Australia General Discussion

[RogueBeaver]

New Nielsen: 57/43, 49/29.

[RogueBeaver]

Fraser is still a troll.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/fraser-ready-to-counsel-abbott/story-fn59niix-1226624771510

[RogueBeaver]

ANZAC Day today, so a salute to you guys from another part of the Commonwealth.

[RogueBeaver]

New taxes as part of that new bipartisan Medicare thing, amirite? Abbott will have to choose between repealing one or both taxes- I suspect he pushes hard on mining-, a faster balance schedule and his own entitlement hobbyhorse. Plus the baby bonus was axed, kudos to Gillard/Swan for that. Libs added plenty of entitlements last time they were in office, and as we say in French, "sa suffit."

[RogueBeaver]

New taxes as part of that new bipartisan Medicare thing, amirite? Abbott will have to choose between repealing one or both taxes- I suspect he pushes hard on mining-, a faster balance schedule and his own entitlement hobbyhorse. Plus the baby bonus was axed, kudos to Gillard/Swan for that. Libs added plenty of entitlements last time they were in office, and as we say in French, "sa suffit."

Too many entitlements for people who didn't need them. I don't care what Howard and Costello say, these are MASSIVE drains on the economy, it's fine to have these massive handouts (which is what they are) when the revenue is streaming in... but when revenue slows down (which it will regardless of who is in power) there are consequences on the bottom line if you keep them.

The surplus won't come until 2016-17... but I think people need to consider this... they've found over $300b in savings since 08 and there have been revenue write-downs of $170b ... and they're less than $20b short of a surplus... it's actually pretty fricking remarkable.

There have been some errors, namely weakening the mining tax to the extent that they did ($6 billion in tax credits against it, which is why it's bring in f*%( all).

I'm a bit speechless. We're in total agreement on an economic issue, that is the entitlements.

[RogueBeaver]

Rudd now supports SSM, I crossposted this in the election thread.

[RogueBeaver]

Turnbull and Swan are informally floating republic proposals. Not that I think Round 2 will be happening anytime soon.

[RogueBeaver]

The once and future PM will have a winter job. Switch leaders based on polls (or at least that's the reason Shorten gave) whose own authors said were based on a fantasy scenario.

[RogueBeaver]

Election will be moved up to August as expected, we don't know when yet. Dissolution in a couple of weeks.

[RogueBeaver]

We'l probably agree to disagree, but gender isn't why Labor's in extremis. Leadership- live and die by the sword. She knifed Rudd and he knifed her back. That said, I agree that dumping her for the reason you mentioned is total BS.

[RogueBeaver]

Rudd will announce his new Cabinet in a couple of hours. No word on when they'll be sworn in. Here's an interesting read from Carney on Gillard's premiership.

[RogueBeaver]

Rudd will quit as leader when he loses.

[RogueBeaver]

AEC hopes to declare Indi by Thursday, but that's just a formality.

[RogueBeaver]

Tony Abbott is now Australia's 28th Prime Minister. Rest of the Cabinet will be sworn in starting about 15 min from now, and Mirabella has just conceded.

[RogueBeaver]

I'm just pleased that Bishop's a capable econodry, especially on IR (though that'll have to wait for the next Coalition cycle). Hopefully more young econodry stars emerge in the Abbott era. One can never have a deep enough leadership bench so far as I'm concerned.

[RogueBeaver]

Alas, that's eons away. For now all focus will be on BEEB: boats, economy, energy, budget.

[RogueBeaver]

Someone who's economically dry, or fiscally conservative.

On a more solemn note, Keating's eulogy for the Unknown Soldier will be cast in bronze at the War Memorial.

[RogueBeaver]

ACT is moving to enact SSM by year's end, Macklin backs Albo, Gillard and the history wars.

[RogueBeaver]

Another unsurprising vote for Shorten: Howes.

[RogueBeaver]

Speaking of Howes, am I the only one who finds it amusing that a key player in Rudd's overthrow claims he won't run for that NSW Senate seat because of potential divisiveness? He's still got plenty of time, especially if the House is his real goal.

[RogueBeaver]

Since we all need a good laugh, here's Latham's latest screed. Turn off the irony meters before reading, as usual. A lot of it is his usual themes, but also manages to call Albo an intellectual lightweight with little policy depth, shady associations and a narrow-minded urban leftist.

[RogueBeaver]

Don't know enough to judge. As for Howes, there were many other reasons besides SSM (I'm guessing the ALP will move his way on that issue within a few years) for why he didn't force the issue. I'm more curious to see if he eventually enters the Reps.

[RogueBeaver]

Remind me how the balloting works again?

[RogueBeaver]

So Albo's popular with members, Shorten with caucus. What about the unions?

[RogueBeaver]

It's 50/50 - it doesn't follow the UK model.

What's 50/50? Caucus/membership or union support for the candidates?