Before the last election, Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised Australians  a “no surprises, no excuses government”, focussed on stabilising the economy and “stopping the boats”.  More importantly, he promised that he would lead a government of lower, simpler and fairer taxes.

It’s hard then to imagine what he was expecting when he announced a debt levy, a short-term boost to Treasury coffers directly targetted at reducing the Budget deficit.

Mr Abbott made a point of calling his new tax a levy, not a tax. He then argued that his promise wasn’t broken because it was temporary in nature.

Nice one Mr Abbott.

Mr Abbott’s tricky wording reminds me of similar clever use of language employed in the Middle East. Selling sex is strictly forbidden in the Islamic world. Yet, having lived there, I’ve observed that the vast majority of transactions are completed without attracting the attention of police – why?

A most interesting cultural element, present in both Sunni and Shi’ite faiths, that is known as ‘temporary marriage’ or ‘pleasure marriage’. Men ‘marry’ women for an hour.  They pay a dowry, consummate the marriage, divorce and then move on.

In their minds, they have not broken the law.
The running joke among expatiates in Dubai is that ‘anything is legal, as long as you call it something else’. 
Prostitution is illegal; temporary marriage is not.

Tony Abbott will undoubtedly argue that he is not increasing taxes.  This move, he will claim, is a temporary measure with no ongoing commitment. Most importantly it’s called something else – a levy, not a tax.  Therefore, he’s kept his promise and moves on to fight another day.

He won’t see that he’s broken a promise, because in his own mind that’s something other people do.
Just like temporary marriage, Mr Abbott’s conscience will be clear.  Words, it seems, not actions, are what matter most. It’s just a matter of perception.

The real question is – how easily are Australians fooled?



- See more at: http://nofibs.com.au/2014/04/30/abbott-and-the-temporary-marriage-scam-e2mq173-c...

[quote author=rough.ready link=1399116098/0#0 date=1399116098]Before the last election, Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised Australians  a “no surprises, no excuses government”, focussed on stabilising the economy and “stopping the boats”.  More importantly, he promised that he would lead a government of lower, simpler and fairer taxes.

It’s hard then to imagine what he was expecting when he announced a debt levy, a short-term boost to Treasury coffers directly targetted at reducing the Budget deficit.

Mr Abbott made a point of calling his new tax a levy, not a tax. He then argued that his promise wasn’t broken because it was temporary in nature.

Nice one Mr Abbott.

Mr Abbott’s tricky wording reminds me of similar clever use of language employed in the Middle East. Selling sex is strictly forbidden in the Islamic world. Yet, having lived there, I’ve observed that the vast majority of transactions are completed without attracting the attention of police – why?

A most interesting cultural element, present in both Sunni and Shi’ite faiths, that is known as ‘temporary marriage’ or ‘pleasure marriage’. Men ‘marry’ women for an hour.  They pay a dowry, consummate the marriage, divorce and then move on.

In their minds, they have not broken the law.
The running joke among expatiates in Dubai is that ‘anything is legal, as long as you call it something else’. 
Prostitution is illegal; temporary marriage is not.

Tony Abbott will undoubtedly argue that he is not increasing taxes.  This move, he will claim, is a temporary measure with no ongoing commitment. Most importantly it’s called something else – a levy, not a tax.  Therefore, he’s kept his promise and moves on to fight another day.

He won’t see that he’s broken a promise, because in his own mind that’s something other people do.
Just like temporary marriage, Mr Abbott’s conscience will be clear.  Words, it seems, not actions, are what matter most. It’s just a matter of perception.

The real question is – how easily are Australians fooled?


The real question is – what's the difference between kneeling down and bending over, do Australians know?

Armchair_Politician wrote on May 4^th, 2014 at 8:54am:


Spare us please - "Liberals are economically responsible adults - labor are irresponsible children" - its been done to death and is wrong.

http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1399014360

I too are in agreement with measures to pay down debt, but not in the current economic and socially irresponsible 'throw out the baby with the bathwater' agenda. This is not good policy it is dumb ideology.

John Smith wrote on May 4^th, 2014 at 9:10am:


Best summary I've seen.

Armchair_Politician wrote on May 4^th, 2014 at 10:25am:



not sure if you are just sprouting that crap for the benefit of your party or if you actually believe it ... either way all you've done is cement your place as one of this forums dumbest posters ....

Hmmm...

The voters have made their minds up, the women bashers times up.

Labor were indeed inept.
stupid carbon tax.
let the miners roll them.

Laborites like to blame howard for being too generous with tax cuts and middle class welfare but why would you bank any money as a liberal PM?

Moronic people like rudd and Gillard are always waiting to come in and spend all that hard earned money on Bullsh^t plans.

But getting back to tony and hockey.
They know what needs to be done.

Slash spending on the programs with the structural problems

the pension
super concessions
health spending.
NDIS
gonski
defence.

I can find little evidence that ANY of the above contribute to economic growth.

Now , redirect those billions into scrapping regulation and reducing taxes on small business, family companies and individual tradespeople.

Increase the taxes on the big end of town with a tax on large business (say 2 % on coles/woollies) and roll that back into concessions for farmers.
Scrap the diesel rebate for multi billionaire miners but keep it for struggling, worlds best practice farmers.
Put infrastructure in for tourism, not cycle paths for inner city green voters .

its all just common sense.

reward the productive elements of society and ruthlessly punish those who aren't productive.

And an old aged pensioner sitting on a family home worth 2 million in inner Sydney who thinks they are "owed" a pension needs to face a ruthless assets test, including the family home
Dirty stinking selfish old farts.
What a terrible example they are setting with their selfishness.