................ The last thing OZ needs is the financial sector going on a PPP spree of high cost, useless construction that delivers high cost non solutions in search of a problem.

should read "The last thing OZ needs is the financial sector going on a PPP spree of high cost , a blackmailing union and useless construction that delivers high cost non solutions in search of a problem."

should read "The last thing OZ needs is the financial sector going on a PPP spree of high cost , a blackmailing union and useless construction that delivers high cost non solutions in search of a problem."

Well yes DC you have picked up on one important point, we saw that with the Desal plant at Wonthaggi, the ETA and others went for the jugular, because they could with the tight timelines and the mining construction boom. That could be controlled this time if there is not a boom in construction. But even so, let's be honest the unions are squabbling over the crumbs falling off the table, from the Merchant Bankers and their financial backers who will have already taken us to the cleaners to the value of billions of dollars over the life of these contracts.

There is a real danger that we will let the private sector start to finance big infrastructure nationally. It will cost all of us a fortune. They will build the wrong things and charge us a bomb or it.

We are seeing disturbing signs already with the Napthine Government listening to Metro Trains offer solutions for upgrading the Packenham line and other solutions. Who is doing the planning here? Government or foreign owned consortiums?

I'm not surprised that you have a carton character as an avatar; that seems to be about your level.

As for paying taxes; if you were smart enough to read what I posted "Like a lot of others in a high income bracket I pay a heap of tax already and have for years and I don't appreciate Tony telling me that we all have to pitch in and get the budget back in order" you wouldn't have been stupid enough to make your final comment.

you are poor quality aren't you. first you have a go at me for not having a current job saying I should get off the publics purse having never met me. then when I tell you that I've lived off my bank balance for the last 5 years, you say nothing of an apology.

Then I make comment about your obsessive nature & closed mind, & you accuse me of having never met you, although your thoughts are visible every day many times over.

now you try to bait with little school yard barbs, about cartoon caricatures avatars. I'm not surprised your bored rf, with an intellect like yours trapped in such a small shell, its fighting to be set free form your narrow mind.

but you just can't learn anymore, with such a small mind frame. thats why your head spins within its own captive orbit.

Some wood say that that's it in a nutshell; anyway, spin away.

It's the debt, not the spending: why the budget is bleeding

"No one is too sure where the revenue has gone. It’s a murder mystery with multiple suspects."

One is a new style of tax minimisation.

..... Cloud-based corporations such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon pay far less tax here than their bricks and mortar predecessors used to. Whether it’s Ireland, Singapore, Holland or a more exotic tax haven, they can decide where big chunks of their incomes are meant to reside and shuffle their locations at will.

"Miners have been ramping up their investment spending and writing it off against their incomes quickly for tax purposes."

..... mining companies. Although big taxpayers because of the size of their operations, they have been paying a much lower proportion of their operating profits as tax, than the rest of the corporate sector, about 5 to 10 percentage points less according to Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson.

..... Another suspect is John Howard. Trapped in a moment of what columnist Annabel Crabb calls “electoral existential panic” over petrol prices in 2001, he froze the fuel excise, abandoning indexation. It hasn’t moved since. It’s still 39.14¢/litre, even though the price of petrol has climbed 60 per cent.

The quick fix didn’t cost his budget much at the time, but now costs $5 billion per year.

Australia goes into the budget with a projected deficit of $47 billion (a figure inflated by the government’s decision to pay $8 billion to top up the Reserve Bank’s reserve fund).

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/its-the-debt-not-the-spending-why-the-budget-is-bleeding-20140503-zr3mo.html#ixzz30niglZP8

*my comment, pay more tax.. or we will go the way of Greece, as they wanted to not pay tax or fees, to run the country.

Well yes DC you have picked up on one important point, we saw that with the Desal plant at Wonthaggi, the ETA and others went for the jugular, because they could with the tight timelines and the mining construction boom. That could be controlled this time if there is not a boom in construction. But even so, let's be honest the unions are squabbling over the crumbs falling off the table, from the Merchant Bankers and their financial backers who will have already taken us to the cleaners to the value of billions of dollars over the life of these contracts.

There is a real danger that we will let the private sector start to finance big infrastructure nationally. It will cost all of us a fortune. They will build the wrong things and charge us a bomb or it.

We are seeing disturbing signs already with the Napthine Government listening to Metro Trains offer solutions for upgrading the Packenham line and other solutions. Who is doing the planning here? Government or foreign owned consortiums?

can't agree about fighting over "crumbs" viscount......it's often a substantial impost.......to which the private contractor also adds a margin

sometimes the union blackmail occurs after the contract is agreed and the contractor can't recover it from the govt

i only added my extension to your statement in the interest of impartiality, not to quibble over who is the more guilty of avarice

you are poor quality aren't you. first you have a go at me for not having a current job saying I should get off the publics purse having never met me. then when I tell you that I've lived off my bank balance for the last 5 years, you say nothing of an apology.

Then I make comment about your obsessive nature & closed mind, & you accuse me of having never met you, although your thoughts are visible every day many times over.

now you try to bait with little school yard barbs, about cartoon caricatures avatars. I'm not surprised your bored rf, with an intellect like yours trapped in such a small shell, its fighting to be set free form your narrow mind.

but you just can't learn anymore, with such a small mind frame. thats why your head spins within its own captive orbit.

Some wood say that that's it in a nutshell; anyway, spin away.

You really are deluded aren't you.

Care to point out where I said you live off the public purse, you won't because I didn't. I said yeah go get a job referring to your post go the underdog, if you want to take this as a reference to yourself that's your issue, not mine.

Perhaps you are trying to read something that's not there in to it. I don't care what you do, who you are or how you pay your day to day bills, I couldn't give a stuff about any part of your life.

Btw as for my thoughts being visible every day many times over, I've posted 5,991 times since I joined here in 2005, you've posted 15,208 since you joined in 2007; I think I know who's thoughts are visible every day, many times over and they are not mine.

Back on topic, I am staggered that by all accounts today, Tony is still hellbent on this Deficit Tax, err sorry Levy. There are two things that surprise me. One he is still pushing this one despite the blow back from business, his own MPs and the general populace who regard it as a broken promise and secondly why he hasn't called it the LIL, the Labour Incompetence Levy! Not like Tony not to join every dot for the gullible and ignorant.

After all that is Tony's strength I thought, preaching to the ignorant and ill informed.

Back on topic, I am staggered that by all accounts today, Tony is still hellbent on this Deficit Tax, err sorry Levy. There are two things that surprise me. One he is still pushing this one despite the blow back from business, his own MPs and the general populace who regard it as a broken promise and secondly why he hasn't called it the LIL, the Labour Incompetence Levy! Not like Tony not to join every dot for the gullible and ignorant.

After all that is Tony's strength I thought, preaching to the ignorant and ill informed.

Tony did all he could to get the job and now he's doing all he can to lose it. Attack all your natural constituents; now that's a good idea.

Joe Hockey's Budget on tuesday night will be savage and a true horror show

The economy is not in that a bad shape...We still have a AAA credit rating with the IMF.

We wait and see what transpires....Competition is being killed by these narrow policies.

Joe Hockey's Budget on tuesday night will be savage and a true horror show

The economy is not in that a bad shape...We still have a AAA credit rating with the IMF.

We wait and see what transpires....Competition is being killed by these narrow policies.

WYL a lot of air time has been spent predicting a dire budget needed to address the so called budgetary crises but my guess it will seem somewhat benign compared to the doomsday talk. There will be some winners and many losers but their losses will be minimal really. Just my thoughts. A deficit tax may upset some but it is likely to impose an extra $500 a year on someone earning $200K a year.

WYL a lot of air time has been spent predicting a dire budget needed to address the so called budgetary crises but my guess it will seem somewhat benign compared to the doomsday talk. There will be some winners and many losers but their losses will be minimal really. Just my thoughts. A deficit tax may upset some but it is likely to impose an extra $500 a year on someone earning $200K a year.

Think you are wrong there Hood I'd say there will be no winners out of this and the figure of $500 extra tax for over $200k is fanciful, it will be more like $4k.

This Government is finished and all they will do is stuff the coffers with Tax for the next Labor Government to squander, they don't have a snowball's hope in hell of re election when people like me won't vote for them. I've always hated that smug bastard Hockey and this hasn't done anything to change that.

WYL a lot of air time has been spent predicting a dire budget needed to address the so called budgetary crises but my guess it will seem somewhat benign compared to the doomsday talk. There will be some winners and many losers but their losses will be minimal really. Just my thoughts. A deficit tax may upset some but it is likely to impose an extra $500 a year on someone earning $200K a year.

Wish i held your confidence Mr Hood....I consider Hockey to be completely insane.

Our economy was strong and functioning well until Joe decided it wasn't.

Triple AAA Credit rating from the IMF is not given out lightly.

Jumping Joe has managed to alienate every sector of the community and business at once, that must be a World record.

Chances of being re elected=zero.

Think you are wrong there Hood I'd say there will be no winners out of this and the figure of $500 extra tax for over $200k is fanciful, it will be more like $4k.

This Government is finished and all they will do is stuff the coffers with Tax for the next Labor Government to squander, they don't have a snowball's hope in hell of re election when people like me won't vote for them. I've always hated that smug [censored] Hockey and this hasn't done anything to change that.

Yes I got that a bit wrong. By winners I should have said non losers! That is there are those who have avoided the knife, such as the fuel excise for miners, really that is a joke, I don't mind farmers getting fuel subsidies, but the miners can pay their way and I suppose the other group is over 60 superannuates paying zero tax on their income. That is just not sustainable and this was an opportunity to deal with Peter Costello's fiscal time bomb. If we have a crisis this would be one of your first targets because the % of retired people not paying any tax will sky rocket in coming years.

As for the budget fallout well there is the cheer squad at News, Andrew Bolt and the shock jocks to limit the damage in the short term and there will be sweeteners in the next budget.

Your average swinging voter has a short memory I think. At least that is Tony's plan.

I have spoken about my ire when polly's talk about their " mandate". I specifically commented that a mandate isnt a mandate until you win both houses and therefore you can pass your legislation without obstacle. If there are obstacles to passing legislation such as not having numbers in the senate then to my mind you clearly dont have a mandate.

Having said that - polly's bandy the word mandate around if they get a one seat majority in the house of reps ! What I would like to know is whether Greg Hunt who champions the use of the word "mandate" believes that this Government had the mandate to break numerous election promises in the budget ?

OK - the current Gov't finally gave me a laugh that I needed - did anyone else see and hear what Christopher Pyne called Bill Shorten... a good laugh....apparently we get suspensions on DEmond land as well the word censored but its ok to say it in parliament - I guess that is what privilege is all about.

I guess that is what privilege is all about.

Nah, we just hold ourselves to a higher standard of debate on here Nut - Demonland is the Algonquin round table compared to what goes on in Parliament

OK - the current Gov't finally gave me a laugh that I needed - did anyone else see and hear what Christopher Pyne called Bill Shorten... a good laugh....apparently we get suspensions on DEmond land as well the word censored but its ok to say it in parliament - I guess that is what privilege is all about.

It helps when the Speaker is your puppet.

Literally (keep your eye on Pyne on the right)

This thread is a hoot. After all that abuse I copped from Robbie for calling Abbott what he is and foretelling what was to come, the moment he hits his back pocket, he turns on him.

Forget all the raping of the poor, unemployed, elderly, youth, families, disabled, scientific community, public service, environment.....Robbie has to pay extra tax, therefore Hockey and Abbott are no good.

Never change Rob. Never ever.

It helps when the Speaker is your puppet.

Literally (keep your eye on Pyne on the right)

Pyne is truly outrageous.

The spoilt little toe cutter.

King Joffrey would be proud of him.

You really are deluded aren't you.

Care to point out where I said you live off the public purse, you won't because I didn't. I said yeah go get a job referring to your post go the underdog, if you want to take this as a reference to yourself that's your issue, not mine.

Perhaps you are trying to read something that's not there in to it. I don't care what you do, who you are or how you pay your day to day bills, I couldn't give a stuff about any part of your life.

Btw as for my thoughts being visible every day many times over, I've posted 5,991 times since I joined here in 2005, you've posted 15,208 since you joined in 2007; I think I know who's thoughts are visible every day, many times over and they are not mine.

oh robbief, your thinking about Australian politics is infamous. nothing to do with a numerical figures at all. just your caveman narrow view of things.

Should we shut this thread down as no one will pay this tax, err sorry levy as the fat cats have been given ample warning to rearrange their tax arrangements before it becomes law.

Should we shut this thread down as no one will pay this tax, err sorry levy as the fat cats have been given ample warning to rearrange their tax arrangements before it becomes law.

Not only that, it is a temporary measure. It is nothing more than a transparent ploy enabling Abbott and Hockey to keep peddling their lies about everyone doing the "heavy lifting".

Should we shut this thread down as no one will pay this tax, err sorry levy as the fat cats have been given ample warning to rearrange their tax arrangements before it becomes law.

... haven't you heard, the Minerals Resource Rent Tax hurts Australia in the pocket book, so Abbott & Costello, sorry, & Hockey, will create a replacement to derive income for the deficit.

I believe it'll be named something like a CDT-L , but won't hurt a bite

Deficit Tax...

... slug the Working Class, with health/hospital, & school/education cuts, take away they're services that keep them getting by, & only put a Temporary Levy on the Wealthy as a hoodwink.

Most will pay their accountants to skirt around any Levy's no doubt...

But Wait, theres' more Johhny. more for you to play with.

Hmmn, lets get rid of the australian built cars & we will take the American cars from next year, importing them from the USA. Mustangs etc... free Market is right Johhny... they're going to help themselves...

next will be the PBS in their sites. so we can all pay more, for our medications.

& yet more, pretty soon we'll have horizontal stripes in the top left hand corner of our flag.

& a Trillion Dollar debt.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/the-1-trillion-f35-tries-to-be-all-things-but-succeeds-at-few-say-critics-but-is-australias-new-weapon-now-too-big-to-fail/story-e6frfrnr-1226950254330

The $1 trillion F-35 tries to be all things, but succeeds at few, say critics.

AUSTRALIA has committed its biggest defence outlay ever on an unfinished combat jet critics insist can’t fight, can’t run and can’t hide. Is the F-35 a flop?

Angst has been boiling about the F-35 Lightning II (otherwise known as the Joint Strike Fighter) since its inception. Now, five years overdue, and six years away from its revised delivery date, that angst has exploded into furore. The United States, and by virtual default all its key allies, have pinned their hopes on this single project.

In the US it’s been priced at over $1 trillion. Australia is spending around $15 billion.

Advocates insist its is the most advanced killing machine in history — a flying supercomputer pumping an unprecedented level of information into a $500,000 helmet that allows pilots to “see” through the floor of their own aircraft.

Whatever the case, the F-35 was supposed to be an affordable alternative to the far more capable F22 Raptor interceptor fighter. Now, it’s so expensive — in fact it’s the most costly defence project in history at $1 trillion — it is being seen as “far too big to fail”.

While builder Lockheed Martin may yet succeed in rolling the aircraft off the production line, there are grave doubts in the aircraft’s ability to do the jobs demanded of it. Critics point to what they call a fundamental flaw in its design: As a cost-savings exercise, it’s supposed to be all things to all people.

For the US Navy, it’s supposed to be an F14 Tomcat interceptor and F/A18 Hornet strike fighter combined.

For the US air force, it’s supposed to do the jobs of the F-16 strike fighter and A10 ground-attack aircraft.

For the US Marines, it’s supposed to be a replacement for their iconic “Jump Jet” Harriers.

The result, critics say, is a cascading series of compromises that has produced an aircraft inadequate to meet any of its functions.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/the-1-trillion-f35-tries-to-be-all-things-but-succeeds-at-few-say-critics-but-is-australias-new-weapon-now-too-big-to-fail/story-e6frfrnr-1226950254330