Good morning,

@rehctub, re: “My suggestion to the author is, that rather than draw your info from abroad, simply spend a little time in real people's world”

Fair point, Rehctub.

But which real world? A family in the Pilbara where the parents earn $220,000 each from Rio Tinto? Or down the road at Jiggalong? Or in Melbourne, young executives lunching in Market Lane with a nanny minding their children. Or a refugee family in Broadmeadows?

Yes, we need contact with the real world. Pretty sure I have that, Rehctub. But macro data completes the picture.

@individual, re: “If labor Governments are as good as you’re trying to tell us then why is it that we're always worse off after they get in.”

Fair question also.

First, everyone is worse off now than they would have been without the global financial crisis. So, yes, unemployment is higher now in Australia than in 2007. But not much higher. Certainly waaaay lower than most comparable nations.

Second, you will always live in a world of gloom, doom, disaster, crisis and despair if there is a Labor Government and if you allow yourself exposure to Australia’s mass media. Even during incredible booms.

Conversely, you will be told all's well under Coalition governments even while wealth and income are being systematically shifted from the poor and middle to the rich.

As an exercise, Indi, see how many payslips you can find among your friends. Check the tax taken out now. Then apply the 2007 rate and see how much extra they now take home.

Re: “Australia's ranking on the world list is meaningless if we're worse off when the list says we're near the top.”

You're not near the top, Indi. You're ascendant by a street and shooting further ahead.

You should be enormously grateful you are not still back at 12th – where you certainly would be had your Government not taken those gutsy decisions in 2008-09 to borrow modestly to keep your economy running at near normal pace.

Try to imagine the unemployment, poverty and despair you have avoided. Then cheer up!

Cheers,

Lexi - t's worth asking whether such an inquiry with such wide-ranging powers would have been commissioned by Tony Abbott. Given his personal
history and close relationship with the Catholic Church.There must be considerable doubt

True, Catholic priests are probably the most obvious culprits and I have no doubt the church has used its considerable clout to stave off responsibility. That said, there are plenty of other kiddy-fiddlers in circulation, most of whom have sufficient standing to escape censure. I'm aware of several 'significant' individuals (all known conservatives) who have avoided the embarrassment of public identification. If this is representative, it would add weight to the suggestion that RAbbott & friends actively impeded inquiries.

onthebeach - Most elderly don't last long after being wrenched from that. Maybe that is the idea.

All the more reason to discontinue all post-retirement handouts to politicians & governors and compel the clowns to live in itty-bitty concrete boxes with no airconditioning or heating. The sooner the miserable parasites fall off their perches, the better off we'll be.

praxidice

'I'm aware of several 'significant' individuals (all known conservatives) who have avoided the embarrassment of public identification. '

that makes you as bad as anyone else who has covered up unless you are telling porkies.

Greetings,

@ShadowMinister, re: “a swing in revenue figures from $7bn to $17bn in TWO weeks is … not common among people that know what they are talking about”

Errors of that % are quite common, SM. In recent decades most errors have underestimated revenue rather than overestimated.

Re: “and certainly didn't come from treasury.”

Of course it did, SM. Just ignorant, foolish nonsense! Treasury’s Martin Parkinson explains here:

http://www.treasury.gov.au/PublicationsAndMedia/Speeches/2013/Budgeting-in-Challenging-Times

Re: “In business it would get the CEO and CFO fired.”

We shall see. If there’s a new government in September will Dr Parkinson keep his job? Pretty sure he will.

Re: “What happened is Wayne Swan lied about expected revenue increase forecasts for 2013 being 12%”

Ridiculous nonsense again, SM. And a malicious lie as well. Your evidence?

Re: “Whine Swan is not smart enough to get away with the con job that is the budget … his last budget produced gales of laughter.”

It got a huge tick from those who do not swallow the lies of Australia’s media – the stock markets, investors, the rating agencies, economists, business leaders and the international media.

Re: “now we are getting a deficit of about $19.4bn which is about 6% of annual federal tax revenue, which is a hell of a lot.”

Deficits in other countries, SM? What would it have been now had the Coalition’s feeble response to the GFC been implemented? Where would you rather be?

@Lexi, re: “Australia's net debt is dramatically lower than the net debt levels of every single major advanced economy.”

Almost exactly right, Lexi. Denmark is slightly lower. But Denmark's tax rate is 48.1% compared with Australia’s 25.6%. And has been in negative growth for four out of the last six quarters [Australia none]. So you probably wouldn't want to live there.

Your other observations all seem spot on, Lexi.

@Rehctub, re: “Lexi, you keep referring, time and time again, about what great shape we are in, yet you have also failed to acknowledge what FANTASITC SHAPE we were in before labor's wastefest.”

Rehctub, we have one word for you: global financial crisis!

Cheers,

AA,

Treasury produces a range of forecast scenarios with a spread of outcomes for revenue. There are high revenue forecasts and low ones, the expected outcome is the one where the probability is 50% that the revenue is higher or lower. For a large company to do otherwise in its reporting would invite legal penalties. It is clear that Whine Swan and Juliar opted for the higher range of predictions rather than the expected value. This is a lie, pretty much like the 500 promises to reach a surplus, and the carbon tax were.

The CEO and CFO here that should lose their jobs (and probably will) are Whine and Juliar.

It is notable that the lower than budgeted returns in revenue came almost exclusively from Labor governments, where over estimating tax income allows greater expenditure in the budget, and the ability to blame treasury when the budget is in deficit again.

While a 3% drop in tax revenue is possible in a financial year, the change in 14 days is from political lying not treasury, and I challenge you to provide an example otherwise.

If the coalition had been in charge, the response to the GFC would have been a smaller expenditure (about half) that achieved the same outcomes, and a return to surplus by 2011.