http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2013/04/30/1226632/603243-130501-leak.jpg

Bill Leak nails it in one again.

Good morning. Interesting discussion. Thanks.

@James O'Neill, re: “by most objective measures they place Norway in the top half dozen nations.”

Correct. The article places Norway in the top five on economics. I’d say fourth. On social issues, first.

Re: “my question would be: what do you get in return?”

Agree completely. Excellent summary, James.

@Spindoc, re: “Your seemingly endless stream of supporting quotes and data with the context and relevance removed is quite frankly astonishing.”

Correct. The actual data frequently astonishes.

Re: “context and relevance removed”? Do you mean Australia’s deafening ‘We’re all being rooned’ mainstream media chorus?

Is any factual statement or item of data incorrect, Spindoc?

@Rhrosty, re: “too much of our finite wealth concentrating in too few hands.”

Correct. One causal factor of the GFC.

Re “circumstances continue to change and worsen.”

What is worsening in Australia, Rhrosty?

Re “Foreign debt is over 1.5 trillion, which we're told around the size of our economy!”

Told by whom? Pretty sure it is not that high. According to the AOFM it’s 20.7% of GDP, lowest among wealthy nations:

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/government-debt-to-gdp

Re: “It's far too large in the current economic circumstances; and for our comparative small population”

According to whom? No independent economist agrees with you, Rhrosty.

Re: “Moreover, I look at it from a perspective of a person who remembers we were once the third most prosperous nation on the planet …”

Rhrosty, that’s the point of looking at the actual data. Australia is clearly the best-managed economy in the world on objective measures. Not just third.

Recent shifts are that you have expanded national wealth enormously with infrastructure development, increased productivity impressively, gained four triple A ratings for the first time, and have world-beating numbers on economic wellbeing overall.

Re: “And where an unemployment rate of just 1% was considered shameful?”

What was job participation back then?

@Everyone, finally:

No-one has answered the question regarding the observation that Australia now has economic outcomes better than at any past time and better than anywhere else.

“If not, which has done better?”

Anyone able to have a shot?

Cheers, AA

Well guys, you all gave it your best shot, yet he came back again and again like the dumb knight in the Monty Python movie as he had limb after limb cut from his body.

But it is not hard to prove his out of touch bias. Just look at his reponse to Rhrosty who stated
"We all know about the pink batts and extravagant school funding.”

Really? What do we know? What the mainstream media told us? Those two strategies were the key reasons Australia’s intervention worked so well. They were extraordinarily effective as all the objective research now shows. Governments around the world wished they had done exactly the same.

Now lets get that quote and send it to 1,000 anonymous homes in Australia and see the response. Do you think even 10% will agree with him.

Australia has better economic outcomes than most other countries, but not better than the Howard government, and mostly because of the strong economic position that Labor inherited.

Juliar's spending is out of control. Her claims that revenue is $12bn short is in spite of a 7.6% revenue increase. Also we are looking at a $17bn deficit, which shows that Labor's promise of a surplus was never going to be achieved even with Labor's wildly optimistic revenue predictions.

Labor's answer is not to reign in record spending levels, but to increase taxes, (or savings in Labor speak).

I am looking forward to September when the incompetent Swan will find himself unemployed and I don't think any real business will touch him with a barge pole.

yes, my opinion was the Howard govt was better. It had a clear agenda from start and carried out many of its aims, including lowering public debt.

Nevertheless, an Abbott led govt is going to face much tougher economic circumstances and he and his govt will need to lift the standard. If not, much misery lies ahead. It is not just going to be a need to better balance the books, but to better balance production versus consumption

Alan,

In your response to comments you did not address the fact Australia's Tax revenue is actually increasing.
Are you standing by your claim '... government revenues are falling.'?

Or are you now in denial of truth. Did you know a lack of respect for truth and a lack of understanding of loyality are the prime indicators of a pathological personality? Sufferers exhibitions of these deficiencies worsen as the stress of having to face the consequences and delusions of previous untruths and the self evident lack of respect increases. Oh and typical sufferers of this malaise commonly lack any sort of foresight, show appalling judgement and suffer cognitive delusion.

Lol.