From NineMSM

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has pushed the government's economic credentials and accused Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of irresponsibility.

Mr Rudd, accompanied by Treasurer Wayne Swan, received a rapturous reception and chants of "Yes, we can, yes, we can" as he entered a meeting of union delegates in Queensland.

Mr Rudd told delegates from the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union of his student days working as a hospital wardsman, as he continued to sell the budget and savage Mr Abbott over the latter's budget response on Thursday night.

The prime minister accused Mr Abbott of having a "breathtakingly frightening" lack of knowledge of economics.

Mr Abbott, in his budget reply, committed a coalition government to axing Labor's planned super profits tax on mining companies and trimming the commonwealth public service.

He also took aim at the government's economic record, saying it was a reckless spender, blowing money on its botched insulation program and wasteful school building program.

In a speech strong on what he said were Labor values of a "fair go" and appeals to "working families", Mr Rudd said the government had saved 200,000 jobs with its stimulus funding in response to the global financial crisis.

Turnbull in another turnaround
PHILLIP COOREY
MALCOLM TURNBULL has embraced a more conciliatory tone on climate change policy, conceding that Tony Abbott's alternative scheme, which he once ridiculed as ''bullshit'', had positive aspects and could work in the short term.

Mr Turnbull, who has reversed his decision to quit politics, complimented the Coalition policy during a speech to the NSW Bar Association last night.

------------------

G'day Gus,

Since my teens and agreeing with my Father, I have believed that the provider of "information" has a power and an obligation that was intended to give a truthful example of world events.

Like my Father, with the now accepted propaganda which was fed to us - as indeed the “enemy” was fed to "their" people (but they were still people) I couldn't wait to join my older half brothers in defending our nation against the Nazis.  What a crock.

It was, IMHO, a decision of right and wrong.  They were told they were right and we were equally told that we were.  Only now does some areas of truth break through the censorship and enlighten us to some, just some, of what really happened.

I have long ago come to the conclusion that the US found that war was a very profitable pastime and that they have exploited it as President Eisenhower warned them not to do.

Does the US have spies in every country of the civilized world? Yes.

Does their evil alliance with the illegal Zionists in occupied Palestine have any bearing on current world affairs?  Yes.

However, IMHO the US is no match for the world Jewish Congress which already controls their Government.

Does this mean that the world wide Jewish organizations consider the rest of the world as an enemy?  Yes I believe so.

Is money the root of all evil – yes I believe so. But also an ultimate power.

God bless Australia and allow our government of the people to pay off our debt with assets rather than permanent servitude.  NE OUBLIE.

from Johann Hari:

So the yellowish liberal haze has now parted and we are Camer-on. The Prime Minister and George Osborne this week showed the first flick of their knife, marking out the areas they intend to cut much more deeply into over the next five years. Who have they decided can afford to take the pain first? Not rich people like them: they will continue to enjoy big state subsidies to build up their savings and maintain their estates. No. Step forward instead the unemployed, poor kids who are falling behind in their reading, children in care, the elderly, the disabled, and any feeble little steps we were making towards building a low-carbon economy.

Very few people in Britain would say our first move during a recession should be to shut down programmes that get the growing number of young people with no qualifications or training into their first job. Yet that is what the Conservatives have done. I've seen in my own part of east London how the Future Jobs scheme takes demotivated and lost kids and gets them into paid, on-the-job training for six months. It was too small, for sure – but now the programme has been abolished altogether, along with the £1,000 subsidy for employers who take on anyone who has been on benefits for more than six months. The Tories say they are not making cuts to "the front line" – but don't the long-term unemployed, stuck on £60 a week, live on the front line of British life?

-------------

See toon at top and take note of the "tax cuts to the rich"...