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GOVERNMENT ENSMALLENS
Wahey! $34 billion in tax cuts over three years!
UPDATE. Bad news for Rudd. Margo Kingston writes: “In my opinion, Kevin is off to a great start.”
The Age’s take on today’s tax policy release.
This is a dastardly move by Howard. Further moves like this could see the electorate thinking for themselves.
Sucks to be you, Kevin.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 10 15 at 02:22 AM • permalinkToday I spotted a sticker on a street sign, reading “KEVIN07”.
I intend to use some of my sticky laser labels to blot out the “I” and the “7”.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2007 10 15 at 02:26 AM • permalinkHe could do worse than prss Rudd on how he intends to make his 60% drop in emmisions, and whether he will legislate to stop those awful and greedy corporations from raising prices to cover the increased costs.
Mmmmm, tax cuts…
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 10 15 at 02:42 AM • permalinkKevin has countered: He will personally put the bin out for each hard working Australian family once a month. Each family may also designate a pet or a child to be made immortal.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 10 15 at 02:52 AM • permalink#5 - perhaps if you adjust your story to include an oppressed burqa wearing muslim freedom fighter struggling against the tyranny of AmeriKKKa and the hoWARd cabal you might have some more joy. Maybe she could be in a lesbian tryst with your koorie lead, after meeting at the university vegan co-ops carbon reduction for sensitive individuals workshop.
#35 - All the best lesbian theatre involves a husband coming home unexpectedly early from work.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 10 15 at 03:06 AM • permalink#17 hmmm, you’ve just made me realise that is the theatre of the future and I had better keep healthy enough to be able to walk out of it.
I might believe in all sorts of rights for all sorts of people but I don’t have to sit through appalling theatre based on these beliefs!
Posted by carpefraise on 2007 10 15 at 03:08 AM • permalinkWait a minute. Australia’s government gets smaller while my government in the states gets bigger and bigger? Is this part of global warming or does it have something to do with the Coriolis effect? If this is linked to global warming well then sign me up for Kyoto.
Posted by mschraufnagel on 2007 10 15 at 03:14 AM • permalinkYep, even posters at Lav Paper agree with me:
The Coalition under Howard is terrified of the arts. Artists, whether they’re actors, film-makers, writers of all kinds, painters, sculptors, cartoonists, musicians, song-writers etc are likely to be critical of Howard’s government. I mean how many Sam Niells does Howard want out there handing out how-to-votes? How many David Williamsons or Steve Sewells writing plays and film scripts? how many Cate Blanchetts supporting environmental and social causes? How many Aboriginal writers writing critical plays, novels and songs. And these are just some of the most obvious candidates that come freely to mind without even thinking.
Howard hasn’t gutted the film industry and starved the ABC of funds on a whim, you know. It was intentional!!!19. Infidel Tiger
Axis video Canberra will post you an endless number of these tastefully filmed examples of lesbian theatre in discreet brown paper wrapping right to your front door.
Who says theatre isn’t keeping up with the times.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 10 15 at 03:15 AM • permalinkOT Breaking News: Ecoterrorists training with live firearms arrested in New Zealand.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2007 10 15 at 03:33 AM • permalink#6, ilibcc
That made me laugh.
I can just picture The Age’s pathetic group of so-called journalists in their Kevin07 t-shirts all tripping over themselves, trying to catch up with the Howard/Costello announcement while The Age’s editor is shrieking “Find me Kevin’s policy! Find Kevin’s policy!” - and being told there isn’t one.
“Well, write something! Anything! Just make sure we reflect ALP policy! After all, we’re not here to boost John HoWARd and Kev’s going to be very annoyed and you know what a whinger he is!”
It’s a nice start, but I’d like to see them renegotiate the GST sharing with the states—how many of the state taxes that were meant to be eliminated actually got eliminated?—and move to a flat tax of somewhere near ten percent (zero percent would be nice, but I suspect that won’t happen).
There’d be lots of benefits from this: it would simpler (especially if deductions were eliminated), cheaper to collect, would hopefully put at least some tax lawyers out of work, and would reroute a lot of money into the productive economy.
From previous Link:
“The charges included possession of shotguns, semi-automatic weapons, molotov cocktails, and rifles, allegedly committed in Rotorua over the past year.”
Oh my, revolutionary social justice comes from the barrel of a gun. Che would be proud:
Fontova cites another incident, recounted to him by an eyewitness, in which Che is said to have murdered a boy of 14 who had protested about the arrest and execution of his father. “We saw [him] unholstering his pistol. He put the barrel to the back of the boy’s neck and blasted. The shot almost decapitated the young lad.
Even our beloved Marieke Hardy understands how precarious things are at the moment…
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2007 10 15 at 03:59 AM • permalinkKevin Rudd, I don’t know if you read this blog but if you do I’m struggling under the weight of Howard’s interest rate rises and Bush’s petrol price hike.
I need you to give me an even BIGGER tax cut otherwise I’ll be forced to vote for those awful Liberals. Oh please Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan save me….with tax cuts. Big ones. For socialism’s sake!!!
Posted by llllloooooo on 2007 10 15 at 04:02 AM • permalinkFrom previous:
Howard, Rudd compete for underdog status
ELEANOR HALL:(To Chris Uhlmann) So Chris, the parties always trying to frame the kind of fight they want right at the start of the campaign, what are the two leaders pushing at this stage as their major themes?
CHRIS UHLMANN: Well, Eleanor, it two words, leadership and risk.
Now the Prime Minister doesn’t believe that Australia… or the Cabinet as well, has focused yet on what change will mean and he’s trying to hammer away at the idea that the country is going well and that a change now is risking the future.
Now he knows that Kevin Rudd is trying to present himself as a risk free alternative. Now Government research shows that people don’t believe that. They believe that change comes with a risk. And so they’re trying to nag away at that belief which exists somewhere in people’s lizard brain, buried way down deep.
So he’s tried to turn Labor’s new leadership slogan back on itself again today saying that the country doesn’t new or old leadership, it needs the right leadership. And for Labor’s part, Kevin Rudd, he’s been surrounded by the slogan “new leadership”. He mentioned it 16 times in four minutes yesterday as he kicked off his campaign. He’s picking up a mood for change that’s so evident in the public polls and he has his own take on risk, he says the risk is the Coalition is returned and nothing changes.
ELEANOR HALL: You counted that very well. Now despite the Labor leader pointing out the differences, there are a lot of similarities between John Howard and Kevin Rudd, aren’t there?
CHRIS UHLMANN: There are an enormous number and I guess the most obvious one is that Kevin Rudd has styled himself as an economic conservative. Now you can’t imagine any other leader in Labor’s history doing something like that. He’s also adopted the Government’s target of one per cent surplus over the cycle.
In education, they both want a national curriculum. In health, the Labor Party is now saying it will retain the Medicare safety net. I don’t want to make too much of this because of course, there are some significant differences. Most importantly, of course on the way that the Government and the Opposition would deal with the labour market, with WorkChoices and the Labor Party’s alternative.
But interestingly, you know, I spoke the Attorney-General Philip Ruddock some time ago and asked him what was the biggest change he’d seen in politics since he came to Parliament in the early 1970s, and he said that the ideological gap between the two major parties had narrowed substantially.
You know, the irony about that though is that even though there is less of an ideological divide, it’s more now about personalities and it’s become very nasty in some ways.
ELEANOR HALL: One of the Government’s key lines of attack against Labor is that 70 per cent of its frontbench is made up of former union officials, has Kevin Rudd responded to that?
CHRIS UHLMANN: Yes he has. Now there are two prongs to this in the … sorry, that the Prime Minister has responded to that, has been talking about that this morning and there are two prongs to this.
One is that there is a narrow base from which to draw people, and that means that the party will be making policies designed to benefit unions over business and of course, Kevin Rudd did respond today. He’s been clearly working on his lines for that.
If Rudd is silly enough to agree to the early debate he will be beaten like a red headed stepchild.
He has no policies out so it would either be a rush of releases (giving the LIBs a chance to cost and pick at them) or a “just trust me” debate.
Either way he has to make a strategic error, and god help him if they make policy on the run during the debate, Rudds just not smart enough to pull that off.
Then hes caught in the bind of looking weasely if he dodges the debate offer.
After all Herr Flick has nothing to hide from us?Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 10 15 at 04:26 AM • permalinkAuntie’s negative spin, as usual: Tax cuts will ‘put pressure on inflation’
Since Kevni is ‘here to help’ he can come around and mow the lawn, trim the trees, wash the cars, dog and boat. After that he can do my yearly reports on my soldiers for me, and take them for a nice, long PT session, around 15KM with 35 - 40KG of kit would be good. Then he can take them to the range for a shoot, increase our pay and give us back the entitlements we lost when Labour was last in power. Me, I’ll have my feet up sipping some Bombay Sapphire. When these events come to pass, perhaps I will believe the hype.
I enjoy talking to my father about the Krudster, his view was ‘Man looks like a f*cking lying little lickspittle, probably never done a day’s work in the sun in his life”. Dad was a union rep in mining industry in the seventies.
Now he wants my sister to divorce her husband and have Howard’s kids.
Dunno how Jeanette would feel about that, but dad’s always been an optimist.A Current Affair are pathetic.
They interviewed John Howard live tonight, and five minutes later, Kevin Rudd.
Tracy Grimshaw asked Howard two “pop quiz” questions, what is the average weekly wage and what is the RBA’s interest rate.
Howard answered the first, as $58,000 per annum and Grimshaw didn’t know if he was right or not, as she had asked as a weekly figure.
A few minutes later, they interviewed Rudd, who started his interview by addressing Howard’s dislike of ‘The Worm’, mentioned in his interview. That is, he had been watching the interview.
Grimshaw then asked Rudd….. Exactly the same questions.
You would have thought they’d have a different set of questions.
Amazingly, despite having time to prepare, Rudd answered…. “about $58,000 per annum”. Quite a coincidence.
Dan Lewis
Thats what I think will sink Rudd, hes not as smart as he thinks he is, and his party is to scared of losing the election to tell him this. (they seem to have a bad messiah complex at the ALP)
I would be amazed if his debate goes well, unless of course they allow a “leaked” set of questions to fall into his hands.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 10 15 at 05:57 AM • permalink#39 - the narrowing of the ideological gap is all window dressing. We are in the hard sell phase. Later comes the “well, this is what we are doing anyway” phase. If that causes bad vibes prior to the next election, loop back to window dressing phase. I include both major parties in this in-depth characterisation, but, knowing the innate form of both, I’ll stay with the present mob. They are more like bank managers (not necessarily exciting, but you know where you are), whereas the other lot are more like Teachers Federation Enforcers, or worse.
I must say I enjoyed Howard tearing a new a***hole for Kerry O’Brien this evening.
The ridiculously dyed, red headed shill for Labor tried his best to derail Howard’s message and failed miserably.
The sign off was particularly ‘nice’ – Kerry O’Brien - “I look forward to our next conversation Prime Minister…” Howard, grins, eyes glinting in triumph - “I’m sure Kerry.”
Red Kerry then limped off to a mutual oral massage with Kevin ‘it’s a dirty Campaign’ Rudd who pursed his lips and sat sourly through a tepid ‘interview’.
It was quite obvious the Howard / Costello tax policy and other campaign I/A broadsides have got Labor rattled; “Contact front – run, down, crawl, up, observe, aim, fire….. all rounds on target, enemy in the open, fire mission regiment – 100 rounds of policy for effect….”
No counter battery fire from the desperately manoeuvring Rudd brigade which has been craftily channelled into an inflexible battle plan now rapidly collapsing around it.
Red Kerry was almost weeping as he read the intro to this evening’s story.
Perhaps it’s why the 7.30 report’s website still features Peter Beattie’s resignation story and not today’s Labor being slammed fest.
The tax policy combined with Rudd’s awful day one ‘speech’ and the soft numbers for Labor out of Queensland make week one looking pretty poor for “when I’m elected the next Prime Minister” Ruddster.
Further on the ABC - we had our usual tawdry ABC Regional News offerings interrupted last week as the ABC’s publicly funded Labor campaigners joined together to work on their Rudd centric election campaign.
I suppose this evening’s Four Corner’s soggy biscuit ‘expose’ on the Exclusive Brethren was the result (“we can reveal tonight”) , however it was a dismal and amateurish attempt to damage Howard that did nothing except reveal what a dangerous option a vote for the Greens really is.
Later I loved ‘I’ve been sacked’ Monica’s attack on The Australian as well.
Yup, I agree Monica, things are pretty bad out there in many Aboriginal communities as a result of the evil connivance of the dissolute left and I applaud Howard’s intervention and referendum proposal.
Now slip off quietly to whatever tax payer funded obscurity you are destined to occupy for the next THREE years.
Re #57, Ash_, that sort of post is proof positive that many of the the LP denizens are mentally ill.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 10 15 at 09:30 AM • permalinkHey, Peter W, I couldn’t get near the tv this evening because the offspring had control, watching pirate dvds sent home by the daughter’s boyfriend.
Sounds like business as usual at the abc.
As for the EB, we have a friend from army days who’s married to one, and she doesn’t spruik her beliefs at all. The clothing’s a bit conservative and she always carries a bible, but she’s a nice person.
Speaking of ‘negative, smear campaigns’:
The ALP doesn’t need a ‘dirt unit’ when they’ve already got the tax-payer-funded ABC to do the job for them.
Tonight’s radio News:
• Howard fluffs current interest rate figure question on Nine’s A Current Affair, despite just announcing a new tax policy, but Saint Kevin declines to take him to task on this (unnecessary, he’s got Auntie to do the job for him).
• The Exclusive Bretheren are claimed to have helped fund previous election advertising for the Liberal party: ABC’s Four Corners. Anthony Albanese demands answers.
I hope the ABC Head of News & Current Affairs rolls, post-election.
#64 - it can also be rearranged as Morag, which has an appropriately more sinister tone to it.
Posted by Jack Lacton on 2007 10 15 at 10:21 AM • permalinkZoe #65, most religions are a problem, including the one in which I was raised as a catholic. One of my brothers is a hare krishna and I find that weird too, as he’s very devout. We haven’t had anyone from the family convert to islam yet, but who knows what lies ahead.
I’ve worked it out that beliefs of whatever flavour are okay as long as the believers keep it to themselves. That goes for politics as well as religion.
I find I can tolerate any beliefs, just as long as I don’t have to live with the believer.
In our happy home we’re all more or less agnostic with a slight bias towards christian thoughts.
I still won’t vote labor, though. And I hope your son is happy going his own way.
Well
I find some disturbing aspects to the proposal. Look at the static versus dynamic scoring and class struggle mentality that still exists.
The tax cuts will COST about 34 billion over 3 years. Back to the it’s the governments money and they will let peple earning over x amount keep y amount instead of the government will only TAKE z amount.
Back to the static pie amount theory-if someone wins someone else has to be a loser.
Much more work to be done.
Bewdy - we get our own money back. Vale bracket creep for a few years.
Howard wouldn’t know small government if he (and Costello) tripped over it. It should cut down the rate of middle class welfare for a year or two if they pull it off but thats about it.
Who will pay for all the agrarian welfare for the Nationals after this?
Posted by Hump B Bare on 2007 10 15 at 06:12 PM • permalink#78
Spot on Skeeter, the fundamental reason behind farm subsidies in Europe and Japan at least is that they remember starvation and hold this silly notion that it is a good idea for a nation state to retain the ability to produce its own food. Something quaintly referred to as “food security”.We haven’t had this problem since the First Fleet days, and have enjoyed cheap and plentiful food supplies for a century and a half.
This also enables sections of the “community” to view farmers as landed gentry or environmental vandals and treat them with lofty disdain.
Most people who whinge about farmers have never been more than 10 miles from a Chinese restaraunt.
the fundamental reason behind farm subsidies in Europe and Japan at least is that they remember starvation and hold this silly notion that it is a good idea for a nation state to retain the ability to produce its own food. Something quaintly referred to as “food security”.
thanks… that’s a thought provoking angle that I hadn’t thought about before.
Posted by daddy dave on 2007 10 15 at 07:11 PM • permalinkKERRY O’BRIEN: You talk about new leadership, but yours is also relatively unknown leadership so far, particularly under pressure. But if you’ve developed something of a repututa… but you have, dare I say it, developed something of a reputation for blaming others when things go wrong, of having a glass jaw, not a good look when the buck is supposed to stop at the Prime Minister’s desk.
KEVIN RUDD: Well, you know, I find that a remarkable charge from Mr Howard and he’s been saying it everyday, for a long, long time now. This is the Prime Minister who’s never accepted a skerrick of responsibility for children overboard, A Prime Minister who’s never accepted a skerrick of responsibility for taking us to war in Iraq, and when he was told that by doing so he would increase the terrorist threat not reduce it, and a Prime Minister who’s not taken a skerrick of responsibility for $300 million worth of bribes being paid to Saddam Hussein to buy guns, bombs and bullets for later use against Australian troops. I mean, that’s just a wonderful debating point for Mr Howard, but against those huge measures - taking a country to war, bribing a foreign dictator, and children overboard, which so much impacted this country’s international reputation. When did Mr Howard take responsibility for that? Comes to fixing the hospital system, I want to have a system where the buck stops with me. Mr Howard wants to preserve the blame game.
Rudd exposes himself - badly. lol.
This is a dastardly move by Howard. Further moves like this could see the electorate thinking for themselves.
You presume that we’ll be thinking while blowding our middle-class pocket money on shoppan cennas and Crown?
I like how people actually think tax cuts are a policy.
Posted by Hideandreason on 2007 10 16 at 06:53 AM • permalink
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