The budget at face value will appear to be good for the majority, as an election is looming, however the surplus will quickly be drained from your pocket once the real effect of the carbon tax is felt. The companies costs will increase and this will be passed on to the consumer, make no mistake. Those most effected will be welfare recepients and working people who have no choice but to use fuels in order to get to work (if they still have a job because many will now be outsourced overseas). The rich will spend more time in countries which dont have the tax (investing their money in more profitable countries not paying the tax where previously their money stayed in OZ)as they have the time and money to do so (this is why the rich get richer etc by tax avoidance).
Taxes are always sold to the majority in this Robin Hood way. Dont be fooled.

So what you are saying, it's business as usual. How can we be fooled.

Hasbeen, you have a strange view of socialism and the part played by Commo Clinton in the GFC. You write: "Mate we all know it was Clinton instructing the banks to give home loans to people who had no chance of meeting the repayments that brought that lot on. Please don't take us for mugs, that is of course, you actually believe the garbage you preach. In that case it says it all about lefties."

Among Bill Clinton's biggest strokes of free-wheeling capitalism whilst in offer was the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, a cornerstone of Depression-era regulation. He also signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which exempted credit-default swaps from regulation. In 1995 Clinton loosened housing rules by rewriting the Community Reinvestment Act, which put added pressure on banks to lend in low-income neighborhoods. It is the subject of heated political and scholarly debate whether any of these moves are to blame for the GFC, but they certainly played a role in creating a permissive lending environment.
Do you consider 'creating a permissive lending environment' as some kind of Clinton socialism. Then again you of the extreme right view anyone left of Genghis Khan as a communist/socialist.

Interesting reply from the Mad Monk to Swaniee's budget. The class war has been re-ignited in Oz. People like Abbott have been doing their best to fuel a class war for years. Abbott's idea is also Robin Hoodish, only its rob from the vast majority of Australian's and give to the mega rich, the likes of Forrest, Rinehart Palmer,and of caurse, a host of multinationals, and then keep on giving, everything Australia has

Dear Paul1405,

I keep expecting more from the Opposition. But last
night in Mr Abbott's speech on the Budget 2012 - we
got the same old, same old, stuff. Attacks on the
Labor Government and telling us how great the Howard
era was. Nothing of any substance even remotely
related to the Budget 2012. And behind him the front-
benchers sat there nodding their heads. The man is
as thick as a brick and doesn't realise that his
attitude of - "I don't need to tell you," doesn't
hold much water with the voters. Why should any of us
vote for a man who wants to be Prime Minister (and
his party) who doesn't feel the need to tell any of us
where he's going to get the money to fill the black hole
in their costings, no mention of any substantial policies
or their costings, and so on. Simply attacking the
government and telling us how great things were - way back
in the Howard times - n longer works.

If he "doesn't need to tell us," we don't need to vote for
him and his party!

cont'd ...

It's really unfortunate that the once great Liberal
Party doesn't wake-up and realise the extent of the
real damage that Abbott is causing to the Liberal Party.
The majority of the electorate is not that stupid that
they can be hood-winked by the smokescreen that Abbott
and his front-bench is hiding behind.

Jan 2010 2pp Labor 54 Coalition 46
May 2012 2pp Labor 41 Coalition 59

Abbott is really ruining the Liberal party! And Juliar is doing such a sterling job?

As for the budget Swannie's last budget blew out by $20bn, but this time he is bringing in a surplus of $1.5bn. Riiiight! This time we should believe him because he used his fingers and toes?

Considering that Swan has completely closed off access to treasury to the coalition, it is extremely difficult for the coalition to give a detailed reply. However, if Swan gave the coalition access, then they could poke holes in Swan's threadbare budget.