Wayne Swan, by his own admission, said that the budget forecasts are Treasury numbers, not labor's numbers.

He went on to say that this is the same treasury that provided economic advice/forecasts for the much successful Howard government, and I assume, the Keating government prior to that.

So, if the treasury was the same, yet the economic results were so far apart, TWICE, then surely it's the fault of the labor party, on both occasions that is to blame.

Even now, we have this same treasury, predicting a carbon price in Eruope that is in the order of a 300% increase in the next two odd years and, Wayne Swan is once again relying on this in his budget forecasts.

Who can ever forget the failed MRRT, which, by the way, account for much of the expenditure, before the money was collected.

Even Richo is questioning the budget forecast, and he's labor through and through.

Apathy is the problem.

When the mug punter realises both sides are taking them for a ride we may have a chance of solving the problem. Sever parasite infestation.

Hang them all this September and bring on proportional representation.

Rehctub – Do blue sheeple only eat blue grass?

Even Richo is questioning the budget forecast, and he's labor through and through. HA,HA,HA,HA,HA,HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA,HA, HA,HA,HA,HA, HA, HA,HA,HA,HA,HA,HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA,HA, oh dear, oh me.
Graham Frederick Richardson a Labor sell out, if ever there was one! Next thing Butch you will be claiming Ronald Wilson Reagan was a communist. Thanks for that comment you have made my day.

Producer

Apathy is the problem.

When the mug punter realises both sides are taking them for a ride we may have a chance of solving the problem. Sever parasite infestation.

That would indeed be a reasonable assumption, however I believe you are ascribing far too high a care factor to the sheeple. One needs to figure a way to get politics higher on their list of interests than thugby / footbrawl / Days of Our Drearies / Home and Away. In 'funny countries' they have things like military coups or revolutions or assassinations to keep the bloodsucking parasites on the ball, but Australia being a 'civilized' country, we don't do things that way. Mind you we also have the advantage of media under political control (or is it politics under media control ??) and even sedative in the drinking water if you choose to believe that story.

rehctub,
You persist with your belief that Howard and Costello were good economic managers. They weren't!

They, and earlier governments under the influence of neo-liberal conservative economic theories, sold off Common Good assets to their top end of town mates to balance their budgets and make re-election handouts.

It is easy to show that money used to attain sovereign government surpluses is simply destroyed. If you don't believe that then you should explain why the Future Fund does not have sufficient funds to buy back the Common Good assets sold.

During the Howard era private debt, particularly on credit cards and home mortgages, exploded. Overcoming that problem has imposed serious difficulties on the Rudd and Gillard governments.

Actually that high private debt has made sovereign government deficits almost unavoidable. The Labor Government has had to stimulate the economy to increase demand (and reduce the output gap) in the face of the bottom 70-80% of the population struggling to reduce their debt load.

Before introducing such nonsense discussions you need to get abreast of money theory by at least reading the blogs at New Economic Perspectives and Professor Randall Wray's primer on the subject.

Just dropped in to thank Rechtub.
That first two lines wins my award for failure to understand for this year.
Butcher it is ROTFL! always Treasury figures that ANY TREASURER reads on budget night.
Enjoy, see ya.