It’s a mixed bag, Monday July 9.
Tony Abbott demolished three prime ministerships: Rudd, Gillard, and Rudd II. Today’s polls, and the bookies, indicate Malcolm Turnbull is bidding fair to equal Abbott’s effort by demolishing another three: his own, the future Scott Morrison’s, and the already demolished Abbott.
Tim Fatchen, Mt Barker, SA
Malcolm Turnbull: smartest person in the room? Not even the smartest person in an interview.
George Harley, Mt Isa, Qld
Bill Shorten and the Labor Party obviously still believe in the tooth fairy — a major announcement involving paid parental leave with no mention as to how it is to be funded or how much it will cost.
stomach for reform
Australia is now ungovernable, according to Terry McCrann (“Long and Shorten of it: be afraid, very afraid”, 7/5) but can this be corrected?
Australians appear unwilling to elect any government that is prepared to take tough decisions to correct the budget deficit and appear to prefer fiscal irresponsibility. Turnbull therefore had to present a rather weak budget to have any hope of getting re-elected.
In Queensland, Campbell Newman soon found out that trying to do the right thing and take tough decisions only means you get thrown out of office. What chance did he have against an opposition that told the public we live in a land of milk and honey, that everything is free and an $80 billion debt is no problem. Let’s hope Australians come to their senses before we have to approach the IMF for a loan. This could be the solution, as the IMF would lay down strict conditions to repair the budget deficit.
Fred Black, Windsor, Qld
Retrospective outrage
As a general principle, any government that uses retrospective legislation as a means of raising more revenue deserves to be thrown out at the next election (“Coalition doubt grows over super changes”, 7/5. There can be no trust whatsoever in any government that seeks to penalise its citizens for structuring their financial affairs over many years in accordance with Australian law.
The Coalition may have thought that those who rely on SMSFs for retirement income would be an easy target, assuming that few of them would vote for the ALP. That will change because many of them will regard Labor’s plan to tax super fund income above a certain threshold to be unfortunate but nevertheless fair in comparison to Mr Morrison’s retrospective penalties.
Art Raiche, Killara, NSW