Humble Pie

[donnashuggy]

For Tony Abbott, 

Promises before the election, will people forgive him?

These very important promises he made probably convinced many to vote for him.

Does it make him look like a fool because he harped on about the previous governments promises.

[k0llectable5]

Thanks am for spending the time to explain things for me, I really appreciate that and feel as though I have learnt something today 🙂

[gleee58]

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@donnashuggy wrote:

I like it when people admit mistakes, I like them more

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Did he admit to a mistake?

[cherry*135]

Yes it was grandmoon. Not a good example.

Replace that example with reduction to youth unemployment benefits. Some woukd only eligible for a benefit for 6 months a year. The area unemployment rate in I live in has the second highest in NSW. There is a lack of jobs here.

[grandmoon]

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@am*3 wrote:
Another thing this Govt misjudged ( as mentioned in the Ross Gittins article) is that people who are not unemployed on benefits, aged, disabled..support those people and don't want the Budget proposals introduced that will affect them unfairly., for example, sone unemployed youth to only be eligible for dole payments 6 months of the year.

Not all unemployed dole recipients are dole bludgers. Plenty of young people graduating from Uni can't get jobs straight off.

Yet we got Hockey giving speeches about lifters andleaners..why should a working person work a hour more a day to pay a dolebludgers benefit. The majority of the public didn't fall for that attitude.

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The other young people they have not taken into consideration are those who are married with children and mortgages and have been working but loose their jobs through no fault of their own, if they are under thirty they will have no payments for that 6 months.

[k0llectable5]

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@grandmoon wrote:

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@am*3 wrote:
The Govt prepares a Budget to address deficit and plans/proposals to reduce it. If it is a good sound Budget and the proposals are passed it should lead to cost cutting AND an increase in revenue.

Of course there are 'outside' influences that will affect Australia's economy negatively, for example, a Global Financial Crisis, or substantial lower price for iron ore.

The current Govt made the proposal to introduce a $7 GP fee the result of doing this would be to bring in xx millions or billions. It was a dumb idea and never got off the ground. So, its not about predicting an increase in revenue there, because if the proposal is scrapped (because it won't pass in the Senate and is seen as unfair for families, elderly, chronically ill) there will be no chance of charging anyone $7.

If the Govt was allowed to introduce the $7 fee and expected $10m from it but people decided not to go to the Dr as much as they would like to because they didn't want to or couldn't pay the $7 ..then the revenue might only be $7m.. That would be their predicted revenue falling short.

This Govt had too many proposals to cut costs that are going to be scrapped. They only have themselves to blame for bad Budget proposals not falling revenue as their proposals never got approved.

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The $7 co payment was not to help the budget short fall, it was earmarked for medical research.

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Thats interesting Grandmoon.  

I wonder... if they'd come up with a smaller amount of say 3 or 4 dollars maybe people may have been more agreeable to the proposed payment... They would still be raising money for revenue/medical research without leaving people too much out of pocket.  

[gleee58]

No, please no.  He is worse in so many ways.

[cherry*135]

Yes, there were lots of points in that proposal that stunk. How any policy writer and/ or politician came up with/approved that I don't know.

The current Govt certainly misjudged the wider population. Spending the months from May to Dec still trying to promote their poor Budget proposals and not acknowledging in the slightest they were flawed hasn't done them any favours.

[cherry*135]

The $7 fee applied to all - families, chronically ill, aged..pensioners...not at all fair. It isn't only for Dr visits, applies to blood tests etc as well.

The fact that part of that amount ($5?) was to go to a Medical Research Fund wasn't a good idea either. The current Govt has reduced funding to health services in the next few years.. So that money isn't even going to be used to improve heath services.

If it was a lower amount it wouldn't cover the costs of administering it. I think the medical centre gets $2 of each $7 paid. Bulk bill clinics that are free for all would then have to get their admin staff receiving and accounting for money received. Costs them more to do so.

It starts out at $7.,,nothing stopping it bring raised in the future to $9.. $11... $15... $17... $20 when a Govt has a shortfall in another area.

[gleee58]

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@am*3 wrote:
The Govt needs to keep their citizens informed. It is usually the Opposition that carries on about Deficit problems, to try and make the current look Govt bad.

Abbott in Opposition was relentless in doing that, even long after he became PM. He was still banging on about it.

Deficits and surpluses are not reliant on 'prediction'.

The current Govt does use scare tactics... If we don't cut dole payments, charge poor people $7 to see a Dr. etc... then that big deficit Labor left us will keep getting bigger.

That has made them fall flat on their face now.

Australia's level of debt to GDP is not bad... Spain and Greece is.

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He still deos it. Every time he talks he says somthing about cleaning up Labor's mess. as if he believes what he's saying or something..

He does not want to talk about real issues or have an honest debate. He is an empty slogan looking for 3 new words to repeat every week.

[gleee58]

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@secondhand-wonderland wrote:

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@am*3 wrote:

Deficits and surpluses is not reliant on 'prediction'.

The current Govt does use scare tactics... If we don't cut dole payments, charge poor people $7 to see a Dr. etc... then that big deficit Labor left us will keep getting bigger.

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I dunno am*3, the statement in bold kinda sounds like a prediction to me... They are predicting the deficit will keep rising if they dont do certain things like charge people $7 to see a doctor etc.  

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They should have kept the mining tax and adjusted it to get the best value.  Who dumps something designed to increase revenue in the long term?  

He dumped both taxes that would address the revenue shortfall in the long term then attacked the lower income earners.  They deliberately made the situation worse so they could then blame Labor as an excuse to attack people.