"cp" wrote in message
On Sat, 6 Oct 2007 11:55:44 +1000, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given
wrote:

To pay off ALP debt

The only other way is to raise taxes which no one likes.

No it's not. One of the ways that we could have improved services right
across the board is if the current Goverment actually decided to DO
something with the huge surplus it is sitting on.

States run the power grid, water, etc...

Sigh!


And the really disturbing thing about this surplus is that most
Australians
are too tied to one political party to use their heads and actually think.

Pot kettle black. When are you going to understand that the federal
government has nothing to do with the power, water and hospitals in
each state of Australia. These are all run or sold by state
governments. Both Lib and ALP when in power have had to sell off
assets to pay for infrastructure.

You can only save so much. Rudd is going to have more waste with too
many departments which isn't going to be cheap. He's not said how he's
going to pay for it all. Meanwhile the Lib state leader here is a fool
and carpenter our state premier has ministers that have been caught up
in the corruption scandles.

The surplus the Government is currently sitting on came about as a direct
result of all the economic reforms put in place under the governments of
Hawke and Keating. There is actually no evidence that the Howard
government

You are kidding right.

No, I'm not kidding, I know what economic reforms they instituted.

If you don't believe me, you might believe Gerard Henderson. He is the
darling of all Right Wingers and is a stalwart of that wonderful right wing
think tank, "The Syndey Institute". Even though he is right wing, even he
can't bring himself to denigrate the legacy of the Hawke/Keating years.
http://www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au....php?ghwcID=77

They left the country in a real mess.

Nope. They activated a huge number of economic reforms that left Australia
in a postion where we could have a boom (or what is supposed to be a boom.
I have my doubts about that given that we can't any longer get accurate
unemployment figures now that anyone who works for an hour a week is counted
as being "employed". I just can't believe that anyone who works one hour a
week is in any way actively or gainfully "employed"

Debt
levels were so high that its only now they've been paid off.

"Only now"? Where have you been for the past decade?

The Government has had at least 10 surpluses as far as I can recall.

And the current government continued the Hawke Keating trick of selling
assets to pay off the deficit.

are "good economic managers". They just keep repeating that line and
Australian voters are stupid enough to believe it. Hawke and Keating and
the current minerals boom should be thanked by Australians for our current
economic "good fortune". I too could be a "good economic manager" if I
didn't buy food or fuel or anything else. My bank account would be huge
but
I'd look like a concentration camp survivor, freeze in winter, go nowhere,
see no-one and I'd want to slash my wrists.

You've just lost the plot here and the debate with your rantings.
Kill filed!

Obviously someone who hates to be told some facts rather than enjoy
spreading myths.