..ours is under 15%
Poirot,
If the ALP government did such a fantastic job to pull us through the GFC why then why is ALL the future fund gone as well ?
I tell you why, because no ALP run Government will ever be able to manage, full stop. Just think where we'd be now if the future fund hadn't been there ?
THe uselss ALP government didn't get us through the GFC, the money in the future fund did & now we're paying dearly for it whilst that useless pile of crap is living it up with his millionaire missus. True labor value people I suppose.

indi There is close on 100 billion in the futures fund.

Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey duet:

"To dream ... the impossible dream ...
To fight ... the unbeatable foe ...
To bear ... with unbearable sorrow ...
To run ... where the brave dare not go ...
To right ... the unrightable wrong ...
To love ... pure and chaste from afar ...
To try ... when your arms are too weary ...
To reach ... the unreachable star ...
This is my quest, to follow that star ...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...
To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...
And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm,
when I'm laid to my rest ...
And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach ... the unreachable star ..."
(lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh)
(vocals:Abbott/Hockey)

Are the 'windmills' real or illusion? We shall see in due course.

(The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it

-- Omar Khayyam)

individual,

"THe uselss ALP government didn't get us through the GFC, the money in the future fund did...."

I realise that in addressing the above comment, I may as well talk to my cat...but nevertheless.

Here's what a Nobel laureate in economics has to say on this subject:

"While other countries fell into the global recession, Australia maintained strong economic growth, low government debt and a triple-A credit rating. With this record, you might expect the federal election to be focused on how to convert the strength of today's economy into resilience for the future. But instead the political spotlight has fallen on the perceived problem of government debt, with alarming proposals to bring austerity ''down under''.

For an American, Australia's anxiety about deficit and debt is a little amusing. Australia's budget deficit is less than half that of the US and its net debt is less than an eighth of the country's gross domestic product.

Most countries would envy Australia's economy. During the global recession, Kevin Rudd's government implemented one of the strongest Keynesian stimulus packages in the world. That package was delivered early, with cash grants that could be spent quickly followed by longer-term investments that buoyed confidence and activity over time. In many other countries, stimulus was too small and arrived too late, after jobs and confidence were already lost."

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/australia-you-dont-know-how-good-youve-got-it-20130901-2sytb.html#ixzz31Zf2dcO1

(My cat get's it...don't know about poor old individual)

Here's a bit more sleight of hand from the Govt on the the pollie pay freeze:
http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/remuneration-tribunal-decided-in-april-against-wage-increases-for-mps-and-top-public-servants/story-fn84fgcm-1226914847040

"IT was sold as a last-minute decision by the Government to freeze wages of its Federal MPs to ensure they were hit by their own chunk of Budget pain. But that wasn’t quite right.

As it turns out, the body which sets those wages had already decided pay rates would be untouched."

Such honest and trustworthy charlatans in our govt.

a Nobel laureate in economics
Poirot,
before you let yourself get sucked in too far can you please check if this expert is making his own revenue or if he, as I suspect, is a public servant ?

Pericles, you have just squirmed straight past the issue…. as you do, very frequently.

You’ve completely failed to address the nuts n bolts of my last post.

So I’ll put it to you again:

>> …work done in response to disasters and the material and human resources used therein, is certainly NOT entirely diverted from other jobs, and therefore is NOT neutral in terms of economic productivity or contribution to GDP. <<

>> …if there is even a slightly improved economic turnover as a result of disasters, that is: even a slight amount of material and/or human resource that is additional to that diverted from elsewhere, then there will be a net economic gain registered in the GDP calculation, yes? And in any large-scale urgent job, there is definitely going more activity than just that diverted from elsewhere. There are always going to be additional employees and additional material resources. <<

You can’t counter this can you.

You can’t assert that work done as part of the recovery effort after fires, floods, cyclones, earthquakes, etc is 100% diverted from elsewhere. You can’t assert that some of the work and hence contribution to GDP isn't over and above that which gets diverted from other sources.

You can’t assert that there isn’t a net gain to GDP as a result of economic activity following disasters, compared to the economic activity that would have occurred involving to the resources that get diverted into it, because there are always going to be additional resources (material and human) involved in a recovery effort.

Yes of course a disaster results in less economic return (contribution to GDP) than what would have happened in the absence of that disaster. But the amount of economic activity spurred by that disaster is always going to be greater than that generated by the economic activity that is diverted from other jobs into the recovery effort.

I hope you can get your head around that Pericles.

continued