It was just another example, Arjay, of your total disregard for facts.

>>Pericles,whether Leightons is pommy or not ,does not make my argument any less valid.I was told in a conversation recently that it was.<<

If it doesn't affect your argument, why bring it up?

And however hard you try, you still fail to grasp even the simplest economic concepts. I suspect you may have studied with the same guy who told you about Leightons.

>>I said at the time the the stimulus was unnecessary and you argued to the contrary.Now many of the pundits are saying that that stimulus was a waste of money<<

"Pundits", Arjay? And who might they be? And what would their alternate strategy have been, given that the same approach was taken by every major economy across the world?

>>The RBA should be creating all the money that equals our GDP and inflation<<

I'm absolutely certain that you don't have the first clue what that sentence actually means, Arjay.

But by all means, prove me wrong. Explain how that money would be "created", and in what quantity.

>>$72 billion was created as debt by our banking system.<<

And who has the money that was thus created?

Think it through, Arjay. Avoid banal soundbites and seductive slogans. They only serve to shine a spotlight on your lack of understanding.

The interesting thing about this whole political saga, is why was so little attention was given as to how & why the Howard government was defeated.
He did some brave things & at times, earned a tick from the centre left. No mean feat.
Why did he not only lose government, but his own seat?

As I recall, when they went into office the public & private sector debt was about the same. Around $70 Billion.
When they left, there was some $20B in surplus. On the face of it, & there was much ado about Costello's fiscal competance but, the private sector debt & jumped by about 400%, which translated into the Howard government's "austeriy" measures, along with the GST, people were living on thier credit cards.
The fact that the public debt was almost paid off with the sale of earners like the Airports, Quantas, the Comm banks Telstra etc, which netted them in excess of $60B, middle class Oz felt the pinch & voted accordingly. Whether they will come back will be another interesting twist.
Remember Keating? LOL

Pericles,you are circumventing the real issues.Who owns the GDP of Australia? Answer this very basic question?

Circumventing, Arjay. Not at all.

>>Pericles,you are circumventing the real issues.Who owns the GDP of Australia? Answer this very basic question?<<

Nobody "owns" GDP, it is simply a number.

People own houses and cars, paid for with their wages. There is some relationship between the aggregate of those wages, and GDP, but that doesn't mean the GDP is "owned".

Now it is your turn.

Explain how the RBA "creates" money, and in what quantity.

And who has the $72bn that "was created as debt by our banking system?"

Leightons - like all big corporations, let contracts for their projects and in turn push the work down the chain to subcontractors who then hire tradesmen and labourers. Just like Haliburton or Blackwater or a host of others overseas.

As big as Leightons (or even Theiss) may be, they did not construct 24,000 projects across the country with a handful of their own employees.

In any case, the actual construction was the responsibility of individual State governments.

The report also showed that there was no evidence of systematic rorting. A premium was charged by contractors in order to meet very tight deadlines, which were required to create the stimulus effect.

Trickling the same amount of money over a much longer period would create the same amount of work but between fewer people.

The surplus is the difference between what is intended to be spent against how much is expected to be received. Some monies allocated may never be spent and some money may never be collected (such as HECS debts). Often governments have to borrow the money in advance of it being collected, particularly when corporate tax is paid only at certain times of the year.

If we are borrowing $100million per day and that's 4% of GDP then the government expects to take in about $2.5billion per day.

Truth is indeed a casualty in most things but sometimes people prefer to believe lies, particularly when they reinforce their own beliefs.

wobbles well off subject but you are right in part.
Shameful as it seems both mentioned firms one far more than the other use throw away human beings.
Casual labour hire firms, paying well under going rate, informing any one who questions it they are no longer needed.
Sham? yes one of this country's biggest unions has done dirty deals with labour hire not even paying travel or time for smoko, toolbox , this grubby move from an extremist group is awful. more later.