Andrei.Hicks wrote on May 10
th, 2012 at 12:04am:
You'd have to admit though that we were better off under Howard.
When Howard was in, we did well in budgets. He gave us a greater share in the economic well being of the country, we got $5k payments for our children, we got family benefits, we got decent rebates on our health cover.
Under Labor -
Took away the baby bonus
Means tested
Taken away the health insurance rebate
No they didn't
Cut the superannuation tax assistance
not really
Labor just dislike the people who basically pay for the country.
Howard didn't. Howard helped us.
It was a far better time for us all.
One of the biggest failures of the Howard years was the growth in upper middle welfare. Howard / Costello were lucky enough to be in power during the most benign economic period in recorded history.
We never got to see how they would do in difficult times or if they would keep wasting money on upper class welfare when things started to get tough.
Howard was giving high earners $150. increases when he gave workers $2.50 Over 12 years he basically gave pensioners or the unemployed nothing and managed to increase higher education from around $1500 to in many cases over $100,000.
Before being thrown out of office and his seat he said that he realised that he had not governed for the benefit of all Australians and committed to doing better if we let him con us again.
Yeah he was a peach. Luckiest sob ever.
Didn't deserve one term but conned 4.