The Liberal Party are good economic managers...... ummmm......... no. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has been proclaiming the Coalition government’s economic credentials this week: an economy growing fast, exports up, household consumption up, 1.1 million jobs created. How are we really faring vis-a-vis the rest of the world? Armed with the latest national accounts, Alan Austin reports the flip side of the coin, how Australia has fallen behind. Australia’s economy was widely regarded as the world’s best-performed through the global financial crisis (GFC). It is now outside the world’s top twenty. The Coalition has set new “worst-ever” records for underemployment, debt, retail sales, wages and infrastructure construction. Wednesday’s national accounts for the 2018 third quarter from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) enable us to compare precisely where Australia’s economy ranked in the world five years ago with where it ranks now. https://www.michaelwest.com.au/the-big-breather-why-australias-economy-now-ranks-outside-the-top-20
Details Summary of some of the points for the non-readers: Economic growth Annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) to the end of September 2018 was 2.77 per cent. Although that compares reasonably well with numbers over the last ten years or so it is as low as Australia has ever been relative to the rest of the world. The budget deficit The 2013 deficit – at the end of the GFC – was 1.2 per cent of GDP. That ranked 27th in the world and equal ninth in the OECD. Only two OECD countries were in surplus that year: Norway and Luxembourg. The 2018 deficit – after four years of a global jobs and investment boom – was 1.9 per cent of GDP. That ranked 64th in the world and 24th in the OECD. There are now 16 OECD countries in budget surplus. Government gross debt Gross debt last Friday was $537.5 billion. That is up $267.6 billion or 99.1 per cent since the 2013 election. Interest on the debt Labor paid $8.29 billion in net interest in its last financial year, 2012-13. The Coalition paid $17.03 billion last financial year and is on track to pay $17.8 billion this year. Real wage declines Over the twelve months to September this year, wages – public and private sectors – rose just 2.29 per cent. This is only the fourth time on record the year-to-September result has been below 2.30 per cent. The other three were in 2015, 2016 and 2017. With inflation between 1.9 and 2.1 per cent this year, this is barely an increase in real terms. Infrastructure worst ever Last month’s ABS figures show total spending on building and construction for the 12 months to September dropped yet again. At just $213.9 billion, that is $2.9 billion below last year, $3.4 billion below the year to September 2015, and a thumping $22.8 billion below the construction spend in Labor’s last year, to September 2013. Other declines in OECD rankings since the 2013 election include: Volume of exports of goods and services: down from sixth to 18th. Gross national savings: down from ninth to 18th. Government spending as a percentage of GDP: down from fifth to eighth. Gross domestic product per capita: down from fifth to seventh. Gini coefficient (equality of wealth distribution): down from second to fifth. Plus there has been deterioration in the long term jobless, productivity, household net savings, building approvals, economic freedom, national income, the nation’s net worth and the value of the Aussie dollar. Fortunately for the Morrison Government, the mainstream media has no interest whatsoever in reporting any of this accurately. In fact, they are already campaigning for the return of the Government at next year’s election based on “the Coalition’s record on economic management”. Such is Australia’s doom! [/QUOTE]
Yes, the numbers aren't pretty re the Labs, but the free spending Labour crew don't present as a creditable alternative. Pre GFC, Australia was a net lender to the world to the tune of circa AUD90bn.....enter Kevin Rudd 07 and how the game changed and we have been worse for it ever since.... and the Australia public don't want to hear about it and let alone take some medicine now to fix the problem before it becomes fatal.
Agree. Gillard/Rudd plundered everything we had in a scramble to buy votes, and we are still paying for it. Was going to have a go at a decent reply to Julie's thread, but then realised I'm wasting my time putting forth facts and logic to the hard left. IMHO, the entitlement mentality of Australian voters is now so engrained that it doesn't matter which party has government - handouts buy votes, and they are handcuffed to this mandate. Like France, we are slowly running out of other peoples money. And there is no way that a Talented Mr Shorten will improve on this position - his hinting at policies are already starting to rack up more debt before he even wins government.
Yep. Gillard/Swan/Rudd cratered the Australian treasury and put us into a death spiral and unfortunately the Liberals that came after didn’t have anyone with the ability or courage to get the spending under control again as has happened in the past. Now we are in the wilderness, there are no more Howards or Hawkes or Keatings with the spine to run the country with a reasonable amount of competentcy. Add to that the rise of the social media addicted Snowflake lunatic brigade where depressive cat mother feminists and beta male soy boys attempt to run civilisation by mob rule from the sidelines and you have 2019. The Australian dream is over, prepare accordingly.
Never vote for leftist labor! They will ruin our nation with mass immigration from undesirable nations and BS refugees!
We don't have leaders ... we have leeches ... there is no one running the country ... just siphoning it ...
Bill Shorten promises $20-million in taxpayer funds to his daughter’s sport: ‘I’m a netball dad’ The pledge comes after he promised $30-million to set up an AFL club in Tasmania. Bill Shorten has promised a $20-million in taxpayer funded “investment” in women’s netball if Labor is elected. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2005-06, a total of 387,500 women aged 15 years and over participated in the game. “If Labor is elected we’re going to make the biggest single ever investment in women’s netball, $20-million,” Shorten said in a video he shared on Twitter. “I’m a netball dad. I’m really proud when I watch my girls train and when they run onto court. I want every girl to have the same chance as every boy in Australia playing team sport, it does wonders for their exercise, their self-esteem, and who knows maybe some elite athletes in the making.” Earlier this year, Shorten pledged $30-million in taxpayer funds to help establish a new AFL club in Tasmania. This is why we pay so much in tax, so self-seeking politicians can use our money to virtue signal and buy votes. Link
Shorten will only put public money into things that funnel into the CFMEU, the AWU and MWU. http://pickeringpost.com/topic/shorten/13
A right wing extremist forum. Why don't you peddle your inhumane,selfish,greedy Ideas on a political forum,rather than a silver forum.
And there we have it.... the name calling / labelling has started. This is not a right wing extremist forum, rather a forum where members see through the BS of the socialist left (and to be fair about it the conservative right when they do stupid things too) and apply a common sense filter to what they see based on the position of the country v what the politicians are doing..... and given we still have some level of free speech in Australia, are free to speak their mind.... whether you, I or others disagree. If you would like to explain to all why this is a "right wing extremist forum" (note: when one can't mount an argument, the left default to throwing a handful of names such as...right wing extremist, xenophobe, white supremacist, anti-Semite and the tried and true "your a Nazi") and why the Saul Alinsky driven policy of the ALP is a meaningful alternative, then we'd be all ears. History is a great teacher and those who do not learn from the lessons of Kevvy/ Julia and lets not forget old mate Gough will in years to come look back and go "Oh...bugger I thought it'd be different this time".....
It's like this (to me anyway): Howard era government paid down the debt. The top tax bracket kicked in far earlier than it does today and back then I was in it, despite having a modest income compared to today. It felt really wrong that I had to pay down the debt racked up by Labor governments before. Several government owned assets were privatised to boot. The end result was amazing - Australia had no government debt. At that time, the tax brackets were raised. It was already known that superannuation was not funded (the treasurer at the time, Costello, was conscientious enough to be open about this on the public record). It was a very responsible thing to look at properly funding it. I felt this to be the essence of responsible government policy - for the public to NOT be on the hook to private and secret loans made to it by international finance. Unfortunately, after Labor got in, the policy changed to deficit spending. We have an enormous debt now, with landmines deliberately placed by the Labor government to ensure that undoing their decisions would be more costly and thus a deterrent. Rational border policy was overturned and illegal immigrants via organised smuggling rackets took advantage in lock step with our tax payer funded media. This cost many billions and was completely unsustainable, BY DESIGN. You have to ask yourself, what sort of government, which lives as a public service to the citizenry would deliberately endebt its populace, to the point that in its treasury report (Swan, the "greatest ever treasurer"), would wholly ink out the names of the entities to whom the debt was owed by each and every tax payer of this country. What kind of government seeks to destroy the border? And make the tax payer pay for everything that means? To me it is unconscionable, if the elected government is representative of its citizens, that it would choose such hostile policies. If you followed closely - Gillard's government tried to ram through the senate a bill, tabled as Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination, which would have made it a criminal offence for a person to merely OFFEND another person based on their political differences AND by law give the prosecution free legal counsel, whilst the onus would be on the defendant to prove they didn't offend them (and they would have to pay their own legal bill!) I cannot imagine anyone thinking this is anything other than what it is, unless fooling themselves about the intention or equally malicious. Bill Shorten has stated openly that superannuation is *a national asset* Maybe you missed it. Maybe not. If you did, think about what it means. I am totally in favour of a sustainable welfare and healthcare net but what we are seeing are strong efforts by the left to cause so much debt and force our vulnerable people, now and in the future, to a lower quality of life than they would enjoy otherwise. Ask yourself - to whose benefit is this? Labor is not at all what genuine social interest is about. It is more about extreme cronyism with finance. Oh and after the last liberal government, undermined by a devout leftist at its helm, there is no competition and this too was deliberate. You will now get what many of you people who think left=moral really means. Sadly, it means a poorer quality of life and a fractured society. Divide and rule by another name (class-conflict), in other words.
My eyes glaze over as soon as a lefty labels the right “selfish and greedy”. This is the lamest retort in existence, contains zero substance, and is only used when you have nothing sensible or slightly intelligent to say. If I am greedy because I dislike the unproductive entitlists thieving what I have worked hard for, then you my friend have an intellectual disability, the likes of which are more commonly described as fcktardery.
