Tristan 10 years ago I had one bridge toll to pay as I drove around Brisbane, something I now only do when completely unavoidable. I paid the toll when I crossed the thing, like a good little boy.

Now I have to have a white electronic gizmo stuck to the windscreen of my car, as I kept getting caught for non payment of tolls. It seems every time I go near Brisbane I get caught with an unpaid toll, as all those roads I paid for with my fuel taxes years ago, & have used for years, have been sold to someone, & I have to pay for the bl00dy things again.

They were sold because, in a time of plenty, a Labor government went broke, & couldn't balance the books.

Mate, please don't include efficiency & bureaucracy in the same sentence, they just don't belong together. If you don't believe me, ask a few citizens of the old Soviet Union.

Tristan,

Thank you for this excellent article. I would also like to congratulate you for remaining polite and civil while others seem to take a rather personal tone against you. I guess you can comfort yourself with knowing that when people do that unprovoked it generally means you have said something worth saying.

It has been proved by thorough and rigorous research that a society which distributes its wealth more evenly enjoys numerous benefits: lower crime rates, better education and health levels, happier citizens (www.equalitytrust.org.uk & “The Spirit Level”).

Your call for an ambitious and far reaching social programme aims to meet these goals so we can all enjoy such benefits. As far as I can see you are not oblivious to the costs or impediments of putting them in place, but see that they are outweighed by the incredible benefits. I agree.

There are many ways to raise the costs for these programmes. $1.7 billion a year currently being spent on a futile war in Afghanistan. $5 billion just promised to the IMF for a bail out to Greece, of questionable value. The possibility of a higher mining tax, bank super profit tax, and removing the superannuation rebate rort. The money is there for the taking to fund these initiatives.

The steady rise of the Greens in Australia and across the world shows us that there is a voting public hungry for the sorts of policies you mention. Commentators who talk blithely of the day of this sort of spending being over are likely those of the neoliberal bent who prefer small government and the market controlling most of people’s lives. They make these predictions repeatedly in the hope they will instil a feeling of disheartened resignation in the reader. But as Cole Porter sang – it ain’t necessarily so.

Tristan, keep calling for good, long term policies that reach out to the ALP voter of old. This is the true direction for ALP’s survival. If it continues to try to be the “diet coke” to the Libs “coke”, then it is truly doomed.

Tristan,

I dont necssarily disagree with some of your suggestions. I agree that newstart is inadequate and so on, although i have no problem with a tough mutual obligation sstem.

What i am saying is that resources are also needed for non-social welfare needs, such as infrastructure and so on. Hasbeen is right. You can't just keep taking and taking and then give to social welfare. You need resources to boost or encourage productive activities and their is a lot of welfare which has lttle purpose. Even my mate says it is ridiculous that he can buy a million dollar house and then receive the full Family A and B benefit.

Where i agre with the left is that we need to alter the balance between production and consumption which relies on credit and cheap foreign goods. I dont think we can go on the way we are.

I also hope that the answer is not to simply to rely on mining and credit and hope for the best like some of the galahs out there suggest

Chris,

"Even my mate says it is ridiculous that he can buy a million dollar house and then receive the full Family A and B benefit".

An excellent point. John Howard created a "culture of entitlement" to state support through the creations of payments such as this, and most of these still exist and we can ill afford them.

I totally agree, let's means test those Family Tax payments so your brother is no longer eligible, as well as others, like the first home buyers grant. And let's get rid of other middle class welfare, such as the super rebate and the private health fund rebate.

These programmes are inequitable and costing the Australian government billions of dollars every year. By getting rid of them, we can fund the sort of projects Tristan discusses as well as creating a fairer society, and making sure that welfare and handouts are reserved for those who truly need it.

*The possibility of a higher mining tax, bank super profit tax, and removing the superannuation rebate rort. The money is there for the taking to fund these initiatives.*

You sound like the typical green voter, Lets Talk, all heart and not
the foggiest understanding of the law of unintended consequences.

So let me explain a bit of it for you. People react to whatever
you think is "there for the taking". It is exactly why we have such
high house prices in Australia, as I tried to explain to Tristan.

But lets take your example of a "bank super profits tax". So who
would ulimately pay this? Not banks of course, for they are mere
paper entities. Most bank shares are owned by super funds, who
manage them on behalf of every single Australian who has a super fund,
like you for instance, if you happen to work.

So you want to take money out of peoples back pocket, their savings
in their super fund, and give it to those less inclined to work.
Next there will be a call to increase the super levy, to increase
workers savings!

Super funds of course will look at these diminishing returns and
decide to invest their money offshore, where there is no bank super
profits tax. So we'll let overseas investors invest here and they
can transfer price their profits out of the country, with no need to
pay much tax at all here.

No wonder that companies such as Saab and Volvo are not even owned
by Swedes, but by foreigners such as the Chinese, who will no doubt
pinch any IP they can and perhaps eventually move those factories
to China. The rich Swedes fled too, they live in Switzerland or
Monaco.

What people like Tristan should be doing is learning the new skills
required by industry and become taxpaying citizens who benefit the
country, rather then trying to figure out how to screw more out
of those who keep our economy going.


If you want equality, just go to Cuba, where everyone is poor

Tristan,

you are out of touch and are one of the dwindling few uologist left in the labor party.

Mate, from my perspective, I should be encouraging you... but I see that nearly 30% of the electorate, many my friends and neighbours, no longer have representation in our parliament in Qld. Why do you think your agenda is more important than my friends and neighbours concerns? Is it so important in fact that you think you know what is best for them?
Just how arrogrant and rude is that attitude?

If you want to impose your views then start your own party aqnd leave the labour peoples party to labour people. Without you and your ilk they, as a couple of prominant former Labor Politicians have suggested after their official enquiries, The Labor Party would reconnect with it's base.

Why's that so hard to understand? It seems you've the same attitude problem as the current labor apparachick politicians and powerbrokers.