If Joe Hockey's Budget is implemented, Australia is heading for more inequality as more people battle to cover their basic needs. Claudia Perry-Beltrame says that is not good for business.

SINCE THE ANNOUNCEMENT of Australia’s Federal Budget last week, frustration and disbelief continues to grow as more detailed news trickles through and sinks in.

We are heading for more inequality in our nation as more people will battle to cover their basic needs. And that is not good news for business, despite business being hailed as one of the winners in this budget.

It might be possible in the short term, but not the long term. 

According to 2011 census data 1.8 million single and family households, or 12.8% of the population (2012 ACOSS data), were living under the poverty line. Reducing the number of Government employees will increase unemployment and hence the number of families and singles living either under or near the poverty line. 

Data shows that a single mum with a child six to 12 years old will be about $1,500 per annum worse off due to reduction in Family Tax Benefits. This equates to around $30 per week. Combined with the increases in food due to the fuel excise, food might just become a rarity.

On the other hand, estimates show that a person earning $200,000 per annum will pay only an extra $400 in tax. They will have to do less heavy lifting by sacrificing one coffee per week. Increased unemployment and decreased spending by those on low incomes cannot be good for business.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/budget-inequality-is-bad-for-business,6508

 

Tony's budget is criminal... He should stop pretending to care.

 

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has sought to reassure the arts community that the Government remains pro-arts, despite slashing millions of dollars from the sector.

The budget outlines almost $60 million of savings over four years from arts and cultural development funding.

About $68 million will also be cut from Screen Australia and the Australia Council.

But in a speech at the Australian Book Industry Awards in Sydney last night, Mr Abbott said lobbying by the Arts Minister had helped spare the sector from more severe cuts.

"While there'll be many things the Government does that you may or may not like, we do wish to work with you as closely as we humanly can to try to ensure that our country continues to be a creative nation," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-24/tony-abbott-says-arts-funding-narrowly-escaped-further-cuts/5475632

 

"Hey!" added the little bullshitter while pumping his barrelled chest and showing the art of winking with his left hand, "you should be very happy that your allocated pittance was not fully mowed down like that of those vermin inhuman scientists!"... He went on: "I love arts... My daughter Frances loves arts... Arts are a necessary element of society where one is versed in the technique of bullshitting 3D space-time reality into a 2D flat-earth theory. We welcome that, though you will still get less money for it... Science on the other hand (the right one) tells us things we don't want to know." Tony here of course was referring to his farting in a bathtub.

You know you can't believe one single word coming out Tony's lips... But be firm, as he will try to con you some more about the value of his rotten fish.

 

 

On Friday night at the annual Australian book industry awards in Sydney, prime minister Tony Abbott was handed an open letter, signed by dozens of prominent artists and writers and previously published on Guardian Australia, objecting to cuts to arts funding in the 2014 federal Budget.

The poet and author Maxine Beneba Clarke approached the prime minister during the event and offered him a sealed envelope. In it, was a copy of her work Foreign Soil, along with an open letter by the editors of literary journals Meanjin and Overland, signed by writers including Anna Funder, Alexis Wright, JM Coetzee, Don Watson, Christos Tsiolkas and Michelle de Kretser.

“There was discussion about the potential of organising a physical protest,” Maxine Beneba Clarke told the Guardian, “and we decided that we didn’t want to do that. It’s the Australian book industry awards, we don’t want to do a disservice to an industry that we are all part of. And so I just thought, I’m physically there, how often do you get that opportunity? I’m sure I never will again.

“Tony Abbott was seated in the middle of the room, and about halfway through the event they announced the main course and I just approached his table very humbly, and said, ‘Look I know that it’s really forward of me to approach you like this, but I’ve been wanting to meet you for quite a long time, and I just wanted to take this opportunity to actually come up and speak to you.'

“He looked quite taken aback, and I had a petition in a sealed envelope with a copy of my book because I was worried that if I told him it was a petition he wouldn’t accept. He asked me who I was, and I told him my name and I said I’ve just published my first book I’ve brought a copy here particularly for you, I’d really love it if you would accept the book.

“He hesitated and then he took the envelope, and I said, ‘In the envelope there’s also a letter signed by a number of prominent Australian writers and thinkers regarding the cuts to the arts industry. I feel like I’ve been really respectful and I haven’t caused a scene, and I haven’t been rude to you, and I really hope you actually take this envelope when you walk out of here and you engage with Australian artists about this petition. And he said thank you and I walked away, very surprised I hadn’t been tackled by security.”

The petition is against the $28.2m cut to the Australia Council, the $38m cut from the budget for Screen Australia and the $120m cut from ABC and SBS over the next term. The letter says: “This decrease in federal support will be devastating to those who make art of any kind in this country, and many important works, works that would inform national debate and expand the horizons of Australia and its citizens, will simply never be made. Ultimately, these cuts will impoverish Australian culture and society.”

The letter also highlights the contribution arts industries make to the economy, which according to Australian Bureau of Statistics contributed $86bn to the Australian GDP during 2008-9, “$13bn of which flowed directly from our field, literature and print media.” The letter contrasts this revenue with the mining sector, which “only provides $121bn to the GDP, and employs fewer workers (187,400 directly, 599,680 indirectly), yet receives far more government financial support at federal and state levels.”

Clarke said that Abbott’s speech later in the night, “was a speech about the book industry, and how important the written word is, but it didn’t really refer to writers at all. It was just about how important it is that the written word is distributed, how important it is in the dissemination of ideas. But the lifeblood of the book industry is writers, and there’s this anomaly where the prime minster is turning up supporting these awards, but on the other hand not guaranteeing funding that has to date been ongoing for the arts industry.”

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/24/tony-abbott-handed-arts-cuts-petition-at-book-industry-awards

 

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Any speech from the conman of the year is going to have some hypocrisy sewn into it... At best, Tony did not write the speech, but one of his staffer would, versed into what publishers want to hear minus what authors want to hear, plus a true deceiver's hand on his bleeding heart to say with regret that overall, the industry was being shafted, gently.  And of course, Tony loves the arts so much that he deeply feels blah blah blah... Bullshit bullshit bullshit all wrapped up nicely.

 

 

This morning, Tony Abbott held a press conference in western Sydney to announce the federal government would install more CCTV in Campbelltown, as part of its $50m "safer streets" programme. This is at least the third time safer streets has been officially announced, and it's obvious why: after a huge backlash against the budget, Abbott needed an "announceable". He wanted a bit of political comfort food.

"[Y]ou turn the cameras on, you turn the crime off. I think that’s what people want ... if you want the safety you need the cameras," he said about CCTV back in 2010. 

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/23/all-tony-abbott-wants-is-everything-tony-abbott-wants

 

Any speech from the conman of the year is going to have some hypocrisy sewn into it... 

 

Last week, Mr Abbott appeared to back away from a threat to hold a double dissolution election after earlier signalling incoming Senate crossbenchers would be unlikely to keep their seats if there was a new election.

Labor, the Greens and Palmer United Party have vowed to block changes such as the Medicare co-payment and pension cuts.

Mr Abbott also said job seekers on unemployment benefits have no right to reject work just because they can’t find their dream job.

don't read more: http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/federal-budget-2014-tony-abbott-says-it-will-pass-in-the-senate/story-fn84fgcm-1226930213418

 

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As usual, Tony Detritus frames the issue with ideological crap-twist: first let's say that job seekers on unemployment benefit are looking for "their" dream jobs... That's a con from Tonicchio Lollypop. This is an Abbottism to make us swallow that unemployed people are picky, when the majority of job-seekers are not. IT'S JUST THAT THERE AREN'T ENOUGH JOBS OUT THERE and the Turd-in-Chief is working hard at killing as many jobs as possible. And by JOBS we don't mean people who are employed at newly invented menial tasks paid with peanuts and no safety nets. No. Mr NO has destroyed very good jobs that actually were producing something. 

This is why I want HIS job, Tony's job... a job which he performs badly, with the most atrocious hypocrisy. Should Tony have any ounce of honesty in his body, he should sack himself. I would do far better. You can trust me.

 

Does the figure $503.71 mean anything to you? That’s how much a single person needs to live above the poverty line in Australia, according to the latest estimate. A typical full-time worker earns three times that amount (nearly $1500 per week) but there’s one group with incomes way below it – the unemployed. Many people are surprised to hear the Newstart Allowance is just $255.25 a week for a single person – about half the poverty line benchmark. Even when rent assistance is added, Australia’s unemployment benefit is 38 per cent below the poverty line.

The story gets even more troubling when Australia’s dole payment is put alongside comparable countries that are members of the Organisation for Economics Cooperation and Development. A new research paper by Alan Morris from the University of Technology, Sydney, and Shaun Wilson from Macquarie University used OECD data to compare Australia’s dole payment against those paid in other wealthy nations. We did poorly for single unemployed people. The net replacement rate for the Newstart payment for a single person is equivalent to just 28 per cent of the average wage. That compares with an average of 47 per cent in major English-speaking nations – Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States – at the initial phase of unemployment.

In a grouping of seven major European nations including Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Austria and Belgium, the average net replacement rate for unemployment benefits for a single person in the initial stage of joblessness is 64 per cent of the average wage, or 36 percentage points higher than in Australia. Even in the most economically advanced nations in East Asia – Korea and Japan – do better than us. They have an average net replacement rate of 50 per cent Tony should be working for the dolein the first year of unemployment.

Australia’s Newstart was comparable benefits provided in the Southern European nations of Greece, Spain and Portugal, which have all be rocked by the global financial crisis and sovereign debt problems. So we’ve got southern European generosity even though Australia is richer than those nations and escaped the financial crisis relatively unscathed.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/miserly-newstart-keeps-unemployed-further-away-from-jobs-20140523-zrmvz.html#ixzz32io33900


This is what I say above: Tony Detritus frames the issue with ideological crap-twist: first let's say that job seekers on unemployment benefit are looking for "their" dream jobs... That's a con from Tonicchio Lollypop. This is an Abbottism to make us swallow that unemployed people are picky, when the majority of job-seekers are not. IT'S JUST THAT THERE AREN'T ENOUGH JOBS OUT THERE and the Turd-in-Chief is working hard at killing as many jobs as possible. And by JOBS we don't mean people who are employed at newly invented menial tasks paid with peanuts and no safety nets. No. Mr NO has destroyed very good jobs that actually were producing something. 

 

 

Greens leader Christine Milne says she cannot trust Prime Minister Tony Abbott's word in political negotiations.

The Federal Government is likely to need support from the Greens to get some of its budget measures through the Senate.

The Greens say they will not support the GP co-payment, and they are planning to block welfare changes.

Senator Milne said she had only had one meeting with Mr Abbott since the election, in which he "told me one thing and did the exact opposite".

"It was with regard to Tasmanian World Heritage area, where the PM had [said] he was going to withdraw the area from World Heritage listing," she told ABC News Breakfast.

"I said to him it would be a very bad idea. He said, 'Oh, I've never said that'. He said, 'What's locked up is locked up'. He would just oppose anything more being protected.

"And then within weeks the Federal Government submitted to the World Heritage Centre in Paris its intention to withdraw 74,000 hectares.

"So you simply can't deal with a PM who tells you one thing, then does another.

"You have to act in good faith and you have to be able to trust people. And it's clear from that, that I wouldn't be able to trust what the Prime Minister had to say."

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-26/milne-says-pm-cannot-be-trusted-in-negotiations/5477198

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At last. The Greens see through the fog of crap that Tony is spreading fast and furious like a smoke machine gone rogue in a Richard III play by Shakespeare... YOU CANNOT THRUST ABBOTT SHOULD HE OPEN HIS MOUTH (or write anything on a piece of paper). 

Tony went to university to learn the art of lying — boldly going where no man has gone before... Actually, university was only the officially recognised step to certify his extraordinary natural ability at telling fibs, porkies and grand lies with a stretched-out fairy-floss style that no living human can presently come close to...

 

 

 

Abbott deserves to be punished relentlessly for his broken promises

Australia's prime minister is a dud with no plan, who can't govern without laying bare the deep contradictions in his own party – but the electorate has already figured that out

 

The public reaction to Australia's 2014 budget has been like a compound fracture to the government’s backbone.

Its first signs are a visible discomfort in undertaking routine daily activities, like radio interviews and community visits. Over time the signs of a deeper fragmentation will begin to appear, along with extreme constraint in the government’s ability to carry any weight or respond with agility to obstacles in its way.

Abbott's political authority was fractured so quickly because of its brittleness. Forged in the fire of opposition and relentless attack, his governing coalition contains deep contradictions and conflicting forces, which his approach to winning office has compounded, rather than resolving.

He repeatedly told his troops that the dilemmas of real-life policy and budget strategy were debates to be had in government, not in opposition. This was combined with an approach to political management straight out of the command and control playbook, in which the leader calls the shots and the masses follow on.

In order to maintain "stability", Abbott has preserved a motley collection of Howard-era front benchers, all of whom seem dedicated to returning Australia to their own personal favourite decade of the 20th century. Meanwhile, a series of younger guns, apprenticed during the Howard years but mostly with little experience of the wider world, wait fretfully on the edge of the ministry, trying to work out when to seize their moment – and Malcolm Turnbull determinedly positions himself to become the people’s choice.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/02/abbott-deserves-to-be-punished-relentlessly-for-his-broken-promises

 

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This is the moment in the play by Billy Shakealeg, when Andreamous Boltariola claims that Malcolm is a lefty-right-wing wuss in the Liberal (Conservatives) hearth of ultra-right wing devotees who, bless them, make Marie Le Pen look like another leftie... To which Malcolm denies the reality of his own meekness and accuses Boltariola of being in fafaland or crazy or unhinged like a creaky door to a pig pen...

Someone ought to set this comedy/tragedy script to music like a Mozart opera, the magic pud, especially the bit about Abbott defending Malcolm against Boltariola... You wiv me? Any treacherous kid would know that he has to protect the rich nerd in the gang of brigands, otherwise the nerd could go and raise an army, could he not, if he was pissed off? Note: nerds rarely get pissed off, but when they do, please duck.

In the end, all ends well... Abbott goes overseas, never to come back as his plane runs out of fuel... Landed on a deserted island, Abbott, never short of resources, trades the island to a couple of monkeys for a banana boat that gets unfortunately turned around to a beach in Indonesia, as he approaches the good Aussie shores. Despite his claim to be who he is, the Navy cannot take the risk of letting him back in — because after having drifted for more than a couple of year, Tony has develop a skin like that of a dead crocodile in the sun.

The last soliloquy is Tony singing to the tempest, while doing a solo circumnavigation, hoping to be rescued in the south Indian Ocean. This leaves room for a sequel...