...People just fall in love with their comfort zones don't they! I laugh! Well old Tone and Joey are about to jerk you into gear...Beauty!

Most of the listed measures to eliminate Australia's debt are positive and well appreciated. Indeed, we should be out of this shameful debt as soon as possible and it should be unconstitutional to place the Australian people in debt ever again.

Yet, promises should not be broken: Abbott should resign and allow someone else to implement those same measures.

Well Tristan, you've finally proved Maggi wrong. She reckoned the problem with socialists was that sooner or later they ran out of other peoples money to spend.

She was right as far as she went, but you & your lot have found another way. You are going to spend the money of generations yet to be born, unless sensible people sit on your head & stop you.

No wonder we are in so much trouble, after having governments with the same attitude.

If this was the corpse of fair and equal treatment Tristan, then your piece would at least be anatomically correct!
And just enormously highlights the complete lack of imagination in the idea borrowing, control freak class?
All that is really required is to remove avoidance and consequently improve the budget bottom line, plus fair and equal treatment, is real reform!
If all that was required was a balanced budget, and a modest surplus!
Then to reiterate, quite monumental tax reform and massive simplification is the only real answer!
The longer it is delayed, the harder it will be to get it done!
The real problem for all Australians, is every time we vote, we get a politician; and a electoral campaign chock full of he said she said, and non core promises?
Is this all we deserve?
Reform may well be very hard, but only for those, I believe, whose real political maters, are not the voting electorate?
I would like to hear something from Bill Shorten, than how bad he thinks the Abbott government is!
I mean, just what would he do, to wind back debt, and improve the lot of the average Australian!?
It would make a nice change than just trying to improve his and Labor's electoral prospects, by continually bagging those who are trying to rein in debt!
Rhrosty.

Hasbeen: The point I made about staggering repayments of some debt across generations is based on equity and fairness. If we invest in school infrastructure or transport infrastructure today - our descendants might still be using some of that infrastructure in 30 years time. So surely there are some instances where debt repayment can be staggered over a longer term...

That said - there are arguments for lower debt. Currently debt servicing is in the vicinity of $9 billion a year - in the context of an economy valued around $1.6 Trillion. It's NOT an 'emergency' - but if we halved that and redirected the money saved into Aged Care - I wouldn't complain. So long as it's not paid for in a regressive way...

But still - our debt is not high by global standards. And again - there are arguments for paying for some infrastructure - 'over the longer term'.

And again: If not for the Howard Era tax cuts; And Rudd passing on Howard's proposed tax cuts for 2007 - The Budget would be in much better shape... Ditto for both Labor and the Conservatives maintaining superannuation concessions which cost $15 billion a year in order to line the pockets of millionaires....

BTW I make no pretence at 'impartial reporting'. I have an opinion on these issues and I'm not shying away from expressing it.

Though unusually for a Leftists I'm trying to suggest a dialogue with the Conservatives. Because conservatism in this country was not always obsessed with small government, user pays, regressive taxes - even privatisation...

This article isn't a history re-write. All we need is a continuation of labors excellent economic management. Don't we Trissy.

We'd not have to worry about anything then would we?

Mate the vast majority of us who voted for the liberal nat coalition government voted to change from the economic mismanagement we saw under Rudd and Gillard.

That you hark on about climate change policy but don't mention the carbon tax is staggering. But nowhere near the monumental stupidity of trying to force the monumental disaster and waste of the nbn down our throats.
I
We the voters rejected that.
We the voters rejected the progliferate spending and the balooning drbt.

Which paralled universe are you living in ?

What impress me most is the sheer cheek of the new Ah-but liberal government. They hounded Julia daily on her broken promises re the carbon Tax, and now they plan to introduce one of their own, in the from of an increase in the fuel tax. To top it all they haven't even got rid of Julia's carbon tax yet.

We live in surreal times.

Both Labor and the Coalition are controlled by the banking,military industrial complex. They sold us out a long time ago when they sold off our Govt Banks.

http://www.cecaust.com.au/

Tony Abbott won't be ditched by the majority of voters if they cut welfare, reduce the size of the Public service, cut spending, increase tax on the rich and tax the income earned by superanuation funds. When those actions show surpluses and reduced debt and are coupled with having 'stopped the boats' people will forgive any short term hurt they may feel.

Selling Tony as a politician who breaks his word will then be far harder than the Government will find depicting labor and it's representatives as, at the very least, a bunch of unprincipled yobbos after the Royal Commission into unions.

Iamjulianutter:
Indeed, and even more so, after ICAC concludes its current investigations!
Rhrosty.

Tony Abbott has to learn how to create confidence. He has just knocked the stuffing out of our economy in terms of confidence.

Sure a lot of Labor waste needs cutting back but do it without all the fan fair of doom and gloom. I doubt he'll be leader for much longer. What happened to rescinding the carbon tax? Another promise broken.

They were fiscal vandals in opposition and have been fiscal vandals since being elected. They’ve doubled the deficit by some $68 billion over the forward estimates. But now they aren’t just fiscal vandals, they’re also fiscal fabricators. Like many Australians, I’m an optimist about the Australian economy, both in the short and the long term. The economy, because of the deployment of stimulus, came through the global financial crisis better than any other developed economy in the world.
Petty, spiteful, cynical and infantile behaviour by this government is not some minor issue of style, particularly when its fiscal fabrications diminish our nation’s international standing.
This all causes real pain for real people. It causes bad government and bad outcomes across the board. Australia deserves better than that.

yabby

it isn't Abbott who knocked the stuffing out of the economy at the moment it is the scaremongering of the leftie commentators who are all scaring people about might be in the budget.

The current anti lib campaign currently being indulged in will end budget night and all the asses whose scares have proven to be wrong won't apologise or admit they are wrong will just carry on like Trissy in here.

Then they'll say; we weren't wrong it's all John Howard's fault.

Your analysis is spot on Tristan. But the good analysis is worthless if you don't take the logical action. Allying yourself to low tax, small government leaders like Rudd and Shorten is NOT the logical answer. You identified the answer in your article. The Greens is the right place now for people who really care about a compassionate and just society

"" You are going to spend the money of generations yet to be born, unless sensible people sit on your head & stop you.""
Posted by Hasbeen, Friday, 9 May 2014 11:24:35 AM

So Hasbeen, according to you, during the Second World War, when our survival was at stake, we should not have borrowed money to save the country and pay it back in the years to come? They borrowed piles of money to fight the war and the succeeding generations, who reaped the benefit of the peace, paid off the debt. And that is as it should be. Why should the generation who fought the war and suffer so much pay for it at the time and not expect future generations to help pay it off? It would have been impossible any other way. Your logic is not based on economics at all. It is based on the fallacy current since the 1980s, that a country's budget can be treated like a household budget. Absolute nonsense and the ratings agencies three AAA credit ratings for Australia under Labor also say so.

With China accessing minerals and energy from Africa and South America ,our boom is over.

The selling off of all our Govt banks was the biggest disaster in our history . We have a $1.5 trillion economy which averages 3% growth and no longer have a Commonwealth Govt Bank to create any of this growth debt free.

Banks under the fractional reserve system can create from nothing $10 of loans with $1 of deposits. They also call this leverage. Currently or big four have leverage of 70 times our deposits. This is causing inflation of our housing market.

When your inflationary money also gets created as debt,this puts your whole country in more serious debt and negates any advantages to growth. Now our banks cannot create all this money without borrowing half from OS Central Banks. Our banks also have 40% ownership by HSBC, Citigroup and JP Morgan the very same people who have interests in these Central banks such as the US Federal Reserve.

This is why the emphasis in this country is to export anything we can lay our hands but these very same big Corps have major shareholdings in Corps like BHP. They also have major share holdings in all our media and control our Govts.

This is why both sides of Parliament are totally impotent when it comes to Governing and making decisions in our best interests. We are almost totally enslaved.

w ch if you actually do something useful with money, & earn a dividend, that's one thing, & can be justified. Borrowing money to give to the ne'er do well to piss up against a wall is a recipe for disaster.

It is this entitlement idea that has been fostered by you people that will destroy you, but unfortunately us with you.