Friday 29th of March 2024

a cruel me-miracle...

tackscutstackscuts

The word out of the federal government is a desperate Scott Morrison will use improved numbers in the budget to attempt a huge tax cut to buy his way back into government.

John Howard tried and failed with the same tactic in 2007 when Labor’s Kevin Rudd quickly matched him, but at least then the budget was in rude good health thanks to years of the mining boom.

This time a measure of the Prime Minister’s desperation is that he even is considering yet another electoral bribe on top of the hugely generous tax cut for higher-income earners already baked into the next term.

 

They are the phase-three tax cuts legislated three years ago before the pandemic blew away any chance of him delivering the “back in the black” budget promise at the last election.

 

So before new tax cuts are contemplated both sides of politics have already put into law cuts costing $16 billion a year and mainly benefitting those earning $150,000 or more.

Mr Morrison can’t be sure that Anthony Albanese won’t follow the Rudd precedent, especially as the Labor leader waved through the stage-three largesse rather than pick a fight over it.

With budget deficits forecast as far as the eye can see, whoever is in government will be borrowing to fund this already grossly irresponsible generosity.

So even if the Treasurer is able to show the budget is rapidly repairing in his Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook on Thursday, whatever he earmarks for future announcements like tax cuts will go on his credit card.

The $103 billion budget improvement over four years Deloitte Access Economics estimates to be a more rapid recovery than officially forecast, will still leave the budget just over $90 billion in the red this financial year.

No doubt further borrowing will be sold in terms of “trickle down” and economic stimulus, with the promise as the economy grows the debt will be repaid.

But if the form of the past three years is any guide, it will be low-income earners and the vulnerable who will be called on to pay dearly for budget repair.

 

To get away with this the government will be counting on crucial voters in the outer suburbs having short memories and being more worried about their immediate cost-of-living pressures.

It is a cruel mirage.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/12/14/paul-bongiorno-pm-hope-budget-numbers/

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

blind to reality...

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

 

Escalating Coalition criticism of the ‘Voices Of’ independent movement is “attacking democracy”, one of the drive’s key supporters has claimed, as yet more senior ministers complain about its growing traction.

Several independent candidates have also laughed off “desperate” attacks from the highest levels of government, including accusations the challengers are “Labor/Greens puppets” and members of the “hard left”.

“The Liberal Party has lost touch with the community so badly that they don’t recognise a sensible centrist when one shows up and speaks her mind,” Kylea Tink, challenging Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney, told The New Daily.

 

It came after the strongest blast of the movement yet, when Health Minister Greg Hunt on Sunday described the Voices Of push as “the hard core of the hard left”.

“Many of them are to the left of not just the Labor Party, but to the left of the Greens,” he claimed.

Simon Holmes a Court, whose Climate 200 group plans to support up to 20 independent candidates, rubbished the growing criticisms from Mr Hunt, Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg and Barnaby Joyce.

“It’s interesting there’s a lot of different attacks from the government. They’re still trying to find out how to categorise the movement,” he told TND.

“A large percentage of people I talk to are lapsed Liberals. If they tell lapsed Liberals this is a Greens or Labor effort, that doubles their effort. I hope the government keeps going. It helps us.”

Numerous independent candidates, many supported by ‘Voices Of’ groups in their local areas, are taking on established Liberal MPs in blue-ribbon city seats at the coming election.

Drawing inspiration from former Indi MP Cathy McGowan and Zali Steggall’s 2019 campaign that unseated Tony Abbott in Warringah, many of the independent candidates share common traits: Professionally successful women taking on moderate Liberal men, campaigning for stronger climate and integrity action, and blue-green campaign branding.

Candidates are also drawing hundreds of volunteers and supporters to campaign launches.

 Tweet from @zalisteggall

With a string of independent candidates recently announced in Liberal seats like Kooyong, Wentworth, Goldstein and Mackellar – plus winning back Warringah from Ms Steggall being a key Coalition target – the government has rapidly escalated criticism of the Voices movement in the last week.

Mr Hunt’s rebuke came on the same day that Mr Joyce, in an opinion piece for The Australian, slammed the Voices movement as “simpleton, selfish politics” and warned of “chaos” if too many were elected.

In November, Liberal MP Tim Wilson called his independent challenger Zoe Daniel a “Labor/Greens puppet”.

On Friday, Prime Minister Morrison described the movement as “Voices Of Labor and the Greens”.

Three times in one answer, he complained it was being bankrolled by “big money” and a “big financial crowd”.

Mr Morrison didn’t elaborate, but Mr Holmes a Court – a climate activist, investor and son of billionaire businessman Robert Holmes a Court – has made recent headlines with plans to raise millions of dollars to support select independents.

He told TND his Climate 200 group, a take on Mr Frydenberg’s Kooyong 200 fundraising group, had raised about $6 million from 6400 donors already.

Mr Holmes a Court said he was unsurprised at the growing government criticism, but pushed back on criticisms about “big money”.

“They’re scrambling to find a way of attacking democracy. This is a democratic revival,” he said.

“At the last election, Clive Palmer spent $89 million … I never heard anyone from the Liberals complain about that.

“This is actually very small, in relative terms.”

The government’s growing criticism of the Voices Of movement has also touched on the fact independent candidates are only running against incumbent Coalition MPs, not Labor.

Many Voices candidates will campaign for stronger action on climate change and integrity measures – issues where the Coalition has weaker policies and goals than Labor.

“Are Barnaby Joyce & the Nationals worried independents will bring back stability & probity to govt & policy making, disrupting the chaos they like to cause?” Ms Steggall tweeted on Sunday, after Mr Joyce’s criticisms.

Tweet from @simonahac

Professor Monique Ryan, director of neurology at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, will challenge Mr Frydenberg in Kooyong. She was scathing of Mr Hunt’s comments.

“I would like to be amused, but as a doctor I am appalled at this coming from a health minister who continues to accommodate the misleading, anti-scientific propaganda of George Christensen, not just on vaccination, but also on climate,” she told TND.

“It is yet another reminder how out of touch with the concerns and interests of mainstream Australians the Liberal party has become.”

Ms Tink echoed similar criticism.

“This is desperate,” she said.

“I haven’t changed, the Liberals have. By allowing Barnaby Joyce to dictate the little he will allow on climate change, they are out of touch with the mainstream views and aspirations of the North Sydney community.”

Dr Sophie Scamps, challenging Jason Falinski in Mackellar, said her stance on climate was “consistent” with policies from leading industry groups which the Liberal Party usually respects.

“I’m not sure even Greg Hunt would describe the Business Council of Australia or the National Farmers Federation as the ‘hard core of the hard left’,” she told TND.

Despite the Coalition claiming the movement is a “front” for Labor or the Greens, most of the independent candidates say they’ve never been a member of any political party, and some have links to the Liberals.

Ms Daniel, a former ABC journalist and former TND columnist, said she had voted for her opponent, Mr Wilson, in 2016.

Allegra Spender, taking on Dave Sharma in Wentworth, is the daughter of former Liberal MP John Spender.

Mr Holmes a Court said he was unsurprised the Voices campaigns largely came from Coalition seats.

“They’re growing out of frustration at the representation they’re getting. I’m not surprised people in non-government seats aren’t energised enough to start a campaign,” he said.

“This is a movement from the centre. It’s spot fires of people who are pi–ed off. If Labor was in power, I’m sure this movement would be targeting Labor seats. They’re pushing against people they think are doing a bad job.

“[Mr Morrison] should be asking, ‘Why did these groups start up and why are people disaffected in heartland Liberal seats?'”

Mr Holmes a Court said Climate 200 would look to support between 12 and 20 independent candidates, and hoped three to five would win election.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/12/12/attacking-democracy-independent-voices-of/

 

Let's hope that the voters in "the shire" manage to bypass their "self-interests" (tax-cuts, rorts, hoon benefits, etc) and place ScoMo last on their election ballot... (or second last should there be a Clive Palmer candidate on the list)...

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

scomo's bribes...

How $2.8 billion of your money is spent — it grossly favours Coalition seats

 

 

Liberal electorates received three times more taxpayer money than Labor-held seats, as a detailed analysis of more than 19,000 grants reveals a highly politicised system rife with uneven spending. See the funding your electorate received.

 

by Katina Curtis and Shane Wright

 

The multibillion-dollar grants system used by MPs and federal ministers has become so politicised that Coalition-held seats around the country received more than $1.9 billion over three years while Labor electorates got just under $530 million.

A special analysis of more than 19,000 individual grants shows huge discrepancies among the nation’s 151 electorates, with a boundary line such as a road or a creek separating communities from potentially millions of dollars.

 

In the case of Labor leader Anthony Albanese, his Sydney electorate of Grayndler received just $718,000 while the neighbouring, Liberal-held marginal seat of Reid received $14.8 million. Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s home electorate of Cook received $8.2 million.

In Victoria, former Labor leader Bill Shorten received $717,000 in assistance for his western Melbourne electorate of Maribyrnong while Liberal-held but marginal seats in the city’s east received up to $20 million in handouts.

From tiny grants for coffee grinders, “insect hotels” and free “trishaw” trips around Bondi to multimillion-dollar swim centres that are still years away from being built, the analysis of grants decided by either local MPs or individual ministers shows huge political discrepancies, which have been labelled a form of “soft” bribes.

 

The data was collated from information published on the Commonwealth’s GrantConnect website, which lists every grant given out since December 31, 2017.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age examined 19,123 grants across 11 programs worth $2.8 billion in the 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years. It covers the May 2019 election. 

These account for one in five grants made in that time period. The Commonwealth has hundreds of grants programs, most of which distribute money for the usual business of government. This includes research funding, money for aged care homes and special grants to keep childcare centres afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. These business-of-government programs are not included in the analysis.

The programs examined by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age are either those that give a set amount to each electorate (to be allocated by the local MP) or where government ministers decide on the allocation.

These grants do not include programs such as the Coalition’s controversial railway station car parks, which were funded in a different manner.

It is the first time such data, at an electorate and funding program level, has been available.

 

 

Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2021/electorates-government-grants/index.html

 

 

Read from top.

 

 

See also: SCOMO'S GOT TO GO !

 

See also: cost of the new subs...

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!