@579
LNP believes this PWC article
most LNP mps were biz people... they know australia is heading further south
the 23 million aussies are living comfortably in a land that can support 200m
no wonder we are so laid back

in a decade where we should have grown in leaps and bounds, ALP brought us from a positive budget deficit to a humongous $200m budget deficit!
and we kept buying more cos the A$ was strong (resource supported..not hard work or value add)

i tell all my children to continue to work hard and buy their 4rd...5th...property and assets...they already have 3 each
that is the only way to be able to live comfortably in this beautiful country... because if they do not, the Chinese and the Indians and Indonisians would.

How much money has the LNP saved in its 16 months of govt;
How much has been added to the deficit in the last 16 months.

@579
sorry, i do not have exact numbers and i wont fudge around like the shadow treasurer
i am sure the numbers are there in ABC News or the newspapers

:)

Mr Abbott’s addiction to scare campaigns is well known. From claiming whole cities would be wiped off the map to the Budget Emergency, facts are sacrificed in pursuit of a political objective. But not one of the Prime Minister’s claims about the Budget stacks up against a simple fact check from Senator Penny Wong.

Claim: Australia has a Budget emergency

Nations with Budget emergencies don’t receive AAA ratings with a stable outlook from all three credit rating agencies, as Australia did under Labor.

Australia is one of only 10 economies in the world with AAA ratings from all three agencies – in the company of other countries with strong public finances like Germany, Canada, Sweden, Singapore and Switzerland.

Claim: Debt levels are unsustainable

The Australian government has low levels of debt by world standards.

The latest Budget update shows net government debt for 2013-14 of $191.5bn, or 12.1% of Australia’s GDP. By contrast, net government debt in advanced economies around the world averages 74.7%, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Governments typically run Budget surpluses when the economy is strong and deficits when the economy is weak.

Labor allowed the Budget to go into deficit in 2008-09 because the global financial crisis was threatening to plunge our economy into recession. Our action stimulated the economy, kept Australia out of recession and supported hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The deficit peaked at $54.5bn, or 4.2% of GDP, in 2009-10 – less than half the advanced country average. Then, as the private sector started recovering, Labor started reducing the deficit. In our last full year in office, 2012-13, the federal deficit was $18.8bn or 1.2% of GDP, compared to an advanced economy average of 4.9%.

Claim: Spending was out of control

In the four years from 2009-10 to 2012-13 Labor met its fiscal rule of keeping real average spending growth to less than 2% a year. In fact, this was the lowest four-year period of real spending growth in 23 years.

The Abbott government arrives at a higher figure for political purposes by including the 2008-09 stimulus – an economic program the Nobel laureate, economist Joseph Stiglitz, has described as one of the “best designed” stimulus packages of any advanced economy.

Claim: Labor increased taxes

Labor was a low-taxing government. During our time in office, federal government receipts averaged 22.5% of GDP. By contrast, under the Howard government, receipts averaged 25% of GDP.

@579

seriously, do you want to compare australia with the rest of the world?
yes, all countries and i would say all private companies are geared (as long as it is healthily and sensibly geared), but do you know what is the difference between us and other better managed economies?

we do not save as a nation...yes...australians love the good life
believing that the iron ore and bauxite will last forever
we love to sail..to camp...to sunbath..to chill at the bar....

and when when we borrow as a country... almost all our borrowings are from overseas
go google and find out how much we are paying everyday to the China, SEA countries...ME countries for the debt we owe them
you will be shocked how much of our precious aussie dollars are leaking out everyday

you really think we are ok?

watch tv... we got so many who lives on a weekly basis ... we must be the only country where our aged has to buy insurance for their funeral expenses...imagine...you do not even have money to buy a coffin?
i have frens in asia who will tell you it is the ultimate shame in not being able to look after your own "after life" expenses...even the most destitute have some pride to save up that sum.

maybe we are so far away from the rest of the world we still think we are ok

i will do another post to show why australia is of no consequence in the world stage (except to USA ...who still need small brother..together with the unrepentant japs , as a battle staging area in case there is a conflict in the east)

from GNP..to GNP per capital..to trade...to scientific invention...to arts...to military power... we are nowhere to be counted as a force to be reckoned with... sad