There is politics with its usual play-acting and huffing and puffing, and then there's going a step too far. Joe Hockey has taken that step.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt, thought he couldn't be serious, suspected there was a careful use of weasel words to provide an out – but I checked and apparently the Treasurer means what he said: he'll throw a Tea Party on December 12 and slash government services when the existing $300 billion debt ceiling is reached unless the opposition gives him a $500 billion ceiling now. He won't accept the proffered $400 billion interim offer.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/joe-hockey-goes-a-step-too-far-20131115-2xll6.html#ixzz2khi6pctj

Taxpayers are spending $3,000 a week to rent a house in Canberra that Prime Minister Tony Abbott does not want to live in.

Mr Abbott has been staying at the Australian Federal Police training headquarters while The Lodge undergoes major repairs.

It has emerged the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet signed a 12-month lease on a house in August, during the caretaker period.

But department official Elizabeth Kelly says Mr Abbott made it clear shortly after the election he did not want to live there.

She says the department is now trying to terminate the lease.

"Since that time we have been in negotiations with the owner and the landlord and the property agent for the property trying to make arrangements to find an alternative tenant so we could terminate the lease," she said.

"We are still in those negotiations."

Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi has questioned why a lease was signed before the election.

"Perhaps well intentioned, but very presumptuous, and I'm not sure the taxpayers will enjoy the fact they've got $156,000 worth of lease payments to pay for an empty building," he said.

The department says it wanted to find accommodation comparable to The Lodge.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-18/taxpayers-spending-money-on-house-abbott-doesnt-want/5100350

Now let's see... For years, the Coalition punched Labor for not having a "business plan" for the High Speed broadband (NBN)... Labor had one but it was a bit elastic because of extraneous sundries such as asbestos in Telstra pits (which would also impact on the Coalition Slow Speed concoction of wires to the node)... and the technology of fibre optics on such as scale, as Labor was installing for THE FUTURE of this country, is brand new. 

Now those hypocritical bleater idiots of the right-wing smelly coop are cagey about the reasons for demanding 200 billion extra in the deficit WITHOUT PRESENTING A BUSINESS PLAN... Nothing... Labor has to reject this demand until a proper plan is presented ... It's possible, the Libs (CONservatives) have a business plan about say infrastructure and social programmes (please... not that idiotic elitist nanny stuff), one may have a look in... But so far, it's all iffy, non-costed and I have a belief that about 10 billions of this secret money might be earmarked to reimburse the payee of the carbon ta... sorry pricing — the rich, the polluters and other idiotic denialists...

Watch this space...

You can't trust little turd Abbott... Look at the mess he's created with Indonesia... Some people say he had nothing to do with the "spying" (who knows?) but his unrepentant attitude of school yard bully is not getting him anywhere. Abbott is an idiot, not to mention a rabid climate change denialist idiot to boot.

May his house burn down accidentally in the next hot windy day bushfire on the "North Shore"... Coming soon...

The regulation of Qantas is back on the agenda after Treasurer Joe Hockey canvassed the idea of ditching ownership restrictions and even providing the national carrier with Government aid.

At a business function yesterday, Mr Hockey criticised the Qantas Sale Act, which says the airline must be at least 51 per cent Australian owned.

He said it was inflexible and he raised the possibility that Qantas might need public funds.

Qantas has been lobbying furiously for Government help in the face of increasing foreign support for its rival, Virgin Australia.

Chatham House rules were in place at the business function where Mr Hockey spoke, so neither he nor the meeting should have been identified.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-28/hockey-flags-ditching-foreign-ownership-rules-for-qantas/5121404

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Rules? More "don't tell anybody what's in store" hubris?.... "Don't flag the future too much" press release.... So who leaked the info? Joe Banana? Joyce? Which Joyce? Some investors ready for a bit of "insider" trading? It is about time to realise that COMPETITION  in some "businesses" like flying planes has long been lop-sided... For example EMIRATES is owned by the government of the Emirate states with more cash to throw at the it than could have been  carried by the old poo-trucks of Dubai. Singapore Airlines is owned by the government of Singapore... Many airlines in the world get subsidies or favours from their local governments. Even the manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus get hand-outs in some form or another... The brand Qantas is as "Australian" as "Vegemite".. What? Vegemite is owned by an American company?... Would you fly Qantas if it was owned by Air Zimbabwe? Or JP Morgan Hot Air?

Hum.... So many questions, so little cash... 

The Federal Government will go ahead with the multi-billion-dollar sale of the nation's biggest health insurer Medibank Private.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has announced the Government-owned company will be sold through an initial public offering in the next financial year, 2014-15.

He said the details were yet to be finalised, but that an independent scoping study had found no evidence that insurance premiums would increase as a result of the privatisation.

The Government has previously said it wanted to sell Medibank Private at the "right time" to maximise the sale price.

But Senator Cormann would not say how much he thought the insurer was worth.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-26/government-announces-sale-of-medibank-private/5347136

See toon at top... Possibly worth half as less as a bunch of coconuts...

Labor's Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen will launch a major broadside at the Coalition government on Thursday alleging it has confected a budget emergency in a bid to permanently damage Labor's reputation as a financial manager.

And he will propose three initiatives designed to lift the fiscal debate above politics by strengthening the powers and responsibilities of the independent Parliamentary Budget Office✓ by taking some tasks away from Treasury.

Mr Bowen will use a televised National Press Club address to claim that Treasurer Joe Hockey shifted some of the measurement parameters in last year's mid-year economic and fiscal outlook document - the half-yearly budget snapshot traditionally released towards Christmas.

And he will say the decision to pump more than $8 billion into the Reserve Bank's reserve fund, was another transparent attempt to make the deficit left by Labor after the election appear more severe.