The thread is drifting away from its intent.
Not sure I will join that thread PALE, need to see how it develops.
The threads title, well maybe they are searching for a way to reality.
Headlines say they want to dump shadow treasurer Julie is quite spiteful, very unattractive as a front bencher.
Migration, well 457 visas are not going to be in big numbers now, crisis has seen to that.
We may see people wanting to come from Europe in bigger numbers but not likely all can.
Bill got passed time will tell but I do believe more harm than good was done to conservatives by conservatives.

Nicky – obviously your one-eyed view of socialist welfare will always limit your vision.
I made no suggestion to support sweat shops in Australia, nor did the Howard government
The Howard government demonized no one… they just expected those who through the state owed them a living to understand real life

As Margaret Thatcher said in Statecraft

"I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."

The boom existed, are you suggesting it was all a massive “coincidence” for recession to dog the socialist governments and booms to enlighten the coalition ones… but even if it is a cycle.. .surely better to vote liberal-coalition and enjoy the better times than to vote socialist for the misery of unemployment and stagnation.

As to doing something about payroll taxes…
“The government/s have the power to lower various taxes (payroll tax immediately springs to mind but there are others) to promote manufacturing in Australia. Whatever happened to the "Buy Australian Made" campaign?”
One of the taxes earmarked for abolition was payroll tax when the GST came in. it was the socialist state governments who clung to it, like they have tried to cling to every other piece of money-grabbing statute they can instead of doing what they promised and relying on the monies they got from GST….

continued....

Had it been up to Federal Liberal – coalition, those taxes you talk of would have all been a thing of the past… there is no comfort or brownie point for you when it has been the socialists who broke their promise to abandon them.

“Life is like that, and difficult times call for difficult measures.”

Not when the profligacy is the function of fiscal incompetence and largesse .

Krudd & Co cannot make their mind up…

battle inflation one day, drop interest rates the next…

guarantee for banks one day … run on Superfunds the next

stimulus packages today used not to “stimulate” but to pay off the debt of yesterday

pay for the circus sand today, leave the debt for our children to pick up tomorrow.

That is not government it is knee jerk hysteria

Belly – I leave the decision on who will win the next election to the voting public.

They say a week is a long time in politics.. at the rate KRudd and Co are bungling… not soon before their “credentials for leadership" are put under question and scrutiny.

There is nothing like standing in an unemployment queue to get the mind thinking, back to the better times under the liberals…

Efranke,

I hope you stick around. I like some of your thinking.

BTW the Rudd Government cut back on the number of migrants a few months ago. Given promises made at the next elections, I was surprised although agreed with it. Pretty big step for him under the circumstances. I for one respected him a bit more for it.

Belly
That’s up to you of course. I understand the AMIEU is not within your area. You’re not bound to enter into each thread.

*Headlines say they want to dump shadow treasurer Julie is quite spiteful, very unattractive as a front bencher.
Migration, well 457 visas are not going to be in big numbers now, crisis has seen to that.*

Ar, how predictable was that. I am not a political party person. I judge by the performance of people individually. When Rudd won the elections several business leaders gathered to discuss if they should try to keep open. I recall one of those people saying.
Oh well if you think we are worried how you would like to be in Julie shoes once the unions start. We all laughed because nobody liked her thinking you little beaut she will get hers:.

Some of us however have been very impressed by her. TBO I think she would make a good PM. Also I don’t think her `s unattractive. She has a different interesting look Regardless; it’s not about people’s looks and not something that should be raised in politics if not unkind. No I am starting to warm to her.
: 457 visas for abattoirs have been manipulated by people with vetted interests. We all know that. shame

Efranke, Col Rouge,

May I say I have just read two of the best comments ever on OLO?

Col Rouge has summed up the problem with two 350 word posts

Col Rouge

To begin with, it would be a good idea if you stopped spraying the term 'socialist" around so indiscriminately. Socialism refers to a system in which the means of production are state controlled. Contrary to your wild claims, none of the Australian states are 'socialist', nor was Keating’s government and nor is Rudd’s. I'm not a 'socialist' and nor I'm sure is Nicky or any others on OLO who you label as ‘socialists’ - for no other reason than that they oppose your extreme libertarian views.

“GST is a fair tax, in that it is applied to a broad base, which uniformly taxes people's individual "consumption", rather than loading the burden of tax generation upon to those who happen to generate income or those who happen to purchase a particular class of goods.”

The GST is a regressive and inherently unfair tax. Any flat tax ends up taxing low-income earners at a much higher proportion of their disposable income than it does the wealthy. Not only is it unfair, but it is incapable of differentiating between products that end up costing society and those that are beneficial.

With the urgent need to introduce climate change abatement measures, for example, we need an intelligent tax system with the flexibility to tax carbon intensive and polluting goods and services highly and energy efficient ones much less so. Likewise, this principle could also assist greatly in reducing dependency on health damaging products such as alcohol, cigarettes and junk food and the societal costs they entail.

Instead, with John Howard and Meg Lee's GST, we’re now shackled to a simplistic and outdated taxing regime, just when we sorely need much more flexible and intelligent solutions.

Col Rouge

“There is nothing like standing in an unemployment queue to get the mind thinking, back to the better times under the liberals…”

The rise in unemployment Australia will face in the next few years is down to the deteriorating global situation, not the mismanagement of the Rudd Government. And it’s the same laissez faire, neo-liberal extreme capitalism, of which the Howard Government was a fervent supporter, which is directly responsible for the global financial crisis. The ‘better times’ you speak of were never going to last much longer. Even if the Howard Government was still in power, we’d still be facing the same crisis.

Just as unfettered capitalism brought the world economy to its knees in the 1930’s, so too has history repeated itself and the decades of free market reign and economic deregulation have once again brought us all undone. This is not the time to be talking up the free market ideology of Howard’s Liberals. Most of us have stopped listening. We can see for ourselves where that’s taken us.

Besides, the unemployment figures under Howard only told half the story. If under-employment had been honestly factored in as it should have been, they would have painted a very different picture. Working for one or two hours a week does not equate to being fully employed, and yet that’s how the figures were arrived at.

Quite apart from that little deception, casualisation and job insecurity increased markedly under Howard and Costello. Free market globalisation saw jobs move offshore and the price of labour driven down to the extent that even people working long hours were having difficulty making ends meet.

Take off the rose-coloured glasses, Col. Just as life in Britain under your beloved Maggie was tough for most working Brits, so too life under Howard was only good for some.