Summary: Interview with Paul Rosenberg who founded Party Higher, an events company that specialises in SILENT DISCOS where everyone gets headphones that provide music. Interview with RMIT economist Sinclair Davidson on the Abbott Government’s Commission of Audit Leon and Garry discuss issues including: · The US economy showing signs of losing steam. US manufacturing output barely rose in September and contracts to buy previously owned homes recorded their largest drop in nearly 3-1/2 years, the latest signs the economy's momentum ebbed as the third quarter ended. The data also shows the shutdown has hurt the United States economy. US consumer confidence fell sharply in October. US producer-price index, which measures how much companies pay for everything from footwear to computers, fell 0.1 per cent in September from August and US retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1 per cent in September from a month earlier · A look at the Abbott government’s new commission of audit which will be the most comprehensive in almost two decades. It will examine everything the government does. It’s more or less open — to target waste and improve cost-effectiveness, seek out duplication between the Commonwealth and the states and identify spending that’s no longer needed. This could become a signature reform of the government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has previously called for a Commonwealth constitutional power to override the states · Concerns about the Audit Commission’s narrow BCA-centric membership. · Finance minister Mathias Cormann leaving the door open to privatising further government assets beyond Medibank Private, should the Coalition's Commission of Audit recommend it. Senator Cormann, who refused to give a hard and fast timetable for a return to budget surplus, said the Abbott government did not have a policy to privatise any Commonwealth assets beyond the sale of Medibank Private "at this stage". But he said the Coalition's Commission of Audit would look across all Commonwealth government assets and "review whether there are other opportunities". · Suggestions that the Government's upcoming Commission of Audit will look at privatising the $23 billion student debt portfolio as a way to ease budget pressure. Education Minister Christopher Pyne says he is keeping an open mind about the idea of selling off the debt the Government is owed under the Higher Education Contribution Scheme. · Proposals for Australia Post to take over the front office operations of Centrelink under a wider plan to consolidate service delivery agencies and secure budgetary savings to be considered by the federal government. Treasurer Joe Hockey’s office has confirmed the proposal would be looked at within the work of the Commission of Audit along with other options for savings on how the government provides welfare and other services. The overhaul, first raised by Mr Hockey earlier this year, coincides with his proposal to hand the responsibility for administering the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) to Medibank Private in order to avoid establishing a new bureaucracy. · The Australian Council of Trade Unions raising concerns over the federal government's commission of audit’s timeline.
