Australia Together Party

Australia Together Party The Australia Together Party was founded to bring about sound policy directions for Australia. We need your help. Please look at our website atparty.org.au

02/04/2017

Yesterday the government, with the help of Nick Xenophon, passed the employment destroying, debt creating and anti economic growth tax cuts for businesses with annual turnover up to $10 million. Let's look at the figures on this. Companies pay tax on net profits. The average net profit margin of companies in Australia is 8.5%, that is, some are a little higher, some are a little lower. So, using the average of 8.5%, a company with a turnover of $10 million would show a net profit of $850K. On the current rate of company tax, (30%), the tax bill would be $255K. On the new rate of 27%, the tax bill would drop to $229K, a gift from the government, via PAYG taxpayers, of $26K. For companies with a turnover of $5 million, the figures are $425K net profit, tax at 30% $127,500 and tax at 27% $114,750. A gift of $12,750. Yet the government wants us to believe that it's gift of $26K, (for which the government will need to increase the debt and budget deficit to fund), is going to increase employment, promote growth and make everything in the economy just fine. All this nonsense from the people who constantly tell us that they are good economic managers. And the worst of it is that their ideology blinds them to the fact that, given the money to fund these tax cuts will have to be borrowed, it would be better spent giving it to companies to rebuild our rundown infrastructure and build the new infrastructure so desperately needed to promote growth, reduce unemployment and increase productivity. These people have no right to be in government.

08/02/2017

What a speech, sorry, tirade, from Malcolm yesterday. Instead of conducting government business, the best he could come up with was to emulate Tony Abbott in a nonsense rant about Bill Shorten. Instead of seeking bipartisan support for policies, this is the way he thinks the people will start to love him again? We now have the incontrovertible evidence that he is following the party, or more correctly, following the AAA team, (Abbott, Andrews and Abetz), rather than leading it. It was a telling display of the depths to which politics in this country have sunk. It won't save him.

27/01/2017

This government, or, more precisely Turnbull and Morrison, continue to categorically rule out any changes to negative gearing and CGT, while at the same time repeating the nonsense mantra that housing affordability is at it's lowest point ever because there is not enough supply. Economists, think tanks, the IMF, Labor and many other people and organisations have been calling for the abolition of negative gearing and the abolition of the CGT discount giveaway instituted by Peter Costello. In 2007, Malcolm Turnbull called for these changes, but as soon as Labor mentioned it as policy in the election campaign, Turnbull turned against it. Meanwhile, Morrison continues to say that he will continue with the proposed company tax cuts, presumably unaware that most of them will flow offshore because of the dividend imputation system. In a speech in London yesterday, he said Britain had the problem licked when it cut tax rates. He obviously doesn't know that Britain stopped dividend imputation in 1999. He also seems unaware that most of the benefits would flow offshore; national income would be reduced; the Budget would lose revenue, resulting in tax rises or expenditure cuts elsewhere (lowering jobs and growth); and that Treasury’s own modelling showed almost no benefits to jobs and growth. When will these turkeys learn?

09/12/2016

"We have got to consider policy options in an unfettered way. We've got to have the maturity to have a debate that is not throwing things off the table (sic). Because what happens is politicians who get intimidated by their opponents or by the media or whatever, they say, "Oh, that's off the table, that's off the table" and suddenly there is nothing left on the table". Quote from Malcolm Turnbull just after being elected leader. Wow, what a turnaround. Tax reform, welfare reform, gay marriage, an emissions intensity scheme, negative gearing, capital gains tax, infrastructure spending, and much, more, all now "off the table". No wonder he is now known as "do nothing Malcolm". The only reason he retains his job is because the right wing nutters have only Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison or god help us, Peter Dutton in mind to replace him. The only reason this has not happened yet is because there is still just a sufficient number of party members who just could not bring themselves to vote for any of those three turkeys. But how long will this last? Malcolm is doomed, it is just a matter of when now.

27/08/2016

It gets worse. In a speech to the Master Builder's Association yesterday, Tony Abbott came out with these gems. Bear in mind that this man holds a double degree in economics, so these sayings are the clearest demonstration of the triumph of his ideology over knowledge. Get this. "To counter the grievance-mongers, we must explain ever more intently that government can't spend a dollar that it doesn't take from taxpayers; and that today's debt is tomorrow's tax," he said. I wish I was kidding, but sadly I'm not. And this, "Budget reform would necessarily begin with cuts to spending". But wait, there's more. Mr Abbott said "the Labor Party had successfully pursued an obstructionist agenda against the government". Well, hello. He obviously doesn't like a bit of tit for tat.

27/08/2016

Will no one rid us of these pestilent politicians? In a speech today to the Queensland Liberal Party, Malcolm Turnbull will rabbit on with the same nonsense as his Treasurer and Finance Minister, about "savings" and "repairing the budget". This is ideology gone completely mad. When will these turkeys get the message that the problem is not the budget, it is the economy? Carry out the economic reforms and the budget will repair itself. Making spending cuts is like cutting down on food in order to pay a bit extra off the mortgage, something that would lead to weakness and a reduction in the ability to work, thereby reducing income. It is not rocket science Malcolm. All you need do is undertake the economic reforms that you yourself announced in your tax paper some years ago, but disavowed immediately Labor announced similar policies during the election. You are doing our country a great disservice.

04/08/2016

Today, Malcolm Turnbull said he was going to "call the banks before a senate economics committee to be scrutinised" Malcolm, you really are taking the people for a bunch of mugs. Since when does a government require companies to be scrutinised about the prices they charge for their products? If you want to go down this path, why not scrutinise Telstra, or Woolworths, or Aldi, or David Jones or Myers or your corner shop? This is absolute nonsense. The banks do need scrutiny, but not in respect to the prices they charge for mortgages. You know as well as I do that the borrowing public is not so stupid as to pay any bank's standard variable rate. You also know as well as I do that a Royal Commission is needed to w**d out the ingrained bad behaviour of the banks in respect to their wealth management businesses and the vertical integration of them. That is where the unconscionable behaviour resides. These arms of the banks rip off people at every turn, with no thought given to the fact that in many cases they have taken people's life savings, and in some cases caused people to su***de. You are a disgrace. The people know that calling the banks before before a senate committee is nothing more than a sop, and an attempt to con people into thinking that you are doing something. By doing this, you are colluding with the banks. You have no right to be Prime Minister.

04/08/2016

Malcolm Turnbull, October 2015, (just after becoming Prime Minister), when asked about reform. "Everything is on the table, that’s right… We will certainly be making decisions in the lead up to the Budget and obviously if we have major tax reforms, we will take them to the next election". Again, in February this year, “Corporate concessions, superannuation… there’s a whole range of areas… We are looking at all of these areas. This is a very thorough evidenced-based examination… Everything is being looked at including negative gearing" It is now clear that all reforms have been abandoned. It is impossible for the government to keep it's promise of "jobs and growth, budget repair, and improve efficiency and equity" without these reforms. Turnbull well knows this, but is too worried about watching his back to keep it safe from the loony right cabal, who he knows will topple him if he does not toe the line. The damage started with John Howard, Tony Abbott pushed us to the brink of recession, and now Malcolm's inaction will continue to screw the economy for a further three years. These people should never be allowed near the Treasury benches.

27/07/2016

Scott Morrison continues with his nonsense about negative gearing, saying yesterday, "I don't accept the argument on negative gearing.. it would disadvantage those middle class families, those ordinary families, the vast majority of who are the predominant investors in the area". This is despite all the data and statistics published over the last few years showing quite clearly that this is nonsense. They all show that the top 20% of income earners owned 45.5% of all investment properties in 2014, whereas the top 20% of wealth holders owned 52.8% of investment properties. Moreover, the top 40% of income earners held 69.1% of all investment properties in 2014, whereas the top 40% of wealth holders held 75.2% of all investment properties. It is interesting that, on the same day, the Australian Financial Review carried an editorial that bemoans the lack of economic reform over the last 20 years, saying, "The truth is that serious economic reform – budget repair, tax reform, workplace reform and so on – will be required to revive the income growth return needed to fund health, education and disability services. Without this, the policy vacuum increasingly is being filled by populist and protectionist snake-oil that will itself inevitably fail to do the job" When will politicians get their fingers out of their arses and get serious about reform?

10/07/2016

Scott Morrison drops another comedy quote. Yesterday, after the release of S&P's report, he said, "the ratings agency had effectively endorsed his budget, sending a clear message to independent and minor party MPs about the potential impact of stymieing his party’s reform agenda, while acknowledging that it would not be an easy thing to achieve”. Well, I guess he has to continue to sell his budget, but even he cannot possibly think that , "we are more pessimistic about the central government’s revenue outlook than the government was in its latest budget projections. S&P Global Ratings projects iron ore prices to be close to US$20 per metric ton, lower than the $50 per metric ton assumed in the government’s budget in the remainder of calendar 2016 and in 2017" is a ringing endorsement. God help us from the incompetence of such people. At least Malcolm knows better, and as soon as it is clear that he can form a government, he should have a cabinet reshuffle in which he should replace Morrison with Julie Bishop. Not only is she smart, more so than Morrison, she has a far better working relationship with Malcolm than Scott Morrison does or can ever hope to have. There is no love lost between those two, which does not bode well for the economy.

03/07/2016

Well, what a dog's breakfast of an election result we are now stuck with. Voters, after having rejected Tony Abbott comprehensively in the polls, have now rejected Tony Abbott lite in an election. The blame for this imbroglio rests fairly and squarely with Tony Abbott and his band of ratbag, ultra conservative, fundamentalist christian, scaremongering supporters, including Eric Abetz, Corey Barnardi, Kevin Andrews, Steven Ciobo, Peter Dutton, Michael Sukkar, Bert van Mansen and others. They remain so blinded to the truth by their outdated, blind, economically destructive ideology that they continue to agitate to destabilize the Coalition, as they have done for the last three years. This band of misfits is already conspiring to have Tony Abbott restored to the front bench, oblivious to the fact that the public has resoundingly rejected him and his policies twice now. They remain oblivious also to the fact that the business community has rejected him, with surveys of business confidence over the last three years consistently showing that business people have no confidence in the man or his policies. Even worse, many business people, in response to one of these surveys, said "Tony Abbott is bad for business". Now business and consumers will be held hostage to another three years of uncertainty, slow and decreasing economic growth, higher unemployment, higher budget deficits and more wasteful debt.

30/06/2016

In his speech to be delivered today, (already released to the media), Malcolm will demonstrate that he is a true conservative. That is, cautious, with a lack of appetite for change or reform. He will say that "now is not the time for policy adventurism or for higher deficits". How much more conservative can you get than that? It epitomises conservatism. Fear of change, fear of the future, ignore problems and they will eventually go away. This attitude shows scant regard for the disastrous Abbott years when unemployment increased, national income decreased, business investment slumped to it's lowest level since the surveys started in the late 1970s, economic growth stalled, consumer confidence slumped, inflation slumped to a historic low and productivity growth slumped. The conservative ideology remains blind to the fact that, when economic conditions reach such a nadir, decisive, bold, stimulative reforming action must be taken. But change, except for reactionary change, is anathema to conservatives. Don't get me wrong. In a case of "me-tooism", Labor has taken a swerve to the right in recent years, and it's appetite for reform is diminished as a result, but even so, they have announced some small reforms during this campaign, reforms that are at least a small start and that will help to reduce budget deficits over the next 3 or 4 years, whereas Malcolm's policies will increase them. Malcolm has proved to be a major disappointment since he took over the leadership. Over the years, he has announced some good reformist policies in the areas of taxation, climate change, superannuation, negative gearing, creating a more friendly business environment and other areas. When he became leader, support for him was stratospheric. He was a breath of fresh air, someone the public trusted to make his changes which the majority knew were either fair, reasonable or necessary. But, in exchange for the support of the Abbott clique, he has abandoned every one of his progressive policies. Recent polls reflect the disgust of the people. He has now joined Tony Abbott as some one who should never be Prime Minister.

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