Hi Poirot,

The big welfare cost in Australia is Aged Welfare, ttbn has a whinge every time the taxpayer is burdened with another increase in his aged welfare payment. He like several others on here, living off aged welfare, cry in their beer, "The pensions not enough!"

"Pensioners are demanding so much support from taxpayers that the generational "bargain" between retired and working Australians is becoming unbalanced, the Centre for Independent Studies says." SMH.

An immediate cut of 50% in Aged Welfare, would only have a minimal effect on old folks, but beer and pokie revenue would drop substantially down at 'God's Waiting Room'.

Aiden,

The Vic state government is still violently opposed to opening one of Aus's biggest non-fracking gas fields.

Piping the gas from QLD to VIC and SA is not only expensive but wildly hypocritical.

Shadow,
Violently opposed? How so?
Exactly which gas development is it they're blocking?

Aidan,

VIC Labor has banned the drilling for or exploration for natural gas in Victoria.

If the Fwits in Vic had not done this there would be ample gas to supply NSW, VIC, and SA that was not linked to LNG exports and that should be substantially cheaper.

Shadow,
Restating what you've already said doesn't answer my question. The moratorium was lifted a year and a half ago, so was this exempt from the lifting? Or has it been banned since? And if so, why?
Or is it that Vic Labor don't really oppose it at all, but it suits the Murdoch Press to blame the current situation on their past policy?

Aidan,

Let's see if you can answer, assuming the ban on gas extraction has been lifted, then why is one of Australia's largest and lowest-cost gas fields untapped?

What they have banned is not only fracking but coal seam gas which is not fracking and can be extracted with little to no environmental damage.