Do you think it's ok to still have subsidies when you have a miner earning a million dollars / hr.
579,
Patience, once the resources from Africa & South America get tapped no-one will want to buy ours anymore. Too much drain for subsidies you know.
It is obscene how much profit is being made but at the least these companies employ people from part of their profits. What I find even more obscene is the last federal Parliamentarian pay rise & the obscenely huge number of cronies they employ & pay with OUR MONEY ! They don't even bother about profit they just grab our money & people like yourself quite happily oblige them in keeping this obscene band wagon on the roll. Doesn't the word integrity hit any nerve at all with people like you ?
How'd you like it if you had to work for a living & give half of it to someone else for doing nothing, because that's the situation we have now & you're defending it.

Let's acknowledge the realities around us.
Australian Government spending as a percentage
of GDP is amongst the lowest in the OECD.
Amongst the things the Government pays for are
many things business says it wants - such as
transport, infra-structure, like roads and ports,
as well as education and training for businesses
looking for skilled workers.

They also want lower taxes and lower Government spending,
and they also want all the good things that the
Government provides - more infra-structure, a stable
rule of law, a sound currency, Government-funded science
and research and Government subsidised public health
care for their workers.

Well guess what folks - these things cost money.
Teachers cost money. And Australia is actually already a
low-taxing nation.

Indi old boy, i don't know how someone can get so much out of a simple statement. Au iron ore is the best grade found anywhere in the world, that is why mining here has been so stable for years.
I am defending nothing, i did not even mention govt; pay's
Mining does not need govt; hand-outs to make ends meet, Iron Ore mining should be nationized, instead of being owned by someone earning 1 mill / hr.

579...Iron Ore mining should be nationized, instead of being owned by someone earning 1 mill / hr.

It's called, buying shares!

Would you like some asx codes to help you choose where you may RISK your money?

So what do we get for that $1m per hour.

Jobs, both directly and indirectly.

Meanwhile, the likes of Hugh Jackman can make as much as $60m by simply making a single movie and this doesn't get a mention.

Wayne Swan has bagged our miners to the point of calling them 'tax cheats' yet they create billions for the economy.

What a joke that man is.

rechtub,
I understand your concern, but aren't your confusing waste with prioritizing?
Of course, the public purse cannot stretch to funding every demand, so we have to decide as a community what matters most.
And the process by which we do that is called democracy.
And, yes, one person's priority is another person's waste of money.
It comes down to values, which of course, vary from person to person.
I was disappointed when Campbell Newmann defunded the annual Premier's book prize, but I can understand that others, who perhaps don't read, may have a different priority.
So, precisely which priorities do you consider to be wasteful?
Anthony
http://wwww.osbervationpoint.com.au

And something I meant to add, rechtub,
<<supporting every swinging dick in the world>>
You don't think that might be a tad hyperbolic...
Anthony
http://www.observationpoint.com.au