How dare this woman tell us we need a buffer, when we had one, just prior to them taking office.

Thanks for the hard yards Labor, perhaps you lot should forego a large chunk of your pays and planned pensions, after all, it's you lot that have caused the mess.

Why should I pay, I didn't vote for you.

Even if I did, I would be too embarresed to admit it.

How dare this woman...
An interesting beginning to your rant.
Dare I suggest a wee dash of misogyny lurks in there somewhere?
Anthony
http://www.observationpoint.com.au

Don't stress out.They'll be gone soon for a very long time,perhaps for ever.

I went and did a bit of Google searching, in the absence of information in the opening post:

http://www.watoday.com.au/business/federal-budget/more-cuts-will-be-made-if-needed-wong-20120513-1ykfe.html

Right, so it’s THAT sort of buffer (a budgetary surplus type of buffer against hard economic times…. or something like that!)

Well……yes I agree. We need it!

BUT….

It’s got to be part of a total sustainability agenda. We’ve got to balance demand with supply capability across the full gamut of resources and services. There’s no point in trying to balance the budget if the demand is just going to forever increase beyond the capability of our resource base and environment to handle it.

Why does this stuff get left out of the thought processes of most people who debate politics on this forum? It is so VITALLY important!

Labor has not put us in this pickle alone. The other pea in the pod; the Libs have contributed just as much to our terribly antisustainable momentum.

When the whole system is way out of whack, of course the financial situation is going to be thrown off-track. Contortions, half-truths, vote-buying lump-sum-handout stupidity, ever-more debt, etc, etc... that’s what we get when we’ve got no idea about the essential balance between supply and demand.

And the Libs are just the same as the Labs.

Labor is now in a terrible position….which actually puts them in a very good position to EMBRACE SUSTAINABILITY, and give the Australian voters a realistic, and very appealing, alternative! They’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain if they would only do this.

How dare this woman. This woman is an elected member. This woman should have got Butch's permission before any such comment.
Finance ministers are likely to say things that lean toward the economy from time to time.

Rechtub is half right - we did have a buffer when
Labor came to power.
And then, if memory serves me rightly, we had a global financial crisis in 2008, and the government quite properly used that buffer for the purpose for which it was designed, i.e. to buffer Australins against such crises.
It worked very well.
And now Penny Wong says we need to replace the buffer to be prepared if another crisis comes.
And your problem with that Rechtub would be?
Seems you have selective memory. You remember the last buffer, but not the GFC.
Anthony
http://www.observationpoint.com.au