The 2007 Budget - let the election campaign begin

[am Bays]

All right honourable members (?) of SAFooty

let the debate begin........

In a snapshot....

Treasurer delivers an election year budget aimed at the battlers, the elderly and middle Australia

Budget surplus of $10.6 billion
$31.5 billion in tax cuts over four years
Low income tax offset to increase to $750 per year
40 per cent threshold to rise to $80,000 from July 2008
$22.3 billion over five years from 2009-10 for road and rail infrastructure
Child care benefit to increase by 10 per cent.
Doubling of rebates for household solar panels to $8000
$10 billion over 10 years to safeguard water supply
$5 billion grant for universities
$3.5 billion to promote 'flexibility and diversity' in higher education
$6.1 billion over 10 years for defence personnel recruitment and retention


http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/05/08/1178390301146.html

[Dutchy]

About time they do something serious about childcare, Ill reserve my judgement until I see all the details but after paying $50- a day from my son for 3 years knowing some of the kids are going for $5- a day just doesnt seem fair no mater what your circumstances are...

stuff the tax cuts...its bugger all...how about better roads and health care?

[zipzap]

Tax cuts piffling. Works out to a pack of Holidays for the 'battlers'
Environment glossed over. Where was the 'n' word?
Education direction vague but promising, though nothing about early years education.
Solar panel rebate restores what was already there before they cut it in half so they can hardly claim they are doubling it.

Looking forward to the Labor rebuttal. I'm keen to see some substance as opposed to the froth and bubble they've been dishing up lately.

[Sojourner]

Tax Cuts will come in handy as will the childcare rebate, the $8000 rebate for Solar Panels is interesting, I am told that the average cost of installation of a good system is $12-14k, so it comes down to how long it might take you to work off 4-6 grands worth of electricity to get into credit on your system, in my case about seven to eight years, so it is probably worth looking into, if more people do it then the cost of it might go down a little as well as the technology becomes more viable, in the same way that DVD players or Plasma screen TV's have dropped in price since their introduction.

I will listen to Wayne Swans rebuttal on Thursday night, he looked somewhat like a deer caught in the headlights initially stating this and that was their policy and their idea, yet made some good attacks on funding for the environment and pointed out that tax cuts for low paid workers have been bugger all in previous years, so this one is the only real one in any monetry terms.

Hopefully the Greens, Family First and the Democrats will each release a public response on their thoughts on the whole budget, not just their areas of interest, so that people can get some other political views on where we are heading for the term of the budget.

[PhilG]

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[heater31]

*Budget surplus of $10.6 billion

What was the surplus last financial year, someone?

one percent of GDP like it has been for the last few budgets as Mr Costello informed me when i flicked over to the budget wrap on ABC

[mick]

Swann's response to the budget was piss weak, he hardly landed a punch, agreed with most of it and implied the ALP's policies had been stolen. Get ready for the Liberal revival.......there will be big ticket promises closer to the election which will certainly be December, it will be close but I'm predicting a Liberal victory, especially if Comrade Gillard can be prompted to spill her socialist guts again.

[McAlmanac]

Pork barrelling Budget in an election year. Situation normal. People still have the same choice - the fiscally dubious versus the morally bankrupt.

Mick is right, it will be close as people's repulsion of Howard will be tested by their hip pocket.

[PhilG]

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[heater31]

*Budget surplus of $10.6 billion

What was the surplus last financial year, someone?

one percent of GDP like it has been for the last few budgets as Mr Costello informed me when i flicked over to the budget wrap on ABC

That doesn't tell me anything, Heater. Sorry.

well yes it does it is 1% of GDP all you need to do is find out the GDP figure for last year and take out 1% of that. so looking at the ABS website GDP had a 2.4% growth last year so the budget surplus has risen also 2.4%

[Aerie]

Swann's response to the budget was piss weak, he hardly landed a punch, agreed with most of it and implied the ALP's policies had been stolen. Get ready for the Liberal revival.......there will be big ticket promises closer to the election which will certainly be December, it will be close but I'm predicting a Liberal victory, especially if Comrade Gillard can be prompted to spill her socialist guts again.

Why can't the opposition agree? Does everything have to be debated? Plenty of common ground for both parties to work with in plenty of aspects of politics and I don't see why pretty much every time one party comes up with something the other tries to find a way of making it look stupid. Neither Labor or Liberal look appealing to me...

[Leaping Lindner]

Interesting budget. Still not sure if I am going to vote Libor or Laberal.

[smac]

Swann's response to the budget was piss weak, he hardly landed a punch, agreed with most of it and implied the ALP's policies had been stolen. Get ready for the Liberal revival.......there will be big ticket promises closer to the election which will certainly be December, it will be close but I'm predicting a Liberal victory, especially if Comrade Gillard can be prompted to spill her socialist guts again.

Why can't the opposition agree? Does everything have to be debated? Plenty of common ground for both parties to work with in plenty of aspects of politics and I don't see why pretty much every time one party comes up with something the other tries to find a way of making it look stupid. Neither Labor or Liberal look appealing to me...

In short Aerie, if they agreed with everything they don't offer an alternative and will never get in. Of course, that is the simplistic version.

[Aerie]

Swann's response to the budget was piss weak, he hardly landed a punch, agreed with most of it and implied the ALP's policies had been stolen. Get ready for the Liberal revival.......there will be big ticket promises closer to the election which will certainly be December, it will be close but I'm predicting a Liberal victory, especially if Comrade Gillard can be prompted to spill her socialist guts again.

Why can't the opposition agree? Does everything have to be debated? Plenty of common ground for both parties to work with in plenty of aspects of politics and I don't see why pretty much every time one party comes up with something the other tries to find a way of making it look stupid. Neither Labor or Liberal look appealing to me...

In short Aerie, if they agreed with everything they don't offer an alternative and will never get in. Of course, that is the simplistic version.

Yes, but I reckon they often go too far the other way and that is a real turn off. Give credit where it's due and then say how you're going to make it better - obviously there still will be plenty of aspects where policy will be different. Perhaps they are trying to get people to vote for who they don't want in and this is why both parties always tow the negative line?

Yes, I can understand why the opposition always has a dig, but it sh*ts me!

[devilsadvocate]

Solar panel rebate restores what was already there before they cut it in half so they can hardly claim they are doubling it.

The old scheme was a $4k rebate based on a $16k (approx) system being installed. (The $16k system is enough for a family of 4 consuming an 'average' amount of electricity) This scheme ended in April 07 I believe.

The new scheme giving $8k rebates is double the old scheme, and VERY welcome by me who is looking to build a house within 3-4 years. (Knowing my luck, labour will reverse this policy IF (doubtful) they manage to win the election)

[TroyGFC]

Geez I am in the money fanks to Little Johnny and Costello I will get a whole extra $17(approx). Yeah thats really going to help with the escalating petrol cost and the rate rise that will happen a couple of weeks after elections.

[smac]

It's more than you have now, stop complaining. If you aren't earning enough, be ambitious and get a new job that pays more. Jesus, nothing like controlling your own destiny!

[mighty_tiger_79]

sieze the day

[PhilG]

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[Coorong]

*Budget surplus of $10.6 billion

What was the surplus last financial year, someone?

one percent of GDP like it has been for the last few budgets as Mr Costello informed me when i flicked over to the budget wrap on ABC

That doesn't tell me anything, Heater. Sorry.

well yes it does it is 1% of GDP all you need to do is find out the GDP figure for last year and take out 1% of that. so looking at the ABS website GDP had a 2.4% growth last year so the budget surplus has risen also 2.4%

Which translates to how much money? That's what I want to know and you're chucking useless percentages at me!

Lets just say it is marginaly more than 12 odd years of social security