Ever since the budget was annouced, we have seen a miriad of threads from the right condemning Shorten and labor for not annoucing alternatives. Can the righties on here really be so delluded? These are the same people cheering Abbott for not announcing policies during an election campaign, let alone 2.5yrs out from an election

Then the same delluded people on here go on and on about how Abbott is doing whats right for the country because of the budget emergency. Aside from the fact that there is no budget emergency, Abbott is doing no such thing. Abbotts policies all follow party ideology rather than budgetary concerns. He isn't really cutting spending. If the budget was in emergency there are many alternatives other than hitting pensioners and the unemployed. A study by NATSEM shows that the budget cuts hit low income couples with children and single parents the worst ... by up to 15%

[url]https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/natsem-confirms--australia-s-poorest-hardest-h
it-by-budget-223950750.html [/url]

why doesn't Abbott make his budget levy 15%? WHy has he done nothing to correct the structural deficit in the budget? That way he can really say he is sharing the load. Instead those that can afford to pay (myself included) end up paying a pittance. Some of the measures he could have used include taxing supoer, taxing religios groups, cut subsidies to mining and energy etc etc. These have all been covered extensively in other threads so I'm not going to get into them any further.

Can some of the Abbott cheer squad explain to me the difference between Shorten not announcing alternatives now, and when Abbott didn't do it preior to the election? I don't totally agree with how labors handled this. I think they are coming out to soft, but then thats me. He might ascribe to the theory of letting Abbott hang himself. Regardless, whatever Shortens doing it seems to be working.

Apart from one or two on here who seem to be against a social safety net altogether, can any of the right honestly say that they think the budget is a good idea? The budget is a joke in which Abbott sought to break as many promises as he could and get it over and done with as quickly as he could. He hopes that in 2.5 yrs time anger would have dissipated and a couple of $5 tax cuts in the future budgets will be enough to buy back your vote. I doubt it will work but 2.5yrs is a long way away ... if it does work than you forfeit your right to ever complain about being lied to by politicians.

Armchair_Politician wrote on May 22^nd, 2014 at 9:38am:



you even have a pet name for your skull?

Swagman wrote on May 22^nd, 2014 at 9:46am:

John Smith wrote on May 22^nd, 2014 at 9:49am:


Ahh, so THAT'S where the ALP HQ is now situated?

Shorten is going to do an Abbott. Abbott's tactics were effective in bringing down the Gillard government - so Shorten doesn't have to do anything except attack Abbott at this stage of the game.

Hopefully he will come up with some reasonable alternatives eventually, but first he's just going to have some fun.

It doesn't mean he'll be any better than Abbott if he manages to win the next election unless he gets his act together soon.

skippy. wrote on May 22^nd, 2014 at 9:50am:


I would say there is no emergency.
If we leave things as they are, there will be.

It is better to be proactive.

Sprintcyclist wrote on May 22^nd, 2014 at 10:08am:


it's not about trying to ajust the budget so that it doesn't continue on the path it's on .... its how Abbott went about it. He's trying to cut costs in all the wrong places whilst increasing spending on bullsh1t that we just don't need. To cut family tax benefits of working families whilst paying some rich bitch $50k to have a baby at this point in time is ridiculous.

Sprintcyclist wrote on May 22^nd, 2014 at 10:08am: