John Smith wrote on Dec 30^th, 2014 at 10:53am:


Under Howard, they governed through a mining boom and got lucky. They pretended they kept interest rates down, when this is the job of the RBA.

Previously under Fraser, they trashed the economy. They kept spending despite recession and huge terms of trade problems. It was left to Hawke and Keating to reform the economy, which paved the way for the Howard government’s lucky streak.

The difference between Rudd/Gillard and Abbott is that the former governments had a plan. They stuck to their guns. They rolled out the NBN. They had a plan to rationalise school funding through Gonski. They had a plan to get more people with disabilities into the workforce through the NDIS.

These were all economic reforms. We are at the end of a mining boom and need to get other sectors up and running. Abbott’s plan is to axe the carbon and mining taxes - that’s it. He’s done.

But wait, there’s more. He now has plans to make massive cuts to health, education and welfare, but put this money into other areas. If the Abbott government had a plan all along, they didn’t do very well at explaining it, as Hockey and Abbott have now conceded.

All Rudd and Gillard ever did was explain their plan. Constantly. They were criticised for being all talk, and in many cases they were. Most of their plans had problems being implimented.

Unlike the current government, however, they were all implimented. They achieved support for their plans in a minority government. This alone shows excellent negotiating skills. Even Bob Katter had good things to say about Gillard.

Mind you, Abbott has quietly done some important trade deals with China and Japan. These deals are important, and the Libs would trumpet them more if they weren’t scared of putting the National Party’s noses out of joint.

The Libs have backed themselves into a corner by opposing Labor as high-taxing spendthrifts, when taxing and spending is the only thing that will put the economy on track again. This is the message of  discontented ex-Nationals like Bob Katter, and it’s popular in the bush. If it involves spending on energy reforms like renewables, it will be popular in the city too.

If the Libs want to move from being an opposition to a government, they need a plan. They also need to adjust their ideology of austerity if they want to turn the economy around. This ideology worked well in boom times, it does not work well now.

It worked well when the Libs were in opposition and didn’t need to make any unpopular cuts. Politically, this won’t work now.

Essentially, the Libs are falling on their own sword. Their chickens are coming home to roost. They could turn things around, but it would raise the obvious question of what the Liberal Party truly stands for.

And Abbott and Hockey are not up to this task.

John Smith wrote on Jan 10^th, 2015 at 2:32pm:


China and Japan are manufacturers. Removing tariffs and importing more brings down prices. Toyota’s already advertising free trade deal discounts on cars.

Sure, we don’t know the fine print - I don’t, anyway. But these deals are important, as are other high level talks with China and Japan. It signals our greater integration into the region, which is emerging to become the next economic powerhouse.

I don’t know the details, but this is the policy of both major parties and is supported by recent White Paper on the Asian Century. It’s the major foreign policy theme of the last 30 years.

We aren’t in the British Empire anymore. We need Asia, and Abbott can be credited for being pragmatic enough to recognise this and get the job done.

On this front, he is proving to be quite at odds with the views of John Winston Howard.

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Jan 10^th, 2015 at 11:57pm:


Good luck if we don’t. Prior to the Hawke/Keating governments, Australia was rapidly becoming a banana republic. When Britain joined the EC in the early 70s, that was it for Australian exports. The oil shocks nearly finished us off.

And the Libs under Fraser did nothing. The Libs under the Howard opposition complained about the rate of Asian immigration.

Today, Australia is a totally different country. Demographically, almost 50% of us were born overseas or have at least one foreign born parent.

Including Boers.

The story of the Australian economy of the past 30 years is almost solely about its trade with Asia, from mining, agriculture and education exports to cheap East Asian manufactured imports. The cost of cars, whitegoods, household goods, building materials, clothing, and pretty much everything else is far cheaper than at any time in Australia’s history. Even the poorest Australians now fill their houses with cheap stuff, almost all of it made in China.

We can’t possibly ignore the source of our goods, or the destination of our exports. The source of our labour - and our capital - is Asia.

The other part of the story is easily available credit, but I’ll save that one for another day.

John Smith wrote on Jan 11^th, 2015 at 9:47am:


We are the fastest growing economy in Europe.
Still if you were to chuck your lot in with the Asians...

longweekend58 wrote on Dec 21^st, 2014 at 5:12pm:


It would be cheaper to cut superannuation tax concessions altogether and give the pension to everyone instead of allowing the wealthy to use super as a tax avoidance scheme.....If the wealthy were not allowed to horde millions in superannuation and made to pay tax on their income they would be forced to invest their profits instead of leaving their money in tax havens that have become superannuation accounts.....Howard and Costello screwed the nation to buy votes during a once in a lifetime boom.....Now we have seen the back of the boom Hockey and Abbott want the poor to pay the price for poor policy....Wankers!!!