The only person in Australia that didn't realise that a budget surplus at all costs next year would be destructive to the economy is now up to speed. Interesting to see how he will spin this one with company taxes falling sharply. Businesses not confident under your government perhaps? http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/tax-shortfall-threatens-swans-surplus/story-e6frf7jo-1226541133706
Personally I dont think it would matter which government was in power at the moment <ducks>. The rest of the world is deep shite .. and we as a country are not immune.
aww Swan when will you learn we don't live in a bubble. I was waiting for someone to throw cake in his face, but it didn't happen
Yes but when will the governments realise they cannot stop a cycle of events. They keep on saying they can stave off unemployment if elected etc, but really if they mess around with the natural cycle of things will only create a bigger problem in the long term. So for their petty votes and narcissistic egos we all in the end suffer far worse for their stupidity.
I disagree. A budget surplus would be better for the economy not destructive - not that he was ever going to achieve a real surplus since it was all accounting tricks to even to pretend they were going to achieve the one point whatever billion "surplus". Obviously, what would be significantly better would be achieving a (real) budget surplus while actually cutting spending (rather than increasing taxes).
Interesting to read the Wikipedia entry for Wayne Swan. No economic credentials or training whatsoever, no private sector experience at all. Talk about putting the flight attendant in the pilot seat.
I did say "A budget surplus at all costs". Of course a real budget surplus would be beneficial, but even the tea lady at Parliament House knows better than to do what Swan was attempting.
It would be destructive in the short to medium term, as a lot of company's have their hands in the government money pie.
And he won some international award...That's on par with mr Drone killer, life taker Obama winning a Nobel peace prize
Withdrawal symptoms of a drug addict, but the patient will be significantly better off the drugs rather than on them. Same with removing the cancerous central banking based financial system we have now. It'll suck at first but we'd all be better off without them.
Quite possibly true, however I don't recall the opposition making the same [del]lies[/del] promises as the incumbents (i.e. Surplus + no carbon tax) :/
unless the addiction is so strong and the patient is very weak that the withdrawal processes kills them. Though we would be better off not having the weak and stupid around.
+1. Although as discussed in the the "Is tax a necessary evil?" thread a weaning process is all that's needed to make the serious cuts and adjustments rather than go cold turkey overnight. Seriously though, Commonwealth Government revenues have increased 53% in just six years and Swanny's bitching about how tough conditions are and how revenues are "falling in a hole". Seriously 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Revenue 221.6 237.0 303.7 298.9 292.8 309.9 338.1 Expenses 206.1 219.4 280.1 324.6 339.2 356.1 377.7 Net operating balance 15.5 17.6 23.6 -25.7 -46.4 -46.2 -39.6
Where is Big A.D.? His hero Wayne Swan failed again. After being pointed out that he hasn't come close to a single forecast budget in 5 years (intentionally forecasting rosy figures to look good on one hand then blaming everything else but himself for the forecasts falling short). Big A.D. What's happened mate? You were so sure your beloved Labor was coming back to surplus in 2012/13, but they failed again. Suppose you will simply swallow the excuses from your deity-Swan again? Labor isn't even spelled right, they need to have it amended to E P I C F A I L.
Bordsilver where did you get those figures from? From the ABS Total taxation revenue: in billions (05/06)$245 223 (06/07) $261 988 (07/08)$285 672 (08/09) $278 002 (09/10) $267 171 So they were up in 07/08 when they took over from Howard but have been falling ever since. Still more than what Howard/Costello had to play with. But with ever more taxes Labor takes in ever less cash and spends ever more.
The ABS classifies the budgets differently to Treasury (no idea of the differences). I took these from the various Treasury "Final Budget Outcome" documents. Go to HERE and click on a year and somewhere on the page you should see a link to "Final Budget Outcome". I used the Revenue and Expenses as they are the only consistent line items which include 2005-06 (the newer ones also report Receipts and Expenses).
You must have me confused with someone else. I've said (repeatedly) that Wayne Swan is not brilliant, he's simply better than any of the other drones wandering the halls of Parliament house. And since Joe Hockey also committed the Coalition to delivering surpluses, you have to wonder what Hockey would do if he were is Swan's position: acknowledge failure and not hurt the economy or stick to the soundbite "promise" and start causing damage? Swan was stupid to "commit" to delivering a surplus in the first place. It's a nice thing to have but if you can't afford it, you can't afford it.
a bit of a relief for some. hopefully it will be enough for the RBA to stop cutting interest rates to compensate. :|