Any suggestion I could make to you Wombleoz, whether its achieving a budget surplus in 2013 () or delivering true and real outcomes with water (murray-darling) or health (national) reform................you would make the assertion that Labor will/are delivering on this or its "coming soon".

Pointless exercise.

Yes Wombleoz......now the truth.

Treasury have revised forecast commodity prices putting in GREAT doubt Labor's claim of a surplus in 2013......in addition to this Labor continues to spend like drunken sailors.

The Murray-Darling plan has been 3 years coming.  Labor came to office in 2007 with the Howard Government project well and truly in place and the ball rolling, Labor has wrecked it - with delay after delay as communities flounder.  The process is now likely to be delayed furthermore to 2012 according to the Murray-Darling's Chief Executive.

Health Reform - another slogan without any true and real outcomes behind it.  The recently named Australian GP of the Year has been scathing of Labor's proposed reform, which are mostly being talked about rather than implemented he said of cost-cutting measures : “The current system helps address the national doctor shortage and the mammoth workload of GPs.  But yet again we are seeing Nicola Roxon and Julia Gillard trying to re-invent the wheel and in so doing they’re heading for a crash.”

wombleoz
Murray Darling, already happening less urgent, but still essential, now the drought is broken

Already happening?  No.
Less urgent?  Did you see the recent town meeting in Griffith?

Yeah - she'll be right mate, she'll be right, its alright, its all good, its happening, I promise, it'll work ok, in the long run.

Sure thing Wombleoz.  Is that all you can muster?

By all means if you want to rely on LABOR.ORG.AU
for updates on your precious Gillard government, go for your life!

But you can expect a lot more of

As Joe Hockey has said this afternoon, Julia Gillard, bumbling Wayne Swan and Labor have not lifted a finger on this.

Swan has said he might think about announcing something in a months time..................

Are Labor still in caretaker mode or.....

The Murray darling system has been rorted by farmers for years.

They are up in arms, not because it's going to cost them water for irrigation, but because they will lose money over the way that they currently rort the system.

Here is an example. Let's say I need 100 litres of water. But I apply for and get 300 litres. I use my 100 litre allocation which is all I actually needed. Now I've got 200 litres which I don't need. So what do I do? I sell it to other farmers who either didn't get enough or thought they had enough but need more. To some farmers, this is worth up to $200,000 a year. Who needs a successful crop when you can make 200 large selling your excess water.

This is one of the major problems that the Windsor committee needs to fix Expect massive opposition to his committee and now you will know why.

Judgey.

The Howard Coalition Government had been in office for 11 and half years - leaving the nation prouder, stronger and more prosperous.

Sadly and more so in politics - all good things come to end.

The Howard Government lost power because it had not sufficiently rejuvenated (I'm not suggesting Costello would have won in 07, because I think it would of been a bloodbath, even more so) and also because it got a little too headstrong with the workplace relations reform - WorkChoices.

It really put a bee in the bonnetts of "Howard's battlers" nationwide.  And fair enough too, I believe the safety net (that Howard later introduced) should of been apart of the original package and that WorkChoices should have been more thoroughly explained and introduced.

As for Mr Howard losing his seat.  Bare in mind he had held the seat for 33 years and over the past decade prior to 2007, electoral boundary redistributions changed the seats demographics and its status as a Liberal safe seat, to more marginal.

Combine an ageing government, with WorkChoices and then the Maxine McKew campaign, which was a sensational campaign (for 2007) against John Howard and it proved a lethal distraction for him.  But it was based on the same nonsense we see truffled out from the likes of Barack Obama and Kevin Rudd.  She paid the price for her style, losing her seat this year.

Well said LTF, current scheme is making some traders on the water market very very rich- fife for corruption and controlling interests- No different to the filfthy breeders running NSW Racing to suit themselves

water policy has been a mess for a long time and i expect it will be for a while yet

Jez, you can't name a policy you'd implement that the current government hasn't or isn't - how about a country you'd rather be living in, or one in better shape???

Talk us down all you want buy we're in fine shape and it's only getting better

Wombleoz, your a numbskull, fair dinkum, right up there with Gillard and the comrades.  Your a perfect spokesman for the circus that is Rudd-Gillard Labor.

You asked "name something that you want Gillard to do Jez that isn't either already happening or planned? "

Here's two quick ones I haven't seen happening and I doubt are planned -  responsible economic management (not spending like a drunken sailor and borrowing horrendously), the curbing of wasteful botched government programs (BER) and standing for something (remember the greatest moral challenge of our time?).....

It's very easy to look busy or to make plans wombleoz - any government can come along and make a bunch of promised "plans" at election time or even make something happen, which could start by creating a government department, for example the do-nothing department for Climate Change......

The clincher though, wait for it....is actually DELIVERING and ACHIEVING a positive result with real and true outcomes and responsible management in addition to real bang for the taxpayers buck

I asked you specifically about three seperate topics.

The budget, water and health.  Your happy to take Treasury's word on Coaltion's costings during election time, but not so much when it relates to the key economic "PROMISE" - we will return the budget to surplus by 2013.  Treasury say, this is in GREAT doubt.

Water reform was kick-started by the Howard Government.  In your book wombleoz, its a "happening" reform from Labor, but as far as I see 4 years delay to date with the expectation of further delays until 2012 - I'd say thats a pretty resounding FAIL.

Health reform.  As again, easy to come out and say "I'm gonna to fix the hospitals" - with a 250 page glossy document in hand.  But actually implementing real reform and achieving something (not just using the cause as an election platform), completely different. 

Australian's made a pretty clear statement in the last election.  The same election where you declared Tony Abbott, no chance and beated your chest and pronounced Gillard to win in a canter.

You were wrong then in your outlandish claims.  And here again, you are wrong - its fantasy land stuff.

I talk down the government with great justification.  This is a government that has been shambolic from day one under Rudd.  It shined under symbolic gestures then when it decided to splash cash (BER, insulation) it made monumental and deadly mistakes.  This is a government without direction, an agenda or leadership.

Maybe that can be the next election campaign slogan for Labor.

Courtesy of Wombleoz:

Australian Labor - "Talk us down all you want but we're in fine shape and it's only getting better"

ffs

i agree with AP as well - but nit with Jez (no surprise there [;)]) the gst shouldn't be higher but it should be on everything including food.  We can partially blame the Democrats, remember them???, for that

the Henry stuff will get done and that will change the way we get taxed, it won't happen overnight - but it will happen

as to the BER Jez - sounds like a pretty good, and badly needed, spending to me

From - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/01/3054000.htm?section=justin

The head of the taskforce investigating the Federal Government's Building the Education Revolution (BER) program is praising the way that state governments have spent the funds.

The Opposition says the scheme is fraught with waste, but the man overseeing an investigation into the $16 billion program told a Senate committee hearing in Canberra that some states have delivered excellent results.

The Federal Government hired businessman Brad Orgill to examine the project in April, following reports of cost blowouts, rorts, and waste.

Mr Orgill says his next update on the program is due later this month or in early December and will show that South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia have delivered significant benefits to schools along with a stimulus to the general economy.

"We are very impressed with how they have delivered the program across those three states," he said.

"We think they have delivered some excellent outcomes."

Mr Orgill says some state governments have achieved better value for money results than some private school systems.

He says many principals have welcomed the new school halls and classrooms.

"We concluded that the program did deliver much needed infrastructure," he said.

"We found that many of the projects, the majority of the projects, were delivering very, very good results.

"We were amazed and my colleagues were amazed at many schools where infrastructure had not been newly installed for 20 or 30 years."

Mr Orgill says the program's poor performance in New South Wales has unfairly tarnished it everywhere else.

"Outside of New South Wales, the program looks to have been implemented very well with significant benefits to schools and to stimulus at very modest cost premiums, in some cases no cost-premium to pre-BER costs," he said.

During a Senate hearing this morning, Liberal Senator Brett Mason asked Mr Orgill whether Catholic and independent schools in each state and territory generally achieved better value for money than state schools.

"I think that would be premature," Mr Orgill replied.

"I think it would be very interesting for people to see the WA, South Australia, Tasmania experiences in our November report.

"Their ability to deliver a different approach, their ability to align an architect working with the school in the same way as happened in Catholic or independent schools, was very interesting to us."

The BER project was the largest plank of the Government's $42 billion stimulus program, launched at the height of the global financial crisis.

Mr Orgill says by the time his next update is delivered, his taskforce will have visited nearly 250 schools around the nation and spoken with 90 interested parties namely contractors and builders.

He says it is important to remember that the program's first aim was to help stimulate the economy.

"I remember our first visit to Bovis Lend Lease - they said as the program was announced and we could see this coming down, we changed our mindset in terms of retrenching people and hiring people and re-engaging people for the work," he said.

"The expectation was more important than the money. Once you know that a program is coming, the construction, the project management, the project manager will stop sacking people which was happening pre-BER."

Towards the end of the inquiry tempers frayed, with Senator Mason demanding to know if Mr Orgill believed taxpayers had received value for money.

Labor Senator Gavin Marshall intervened, asking if Senator Mason was trying to make political points.

"No, it is Commonwealth money," Senator Mason replied.

"The Commonwealth is entitled to know whether it has achieved value for money out of taxpayers' money. That is fair."

Mr Orgill said: "There is no evidence to say that value for money has not been achieved" but "we would say that we want to see the full evidence before reaching such a conclusion."

Pick and choose what you response to wombleoz.  ffs

One feel good story to thousands of horror stories.

Useless canteens (such as the one at my son's school).
Unneccessary works undertaken at outrageous cost.
Thousands of school hall rip-offs......

The list goes on.  Open your eyes wombleoz.

Maybe in wombleoz land it was money well spent - but in reality it was a mismanaged, it wasted billions of of our dollars and built infrastructure which in many cases was not needed, dodgy, inappropriate or a total rip-off.



Oh and......

I'm guessing you'd have Labor's insulation scheme high up on the list of oustanding achievements? was also a resounding success too?

What's a few lives and thousands of house fires? 

Insignificant, I suppose.

The local primary school got a pretty good hall- where before the poor buggers were sitting under deterioating shade cloth- not sure how much it cost but they didn't put in air-conditioning for ffs

Sounds like you need a school fund raiser to finish it off AP - they should've included it though

they also kept the country out of recession, created a stake of jobs and gave schools much needed infrastructure - get over it Jez

You love glossing over the details......wombie.....
And you have to do it a lot for your fellow comrades.

You know the details like:
*building infrastructure thats ACTUALLY NEEDED!
*spending taxpayers money with responsibility and with accountability.
*getting bang for the taxpayers buck, not lapping up RIP-OFFS.
*rolling out a program that has a PLAN behind it.

[smiley:crazy][smiley:crazy][smiley:crazy]

Not rocket science.