On the 24th of November, 2007, Australians thought that a government that had eliminated nearly all federal government debt, lead the country into its 14th year of economic growth and one of the most prosperous periods of its economic history wasn't good enough. Instead, it caved into the charm of a neurotic, fluent mandarin speaking, tried to appeal to everyone but ended appealing to no-one dweeb known as Kevin Rudd. Thus began a period of incompetent federal governance led by the proceeding three leaders, combined with a federal government debt now exceeding $500 billion and a period of general economic stagnation, with the possibility of a clusterbugger recession.

Therefore, I propose that today be declared National Sorry John Howard day. Because regardless of how dorky you thought he was or how you hated his refugee policy or his views on gay marriage, economically things were bloody great and it's going to be a long time before things get to the way they were.

Also, Peter Costello was an idiot for leaving federal politics, the 2010 election would've been his for the taking!

Sorry little johnny, sorry for Greens preferences being the deciding factor for kicking you out of the seat of Bennelong, out of politics, out of relevance.

Sorry it wasn't a larger landslide that did it.

Haters gotta hate.... eh ______

Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises.

The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics.

You have to be joking! The little gutter rat was a complete failure! The last good PM before a long line of losers was the right honourable G Whitlam, now theres a man who deserves a national sorry day for the disgusting way scumbag Fraser undermined him. Shame liberals shame.

Grendel wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 11:08am:

Haters gotta hate.... eh ______

Oh God !
This is like apposing Israels apartheid system and then being called anti semitic.

Oppose a political view, while having no emotions towards the person.

Learn to differentiate Grendel, rather than knee jerk name calling.

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 11:09am:

Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics.

Australia was one of the very few countries to survive the GFC relatively unscathed, thanks solely to John Howard and Peter Costello. The single most stupid, idiotic decision by voters in the last 40 years was to vote in Kevin Rudd. His time as Prime Minister was marked by debt, deficit, out of control spending and thousands of deaths (both Australians and foreigners) as a direct result of his government's policies. He is quite literally our worst-ever PM, which is no easy feat considering most people previously believed Gough Whitlam to be. Julia Gillard was an unmitigated disaster but thanks to Whitlam, she comes in a close 3rd followed by Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating to round off the top five worst Prime Minister's since Federation.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 11:23am:

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:09am: Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics. Australia was one of the very few countries to survive the GFC relatively unscathed, thanks solely to John Howard and Peter Costello. The single most stupid, idiotic decision by voters in the last 40 years was to vote in Kevin Rudd. His time as Prime Minister was marked by debt, deficit, out of control spending and thousands of deaths (both Australians and foreigners) as a direct result of his government's policies. He is quite literally our worst-ever PM, which is no easy feat considering most people previously believed Gough Whitlam to be. Julia Gillard was an unmitigated disaster but thanks to Whitlam, she comes in a close 3rd followed by Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating to round off the top five worst Prime Minister's since Federation.

   
x2

aquascoot wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 11:27am:

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:23am: Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:09am: Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics. Australia was one of the very few countries to survive the GFC relatively unscathed, thanks solely to John Howard and Peter Costello. The single most stupid, idiotic decision by voters in the last 40 years was to vote in Kevin Rudd. His time as Prime Minister was marked by debt, deficit, out of control spending and thousands of deaths (both Australians and foreigners) as a direct result of his government's policies. He is quite literally our worst-ever PM, which is no easy feat considering most people previously believed Gough Whitlam to be. Julia Gillard was an unmitigated disaster but thanks to Whitlam, she comes in a close 3rd followed by Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating to round off the top five worst Prime Minister's since Federation.     x2

x3

How can you survive a global financial crisis when we are just in the bear trap stage of it.

The real part of the GFC collapse will occur in 2018.

Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!!

::) ::) ::)

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 12:21pm:

Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::)

You should've gone to Specsavers.

Keating was our greatest Prime Minister:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roIeVEf5alk

Bobby. wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 12:30pm:

Keating was our greatest Prime Minister: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roIeVEf5alk

F.F.S    F.F.S 
F.F.S

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 12:28pm:

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers.

What did Howard do to make you worship him AP???

:-? :-? :-?

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:06pm:

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:28pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers. What did Howard do to make you worship him AP??? :-? :-? :-?

Sold all the gold and assets

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 11:23am:

Australia was one of the very few countries to survive the GFC relatively unscathed,

what a load of rubbish



apart from coal and ore, demand for almost all of our export goods crashed. The only reason we didn't feel it more was because of the STIMULUS, which even liberals were proposing. the only difference was where the stimulus was going to be spent

you idiots need to stop living a lie.

____ wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 11:20am:

Grendel wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:08am: Haters gotta hate.... eh ______ Oh God ! This is like apposing Israels apartheid system and then being called anti semitic. Oppose a political view, while having no emotions towards the person. Learn to differentiate Grendel, rather than knee jerk name calling.

Is this no name fvvkwit greenswine, the gay kiwi?

macman wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 11:17am:

You have to be joking! The little gutter rat was a complete failure! The last good PM before a long line of losers was the right honourable G Whitlam, now theres a man who deserves a national sorry day for the disgusting way scumbag Fraser undermined him. Shame liberals shame.

While Whitlam did bring needed infrastructure projects to the country, he also introduced a series of policies that raised government spending faster than what they could get back in revenue. Not surprisingly, this lead to his government being unable to guarantee supply, which lead to his dismissal in November 1975 and his loss in December 1975. It obviously had an effect on people at the time if he wasn't re-elected in 1977. I can understand why people had such a harsh attitude towards Fraser but he did enact many polices that Whitlam was planning to anyway and left others in place.

As to the comment of "a long line of losers", you either have to be a die-hard leftist or lack a proper knowledge of history to to have little appreciation for the policies that the Hawke, Keating and Howard governments enacted over their combined 24 years. By the late 1970's, there were numerous predictions that Australia would digress into a Third World nation by the year 2000, which is the reason why some foreign companies such as IBM decided to set up factories here. The fact that double digit inflation had been common during the decade and interest rates had exceeded 20% by the late 1970's added fuel to the fire of the predictions. The economic polices of Hawke, Keating and Howard were all necessary to bring Australia into the 21st century. We were never going to make it as a protectionist hovel with an awakening Asian economy on our doorstep.

Its time wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:08pm:

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:06pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:28pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers. What did Howard do to make you worship him AP??? :-? :-? :-? Sold all the gold and assets

Yep - Costello sold our gold off for $280 per ounce.

What an idiot.

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:06pm:

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:28pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers. What did Howard do to make you worship him AP??? :-? :-? :-?

Paid off ALP debt, lowered interest rates, lowered unemployment, stopped the boats (and drownings), reformed tax system, lowered individual workers tax, improved Medicare, stopped gun massacres, banking reforms that helped protect us from GFC among other economic policies. I could go on and on. What has Labor done since?

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:38pm:

Paid off ALP debt

debt was on target to be paid off anyway, the idiot libs sold off all our assets to pay it off one to two years earlier than projected



Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:38pm:

lowered interest rates

interest rates fell because of reforms Keating put in place ... nothing to do with howard.


Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:38pm:

lowered unemployment

again, due to reforms put in place, and markets opened up by keating.


Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:38pm:

stopped the boats (and drownings)

the only boats he stopped were those he started.


Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:38pm:

reformed tax system,

bullshit ... a piss poor attempt.Made tax even more complicated than ever


Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:38pm:

lowered individual workers tax

and became the highest taxing government in our history.

the only real reforms Howard did that are off any note, in 14 years in govt, was the introduction of the GST, and the juries still out on whether that was good or bad, and the gun reform. Everything else he screwed.

What utter nonsense from the despairing Lefties who are inventing fantasies to take their troubled minds off Labor being in opposition for the next 20 years.

Will their dream of WELFARE for ALL for EVER founder on the rocks ?

How many Uber drivers are on Welfare ?

juliar wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 4:51pm:

What utter nonsense from the despairing Lefties who are inventing fantasies to take their troubled minds off Labor being in opposition for the next 20 years. Will their dream of WELFARE for ALL for EVER founder on the rocks ? How many Uber drivers are on Welfare ?

juliar wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 4:51pm:

What utter nonsense from the despairing Lefties who are inventing fantasies to take their troubled minds off Labor being in opposition for the next 20 years. Will their dream of WELFARE for ALL for EVER founder on the rocks ? How many Uber drivers are on Welfare ?

55 45  [smiley=vrolijk_26.gif]

I read the other day that the 7 billion+ of humans on the planet produce 1 million tonnes of poop each and every day.
I propose a statue to honour Liar Howard.
At the bottom of that pile!

minarchist wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 10:41am:

On the 24th of November, 2007, Australians thought that a government that had eliminated nearly all federal government debt, lead the country into its 14th year of economic growth and one of the most prosperous periods of its economic history wasn't good enough. Instead, it caved into the charm of a neurotic, fluent mandarin speaking, tried to appeal to everyone but ended appealing to no-one dweeb known as Kevin Rudd. Thus began a period of incompetent federal governance led by the proceeding three leaders, combined with a federal government debt now exceeding $500 billion and a period of general economic stagnation, with the possibility of a clusterbugger recession. Therefore, I propose that today be declared National Sorry John Howard day. Because regardless of how dorky you thought he was or how you hated his refugee policy or his views on gay marriage, economically things were bloody great and it's going to be a long time before things get to the way they were. Also, Peter Costello was an idiot for leaving federal politics, the 2010 election would've been his for the taking!

Brilliant!!!!

and I can only apologise on behalf of the other halfwits who voted against John Howard... as I didn't...

Australia's Best Prime Minister by a long shot!!

especially in modern times..

President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 6:32pm:

minarchist wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 10:41am: On the 24th of November, 2007, Australians thought that a government that had eliminated nearly all federal government debt, lead the country into its 14th year of economic growth and one of the most prosperous periods of its economic history wasn't good enough. Instead, it caved into the charm of a neurotic, fluent mandarin speaking, tried to appeal to everyone but ended appealing to no-one dweeb known as Kevin Rudd. Thus began a period of incompetent federal governance led by the proceeding three leaders, combined with a federal government debt now exceeding $500 billion and a period of general economic stagnation, with the possibility of a clusterbugger recession. Therefore, I propose that today be declared National Sorry John Howard day. Because regardless of how dorky you thought he was or how you hated his refugee policy or his views on gay marriage, economically things were bloody great and it's going to be a long time before things get to the way they were. Also, Peter Costello was an idiot for leaving federal politics, the 2010 election would've been his for the taking! Brilliant!!!! and I can only apologise on behalf of the other halfwits who voted against John Howard... as I didn't... Australia's Best Prime Minister by a long shot!! especially in modern times..

John Howard was a c word and this whole country knows it!

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 11:09am:

Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics.

oh ok...

so what you are saying is that you'd prefer to be in 500+ Billion dollars in debt than have 20 Billion dollars in the bank so that your grand children could have a better future??

what an absolute piece of garbage you are selling out your grand children and their children future just so that you can play silly political games... you Rotten *** T  >:(

macman wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 11:17am:

You have to be joking! The little gutter rat was a complete failure! The last good PM before a long line of losers was the right honourable G Whitlam, now theres a man who deserves a national sorry day for the disgusting way scumbag Fraser undermined him. Shame liberals shame.

you are another rotten shameless *** T who has sold out, not only his children and their childrens future but their children as well...

you **** ing scumbag... I wouldn't spit on you if you were on fire...  >:(


Quote:

The Loans affair, also called the Khemlani affair, was a political scandal involving the Whitlam Government of Australia in 1975, in which it was accused of attempting to unconstitutionally borrow money from Middle Eastern countries through the agency of Pakistani banker Tirath Khemlani, bypassing standard procedures of the Australian Treasury. Minerals and Energy Minister Rex Connor, along with Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Jim Cairns misled Parliament and were forced from the Whitlam Cabinet over the Affair, which was a key precursor to the Constitutional Crisis and the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government in 1975.[1]

macman... mactraitor more like it you pussy... you make me sick you pissant...  >:(

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 11:23am:

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:09am: Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics. Australia was one of the very few countries to survive the GFC relatively unscathed, thanks solely to John Howard and Peter Costello. The single most stupid, idiotic decision by voters in the last 40 years was to vote in Kevin Rudd. His time as Prime Minister was marked by debt, deficit, out of control spending and thousands of deaths (both Australians and foreigners) as a direct result of his government's policies. He is quite literally our worst-ever PM, which is no easy feat considering most people previously believed Gough Whitlam to be. Julia Gillard was an unmitigated disaster but thanks to Whitlam, she comes in a close 3rd followed by Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating to round off the top five worst Prime Minister's since Federation.

It was Howard's unafordable tax cuts which meant we came out of the GFC with a decade of deficit Howard threw away the money that could have paid the bills.

President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 6:40pm:

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:09am: Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics. oh ok... so what you are saying is that you'd prefer to be in 500+ Billion dollars in debt than have 20 Billion dollars in the bank so that your grand children could have a better future?? what an absolute piece of garbage you are selling out your grand children and their children future just so that you can play silly political games... you Rotten *** T  >:(

When we look at the environment you don't seem to give a bugger about your great grand children's future.

President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 6:32pm:

minarchist wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 10:41am: On the 24th of November, 2007, Australians thought that a government that had eliminated nearly all federal government debt, lead the country into its 14th year of economic growth and one of the most prosperous periods of its economic history wasn't good enough. Instead, it caved into the charm of a neurotic, fluent mandarin speaking, tried to appeal to everyone but ended appealing to no-one dweeb known as Kevin Rudd. Thus began a period of incompetent federal governance led by the proceeding three leaders, combined with a federal government debt now exceeding $500 billion and a period of general economic stagnation, with the possibility of a clusterbugger recession. Therefore, I propose that today be declared National Sorry John Howard day. Because regardless of how dorky you thought he was or how you hated his refugee policy or his views on gay marriage, economically things were bloody great and it's going to be a long time before things get to the way they were. Also, Peter Costello was an idiot for leaving federal politics, the 2010 election would've been his for the taking! Brilliant!!!! and I can only apologise on behalf of the other halfwits who voted against John Howard... as I didn't... Australia's Best Prime Minister by a long shot!! especially in modern times..

Hmmm, brilliant?? The bar must be very low then.
Brilliant in what respect??


"The first was to move the responsibility for monetary policy from the elected government to the government-appointed Reserve Bank. This meant that he no longer had to take the blame for rises in interest rates, while of course continuing to demand the credit for falls. This early switch developed into a pattern: throughout his prime ministership, Howard steadfastly refused to accept responsibility for anything. Only on Saturday night, with nothing left to lose, was he prepared to own up.

Howard’s second legacy was the never-ever GST, a particularly nasty piece of regressive taxation whose only virtue is its universality; if a GST is absolutely comprehensive it is impossible to avoid. By compromising with Democrats to exempt some so-called essential items, Howard destroyed even this advantage. The GST remains an unfair and lazy way of collecting revenue, and has led to an immensely complicated series of benefits and hand outs to compensate for its ill effects. It is now entrenched as monument to Howard’s political dishonesty and economic incompetence.

The third innovation was, of course, WorkChoices. Unheralded and badly thought out, this grab-bag of ideological thuggery was thrust upon a startled electorate when an unexpected opportunity arose, and the results are now clear. Some of its worst features have already been quietly disposed of, and most of the rest will go as soon as the senate allows. What is left will indeed constitute reform of the industrial relations system; but it will not be the “reform” of which Howard boasted."

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:38pm:

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:06pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:28pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers. What did Howard do to make you worship him AP??? :-? :-? :-? Paid off ALP debt, lowered interest rates, lowered unemployment, stopped the boats (and drownings), reformed tax system, lowered individual workers tax, improved Medicare, stopped gun massacres, banking reforms that helped protect us from GFC among other economic policies. I could go on and on. What has Labor done since?

National Sorry John Howard was ever born Day

Paid off ALP debt

Funded by Keatigs reforms.

lowered interest rates

Coincidentally synchronised with the rest of the world.

lowered unemployment

After deliberately forcing high unemployment in the Fraser government showed the hypocrisy to take the credit for a world ecanomic boom which drove employment.

lowered individual workers tax

By bugger all for anyone on average wages, it almost all went to the already high paid.



The biggie that he did do was to re-gear the economy to be reliant of the well above average economic performance of his period in office.

He left us the legacy of an economy which was going to fail as soon as conditions returned to normal levels.

Dnarever wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 6:46pm:

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:23am: Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:09am: Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics. Australia was one of the very few countries to survive the GFC relatively unscathed, thanks solely to John Howard and Peter Costello. The single most stupid, idiotic decision by voters in the last 40 years was to vote in Kevin Rudd. His time as Prime Minister was marked by debt, deficit, out of control spending and thousands of deaths (both Australians and foreigners) as a direct result of his government's policies. He is quite literally our worst-ever PM, which is no easy feat considering most people previously believed Gough Whitlam to be. Julia Gillard was an unmitigated disaster but thanks to Whitlam, she comes in a close 3rd followed by Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating to round off the top five worst Prime Minister's since Federation. It was Howard's unafordable tax cuts which meant we came out of the GFC with a decade of deficit Howard threw away the money that could have paid the bills.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Howard could afford the tax cuts because he'd paid off Keatings' debt of $96bn and replaced it with a surplus of more than $22bn. He could afford it because all of his policies were fully funded and paid for with money he did not have to borrow. He could afford it because he wasn't repaying a debt. Those tax cuts you continually mention were introduced long before the GFC even appeared on the radar. The other reason we weathered the GFC is because of changes in our financial sector put in place by Costello, the result of which saw our banks' lending habits come under much more stringent controls than was the case in the US, for example. Tax cuts provide people with more disposable income, which means they can pay down debt and/or spend more. When this occurs, business profits (literally) and the economy booms. This is precisely what we saw happen. You love to mention these supposedly dastardly tax cuts that we could not afford, but you fail to mention that Labor did nothing about them despite being in office for 6 years and having ample opportunity to change or reverse them. Labor did nothing - NOTHING. It was only by the good work done by Howard and Costello that we survived the GFC. We survived, but only just. The incompetence and panic of both Rudd and Swan very nearly brought all of Howard and Costello's work undone through reckless spending (which whittled away the $22bn surplus in record time) and drove Australia into debt. Then, in a colossal blunder, Labor thought it'd be a good idea to send people $300 cheques (with borrowed money, no less) that he wanted people to use to buy stuff but which most people either put into the bank or used to pay down debt. Bravo, Rudd - a real master stroke (not). You love to cherrypick bits and pieces of history to suit your naive and twisted view of the world, but the least you could do is at least get your facts right. Otherwise, you just look like an ill-informed idiot just towing the party line, which is precisely what you are.

His political career is dead buried and cremated as will damp squibs very very soon  :)

Its time wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 9:32pm:

His political career is dead buried and cremated as will damp squibs very very soon  :)

Yes, of course. That must be why he is so sought-after on the public speaking circuit. ::)

Oh yes - and his government shut the gate when they realised that with the diagnosis of PTSD, more and more ex-Service personnel would be getting TPI or a higher pension rate, thus blowing the budget of DVA.

Why any grunt would support his clown is beyond me.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 9:36pm:

Its time wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 9:32pm: His political career is dead buried and cremated as will damp squibs very very soon  :) Yes, of course. That must be why he is so sought-after on the public speaking circuit. ::)

Yes - fools dwell on his every word.... what on earth could he have of value to impart to people?

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 9:28pm:

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Howard could afford the tax cuts because he'd paid off Keatings' debt of $96bn and replaced it with a surplus of more than $22bn. He could afford it because all of his policies were fully funded and paid for with money he did not have to borrow. He could afford it because he wasn't repaying a debt. Those tax cuts you continually mention were introduced long before the GFC even appeared on the radar. The other reason we weathered the GFC is because of changes in our financial sector put in place by Costello, the result of which saw our banks' lending habits come under much more stringent controls than was the case in the US, for example. Tax cuts provide people with more disposable income, which means they can pay down debt and/or spend more. When this occurs, business profits (literally) and the economy booms. This is precisely what we saw happen. You love to mention these supposedly dastardly tax cuts that we could not afford, but you fail to mention that Labor did nothing about them despite being in office for 6 years and having ample opportunity to change or reverse them. Labor did nothing - NOTHING. It was only by the good work done by Howard and Costello that we survived the GFC. We survived, but only just. The incompetence and panic of both Rudd and Swan very nearly brought all of Howard and Costello's work undone through reckless spending (which whittled away the $22bn surplus in record time) and drove Australia into debt. Then, in a colossal blunder, Labor thought it'd be a good idea to send people $300 cheques (with borrowed money, no less) that he wanted people to use to buy stuff but which most people either put into the bank or used to pay down debt. Bravo, Rudd - a real master stroke (not). You love to cherrypick bits and pieces of history to suit your naive and twisted view of the world, but the least you could do is at least get your facts right. Otherwise, you just look like an ill-informed idiot just towing the party line, which is precisely what you are. [/quote]


Wrong, wrong, wrong - he sold off the revenue generating assets to 'break even' and even have a 'surplus - and it was all downhill from there without the revenue-raising assets... the 'tax cuts' could only be afforded until the bills fell due again and he had no way of paying them.  Same thing is happening now with Social Security through the sellout of this nation to the 'global economy' and all that nonsense*.

Get with the program.  He sold the nation out to his 'business' mates - he didn't 'save' it.  His short term 'gain' from selling the furniture was rapidly over-run by debt that has escalated since.

He is a traitor to this nation and its people.

* Again I ask - why do we have any NEED to abide by the dictates of the 'global economy'?  We are not the servants of those who profit from it.. and why would any business or person sell its resources into a larger market in order to force itself of him/herself to buy back at a higher price?  Why would any business or individual allow a business to come in, use its/their property and assets, derive profit, and then vanish offshore without paying the bills?

Only A Complete Moron!

President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 6:44pm:

macman wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:17am: You have to be joking! The little gutter rat was a complete failure! The last good PM before a long line of losers was the right honourable G Whitlam, now theres a man who deserves a national sorry day for the disgusting way scumbag Fraser undermined him. Shame liberals shame. you are another rotten shameless *** T who has sold out, not only his children and their childrens future but their children as well... you **** ing scumbag... I wouldn't spit on you if you were on fire...  >:( Quote: The Loans affair, also called the Khemlani affair, was a political scandal involving the Whitlam Government of Australia in 1975, in which it was accused of attempting to unconstitutionally borrow money from Middle Eastern countries through the agency of Pakistani banker Tirath Khemlani, bypassing standard procedures of the Australian Treasury. Minerals and Energy Minister Rex Connor, along with Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Jim Cairns misled Parliament and were forced from the Whitlam Cabinet over the Affair, which was a key precursor to the Constitutional Crisis and the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government in 1975.[1] macman... mactraitor more like it you pussy... you make me sick you pissant...  >:(

I could lower myself to your level of personal abuse but I shan't. Howard was a sad joke and your abuse changes nothing. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 9:28pm:

Dnarever wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 6:46pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:23am: Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:09am: Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics. Australia was one of the very few countries to survive the GFC relatively unscathed, thanks solely to John Howard and Peter Costello. The single most stupid, idiotic decision by voters in the last 40 years was to vote in Kevin Rudd. His time as Prime Minister was marked by debt, deficit, out of control spending and thousands of deaths (both Australians and foreigners) as a direct result of his government's policies. He is quite literally our worst-ever PM, which is no easy feat considering most people previously believed Gough Whitlam to be. Julia Gillard was an unmitigated disaster but thanks to Whitlam, she comes in a close 3rd followed by Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating to round off the top five worst Prime Minister's since Federation. It was Howard's unafordable tax cuts which meant we came out of the GFC with a decade of deficit Howard threw away the money that could have paid the bills. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Howard could afford the tax cuts because he'd paid off Keatings' debt of $96bn and replaced it with a surplus of more than $22bn. He could afford it because all of his policies were fully funded and paid for with money he did not have to borrow. He could afford it because he wasn't repaying a debt. Those tax cuts you continually mention were introduced long before the GFC even appeared on the radar. The other reason we weathered the GFC is because of changes in our financial sector put in place by Costello, the result of which saw our banks' lending habits come under much more stringent controls than was the case in the US, for example. Tax cuts provide people with more disposable income, which means they can pay down debt and/or spend more. When this occurs, business profits (literally) and the economy booms. This is precisely what we saw happen. You love to mention these supposedly dastardly tax cuts that we could not afford, but you fail to mention that Labor did nothing about them despite being in office for 6 years and having ample opportunity to change or reverse them. Labor did nothing - NOTHING. It was only by the good work done by Howard and Costello that we survived the GFC. We survived, but only just. The incompetence and panic of both Rudd and Swan very nearly brought all of Howard and Costello's work undone through reckless spending (which whittled away the $22bn surplus in record time) and drove Australia into debt. Then, in a colossal blunder, Labor thought it'd be a good idea to send people $300 cheques (with borrowed money, no less) that he wanted people to use to buy stuff but which most people either put into the bank or used to pay down debt. Bravo, Rudd - a real master stroke (not). You love to cherrypick bits and pieces of history to suit your naive and twisted view of the world, but the least you could do is at least get your facts right. Otherwise, you just look like an ill-informed idiot just towing the party line, which is precisely what you are.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Howard could afford the tax cuts because he'd paid off Keatings' debt of $96bn

Most of the tax cuts came before the debt was paid ? Obviously you understanding is flawed Howard kept about 0.5% of the income stream government had at the time much of the rest was given in tax cuts. The problem with this is that the economy was delivering about 5% higher income than typical. This means that as soon as the economy returned to normal levels we had an inbuilt deficit (structural deficit) of about 4.5%.

Everyone was surprised when we came out of the GFC and out economic performance stabilised near the 100 year average ( 5% lower than the Howard boom period).

We had a short term benefit from the boom period but Howard gave it away long term. He thought that the boom would go on forever.   

Those tax cuts you continually mention were introduced long before the GFC even appeared on the radar.

That is true but not relevant. The boom was always going to end eventually and it did. People thought for some dumb reason that we would go Boom bust boom, the problem is that we went boom bust normal.

We were geared that normal fails to meet expenses.

This is the reason that the deficits didn't stop when the GFC went away. This is the reason that the Liberals in particular but not exclusively have been attacking the budgets in welfare, health, education, pension, the disabled etc. They have to get their money back from somewhere and they cannot put the tax levels back to a more sensible level.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 9:28pm:

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Howard could afford the tax cuts because he'd paid off Keatings' debt of $96bn and replaced it with a surplus of more than $22bn. He could afford it because all of his policies were fully funded and paid for with money he did not have to borrow. He could afford it because he wasn't repaying a debt. Those tax cuts you continually mention were introduced long before the GFC even appeared on the radar. The other reason we weathered the GFC is because of changes in our financial sector put in place by Costello, the result of which saw our banks' lending habits come under much more stringent controls than was the case in the US, for example. Tax cuts provide people with more disposable income, which means they can pay down debt and/or spend more. When this occurs, business profits (literally) and the economy booms. This is precisely what we saw happen. You love to mention these supposedly dastardly tax cuts that we could not afford, but you fail to mention that Labor did nothing about them despite being in office for 6 years and having ample opportunity to change or reverse them. Labor did nothing - NOTHING. It was only by the good work done by Howard and Costello that we survived the GFC. We survived, but only just. The incompetence and panic of both Rudd and Swan very nearly brought all of Howard and Costello's work undone through reckless spending (which whittled away the $22bn surplus in record time) and drove Australia into debt. Then, in a colossal blunder, Labor thought it'd be a good idea to send people $300 cheques (with borrowed money, no less) that he wanted people to use to buy stuff but which most people either put into the bank or used to pay down debt. Bravo, Rudd - a real master stroke (not). You love to cherrypick bits and pieces of history to suit your naive and twisted view of the world, but the least you could do is at least get your facts right. Otherwise, you just look like an ill-informed idiot just towing the party line, which is precisely what you are.

Quote:

The other reason we weathered the GFC is because of changes in our financial sector put in place by Costello, the result of which saw our banks' lending habits come under much more stringent controls than was the case in the US, for example.

The controls and actions in the US etc were criminally negligent, we always had rules preventing this type of behaviour. Costello did little to impact on this at all.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 9:28pm:

Dnarever wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 6:46pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:23am: Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:09am: Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics. Australia was one of the very few countries to survive the GFC relatively unscathed, thanks solely to John Howard and Peter Costello. The single most stupid, idiotic decision by voters in the last 40 years was to vote in Kevin Rudd. His time as Prime Minister was marked by debt, deficit, out of control spending and thousands of deaths (both Australians and foreigners) as a direct result of his government's policies. He is quite literally our worst-ever PM, which is no easy feat considering most people previously believed Gough Whitlam to be. Julia Gillard was an unmitigated disaster but thanks to Whitlam, she comes in a close 3rd followed by Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating to round off the top five worst Prime Minister's since Federation. It was Howard's unafordable tax cuts which meant we came out of the GFC with a decade of deficit Howard threw away the money that could have paid the bills. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Howard could afford the tax cuts because he'd paid off Keatings' debt of $96bn and replaced it with a surplus of more than $22bn. He could afford it because all of his policies were fully funded and paid for with money he did not have to borrow. He could afford it because he wasn't repaying a debt. Those tax cuts you continually mention were introduced long before the GFC even appeared on the radar. The other reason we weathered the GFC is because of changes in our financial sector put in place by Costello, the result of which saw our banks' lending habits come under much more stringent controls than was the case in the US, for example. Tax cuts provide people with more disposable income, which means they can pay down debt and/or spend more. When this occurs, business profits (literally) and the economy booms. This is precisely what we saw happen. You love to mention these supposedly dastardly tax cuts that we could not afford, but you fail to mention that Labor did nothing about them despite being in office for 6 years and having ample opportunity to change or reverse them. Labor did nothing - NOTHING. It was only by the good work done by Howard and Costello that we survived the GFC. We survived, but only just. The incompetence and panic of both Rudd and Swan very nearly brought all of Howard and Costello's work undone through reckless spending (which whittled away the $22bn surplus in record time) and drove Australia into debt. Then, in a colossal blunder, Labor thought it'd be a good idea to send people $300 cheques (with borrowed money, no less) that he wanted people to use to buy stuff but which most people either put into the bank or used to pay down debt. Bravo, Rudd - a real master stroke (not). You love to cherrypick bits and pieces of history to suit your naive and twisted view of the world, but the least you could do is at least get your facts right. Otherwise, you just look like an ill-informed idiot just towing the party line, which is precisely what you are.

Quote:

love to mention these supposedly dastardly tax cuts that we could not afford, but you fail to mention that Labor did nothing about them despite being in office for 6 years and having ample opportunity to change or reverse them.

No government will increase taxes in an obvious manner because it is political suicide. You may have noted that the current Liberals have not done it either. They are skulking around trying to get money from anywhere else to make up the shortfall.

Poor deluded leftie munchkins.

John Howard was one of our best Prime Ministers, second only to Hawke in the modern era.
Like Hawke, he delivered a decade of stable govt - no mean feat in these times.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 9:28pm:

Dnarever wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 6:46pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:23am: Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:09am: Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics. Australia was one of the very few countries to survive the GFC relatively unscathed, thanks solely to John Howard and Peter Costello. The single most stupid, idiotic decision by voters in the last 40 years was to vote in Kevin Rudd. His time as Prime Minister was marked by debt, deficit, out of control spending and thousands of deaths (both Australians and foreigners) as a direct result of his government's policies. He is quite literally our worst-ever PM, which is no easy feat considering most people previously believed Gough Whitlam to be. Julia Gillard was an unmitigated disaster but thanks to Whitlam, she comes in a close 3rd followed by Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating to round off the top five worst Prime Minister's since Federation. It was Howard's unafordable tax cuts which meant we came out of the GFC with a decade of deficit Howard threw away the money that could have paid the bills. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Howard could afford the tax cuts because he'd paid off Keatings' debt of $96bn and replaced it with a surplus of more than $22bn. He could afford it because all of his policies were fully funded and paid for with money he did not have to borrow. He could afford it because he wasn't repaying a debt. Those tax cuts you continually mention were introduced long before the GFC even appeared on the radar. The other reason we weathered the GFC is because of changes in our financial sector put in place by Costello, the result of which saw our banks' lending habits come under much more stringent controls than was the case in the US, for example. Tax cuts provide people with more disposable income, which means they can pay down debt and/or spend more. When this occurs, business profits (literally) and the economy booms. This is precisely what we saw happen. You love to mention these supposedly dastardly tax cuts that we could not afford, but you fail to mention that Labor did nothing about them despite being in office for 6 years and having ample opportunity to change or reverse them. Labor did nothing - NOTHING. It was only by the good work done by Howard and Costello that we survived the GFC. We survived, but only just. The incompetence and panic of both Rudd and Swan very nearly brought all of Howard and Costello's work undone through reckless spending (which whittled away the $22bn surplus in record time) and drove Australia into debt. Then, in a colossal blunder, Labor thought it'd be a good idea to send people $300 cheques (with borrowed money, no less) that he wanted people to use to buy stuff but which most people either put into the bank or used to pay down debt. Bravo, Rudd - a real master stroke (not). You love to cherrypick bits and pieces of history to suit your naive and twisted view of the world, but the least you could do is at least get your facts right. Otherwise, you just look like an ill-informed idiot just towing the party line, which is precisely what you are.

Quote:

both Rudd and Swan very nearly brought all of Howard and Costello's work undone through reckless spending (which whittled away the $22bn surplus in record time) and drove Australia into debt.

Yet economists agree that to have not acted would have given much worse results, there is nothing surprising about a surplus disappearing in a financial crisis. It would have been unbelievable for this to have not happened irrespective of who was in power yet you typically blame Labor.


Quote:

Labor thought it'd be a good idea to send people $300 cheques (with borrowed money, no less) that he wanted people to use to buy stuff but which most people either put into the bank or used to pay down debt. Bravo, Rudd

The money was not borrowed and it was mostly spent into the economy, it made a difference.


Quote:

You love to cherrypick bits and pieces of history to suit your naive and twisted view of the world, but the least you could do is at least get your facts right.

My facts are close to the mark, your's are easily shown to be flawed. Everyone cherry picks it isn't possible to post a full history of everything and nobody would bother to read it if you did.


Quote:

you just look like an ill-informed idiot just towing the party line, which is precisely what you are.

I feel no need to directly insult you - anyone reading can tell who the ill-informed biased idiot is.

Howard still stands triumphant as the least honest leader we have ever had.

Howard's only real skill was his ability to win elections.

He worked out the formula that you only had to fool 51% of the people once every three years.

To get this 51% he used, manufactured and/or lied about:

There will never ever ever be a GST under any government I lead.
Children overboard and the Tampa
The waterfront dispute.
Iraq war
Who do you trust?
WMD'S
NT intervention.
ETC.


Quote:

Liberal senator and member of the committee that first investigated the children overboard affair, George Brandis, said of Howard "He is a lying rodent" and "We've got to go off and cover his arse again on this."

Yes George had to go into the children overboard investigation and tell lies to defend what he knew to be Howard's lies and he didn't much like it.

bogarde73 wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 6:42am:

Poor deluded leftie munchkins. John Howard was one of our best Prime Ministers, second only to Hawke in the modern era. Like Hawke, he delivered a decade of stable govt - no mean feat in these times.

Deluded?
Of course you are a coalition supporter, so no delusion there.
I am 100% happy for history to judge howard.
While in the past lies and deception, and even incompetence, could be hidden, it cannot today. And history knows all of howard's dirty tricks.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24^th, 2017 at 1:38pm:

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:06pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:28pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers. What did Howard do to make you worship him AP??? :-? :-? :-? Paid off ALP debt, lowered interest rates, lowered unemployment, stopped the boats (and drownings), reformed tax system, lowered individual workers tax, improved Medicare, stopped gun massacres, banking reforms that helped protect us from GFC among other economic policies. I could go on and on. What has Labor done since?

Fair enough if that is what you believe....My opinion of Howard is no worse than any other politician bar a few....The Iraq war, children overboard, Tampa and the high end tax perks dished out when the economy was booming above average where poor decisions and outright lies....F@#k John Howard IMO!!!

:) :) :)

bogarde73 wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 6:42am:

Poor deluded leftie munchkins. John Howard was one of our best Prime Ministers, second only to Hawke in the modern era. Like Hawke, he delivered a decade of stable govt - no mean feat in these times.

He was in fact PM longer than Hawke and 2nd only to Menzies.

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 8:02am:

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:38pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:06pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:28pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers. What did Howard do to make you worship him AP??? :-? :-? :-? Paid off ALP debt, lowered interest rates, lowered unemployment, stopped the boats (and drownings), reformed tax system, lowered individual workers tax, improved Medicare, stopped gun massacres, banking reforms that helped protect us from GFC among other economic policies. I could go on and on. What has Labor done since? Fair enough if that is what you believe....My opinion of Howard is no worse than any other politician bar a few....The Iraq war, children overboard, Tampa and the high end tax perks dished out when the economy was booming above average where poor decisions and outright lies....F@#k John Howard IMO!!! :) :) :)

Haters gotta hate Armchair...  phil is just one of many. ;D :D ;D :D

Grendel wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 9:28am:

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 25th, 2017 at 8:02am: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:38pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:06pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:28pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers. What did Howard do to make you worship him AP??? :-? :-? :-? Paid off ALP debt, lowered interest rates, lowered unemployment, stopped the boats (and drownings), reformed tax system, lowered individual workers tax, improved Medicare, stopped gun massacres, banking reforms that helped protect us from GFC among other economic policies. I could go on and on. What has Labor done since? Fair enough if that is what you believe....My opinion of Howard is no worse than any other politician bar a few....The Iraq war, children overboard, Tampa and the high end tax perks dished out when the economy was booming above average where poor decisions and outright lies....F@#k John Howard IMO!!! :) :) :) Haters gotta hate Armchair...  phil is just one of many. ;D :D ;D :D

I don't hate you mate....I just think you are a dickhead that is not worth my time!!!

:) :) :)

Grendel wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 9:28am:

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 25th, 2017 at 8:02am: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:38pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:06pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:28pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers. What did Howard do to make you worship him AP??? :-? :-? :-? Paid off ALP debt, lowered interest rates, lowered unemployment, stopped the boats (and drownings), reformed tax system, lowered individual workers tax, improved Medicare, stopped gun massacres, banking reforms that helped protect us from GFC among other economic policies. I could go on and on. What has Labor done since? Fair enough if that is what you believe....My opinion of Howard is no worse than any other politician bar a few....The Iraq war, children overboard, Tampa and the high end tax perks dished out when the economy was booming above average where poor decisions and outright lies....F@#k John Howard IMO!!! :) :) :) Haters gotta hate Armchair...  phil is just one of many. ;D :D ;D :D

You may not like what he said but it was accurate.

Grendel wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 9:27am:

bogarde73 wrote on Nov 25th, 2017 at 6:42am: Poor deluded leftie munchkins. John Howard was one of our best Prime Ministers, second only to Hawke in the modern era. Like Hawke, he delivered a decade of stable govt - no mean feat in these times. He was in fact PM longer than Hawke and 2nd only to Menzies.

Yes he held Australia back for a long long time.

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 9:31am:

Grendel wrote on Nov 25th, 2017 at 9:28am: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 25th, 2017 at 8:02am: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:38pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:06pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:28pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers. What did Howard do to make you worship him AP??? :-? :-? :-? Paid off ALP debt, lowered interest rates, lowered unemployment, stopped the boats (and drownings), reformed tax system, lowered individual workers tax, improved Medicare, stopped gun massacres, banking reforms that helped protect us from GFC among other economic policies. I could go on and on. What has Labor done since? Fair enough if that is what you believe....My opinion of Howard is no worse than any other politician bar a few....The Iraq war, children overboard, Tampa and the high end tax perks dished out when the economy was booming above average where poor decisions and outright lies....F@#k John Howard IMO!!! :) :) :) Haters gotta hate Armchair...  phil is just one of many. ;D :D ;D :D I don't hate you mate....I just think you are a dickhead that is not worth my time!!! :) :) :)

;D ;D

Dnarever wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 7:12am:

Howard still stands triumphant as the least honest leader we have ever had. Howard's only real skill was his ability to win elections. He worked out the formula that you only had to fool 51% of the people once every three years. To get this 51% he used, manufactured and/or lied about: There will never ever ever be a GST under any government I lead. Children overboard and the Tampa The waterfront dispute. Iraq war Who do you trust? WMD'S NT intervention. ETC. Quote: Liberal senator and member of the committee that first investigated the children overboard affair, George Brandis, said of Howard "He is a lying rodent" and "We've got to go off and cover his arse again on this." Yes George had to go into the children overboard investigation and tell lies to defend what he knew to be Howard's lies and he didn't much like it.

Gillard: No carbon tax.
Swan: That's hysterical.

Dnarever wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 6:48am:

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 9:28pm: Dnarever wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 6:46pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:23am: Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 11:09am: Wee Johnnie sold off the furniture and installed tax cuts to the higher paid that have never been undone.  Nothing competent about it in any way.  He also shop-lifted the Futures Fund to the Caymans to evade tax and put his mate Peter Costello in charge of it at a handsome return,  while stinging the lowest paid in the land $12 a fortnight for child support under some delusion of 'responsibility' but really as a measure to help 'his' budgetary problems.  He also lead this nation into a 'just 'cause we can' war on false premises. The sorriest John Howard day was the day he entered politics. Australia was one of the very few countries to survive the GFC relatively unscathed, thanks solely to John Howard and Peter Costello. The single most stupid, idiotic decision by voters in the last 40 years was to vote in Kevin Rudd. His time as Prime Minister was marked by debt, deficit, out of control spending and thousands of deaths (both Australians and foreigners) as a direct result of his government's policies. He is quite literally our worst-ever PM, which is no easy feat considering most people previously believed Gough Whitlam to be. Julia Gillard was an unmitigated disaster but thanks to Whitlam, she comes in a close 3rd followed by Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating to round off the top five worst Prime Minister's since Federation. It was Howard's unafordable tax cuts which meant we came out of the GFC with a decade of deficit Howard threw away the money that could have paid the bills. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Howard could afford the tax cuts because he'd paid off Keatings' debt of $96bn and replaced it with a surplus of more than $22bn. He could afford it because all of his policies were fully funded and paid for with money he did not have to borrow. He could afford it because he wasn't repaying a debt. Those tax cuts you continually mention were introduced long before the GFC even appeared on the radar. The other reason we weathered the GFC is because of changes in our financial sector put in place by Costello, the result of which saw our banks' lending habits come under much more stringent controls than was the case in the US, for example. Tax cuts provide people with more disposable income, which means they can pay down debt and/or spend more. When this occurs, business profits (literally) and the economy booms. This is precisely what we saw happen. You love to mention these supposedly dastardly tax cuts that we could not afford, but you fail to mention that Labor did nothing about them despite being in office for 6 years and having ample opportunity to change or reverse them. Labor did nothing - NOTHING. It was only by the good work done by Howard and Costello that we survived the GFC. We survived, but only just. The incompetence and panic of both Rudd and Swan very nearly brought all of Howard and Costello's work undone through reckless spending (which whittled away the $22bn surplus in record time) and drove Australia into debt. Then, in a colossal blunder, Labor thought it'd be a good idea to send people $300 cheques (with borrowed money, no less) that he wanted people to use to buy stuff but which most people either put into the bank or used to pay down debt. Bravo, Rudd - a real master stroke (not). You love to cherrypick bits and pieces of history to suit your naive and twisted view of the world, but the least you could do is at least get your facts right. Otherwise, you just look like an ill-informed idiot just towing the party line, which is precisely what you are. Quote: both Rudd and Swan very nearly brought all of Howard and Costello's work undone through reckless spending (which whittled away the $22bn surplus in record time) and drove Australia into debt. Yet economists agree that to have not acted would have given much worse results, there is nothing surprising about a surplus disappearing in a financial crisis. It would have been unbelievable for this to have not happened irrespective of who was in power yet you typically blame Labor. [quote]Labor thought it'd be a good idea to send people $300 cheques (with borrowed money, no less) that he wanted people to use to buy stuff but which most people either put into the bank or used to pay down debt. Bravo, Rudd

The money was not borrowed and it was mostly spent into the economy, it made a difference.


Quote:

You love to cherrypick bits and pieces of history to suit your naive and twisted view of the world, but the least you could do is at least get your facts right.

My facts are close to the mark, your's are easily shown to be flawed. Everyone cherry picks it isn't possible to post a full history of everything and nobody would bother to read it if you did.


Quote:

you just look like an ill-informed idiot just towing the party line, which is precisely what you are.

I feel no need to directly insult you - anyone reading can tell who the ill-informed biased idiot is.[/quote]

Labor acted for the sake of it. No thought was given as to the consequences. Just throw money at the problem and all will be okay. Idiocy.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 11:58am:

Dnarever wrote on Nov 25th, 2017 at 7:12am: Howard still stands triumphant as the least honest leader we have ever had. Howard's only real skill was his ability to win elections. He worked out the formula that you only had to fool 51% of the people once every three years. To get this 51% he used, manufactured and/or lied about: There will never ever ever be a GST under any government I lead. Children overboard and the Tampa The waterfront dispute. Iraq war Who do you trust? WMD'S NT intervention. ETC. Quote: Liberal senator and member of the committee that first investigated the children overboard affair, George Brandis, said of Howard "He is a lying rodent" and "We've got to go off and cover his arse again on this." Yes George had to go into the children overboard investigation and tell lies to defend what he knew to be Howard's lies and he didn't much like it. Gillard: No carbon tax. Swan: That's hysterical.

The difference is that Gillard got one wrong where Howard got one wrong almost every day.

Overall the difference is that Gillard was one of our more honest leaders and Howard was right as far as you can get at the other end of the scale.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 12:01pm:

Labor acted for the sake of it. No thought was given as to the consequences. Just throw money at the problem and all will be okay. Idiocy.

Yet Swan was awarded for the economic performance at the time. Spending on infrastructure and putting money into the economy may well have prevented recession and certainly helped to get us through the GFC.

If you are right he must have been real lucky. Much more likely is that the well planned and executed spend produced economic dividends.

The argument that he was a clutz who accidentally got it right every time fails to hold water.

Dnarever wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 12:06pm:

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 25th, 2017 at 11:58am: Dnarever wrote on Nov 25th, 2017 at 7:12am: Howard still stands triumphant as the least honest leader we have ever had. Howard's only real skill was his ability to win elections. He worked out the formula that you only had to fool 51% of the people once every three years. To get this 51% he used, manufactured and/or lied about: There will never ever ever be a GST under any government I lead. Children overboard and the Tampa The waterfront dispute. Iraq war Who do you trust? WMD'S NT intervention. ETC. Quote: Liberal senator and member of the committee that first investigated the children overboard affair, George Brandis, said of Howard "He is a lying rodent" and "We've got to go off and cover his arse again on this." Yes George had to go into the children overboard investigation and tell lies to defend what he knew to be Howard's lies and he didn't much like it. Gillard: No carbon tax. Swan: That's hysterical. The difference is that Gillard got one wrong where Howard got one wrong almost every day. Overall the difference is that Gillard was one of our more honest leaders and Howard was right as far as you can get at the other end of the scale.

Yeah, nothing you just said bears any resemblance to the truth.

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 9:31am:

Grendel wrote on Nov 25th, 2017 at 9:28am: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 25th, 2017 at 8:02am: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:38pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 1:06pm: Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:28pm: philperth2010 wrote on Nov 24th, 2017 at 12:21pm: Howard was a lying little bastard who did very little to improve Australia during his Prime Minister ship....No f@#ken way am I ever going to apologise to any politician especially John bloody Howard!!! ::) ::) ::) You should've gone to Specsavers. What did Howard do to make you worship him AP??? :-? :-? :-? Paid off ALP debt, lowered interest rates, lowered unemployment, stopped the boats (and drownings), reformed tax system, lowered individual workers tax, improved Medicare, stopped gun massacres, banking reforms that helped protect us from GFC among other economic policies. I could go on and on. What has Labor done since? Fair enough if that is what you believe....My opinion of Howard is no worse than any other politician bar a few....The Iraq war, children overboard, Tampa and the high end tax perks dished out when the economy was booming above average where poor decisions and outright lies....F@#k John Howard IMO!!! :) :) :) Haters gotta hate Armchair...  phil is just one of many. ;D :D ;D :D I don't hate you mate....I just think you are a dickhead that is not worth my time!!! :) :) :)

Well I wasn't referring to me and you Phil...  obviously YOU have personal issues... :D :D :D :D :D