Catallaxy Files

Australia's leading libertarian and centre-right blog

Five years of Labor – how’s that working for you?

65 comments

Today marks the five year anniversary of the election of the Rudd Government.

Written by Sinclair Davidson

November 24th, 2012 at 12:00 am

Posted in Uncategorized

«
»

65 Responses to 'Five years of Labor – how’s that working for you?'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Five years of Labor – how’s that working for you?'.

  1. I thought he was in the old Hawke Keating tradition, he described himself as a fiscal conservative. The luvvies described him a John Howard lite.

    Then he got elected and all bets were off.

    Jannie

    24 Nov 12 at 12:03 am

  2. What a wanker.

    End off.

    Rabz

    24 Nov 12 at 12:05 am

  3. I thought he was in the old Hawke Keating tradition, he described himself as a fiscal conservative. The luvvies described him a John Howard lite.

    Then he got elected and all bets were off.

    If he’d been either of those things I reckon we’d be mostly OK at the moment.

    tbh

    24 Nov 12 at 12:08 am

  4. Will he be back?

    Will we ever see the smokin’ gun that knocks lardarse off?

    How many seats will laybore be left with after the next election, if we’re allowed to have one?

    The joys of myriad unintended consequences.

    We wait, Louisville Sluggers polished and at the ready…

    Rabz

    24 Nov 12 at 12:10 am

  5. I’ve already downed two single malts by way of drowning my sorrows at the infliction of this despicable collection of dunderheads on Australia.

    And to deal with the shock of my second post-Carbon (x1), Oxygen (x2) Not a Tax Apparently power bill. First one increased by a third on the previous quarter, this one is up 50% on the last. $1500 for one quarter of electricity and gas for a household of four. Thanks Kevni, you total loser.

    Megan

    24 Nov 12 at 12:34 am

  6. Five years of Labor – how’s that working for you?

    It’s certainly the longest and most tortuous soap opera I’ve ever seen. And the most costly with nothing to show for it except 30,000 paid-for illegal immigrants.

    Gab

    24 Nov 12 at 12:40 am

  7. You should try the Bold and the Beautiful!

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 12:42 am

  8. Don’t forget the $250bn in gross Federal debt. That’s quite an achievement.

    The country stood still under the final Howard government. It’s been going backwards ever since.

    H B Bear

    24 Nov 12 at 12:48 am

  9. It’s the little things that count..

    Five years ago Labor promised a Trade Training Centre for every high school. Half way through the ten year project, 92% of schools are still waiting and 50% of the money allocated has been spent on 8% of completed centres.

    Gab

    24 Nov 12 at 12:59 am

  10. Right, so they should not have changed their approach after the neoliberal-caused GFC struck, and its okay to criticise the level of debt without taking into account the exigencies of the GFC. You Cats really do have selective memories.

    William Bragg

    24 Nov 12 at 1:14 am

  11. its okay to criticise the level of debt without taking into account the exigencies of the GFC.

    The so called GFC was a fucking load of bullshit.

    But it did panic kevni and the world’s biggest goose into squandering hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars.

    Wankers.

    Rabz

    24 Nov 12 at 1:27 am

  12. Hey Billy Bragg, you should stick with love poetry and avoiding the taxman.

    Jannie

    24 Nov 12 at 1:44 am

  13. The so called GFC was a fucking load of bullshit

    Yes but. What a beautiful pretext to borrow sh%tloads of money to spend on worthy causes.

    Jannie

    24 Nov 12 at 1:48 am

  14. A little issue here Rabz, but we dont need no friggin baseball bats. Cricket bats have a sweet cutting point which is better for edges.

    Jannie

    24 Nov 12 at 1:56 am

  15. Yes, the GFC is a commie plot to steal our precious bodily fluids.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 2:02 am

  16. Little Gracie is now eleven years old, and still screaming from the pain.

    perturbed

    24 Nov 12 at 2:36 am

  17. That is to say, the Pain of Rudd (and the pain of Gillard, which followed). That’s what really let little Gracie down. Forget Climate Change.

    perturbed

    24 Nov 12 at 2:41 am

  18. KRudd, Crap, Bullsh!t; it’s all the same to me.

    amcoz

    24 Nov 12 at 3:18 am

  19. And to think America was saved under Bush and Cheney and nearly revived under McCain and Palin, Romney and Ryan – all those greats!

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 3:21 am

  20. Right, so they should not have changed their approach after the neoliberal-caused GFC struck, and its okay to criticise the level of debt without taking into account the exigencies of the GFC. You Cats really do have selective memories.

    Bill Clinton was a neo-liberal?

    You fucking idiot.

    Abu Chowdah

    24 Nov 12 at 3:29 am

  21. Yes, Clinton was a neo-liberal who threatened to do away with welfare in his second term before the Republicans distracted him with a sex scandal.

    Thank God, the Republicans saved welfare in America!

    I know a sex scandal won’t work with Obama, but think of something to bring him down, please.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 3:50 am

  22. Scapula, you just go out of your way to create an argument with random provocations. Maybe you are drunk or something. Or maybe thats just your thing. I dont believe you anyway.

    Jannie

    24 Nov 12 at 5:05 am

  23. “I have no intention today of repeating Mr Howard’s irresponsible spending spree,” Mr Rudd declared. “Unlike Mr Howard, I don’t stand before you with a bag full of irresponsible promises that could put upward pressure on inflation … today I am saying loud and clear that this sort of reckless spending must stop.“

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    Eddystone

    24 Nov 12 at 6:35 am

  24. today I am saying loud and clear that this sort of reckless spending must stop.

    And those are the words which could form the background of the LNP’s election ads, repeated over and over, as a counter builds up on-screen to the 250,000,000,000 or whatever it is that we’re in hock for today.

    perturbed

    24 Nov 12 at 7:12 am

  25. And those are the words which could form the background of the LNP’s election ads

    Unfortunately the rejoinder from the ALP will be “GFC”.

    Being a lie, and having been repeated often enough…

    Toiling Mass

    24 Nov 12 at 7:18 am

  26. You can thank our old mate “Kochie” on Channel 7 – had Rudd on that stupid Sunrise show every other day before he was elected. All giggles, smiles and corny jokes. Rudd conned the breakfast tv mob that he was mr. nice guy and the boy next door. And they all voted for him. True to Garrett’s statement that “once we’re in we will do what we like” – he did. We have now had 5 years of the most hopeless, incompetent government in my lifetime. The place is run by ex union officials who have come straight from university – all with some socialist dream that has proved to be a disaster.

    Old Surfie

    24 Nov 12 at 7:49 am

  27. The so called GFC was a fucking load of bullshit

    LOL Rabz. High level economic analysis there.

    m0nty

    24 Nov 12 at 8:09 am

  28. 7.12

    And those are the words which could form the background of the LNP’s election ads, repeated over and over, as a counter builds up on-screen to the 250,000,000,000 or whatever it is that we’re in hock for today.

    It didn’t work for the Romney campaign Perturbed.

    Old Surfie, 7.49,

    We have now had 5 years of the most hopeless, incompetent government in my lifetime.

    I blame John Howard! If his ego hadn’t pushed him to run for a fourth term Costello would have beaten Rudd and we would ALL we better off! Of course Howard didn’t deserve to lose but people just get sick of the same face! Maybe we should have term limits to temper human nature.

    Anne

    24 Nov 12 at 8:13 am

  29. High level economic analysis there.

    Thanks mUttley.

    That is after all, about the only level of analysis the so-called GFC deserves.

    Rabz

    24 Nov 12 at 9:39 am

  30. Cricket bats have a sweet cutting point which is better for edges.

    I’m not sullying my mighty Bradman bat on the stinking carcasse of any frigging laybore politician, thank you very much, Jannie.

    That’s what my Louisville Slugger is for.

    Rabz

    24 Nov 12 at 9:41 am

  31. Maybe we should have term limits to temper human nature.
    Good point Anne. How about two terms for PMs and four for MPs?

    Sirocco

    24 Nov 12 at 9:45 am

  32. Asylum Shoppers – cost to Australia – billions. Number of people sacked – none.

    Mining Tax – cost millions, revenue zero.

    Carbon Tax – cost billions, effect on global temperature zero.

    Other green schemes – cost billions, effect on global temperature zero.

    Fair Work Australia – cost in productivity billions.

    NBN – cost billions, value not much now and even less in the future.

    Defence – Political correctness trumps combat capability, cost immeasurable.

    UNSC bid – cost billions, value – well we join Luxembourg and Rwanda as new members.

    Ethics – Thomo, Slipper, AWU, Australia Day Riots.

    Worst. Government. Ever.

    jupes

    24 Nov 12 at 9:53 am

  33. The Government certainly has had the worst press ever, but the Foxified right is always ready to sex up a dossier so it’s Seinfeld scandal after Seinfeld scandal; that is, a scandal where no wrong-doing is ever proven.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 12:43 pm

  34. Just need some clear eh, Scrappy?
    Most fair minded people might think a better analogy is the Sopranos

    Rousie

    24 Nov 12 at 12:47 pm

  35. Just need some clear air eh, Scrappy?
    Most fair minded people might think a better analogy is the Sopranos

    Rousie

    24 Nov 12 at 12:48 pm

  36. The hyper pro-American foreign policy is certainly very Sopranos.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 12:52 pm

  37. Five years of Labor – how’s that working for you?

    Let’s see:

    – Earning less per annum than I was before, thanks to union pressures causing my employer to put half their staff back to part-time from full-time so that they could remain competative
    – Electricity bill has gone from a little under $300 per quarter to over $800 on the last bill, all thanks to a useless Carbon Tax that will not affect global climate one iota
    – Other cost of living increases that far outstrip any meagre payrise I might be entitled to thanks to automatic ‘length of service’ pay rises

    Yeah… Thanks for making things easier for ‘working families’ Rudd/Gillard.

    Brian of Moorabbin

    24 Nov 12 at 1:27 pm

  38. So, the response of Cats to my GFC point is basically to deny it happened. You guys are almost as credible as Andrew Bolt.

    William Bragg

    24 Nov 12 at 4:36 pm

  39. Five loooong years.

    Gab

    24 Nov 12 at 6:01 pm

  40. Anyone remember the scene in “A Few Good Men” when Jack Nicholson decides he’s had enough of the accusations, tries to walk out of the courtroom and is arrested?
    It’s been sitting in the back of my mind since the conversation about powerful women bosses and the way they react to the threat of sanctions or dismissal.

    Winston Smith

    24 Nov 12 at 6:16 pm

  41. Pro capitalists have got to explain why your beloved capitalism is a shipwreck across the entire western world, causing untold human misery, before you moan about trivialities like which party is in power.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 6:17 pm

  42. Pro capitalists Commies have got to explain why your their beloved capitalism commoism is a shipwreck across the entire western world, causing untold human misery and hundreds of millions of deaths, before you they moan about trivialities like which party is in power why they don’t get to vote.

    Mightily fixed, you fucking moron.

    Rabz

    24 Nov 12 at 6:38 pm

  43. Crapulon, you pea-brain brobdignagian towering intellect of the left, capitalism and globalisation have raised the bulk of humanity from abject poverty since 1820: that state claiming 95% of humanity since Gilgamesh ruled in Uruk.

    See: Surjit Bhalla, Imagine There’s No Country: Poverty, Inequality, and Growth in the Era of Globalization 2002 • 288 pp. ISBN 0-88132-348-9

    Sadly for you, of course, this book has no cartoons, has long words, and is written for serious people. No way you’d be able to understand it. You simply lack the intellectual capability.

    And (tragically for you) it does not blame Jews.

    The major factor dragging humanity back into pre-1820s poverty and despair is of course the bloody lie of socialism you so proudly grovel before.

    PS: I sincerely apologise to legumes in general for the hideous insult of comparing them to Crapulon the racist and anti-semite.

    Mk50 of Brisbane

    24 Nov 12 at 7:01 pm

  44. Morsi is pro-Israeli, by the way, and has the support of the US.

    See my documentation on the open thread for that view supported by the Jewish Chronicle, the Australian and other mainstream press.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 7:10 pm

  45. Contemporary capitalism has crushed the living standards of most of the population of Europe and America.

    And that is what we’re talking about – post GFC catastrophe capitalism.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 7:12 pm

  46. MK50, A television documentary placed two parents and four children in their home with only the amenities available during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

    The programme follows the family’s reaction to being thrown back in time to a more technologically sparse period and how their pastimes and attitudes change in response to both landing in the early 1970s and coming up-to-date.

    The children had to swap Facebook for a black-and-white TV and vinyl records. It was goodbye to their three games consoles, three DVD players, five mobile phones, six televisions and seven computers; not to mention their dishwasher, two washing machines and tumble dryer.

    Jim Rose

    24 Nov 12 at 7:19 pm

  47. Crapulon, the Muslim brotherhood is pro-Israeli, ya reckon? The same MB whose foudner was a personal friend of Hitler and Himmler? That MB? The parent organisation of Hamas?

    You need to lay off the methamphatamines, laddie. Hit the smack instead, it’s better for you.

    Contemporary capitalism has crushed the living standards of most of the population of Europe and America.

    Actually, its the welfare state and welfare entitlements that have done that, you festering little Jew-baiter, and anyway, who cares? They can afford a decline in living standards and the lesson that socialist welfare entitlement embeggars one is salutory. As the Greeks are finding out.

    I am far more interested in the way capitalism and globalisation have raised billions of human beings from abject poverty. As Bhalla notes (for intellectually normal non-narcotics users at the Cat see chapter 12 here http://www.piie.com/publications/chapters_preview/348/12iie3489.pdf) the main impact has been both a relative and absolute improvement in the livings standards of pretty much the entire underdeveloped world.

    I know that will make you scream and cry, Crapulon, the thought of all those black, yellow and brown people with rising incomes and living standards will fill your evil racist brain with horror.

    Sucks to be a racist like you, eh?

    And it also explains your loathing of capitalism – it improves the lives of black, yellow and brown people. No wonder you hate capitalism, any racist would.

    Mk50 of Brisbane

    24 Nov 12 at 7:27 pm

  48. I said Morsi is pro-Israel and has been given the green light from America to stage his constitutional coup, but see the other thread.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 7:35 pm

  49. Crapulon you worthless racist, let me explain this in very simple words. I know there’s no chance of a devout racist like you ever comprehending even the simplest logic, but try and strain your brobdignagioan intellect, m’kay? Try and be as intellectually capable as, perhaps, a cactus is.

    Morsi = Muslim Brotherhood.

    Muslim Brotherhood = devoted to extinction of Israel

    Muslim Brotherhood = wants second Shoa.

    Muslim Brotherhood = Hamas parent body

    Now, obviously, something as foul as you will never be bothered with something as petty as reality, so please feel free to peddle the ideas you get from other insane people.

    Your piteous maunderings and conspirazoid whackjobbery provides me with considerable entertainment.

    If not for your racism and anti-semitism you’d be a cute little leftard, instead of a festering racist scumbag.

    Mk50 of Brisbane

    24 Nov 12 at 7:43 pm

  50. Read, read, read – the Jewish Chronicle and Haaretz disagree with you. Morsi is pro-Israel. He took advantage of the war to position himself as America’s deputy sheriff in the ME – Sadat, Mubarak and Morsi – no change in Egyptian state policy.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 7:48 pm

  51. The so called GFC was a fucking load of bullshit.

    Yeah sure, it’s not like the global eocnomy has any impact on Australia or anything.

    sdfc

    24 Nov 12 at 7:49 pm

  52. Gillard was supposed to be a rabid anti-Israeli socialist and she turned out the opposite. History’s funny that way, but propagandists will never understand.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 7:51 pm

  53. Poor little racist. He’s utterly convinced the Muslim Brotherhood is ‘… a lackey of the Zionist entity.’ What’s genuinely funny is that he’s conflating tactics, strategy and ideology.

    It must be nice to live in a world as simple as the one Crapulon inhabits. Pity it is not real.

    Mk50 of Brisbane

    24 Nov 12 at 8:09 pm

  54. It’s not real, but unfortunately it’s right here.

    blogstrop

    24 Nov 12 at 8:15 pm

  55. True, Blogstrop, but it is so much fun wathing this racist idiot trying to make sense of it.

    That’s tough to do when, like Crapulon, you are so dense that light bends around you.

    Mk50 of Brisbane

    24 Nov 12 at 8:21 pm

  56. You’re just a foul-mouthed propagandist who just admitted I was right about Morsi, so you might not be completely brain dead.

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 8:41 pm

  57. Contemporary capitalism has crushed the living standards of most of the population of Europe and America.

    Contemporary capitalism is social democracy, big government intervention, tax and spend. In other words the thing that you spend all your time demanding more of.

    John Mc

    24 Nov 12 at 8:52 pm

  58. wahnsinn!

    Scapula

    24 Nov 12 at 9:28 pm

  59. The 5 years seems to working pretty well to me. Another 5 years of continuous growth (continuing the previous 15 or so). Low inflation, low unemployment, better housing affordability, lower income tax.
    A few more contentious achievements that others may not see as a positive: the aplogogy to the stolen generation and a price on carbon.

    SteveC

    25 Nov 12 at 10:33 pm

  60. the aplogogy to the stolen generation and a price on carbon.

    Yea the pwice on carbin was important.

    JC

    25 Nov 12 at 10:36 pm

  61. It’s a tax on Carbin, you fucking idiot, SteveC. Not a pwice. A tax is not a pwice, you plastic sex doll owning first class idiot.

    JC

    25 Nov 12 at 10:37 pm

  62. Mk 50, you seem to have a serious problem with thinking about the middle east peace issue rationally.
    scapula said:

    Morsi is pro-Israeli, by the way, and has the support of the US.

    See my documentation on the open thread for that view supported by the Jewish Chronicle, the Australian and other mainstream press.

    and you reply with:

    Crapulon you worthless racist, …there’s no chance of a devout racist like you … but try and strain your brobdignagioan intellect, m’kay? Try and be as intellectually capable as, perhaps, a cactus is.

    …something as foul as you will never be bothered with something as petty as reality, …
    Your piteous maunderings and conspirazoid whackjobbery …
    If not for your racism and anti-semitism you’d be a cute little leftard, instead of a festering racist scumbag.

    Do you ever wonder if your responses are slightly over the top?

    SteveC

    25 Nov 12 at 10:39 pm

  63. How do you get an ipad to say pwice and carbin?

    SteveC

    25 Nov 12 at 10:46 pm

  64. How do you get an ipad to say pwice and carbin?

    I don’t. It’s how leftwingers pronounce these words seeing you/they have no fucking idea what they mean.

    JC

    25 Nov 12 at 10:48 pm

  65. The same mechanism becomes a floating price in 2015, so I’d call that a pricing mechanism. Taxes tend not to be based on a market price. But if it pleases you (as I always want to do), then one of the more contentious achievements that others may not see as a positive: the carbon tax.

    SteveC

    25 Nov 12 at 10:49 pm

Leave a Reply