Summary: THE FOCUS GROUP Austerity for them Costello and mates pay themselves $8m bonuses out of Future Fund, plus two expensive christmas parties, and generous staff credit cards. As if it was the issue, Costello specifically denies that the La Di Da burlesque venue had any strippers. Abbott makes it easier for ministers to own shares in companies that might be affected by their decisions. JSF earns more sarcastic air quotes, this time around the word “stealth”, as it turns out it can’t hide from Russian radar. Why is the ALP still supporting the terrible JSF - can’t they take the opportunity provided by all its disastrous recent developments to pull back from it? Tony’s friends apparently are still doing okay, because the LNP reckons they’ll pay $11,000 a head for breakfast with Tony. Austerity for the rest of us Commission of AWWNOYOUDIDNT - “recipe for a poorer, nastier and more brutish Australia”; remember how the CoA’s task was framed (Former BCA head told to find SAVINGS not appropriate avenues for revenue). $2.5m well spent? ALL-NEW IDEAS FROM THE EARLY 1980S. $15 medicare co-payment (good news for the sick) $5 more for PBS medicines (good news for the sick) 15,000 public service jobs lost (except in the growth industries like watching carefully what poor people spend their dole money on etc) States to collect income taxes (because it’s more efficient to have NINE governments collecting income tax, not just one) No more “horizontal fiscal equalisation” - equivalent services between states - screw you, people in poorer states. Uni students to pay much more, much earlier. Medicare surcharge to 3.5% if you don’t have prive health insurance (good news for private health insurers) Make poor young people “move to areas of higher employment” (good luck getting help paying for the move though) Flog off national assets like Australia Post, Medibank, Royal Mint, NBN, Snowy Hydro, Defence Housing, ARTC (good news for the private industry that will then get to add a profit margin into those services) “Deficit Levy” that News Corp claims will hit higher income earners more, but is likely to be a fixed rate so the lower middle class will pay the same as the obscenely rich. TONYTAX reactions NEW BROKEN PROMISE EXCUSE - The prime minister told 3AW that because a debt levy would not be permanent, it was not a broken promise. “I think if there was a permanent increase in taxation that would certainly be inconsistent with the sort of things that were said before the election,” Abbott said. “We want taxes going down, not going up, but when you’re in a difficult position, sometimes there needs to be some short-term pain for some long-term gain.” Before the election, Abbott promised: “What you’ll get under us are tax cuts without new taxes.” Can the Liberals do maths, or can News Ltd? Daily Telegraph reports that a 1% levy means $800 on $80,000 and nothing below that. LNP party room very worried: “It’s just shock,” the MP said. “There was no communication from the leader’s office. We’re all just scratching our heads. It’s the biggest f——up we’ve had in a long time.” “I can’t say anything on the record because it’s just too stupid,” he said. “If it’s wrong, then it’s bulls—t, because why would you scare the electorate? And if it’s right, then it’s even worse because we said before the election there’d be no new taxes.” Another branded Mr Abbott’s attempts to recategorise the tax as a levy as “sophistry”, calling it “an offence to voters” that was “worse than Gillard’s claim that the carbon tax was not a tax”. Miranda Devine and her readers go absolutely barmy, degenerating to “the Federal Government cannot legally
