Re: Republican of the Year
Reply #125 –
How did John Howard have the country in a strong financial position, and then everything just went wrong. All of a sudden we are in such debt it isn't funny. The country can't dig itself out of its current hole, and things can only get worse. I get a feeling we haven't had a governing party that knows how to balance a budget for a long time now. Elwood mentioned the fuel prices and interest rates. If we had interest rates up a few percent and petrol prices up close to $1.50 per litre, there would be many families living in the streets.
In fact, Howard has to share the blame for the problems we now face. He poured money into 'welfare programs' for more well off folk and failed to take advantage of the mineral boom. Indeed, according to Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson every budget over the 12 years from June 1998 increased spending and decreased tax revenue. The structural deficit created by Howard and Costello has come back to bite us on the butt.
re: Tax revenue...Bottom of the harbor tax schemes robbed the country of tax revenue back then.....did Kerry Packer etc pay any tax?
And the larger companies are still not paying their fair share of tax EB. If any government could sort out the tax system - and enforce it - our revenue issues would be resolved.