The Budget Blues
06/05/2014 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIt’s that time of the year again when both the state and federal governments put the final touches to their plotting and planning and preparations for the ritual of the dreaded annual Budget.
Of course the purse is always empty due to the appalling incompetence of the previous administration and drastic measures will have to be taken. There’s always talk of sacrifice, belt tightening and the usual predictable nonsense.
The Federal government has finally noticed that the big fat baby boomer bulge has now started moving to the retirement phase. So they are running around like headless chooks telling us that the sky is falling down. It didn’t seem to bother them back in 2003 to 2007 when they made massive tax cuts to the top end of the tax brackets and brought in a $5,000 baby bonus as if the good times were going to go on forever. Not once did they tweek the ridiculous 30% marginal rate on any dollar earned over $22,500 as if they believed that no one actually earned so little money. Of course the lower down the tax band that you change the rates the more it costs because everyone gets it. The Liberals under Howard did finally notice the ‘working poor’ and throw them a few crumbs in 2006 but by then it was far too late and they finally found themselves in the dustbin of history.
The new Labour mob came to power just in time for the Global Financial Crisis and started throwing money around. They even resorted to sending people cheques in the mail so that they would go out and spend the economy out of a potential recession. The Chinese must have loved them for that as so much of it got spent on toys and plasma televisions. I used the money to indulge in a rainwater tank.
They also brought in a mining tax. That nearly started the Rolex revolution and the leader got himself stabbed in the back for his troubles. That tax got well and truly watered down. They also had a carbon tax designed to put a price on pollution. It was accompanied by all sorts of compensation. The most significant of these was increasing the amount one could earn before paying any tax from a paltry $6,000 up to a big fat $18,000 which came into effect last July.
Our prime minister since last September spent the last 3 years telling us about toxic taxes based on lies, that his predecessor JuLIAR Gillard and her government should ‘die of shame’ for such lies and assorted other offences while that he is a man of his word who keeps his promises. (The whole backstory to the “Die of Shame” saga is the most compelling reason why this lowlife guttersnipe is not fit to be in power. The use of cruel personal attacks to score points against a rival grieving the loss of her father and another who was actually dying is true proof of his hunger for power whatever it takes)
Now he’s six months into the job and set up a so called Commission of Audit which is nothing more than a bunch of his Ayn Rand worshipping mates with very sharp knives and razors. They’ll call on the government to privatize everything, cut the minimum wage, raise the pension to 70, increase the cost of health and education and sacrifice children on the altar of economic rationalism. Then when his minions get out the knives they won’t look half as bad. Good cop, bad cop. A tried and true toxic tactic.
And then there’s the constant carping that the last six years of fiscally irresponsible Labor federal government has left the coffers so empty that drastic measures are unavoidable. One of these proposals is a so called ‘Debt levy” to be paid by those earning more than $80,000 per annum. Not a tax mind you but a LEVY. And only TEMPORARY!
This from the man who spent the last four years ranting about the great big fat carbon tax and who lambasted the previous government for indulging in ‘Class Warfare” because they wanted to cap assorted welfare benefits at incomes over $100.000. If he wants to claim that a levy is not a tax, then the other side can play weasel words too. Technically they could have claimed that the carbon tax was not a tax at all but a price on pollution.
Even the Murdoch minions who normally grovel at his feet and worship his every word are squawking about the awfulness of it all.
There is general uproar and outrage about these latest schemes to pluck the feathers of the tax paying goose and not just amongst the affected $80,000 earners. It’s the disgusting rank hypocrisy of it all that so gets up the Izzie’s nose and I suspect that many other voters think much the same.
This very same mob who want old people to work until they are seventy before being able to receive the government pension have also gone out of their way to water down the last government’s legislation concerning financial advice. They want to remove protections from consumers under the pretext of reducing red tape. The truth is the financial planners and big banks are very generous donors to the Liberal party coffers and being expected by law to act in the best interests of their clients is the last thing on their agenda.
Retirement and superannuation funds are a honey pot for dodgy dealers. There’s been so many dubious investment schemes over the last decades that the law had to be tightened. Sales people passing themselves off as independent trained financial advisers were encouraging people to take mortgages against their homes and gamble their life savings on shonky highly leveraged schemes paying high commissions.
It’s scary just how many people out there who are completely clueless about managing their finances even on a month to month basis let alone complicated stuff like saving for retirement. There are plenty of vultures out there only too happy to offer them assistance at a price.
There will be a whole lot more of them after next week’s budget.
It’s going to be Schadenfreude on steroids.
Of course the purse is always empty due to the appalling incompetence of the previous administration and drastic measures will have to be taken. There’s always talk of sacrifice, belt tightening and the usual predictable nonsense.
The Federal government has finally noticed that the big fat baby boomer bulge has now started moving to the retirement phase. So they are running around like headless chooks telling us that the sky is falling down. It didn’t seem to bother them back in 2003 to 2007 when they made massive tax cuts to the top end of the tax brackets and brought in a $5,000 baby bonus as if the good times were going to go on forever. Not once did they tweek the ridiculous 30% marginal rate on any dollar earned over $22,500 as if they believed that no one actually earned so little money. Of course the lower down the tax band that you change the rates the more it costs because everyone gets it. The Liberals under Howard did finally notice the ‘working poor’ and throw them a few crumbs in 2006 but by then it was far too late and they finally found themselves in the dustbin of history.
The new Labour mob came to power just in time for the Global Financial Crisis and started throwing money around. They even resorted to sending people cheques in the mail so that they would go out and spend the economy out of a potential recession. The Chinese must have loved them for that as so much of it got spent on toys and plasma televisions. I used the money to indulge in a rainwater tank.
They also brought in a mining tax. That nearly started the Rolex revolution and the leader got himself stabbed in the back for his troubles. That tax got well and truly watered down. They also had a carbon tax designed to put a price on pollution. It was accompanied by all sorts of compensation. The most significant of these was increasing the amount one could earn before paying any tax from a paltry $6,000 up to a big fat $18,000 which came into effect last July.
Our prime minister since last September spent the last 3 years telling us about toxic taxes based on lies, that his predecessor JuLIAR Gillard and her government should ‘die of shame’ for such lies and assorted other offences while that he is a man of his word who keeps his promises. (The whole backstory to the “Die of Shame” saga is the most compelling reason why this lowlife guttersnipe is not fit to be in power. The use of cruel personal attacks to score points against a rival grieving the loss of her father and another who was actually dying is true proof of his hunger for power whatever it takes)
Now he’s six months into the job and set up a so called Commission of Audit which is nothing more than a bunch of his Ayn Rand worshipping mates with very sharp knives and razors. They’ll call on the government to privatize everything, cut the minimum wage, raise the pension to 70, increase the cost of health and education and sacrifice children on the altar of economic rationalism. Then when his minions get out the knives they won’t look half as bad. Good cop, bad cop. A tried and true toxic tactic.
And then there’s the constant carping that the last six years of fiscally irresponsible Labor federal government has left the coffers so empty that drastic measures are unavoidable. One of these proposals is a so called ‘Debt levy” to be paid by those earning more than $80,000 per annum. Not a tax mind you but a LEVY. And only TEMPORARY!
This from the man who spent the last four years ranting about the great big fat carbon tax and who lambasted the previous government for indulging in ‘Class Warfare” because they wanted to cap assorted welfare benefits at incomes over $100.000. If he wants to claim that a levy is not a tax, then the other side can play weasel words too. Technically they could have claimed that the carbon tax was not a tax at all but a price on pollution.
Even the Murdoch minions who normally grovel at his feet and worship his every word are squawking about the awfulness of it all.
There is general uproar and outrage about these latest schemes to pluck the feathers of the tax paying goose and not just amongst the affected $80,000 earners. It’s the disgusting rank hypocrisy of it all that so gets up the Izzie’s nose and I suspect that many other voters think much the same.
This very same mob who want old people to work until they are seventy before being able to receive the government pension have also gone out of their way to water down the last government’s legislation concerning financial advice. They want to remove protections from consumers under the pretext of reducing red tape. The truth is the financial planners and big banks are very generous donors to the Liberal party coffers and being expected by law to act in the best interests of their clients is the last thing on their agenda.
Retirement and superannuation funds are a honey pot for dodgy dealers. There’s been so many dubious investment schemes over the last decades that the law had to be tightened. Sales people passing themselves off as independent trained financial advisers were encouraging people to take mortgages against their homes and gamble their life savings on shonky highly leveraged schemes paying high commissions.
It’s scary just how many people out there who are completely clueless about managing their finances even on a month to month basis let alone complicated stuff like saving for retirement. There are plenty of vultures out there only too happy to offer them assistance at a price.
There will be a whole lot more of them after next week’s budget.
It’s going to be Schadenfreude on steroids.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-07 06:16 am (UTC)It is a pity there isn't an ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) like there is in NSW at the Federal Govt. level. I had to laugh when the NSW Libs have been caught out yet again. ICAC was originally set up by Nick Greiner a former Coalition Premier in an attempt to uncover corruption in the previous Wran/Unsworth Labor Governments and had to resign due to the fact he lied to the Commission. Then the Premier. poor old Bazza was caught in the same way and now ICAC as well as investigating the evil Obeid and his ALP corrupt creeps has spread the investigation to a trio of Lib politicians on the Central Coast who were extracting donations from developers who are not permitted in NSW to make political donations. The corruption taint has spread further so that the Police Minister and a Junior Minister have had to resign their positions as well with yet another Cabinet reshuffle. The landslide victory expected by the Coalition in NSW next year is melting away fast.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-07 01:25 pm (UTC)If our Old King Colin got caught in the same trap, there's no way he would ever fall on his sword. He would stubbornly refuse to budge and blame some junior staffer for the lapse. Do you get any gossip over there about Troy Buzzballs and his crazy boozy antics? Now he's resorted to playing the mental health card. Pathetic. Geoff Gallop gave up the top job because of depression. This guy is just using made up DSM dramas to cover up his arrogant stupidity.
As for the feds, maybe the ICAC tentacles will get there in the end. In the meantime here's hoping that the mad monk will pay most dearly for those four years of JuLIAR and toxic taxes. He must never ever be allowed to forget.
Gotta love that free market theocracy. That's got the makings of a very scary story indeed.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-08 03:42 am (UTC)Barry O'Farrell - Premier
Chris Hartcher - Now Former Environment Minister
Maria Ficarra - Member of the Legislative Council and former Secretary to the Premier
Darren Webber - Liberal MP from the Central Coast
Chris Spencer - Liberal MP from the Central Coast
Potential rorters -
Current NSW Resources Minister, Anthony Roberts
Senator Arthur Sinodinos, Federal Assistant Treasurer (currently stood down)
Karen McNamara, Liberal Federal MP for Dobell
And a whole range of Liberal apparatchiks who set up the slush funds and laughingly ran their 'black ops'.
Yes the hypocrisy or Tony and his Lieberals is too much to bear considering the abuse they dished out to the previous government and are still continuing with their attempts to create a crisis where none exists (or if it does it will be a long-term crisis which doesn't really require the government's chicken-little act) and the subsequent blackening of the previous regime's economic management.
Well in NSW we are rapidly becoming a theocracy with Tony and his fellow God-botherers at the Federal level and Mike Baird (who also trained for the ministry - Anglican variety) and his right-wing Christian mates in the NSW Cabinet. We have both sides of the sectarian divide covered and both in this state are of the awful sort. The Sydney Anglicans are of the low church variety who all voted against women holding positions of power in the church and beautiful choral music (much too distracting) and of course until recently there was the god awful Pell before they hustled him off to the Vatican to crunch some numbers (something he is better suited to) rather than crushing the poor souls of the children abused by the Catholic clergy. I don't know whether his replacement is any better. Unlike Pell he doesn't have an opinion piece each Sunday in the Murdoch rag where Pell used to opine on things he has no useful knowledge, like climate change. Haven't heard anything bad about him (whoever he is) but considering the inquiry that is being run at full tilt at the moment into institutional child abuse by churches of all ilks I guess he is keeping his head below the parapet.