The Angus Taylor Plan of Economic Management (ODT)
Category: LNP Economic Management
For example, in 2020 our gas output will probably outstrip that of Qatar which gets $26.6 billion in tax while Australia gets only $600 million. ExxonMobil Australia has a total income of $42.3 billion over the past five years. It has not paid one cent in income tax in this country.
An unregistered lobbyist, a ministerial breach of the Lobbying Code of Conduct and a $2.6 million grant awarded during the election campaign minus pesky guidelines. Jommy Tee and Ronni Salt clear the pigs for take off.
The deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, struck a pre-election deal with an unregistered political lobbyist and former Howard Government adviser, Andrew Gibbs, for a $2.6 million airport upgrade ahead of the launch of the Regional Airports Program (RAP). McCormack’s direct intervention mirrors Senator Bridget McKenzie in using taxpayers’ money for electioneering purposes. He also breached the Government’s Lobbying Code of Conduct.
The $100 million RAP was announced in the pork-laden 2019-20 Budget, just ahead of the election. It provided grants to upgrade infrastructure and deliver improved aviation safety and access at regional airports.
Pigs might fly: electioneering an airport at Cohuna – Michael West
As Santos reports its profits this week, there is one number you are unlikely to hear from chief Kevin Gallagher: $7 billion. That’s $7 billion in gas losses over five years. Bruce Robertson reports on the government’s penchant for backing a big loss industry, future gas liabilities and the Federal Government’s gas deal with the states.
via Santos blows $7 billion in five years and no relief for gas customers – Michael West
The massive Home Affairs Department, with a remit for “emergency management”, was entirely absent during the bushfire crisis and yet between 2016 and 2020, $9 billion of taxpayers’ money was spent on indefinite mandatory detention of men, women and children identified as refugees. Has a quarter or even a third of that amount been allocated as the Federal response package to the bushfire crisis?
Meanwhile, in the Coalition party room, even as nations around the world are committed to getting rid of the internal combustion engine – including Boris Johnson’s Britain – the commitment to coal has been reaffirmed. Like all regimes which place their own personal interests above all else, it is always the country, the nation, the majority of the people, the land, the water systems, the very air itself which are all weakened, polluted and made ill, often irretrievably.
Welcome to Australia’s own version of a new Easter Island story.
via Government failure has led to Australia becoming the new Easter Island
Definition of Cognitive Dissonance
To put that into perspective below are a few companies to contrast the total number of jobs created:
Coles 112,000
Woolworths 100,000
McDonalds 90,000
KFC 34,000
Thermal coal industry 29,000But that isn’t what the Coalition is doing. Rather than offering a “Bush New Deal” to ensure its prosperity as it struggles to adapt to climate change and the drought, the Morrison Government is ensuring that Adani mine goes ahead, with a relative handful of jobs used as a justification.
via Dear ScoMo: KFC employs more Australians than thermal coal sector
The Coalition are the last party left standing against political donation reform, with Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie introducing a bill today that joins the reform pushes by the Greens, Labor, and Centre Alliance calling for greater transparency and disclosure of political donations.
via Dirty money is buying politics and party rooms – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Australia’s government debt and the interest on that debt keep rising, despite Coalition denials. Alan Austin updates the record.
TREASURER JOSH FRYDENBERG has just increased both Federal gross debt and net debt to new all-time records.
This was revealed by Treasury and the Finance Department last Friday – just two days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the National Press Club that “going into 2020 the fundamentals of our economy are strong and in good shape”.
That speech was delivered just six weeks after Frydenberg announced to the world that “the Government is living within its means, paying down Labor’s debt”.
via Morrison Government breaks debt records in December — along with promises
In his letter to the Auditor General, Lawrence Gibbons said: “The establishment of a $48 million fund to assist local publishers was promising, but the allocation of funds into coalition-held seats in another blatant display of pork barreling was greatly troubling. Local media outlets are a vital cornerstone to a functioning democracy. They deserve better than to be treated with outright contempt and disregard.”
Former Senator Mitch Fifield is now Australia’s Ambassador to the UN. He did not respond to a request for comment.
via Press Rorts: media grants target Coalition seats – Michael West
Here we see the LNP Treasurer quoting Wayne Swan when the LNP tore into him for saying this same thing back in 2008 and saved us from the GFC. How hypocritical are these jerks claiming “saving the country” is ok for them when it wasn’t ok for the ALP. Back then The Australian and News Corp didn’t give the government support but just criticism. Andre (ODT)
“Let me make it very clear on the budget that we believe the budget in surplus is important because we believe it gives the nation the opportunity to respond to circumstances like these when they arise,” he said.
“And [while] we do believe that these are exceptional circumstances and why we would love to see the budget in surplus, we would not like to see it in surplus at the expense of these local communities.”
via Australia fires: Treasurer warns surplus at risk as economy hit
While LNP policy uncertainty is ensuring investment in the renewable’s boom is down by 56% in Australia and coal subsidies and promotion are up the tide of the free market is running in the opposite direction. The LNP is openly conducting a market manipulation scam the equivalent of an insider trading rort. If Scotty from marketing were the CEO it’s time he got the sack and /or was charged. (ODT)
BlackRock, the world’s biggest fund, is quitting thermal coal. The move by the $10 trillion fund has stunned financial markets. Climate change and coal: while the people protest in the streets, progressive analysts such as IEEFA’s Buckley protest to global finance bosses. Tim Buckley, who had lobbied hard for the BlackRock exit, reports on the revolution in big money.
via Pull out or perish: behind Blackrock’s grand exit from coal – Michael West
McKenzie is now Agriculture Minister and Deputy Leader of the National Party and her comments today fall into the categories of ;
that’s the way we always do things in the coalition. Otherwise how would we win ?
My career is going quite nicely, thank you. So please don’t rock the boat.We should sack the National Office of Audit as they are clearly all Lefties
You all need to take a cold shower because we won the election : so there !
Are you from the ABC ?
So far, the Prime Minister hasn’t commented but in true Westminster fashion it is fully expected that he will sack McKenzie before the week is out … or perhaps not.
Morrison is hell bent on cutting the budget of Public Media to the equivalent of 1984. (ODT)
There have been 670 emergency broadcasting events for the 2019-20 financial year so far, an ABC spokesman said, compared to 371 for the full 2018-19 financial year. In 2017-18 there were 256 events, a figure that had been surpassed by mid-September 2019.
via ABC under ‘growing’ cost pressure as bushfire emergency broadcasts surge
How many times have we heard this? Year in year out particularly since 2013 yet we voted them in Australia. It’s our money. Does it really only take $100,000 donation that allows you to avoid millions? (ODT)
via The corporations making big money, paying no tax and laughing at us
Frydenberg is blaming everyone else for Australia’s economic slump but fails to explain why we are sliding backwards faster than others in the downturn. Trump certainly isn’t admitting his woes so publicly. (ODT)
However, company profits are surging and 30% of companies aren’t paying any Company Tax. These are the fundamentals Frydenberg calls good and resilient. The surge is on the backs of wages and the battle to stop unions growing. Revenue is reliant on tax cuts and a prayer. Well it’s not going to be coming from Agriculture which suffering from non-climate change drought and fires which has reduced the numbers of cattle and sheep. (ODT)
LNP ane the Economy after 5 years. You’ve been scammed Australia. (ODT)
via Income squeeze on men now into fifth year, while women close the gap
The nation thrills this week to the riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma of the Morrison government, a puzzle, that includes Lambie’s Faustian bargain, Angus Taylor’s war on both Naomi Wolf and Clover Moore with Gladys Liu’s to-do tipping the government’s weekly balance from hyper-partisan warfare and union thuggery into utter skulduggery.
The one-time trombone-playing former teacher’s aide and ex-chemist-shop proprietor cannot keep mum forever about her Brighsun or Liberal associates, nor they about her, especially as she now has cause to ask for her money back.
Any sensible, practical government would demand the resignation of both Gladys Liu and Angus Taylor. Given his form so far, Scott Morrison is likely to find fifty shades of grey evasion including blaming Labor and Wolf to avoid taking any decision.
There is no individual, no institution nor any emerging crisis so big that this government cannot find a way to look past it.
But the surplus is the goal screw the journey. New Start and Aged Pensions need to go Josh; (ODT)
The Coalition’s ‘global headwinds’ excuse as wage growth hits 22-year low
Surely it’s been the failure of government management that needs the blame not high immigration that’s required in an aging market. Investment in ingenuity and short term politics have strangled us. We have Smart TV’s Smart everything but Smart Government. (ODT)
The International Monetary Fund’s latest report on our economy says we have “a notable infrastructure gap compared to other advanced economies”. Spending is “not keeping up with population and economic growth”. We have a forecast annual gap averaging about 0.35 per cent of GDP for basic infrastructure (roads, rail, water, ports) plus a smaller gap for social infrastructure (schools, hospitals, prisons).
That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea since having a successful technology industry would still benefit voters who care nothing about it.
As it stands, the Australian economy remains reliant on (badly behaved) banks and companies that dig stuff up out of the ground. Between them, finance and mining generate $1 in every $5 of Australia’s economic output, Reserve Bank figures show.
Yet the biggest creator of wealth and prosperity in the 21st century will be technology. It’s what will allow us to raise productivity and enjoy economic growth without using up scarce natural resources.
Technology also generates jobs – good jobs.
via As far as political slogans go, it was over before it ever really began
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What this government has tried to avoid factoring in (ODT)
The fact is that the proportion of older people who cannot find a job is going to increase, and increase, and increase. It is not going to increase because we are burdens, or bludgers, or light-weight lifters, or any of the other crap mantras that this Government throws towards our aged bones. The number of older people out of work will increase because employers have made it brutally obvious to us that we are not wanted.
via We older ‘burdens’ on society – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Frydenberg hasn’t a Holistic clue what’s going on. Clutching at straws for excuses he’s failing Australia (ODT)
What we don’t need is to waste hundreds of billions on obsolete weapons of mass destruction, billions on consultants and government advertising, and politicians who think attending sporting matches is more important than their day job.
We don’t need a surplus. We need someone who has a clue about how to invest in this country rather than their own political future.
via MYEFO will be interesting – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Campbell and Shields argue that Norway reaps the rewards from “direct ownership” of oil and gas fields, with global revenue of $46bn from the petroleum industry in 2019 compared with the $1.2bn Australia received from PRRT in 2017-18.
“As a result of the Australian government’s decision to raise little revenue from the exploitation of its oil and gas resources, drilling in the Bight is effectively a no-win proposition for Australia and the communities along its south coast,” the report said.
“While Australians are being asked to shoulder all of the economic and environmental risk of the project, a foreign government is likely to enjoy much of the financial gain.”
The retail sector is now in its third year of per capita recession and it’s not just the internet to blame. Alan Austin unpacks the latest retail sales data and how it reflects Australia’s poor economic management.
Tax Cut Flop: 1080 fails to revive torpid retail sector – Michael West
Five people died at a children’s hospital in Scotland built by Brookfield, billions have been stripped offshore in Australian assets, yet Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has approved the sale of the nursing home and retirement village business Aveo. It will be controlled in Bermuda. This follows the Brookfield takeover of 43 Australian hospitals.
Coalition response
According to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg,
“What we’re doing to ensure the economy continues to grow is providing the biggest tax cuts that this country has seen in more than two decades and we did that against the will of the Labor Party …”
That is precisely the wrong response. Tax cuts going mostly to the rich simply send income and wealth straight offshore. Hence the current retail crisis, slower growth and, now, the currency crumbling.
Comparisons with the recent pastIt should not be like this. When the global financial crisis whacked the world in late 2008, Australia’s economic management was seen as innovative, courageous and successful. Evidence that Australia’s economy was the world’s best-performed from 2009 to 2013 included the dollar’s strong appreciation.
Over the full term of the Rudd/Gillard Labor Governments, the dollar rose 4.5% against the Hong Kong dollar, 4.8% against the US dollar, 10.3% against the Canadian dollar, 19.4% against the Euro, 24.2% against the Korean won, and a thumping 38.1% against the British pound.There is no sign the Morrison Government is heeding this message from the watching world. It seems determined to continue governing primarily for foreign corporations. So Australians should plan to take their next holiday at the nearest caravan park.
Australia’s defence department gave tens of thousands of dollars of work to a US firm blacklisted for corruption and bribery.
Defence last year contracted US firm Lock N Climb to provide it with $25,000 of specialist ladders used for aircraft maintenance. The work was awarded through a limited tender process, meaning other firms were restricted from competing for the contract.
Guardian Australia can reveal that the company was – and still is – blacklisted by the US and barred from working with American government agencies.
Making Students Pay Forward not investing in their future but ours. (ODT)
The Money Managers the LNP
More than 136,000 young Australians are soon to join the ranks of 617,000 former students who are repaying their Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) – formerly known as HECS debt – as the income threshold for repaying the debt is slashed to just $45,881.
‘Repay debt for years’: loan changes to hit 136,000 students
1. ECONOMY TANKS
2. SECURITY STATE RUNS RAMPANT
3. ABC EMASCULATED
4. NEWS CORP KNIFES OPPOSITION AND AXES STAFF
5. ANGUS MISSES EMISSIONS DEADLINE
6. BARNABY AND OTHER COALITION LNPS IN NUCLEAR WAR
7. THE INDIAN JOB
8. STARTING THE BOATS
9. NO TAX CUTS FOR YOU!
Three long years, three crazy weeks, nine national disasters
The Coalition lacks policies. It also lacks charisma. It has no other option but fear, writes Ben Eltham.
Labor has spent years honing and sandbagging its policy platform, which on any sensible judgment is moderate and achievable. In contrast, the Coalition has spent the last three years consumed by its own internal hatreds. Now that the crisis has arrived, the Coalition finds itself without a coherent assault plan to break down Labor’s platform. Time is running out.
via Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself… And A Coalition Campaign Built On It – New Matilda
$80,million Spent like water (ODT)
Guardian Australia reported this week on the mystery surrounding the reason Joyce chose the companies he did for the buybacks. On Friday, Labor raised specific questions about one of the purchases, worth $80m.
On Saturday, Hanson-Young said she would write to the auditor general requesting an urgent audit.
“The auditor has a responsibility to investigate how $80m of taxpayers money was paid for water that doesn’t exist,” she said in a tweet.
