....I realise it may be difficult for some to hold more than a single thought in their head at a time but there is much more to an economy than debt - such as health, infrastructure, employment and social cohesion.

Yes Wobbles, well lest just look at where they left these.

Health, in a mess, despite promises to take over the hospitals if the states couldn't run them efficiently. NDIS, another unfunded dream!

Employment, yep, they did a great job, but hang on, take away the subsidies and the imported labor (457) and just how many jobs did they create. Um, about ZERO!

As for our AAA rating, it's my understanding we had a AAA rating in 06 when we had $20 billion in the bank AND ZERO DEBT. we now have ZERO in the bank and hundreds of billions in debt. What an achievement in just six years.

As for the rest of the world, yes well, we are not exactly comparing apples with apples now, are we!

As I say, economic vandals!

Continued
.....

Continued
.....and his constantly disproven lies about the effects of the Carbon Tax make him look more of a fool.

Did you know the carbon tax cost Qantas $300 million last year?

Do you also know that China is expanding their coal fired power plants, negating any good we are trying to do.

.....To do away with the carbon tax is another 6 billion black hole each year the little man will have to pay for.

579, have you ever considered that the 'little man' is already paying that $6 billion by way of passed on costs.

Chris, businesses don't pay GST and this is one of the fundamental floors in this tax.

Super for infrastructure, great idea, I have said this all along.

Write off etc, Be careful what you wish for because if you deter investment you will cripple the economy and loose just about every non public job out there.

Businesses are not charities. Besides, the ability for investors to write off losses, expenses etc, is what makes living affordable the the masses.

Take away tax write off and we won't be able to afford to live.

rehctub,
I am talking about buying a business that has accumulated tax losses and then using those losses to offset your own liabilities.
I had a woman working for me as a counter jumper. When he marriage broke up over his bad investments in Macadamen nuts and emu feathers all she finished with was a tax loss of 120,000 dollars.
My accountants were able to do a deal with the tax dept. for her to write off, each tax year, the tax on her wages. I could have bought the loss from her and used it myself.
It is a crazy world where a loss can be a profit.

Yes Chris, I am aware of such laws, as the late Kerry Packer made a habit of the practice.

As for being able to write off the losses, this would only be possible if the lady was a sole trader, a dying entity in business these days.

rehctub,
Exactly.
She had a little $2.00 shelf which sold her services to us.

Joe Hockey's decision to increase the debt ceiling by 67 per cent is incredible given the rhetoric the Coalition employed against the previous government about the size of its debt (''Hockey ramps up debt limit'', October 23).

If the new government is all about paying off Labor debt then surely there is no reason to increase the limit on the government's credit card.

On the other hand, this decision also creates another way to view our public debt.

The increase allows us to draw a line in the sand: there is $300 billion of Labor debt and anything above this amount must be seen as Coalition debt.