THE DONKEY VOTE

Much like the Labor Party I have laid low and let Yak post first on the issue of Tax.

And like a sucker he took the bait! Now much like the Labor Party we can make our move without a possibility of being greatly outflanked. Thank you very much.

I think they just threw away a great tactical advantage.

Now I am no taxidermist but let’s talk tax and I can tell you that I’m not the greatest fan of these proposed tax cuts. I believe they will lead to increased inflation and interest. I don’t see it greatly helping Australian homes, it’s simple home economics.

If we truly care about Australia, it’s future economy and competitiveness we should be investing this $35 billion in education, health, broadband and infrastructure. These are the important things for Australia not adding to inflation, interest rates and the menagerie of useless garbage the majority of people will spend the money on.

And lucky 62% of Sydney Morning Herald readers agree with me!

*clap* *clap* “Bring in the irrefutable evidence!”

Sure tax cuts are a must and they will be present Labor tax policy, Wayne Swan has made no secret of this but they must be balanced with the need to invest in Australia itself not just its people.

You can call me an economic conservative and I make no apologies for that.

Oh yea and I also failed to mention that it is just yet another uncreative attempt at buying your vote.

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In other news, it’s great to see John Howard make an idiot of himself on ACA.

John Howard’s Interest Rate Gaffe

“What is the official Reserve Bank interest rate?” Grimshaw asked next.

“Well, it’s 6.25,” Mr Howard replied.

“It’s actually 6.5,” said Grimshaw.

There was no change in Mr Howard’s expression. He only grunted “hmmm” in reply.

Hahahaha! Sheldon, I wouldn’t be on holidays for quids!

P.S I would also like to commend Yak on his accuracy in regurgitating the Liberal press release.

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It’s almost predictable, well considering we have been through this now three times before already, election called, and then just a few days later economic genius, Peter Costello announces some fiscal news which makes everyone stand up and pay attention. The only thing that was a surprise this time was just how big the economic news was.

First off let’s go through the predictions, economic growth to be up a 4.25% for the current fiscal year, that’s huge news, job growth to be at 2.25%, and the budget surplus to be a massive $14.8 million.

I don’t know what your expectations might be, but that to me indicates a strong economy, a strong point of the Liberals for the past 11 years. So what does Mr Costello say he had planned with all this surplus cash? Tax cuts, and not just small little tax cuts, or one off things, but progressive tax cuts over the next five financial years.

These cuts will see the tax free threshold move from the current level of $6,000 to $15,000 by 2010, cuts which will definitely help low income earners, as well as everyone else up the economic tree.

The progressive cuts over 5 years also shows that the government isn’t being silly and throwing all their hard work controlling inflation out the window. Small progressive cuts in taxation will still fuel economic spending and growth, but should keep inflation and interest rates relatively consistent.

To me this is just a win win for everyone. First off, the government is taking less money off each people with each of their pay cheques, instead relying on collecting taxation revenue on a far fairer ‘user pays’ taxation system which is the GST.

GST funds go straight to the states giving them more money for roads, hospitals and schools, all State government run things (which really should be Federally run, but that’s an argument for another day).

Next the greater disposal income helps encourage economic growth because people have a greater marginal propensity to spend whilst keep saving levels the same or even increasing them slightly. More spending (at a safe level), leads to more jobs which fuels the whole process.

The only thing that will need to be watched is naturally inflation, but the staggered growth should keep it around that happy 2-3% mark which doesn’t put pressure on interest rates.

It will be interesting to see what Labor bring out as their economic policy now. This is naturally a very big carrot for the Australian public, and Labor does have the disadvantage of both being unproven for the past 11 years in managing an economy, and secondly not having access to all the economic data that Treasury department has.

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Sheldon 12:41pm - “I hope they have one debate using gladiator rules “opposition leader ready!” “prime minister ready!”

Sheldon 3:31pm - “Just reading the paper. Labor wouldn’t be happy about the marginal polling in Queensland. I think the Liberals are going to run an extreme marginal seat campaign, so national polling results may not tell the whole story.”

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Another day and another TWO new polls have been released.

First we have the latest NEWSPOLL.

The article has an appropriate title “Coalition faces poll ‘annihilation.”

It shows a status quo with Labor remaining on 56% TTP and the Coalition on 44%.

Other small changes include.

Mr Howard’s personal support lifted to a 12-month high of 47 per cent, a three-point rise in satisfaction in two weeks, and dissatisfaction was virtually unchanged on 44 per cent.

Dissatisfaction with Kevin Rudd’s performance as Opposition Leader rose four points to 24 per cent, its highest since he was elected leader in December.

Satisfaction with Mr Rudd remains extremely high at 60 per cent, but has declined three surveys in a row since reaching 66 per cent at the end of August.

An interesting development with a CourierMail/GALAXY POLL with suggestions Rudd may not be as far ahead in Queensland as first thought.

An exclusive Courier-Mail/Galaxy poll of voters in four marginal seats has Labor on track to win just two seats in the Sunshine State– although it is within striking distance of a host of others. While voters in the four marginal seats of Bonner, Moreton, Longman and Herbert had a strong opinion of Mr Rudd’s performance, Labor was holding only a slim 2 per cent lead on the two-party preferred vote.

This translates to a healthy swing of 5.6 per cent towards Labor since the 2004 election, but it is dramatically less than the 9 per cent swing to Labor suggested in last month’s national Galaxy poll.

It seems much like football in Australia both parties want to scrap for the underdog tag. And there are advantages for an underdog tag, it means people who might vote for the other party may reconsider if they know their vote is needed. While for Labor it is important that people realise that dispite my dreams about it, a glorious victory isn’t assured and people must maintain the rage and protest vote against Howard and the Coalition.

Labor must maintain an EVERY VOTE COUNTS strategy to maximise results on election day.

In the long run this may help Rudd in Queensland. We are extremely loyal up here in Queensland and you can not underestimate our patriotism towards kevin Rudd because he is from Queensland especially if the media start pushing the “Queensland PM” angle and if he starts wearing Maroons rugby league jerseys…he’ll win every seat in the state!

Queensland will surely be one of the toughest battle grounds in Australia and that is why it is so exciting living in Queensland. Sheldon and I are very lucky living in Brisbane.

But it is great to see the Labor’s dominance of opinion polls transferring to the latest online poll on NEWS.COM.AU with 57% of people saying they will vote Labor on Election Day!

Isn’t it great! Nearly as great as Sheldon being gone! It is going to be fantastic without that stuffy uncharismatic bore around here.

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