http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/26/abbott-has-given-up-on-debt...

We have found the real drunken sailors , there really is a debt and deficit disaster thanks to libs and libs alone.

Policy changes after the election of the Abbott government have seen government spending rise 7.8% in real terms in 2013-14 and it is forecast in the budget to increase in every year thereafter. In 2014-15 and 2015-16, government spending will be 25.9% of GDP, a quite stunning 1.8 percentage points higher than the level in the last full year of the previous government. n current dollar terms, that spending surge is equivalent to around $30bn a year

Somebody say spending like drunken sailors?

Vote Labor - the only responsible economic managers.

I will get in first before the righties try and deflect with Howards performance.

Much has been written about the Howard government “inheriting” $96 billion debt from Labor in 1996.


By 2007, Australia had net financial assets of $29 billion. This is a significant turnaround, but if we analyse government debt in the last 30 years, some interesting facts emerge.

Recall from a previous discussion that just under half of the debt was in fact Liberal Party debt that was a hangover from the Fraser era under the Treasury-ship of John Howard.

Asset sales loom large in analysing government debt, which I have summarised as follows : $96billion “Labor debt”, comprised of $40 billion carried over from the Fraser government through the Hawke/Keating period, meaning that the true level of Labor debt was $56billion. To pay that off, the Howard Government sold almost $72billion of Government assets (Telstra, DASFLEET, etc), meaning that the move to negative net debt was not really due to any miraculous and bold fiscal settings, but owed everything to a series of asset sales.

Peter Costello will be remembered for selling two-thirds of Australia’s gold reserves for the rock-bottom price of $US306 per ounce (Today, gold is about $US1590 per ounce).

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) examined 200 years of government financial records across 55 leading economies.

The study found Australia’s most wasteful spending took place under the Howard-led Coalition rather than under Whitlam, Rudd or Gillard Labor governments.

The IMF identifies two periods of Australian “fiscal profligacy”, both during John Howard’s term in office – in 2003, at the start of the mining boom, and during his final years in office between 2005 and 2007.

According to Tony Abbott, these were the “Howard golden years”. Mr Abbott recently said “prudent fiscal management is in the Coalition’s DNA”. The facts suggest otherwise.

Bobby. wrote on Jun 28^th, 2015 at 11:12am:




Meet the new Greens economics team preparing to shake up Australian politics

The Greens have a new economics team. They are not what you'd expect.

One member is a former Wall Street stockbroker. Another is an industrial relations lawyer with a PhD in law and politics. The third is a doctor with health policy expertise.


www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/the-greens-have-a-new-economics-t...

Bobby. wrote on Jun 28^th, 2015 at 11:12am:

I'm quite sure the Liberals can do ok as well at managing the economy if they had some decent people. Not the current crop of Liberals though. No way in hell.

They cut some spending, not to reduce overall levels of spending, but simply to waste money on new spending. Spending overall has INCREASED. They cut company tax rates despite a huge deficit. Their idea of spending cuts is to impose savage cuts on the poor and disadvantaged while leaving the wealthy almost untouched and not making meaningful cuts to corporate welfare. Even people on middle incomes are worse off.

And here's a fact: five times in the past three decades has a Federal government managed to cut spending in real terms in a Federal budget. All five times it was a Labor government that delivered this: three times by Treasurer Keating in the 1980s, twice by Treasurer Swan. Not once in 30 years has a Coalition government managed to cut spending in real terms.

Bam wrote on Jun 28^th, 2015 at 1:09pm:


Striking resemblance

Bam wrote on Jun 28^th, 2015 at 1:05pm:



Only one more year of Tony to go until we

can get some responsible economic management.