Hey SteeleRedux,

"I'm actually going to give them some credit for the $750 cash handout to the unemployed and pensioners."

I think there's more to it, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.
I think ScoMo is concerned about the elderly, women kids and unemployed on welfare.
I think he's giving those most vulnerable during the pandemic a fighting chance to stock up on essentials before the worst of it hits, which might be 6 to 8 weeks away.
I think he's concerned about how people fare during the crisis, which will have a marked impact on how quickly the country can bounce back afterwards.

And once all is said and done, and the smoke clears for those who make it through, he's less likely to be left in such a position that he might be criticised for not doing enough.
In this way it's actually a savvy political decision that helps ensure the governments re-election if they manage the crisis situation better than other nations, and is seen as responsible decision making.

I think it's a hell of a lot of money, but all things considered probably quite sensible and it might save a lot of lives and prevent those who were complacent or unprepared from having to break self-isolation or quarantine to steal from others when things get tough.

Paul1405.
No, there's no difference at all. Swan also announced and tried to take credit for a surplus that didn't exist. If anything, he was even worse, making the promise to achieve a surplus "come hell or high water". Even if that were deliverable (which it wasn't) it would have been reckless; a competent treasurer would have instead promised not to compromise our nation's economic interests to meet short term financial objectives!

Unfortunately most of the people don't realise that a surplus just means the government takes more money out of the economy than it puts in. They think surpluses are good for their own sake, and have never understood their real purpose (which is controlling inflation while keeping interest rates low). Unfortunately it's remarkably difficult to dispel the lie that any deficits the present government runs must be paid off by future generations.

Paul wrote: " there is a difference between a projected surplus, as Swan was claiming, and a "We are back in in the BLACK!"

Yes but as much as your one-eye won't see it the former was worse. Swann basically used the fictitious future surplus as a weapon to deflect all attempts to rectify the budget mess. The surplus was never going to happen but the Pauls' of the world totally bought it. They only became budget sceptics when the colour of the government changed. Hypocrisy is never a good look.

"The fool says "It's a foreign virus"".
Well it is a virus that originated in China. But I see that China is now issuing propaganda to deflect from their utter culpability here and the usual anti-US flying monkeys are falling into line. They always do.

Aidan,
"Unfortunately it's remarkably difficult to dispel the lie that any deficits the present government runs must be paid off by future generations."

That's right.....it gets paid off by the tooth fairy.

Hey Mhaze,

Are you a virologist who studies infectious diseases?

"Well it is a virus that originated in China. But I see that China is now issuing propaganda to deflect from their utter culpability here and the usual anti-US flying monkeys are falling into line. They always do."

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/wuhan-seafood-market-may-not-be-source-novel-virus-spreading-globally

Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University:
- Want to argue with him?

Lucey says if the new data are accurate, the first human infections must have occurred in November 2019—if not earlier—because there is an incubation time between infection and symptoms surfacing. If so, the virus possibly spread silently between people in Wuhan—and perhaps elsewhere—before the cluster of cases from the city’s now-infamous Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was discovered in late December. “The virus came into that marketplace before it came out of that marketplace,” Lucey asserts.

Heres a better timeline of events:

Locking down of Fort Detrich
http://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/health/germs-fort-detrick-biohazard.html

Japanese infected in Hawaii in September by Coronovirus.

Wuhan Military Games 18 Oct - 27 Oct
- Members of the US military personnel hospitalised in Wuhan for an 'undetermined infections'.

First Chinese case reported November 17

Wuhan version of the virus can only have come from the US.
- Because it is what's known as a 'branch', which could not have been created first, because it would have no 'seed'.
It would have had to be a new variety that spun off the original trunk, and that only existed in the US.
The only way it would have gotten there was if someone put it there.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/china-coronavirus-shocking-update/5705196
http://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-19-further-evidence-virus-originated-us/5706078

Get your bloody facts straight, all of you.

OMG you people are stupid.
You hear one little term 'conspiracy theory' and then you think you know something, you know nothing; too frightened to look into the facts because someone said 'conspiracy theory'.

Do you think because the site is called 'insider' that you assume you're some kind of 'insider'?

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman pushes coronavirus conspiracy theory that the US Army 'brought the epidemic to Wuhan'
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/chinese-official-says-us-army-maybe-brought-coronavirus-to-wuhan-2020-3?r=US&IR=T

It's all BS, they're just telling you what they want you to hear.

Globalresearch? Seriously? You call that 'the facts'?

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Globalresearch

mhaze,
You miss the point completely. No generation is under any obligation to pay off the government's debt. Australia has unlimited credit and is immortal, so will never have to reach a position of zero debt.