So what you're saying Mikk is that Bill Shoreton has more to offer. And you accuse others of being delusional!

What's Bill going to do, twiddle his thumbs! He has no money to spend and most certainly can't now allow the cuts he has opposed.

Be careful what you wish for there Mikk.

G'day there HASBEEN...

Gee if I were to support your topic, suggesting the PM undertake some very major changes...well, if I were to do that, I'd be positively savaged ? And being the 'limp, wilting' soul that I am, I'm not sure I could emotionally handle it ?

I know squat about politics, in fact according to most I know nothing about nothing. Still, I recognise we're in massive debt. When in debt the experts say, that debt MUST be retired. Common sense.

In order for the PM to make the necessary savings to reduce that debt, the community must accept, savings must be made somehow. Hence the PM's problem. Many of those initiatives need to get through the Senate, and therein lies the 'logjam'. We've some very useless Senators. Most of whom are too lazy to work, too frightened to steal, and haven't the brains to find meaningful employment. So what do we do, we stick 'em in the Australian Senate ! Problem solved.

Not really, o sung wu.

>>When in debt the experts say, that debt MUST be retired. Common sense.<<

The government debt in this country is small, relative to other first-world nations.

Australia 29.3% of GDP

compared to:

Japan 226.1%
Singapore 111.1%
UK 90.0%
France 89.9%
Canada 84.1%
USA 72.5%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt

However, when you look at the citizens, the story is different. At the end of 2014, the total mortgage debt in Australia reached 86.9% of GDP - nearly three times higher than the government's owings.

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/10/australias-addiction-to-private-debt/

So if we were to follow your advice - "When in debt the experts say, that debt MUST be retired. Common sense" there would be an awful lot of householders without a house, and a load of Banks with a huge bunch of money that they have no idea what to do with.

The "debt emergency" was pure Hockey fiction. Still is.

>>In order for the PM to make the necessary savings to reduce that debt, the community must accept, savings must be made somehow.<<

Alternatively, he can raise taxes.

Problem is, though, his tax take is already 22% of GDP, according to his own 2014-15 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, and planned to rise again to 22.4% next year and 22.8% in 2016-17.

Which would be fine, sort-of, if it served to reduce the deficit. But, by his own admission, it won't.

Oh, and just for comparison, between 2010-11 and the end of Labor's time in office, tax revenue averaged 20.9% of GDP.

What we need is someone who can do simple sums. And someone who will stop giving away tax dollars to such needy causes as the mining and power industries, and already-wealthy superannuation recipients.

Dear O Sung Wu,

The problem is that the Australian economy has
become far too dependent on exporting natural resources
to China. Its economic base is far too narrow.
Natural resources are not renewable and our dependency
on natural resources does little to foster innovation
and entrepreneurial activity.

Australia's vulnerability to any downturn in Chinese
growth, and the country's overdependence
on exporting natural resources to China will cause us
future problems as will our overpriced housing sales.
Australia's housing market is wildly over-priced and it
is predicted that its going to crash.

There have neen a series of major Australian companies
and financial institutions who have sounded warnings
about the Australian economy. BHP Billiton Mitsubishi
Alliance, Australia's giant coal mining company cut
7 per cent of its workforce because of the declining
demand for coal from China (which takes in over half
of all natural resources exports from Australia).

All these forecasts and warnings should be a warning to
Australian policymakers and to Australian home buyers,
builders, and the population as a whole.
Yet in an interview Mr Joe Hockey denies the existance
of any problems.

The current government needs to act, and needs a real
response, and real policies. They are in government
not in opposition - and they need real solutions to
problems. Finger-pointing and rhetoric won't solve
anything for the country.

Dear Hasbeen,

It has taken me far too long to come to this realisation but I think our Tony is just dumb and I tell you once you have arrived at this conclusion every news interview by him is just painful, even embarrassing to watch.

I have no doubt about his rat cunning, it made him a potent opposition leader, sensing weakness and aggressively attacking it.

People have made comments about his slow deliberate speech, his gambolling walk, his well rehearsed mantras and his fondness for a Chief of Staff who works 90 hours a week to keep the edifice from collapsing. We have dismissed them as foibles, as character, as colour, but they aren't. They really are deficiencies.

He is not a smart bloke and you have to be for that position, we deserve intelligence in our leader but we don't have it in this man.

The exasperation expressed by his back bench was one toward the so called 'Captain's calls'. If they had of been intelligent decisions there would not have been the outcry we heard. But they weren't, they were plain stupid. This is what drove the discontent.

That is why they want him to consult more, so they have a chance of heading off disastrous decisions before they get inflicted on the public. The party put up with him because they got him into power but that has run out of currency.

So now what happens? Well you can change behaviour but you can't teach intelligence and Peta Credilin can't work more hours to cover his lack of it. It will be his undoing but whether or not it is the Liberal Party's only time will tell.

G'day there PERICLES...

You'd have thought I'd have learnt by now ? Mate I no nothing about politics, zip OK ? However, listening to many of our leading economists they all claim OZ is carrying far too much debt, debt that must be retired. I realise those on the left say we don't have a debt crisis ? What is the average punter to believe ?

Concerning Tony ABBOTT ? While it's true he doesn't present well, he appears unable to argue his case, and he's as unpopular a Prime Minister who has ever been, in my memory ? Still he retains a loyal following ? Why I must ask ?

I really shouldn't have written on this topic, I deserve to be mauled, I've a headache, so I'll withdraw (strategically) and go do a crash course on macro-economics, or basket weaving perhaps ?