Budgetitis
No, not coming off hiatus, but curious what readers think of Cossie’s spend-up. It strikes me that raising thresholds is a good thing, and he’s dipped his toe into the water on vouchers and performance pay… but my there’s a lot of pork, too.
And is it enough to save Howard’s bacon come election-time?
Until someone like John H or Jason gets into the nitty-gritty, a penny for your thoughts, Aussie Libertarians and friends.
ADMIN UPDATE 8/5/07: The Budget can be read in full at www.budget.gov.au, or you can read the overview or check the media coverage (Australian, SMH).
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I did watch the budget live on TV and I also watched the ABC analysis afterwards but to be honest there was too much going on in my house to really take it all in.
One thing I did notice was that Wayne Swan when interviewed spent most of the time agreeing with every measure and intiative and insisting that the ALP has been suggesting all these measures and initatives for years and it was great to see them finally implemented. He even loves the tax cuts.
On the face of it I think it is fat with pork but perhaps it was just dressed that way. I’ll try and read the paper tomorrow and make an intelligent assessment of it then.
When Swan agrees and you have the two leftist idiots -tony jones and Kerry O’Brien suggesting that Costello stole the ideas from the ALP you know it’s spending budget.
You had one fool from Access Economcis arguing that tax cuts are inflationary. The follow through logic is that when taxes were at 70% in the 70’s inflation must have been the opposite- deflation. It couldn’t be sillier but that is what you get served from our ABC.
It’s a spending budget. Little tax relief. Better than what the other side would serve up though. If they saw all that cash they would be like a gal with a credit card problem.
I was shaking my head when that guy spoke. He had no clue what causes inflation.
That Wayne Swan is sold on the idea that responsible governments always run a 1% surplus was pathetic. It’s essentially a modern version of mercantilism.
From a cargo cult perspective there was precious little for me: I don’t have children, I’m not a carer, I don’t plan on doing more study, I’m not a veteran or a senior, I’m not a low income earner and the tax cuts are paltry and slow to arrive.
In terms of the business environment, the increased GST invoice threshold ($75) is a minor improvement but overall I’d prefer much less spending and a lot more tax cutting. There is a huge amount of throwing money at things to look good.
The only thing I feel kind of positive about is the infrastructure expenditure. Roads and rail (especially an inland rail network) will kick start growth in many areas. It would be better if it was done by the private sector, but this is a cotton wool economy after all.
I also don’t think it will be enough to prevent Labor from winning the election.
A political masterpiece. All the morning’s papers (with the exception of The Age which are neutral) are glowing with praise. Not easy in today’s hyper-critical climate.
He has also almost made the LDP’s 30/30 case as those earning up to $30k will now only pay about $2.5k of tax.
Disappointing, but they’re not going to do anything too radical in an election year…
Oh, forgot to add: I’m still tipping a Coalition win
Centrebet was paying out $1.97 for a coalition win yesterday afternoon and $1.90 this morning. Assuming an 8% spread that’s a movement from 47% probability of victory to 48.7%.
Well, I hope for a Coalition win, as the lesser of two evils, but I also hope that the LDP ends up with the balance of power in the Senate! Then we might see Classic Liberalism in action! (Nice shooting, Tex!! You killed Centralism with your reliable 66-shooter!)
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Pingback by Australian Federal Budget 2007 « The Blog of Fleeced | May 9, 2007
For the budget year (2007-08) estimates of revenue have increased by $4 billion compared to the last estimate made 6 months ago. That’s a lot of money.
The budget notes that: “The Government’s decision to provide additional personal tax relief has partly offset the upward revisions in total revenue”
So the tax increase has been “partially offset”. Yay. Don’t be fooled people… tax is going up.
During the same 6 months the government managed to introduce expenditure policy worth $6.4 billion in 2007-08 (rising to $10.5 billion in 2009-10). That’s a lot of pork.
During the same 6 months the government managed to introduce expenditure policy worth $6.4 billion in 2007-08 (rising to $10.5 billion in 2009-10). That’s a lot of pork.
And if there’s inflation, they’ll no doubt blame the tax cuts.
There is no risk of inflation due to the tax cuts. And with so much enforced saving there is little risk of interest rates rising.
I just saw Rudd give his reply on the ABC. I was amazed to hear that Labor intends to make every high school a technical training ground. Did I hear this right? It sounds incredibly wasteful.
What a paradoxical situation for Australians, the incumbent government loves to hoard our money while the prospective government intends to spend our money.
Technically they are not hoarding it, they are investing it. Which is in fact much the same as spending it.
Perhaps be better if we spent it Terje?