After relentlessly caning the Labor Party for promising a surplus and not delivering, the Liberal Party - who have repeated just about every one of Labor's failings but 10 times worse - have cast doubt on whether their "Back in Black" surplus for this year will eventuate.       Scott Morrison has stated "how could we have predicted the Corona Virus from May last year" as a reason for the probable failure to deliver.   They weren't as kind as that to Rudd and Swan though when their budget surplus was wiped out by the GFC.   

Liberals, buying the mugs before brewing the coffee

Quote:


Great excuse from one of the guys who refused to accept the GFC as a valid reason ? Go figure - The chickens coming home to roost seems to come to mind.

When you trade on dishonesty you may die by the sword ?

Impaled on his own spaghetti can.

Dnarever wrote on Mar 1^st, 2020 at 8:54am:


Exactly my thoughts DNA. I, and I would think most people, remember well how these rsoles have hounded labor and are now appealing that "circumstaces" exist. The GFC threw the rest of the world into recession, but not australia thanks to swannie, and the libs have rubbished him ever since. Well libbos, guess what, the roosters are coming home to roost and no excuses will be accepted.

The debt and deficit disaster is no longer an issue since the Coalition doubled the deficit and have failed to deliver a surplus despite not having a GFC to contend with and strong global growth since taking office....We are now supposed to believe after 7 years in power (more than Labor's whole term) that this Government can be trusted to deliver anything but bullshit and spin to cover their incompetent asses???

the libs can only achieve a surplus by selling the furniture ... they're running out of furniture to sell so surplus' from the libs will no longer be possible

Bobby. wrote on Mar 1^st, 2020 at 5:54pm:


And yet you still vote for them!

Bobby. wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2020 at 10:21am:


So, who do you vote for?

Quote:


I vote for the candidate that is likely to come second

The reason is that marginal seats get looked after a lot better by the government than safe ones. 

Good bye surplus.

Hello recession? 

greggerypeccary wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2020 at 10:50am:


True - maybe next time I'll put a
diagonal line through the forms?

Bam wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2020 at 12:18pm:


One of the best informal votes I ever saw when working as a scrutineer was a drawing of a donkey.

Not just a quick outline drawing, but a finely detailed and shaded lifelike drawing.

The person was obviously a very talented artist, and they decided to submit their own version of a donkey vote.

Bobby. wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2020 at 2:21pm:


I answered you in reply #15.

I usually vote backwards.

i.e. I put Liberal last, Labor second last, and then go from there until someone gets my primary vote.

Bobby. wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2020 at 2:26pm:


Greens and Labor always go before Liberal, but I very rarely put them first.

Liberal always goes dead last.

Bobby. wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2020 at 2:32pm:


I'd tell you that you got two out of three right.

macman wrote on Mar 4^th, 2020 at 12:49pm:

Peccerhead isn't old enough to vote, Bobby is certified insane and is ineligible.

macman wrote on Mar 5^th, 2020 at 8:10am:

I'll keep it mind in case that day ever comes.

What a storm in a tea cup.  The Libs said when they were battling the bushfires that the Greenies caused by banning the clearing of dangerous undergrowth that the surplus would be used to restore the bushfire damage.

Angry Bammy describes his emotions to a tee.

The disgruntled Lefties standard response to anything they don't like is to deny and lie. They are feeling so hopeless and helpless as their beloved but useless Socialist Labor slides to an election loss.

ScoMo's masterful handling of the bushfires that the Greenies caused and now the UN Corona Virus Population Reduction Control is wonderful to behold.

Just think what a sick mess we all would be in now if Labor had gotten in and RESTARTED the BOATS and brought hundreds of illegal invaders reeking of Corona Virus into Australia. There would be already a thousand deaths here in Australia.

Poor distraught Bammy thinks just crossing out something will change anything.  Must be hard to keep the chin up watching Labor sinking daily to an election loss.

But what about the new CRISIS ???


The TOILET PAPER CRISIS!!!!!!

which newspaper is good for a toilet paper substitute ?   The Guardian as it is always covered in Lefty *** ?

juliar wrote on Mar 5^th, 2020 at 12:43pm:

The Guardian is not useful as dunny paper. It's full of shite already and the ink rubs off.

ALDI cattledogs are no good either - too shiny.

"It doesn't matter how badly the Coalition screws up, because I can always imagine that Labor would have screwed things up even worse."

Sprintcyclist wrote on Mar 8^th, 2020 at 5:30pm:

Australia is doing badly because we have a bad government, and too many long years of conservative governments.

Robot wrote on Mar 8^th, 2020 at 5:09pm:


The last resort of supporters of the right to stick with their failed government, faulty imagination.

The facts say that the Previous Labor government outperformed these clowns in all regards.

Yep right from the suppository of no wisdom himself right up to today the economic performance of the Liberals has been incompetent at best. Remember the current government stood on their economic credentials and were re elected a week before the RBA was bailing out their failed economy.

Yes they doubled the debt in half the time. They claimed a budget emergency and only made it worse while the emergency went away even as the budget deficit got worse. The emergency was in reality a media driven fake panic used for political advantage.

Remember Hockings promised surplus for 2014 ? No neither does he.

While Labor did well in really tough times the Liberals have done poorly in a more moderate environment. Gillard was the best Australian PM in the last 20 years.

To summarize Australia performed in the top 10% through the GFC under a Labor government since 2013 Australia have badly lagged behind the field under Liberal governments.

As I said the actual facts make this type of silly claim from the right supporters look just as stupid as it is.

So many of them come on here and support garbage with ignorance.

Bam wrote on Mar 8^th, 2020 at 6:43pm:


I use Fox News as a laxative, works every time.

Dnarever wrote on Mar 8^th, 2020 at 7:11pm:


Unemployment June 2013:

Australia 5.7%
Canada 7.1%
Germany 5.2%
New Zealand 5.9%
United Kingdom 7.7%
United States 7.5%

Unemployment June 2019:

Australia 5.3%
Canada 5.5%
Germany 3.1%
New Zealand 3.9%
United Kingdom 3.9%
United States 3.7%

Change:

Australia -0.4%
Canada -1.6%
Germany -2.1%
New Zealand -2.0%
United Kingdom -3.8%
United States -3.8%

Coalition superior economic managers, pig's arse.

The greatest strength of the coalition is that voters continue to believe the myth that they are superior economic managers.

No doubt that myth will continue when the budget surplus they not merely promised but claimed had already been delivered fails to materialise.

The surplus that never was... gone for good now with a stimulus package .. Kevin Kash to the scum... Morrison/Frydenburg Synchronised Swann Dive....

I'll spend happily.... more beer!!

Yes, it's good bye surplus, but this is all good news for the Coalition.

"It's the economy stupid" has returned with a vengeance.

Speaking of stupid:

Lest we forget those three

nongs

were going to hit the real economy to the tune of $5 Billion per annum.

 


The country dodged a bullet when it decided not to elect Shorten and his fellow nongs. 

Captain Nemo wrote on Mar 12^th, 2020 at 8:52am:

Open BOTH eyes for a change.

The country's suffering much harder by electing a corrupt, mendacious, incompetent and malicious circus of self-serving muppets who are leading Australia into recession.

This is all actually delicious irony.    Turnbull wanted to give tax cuts as part of his stimulus package to counter Rudd's stimulus payments to taxpayers .   Tax cuts that would go to the top end of the tax scales and leave next to nothing for those on the bottom level.    Blue Tie Tards on here were orgasming over the amount of Rudd's money they reckon was being used to buy plasmas, overseas holidays, cars and drugs.    where oh where are you now my Coalition Friends?    Now, Morrison has done EXACTLY THE SAME!    Every thing Labor did to steer us away from the effects of the GFS has been re-enacted by Morrison and Frydenburgh!   Where is the outrage?  The condemnation?   The Kudos for Rudd and Swan for enacting good policy that you have copied?

Vic wrote on Mar 12^th, 2020 at 10:30am:

It's not exactly the same. Morrison's handing out billions to businesses, in the hope that it will "trickle down". We're about to get a most forceful refutation for trickle down neoliberal doctrine: the trickle down recession. What little that took 30 years to trickle down will be sucked back up again in less than 3 months.

Captain Nemo wrote on Mar 12^th, 2020 at 2:30pm:


You don’t know that because Labor never got in.   The Coalition however are in.    They have tripled the debt left behind by labor in under three terms.   There is no surplus, no break even, just more debt.  Where is the money coming from to fund the stimulus package, more borrowing from China?     You worry about a maybe 5 billion dollar economic value if labor got in but don’t acknowledge a 1 trillion dollar debt under the Coalition.       

Vic wrote on Mar 12^th, 2020 at 3:12pm:


I do know that the real economy would be $5 Billion per annum worse off under Labor because that was their policy.

Ripping out $59 Billion over 10 years from self-funded retirees whose annual income was below $18,000.

i.e. Ripping away $5 Billion from the retail sector (the real economy).

That was Labor policy.

Thank your God that they weren't elected. 


Remember this ? :

Shorten hits shareholders with plan for $59 billion revenue grab

By David Crowe
March 12, 2018 — 9.19pm


Labor will target more than 1 million Australian taxpayers who own shares in a $59 billion revenue push that would take its heaviest toll on retirees, as Bill Shorten wages war on “unfair” cash refunds and ramps up attacks on the rich.

In a bold move that hurts wealthier voters, the Opposition Leader will reveal plans to help balance the budget by cancelling cash refunds worth an average of $5000 a year to taxpayers who own shares and claim tax credits on their dividends.

The stunning decision takes aim at more affluent taxpayers in a “hit the rich” policy that is certain to spark a political fight over a group of voters still reeling from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s move to scale back superannuation tax breaks two years ago.



Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will announce another plank in Labor's economic policy on Tuesday.

Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

As Labor fights to hold the marginal seat of Batman against a threat from the Greens this weekend, Mr Shorten will blast the Coalition for creating a “loophole” in 2001 on the tax credits paid on dividends.

Mr Shorten opens the new fight over shareholder credits after his long row with Mr Turnbull over company tax cuts, where he has attacked the “big end of town” for not paying enough tax.

Labor is calculating the political pain from the bold new plan will be worthwhile when it uses the huge revenue gain to pay for policies at the next election - including personal income tax cuts.

The Labor policy, seen by Fairfax Media, is aimed at raising $5.6 billion in 2020 and a similar amount every year, equivalent to about $4,800 on average each year for every taxpayer affected.

This is based on Labor assumptions the reforms would hit about 8 per cent of taxpayers, or around 1.17 million individuals and superannuation funds - including 200,000 self-managed super funds.

In a key pledge, Mr Shorten will promise to continue with dividend imputation for millions of taxpayers and would only change the rules for those whose taxable income is so low they qualify for cash refunds.

“Everyone will still be able to use imputation credits to reduce their tax - but not to claim cash refunds,” he says in a draft of his remarks to a policy summit on Tuesday.
“Reforming the system to eliminate this concession will save the budget $11.4 billion over the final two years of the current forward estimates and $59 billion over the medium term.”
...

www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/shorten-hits-shareholders-with-plan-for-59-bi...

Morrison's stimulus like everything else he does is too late, as we have come to expect from this dithering idiot....Now Abbott's cuts to welfare and medicare will come home to bite when the economy is geared towards rewarding the rich and punishing the poor....Coalition voters who applaud this dickhead after attacking Rudd and Swan for keeping Australia out of recession have shown they have no integrity and are only interested in protecting an image from this bunch of ass holes we have for a Government....Morrison never takes responsibility for his actions and always blames everyone else for his failings....The economy has been soft for some time despite Morrison's denials to the contrary and now his failure to lead has shown us the true Slo Mo these dickheads voted for !!!

Quote:




https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7847275/Scott-Morrisons-poor-decisions-...

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/morrison-must-ensure-he-doesnt-become-s...

Captain Nemo wrote on Mar 12^th, 2020 at 3:56pm:



only if you look at one side of the coin. There were benefits to that policy that you seem to have forgotten to include in your synopsis

Captain Nemo wrote on Mar 12^th, 2020 at 3:56pm:

So you're ignoring the following:

$1 billion of illegal false robodebts extorted from vulnerable Australians
$8 billion of pork barrelling, some of it illegal
$1 billion a year to incarcerate 1000 innocent people
Many other examples of waste

Those franking credits are funded with the PROCEEDS OF CRIME.

Why should wealthy people be getting tax "refunds" for tax they don't even pay? Those tax breaks could be abolished to pay for company tax cuts, which would be revenue neutral overall (something else you don't understand in your frothy-mouthed anti-Labor zeal).

Bam wrote on Mar 12^th, 2020 at 5:18pm:


No other country in the world copies Australia's franking credit scam because it is unsustainable and non productive....People who are complaining about a surplus should blame John Howard and Peter Costello!!!

philperth2010 wrote on Mar 12^th, 2020 at 5:31pm:



And yet dividends paid by resident companies in Singapore are exempt from tax.

Dividends from cooperatives are taxed.

So to Singapore they are sustainable and productive. Of course that means that Singaporeans invest in resident companies first and foremost.

"Effective 1 Jan 2008, Singapore resident companies can issue one-tier tax exempt dividends. This means shareholders will not be taxed on this dividend income. However, dividends received from shares in co-operatives are taxable."

https://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/Individuals/Locals/Learning-the-basics/Individu...

Bam wrote on Mar 12^th, 2020 at 5:11pm:



his instructions are that whenever the libs come under scrutiny, deflect, deflect, deflect

Meanwhile ... more sensible evaluation of the Stimulus package ...

Morrison's coronavirus stimulus package shows sober, expert advice can still prevail

The Coalition has spent 10 years characterising cash handouts as budget-wrecking communism. This collective epiphany is interesting



If you’ve been watching closely you’ll know the official version of what Australia needs to do to stave off a recession triggered by the coronavirus has travelled quite a distance in a very short period of time.

The Morrison government started with we don’t need stimulus, then moved to countenancing a modest boost, before touching down on Thursday with a significant pump prime north of $17bn – a bunch of measures that looks a lot like the first stimulus the Rudd government unleashed during the global financial crisis.

Over that same period (which, to be clear, is only a couple of weeks) the government has also travelled from having a surplus in May, yeah baby, to “we’ll get back to you on when that will happen”.

So let’s start with the obvious.

Everybody is learning here, calibrating and recalibrating, in full public view, and the truth is there is so much uncertainty associated with this pandemic that forecasting the future feels more like astrology than economics – particularly with the White House warbler weaving incoherently all over the place, dragging febrile global markets along with him.

With due respect to all the unknowns, this much can be said.

At first blush the design of this economic stimulus package looks entirely sensible.

The engine room of the intervention – cash payments worth $4.76bn – will be targeted at more than 6 million Australians with a high marginal propensity to consume.

A bit of recent history. When the Morrison government gave people income tax cuts, they didn’t spend their windfall, they saved it. So targeting one-off payments at people who lack the luxury of saving does seem the best way of sending cautious consumers to the shops to deliver the desired economic benefit.

That strategy worked during the global financial crisis, and it is reasonable, in the broad, for Treasury to assume it can work again.

My only question would be whether $750 is the magic number; whether that is enough money to coax people to get out and spend for Australia at a time when people are fretful enough to be stampeding into supermarkets and getting into punch-ups over toilet paper.

Because if we cut to the chase, the success of this package requires two things: speed of delivery and confidence in the community.

It requires people and businesses to go out and spend their government handouts, not retreat to their bunkers like doomsday preppers.

The problem for Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg is a circular one. As a government you can try to engender national confidence by projecting steadiness, by working up a plan and telegraphing it with as much competence as you can muster. But you are also hostage to events largely beyond your control.

The government is hostage to people worried about whether they, or their loved ones, are going to succumb to an illness, which is a visceral fear; hostage to how and when this illness will spread, and the practical consequences of the pandemic (health systems stretched, schools and shops and businesses closing); hostage to whatever market-moving madness comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth on any given day (which must be one of the adrenaline-thumping unknowns of all).

In closing, a couple more things can be noted.

The first is that the government has managed to land this package, and the show hasn’t exploded – even though this is the Coalition, funding cash handouts to benefit recipients. This is behaviour that in more ideological quarters of the government could be considered highly suspect, even if the overarching objective is to keep people employed and the country out of recession.

Just remember the Coalition has spent much of the last 10 years characterising fiscal stimulus, including cash payments, as budget-wrecking communism, so assuming the current discipline holds, this collective epiphany is genuinely interesting.

It suggests that sober, expert advice and pragmatic thinking can sometimes prevail over the brimming feelings of the overconfident ignoramuses who loom large in public life and make it their business to be as destructive as possible.

I was beginning to wonder whether hoping for sense was a waste of energy, and this stimulus package suggests to me that the technocrats, both in the political and bureaucratic class, are still in the fight.

I don’t know about you but I find this reassuring.

The second thing to note is that the government has been sensible enough to reserve the right to do more in the event it needs to do more. It has given itself scope to go again at budget time in May if it judges a second round of stimulus is required.

This is good scope to have, because right now, we need all options on the table.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/12/morrisons-coronavirus-stimulus-...

Thankfully, that little turd didn't get his way either. 

"Where is the money coming from for Rudd Mark2? "

Consolidated Revenue - ain't it a bitch?

ScoMo will have to borrow more money
for the cash handouts.
I suspect the national Govt debt
will now be $800 billion.

That's 4 times Rudd's debt of $200 billion.

Captain Nemo wrote on Mar 13^th, 2020 at 5:02pm:



there is no problem with not refunding money that you never paid.

try get a refund for something you didn't pay for anywhere else and they'll laugh at you

Captain Nemo wrote on Mar 13^th, 2020 at 5:26pm:



nothing erroneous about it. Company's taxes are not the shareholders refund.

It can't be that hard to understand

John Smith wrote on Mar 13^th, 2020 at 5:38pm:

Obviously you don't

Captain Nemo wrote on Mar 14^th, 2020 at 8:14am:


You seem to miss the part where they didn't pay the tax ? Or in fact didn't pay any tax.

While I think it was stupid to try to change it the way that they did and that I personally voted against them partially over this I do still understand.

I also get that the first person to publicly say that this is unaffordable and has to go was Tony Abbott when he was PM.

Both political party's understand that this is flawed and not long term sustainable.

Captain Nemo wrote on Mar 14^th, 2020 at 9:52am:

Because it is an unsustainable tax rort.

Bam wrote on Mar 14^th, 2020 at 10:11am:



You're saying the Tax Free Threshold system is a rort?

You reckon people with a total annual income of $18,000 should pay income tax? 

You were happy with Shorten/ Bowen / Chalmers plan to rip away on average $5,000 per annum from those on total incomes of under $18,000 but continue to allow rich people to have the pre-paid share income tax deducted from their tax bill?


Really?