Examinator...

I know your special, but not everything I write is about you.. I think you just have a big ol' crush on me...

And that's fair enuff :)

Rehctub, by way of clarification; I suggest that the dole be increased considerably, but still well short of the minimum wage.

How can anyone think that raising the rate for unemployed is by any way encouraging them to find work. Or is finding work only a 'smoke screen' when you're on the dole.

The big problem is not so much the hand outs, but how and when are we going to be able to pay this money back. Remember, only 58% of families are actually tax positive tax payers. Surely you don't expect them to be burdoned by more bills to pay.

I see little other option other than to raise the GST.

Now this will hurt the 42% far more than it will the 58% as the 42% require every cent just to live.

Maybe the so called battlers should be carefull what they wish for as their kids will never forgive them for the hole they have dug and the mess that will be left behind.

Col Rouge Gday, see the polls? does it matter that your view is the minority one?
That Turnbull has lost ground?
Yep lost ground too Foxy, why the self damage?

Sometimes things expressed don't always come out the way
we intended them to.

I didn't mean to suggest that anyone who
wants to continue with this
discussion should stop at my say so. Heavens,
my ego is not that big that I would ever presume
to have that kind of power.

What I meant was that
I'm pulling out now because I have nothing further
to add to this discussion. That for me, it's run
it's course. I believe in the PM's bail out package,
I've made that quite clear, and I've stated
why I believe in it. I've also stated that I'm not
an expert on the subject, that I was merely echoing
the views of the economic experts from the International
Monetary Fund and others, advising the PM.

I respect the opinions expressed by everyone on this
thread.

I Thank You all for your input.

As for you Col, well as I've said before:

"You gotta love that guy!"

I think that any big-spending initiative such as this needs to have the technicalities looked at more closely (particularly when it bears all the hallmarks of being a vote-grabber). To begin with, people who do not earn enough to pay tax are excluded; are they not arguably the people who most need a hand?

As for the "dole", there are a lot of people who do not have jobs through no fault of their own - add to those the people who are losing their jobs at such a concerning rate. Even in a bouyant labour market there are people who cannot get jobs for any number of reasons.

Turnbull may well lose a bit in the popularity polls for his caution, but let's look properly at who will be the real winners and losers, and how this apparent largesse is to be managed, and what people will do with it. It is intended to promote spending - I don;t know too many people who will be spending up big on non-essentials when they have their job outlook to worry about. Add to that who will be administering this - the ATO and Centrelink? That alone is cause for concern. And do we want to go back to the days of the Keating administration? What happens when the surplus is spent and the government has no assets left to sell off?

What I CAN see a good case for is capping the salaries of politicians,their minders and spin doctors and corporate executives and maybe looking at some of the people on pensions who possibly shouldn't be.

Nicky

Belly "Col Rouge Gday, see the polls? does it matter that your view is the minority one?"

No I have not seem the polls nor do I care what some loaded questions asked to a few people not necessarily scientifically selected at random think.

Doubtless whilst Krudd is mortgaging our childrens future with his excessive spending, the swinging voters and the "handouts-is-our-entitlement" brigade will rally behind him but it don't really matter

What matters is the nest election poll and Krudd cannot keep up his profligate spending up for another couple of years.

So, I guess he has no other policies that work (or he would have used them before spending like a mad thing).

Thats the problem with the left, all grand speeches, good intentions but not a clue on how to deliver real value or meaningful advances.

I will wait and see what happens at the next election and Turnbull will be feeling better about his position as the months tick past.... I doubt Krudd will be able to keep all the socialist stuffups out of the headlines nor maintain his level of cynical vote buying ...

The Aussie electorate is fickle... as we saw in the last election...

With a doubling or trebling of unemployment and tax increases needed to cover the Krudd spending addiction, they is gonna be really "fickle" in a year or so...