New Prime Minister!

[drewr]

So you have no problem with a former Union Head with ties to the Communist party, and with no economic credentials running the country?

Speaking clearly and with conviction doesn't mean you know what you're doing! Truth is, we need the grey men who KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING running our economy. Problem is they're all making millions in the private sector so why would they want to come back and fix Labor's mess a second time round?

I agree whole heartidly here, my views pretty much exactly...

I agree with spyda
What was wrong with Kevin?
He gave us money
He bought a computer for us
He gave us insulation for free

Ive never seen any other polly do as many good things as him.
Hang on isn't there a rule not to talk about politics on this forum

Hey, don't forget the $900 bucks! It's almost like buying a pretty girl a big diamond ring to get in her pants, huh...

This could get become a very messy thread, in no time at all.

It's interesting to hear. Will make for an interesting next election, that's for sure!

Haha agree'd! I'm sure everyone has strong political views, but to stop someone from getting possibly killed over this thread, i think some people should bite their tongue a bit.




All I can say is, i'm concerned about possibilities for criminal offenses over poking fun at redheads...

[killingwithasmile]

All those things he "gave" use have to be paid for by us in the end via taxes so he we didn't get anything other than a larger national debt!

The worldwide government solution to the financial crisis is scary, lets fix a problem caused by out of control debt and bankers by putting ourselves into higher debt levels...

woops, holy double post batman!

So how would you have steered us through the gfc? Krudd kept ALOT of people in jobs especially manufacturing with his spending.
We pay taxes whether the govt spends money or not and taxes haven't gone up under labour.

Would you rather have a job and the country be in debt or not have a job and the country have $200bn in surplus?

I voted krudd. Bummer to see him stand down

[static1800]

So how would you have steered us through the gfc? Krudd kept ALOT of people in jobs especially manufacturing with his spending.
We pay taxes whether the govt spends money or not and taxes haven't gone up under labour.

Would you rather have a job and the country be in debt or not have a job and the country have $200bn in surplus?

I voted krudd. Bummer to see him stand down

It's not a matter of spending money or not spending it, It's a matter of correctly using it. By not blowing heaps of money putting everyone in more debt and making inflation go even worse, this is why we are in this situation.

Putting the country in a huge lot of debt doesn't solve anything, sure taxes haven't gone up now but we all have to pay that money back somewhere.

The current government hasn't done much other than spend money and propose all these wonderful things that they have never delivered on or "plan" to deliver in 3 years time.

[Rocket36]

The so called "stimulus" payments didn't need to be done to make it through the GFC. The MINING COMPANIES and serious foreign investment in Australia saw us through. And the Labor spin doctors don't want you to know or believe that so they can instead take credit for it. A better "stimulus" investment in Australia is to throw the money at small business. Make it cheaper for them to do business by cutting their taxes, or providing incentives to hire more staff. When small business booms, Australia booms. More people in jobs means more people to spend money - they don't need govt handouts to spend money. PLUS the money the govt spends on small business STAYS IN AUSTRALIA. So much of the "stimulus" went overseas and is in fact a huge waste!

Bottom line, a monkey could have guided us through the GFC because of economic measures taken by the previous government and their solid economic management track record. Combined with the resources and foreign investment boom. We're LUCKY that was the case too. If not, Labor would have just turned Australia into a sinking ship. Instead, we're currently in the possition of having hit a big iceburg but we're currently able to bail more water than is rushing in to stay afloat. OK, not the best anaolgy... But as soon as investments in resources are pulled back and foreign investment and trade with Australia slows, watch us have another Labor "recession we have to have" all over again. We're in RECORD debt. Why? Because Labor is all about SPEND SPEND SPEND. Then TAX TAX TAX.

I'm not even going to mention things like the billions wasted on school sheds, people killed as a direct result of the insulation program, the complete waste of time and money it was signing the Kyoto Treaty, letting boat loads of illegal immigrants land on our shores and putting them up at tax payer's expense, saying sorry "on behalf of a nation" (sorry Kev, not on behalf of me!) for something nobody alive had anything to do with (be sorry about it, but don't apologies for it)... And finally, the draconian proposed laws to limit what I see and how I use on the Internet.

I really don't understand why so many people seem to be blind to the facts.

[pirelli]

This was always on Gillards agenda dont believe otherwise
libs will win the next one

[Buller_Scott]

i personally think that Joolia Goolia is kinda hot.

so i've got her sealed in my mind for a great prime ministership.

[Sharkie]

+1 for Rocket36s sentiments ....

Labor was an utter waste of time and money .... going to be very expensive for a long time for a lot of people to dig Australia out of the deep hole of incompetence they've dug us into ....

And BTW if I really had to only vote for either KRUDD or JULES, I'd vote for KRUDD .....

[static1800]

Far out, I agree with another Rocket post!

In response to drewr's above post, you can't solve a problem by doing the same thing that got you into the problem in the first place. Sure we got through the worst of it better than most countries but we dug ourselves a huge hole with all the debt we have racked up. What if it happens again? we have just made the entire situation worse because we haven't actually fixed the problem.

[drewr]

Sorry mate, I deleted my post. I can't put foward any better ideas on how i'd overcome the situation, so I think it's best I sit this one out haha! *spectates*

[gareth_oau]

a recent picture of Gillard jumping for joy after hearing the result...

[noone]

I cant see how the Lib / Lab parties do any better than the other. Either way we are stuffed as both parties are too busy 1'upping eachother to get on with running the country efficiently.

Can we get rid of all of them and start fresh? Cant be any worse...

[bombsquad21]

The so called "stimulus" payments didn't need to be done to make it through the GFC. The MINING COMPANIES and serious foreign investment in Australia saw us through. And the Labor spin doctors don't want you to know or believe that so they can instead take credit for it. A better "stimulus" investment in Australia is to throw the money at small business. Make it cheaper for them to do business by cutting their taxes, or providing incentives to hire more staff. When small business booms, Australia booms. More people in jobs means more people to spend money - they don't need govt handouts to spend money. PLUS the money the govt spends on small business STAYS IN AUSTRALIA. So much of the "stimulus" went overseas and is in fact a huge waste!

Bottom line, a monkey could have guided us through the GFC because of economic measures taken by the previous government and their solid economic management track record. Combined with the resources and foreign investment boom. We're LUCKY that was the case too. If not, Labor would have just turned Australia into a sinking ship. Instead, we're currently in the possition of having hit a big iceburg but we're currently able to bail more water than is rushing in to stay afloat. OK, not the best anaolgy... But as soon as investments in resources are pulled back and foreign investment and trade with Australia slows, watch us have another Labor "recession we have to have" all over again. We're in RECORD debt. Why? Because Labor is all about SPEND SPEND SPEND. Then TAX TAX TAX.

I'm not even going to mention things like the billions wasted on school sheds, people killed as a direct result of the insulation program, the complete waste of time and money it was signing the Kyoto Treaty, letting boat loads of illegal immigrants land on our shores and putting them up at tax payer's expense, saying sorry "on behalf of a nation" (sorry Kev, not on behalf of me!) for something nobody alive had anything to do with (be sorry about it, but don't apologies for it)... And finally, the draconian proposed laws to limit what I see and how I use on the Internet.

I really don't understand why so many people seem to be blind to the facts.

I really fcuking dislike you...

[Rocket36]

I really fcuking dislike you...

Why? Because I'm right? Those are the facts!

[cameronp]

Intriguing news! On the plus side, Gillard certainly can't be any worse than Kevin at explaining and justifying government policy. But she was also deeply involved in pretty much all of the Rudd government's decisions, whether good or bad, so going back on any of them now would be just as much of a backflip as Rudd doing the same. Perhaps the ALP think Gillard will get more sympathetic media coverage. Or perhaps she was just installed because the unions and some of the factions within the Labor party reckon she'll be easier to manipulate than Rudd.

Rocket36: your comments strike me as odd. Economic policy was one of the few things that the Rudd government did very well. If you take it as given that the government's role is to try to smooth over economic conditions, i.e. slow it down during boom times and speed it up during a recession, then running a deficit budget was absolutely the right thing to do. The tools that the government has available to speed up the economy are lowering taxes (which is what the $900 payout was), lowering interest rates (which happened) and direct government spending (which includes the poorly-received education and insulation schemes). All of these things cost taxpayer money, no matter how they're implemented. It's easy to say now that it was the mining industry that dragged us out of the recession, but in 2008 commodity prices were in freefall and the mining companies were sacking employees left right and centre - it would have been pretty brave to say then "recession? don't you worry about that, Big Mining will save us all". It wasn't until quite a bit later that the mining sector recovered.

Current projections are that the stimulus package will be paid off quicker than was originally expected. Our level of government debt per capita is a lot lower than most nations. These are not the signs of a government that has screwed up on economic policy.

[cameronp]

letting boat loads of illegal immigrants land on our shores and putting them up at tax payer's expense, saying sorry "on behalf of a nation" (sorry Kev, not on behalf of me!) for something nobody alive had anything to do with (be sorry about it, but don't apologies for it)...

Just noticed this last paragraph and couldn't let it slip. The "boat people" being argued about are asylum seekers, not illegal immigrants. Most of them actually arrive on aeroplanes, not boats. They are people seeking refuge from oppressive regimes where their lives and families' lives are at risk, not people trying to sneak into Australia so that they can bludge off the dole. But hey, let's not let facts into this.

And you seriously don't think that it's reasonable for a government to apologise for its horrific and racist actions in the past?