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The Daily Abbott

Abbott makes some more hot air promises.


TONY ABBOTT'S transport spokesman has cast doubt on his promise that Coalition funding of $4 billion for big projects will put cranes over Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane within a year of its election.
Mr Abbott says he wants to be a prime minister ''who revels in seeing cranes over our cities, who revels in seeing bulldozers at work'' and has pledged that three big projects, including the WestConnex road in Sydney and the east-west road link in Melbourne, would be ''under way within 12 months of a change of government''.
But in an interview with Fairfax Media, the Coalition transport spokesman, Warren Truss, conceded a start date for the projects could be further away.
''The project in Melbourne .. will require considerable time associated with planning and various approvals to get under way - the Sydney one as well. It is part of a bigger project now, and so there will be time … I think it will take at least a couple of years and maybe longer for those two to start construction,'' he said.

Mr Abbott has promised $1.5 billion to the WestConnex motorway, $1.5 billion to the east-west link and $1 billion to the Gateway extension road in Brisbane.
The O'Farrell government has committed $1.8 billion to the WestConnex road, expected to cost $10 billion to $15 billion.

But it is uncertain where the rest of the funding will be found, even if a large proportion comes from tolls on the motorway, a 33-kilometre road between Auburn in Sydney's west that will connect to the airport and the M5 motorway in the south west. The government has set up a project office to come up with a detailed case for WestConnex by the middle of next year. It has said construction would start before the state election in March 2015.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/po...ads-promise-20121225-2bvap.html#ixzz2G8uQA0YR
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In spite of his commitment to "surplus budgets" every year, Abbott has already got his eyes on the national credit card. What could possibly go wrong?
 
psionl0 said:
In spite of his commitment to "surplus budgets" every year, Abbott has already got his eyes on the national credit card. What could possibly go wrong?
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And yet when Gillard cuts expenditure to help balance the budget she's called a liar.

Time to start a "Tony Abbott liar" thread.....
 
psionl0 said:
In spite of his commitment to "surplus budgets" every year, Abbott has already got his eyes on the national credit card. What could possibly go wrong?
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Debt is not intrinsically bad. It is considered to be good for companies to borrow to invest, and a sign of inherent problems if they don't or can't. People borrow for homes and cars all the time. If debt is managed, and within reasonable limits, there is nothing wrong with it.

Abbott's problem here is that he is just doing his usual action man act and making promises he leaves his ministers to deal with, such as how can we afford all of this and get it done in the time frame he wants. Abbott is renowned for being weak on detail and the intricacies of complex problems.
 
a_unique_person said:
Debt is not intrinsically bad. It is considered to be good for companies to borrow to invest, and a sign of inherent problems if they don't or can't. People borrow for homes and cars all the time. If debt is managed, and within reasonable limits, there is nothing wrong with it.

Abbott's problem here is that he is just doing his usual action man act and making promises he leaves his ministers to deal with, such as how can we afford all of this and get it done in the time frame he wants. Abbott is renowned for being weak on detail and the intricacies of complex problems.
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LOL. I'm assuming psionIO isn't a home owner, he'll be waiting awhile to save up the lazy $500K or so! :D :D :D
 
a_unique_person said:
Debt is not intrinsically bad. It is considered to be good for companies to borrow to invest, and a sign of inherent problems if they don't or can't. People borrow for homes and cars all the time. If debt is managed, and within reasonable limits, there is nothing wrong with it.
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I have no problem with any of that. I borrowed to buy my own home (although I did it at a time when I was in a position to repay the loan within 10 years). Paying interest on a home mortgage is no worse than paying rent. Everything else I saved up for.

It's people who use credit simply to try and maintain a higher standard of living who invariably come to a bad end and I have seen many people do that to themselves.

a_unique_person said:
Abbott's problem here is that he is just doing his usual action man act and making promises he leaves his ministers to deal with, such as how can we afford all of this and get it done in the time frame he wants. Abbott is renowned for being weak on detail and the intricacies of complex problems.
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Abbott will say anything to get elected. "Tony Abbott Liar" would be a better thread than Alfie's thread.

You don't need a crystal ball to see what will happen if Abbott gets in. He will crack down on the social security recipients "bludgers" and cut front line services in the public service but any savings he makes will be miniscule and totally outweighed by massive spending programs and tax breaks and subsidies to big businesses.

The WA state government will probably be his model. It claims to "balance" the budget every year but has managed to blow out state government debt from $3B to $16B (expected to peak at $25B in a few years). Do we really want politicians like that in parliament?
 
I am no fan of the WA libs, but in their defence, they are investing in a lot of infrastructure for their 'boom'. It would be nice if they were honest about their debt, but the billions of debt is still manageable.
 
One of the big mistakes politicians have been making recently is rapidly expanding the population through immigration, to increase the size of the economy, while spending very little on infrastructure to support that economy. Melbourne and Sydney in particular are becoming unliveable. Traffic congestion is costing us billions, public transport is not coping. Business wants this economy to grow, Australia didn't even have a recession during the GFC, but no one wants to spend the money that has to be spent to even get around the new, high density, large city style of living.
 
psionl0 said:
So you do want borrow and spend politicians like that. After all, it's free money, right?
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Well, you certainly haven't made any arguments against it - except for fallacious begging of the question. So why don't you gpo and start that thread you threatened to or shut up and stop trying to derail the thread with your non-argument.
 
a_unique_person said:
One of the big mistakes politicians have been making recently is rapidly expanding the population through immigration, to increase the size of the economy, while spending very little on infrastructure to support that economy. Melbourne and Sydney in particular are becoming unliveable. Traffic congestion is costing us billions, public transport is not coping. Business wants this economy to grow, Australia didn't even have a recession during the GFC, but no one wants to spend the money that has to be spent to even get around the new, high density, large city style of living.
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If the politicians haven't got their spending priorities right in spite of unbridled borrowing, they are not going to improve their spending priorities by borrowing even more money.
 
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