I reckon it’ll be a shocker. Amazing that Labor, in under three years, can so drastically turn around a surplus. A sixty-odd billion dollar deficit is what we last got yet Krudd and the Duck blather on about having a quick return to surplus… in FIVE years.
What a joke. And Terry McCrann points out where they’re already playing tricksies, namely with the timing of the Henry Tax Report, the scrapping of the ETS, and Rudd’s giant mining tax grab.
It’s almost an artform what this Rudd government has achieved. Record deficits, school halls BER fiasco, Pink Batts fiasco, Fuel Watch, Grocery Watch, keeping a lid on interest rates (although as an investor with no mortgage, that ain’t so bad personally), asylum seeker number numbers overflowing to the point that they’re now being put in 4-star hotels (nice message being sent there), scrapping his and our most important issue, the ETS, thus pretty much proving AGW is nothing more than a political issue, a tax grab… sheesh. Did I forget anything? Yep. Not delivering on healthcare.
Trainwreck.
The only good things I can see in tonight’s budget is Swannie’s apparently going to make it a bit easier tax-wise on small business, and that unemployment is still low.
UPDATE
Of course it won’t be a “spendathon” like back in the Coalition days, Joolia. There isn’t any money left. You bloody spent it all… and then some!
UPDATE II
Not too bad… unless you’re a miner, and if that super tax falls through, it’ll be hard to fund all the goodies promised the rest of us.
UPDATE III
Reactions from around the Interwebs. A lot depends on China. Too much?
Bolt’s take: “Smooth on the outside, desperate within.“
Yep, it’s good Rudd et. al. aren’t spending money they don’t have, but really, that’s only because they’ve done so already. And I hope I’m wrong, but this budget relies a bit too heavily on mining companies keeping enough business here after Kevin’s 40% Super Tax comes in coupled with China growing at relatively the same or better pace. That said, it’s most unlikely our mining industry or China’s growth will reduce significantly anytime soon.
So overall, an OK budget. Not as good as what we used to get with Costello, but not too bad. Bolt may be right in there being a few too many desperate measures, but it looks likely that it’ll swing.
PS Yes, I was wrong about it being a shocker. Good.
UPDATE IV
I particularly like business and small business taxes being reduced (from 2012/13), and the tax free threshold for low income workers being raised to $16,000. It was $5000 back when I was working part-time through uni. The tax break on our savings interest is a good thing, too.
However, from what I’ve seen at a glance, there doesn’t seem to be anything (at best, it’s not being plugged) about getting that stimulus package debt down.
And no matter how OK this particular budget is, there shouldn’t have been a deficit to whittle down in the first place. Remember, when Swan got hold hold of the purse strings, it was $20 billion in surplus… all wiped out in the space of a year thanks to unbelievable billions being wasted left, right and centre.
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