$5.90b - Don't raise defence spending
+ $5.40b - Cut fighter jet purchase
+ $4.00b - Tax private trusts
+ $9.10b - Keep carbon price, scrap direct action
+ $8.80b - Scrap proposed paid parental leave scheme
+ $8.00b - Pharmaceuticals spending reform
+ $74.60b - Broaden the GST
= $116b savings, $11.9b forecast surplus
Didn't want to broaden the GST but I did it to get over the line and so I wouldn't have to cut anything else. If I had to do anything else I would go with fuel price indexation and halve diesel fuel rebates. The debt levy (lol) might have been ok if it was only on people making over $180,000 instead of starting at $80,000.
I was in lock-up feeling sick as I was reading it all.
I was watching Joe Hockey's interview on television and felt the bile rising into my throat as soon as Oakes asked him about dancing to Best Day of My Life in his office. This and the cigar-smoking thing is basically a caricature of conservatism come to life.
I've decided I'm joining the ALP. They're useless, and I treasure my independence, but quite frankly I *have* to do something to ease my feeling of being entirely powerless in the face of this truly unbelievably bad government.
I'm not a lover of Labor at any level, and there are plenty of reasons not to join them, but quite frankly Tony Abbott and company are breaking my country and while I doubt Labor is actually a fix for anything I really can't think of any way I can engage without doing so.
Amusingly enough, I'm pretty much set on not voting for Labor in the state election, and I certainly won't be campaigning for them after joining up, but even though I personally think that state politics is at least as important as federal politics, the crumminess of the state ALP is absolutely nothing compared to the horror that is the federal coalition.
Is it the political faction in-fighting you hate about the ALP? Overall, their policies actually seem pretty good to me.
Edit:
At least they aren't proposing to solve the deficit with a tax cut as some here would do.
Granted, but it's taken until like... the last few weeks for the Government to acknowledge that there is as big an issue with revenue (if not a bigger one) than spending. Because they've been outright lying about the nature of our public spending... saying it's exploding, when its not - saying our pension system is unsustainable, when studies show it to be the most stable and sustainable in the world... the issue is revenue.
But as Joe Hockey (ie about beat John Howard as the worst Treasurer we've ever had) continues to ignore - had revenues from 2006-7 been maintained, we'd have a Budget surplus. But the combination of the GFC (which conservatives all of the world seem to forget ever happened), the increased value over than time of the Australian dollar and the instability of our trading partners... Government revenues have dropped.
Bottom-line, there is no Budget emergency we could make fewer drastic changes, keep the cuts the former Government put in place, and they could claim credit for a track to surplus and start paying down the debt in 4-6 years.
And don't forget they keep talking about the "Labor debt", incurred as a result of trying to keep our economy above water. I mean for goodness sake Labor only had government right before the sh*t hit the fan and right after the crisis ended. I really hate when I talk to people and they say both sides are the same or that Rudd and Gillard did a terrible job. Or criticism of the carbon tax and the mining tax. Uggh.
And there's the possibility the Coalition could needlessly cause a contraction with the budget cuts and tax hikes and drag us right into recession. If that does happen they will probably blame that on Labor too and the idiots will believe it because they didn't have "surplus".
