Yes, Paul - one assumes Abbott is trotting about as default PM because he thinks he's going to rebound at some point back into the top job...speaking of which, he should be along shortly with his latest stunt.

Would you like to read what the young Malcolm Turnbull said back in 1976 when Fraser unveiled a proposal to return income taxing power to the states?

According to Laurie Oakes:

"The young Turnbull wrote of Fraser's plan: "It is nothing more than a cunning attempt to offload millions of dollars worth of govt expenditure back onto the states without giving them any means other than imposing an income tax, of raising extra revenue needed."

States were not so much being sold a pup, Turnbull argued, as being given "a large extremely hungry and undoubtedly treacherous hound".

What a guy!

Dennis Shanahan in the Australian tearing strips off Turnbull over the tax shambles - while praising Labor's reaction.

"Shorten and Bowen look more agile than Turnbull and Morrison"

"Labor is getting off scot-free in the tax debate but Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull are paying a heavy price. Bill Shorten has improved his media presentation, his political messages are clearer and he is taking full advantage of having released tax policies.

It is also clear that as Labor’s Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen has grown more agile and innovative, he has come up with more big ideas and been able to cut through more effectively than the Treasurer and the Prime Minister.

Bowen didn’t miss a beat in declaring Turnbull’s proposal on Wednesday to give income tax powers to the states “double taxation”, laying the groundwork for a highly effective and credible scare campaign all the way through to the election, whether it’s on July 2 or months later.

Once Turnbull confirmed reports in The Australian that he was considering giving the states income tax powers, Bowen labelled it “a plan for double taxation via state income tax surcharges”, reviving the killer political line used by NSW Labor premier Neville Wran in 1978 against Malcolm Fraser’s similar proposal when Bowen was just five years old."

“Malcolm Turnbull’s latest ‘ideas boom’ on tax takes us back to Tony Abbott’s 2014 Commission of Audit and then to the pre-1942 tax system,” he declared.

What’s more, Bowen and the Opposition Leader were able to highlight yet more apparent differences between Turnbull and Morrison by standing shoulder to shoulder and ­decrying the “chaos and dysfunction” at the top of the Coalition.

Labor’s response to the income tax sharing proposal — Turnbull’s hurried exposition of the biggest idea on federation for generations at a western Sydney suburban football field without any detail and the subsequent confusion — was co-ordinated, coherent and united."

etc....

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/dennis-shanahan/shorten-and-bowen-look-more-agile-than-turnbull-and-morrison/news-story/770b2505fbc688388f22616e56b60f6c

P,

Are left whingers so seriously naive as to think that MT on becoming PM was going to shift the coalition to the left of Labor? MT Like Abbott is Rhodes scholar and a successful businessman to boot. He might favour small l policies such as gay marriage and climate action, but he has the economic knous to know that Labor's policies are a recipe for long term disaster.

The reasons Labor was tossed out included, the boats crisis, Labor's economic incompetence, rampant union corruption, and the carbon tax lie, and instead of acknowledging their cock up, have done everything in their power to stop the Coalition from reversing their mistakes.

MT is setting the scene to fight the election on balancing the budget, and union corruption, and is moving all the chess pieces into place.

What we have is the new senate laws that will get rid of the idiot independent senators, a likely rejection by labor and the senate of the popular ABCC legislation, and rejection by COAG (especially the labor states) of revenue raising measures such as the GST and state taxes, yet states demanding the money that labor promised.

Labor's scare campaign on hospital and school funding is going to look stupid if they can't fund it, and the coalition is going to run hard on the union corruption, and on Shorten's dirty deals that robbed workers of benefits.

Dear Poirot,

You are one of the few people on The Forum OLO who makes any sense.

I agree with your assessment of Turnbull's disastrous double tax proposition but would like to add that his prime motive for handing some personal income tax responsibilities to the States is to make them responsible for increasing income taxes in order to get the revenue needed to fund the rising costs of hospitals, schools, etc. Let the States take the blame and let them lose votes at the election. A bit of a Pontius Pilate routine.

In other words, income tax has become another one of those political footballs kicked back and forth between the State and Federal governments. It's easy to see why the States don't want any of it. Why should they run the risk of having to tell voters they have to increase personal income tax before a State election? It would be political suicide.

I think everyone is now starting to see through the emperor's new clothes. Turnbull is not the solution to The Onion Eater - he has turned out to be part of the problem.

SM,

"Are left whingers so seriously naive as to think that MT on becoming PM was going to shift the coalition to the left of Labor?..."

Lol!...I think at this juncture, after all this time with a far right-wing IPA govt, we'd be satisfied to see MT shift the Coalition to the left of Genghis Khan.

You did see my last post?

That was Dennis Shanahan in the Australian (serial cheerleaders of the LNP) - pointing out how woeful is MT's performance. Not only that, but praising Labor's response and their performance in general.

Magnificent Mal's thought bubbles - this last one lasted less than 24 hours before it was scrapped.

He looks like a fool.

And your posts are getting more deluded by the day.

P,

While I recognise that for you and your ilk any attempt at border control, balanced budgets or prevention of corruption, reeks of fascism, I would guess that you would consider Labor right wing, and the greens centrist. A pity that nearly everyone disagrees with you.

It gives me great relief that you believe me deluded, as with previous times this is a cert that I am right. I seem to recall that about 6 months ago I predicted that the coalition's tactics would be to go for a DD based on balanced budget and union corruption, I suppose I was also deluded then?