The Labor government does not have to increase taxes. It just has to stop cutting them. Both land tax and payroll tax grow year by year.

Labor has already decided what it is going to do in education, including with curriculum. It is in the Skills and Knowledge chapter of the platform at:
http://www.viclabor.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Victorian-Labor-Platform-2014.pdf.

Chris; And there's some good stuff there; But not much detail on Civics and Citizenship; And arguably we could have emphasis on political literacy and active citizenship. And we could have compulsory humanities/social sciences along with English as the means of delivering on those priorities.

"Arguably no state government in the country has secured the revenue necessary to sustain government provision of public infrastructure in everything from transport to public housing and education over the long term."

What a dumb thing to say. Obviously the State could snaffle the entire product of society up its snout, and it still wouldn't have enough money to "sustain government provision of public infrastructure" because
a) if the price of something is zero, the supply with never be enough to meet demand,
b) Tristan has no rational criterion for distinguishing how much social product should be, as he delicately puts it, "secured" [translation: at gunpoint]. Since a hundred percent would not be enough, obviously a lesser amount could be in no better position.

What the economic illiteracy of the statists keeps failing to understand, is that the scarcity of resources cannot be just magically conjured away by forcibly taking from A and giving to B.

The blandishments of Tristan's open-ended belief in the State only ever make sense if you disregard the fact that for every benefit the State provides, the resources are not created out of thin air. That is mere superstition. The resources to pay for any State action had to be withdrawn from some alternative employment which also went to satisfy human wants, human needs, human welfare, human wants in medical care, education, the environment, and so on.

"The money you get from Canberra, is the money you sent to Canberra, minus freight both ways." For example, 50 percent of the welfare budget is "churn" - robbing Peter to pay Peter.

At no stage does Tristan ever come to terms with what is in issue. The State is not a magical super-economising superbeing, and the belief that it is, has no basis in reason or reality, let alone ethics.

Infrastructure needs to be paid for one way or another. There is no 'magic pudding'; But if you don't pay for it publicly then you will have a bottleneck, or you will get some form of 'user pays'. The state sector generally enjoys a better credit rating. It also doesn't need to worry about dividends as first priority. Hence public provision of infrastructure is fairer on low and middle income groups; and also can deliver efficiencies that flow through to the broader economy. Jardine assumes that demand can only manifest via a market relationship. That is ridiculous. For generations natural monopolies were provided in energy, water, transport, communications - without any worry about markets in the sense Jardine is suggesting. There is more than one way of ascertaining demand, and providing for that demand.

Another of Tristan's messages from a parallel universe where money grows on trees and trade unions are benevolent.

Here's a prediction: the Andrews government will be true type and an economic and social disaster, just like those of Kirner, Rudd and Gillard.

Welcome back Tristan.

The GST. It is true that low income groups are hit hard by GST increases, but GST is a progressive tax. The wealthy will pay a higher proportion. Low incomes can be compensated through the tax/welfare system.

Medibank Private. Medibank has one of the highest margins of all the health funds. Despite its market leadership, it did nothing to lower general premiums. Some health funds,like HCF, are non profit and use all of the premiums for the benefit of members.

Education. Education spending has been consistently well above inflation for a number of years but many schools still have poor literacy and numeracy scores. Although subjects like civics are important, it is absolutely essential that all children leave school with acceptable numeracy and literacy.