Australia: One year on, Rudd blows the budget, spend spend spend

Government blows the budget on its anniversary Tony Abbott
News.com.au
Thursday, November 20, 2008
How quickly can Kevin Rudd blow Peter Costello’s economic legacy? This week’s headline-grabbing splurge was $300 million for local government.
Most councils should be able to find good uses for individual grants averaging just over $500,000. But this is the same Labor Party which attacked the Howard Government’s local grant scheme as “regional rorts” and declared during the election campaign that the irresponsible spending spree must stop.

In the past few weeks the Government has spent half the current year’s surplus in Christmas bonuses, committed an extra $3 billion to the car industry and promised an unlimited free guarantee for interbank loans and bank deposits. None of these measures were accompanied by rigorous costing or ongoing reform. Already this year’s surplus is down 75 per cent on the budget night figure to about $5 billion. As well, the Government is planning to commit $20 billion of Costello’s $70 billion in accumulated surpluses towards infrastructure projects that the states are too broke to pay for.

It took Premier Carr about a decade (helped by some creative accounting) finally to run NSW into deficit. Mr Rudd looks like managing this feat in his first year. Government spending makes sense if it helps Australia to avoid a recession but we could easily end up losing a decade’s accumulated reserves with very little to show for it.

Whilst I agree with the points made by Tony Abbott, It must be noted that Australians voted for a return to the days of high interest rates (high of 18% average 12.5% home loans 22.5% investment property loans) high unemployment 12%, Australian Council Of Trade Unions (ACTU) controlled work places, awards and conditions for those lucky enough to have a job, and to run the economy down back into a 96 billion dollar deficit as per the Hawke Keating lagacy of the last Labor federal government to run Australia.

Someone said "great civilisations are not destroyed they simply commit suicide", Australians have simply decided that life under Howard was simply too good and perhaps Kevin 07 could make it even "more gooder" still, or suicide.

According to the latest surveys by those who constantly told us how bad the Howard government was these last 12 years, Australians have never been worse off than they have been these last twelve months under Kevin 07 running his time for change agenda , unfortunately I believe that things will have to get a lot worse before those who voted for "time for change", Kevin 07 and the ACTU aka suicide will realise what they have brought upon themselves and their fellow Australians, we should all hope that when this time arrives that there is indeed a chance to reverse the damage inflicted by Kevin 07 and the "time for change" agents of the UN's cabal of International Socialists.