Update: Yup, Abbott is a milder GOP dingbat .. he saw climate science as a scam .. then was for some decent action on it .. now against all expert, even some business people, advice his non-market mechanism solution to cutting our outsized per capita contribution to warming is not as good as a market based emissions trading scheme he hasn't budged, yet, on his badgy 'direct action' plan which would basically give $$$ to the biggest polluters .. he's our conservative flip flooooper, and 'polished' .. http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-polishing-of-tony-abbott,5355 .. talks like a teabagger sometimes .. socialism to communism shit .. Putin-like macho, is .. bully. is .. homophobic, was "threatened by them", even though his sister is a lesbian .. misogynist, denies, but has exhibited characteristics of, certainly played it against Gillard .. opposed most everything in opposition .. is conservative through and through though he has spent time in Aboriginal communities each of a number of past years .. if that was a part of his long term campaigning it wouldn't surprise .. if true commitment to a cause would be great .. if he can do something better than what has been achieved in the past for many Aboriginal outback communities that would be great .. he won the Liberal leadership by a single vote .. if you are interested in more Aussi politics other than just for a 'jab' .. lol .. then search my posts for Abbott .. it's a nuisance not being able to post certain links here .. he has greatly soured our relationship with Indonesia with the arrogance of his boat people refugee 'take the boats back to Indonesia' solution not .. he did the debt fear cry during the election and now wants to up the debt ceiling by some $5 billion
for mine there is a better chance he could be a one termer than Obama ever was .. then again our country is pretty conservative when scared too ..
sorry for the long edit, SR .. came last in a rush ..
---
The post above given in good spirit to a post headed
Australia to UN: No More 'Socialism Masquerading as Environmentalism'
and posted here now as i've just discovered it was recently deleted .. just to not leave the effort invested in the waste bin ..
Australian housing bubble as USA and other countries experienced? .. literally for years i have seen, you guys would have seen them too .. still do .. all over the web, as those little things even in links which have no relation to housing .. dire warnings of a housing bubble burst in Australia .. this is the latest on that ..
Adam Creighton The Australian September 19, 2013 12:00AM
Source: TheAustralian
A SENIOR Reserve Bank official has attacked talk of an Australian house price bubble as "unrealistically alarmist" in response to growing concerns ultra-low mortgage rates were pushing up house prices to unsustainable heights.
Malcolm Edey, the Reserve Bank's assistant governor for financial stability, conceded that demand for houses had jumped, but argued that the ratio of house prices to household incomes remained stable.
"We shouldn't be rushing to reach for the bubble terminology every time the rate of increase in house prices is higher than average, because by definition that is 50 per cent of the time," he said.
RBA data indicates the ratio of average dwelling prices to average household incomes has hovered between 4 and 5 since 2003, having been under 3 from the early 1970s to the mid-1990s, but ignores variation across states and even suburbs, where house price speculation typically occurs.
"There's no doubt demand for housing now is strengthening, but it's important to keep this in perspective," Mr Edey said.
Speaking yesterday at the Financial Services Institute of Australasia annual conference in Sydney, he argued that house prices over the decade had risen at a slower pace than household incomes, but grew more quickly or slowly for extended periods.
Minutes from the Reserve Bank's latest interest rate meeting, released earlier this week, indicated its board was "closely monitoring . . . property gearing in self-managed superannuation funds".
Australian capital city house prices, routinely ranked among the highest in the world, rose at an annual pace of almost 10 per cent over the three months to June and have continued to edge up since.
At the same time, investors' share of new home loans rose to the highest level in a decade in July, even though total credit growth is still at historic lows.
John Laker, head of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, said regulators would be willing to use macro-prudential rules, such as caps on loan-to-valuation ratios, if necessary.
"But there are a range of other actions that each supervisor can take before taking recourse to such monetary policy instruments, and those tools really involve engagement with institutions day by day," he said.
New Zealand's central bank, facing booming house prices thanks to low interest rates and Christchurch earthquakes that demolished a significant part of the country's housing supply, is about to cap the share of loans with loan-to-valuation ratios above 80 per cent.
The International Monetary Fund this week called for more widespread use of macro-prudential rules to help regulators grappling with weak economic growth and surging house prices.
Mr Laker said risks in the sustained low-interest rate environment would grow over time, suggesting banks might come under pressure to lower their lending standards, as they did in the early 2000s, and that borrowers might be unable to repay their debts when rates returned to normal levels. "But the low-interest rate environment is a positive for Australia, as it's part of the broad macro-setting and part of the process by which the economy rebalances its growth," he said.
Asked about the Abbott government's promised financial system inquiry, Mr Laker said APRA "welcomed scrutiny" and would provide any resources required for any secretariat.
"Obviously it is 15 years since the last major inquiry, and it's always good to go back and have another look to see whether there are improvements," he said.
ASIC Commissioner Greg Tanzer, also at the conference, said the growth of superannuation assets, which are projected to outweigh the banking system, and so-called shadow banking would be good topics to cover.
Regulators fear tighter rules on local financial institutions will push more business into the less regulated sector.
ROTFLMAO! Joe Hockey cuts deal with Greens to scrap debt ceiling
.. soooo funny .. Australia's Treasurer Joe Hockey .. before the election (with Abbott) scare-mongered 'Labor's national debt' .. the high level of debt was so dangerous!! .. a threat to national security!!! .. lol .. after the election these 'Liberals' then asked Labor for a ceiling jack from $300 to $500 billion .. Labor returned with, hmm, $400 billion, ok if with details from Hockey to what the extra cash was needed for .. NOW Hockey has made a deal with the Greens to ABOLISH the debt ceiling in Australia .. lolol .. it's a great decision .. YUP .. the debt ceiling stoush in the good ol' USA (not) was well noted in Australian media ., that said this represents a mountain of back-flip material from Abbott, Hockey and the Liberals .. hypocrisy drips from the rafters .. lol .. actually the hypocrisy laced Liberal back-flip, i'm thinking, could be also described as a double forward somersault .. yup .. it's a good move .. repeat: the trouble you guys have with your debt ceiling was/is/will be in the news here .. BIG TIME ..
Gareth Hutchens .. Date December 4, 2013 - 6:45PM
.. VIDEO .. Greens claim debt victory The Greens have agreed to abolish the debt ceiling, but have extracted concessions from the government in return. Nine news.
The federal government will be able to borrow as much money as it wants after Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey cut a deal with the Greens to dispense with the debt ceiling completely.
Mr Hockey has just written to the Leader of the Federal Greens, Christine Milne, setting out the details of the agreement.
Treasurer Joe Hockey has announced a deal with the Greens on the debt ceiling. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
It means the government will not have to ask the Parliament for permission whenever it wants to borrow money above a certain limit.
“We have agreed to repeal the current legislative limit on the total face value of stock and securities on issue set out in the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911,” the letter says.
Mr Hockey has promised the Greens that the debt statement included in the budget, MYEFO and PEFO will include details on the amount of money the government is spending on climate change, and the extent to which that spending is contributing to government debt.
He has also promised that as part of all future Intergenerational Reports the government will have a dedicated section on the environment, including climate change and the effect of these policies and their impact on the Australian economy.
The deal means the government will not have to ask the Parliament for permission to borrow more money on December 12 when the debt surpasses the $300 billion limit.
Despite criticising the former Labor government for cutting a deal with the Greens to remain in power, the Abbott government needs help from the Greens to remove the debt ceiling.
The government had previously said it wanted raise the debt ceiling from 300 billion to $500 billion, but Labor had put a political stumbling block in the way by saying it would only support an increase to $400 billion.
In the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asked Mr Abbott why he was considering cutting a deal with the Greens, whom he had previously described as "economic fringe dwellers".
"Bad as the Greens are, it wasn't the Greens that gave us the five biggest deficits in Australia's history, it was members opposite," Mr Abbott replied.
"I agree that the Greens have been economic fringe dwellers and that just means that members opposite are worse - worse than the Greens when it comes to economic vandalism."
The deal requires the government to table debt statements in Parliament within three sitting days of the debt increasing by $50 billion. It also requires the government to set out the reasons why the debt has increased by $50 billion.
Labor’s Jill Hall says the new requirement is not transparent enough.
“I think it does put some transparency back into the system but it's not as transparent as the minister having to come into the Parliament and ask for that ceiling to be lifted,” Ms Hall said on ABC television.
“It can happen and no-one will know anything about it. So I really am not supportive of … what's happened today.”
Greens leader Christine Milne says the deal will make the debate about debt in Australia more mature while also making it more transparent.
“This, I think, will return some maturity to the debate around debt and get rid of what has become a phony debate every time the government has wanted to raise the debt ceiling,” Ms Milne said on Wednesday.
“We have had the imported Tea Party-style debate here in Australia where the focus has been actually on the figure rather than on what the debt is being used to do.”
The deal has been done at arm’s length, without representatives of either party appearing together at a press conference.
Mr Abbott said in August, when criticising the Labor Party, that ‘‘no real friend of the workers of Australia would want to do a deal with the Greens. We can never build a better future by doing cheap and tawdry deals with the Greens.’’
US President Obama with then Prime Minister Gillard. Photo: Andrew Meares
Tony Abbott's use of a Washington Post interview to brand his Labor predecessors as ''wacko'' and ''embarrassing'' could set back his working relationship with the Obama White House, a leading US commentator says.
Norman Ornstein, an author and political scientist with the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said he ''winced'' when he read the interview in which the Prime Minister put the boot into the Rudd-Gillard government in unusually strong language for a foreign interview.
''It really does violate a basic principle of diplomacy to drag in your domestic politics when you go abroad,'' Dr Ornstein said. ''It certainly can't help in building a bond of any sort with President Obama to rip into a party, government and, at least implicitly, leader with whom Obama has worked so closely. Perhaps you can chalk it up to a rookie mistake. But it is a pretty big one.''
Politicians worldwide typically refrain from engaging in fierce domestic political argument when they are speaking to an overseas audience.
Dr Ornstein, a resident scholar at the AEI - one of Washington's oldest think tanks - was one of Foreign Policy magazine's 100 ''top global thinkers'' in 2012.
Mr Abbott told The Washington Post that the former Labor government's conduct was ''a circus'' and was ''scandalously wasteful''.
''It was an embarrassing spectacle and I think Australians are relieved they are gone,'' he said.
Asked about Labor's plan to extend fibre to every household under the National Broadband Network, Mr Abbott said: ''Welcome to the wonderful, wacko world of the former government.''
Julia Gillard in particular forged what observers say was a warm and constructive relationship with Barack Obama, which included sealing the deal to station US marines in Darwin.
She was one of just 12 world leaders whose calls Mr Obama returned personally after they had called to congratulate him on his 2012 re-election.
.. VIDEO .. Truss confirms Holden's departure Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss confirms during question time on Wednesday that Holden will stop making cars in Australia from 2017.
Within minutes of General Motors-Holden announcing the carmaker would leave Australia in 2017, the political blame game began in question time.
Government ministers, led by Treasurer Joe Hockey and Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss, indicated that Holden's decision was inevitable and known for some time. They cited high wages, the relentlessly high Australian dollar and difficult economic circumstances, as reasons for Holden's departure.
Labor frontbenchers Jenny Macklin, Tony Burke and Chris Bowen during question time in Parliament. Photo: Andrew Meares
Labor ministers, meanwhile, were booing and jeering and accusing the Coalition of hurrying Holden out of Australia and treating the company with contempt.
"You've got what you wanted!" shouted the Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek across the dispatch box.
Mr Truss rejected Labor's suggestion that the government was to blame, saying he had been advised that government action had little to do with the carmaker's decision.
A History of Holden in Australia FJ Holden poster- PIC COURTESY National Museum of Australia View all 17 photos
"It's self-evident to us all that wages paid in Australia are much higher than wages in other parts of the world," Mr Truss said.
"[The] reality we must face is the situation as it is now and get on with helping the Holden workers to make a transition and the economy of SA to move into new areas where it can prosper and provide work for its people."
But Ms Plibersek accused the government of getting "exactly what it wanted" and bullying Holden out of Australia.
Leader of the House Christopher Pyne pretends to cry during a point of order during question time. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Ms Plibersek referred to the letter sent by Mr Truss on Tuesday to Mr Devereux, in which the Acting Prime Minister urged Holden to "immediately" clarify its intentions.
The letter was "designed for political consumption rather than being a genuine effort to communicate," Ms Plibersek said.
"Hasn't the government got exactly what it wanted and won't Australia's workers pay for their failure?" she added.
Mr Hockey said the government would do what it could to work with unions and the governments of South Australia and Victoria to help the workers "transition" and prepare for losing their jobs when Holden leaves Australia in 2017.
Mr Hockey said it was "no surprise" that Holden was leaving and wondered why Labor had not shown similar outrage when Mitsubishi and Ford left Australia.
Labor asked the Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane why the Abbott government cut $500 million from automotive funding, and asked whether there was any concern for job losses.
Mr Macfarlane said Labor MPs had immediately degenerated to "raw politics" when Holden factory workers were going through an "extraordinarily traumatic time".
"Not one word of sympathy from the members opposite," Mr Macfarlane said. "Not one word of, 'We'll co-operate with what the government puts in place to ensure the industry and economic diversity of Adelaide is continued.'"
[ vote count now ]
Poll: Should the government have done more to keep Holden manufacturing in Australia?
Yes 45% .. No 55% .. Total votes: 26184.
Disclaimer: These polls are not scientific and reflect the opinion only of visitors who have chosen to participate.
Tony Abbott is still relatively popular in roughly 50-50 Australia .. personally i've always felt glad Labor were in power when the world financial crisis hit .. good to see Professor Richard Holden also believes Labor did a good job ..
--- the end of the article ..
So, was the Rudd Government brilliant, lucky, or reckless?
My reading is: brilliant. For sure, they had a lot of other factors supporting the economy that many other countries did not have: a central bank with the decisiveness, and room, to slash interest rates; a major trading partner (i.e. China) enacting a massive stimulus of their own; and a very flexible exchange rate.
They also arguably "played it safe" by following advice from Treasury and the International Monetary Fund.
But two things merit the term "brilliant". One: the resolve to use overwhelming fiscal force, particularly in the face of political opposition; and two: the sophistication to understand the importance of shoring-up the banking system through deposit guarantees (announced in October, 2008).
Together these gave Australians confidence that we would weather the crisis. That confidence prevented the kind of expectations death spiral from which the US is still battling to recover.
Franklin Roosevelt was right. In times like 2008 "the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself". Oh, and a government that doesn’t realize that stimulus only works if it’s big, bold and credible.
Richard Holden is Professor of Economics at the University of New South Wales, Australian School of Business.
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