at. Too young for the pension, yet too old to find full time employment. I exist most weeks on little more than the pension (which is a little higher than the $200 you mentioned) and am forced to sign a two monthly contract just to keep my miserable part time job. It's due again at the end of the month , but I'm not sure just what it will contain this time since John Howards IR reforms have come into play. To top this off, being single and with an income just enough to keep me from getting a "low income" Health Care card, I get no concessions on my car rego, house and land rates, telephone, doctors bills...the list goes on, but I'm sure you get the idea. I also live in a remote area, so don't see a soul unless I'm at work. The threat of having no job looms ever larger as Government policies force more older people like myself onto the dole. They know ageism is rampant, but when they're forcing the disabled to look for work, we'll get no sympathy from the Liberals. However, I do see your point. It's the truly greedy workers who are helping to create a society where you have to keep the big end of town happy. They think they're immune to unemployment and look down their noses at people like you and I, but the growth=wealth mentality cannot keep on forever. A major crash is coming and those same people whi have to keep up with the "Jones" will come to realise the folly of their big spending ways.

And to make matters worse, the big 'mining boom' is being exploited by not Australian, but foreign companies. Although they may be paying royalties and tax, guess where the profits are going - again, no long term strategy for the nations wealth in natural resources.

This is starting to sound like those commercial TV current affairs programs..

I agree whole-heartedly with all the above posts.

The Rodent should be using this (temporary) boom windfall for long term nation-building and not frittering it away on populist vote-buying.

History will probably judge him on the basis of lost opportunity rather than longevity in office.

It's getting too late in my working life to get excited about most of these changes but it's my children I am worried about.

I'm fearing the day when most of us get squeezed between interest rates going up at the same time wages go down and when the boom ends...?

Lindsay - love your work !! I wish you were a contender for "that job".

Couldn't agree more Wobbles. As more and more rich people at the top of the heap own more and more of our assets, rental properties and continue to force the price of housing beyond the reach of ordinary working class people, it's our grandchildren I worry about. What sort of life are we leaving for them?? By the time they reach adulthood, they'll be staring at a plundered landscape where nothing is owned by the public. That one percent of the worlds super rich will own it all. Unfortunately, no Government is going to put the brakes on this pillaging of our National assets. The Snowy Hydro scheme will be the worst disater of all. As with the privatisation of our other assets, the only thing that will happen is that the Government will get richer at the expense of ordinary Australians while we pay ever increasing electricity costs to a foriegn company. The major political parties won't be satisfied until they hold the population to ransom. They'll then have a slave society totally dependant on the crumbs they have to work hard for simply to susrvive. Big business is bad business. I'm so glad I'm not a child growing up in this greedy "New World Order."

Wildcat.

You are so correct. I am on a disability support pension 25% of average weekly male earnings.

I too am worried about the future of kids in Australia. We will have a population of renters, those who are unable to buy thier own homes. Of course the landlords will love this new feudalism.

I am watching question time in the house of reps as I type this. Do our political leaders have any comprehension of living in this country. I think not.

We need a Government who governs, not one that plays party political games at every opportunity.