Can You Help?
This website is in imminent danger of being shut down. It has been online since 1995, but the personal circumstances of the owner, Malcolm Farnsworth, are such that economies have to be made. Server costs and suchlike have become prohibitive. At the urging of people online, I have agreed to see if Patreon provides a solution. More information is available at the Patreon website. If you are able to contribute even $1.00/month to keep the site running, please click the Patreon button below.
The Turnbull government and the ALP have negotiated a deal over budget repair.
The agreement on spending cuts will add to the budget’s bottom line and ensure that the government’s Omnibus Bill will pass through the Parliament.
Earlier in the day, the ALP announced the agreement. The deal included an agreement that the ALP would make the first announcement. [Read more…]
The Treasurer, Scott Morrison, says there is a “terrible risk” that Australia’s economic success has sown the seeds of complacency.
In a speech to Bloomberg, in Sydney, Morrison said there was a new divide in Australia between “the taxed and the taxed nots”. He warned of the complacency of a generation that “has grown up not ever having known a recession” and an attitude where “deficits are dismissed as temporary, cyclical and self-correcting”.
Morrison said there were three things the government must do over the next three years.
Firstly, it must “get debt under control by returning the budget to balance”.
Secondly, it must “support and implement policies that help us to increase what we can earn as a nation..in a low growth, low interest rate, low inflation, low wages growth, volatile world”.
Thirdly, Morrison warned against a return to “renewed protectionism” and an attitude that “trade, investment and positive immigration policies are increasingly seen as the problem and not the solution”. Whilst many Australians “feel the system no longer works for them”, Morrison cautioned against a cynical and populist political endorsement of this sentiment. “We cannot pull the doona over our head,” he said. “Rather than secure our economic future, it will cost it.” [Read more…]