JOE HOCKEY IS DRUNK WITH POWER AND HIS NICKNAME "MR DOOMSDAY"
FITS HIM PERFECTLY.
HIS EVIL MIND KNOWS NO BOUND AS HE SEEMS TO ENJOY HURTING AUSTRALIANS
Treasurer Joe Hockey admits to a New Zealand audience
there never was any Australian budget emergency, yet the ABC don't think
it's newsworthy. Managing editor David Donovan reports.
You may have heard Tony Abbott use that last one ten times in a
single five minute reply in Parliamentary question time. It has been
used relentlessly by the Government – from PM, to Treasurer, to
the lowliest backbencher – to justify a Budget of savage spending cuts, largely directed at low-income, disadvantaged Australians.
Well, funny thing about that — turns out the budget emergency doesn't exist.
Of course, if you had been reading IA – or simply possess average intelligence – you would have known the truth long ago.
However, on the weekend, dim, gormless Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey
blurted out the truth to a New Zealand audience. Maybe he thought
Australians couldn't understand Kiwi?
So, that means not only did the Government lie about why they needed
to bring in their horrific and unfair budget — they have now admitted
they lied.
Wow! Embarrassing much?
Speaking to New Zealand political current affairs show The Nation on Saturday, here's what Hockey said:
"The Australian economy is not in trouble....
"There's no crisis at all in the Australian economy."
Glad you cleared that up, Joe.
What? You've been watching the news all weekend and this is the first you'd heard about it?
Well, don't feel bad, our national public broadcaster, the ABC –
which is receiving severe budget cuts as a result of this fictitious
emergency – hasn't reported on Hockey's confession at all, as far as we
can tell. And most other mainstream media – rather than running this
happy news on the front page or breathlessly at the top of the bulletin –
seem to have relegated coverage to the inside pages or online only
stories.
In other words, running dead on one of the biggest stories of the
year — one that exposes the Government for the ideological and openly
deceitful bunch of hucksters they truly are.
It's almost enough to make you think the mainstream media are working
to polish and burnish the Abbott Government's record as much as
possible to keep them in the hunt for re-election. That they are not
truly trying to hold them to account.
But that couldn't be right, could it? That would indicate our
mainstream media are corruptly trying to manipulate public opinion...
Well, not to worry. Back to another press conference by Tony Abbott about the MH17 crash site.
Treasurer Joe Hockey has contradicted the messaging of the Federal
Government after telling New Zealand it need not worry about its trading
partnership with Australia as the economy is not in crisis.
Joe Hockey has told New Zealand that there is no crisis in the Australian economy, nor is it in trouble.
The treasurer also made no mention of the "budget emergency" he and
his government referred to when justifying their unpopular budget to
Australians.
Instead, Mr Hockey reassured Kiwis that their second biggest trading
partner is benefiting from 23 years of consecutive economic growth.
"The Australian economy is not in trouble," he told New Zealand political current affairs show The Nation on Saturday.
Mr Hockey also denied drastic reforms to Australian healthcare, education and taxes were about ideological change.
He said his government's reforms were about continuing growth and stimulating other parts of the economy.
"There's no crisis at all in the Australian economy," the treasurer said.
"The fact is you need to move on the budget to fix it now, and you
need to undertake structural reform to structure the economy in the
years ahead."
Despite the changes, New Zealand has nothing to worry about in terms of its trading partnership with Australia, he said.
"We're like brothers and sisters. There might be a little competitive
tension in the family, but there's no doubt in my mind that, you know,
we're shared blood."
Hockey defends his 'tough decisions' budget
The Treasurer addressed the NSW Liberal Party state council general
meeting this morning, where he also praised the leadership shown by
Prime Minister Tony Abbott regarding the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight
MH17.
“It’s in moments of adversity that you want strength and the strength
displayed by the government reflects the inner strength of the
Australian people,” he said.
“… If there's a lesson to be learnt over the past few days, you must
always advocate for the values you hold. You never give up.”
Mr Hockey conceded that the first few months of government had been
challenging, but defended the criticism the party has faced in the past
nine months.
“No great achievements can be made without sacrifice,” he said.
His authorised biography, released earlier this week, quoted sources
as stating that the Treasurer’s controversial budget measures were not
as strict as hoped.
Addressing the conference today, Mr Hockey said the economy would benefit from the cuts.
“We have made tough decisions in the budget, tough decisions that needed to be made,” he said.
“There is no easy path, but there is a dividend for the nation in doing it.”
The meeting coincides with the state’s Labor conference, where NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson is expected to speak.
Bill Shorten made the comments in a strongly worded speech to the party's NSW conference. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images
Joe Hockey is an "arrogant, cigar-chomping" federal treasurer whose
charmed life has "robbed him of charity", the opposition leader, Bill
Shorten, says.
The Labor leader made the comments in a strongly worded speech to the party's NSW conference on Sunday.
"This
arrogant, cigar-chomping treasurer – his hopeless story [biography]
reveals that it took Tony Abbott to block him from deeper, harder cuts,"
Shorten said in Sydney's Town Hall.
"Seriously. If it's up to Tony Abbott to tell you that you've gone too far, you've well and truly gone too far."
Hockey
and finance minister Mathias Cormann were filmed smoking cigars outside
Parliament House shortly before the government's budget was delivered
in May. Their critics seized on the footage, saying it showed the
government was out of touch with everyday Australians facing deep budget
cuts.
In his speech, Shorten said the government was "unravelling from the centre and rotting from the top".
"This
is a budget brought to you by a conservative prime minister who doesn't
see it as his duty to care for everyone," he said. "By a conservative
treasurer whose personal comfort in life has robbed him of charity, and,
I might say, judgment."
Much of Shorten's speech focused on Labor's support for Medicare amid Tony Abbott's plan to impose a $7 Medicare co-payment.
He
said it was "madness" for Australia to adopt a United States-style
health system, just when Americans were "finally making a long and
exhausting U-turn".
On party reform, Shorten urged Labor to "rebuild as a party of members, not factions".
The
opposition leader has been calling on the ALP to change its rules so
that party members no longer be required also to be union members.
On
Saturday, the conference supported a plan to give ordinary members a
50% say on who becomes state Labor leader. But a plan from party elder
John Faulkner calling for direct elections for upper house candidates
was rejected.
Hockey's highway to hell: image by www.barnhardt.biz
In spite of the unprecedented budget
backlash the Abbott government remains determined to ape America’s hard
right neo-con policy agenda.
But when the US government finds that it is unable, (or unwilling),
to protect its citizens from the ravages of high unemployment,
sub-living wages, homelessness, toxic food, unaffordable healthcare,
crippling education costs, rampant crime and wholesale environmental
destruction, one has to seriously question whether it is a model worth
replicating.
While there are those who are reasonably
happy with the US system, they tend to be from the top end of town, and
not surprisingly they possess a disproportionate voice in the mainstream
media. The story is, by and large, what they say it is. And according to these one percenters they are the job creators, the innovators, the saviors; while the millions Americans on food stamps(who can not afford to eat), and the 1/3 of Detroit households who are having their water supply withdrawn(because they can not afford to pay their bills), are a bunch of lazy whiny socialists who just want to suckle off the government teat.
Image by The Washington Post
At least that’s the story peddled by Fox
News, and it has convinced a lot of people who are currently fortunate
enough not to find themselves living on the edge… But surely not ALL
Americans who find themselves struggling are simply too lazy or stupid
to get out there and make something of themselves? Do
they really expect us to believe that millions of Americans find the
idea of work so objectionable that they would rather starve in their own
filth than hold down a decent job?
If
we take the premise that most people, given the choice, would prefer to
be able to afford a home, food, water, healthcare and education, (and would be willing to work to achieve those things);
then surely the fact that so many people in the US find themselves
unable to afford said things could be an indication that maybe, just
maybe… their system is the teensiest bit flawed!
So,
if we can take it as given that the US system is broken, it begs the
question; why are the LNP so determined that we should follow in their
footsteps? Who’s interests are they looking out for?
Whether
it’s in the US or here in Australia, the sad reality of modern
electioneering is that it costs big money, and increasingly that money
is coming from big corporations. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist
to figure out that political donations aren’t given merely for fun; they
are, in fact, an investment in assuring a favorable legislative agenda.
And
when it comes to corporate political donations here in Australia the
LNP are the undisputed winners, with a war chest so bloated it allowed
them to outspend Labor by nearly 4:1
in the final days of the 2013 campaign; a fact that, when coupled with
the unbridled support of the Murdoch press, was undoubtedly responsible
for the LNP’s 2013 election victory. (I
mean let’s face it, if people had actually voted for the current crop
of LNP policies then there wouldn’t be the protests, uproar and
staggeringly awful polls we are seeing now).
But
can a democracy survive the corporate highjacking of it’s legislative
agenda and still act in the best interests of it’s citizens? A quick
glance at our cousins in the USA would suggest probably not.
For decent minded people it is hard to
believe that a government would knowingly, willingly inflict such
hardship upon it’s citizenry, and thus some people believe that our
government is simply responding to economic factors beyond their
control, and that they are genuinely acting in our best interest by
trying to balance the books.
There are however many who question the veracity of that story.
“I think there should be some real concern that some of the
politics being discussed and promoted by the current government would
make things much worse.”
Bill Mitchell, Professor of Economics at Charles Darwin University called the budget ‘irresponsible’, saying the deficit should be increased, not decreased, when the economy is slowing.
b). the extreme cuts proposed by the Hobbott government are a grave mistake, and
c). a rush to surplus is not only unnecessary, it will disproportionately hurt the poorest among us.
The
Government and the Murdoch press keep pushing the spurious argument
that we simply can not afford a decent society anymore. Meanwhile
billions of dollars in tax revenue have been struck from our balance
sheet with the scrapping of the carbon tax; and instead the government
plans to GIVE big mining and power our tax dollars under the farce that is the LNP’s “direct action” policy.
And
let’s not forget the scheduled abolition of the mining tax… A
questionable move given the government’s rhetorical mismatch on the
subject… On the one hand we are told “we need structural adjustment in
the economy because the investment and construction phase of the mining
boom is over and we are now entering the operational phase“, (which is, ironically, when the mining tax is actually supposed to kick in);
and on the other hand we are being told “we have to axe the mining tax
to keep up investment in the mining sector”…. Ehhhh????…. So let me get
this straight; even though we are in the midst of a “budget emergency” we are axing a tax that is just about to start earning for us big time, in order to chase further mining investment, (a ship that has, according to experts, already sailed).
Given
the glaring example of how such trickle down policies have worked in
the USA, it’s no wonder our government is having trouble selling its “take from the poor and give to the rich” budget.
People
instinctively know that strong middle/working class employment and
wages are the drivers of strong economy, and if you continually take
money out of peoples pockets they spend less, and things naturally start
to contract.
Ever
played a game of monopoly? While everyone has a stake the game ticks
along quite nicely, but once too much wealth gets concentrated in the
hands of a single player the other players fall further and further
behind until the game collapses.
Image by legalweb.net
If we don’t want our game to collapse like our cousins in the USA, then Hockey’s budget agenda is clearly not the way to go. Rather the key to our ongoing prosperity would be to adopt more “middle out” economic policies.
The
fundamental premise of “middle out” economics is that a prosperous
economy doesn’t revolve around the uber rich 1%, but around a great and
growing number of middle-class consumers and small businesspeople; and
that it is demand from the middle class, not tax cuts for the wealthy,
that drive job growth and prosperity.
Counter
to the conventional “trickle down” wisdom, rich businesspeople are not
the primary job creators; middle-class customers are. The more the
middle class can buy, the more jobs they’ll create.
Middle-out economics
is the difference between what is good for society as a whole versus
what protects the vested interests of a select group of corporations.
Rather than cutting services a middle out model invests in the health,
education, infrastructure, and purchasing power of the middle class.
Unlike
America we don’t worship the uber rich, we don’t value the dollar above
all else… We live in a society first, (not an economy), and in spite of
the Murdoch/Abbott drive to bring out the cruel and punitive in us,
Australians remain, by and large, a fair minded lot. Most of us don’t
want to punish the poor and disenfranchised, and we don’t want to
persecute refugees. We want a fair go for all.
If
Hockey’s budget furor has taught us anything about ourselves, it’s that
Australians want the middle out solution, not trickle down squeeze!
Is that cigar smoke Joe? (compilation by The AIM Network)
Three days ago, Joe Hockey made some rather nasty threats about further cuts.
“Labor should now support their own budget measure, and if they do
not, they must immediately outline how they intend to fund their own
budget black hole while they are opposing $40bn in budget savings,”
Hockey said.
Well Joe….here are some I prepared earlier:
Cap and freeze defence spending at $20 billion a year. If a real threat emerges we can increase this. Saving $50 billion.
Cancel the order for the 58 extra jet fighters and get by with the 14 we have already ordered. Saving of $24 billion.
Cancel the changes to the Paid parental leave Scheme. Saving $22 billion.
Cancel Direct Action and keep the carbon pricing scheme. Saving of $10.6 billion.
Scrap the fuel tax credit to mining companies. Saving $11 billion.
Scrap the fuel excise indexation. Loss $3.4 billion. Net saving $7.6 billion.
Keep the mining tax. Saving $5.3 billion.
Find a better solution for asylum seekers that does not involve our
Navy except to rescue people in distress, does not involve offshore
processing, and most definitely does not involve disposable life-rafts
costing millions. One that actually helps people. If you let them
work while their application was being processed we might actually get
some taxes from them rather than incarcerating them or giving them below
poverty handouts. Saving…..hard to tell but it would be several
billion.
Scrap the 1.5% decrease in company tax until the country can afford it. Also scrap the 1.5% levy for the PPL.
Keep the requirement for people claiming car business usage to
maintain a log book for 3 months once every 5 years to justify their
claim. Saving $1.8 billion.
Make the 2% increase in taxation on income over $180,000 permanent.
How much this will make is dependent on if we tighten up on tax
avoidance, otherwise the revenue will be nothing and for those as
creative as Rupert and Google, we could end up owing them money.
Negative gearing should only apply to new building with certain greenfield developments slated as owner-occupied only.
Introduce a Financial Transactions Tax
on various categories of financial transactions including: stocks,
bonds and currency. If implemented on a global basis, its projected
revenue could be as much as US$400 billion a year, depending on the size
of the levy imposed, the size of the reduction in trading (if any), and
the number of implementing countries/jurisdictions. In the US alone it
has been estimated that annually, between US$177 and $353 billion could
be raised. A flat rate of 0.05% has been proposed on all financial
market transactions, many experts actually advise vary rates (of between
0.01 and 0.5%) depending on the transaction (stocks, bonds, currency,
commodities, swaps, derivatives, etc). The UK stock exchange, one of
the largest in the world, already has a 0.5% tax on share transactions.
Forget buying Tony a fleet of new planes to carry around business people and journalists. Saving over $600 million.
Keep the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Saving $400 million.
Tighten up the tax concession for superannuation. There are huge
savings to be made there. At least reinstate the tax targeting earnings
on superannuation pensions above $100,000. Saving $313 million.
Cut the exploration subsidies to mining companies. Saving $100 million.
MPs should fly by commercial flights rather than private jets.
Flights to football games, the races, weddings, book signing tours,
charity events, fun runs, should be paid for by the MP rather than being
seen as an entitlement. Accommodation for these events will also not
be provided as an entitlement. Don’t know how much it will save but Tony
Abbott as Opposition Leader claimed over $1 million a year in
entitlements. Use telephones and teleconferencing more.
Legalise voluntary euthanasia. This not only gives terminally ill
people a choice which may give them peace of mind, it would also save an
enormous amount of money which is spent in the last month or two of
life.
So stop the threats Joe. There are far better ways than increasing
inequity. Entrenched poverty is not a legacy many would aim to leave.
“TONY
Abbott and Joe Hockey are convinced the government will be punished
electorally if it does not produce a tough budget, and they believe
there is a “public appetite” for decisive action to get the economy back
on track.” Sounds good? Well let’s get real here. Nothing pisses me off
more than getting lied to…
In
a speech to the Institute of Public Affairs yesterday, Shadow Treasurer
Joe Hockey warned that a Coalition government would implement drastic
welfare cuts, finger-pointed that "attacking spending and looking for
structural saves was increasingly urgent". With a deficit of anything up
to $15 billion likely this year, and federal revenue forecast to be
between…
So
let me get this straight, If I earn over $80,000 I am going to be asked
to pay for the $68 billion that Joe Hockey has added to the deficit by
his party's policies. I have to pay for Hockey’s $9 billion gamble on
the Aussie dollar going down. I am going to have…
Joe Hockey should be trying to negotiate passage of as much as possible of the budget, not threatening the Senate. AAP/Joe Castro
Treasurer Joe Hockey, just back from holidays, seems to be suffering from a nasty bout of tin ear.
With the Senate in logjam, querulous, and with many budget measures
still to be debated, or even introduced, Hockey on Wednesday was already
getting out a new big stick.
If the Senate didn’t co-operate in fixing the budget, the government
would just have to make more cuts, he said. Ones that didn’t require
legislation (as, he pointed out, those already made in foreign aid do
not).
Such a threat is bad tactics, on a couple of fronts.
The multiple savings and imposts announced have managed to alienate
almost every section of the community. Are voters, already offside,
likely to be impressed by the prospect of more, unspecified, cuts? The
senators whose arms he is trying to twist won’t be - they have their own
political agendas.
And by warning that if the Senate doesn’t co-operate he’ll need to
resort to savings that don’t require parliamentary sanction, Hockey just
appears to be showing disdain for the legislature at a delicate stage
of budget deliberations.
The immediate fallout from Hockey’s threat was that Labor had the
opportunity in question time to stir up fresh fears of what might come.
Hockey should be moving one step at a time, trying to negotiate
passage of as much as possible of the budget. As things stand, the
bottom line will take a big hit. But the government should wait to get a
better idea of the damage before it suggests it will stride on to a new
battleground.
Its handling of its budget program so far has been unimpressive, and
it can’t put all the blame on the Senate. It has seemed remarkably slow
in getting its bills onto the parliamentary treadmill.
Hockey’s political deafness was also evident when he was talking
about the government’s changes to Labor’s Future of Finance Advice
(FoFA) legislation. The regulations it has brought in will stand, thanks
to a deal with Clive Palmer. But the changes remain under fire from
seniors groups and other consumer representatives.
When pressed on the FoFA changes Hockey defaults to the fact that
Labor “introduced 16 amendments to their own bills in the parliament”
and the relevant minister, Bill Shorten “had five different explanatory
memorandums for his own bill”.
As was pointed out to Hockey in his Sky interview, the issue that consumers care about is getting good advice.
It’s all very well saying Labor had a messy process in finalising
FoFA and left (the Coalition claims) a system with too much red tape.
The outcome of Labor’s efforts made consumers without expertise feel
more secure in dealing with their superannuation and other investments.
Now their representatives, especially in the seniors' sector, say
these people are worried (an Essential poll this week found 49% had
little or no trust in financial planners to give them independent and
appropriate advice). People do not want a rant about how Labor handled
FoFA. They will need to be convinced about this government’s changes,
and there is little sign it is making any progress with that.
At the same time, Labor’s performance on Wednesday also slipped up.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen, due to lead a matter of public importance
debate in the House, couldn’t do so because he’d been thrown out, so it
had to be pulled.
Speaker Bronwyn Bishop relishes ejecting Labor MPs. Even taking this
into account, it is a mystery why senior opposition members think it is
sensible to give her excuses to do so. They presently have so much
ammunition against the Coalition that you would think they’d want to
stay around in the chamber to fire it.
Listen to the latest Politics with Michelle Grattan podcast, with guest Senator Sam Dastyari, here.
Liberal frontbenchers sour on Joe Hockey after threat to order spending cuts
Date
Mark Kenny, James Massola
"If the Senate chooses to block savings initiatives,
then we need to look at other savings initiatives that may not require
legislation": Treasurer Joe Hockey. Photo: Ken Irwin
Joe Hockey's threat to bypass the Senate by ordering spending
cuts outside of parliamentary approval has touched off a new Labor
scare campaign and sparked concerns within the government over the
Treasurer's judgment.
With voters offside and crossbench senators showing no signs
of complying with unpopular budget measures, some Liberals complained
that the Treasurer's move had ''predictably'' brought the opposite
effect, branding his threat to cut other spending ''unwise''.
[The threat] was a gift to Labor ... It was an own goal.
They revealed Mr Hockey's move had not been part of the
agreed government strategy for the day, which had been to press the
opposition exclusively on the carbon tax repeal.
One senior figure asked why Mr Hockey had seen fit to open up
another front. ''It was a gift to Labor … they did what you would do in
that case and started picking us off, demanding that we say where the
cuts will be. We would've done the same; it was an own goal,'' the
frontbencher said.
Another long-time Liberal said the budget was in trouble
because it lacked consistency, with the ''only unifying thing being how
it has unified our enemies''.
The complaints came after Mr Hockey used a series of
interviews on Wednesday to toughen the budget rhetoric. ''If the Senate
chooses to block savings initiatives, then we need to look at other
savings initiatives that may not require legislation,'' he said.
Opposition frontbenchers immediately capitalised on the
threat, issuing multiple press releases on a portfolio by portfolio
basis, challenging the government to expressly rule out further cuts to
services such as health, education, social services and foreign aid.
''Australia's dedicated carers are already facing a real cut
to their modest payments in this budget - with ongoing uncertainty and
continued anxiety because of government's McClure review of the welfare
system,'' opposition spokeswoman for carers and communities Claire
Moore said in a statement typical of other areas. ''Joe Hockey needs to
rule out cutting even more support from our carers.''
In question time Labor called on Prime Minister Tony Abbott
to rule out adopting harsh aspects of its recent commission of audit
report such as an even higher GP co-payment of $15 a visit, the
calculation of the family home in the pension assets test, the scrapping
altogether of family tax benefit (part B), and cuts to hospitals and
schools.
Amid the concerns over ill-discipline and mixed messaging,
new Liberal senator James McGrath has set out a radical libertarian
program in his maiden speech, calling for the GST rate to rise to 15 per
cent, federal health and education departments to be abolished and the
ABC to be sold if it fails to address perceived left-wing bias.
But new Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm called on
his colleagues to recognise the seriousness of the budget challenge and
pass savings measures.
He said Mr Hockey's warning to Labor, the Greens and the
crossbench about going around them was, in his view, clearly directed at
the PUP. ''I think that he is signalling most strongly to the PUP
senators that they are aiming to block all the savings but we have got a
budget problem.''
