topic Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us in Community Spirit

How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

nero_bolt — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:23:28 GMT

Australian families to wear the pain of Labor's massive debt bomb

How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt that they have left Australia with?

What would you do to get this massive debt problem under control that Labor left us?

What would you cut or trim to get this MASSIVE debt problem (caused by Labor and their failed spending policies) under control

How would you pay for all these WELFARE programs and never ending handouts? Who has to pay for these and how?

How would you pay for the rising number of pensioners over the next 2-3-4 decades etc What would you do and how do you pay for this?

So what would you do to ballance the books and budget and lower and get rid of the massive DEBT we have?

https://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2012/11/12/labors-debt-time-bomb-exposed

http://www.news.com.au/national/joe-hockey-reveals-labors-667-billion-debt-bomb-in-myefo-statement/story-fncynjr2-1226784631548

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/australian-families-to-wear-the-pain-of-labors-massive-debt-bomb-joe-hockey-warns/story-fni0cx12-1226785387240

Joe Hockey reveals Labor's $667 billion 'debt bomb' in MYEFO statement

AUSTRALIANS face the worst hit to income since the 1950s, rising unemployment, a national debt ballooning to $667 billion and a legacy of spending that had crippled the budget, Treasurer Joe Hockey warned yesterday

TAXPAYERS were on track for a $667 billion debt bomb if Labor's policies and spending was left unchecked over the next decade, budget papers reveal.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/australian-families-to-wear-the-pain-of-labors-massive-debt-bomb-joe-hockey-warns/story-fni0cx12-1226785387240

http://www.news.com.au/national/joe-hockey-reveals-labors-667-billion-debt-bomb-in-myefo-statement/story-fncynjr2-1226784631548

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

debra9275 — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:27:27 GMT

well why did Abbott buy another 54 planes if things are so bad, Shouldn't they be tightening their belts instead of spending?? It just doesn't add up I'm afraid

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

nero_bolt — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:30:24 GMT

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

fourandsixpants — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:33:22 GMT

oh great. The ol' find an excuse by blaming the opposition so we can justify another tax when we promised we wouldn't game......sigh

....because we have to find the money to pay for all the new F35 fighter jets and aged care programs.......

...............and politicians pay rises *cough cough

so original.....and predictable not

Just one big party. Lots of balloons and noise. Carp food. Wreckless hecklers!....

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

nero_bolt — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:37:26 GMT

So you dont have an answers or any suggestions on how you would go about paying back this massive debt we are left with or balancing the budget and paying for all these huge WELFARE programs?

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

debra9275 — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:44:02 GMT

I do, stop wasting our taxpayers dollars on things like planes and royal commissions that we don't need & scrap the paid parental leave

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

fourandsixpants — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:48:23 GMT

reply to nero, So you dont have an answers or any suggestions on how you would go about paying back this massive debt we are left with or balancing the budget and paying for all these huge WELFARE programs?

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Yes.

It involves a disciplined and professional approach and from what I have seen there is none re. this present leadership of wallies.

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

boris1gary — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:48:47 GMT

clearly the op is a hypothetical question.......

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/no-financial-crisis-in-australia-just-joe-hockey-starting-a-class-war-20140429-zr0u7.html

No financial crisis in Australia, just Joe Hockey starting a class war

Everybody knows that there are lies, bleep lies, and statistics; but it isn’t the statistician that lies. Politicians who dream up numbers convenient to their argument and dress them up as statistics justify the proverb.

Fortunately for those interested in facts, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has performed a number of population projections using high, medium and low projections for migration and births. The ABS also displays employment status by age group.

Treasurer Joe Hockey managed to look serious when he told ABC News that “we all might have to work an extra three years”. Less than half of the population between 55 and 64 has any kind of paid job, and only 30 per cent has full-time work.

When Hockey pre-announced his attack on old-age pensioners he started from the position that the number of Australians between 65 and 84 would “quadruple” by 2050. But on the ABS’s high-growth projection there will be 2½ times as many people in this age group by 2050 than there were in 2010. For a politician, exaggerating a problem by only 60 per cent probably feels like telling the truth.

Of course, if we start with the ABS’s central projection the problem looks even less alarming and Hockey’s exaggeration even wilder.

Hockey is quoted in The Age (24 April) as saying that “the percentage of people of working age supporting those over 65 will almost halve”. Using ABS projections, the proportion of people “of working age” (defined by the statistician as 15 to 64) was about 67 per cent of the population in 2010 and will be 63 per cent in 2050. (This figure is based on the ABS's middle projections. If we use its high-growth projections, the figure is 61 per cent.)

Hockey predicted that only 37 per cent of the population would be of working age in 2050, yet the best available estimates from the ABS show it is in fact is between 61 and 63 per cent. Here, Hockey has exaggerated. His number is over six times the best available estimate.

Now let's look at the whole Australian population. Less than 45 per cent have any paid employment at all and less than 30 per cent have full-time work. Bear in mind that, by and large it is the full-timers who pay taxes and work for dividend-paying firms; part-timers can barely support themselves. Essentially, 55 per cent of the population is dependent, one way or another, on the 30 per cent with full-time jobs.

If the age-employment ratios stay the same until 2050 there will be a minor problem: 60 per cent of the population will be dependent on about 25 per cent who will then be in full-time work. This suggests that, over 30 years, the burden on those in work supporting those who are too old, too young, too ill or too unattractive to employers to work, will rise by around 11 per cent.

But if productivity keeps rising at its present rate, average wages will rise by 56 per cent over that time. This means workers will still be 45 per cent better off than they are now (even after supporting their families and being taxed to provide support and services to everyone).

There is no need for age-employment ratios to stay the same. Forty-five per cent of Australians aged between 45 and 54 are in full-time work. For those aged between 55 and 64, 29 per cent are in full-time work. As everyone who has left or lost a job after the age of 55 knows, getting a new full-time one is practically impossible: even getting an interview is rare.

At the moment 400,000 fit and willing Australians over the age of 55 can’t get work. Fix that problem over the next 30 years and practically the whole Hockey crisis goes away.

There is still a federal deficit to worry about. It is small in global terms and not growing particularly rapidly, but it would be reasonable to stop it growing any faster than the Australian economy as a whole. By far the quickest and most humane way of fixing the deficit is to get the 600,000 unemployed Australians into jobs.

Step one should be to force employers seeking 457 visas to prove that there are no Australians willing and able to do the relevant jobs.

Next, if a few of the worst tax loopholes were closed no cuts would be needed at all.

The gold-plated parental leave scheme for women has come in for a lot of well-deserved criticism, but what about the rort that lets millionaires save 30 per cent tax by making super contributions while part-timers on less than $18,000 per year pay an extra 15 per cent tax on their contribution?

And what is the economic or even the political justification for allowing negative gearing on the purchase of established housing? What is so special about the mining industry that it deserves rebates and deductions worth several billion dollars a year, even while the pathetically ineffective mining resources rent tax is to be abolished? Why should the means test on the pension be tightened while the means test on the health insurance rebate is to be removed?

There is no financial crisis in Australia, and no threat of one. What we have heard from Hockey is the opening blast of a new phase of the class war: tax breaks for billionaires and heavy lifting by pensioners. The ALP should be calling Hockey out for what he is doing: party democracy might be good, but proposing policies in the interest of the 99.9 per cent of the population who aren’t billionaires would be better still.

John M Legge is an educator, author and consultant.

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

fourandsixpants — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:56:31 GMT

I disagree debs.....I believe we definitely should have Royal Commissions-but I do question the costs, these are questionable and unacceptable.

We need 'some' planes-but NOT these lemons! and certainly not a hundred of them. For heavens sakes!...the Americans don't even want them.......

I don't know enough about the Paid Parental Leave Scheme to comment on it.....suffice to say that it will probably only most benefit those parents with jobs, time to make babies and IF they keep working long enough before they get hammered for earning over $80,000 a year.....

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

tall_bearded — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:02:02 GMT

Here’s three. Tighten up the tax laws so that -

Corporations are no longer able to minimise tax by simply shifting assists.

The self-employed are no longer able to avoid tax by simply entering into partnerships with their spouses thus spreading the income earned by one as if it was earned by both, something PAYE tax payers can’t do. And whilst on the self-employed, tighten up on what falls within the definition of allowable tax deduction by excluding anything which has a personal use component.

Force multi-nationals to pay a fair amount of tax in proportion to revenue actually earned in this country.

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

debra9275 — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:02:13 GMT

Paints what I had in mind was the one about the pink batts. it's cost someting like 23 million and doesn't prove anything that isn't already known, it's basically a witch hunt.

the ICAC is important though, it's turning up large scale corruption everywhere

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

i-need-a-martini — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:06:37 GMT

I will ignore the assumption that the deficit needs to be paid back immediately. I will also ignore the fact that the increased debt was essential to this countries ability to roll through a world crisis unscathed. Because that is all simply uneducated humbug from the likes of Hockey.

However, if the current government feels they need to decrease the deficit, the answers are simple nero:

You tax those earning the highest. The higher the income the lower the threshold. The lower the income the higher the threshold.

You tax company profits in exactly the same way as above. In addition there are those companies that should be slugged on top of their standard company tax - those companies who have detrimental impacts on society (cigarette producers for example) or detrimental effects on the environment (mining for example).

You rein in spending on strategies that are of little benefit to the country as a whole (Abbotts parental leave being a classic example) and spend your (supposedly) limited funds on what is of value (public education, public health, public welfare).

You ensure your strategies are for the long term rather than to see the country through the next 4 years. And therefore you develop policies to fund the future rather than knee jerk reactions to contemporary issues that you think will win you votes.

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

fourandsixpants — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:04:16 GMT

to boris.........

At the moment 400,000 fit and willing Australians over the age of 55 can’t get work. Fix that problem over the next 30 years and practically the whole Hockey crisis goes away.

Step one should be to force employers seeking 457 visas to prove that there are no Australians willing and able to do the relevant jobs........................

but what about the rort that lets millionaires save 30 per cent tax by making super contributions while part-timers on less than $18,000 per year pay an extra 15 per cent tax on their contribution?

There is no financial crisis in Australia, and no threat of one. What we have heard from Hockey is the opening blast of a new phase of the class war: tax breaks for billionaires and heavy lifting by pensioners. The ALP should be calling Hockey out for what he is doing: party democracy might be good, but proposing policies in the interest of the 99.9 per cent of the population who aren’t billionaires would be better still.

Here here!

SWAG IS FOR BOYS AND CLASS IS FOR MEN

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

debra9275 — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:04:37 GMT

Force multi-nationals to pay a fair amount of tax in proportion to revenue actually earned in this country.

I particularly like that one TB

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

debra9275 — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:06:54 GMT

Step one should be to force employers seeking 457 visas to prove that there are no Australians willing and able to do the relevant jobs

yeah!

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

i-need-a-martini — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:10:58 GMT

Oh yeah. And how about we stop selling our countries agricultural assets.

Whilst everyone is up in arms about "the chinese" buying up apartments, we all turn a blind eye to the fact that every other country in the world is buying up our land.

That's because THOSE countries are smart enough to be thinking beyond the next 4 years. They are thinking about the next 100 years. Mineral shortages. Food shortages. Water shortages. Climate change implications. Population booms. Sadly when all the above occurs we won't have any land left to help ourselves just so the government can make a quick buck now.

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

i-need-a-martini — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:13:05 GMT

@debra9275 wrote:
Step one should be to force employers seeking 457 visas to prove that there are no Australians willing and able to do the relevant jobs

yeah!

Sadly that is all drop in the ocean stuff Deb. Looks good when politicians huff and puff about it before an election but inconsequential in the big scheme of things.

And that is part of the problem - our politicians (on BOTH sides) don't think big. The last politician to really think like this was Keating.

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

debra9275 — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:16:53 GMT

martini, both govts seem to think our little country is a backwater and they're practically giving everything away. We were a lucky country, commodity rich and with good agriculture

It will come back to bite us eventually,

actually it already is

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

tall_bearded — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:41:15 GMT

Another one that just came to mind

How about removing the fringe benefit tax by redefining all fringe benefits and salary offsets as assessable income. I mean, why should a company executive be able to get his employer to pay for his children’s private education, whilst the rest of us plebs have to pay for it out of our after tax income.

Re: How would you pay back Labors MASSIVE debt they left us

fourandsixpants — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:47:27 GMT

yes. ineeda and debs....I agree with what both your last comments.

Australia is GREAT in what has not been tapped into.

We have a MASSIVE desert system, the things we could create out there.

We have the know how to irrigate the land and water is abundance in deep water aquifers.

Done right we could do marvellous things.

We have people here who were employed by the Saudis years ago to irrigate their deserts.

Can be done here and done right we would be absolutely laughing all the way to the bank.......................

but it needs leadership with foresight, discipline and guts.