WORLD HAS CHANGED
I was wrong on the election.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
I thought Malcolm Turnbull might have done better. Not only have people had enough, I see people out there that are actually hurting. Whatever happened?
There is no more mining, no more fabrication, tool allowance for an apprentice is long gone.
When I was a kid growing up in Sydney there were factories in every suburb from St Peters all the way out west to Smithfield and as far south to Caringbah. Everyone worked.
Women had jobs in seamstress and embroidery factories, if not they worked in the canteen. Everyone had work. There was no gridlock when you drove to and from work. The modern day bureaucracy today is just criminal. All these factories we had are now replaced by office spaces.
Can you imagine the harbor bridge or the opera house being built today and approved by our white collared under 30s bureaucrats we have now?
Matty Ryan, Fairy Meadow
INTERESTING PARALLELS
Time journalist Rana Foroohar, in a recent article writes about an American economy in disarray. I find our economy heading in the same direction.
Here is an extract: “A long-term web of changes in government and private industry, now manifests itself in myriad ways: a housing market dependent on government life support, a retirement system that has left millions insecure in old age, a tax code that favours debt over equity— financial instability as a result of rising debt and credit levels. All these factors ensure that debt is indispensable in maintaining any growth at all in an advanced economy like the US; where 70 per cent is consumer spending; debt-fuelled finance has become a saccharine substitute for the real thing”.
Foroohar could be writing about Australia – where we have a parallel concept - our conservative government has been running the country on public debt where any growth is reflected in personal bank accounts not treasury. To make matters worse the government has cut spending in social services, health and education.
The only ones to come out on top in this volatile situation are financiers, banks and big business. That does not bode well for the rest of us.
John Macleod, Berry
PART OF THE SOLUTION
The Australian Government Future Fund was established after the 2004 Federal Election. It was an accounting entity designed to bring onto the government balance sheet outstanding superannuation liabilities that had never been recognised and which had been paid out of consolidated revenue.
These superannuation payments increased the budget deficit when the governments began slashing public service numbers so the money entering the consolidated revenue was dropping instead of rising has it had done when the public service was expanding. Prime Minister Bob Menzies had refused to fund public service superannuation as during Menzies' reign the placing of public service superannuation deductions into consolidated revenue had reduced the need to collect the correct amount of tax to run the country and left an underlying budget deficit.
The Howard government sold revenue earning assets to cover the deficiencies of previous governments of both political parties' failure to properly finance unrealised liabilities. Sadly the ability to be able to budget properly does not belong to one party. Until the voters realised that both parties have misled us on this issue then budget deficit reform will never be achieved.
It is certain that if people stand on their preconceptions and prejudices rather researching facts and the history of our Commonwealth's finances that will hinder progress towards achieving budget balance. It is time we all became part of the solution rather than prolonging the problem.
Ben Morris, Wollongong