Its staggering how viciously dishonest the enemies of the elected Government are. No budget emergency?

The Labor Government left a trail of giant landmines, and implemented a scorched earth policy on the nations finances. The liberals are basically boxed in because they need to spend years digging us out of a hole.

Labor should not be getting fat pensions; they should be in jail for deliberate sabotage of the country's future. The people voted the scum out, and this budget is what has to be done. A pity it wasnt done harder, because it doesn't remove any debt at all.

VK3AUU

If ONLY people had the option of squandering their money on 'grog, pokies and fags'!

Instead, they are squandering their money on crippling mortgages, rents, health/property insurance, their kids' education (due to a run down public education system), running 2+ cars per household (because of a run down public transport system) and of course the skyrocketing cost of living due to unfettered commodity and property speculation.

And the few who ARE able to save now earn next to zero interest rates because of a collapsed world financial system.

I can’t comment on the American situation, other than to observe it seems like a mess.

In Australia, blocking supply always seems unthinkable until we have a ‘crisis’; real or manufactured. The people are easily panicked. All you need is the threat of the unknown, then with the media behind you, it is easy to manufacture a crisis. George Winterton was simply wrong on this point. It is, after all, a political question, not a legal one.

For example, between 2010-2013, Abbott convinced himself that the elected Government was somehow illegitimate, and his supporters - the people with money - jumped on the bandwagon and tried to make out that everything their opponents did was disastrous. The truth did not matter to them. There can be no doubt that the coalition would have blocked supply in that period if it had held the numbers in the Senate.

The tactic is in fact more likely to be used here than in America, because here remnant Crown powers to appoint and dismiss the Government allow the Senate majority to aim not just to frustrate and embarrass the Government, but to remove it from power altogether.

It may seem unthinkable in mid 2014. But just consider the political effect of several climate disasters, such as cyclones and bush fires, in quick succession. At that point, inaction on climate change will seem more dangerous than the status quo. There would then be a groundswell from the public to remove the Abbott Government, emboldening the Senate.

It is foolish to do nothing and simply hope that the blocking of supply is unthinkable. The better option is to use the public’s preference for a republic to remove not just the monarchy, but all Crown power as well. This would remove an opposition’s incentive to block supply. This is what the Advancing Democracy model proposes: see www.advancingdemocracy.info.

If Labor blocks supply the government will make sure that anyone who might support Labor will suffer. Pensioners, teachers, Public servants etc etc would not be paid and the murdoch media would have a field day. The shock jocks and the spinners would paint Labor as wrecking the economy and being negative just for the sake of it.

The senate should just block every budget bill while not blocking supply bills. Then it puts abbott in a corner where he can either abandon his budget, pretty humiliating, or go to an election to gain a mandate, one the senate cant foil, and then pass the budget.
If he wins.

Come on abbott. If your budget is so good. If you didnt LIE! If your budget is so fair. You should romp it in in a double dissolution.
He already has one trigger. Soon he will have many. I bet he loves power too much to risk it. Filthy coward.

Let the people decide.
ELECTION NOW!

There is nothing at all bold about kicking sand in the faces of people who are ageing, disabled or fallen on hard times.
Killarney,
Yes, typical Labor. First they wreck the joint then they blame the new tennant. Disgusting is all that come s to mind. Disgusting hypocrisy ! What did they do with the money that was supposed to go to those people ? I have heard Krudd is on $600,000.- a year & the Goaf has cost us millions by now after sending us broke. He doesn't need his millions, he probably doesn't even know he's got them. Give some of it to more deserving of those poor you mentioend.

Another extremely important subject thread & again as per usual the hangers-on brigade remains stumm. Too much fact for them ?