Re: Changing your government
 

Ah those tax cuts. You have a good memory. I wonder if those can be killed off by the new socialist government. No doubt they will - there's hole in their bucket that needs closing if they want to give an extra 5.1% to the minimum wage earners.

I actually wonder if the Libs will bother with the inner city electorates in the next election. Given the Kooyong tantrum, the next opposition leader will be Dutton and that won't go down well with the inner city folk. They will probably just support teal there, focus on the suburbs and regions. If this is the case Albo"s electorate, and Plibesek for that matter, could be threatened.

Re: Changing your government
 

Those tax cuts are legislated and the ALP have commited to them - so if Albanese backtracks on them, he'd be breaking an election promise. Anything could happen but I can't see that happening at this stage

If Dutton becomes LNP leader, that's most of Queensland voting for him at the next election and he'd have a good chance of winning the election. Tony Abbott, probably the most conservative PM we've had in a long time - and hated by the inner city left - won. Whether you are right or left, we need political parties that take sides gving the elecotrate a clear choice - and more often or not, will meet at the centre to get consensus. That's how liberal democracy is supposed to work - and has worked effectively throughout history

Re: Changing your government
 

I think Scomo got screwed by the Nationals on the climate issue, the Nationals push back really hurt the liberals but the Nationals kept all their seats.

Re: Changing your government
 

I hate to be the one to break this but, uh, it's all your money anyway. There's no such thing as a free lunch it turns out. :(

Re: Changing your government
 

Absolutely its our money. We definately overcooked the handout in the pandemic, however it was a hastily organised emergency and should have been scaled back a lot earlier, hence my point, no credit from the handout lovers for that one.

Re: Changing your government
 

There's an interesting perspective on this from Dave Sharma who lost his seat. According to Dave, what you say is correct.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fede...25-p5ao9r.html

Re: Changing your government
 

same here in the uk the furlough scheme was rolled out way too quickly and many people claimed and was awarded monies (a huge amount) some rightly and a heck of a lot of “others” not so rightly hence our government is now having to tighten the purse strings. The green policy is a noble one but the cost of going green the way our “parties” are talking on the whole is not practical in a lot of areas of the uk and the other ideas will cost the average person a lot of money, inflation is rising in a lot of countries at the moment we in the UK have had very low interest on mortgages, loans etc for a long time now it’s interest is rising people are not happy but as I have always said (following my dads advice) never borrow money unless you have to and if so do not borrow than you can comfortably afford. When we lived in Australia we voted liberal as we agreed with their policies especially after coming from the the uk when the Labour Party was in power and a fortune of tax payers money was going to people on benefits (still is) which a large majority are more than capable of earning a living the benefits system here is so broken but labour pamper to them as they then vote for labour. Yes we are a working class family for generations on both sides of our family from very poor beginnings when our past relatives arrived in Manchester but we all have a hard working ethic hence we have not done so badly in life.

Re: Changing your government
 

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/gover...ent/2016-03-16

Bit old but interesting.

Re: Changing your government
 

It's alright for us boomers (again), we're used to high inflation & mortgage / interest rates, not to mention black outs & shortages. Back to the good old days!

Re: Changing your government
 

Russell Brand is on the right track, the current political system is broken.

Time for a grassroots revolution.

Just saying’ …

Re: Changing your government
 

The UK spends a huge amount on Social Welfare but that's mostly because their State Pension system is a completely unfunded liability, not a penny was put into any investment scheme. Indeed they made the problem even worse with their "triple lock" on pensions to buy the grey vote. Ditto public sector pensions are substantially unfunded. They are absolutely screwed and just heaping these additional taxes onto a now declining working age population.

This can't go on, the UK will not be able to retain workers if tax rates keep increasing at an ever higher rate. Particularly as many OECD countries are suffering the same demographic issues so chasing workers. They're running out of space to keep borrowing, Greece had a national debt at about 100% of GDP in 2008.

Re: Changing your government
 

Their main problem though is that the NHS in its present form of everything free, for everyone, forever is financially unsustainable. Reform is currently impossible as the electorate is totally against any from of payment - however small - at point of use. They are in complete and total denial and politicians from both sides will not confront the problem as the first government that does would lose the next election. Political survival at the expense of essential national reform basically. When Labour was developing the concept of the NHS in 1945, they were warned by one of their senior people (can't remember his name) that it would bankrupt the country by the end of the century - and he was proven right. However, they weren't looking at 2000 in 1945 and ignored the issue. They also didn't consider the advancement of medicine that has enabled an ever aging population. Something will have to give eventually and the fallout won't be pretty. Our Australian hybrid public/private/some payments system, although it defintely has issues, is much more sustainable and affordable in the long term. We're very lucky to have it

Re: Changing your government
 

UK Healthcare Spending as %GDP.
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Re: Changing your government
 

Outrage as Australians discover former prime minister secretly gave himself five additional ministries

I read this and my first thought was did he get extra pay or is he in line for multiple pensions that would go with those positions?

Second thought is that if all this happened without anyone knowing did it make any difference?

Main thought...are we living in a time of political leader excesses? It looks like it.

Re: Changing your government
 

Unbelievable (but true) stuff, not only was the Australian public not informed that he'd appointed himself to 5 Ministries, most of his Cabinet didn't know either - including most of the Ministers whose portfolios he co-opted!

Our current Prime Minister, Albanese (Labor) has said that he believes Morrison wasn't paid any additional salary, but there's going to be an investigation so we'll see.

It made a LOT of difference. Australians, and Morrison's own Cabinet Ministers (not to mention the Opposition), didn't know who was in charge of some of the most consequential Federal Ministries of our government - Treasury, Health, Home Affairs, Resources and Finance. I don't think it's overreach to say that he undermined Australia's democratic system of government. There was no transparency, no oversight from Parliament, just making secret arrangements through the Governor-General. The jury is still out on the Governor-General's role in this, but it appears that he didn't do anything illegal. Nor, for that matter, did Morrison (probably). It's not so much the fact that he co-opted himself into these Ministries, it's the fact that he did it secretly.

Most definitely 'yes' to your last question. Morrison was (is) an unashamed admirer of Trump, stating that they shared the same views and political priorities. Morrison even appeared on stage with Trump at one of Trump's campaign rallies. He is also rather fond of Boris. He (and some other world leaders) seem to share this philosophy that they can act with impunity. It's quite frightening. Actually, it's very frightening.

Stand by for a different view from a couple of the Barbie regulars.....