In case you've been living under a rock, or not in Australia so in which case you probably haven't heard, we had a federal election here on the weekend. The outcome of which is taken an interesting turn. It would appear that we have a hung parliament, i.e. no particular party has a majority to govern in its own right. This hasn't happened since WWII.
There's a few options and they are covered well in this article from The Australian. Basically, the former Labor government, now in caretaker mode, can visit the Governor-General (G-G) and claim to be capable of forming a minority government if they feel that they have enough support in parliament. The G-G would then swear in a Labor Government. If not, the Labor leader would inform the G-G to call the leader of the Opposition to swear them in as the government. Or we could just have another election. Seeing as that costs some $4 for every man, woman and child (not sure where transexuals/transgenders fit in here) we'd be spending about $80-odd million put the electioneering costs of each candidate. That money will be wiped from the markets quickly enough due to the uncertainty created anyway. Looks like we've finally given the G-G something valuable to do. The position hasn't really been utilised since 1975.
I watched a special 7:30 Report last night where three independents, Tony Windsor, Bob Katter and Rob Oakeshott, were interviewed. They plan to act as a group and side with whoever offers stable, workable government. All of them have a National Party background and all have their reasons for not being associated with the National Party. I guess that counts out them siding with the Liberal/National Party coalition.
Something Rob Oakeshott said that was very much worth listening to. He wanted to see an end to party-focused politicians and see Australia-focused politicians. Hey, that might work. The members of the House of Representatives are supposed to represent their constituents first and not their parties. If workable government was attainable then more and more people would be willing to vote for independent candidates and the major parties would be very concerned that this would lead to a real lessening of their support and hung parliaments in elections to come. The independents may not become a major political force on their own but would hold the balance of power. I wouldn't be unhappy to see that as long as it works. It would certainly lead to better policy in government.
Showing posts with label Governor-General of Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Governor-General of Australia. Show all posts
Monday, August 23, 2010
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Kevin Rudd Is A Nation-Destroying Socialist Who Needs To Be Stopped
Kevin Rudd, Krudd, is a nation-destroying socialist who needs to be stopped. When the media is stating that he's more destructive than Gough Whitlam ever was that's saying something. Gough Whitlam, as you may or may not know, headed the only Australian government in history that was dismissed by the Governor-General.
What has Kevin done this time to upset me? Well, it's actually taken a week for me to calm down enough to write something that's not as likely to have me charged with libel or sedition. He's called for a Resources Super-Profit Tax, RSPT, which is capable of ruining our great nation. This RSPT kicks in when miners earn more than the 10-year government bond rate of about 6%. Six percent people! This communist, socialist, fascist bastard obviously doesn't know anything about capitalism and profit. What about the risk and return model? Anybody worth his salt knows that a company needs to make 15-25% return to be profitable. I don't think Shell likes to have any assets not performing at at least 18% profitability. Wesfarmers looks for around 18% and I know that they had an asset (Wesfarmers Transport) producing about 15% and that was divested. What sort of a joke is this idiot?
Krudd claims that the miners aren't returning the money to Australia and are taking it all for themselves. He wants to ensure that all Australians share in the returns from our non-renewable resources. Ha! Why don't they invest in the shares of these companies? I think the fact that the states can obtain royalties from the miners and I don't believe that the federal government can do so is one reason to introduce this tax. Krudd wants to cut the states out of tax revenue altogether.
Krudd claimed that 40% of BHP Billiton and 70% of Rio Tinto were owned by overseas investors in his defence of introducing this new tax. I read today that there are over 3.3 billion shares listed for BHP Billiton. Well, 60% of 3.3 billion shares is an awful lot of money still which affects Australians directly so there are no faceless sufferers. Krudd actually thinks that this won't affect Australians and it's just some faceless foreigner who will cop it in the arse. Almost every Australian will be affected as those that have superannuation invested in shares will probably be affected as BHP and Rio will be in practically all superannuation funds. How much did the miners drop last week? BHP went from a close of $40.75 on Friday the 30th of April (the RSPT proposal was released on Sunday the 2nd of May) to $37.50 the following Friday. A drop of 8%. Rio went from $72.10 to $64.98 in the same time frame which was a drop of 8.75%.
The RSPT will lead to a considerable drop in foreign investment and Australia has long required foreign money to build infrastructure. Today is no different. And it's not only the foreigners that will limit investment as Cape Lambert Resources announced, almost immediately, that it would not invest in Australia but would look overseas. I mean, wouldn't you if the tax rate was going to reach approximately 57% and become the highest in mining in OECD countries? No wonder the Canadian Finance Minister is rubbing his hands with glee fully expecting miners doing business in Australia currently to turn their attention to his country.
One thing mining companies consider when investing overseas is sovereign risk. They want to be fairly certain that the rules of play don't change once they have started the game. I see this RSPT as something akin to nationalisation whereby a sovereign government takes some or all of a company's assets. Looks like Krudd and his crew are trying to nationalise the resources industry in Australia. Even Kim Jong-il is looking better than Krudd in turns of a popular socialist at this point in time.
Talk about killing the golden goose. Resources are returning billions of dollars annually in the form of taxes and royalties. Companies are taxed at 30%, still high by OECD standards, and workers, thousands of them country-wide, pay greater rates of income tax than that. Stopping many projects in this country is not going to increase revenue nor create wealth for our workers. It'll certainly put a halt to a two-pace economy though. More mining leads to greater employment, more training required for workers and more tax payments from wage earners.
Krudd has had five months to look over the Henry Tax Review, from Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, so how could he be so blind as to what the reaction from resources companies, and the stock market and foreign investors, would be? What is Krudd's modus operandi here? If he's so worried about inflation what better what to combat it than ruin the value of a major section of the Australian people's capital - the stock market. If he wants to sell this country off to his Chinese mates then why not destroy the value of all major business so that the Chinese can come in, all cashed-up, and take what they like at bargain prices?
What about boom and bust? Sure, the resources sector is booming at the moment. It's a once in a lifetime, not generation, boom with China (and India to follow) growing amazingly. Not even the rebuilding following World War II comes close to the super requirements of commodities that we currently have. There'd be no money to invest in a bust anyway. Why bring that forward by 20 years?
It's time for Kevin Rudd to go. He's hit the self destruct button but unfortunately it's not on a five second timer. We have to wait until the next election. Obviously Kevin wants us to all live on kibbutzes but where is the money to build them coming from? Everything he has touched since coming to office, if you'll pardon my French, has turned to shit. Household insulation installation - bit lump of expensive shit. Laptop for every secondary student - costly, not totally effective lump of shit. Stimulus Package - massive, almost completely ineffectual waste of billions of dollars we don't have - constitutes a dump of momentous proportions. Where are the nation-building stimuli that would benefit this country after having a war chest built up by the former Liberal government?
It's time the Governor-General came a-knocking on Kevin Rudd's door. Before someone with more evil intent does. Don't worry as that won't be me. I don't think he's even worth a bullet.
What has Kevin done this time to upset me? Well, it's actually taken a week for me to calm down enough to write something that's not as likely to have me charged with libel or sedition. He's called for a Resources Super-Profit Tax, RSPT, which is capable of ruining our great nation. This RSPT kicks in when miners earn more than the 10-year government bond rate of about 6%. Six percent people! This communist, socialist, fascist bastard obviously doesn't know anything about capitalism and profit. What about the risk and return model? Anybody worth his salt knows that a company needs to make 15-25% return to be profitable. I don't think Shell likes to have any assets not performing at at least 18% profitability. Wesfarmers looks for around 18% and I know that they had an asset (Wesfarmers Transport) producing about 15% and that was divested. What sort of a joke is this idiot?
Krudd claims that the miners aren't returning the money to Australia and are taking it all for themselves. He wants to ensure that all Australians share in the returns from our non-renewable resources. Ha! Why don't they invest in the shares of these companies? I think the fact that the states can obtain royalties from the miners and I don't believe that the federal government can do so is one reason to introduce this tax. Krudd wants to cut the states out of tax revenue altogether.
Krudd claimed that 40% of BHP Billiton and 70% of Rio Tinto were owned by overseas investors in his defence of introducing this new tax. I read today that there are over 3.3 billion shares listed for BHP Billiton. Well, 60% of 3.3 billion shares is an awful lot of money still which affects Australians directly so there are no faceless sufferers. Krudd actually thinks that this won't affect Australians and it's just some faceless foreigner who will cop it in the arse. Almost every Australian will be affected as those that have superannuation invested in shares will probably be affected as BHP and Rio will be in practically all superannuation funds. How much did the miners drop last week? BHP went from a close of $40.75 on Friday the 30th of April (the RSPT proposal was released on Sunday the 2nd of May) to $37.50 the following Friday. A drop of 8%. Rio went from $72.10 to $64.98 in the same time frame which was a drop of 8.75%.
The RSPT will lead to a considerable drop in foreign investment and Australia has long required foreign money to build infrastructure. Today is no different. And it's not only the foreigners that will limit investment as Cape Lambert Resources announced, almost immediately, that it would not invest in Australia but would look overseas. I mean, wouldn't you if the tax rate was going to reach approximately 57% and become the highest in mining in OECD countries? No wonder the Canadian Finance Minister is rubbing his hands with glee fully expecting miners doing business in Australia currently to turn their attention to his country.
One thing mining companies consider when investing overseas is sovereign risk. They want to be fairly certain that the rules of play don't change once they have started the game. I see this RSPT as something akin to nationalisation whereby a sovereign government takes some or all of a company's assets. Looks like Krudd and his crew are trying to nationalise the resources industry in Australia. Even Kim Jong-il is looking better than Krudd in turns of a popular socialist at this point in time.
Talk about killing the golden goose. Resources are returning billions of dollars annually in the form of taxes and royalties. Companies are taxed at 30%, still high by OECD standards, and workers, thousands of them country-wide, pay greater rates of income tax than that. Stopping many projects in this country is not going to increase revenue nor create wealth for our workers. It'll certainly put a halt to a two-pace economy though. More mining leads to greater employment, more training required for workers and more tax payments from wage earners.
Krudd has had five months to look over the Henry Tax Review, from Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, so how could he be so blind as to what the reaction from resources companies, and the stock market and foreign investors, would be? What is Krudd's modus operandi here? If he's so worried about inflation what better what to combat it than ruin the value of a major section of the Australian people's capital - the stock market. If he wants to sell this country off to his Chinese mates then why not destroy the value of all major business so that the Chinese can come in, all cashed-up, and take what they like at bargain prices?
What about boom and bust? Sure, the resources sector is booming at the moment. It's a once in a lifetime, not generation, boom with China (and India to follow) growing amazingly. Not even the rebuilding following World War II comes close to the super requirements of commodities that we currently have. There'd be no money to invest in a bust anyway. Why bring that forward by 20 years?
It's time for Kevin Rudd to go. He's hit the self destruct button but unfortunately it's not on a five second timer. We have to wait until the next election. Obviously Kevin wants us to all live on kibbutzes but where is the money to build them coming from? Everything he has touched since coming to office, if you'll pardon my French, has turned to shit. Household insulation installation - bit lump of expensive shit. Laptop for every secondary student - costly, not totally effective lump of shit. Stimulus Package - massive, almost completely ineffectual waste of billions of dollars we don't have - constitutes a dump of momentous proportions. Where are the nation-building stimuli that would benefit this country after having a war chest built up by the former Liberal government?
It's time the Governor-General came a-knocking on Kevin Rudd's door. Before someone with more evil intent does. Don't worry as that won't be me. I don't think he's even worth a bullet.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Jobs For The Boys, Er Girls
Australia's latest prime minister is the leader of the Australian Labor Party. As such, he has a fair amount of backing from the unions. Parliament has always been a place whereby, if you do your best to uphold the party line, you'll be rewarded with a plum job later. This usually involves a role representing Australia overseas, high pay and plenty more networking opportunities. It's also known as "jobs for the boys." He's becoming quite good at pushing women into the spotlight too - a sort of affirmative action for women.
The position of Governor-General of Australia is the ultimate rubber-stamping job in the country. Basically the G-G is the Queen's representative for our sunburnt country. There is a bit of power involved, i.e. the Government can be sacked (and has happened once!), but it is usually just to approve laws passed. Nothing special.
Kevin Rudd appears to favour his home state of Queensland and his fellow Queenslanders. Now the plum role has been awarded to a fellow Queenslander and I guess that's it not too much of a surprise. The big surprise is that the new G-G is a woman. A woman with a man's name no less - Quentin Bryce. Quentin, a most unusual name for a woman, IMHO, is known for her appearance and not having a hair out of place. So what's happening with the PM's hair? How can the G-G appointee be seen in public with him? This country is moving into the future at a rapid pace.
Quentin Bryce - the G-G appointee. But what's up with PM Kevin's hair?
The position of Governor-General of Australia is the ultimate rubber-stamping job in the country. Basically the G-G is the Queen's representative for our sunburnt country. There is a bit of power involved, i.e. the Government can be sacked (and has happened once!), but it is usually just to approve laws passed. Nothing special.
Kevin Rudd appears to favour his home state of Queensland and his fellow Queenslanders. Now the plum role has been awarded to a fellow Queenslander and I guess that's it not too much of a surprise. The big surprise is that the new G-G is a woman. A woman with a man's name no less - Quentin Bryce. Quentin, a most unusual name for a woman, IMHO, is known for her appearance and not having a hair out of place. So what's happening with the PM's hair? How can the G-G appointee be seen in public with him? This country is moving into the future at a rapid pace.
Quentin Bryce - the G-G appointee. But what's up with PM Kevin's hair?
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