Dear Alan,

We should all be grateful for your article as a perfect example of how to isolate data from information and knowledge.

Your seemingly endless stream of supporting quotes and data with the context and relevance removed is quite frankly astonishing. That said I think you really do believe that “comparative analysis” is a valid substitute for reality.

This is good, very good because the majority of Australians are gradually building up immunity to such techniques.

You didn’t do this all on your own of course. Our government, much of our media, especially the ABC, sections of academia, have become the collective propaganda commentariat. A body representing elitism and intellectualism that is rapidly losing its credibility in Australia with the assistance of journalists like you.

Having been sensitized (subjected) to growing ideological proselytizing from the commentariat, Australians are now better equipped to compare reality with fiction and it is not looking good for you.

The main problem for the commentariat seems to be that your shrinking audience loves being told what it already feels, a bit like a comfort “blankie” really, a little wet corner to suck on when anxiety builds. However, what you really set out to do is to create converts and that is where you fail because the more you do to try to win converts the more you turn them off.

The oft used quote from “The March of Folly” seems so appropriate. Folly is “the pursuit of that which is contrary to self interest”.

Your summary comment is confirmation of your total abandonment of context and relevance. << You will also see starkly how incredibly fortunate Aussies are relative to the rest of the world>>.

After an article peppered with what I call propaganda but you call intellectual rigor, it’s all down to “fortune”. What?

Why didn’t you just title the article “The Lucky Country” and forget the rest.

Sorry Alan, no banana from me but many thanks and keep up the good work

As others have noticed dear Alan is a shill for the ALP and anything he writes should be filtered through that prism. There are many examples of the duplicity, incompetence and potential corruption of this current government; as to duplicity and incompetence this sequence is revealing:

Wayne Swan, May 2010:


We now expect a surplus in three years, three years ahead of schedule.

Julia Gillard, August 2010:


The Budget will be back in surplus in 2013 if I’m re-elected.

Wayne Swan, August 2010 :


Well, we’re getting back into surplus in three years. Come hell or high water.

Julia Gillard, August 2010:


The Budget is coming back to surplus, no ifs no buts it will happen.

Julia Gillard, November 2010:


The budget will be back in the black, back in surplus in 2012-13 … as promised.

Wayne Swan, April 2011 :


We see the surplus in 12-13 as being absolutely fundamental.

Julia Gillard, April 2011:


My commitment to a surplus in 2012-13 was a promise made and it will be honoured.

Wayne Swan, May 2011:


We’ll be back in the black by 2012/13, as promised.

Julia Gillard, May 2011:


We’ll bring the budget to surplus in 2012-13, exactly as promised.

Wayne Swan, August 2011:


I believe we will attain those forecasts, coming back to surplus in 2012/13.

Wayne Swan, August 2011:


The government remains absolutely committed to delivering our return to surplus as we planned.

Wayne Swan, February 2012:


I am determined to produce a surplus in 2012-2013. We have got our colours nailed to the mast.

Wayne Swan, March 2012:


Despite the tough global conditions, we remain determined to return the budget to surplus in 2012/13, and we will get there.

Julia Gillard, November 2012:


We stand by the predictions, the entries in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. We stand by the figures and we’re on track to deliver a budget surplus.

Wayne Swan, December 2012:


It’s appropriate that we return to surplus.

Wayne Swan, December 2012:


It’s unlikely that there will be a surplus in 2012/13.

Alan, I don't want to sound ungrateful for the very timely response of the Labour Govt, that effectively quarantined us from the GFC.
And yes it is the worst economic crisis since the great depression; and indeed, caused by many of the same factors.
First and foremost, by too much of our finite wealth concentrating in too few hands.
That said, that's all yesterday and circumstances continue to change and worsen.
Foreign debt is over 1.5 trillion, which we're told around the size of our economy!
It's far too large in the current economic circumstances; and for our comparative small population; and indeed, the growing internal structural deficit!
Moreover, I look at it from a perspective of a person who remembers that we were once the third most prosperous nation on the planet and a creditor one at that!
And where an unemployment rate of just 1% was considered shameful?
Also, if management tells us just one thing Alan, it tells us that there is always a better way.
Doing what you've always done gets you what you've always got.
And two massive world wide economic crisis, of the current magnitude are two too many; and tell me at least, that the status quo isn't good enough, nor is she'll be right mate, nor is mortgaging the futures of generations yet unborn!
If what we are doing now, is more or less compounding our problems/sending us to an even worse place, then we do need to try something different!
I think Norway is a good, if relatively conventional western style economic model?
But, I believe we, with our as yet untapped massive resource base, can do far better, and without going down her high taxing road?
I therefore commend my proposed reforms as a very cogent plan for our ultra prosperous future.
The rest is as simple as finding and removing poverty in all its forms and guises, wherever we find it, to lift the well being, prosperity and happiness index of every person extant on the planet! Cuase and effect!
Rhrosty.

Alan,
Why are you running the Labour lie that 'government tax revenues are falling'.
Government revenue in Australia rose this year by 7.5%. It hasn't in fact fallen.
Is it that you are gullible in accepting labor propaganda or lack comprenhension skills or are you being a liar and deliberately repeating the original lie.

We in Australia all understand the truth and it seems few of us are duped by the inane repetition of the lie by ourlocal commentators. You ought to read the letters pages of our newspapers. You would soon see the disdain in which the lie is held and the disdain being poured upon thosr fewer and fewer commentatprs who repeat the lie.

Alan,

Your distance from Australian reality must be the reason you can regurgitate Labor's sales spin. The deficits posted by Labor have in every instance far overshot the budgets because their revenue estimates in the budget have been described by economists as "optimistic" and expenditure has always exceeded budget.

Socialists generally keep spending until they run out of other people's money. Just about everyone in this country has seen this and are no longer listening. Looking from the EU the state of the Aus economy is good in spite of Labor's efforts, but already warnings have come from the ratings agencies that the AAA rating is not guaranteed if the deficits continue.

Cohenite, an impressive list of lies, and that is just on the 'surplus' (or should I say Wayne Swan's mirage).

But the one that most ordinary voters remember is "there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead".