Well nobody but a totally blinded Labor fanboy could accuse the Libs of "over thinking?" policy decisions.
Labor has become a joke with all it's committees about what to do, and committees about whether to have more committees, so attacking the Libs on this point is just hypocritical.

I loathe Abbott, and I fear for the many thousands of people that will lose their homes, jobs, and businesses, if Mr Abbott wins this election, but being hypocritical is not going to win Labor any votes.
They need to own their mistakes, and move on, as rewriting history will only fool those who would blindly follow you anyway.

Abbotts big three issues that he started trumpeting, the day Gillard became PM were, in order;
1;Stop the boats.
He thinks a few thousand people a year fleeing persecution, and looking for a safer life in Australia, is the number one issue facing the country.
It is absolutely shameful that in a world facing climate change, and which is also experiencing the greatest financial crisis our generation has ever seen, that turning away refugees is his absolute first thought.
2;Stop the Building Program for schools.
Now we know that Abbott opposed the stimulus package, and offered the suggestion of just hoping everything gets better by itself, or the "Ostrich" approach if you like.
The fact is that all the leading economists, and experts in the field have roundly endorsed Labor's policies, as having brought us through the economic crisis in better shape than any other country in the world.
The schools are very grateful for the much needed infrastructure boost, and generations of young Aussies will reap tangible benefits from this policy for generations to come.
The building Industry would have gone into very serious decline, sparking a local financial crisis that would have critically hurt hundreds of thousands, and effected millions more.
It was urgent action taking to address an urgent problem.
The fact that some sought to exploit the rapid deployment of this economic liferaft to rort the system is shameful, and any and all ripoffs need to be thoroughly investigated, and criminal charges laid wherever possible.
We do however need to keep this program going, as the economy is not out of the woods yet, and the building industry needs to stay active for our economy to stay active.

Abbott plans to cancel this much needed program.

3;  Stop The Mining Super Tax.
Yes, believe it or not, he actually proposes to stop the Tax on huge profits that the mining companies have agreed it is fair for them to pay.
So, instead of spending money on Health, Education, and Infrastructure, he wants to make billionaires even richer.

THAT is what Tony Abbott cares about, they are the things he started this campaign with.

Tony puts the BIG "L" back into Liberal, as well as in,
Lousy, Lying, Lowlife.

Mozz, I think you would find Abbott isnt cancelling the BER, rather going to the method of the schools submitting applications for what they actually want and need and source local contractors to do the job.

The savings there alone is massive.

But dont let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Please delete wrote on Aug 9^th, 2010 at 10:46am:

There was no treading carefully at all.

They pulled the bits and peices out they thought would win them votes.  Ive spent 10 years in taxation and I was looking forward to the greatest overhaul of the system in our time, only to find it a complete dud.

Please delete wrote on Aug 9^th, 2010 at 10:54am:


In the context of the review as a whole it is.

Sadly though the reivew had many other ideas in it that would have been good but werent vote winners, hence Labor holding them back.

Equitist wrote on Aug 9^th, 2010 at 11:03am:

Have you got anything even remotely accurate to attach to this comment.

Its the same crap people peddled which Rudd and Gillard went on their spending spree.  The GST is the new sky is falling and it appears its now the ALP people that are the new chicken little.

THE TAX SYSTEM EXPLAINED (IN BEER)


Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this...

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7..

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.   The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20". Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected.  They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers?  How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?

They realised that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).

The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"

"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works.

The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction.

Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.

In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier!