Despite all those years when it was "raining gold bars", he never built a single bit of infrastructure (preferring to hand out "sandwich and a milkshake tax cuts), he created a huge middle-class welfare system while screwing over the pensioners with the GST, left an economy with a structural deficit, sold Telstra to fund politicians Superannuation (which he neglected to fund for years) and flogged off everything that wasn't bolted down (as well as most of our gold reserves at bargain prices).

Paying off government debt by increasing the tax grab, slashing services and selling assets isn't exactly rocket science is it?

Some legacy.

I see many cases of selective memory.

From what I recall, the taxes are far lower than they were under the previous labor gov.

The state governments insisted on retaining the responsibility for infrastructure projects, and the revenue intended for it. The only state gov that spent anywhere near the budget on infrastructure was the liberal gov in Victoria. The other state governments squandered boom time income on jobs for mates and a bloated inefficient administration.

I also recall that it was the NSW labor that sold off the Snowy mountain scheme and is planning to sell off the power generation.

The balance of payments debt that exists is to fund bank loans to the biggest private infrastructure expansion in the history of the country, that as Democritus points out is largely due to the relaxation of the oppresive IR legislation of the labor goverment.

Finally, the banking regulation has ensured that none of our financial institutions have suffered as under the British labor government.

<“From what I recall, the taxes are far lower than they were under the previous labor gov.”>

I doubt that, tax across the board increased by at least 10% with the introduction of the GST. It was introduced on the promise many state and federal taxes would be removed to compensate for the GST. That never happened, under Costello, the lowest paid in the country hold the biggest burden of tax. Those in the worst conditions, earning little money and having to obtain social security benefits are slugged with up to 85% tax on any earnings by way of reduction in support. Making it not worthwhile people working at all, unless they can get a job giving them hours and rates they need to survive. Under Costello, more part time casuals and temporary jobs were created whilst full time jobs have collapsed. Under Costello we've lost the majority of our manufacturing and commodity markets,. Under Costello we saw the corruption of the wheat board and many others are coming out of the wood work, including reserve bank dealings.

It matters not who's in power, Lab/Lib, they are one and the same, same policies and outcomes, disaster. Many politicians apply for pre-election for both parties, Malcolm Turnbull is the most prominent at the moment. Anyone with half a brain would see our present single party two faction l system has failed. Income tax rates also increased every year with bracket creep and alterations to the tax regime This effects lower paid most, who are hit with every tax there is and unlike elitists, they can't claim the myriad of deductions, perks and allowances elitists can.

Argue all you like about which faction is the best liar, cheat and corrupt users of the public purse. Neither are capable of taking the country into a positive future, especially economically and they've destroyed everything else, but their rich mates wealth.

Not to forget that labor introduced the following taxes:

PPS,
CGT,
FBT,
Medicare levy,

The libs dropped marginal tax from 47% to 42%, and company tax from 37% to 30%. (where most super funds make their profits).

As Stormbay pointed out, the GST was introduced to compensate the states for dropping their taxes on labor and housing which the labor state governments subsequently reneged on.

As GST does not cover rentals, school fees, some food etc, it is not a 10% across the board increase.

I personally am paying significantly smaller proportion tax than before 1996.

Wobbles, when the economy was running at peak employment, where are we supposed to get labour for infrastructure projects? Private sector? India? Most infrastructure project are done during times of Unemployment, ie Keating left the economy, or now, under Rudd, please ask rudd the same

Foxy, some debt is from credit cards, a lot of the debt is from home ownership. People borrow to build their house, so as long as they have the house and it has not decreased in value, they are just paying off a house over 10/15/20/25 years. This has been done under every Labor and Liberal government in history, the only difference is that over the last 10 years, more people can afford to pay a mortgage and there more people are buying their own place, rather than renting and relying on the government. The borrowing had mainly been spend on housing, which is far better than Kevin Rudd’s hand out to buy Plasma TV

Pelican, attack on the lowest paid? Unemployment rate under Costello 2%, unemployment rate now 5%, under Costello, at least the lowest paid had jobs, they are not depressed and on the unemployment queue like they are now.

Pelican “Pity about the health system?” In case you are still in the dark, health is a state issue, ie NSW hospital has no money for supplies, that is the fault of Macquarie St. So if you want to lay blame, lay it on the correct people. If you are talking about funding of hospital, Costello introduced the Health care rebate, so people can afford private health insurance, and the pressure are not on the poorly funded hospital of the States. This funding is about to be withdrawn by Kevin Rudd, if you care so much about Health funding, please direct your queries to Mr Rudd and your state government

Stormbay: Idoubt that, tax across the board increased by at least 10% with the introduction of the GST. It was introduced on the promise many state and federal taxes would be removed to compensate for the GST. That never happened

Storm bay, you are 100% correct, all the states agreed to cut all state taxes, Stamp duty, payroll tax, land tax ect, within 5 years of the GST, they then went back on their promise, despite the GST revenue being over 20% higher than expected. You should definitely ask your state government why