If you become PM of Austraila, what would be your ideas??

[ScaniaL94UB]

There wouldn't be a need to have 'detention centers' if I were PM.. No more "boat people" coming from overseas to Australia.
That was not racist.. British, Asian, Americans, such come for holidays and if they want to move over to be a citizen.
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Law:
Drink driving/public nuisance will result in short-term community service.
Murder/rape/sexual assault will result in years imprisonment or serious murders resulting in death sentence.
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Fair work:
Each and every Australian citizen will be entitled to be working and no unemployed, even disabled and autistic people will still have a job (like me I have Autism.)
Homeless:
No person will be homeless.
Disability Scheme
Everybody with a disability aged 0-100 will be allowed money and be supported through work and education just like everybody else.
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Public Transport: Tasmania will have better public transport networks with buses, growth in more buses will come to hand, Scania and Custom will make an agreement for more CB80s on the road in Australia. OH&S will be better.

[Douglas]

Expect SSM to be repealed in UK, France and Spain in the next few years.

I'm curious as to what makes you say this. Do you have any evidence that suggests that this will happen?

While I haven't thought of many, my main proposal would be an Australia Tax.

Basically, a 100% owned & made (with 100% products) company could make a 10% profit at point of sale. Then a company that is either an Australian company but has the product imported. Or overseas owned, but produced in Australia can make a 5% profit. 100% overseas owned & produced can make a 1% profit. Products that are cheaper then Australian products are taxed at 200% of the price of the Australian product.

Congratulations, you've just single-handedly destroyed the Australian IT industry! Every tier 1 and tier 2 IT company has packed up and left Australia (that is, almost every big IT manufacturer: Dell, HP\Compaq, Lenovo, IBM, Acer, Asus, Toshiba...). Microsoft and Adobe have followed suit, along with every hardware manufacturer (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI [no great loss there] etc etc).

About the only IT companies left are MYOB, Leader and Quest Payment Systems.

Apple might hang around as they've got enough money as it is.

If a company wishes to leave Australia or is closes down, the company & factory is handed over to the Australian Government who then run the company. If there is a product that could be made in Australia, the Australia tax would be used to start up a company. Those that are unemployed would then be forced to work at these companies, with only those with kids under 5 excluded from working. Jobs would even be found those on the disability pension, so those druggo's would have no excuse to work. Anyone that refuses to work receives no money from the Government & this includes any PBS or Medicare discounts.

Nationalizing industries rarely works - I don't think it ended too well for British Leyland.

<snip>

That would help the welfare issue going on

Fun fact: over half of Australian welfare payments go to aged pensioners.

Taxation

- Reduce tax rates for people on low to average incomes and slightly increase tax rates for people on high incomes. Increase tax-free threshold to $20,000, then 12c per dollar from $20,001 - $30,000, 15c per dollar from $30,001 - $40,000, 23c per dollar from $40,001 - $60,000, 31c per dollar from $60,001 - $80,000, 39c per dollar from $80,001 - $150,000, 47c per dollar for $150,001 - $200,000, and 49c per dollar for $200,001+.

- Implement a mining tax at a flat rate of 30% for companies with more than $150 million turnover. Eliminate all tax breaks for large businesses.

- Eliminate all GST exemptions on products. All products are to be charged 10% GST at the final point of sale.

- Eliminate tax exemptions for religious bodies that engage in politics.

- Increase tax rates on petrol, liquor and cigarettes. Reduce tax exemption of LPG.

- Legalise and tax drugs for personal use.

All sensible ideas (as are the rest of yours, jarf) - taxing drugs for personal use is something I think is a good idea, as is removing tax free exemptions for churches. Did you know that because Sanitarium is owned by the Seventh Day Adventist Church they pay zero tax? Now you do.

Reintroduce the death penalty.

The problem with the death penalty is that it's rather quite permanent. There have been cases in the US where it's been carried out, and they've discovered years later (thanks to DNA evidence) that they've killed the wrong person. Oops. I recall hearing on an ABC RN program a couple of weeks back that in one state in the US, that one out of every three or four people on death row were actually innocent. Also if you can't afford a decent lawyer and you are innocent, you're screwed.

You would also face significant public pressure against reintroducing it as well.

Each and every Australian citizen will be entitled to be working and no unemployed, even disabled and autistic people will still have a job (like me I have Autism.)

From what I can tell, you want 0% unemployment? It's all well and good to want everyone in a job but 0% unemployment is actually a bad thing. For a healthy economy, you generally need around 5-6% unemployment.

[captainch]

were I live centrelink are triling a plastic card were your centrelink payments for rent /electricy/phone aretaken out automatically,and the rest is yours, so at least thats all payed also at thesupermarket you can only buy a limitedamount of grog andfags, so at least the kids get some food which isa great idea,as we have one ofthe highest pop for drugsthey all bitchedabout it at first but its working hopesomebody has the balls to extend this across the board and yes i'm on a pension!but payed taxes for 45 years and served my country,as for the boat people come in legal yourwelcome ,but not use legal aid/lawyers, centrelink to help you ,when you have never contributed to our country. causing penseniors who worked all their life, to be eating cat food, look after our country first, i'm so incenced I want to send my medals back plus you burn the camps down well from now on live in the ruins

[jarf]

All sensible ideas (as are the rest of yours, jarf)

Well thanks...

I made sure I paid attention to focusing on changes that would have a widespread positive impact. It could be politically dangerous to eliminate bonuses and tax benefits for families, but the lower personal tax rates in general would mostly offset it. And it eliminates tax discrimination against single people with no children.

And welfare is obviously necessary, but it shouldn't be seen as free money.

The increased participation requirements I'd implement for jobseekers would quickly see that anyone who isn't making any attempt to find work will lose payments. I would also increase participation requirements for tertiary students, and for people receiving parenting payments - after the child starts school, I think it's reasonable to expect the parent to re-enter the workforce at least on a limited basis (say a minimum of one hour a week for each year of the child's age while in primary school, and two hours for each year of age while in high school). That would mean that by the time the child is 16, the parent would be close to working full-time. That in turn helps the child by giving them a positive role model to look up to, thus avoiding a lifestyle of ongoing welfare dependence.

And I'd mandate a number of hours of work for Age Pension and Disability Support Pension recipients based on their capacity to work (and for AP, also based on their age). Obviously there are some people who probably can't work at all, but at the same time there are plenty of recipients who can work part-time but choose not to.

(Sorry, getting a bit carried away... )

Did you know that because Sanitarium is owned by the Seventh Day Adventist Church they pay zero tax? Now you do.

That I did. It's one of those loopholes that should really be closed to some extent, considering the enormous profit they make...

[eddy]

OK, could not resist my five cents

As Australia could easily feed and house fifty million I would suggest a massive 5% p/a immigration partly due to us having smaller families but the refugee portion would have to live where they were sent for whatever time and even be on some sort of parole with expulsion for any bad eggs.

A commonwealth loan at 10% fixed interest would cover the refugee seekers flight and housing purchase (cheap where they would be sent) effectively earning the Federal government money for better infrastructure there.These desperate people live on the smell of an oily rag just like our post war immigrants did and also will do the work that us Aussies do not particularly like.

A big Australia will then have sufficient local demand to support a steel works and car factory etc. as well as paying the taxes we will need in the future for a proper defense while looking after us oldies in nursing homes.

May I suggest that a younger population will not be so risk averse and start up a whole lot of industries that are not even thought of yet. Remember everyone who takes a job makes a job

Lastly any boat people in my opinion should be resettled a different country because I am not in favor of people drowning.


PS maybe they could stop any negative gearing just on investment property bought from now to make houses cheaper for the home owner.

[GazzaOak]

I find some of the ideas are very good.... taxing religious organization who engage in politics would be good. But however I would go one step further by taxing religious organization heavily if they make some kind of a profit and don't use that profit into charity work. And if NFP (not for profit) groups tried to make money for their own deeds (eg the AVN, in which its really its called anti vaccination network as one example), the owner/group leader (plus anyone who is up the top of that group) would be jailed for a few years for conning people.

Also I would introduce a strict vaccination program for children. Unless if is a medical reason, people who don't vaccinate their kids cannot send their kids to daycare. And if daycares tried to go around it, they can get $4000 fine for the first offense and day-care centers can get shut down if they repeatedly let kids in without vaccination papers or whatever. And also if another children get sick or dies from a non vaccinated kids the parents of the non vaccinated kid can face charges (and if the other kid dies, they can face even a manslaughter charge)

Also I would cut down at least 80% of funding for the boat people. And if the boat people are geninue refuges, they cannot apply for centerlink

[chuboy]

I see the majority of posters here have a serious misunderstanding of how an economy works.

Entitled to a job? lol. You can't just force someone to pay you to do something.

[eddy]

chuboy
A prime minister has to have sufficient authority without being a dictator so I appreciate any of the above would only be his suggestions.

Regarding not being able to force people to give someone a job there are two instances similar that I can recall.
One was the RED scheme when it was work for the dole and I saw a team of 6 women with shovels who took two weeks to put a concrete gutter in when it could have been done in one day with a concrete gutter machine.

The other was in 1964 at the Port Kembla steel works where 6 men slowly carried one 4 inch earthenware bend off the truck each when I was running with 2 in each hand. When I asked the boss why they were so lazy he said the Federal government paid the steelworks to employ people rather than pay them the dole.

I am listening about the rise of Hitler starting from childhood and hope there are no more like him that will use a chaotic situation somewhere in the world to rise to power.

It seems that if there is a cease fire rather than an outright win there are always people who want to have another go.

[GazzaOak]

I see the majority of posters here have a serious misunderstanding of how an economy works.

Entitled to a job? lol. You can't just force someone to pay you to do something.

Not really forcing people to do work, but getting rid of welfare system, so people have to work. Make things easier

[busrider]

You do realise you just completely contradicted yourself there, right?

[Paul_Nicholson]

I would recognise the sheer and utter brilliance of bus enthusiasts around Australia by giving then key positions in running of the nation.

[eddy]

Quote from Thomas Jefferson "I am a believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it"

I love the term a lucky country and hate the term a clever country, it sounds so arrogant to me.

As a coal miner we often had all the worlds problems fixed in just a few minutes or so we thought, but still you can not rely on the "experts" either. Many people all over Australia could see the writing on the wall for the mining boom but evidently not the advisers to the Government. Just look at where the old bosses of BHP and Rio are now.

I am in two minds on work for the dole or paying companies to employ people as it seems so inefficient but work is a habit and after 6 months on the dole people seem to put up with it and manage.

As an apprentice now starts as an adult with adult expenses I think there could be some sort of scheme where the Federal government pays the difference between what they are paid and what they are worth to the employer.

Some people have that many tattoos I doubt they would get a job in many places.

[chuboy]

Not really forcing people to do work, but getting rid of welfare system, so people have to work

Or steal. You know, whichever is easier.

But I suppose your visionary solution to that would be to apply a mandatory 20 year prison sentence to any person found guilty of theft.

[Fleet Lists]

In which case we would have to build a lot of gaols which we can not afford,

[rogf24]

One of the biggest arguments for welfare (the dole at least) is to provide assurance in uncertain times either for the individual or for the population. In doing so, it encourages consumers to inject money into the economy (read: spend money), though the magic of the multiplier effect via the circular flow of income, boosting the national income without the need of government intervention during growth eras. Of course growth cannot continue on forever. Countries with a less sophisticated welfare system (mainly developing economies), people are constantly worrying about the next recession and hence put aside a proportion of their income (in China, this is as high as 20-30% compared to <10% in Aus) to prepare for uncertainty. The welfare system allows people to take their mind off uncertainty, encouraging consumers to spend money during growth periods so the government doesn't have spend money to make up for the imbalance (read: lack of spending) in the economy.
As for encouraging people to work, in America they have this thing called the "Earned Income Tax Credit" to encourage people to work. I don't think Australia has anything like it. NPR's (America's public radio broadcaster) Planet Money did an episode on this, you can read about it or listen to it here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/03/ ... oor-people

[Douglas]

I see the majority of posters here have a serious misunderstanding of how an economy works.

Entitled to a job? lol. You can't just force someone to pay you to do something.

Not really forcing people to do work, but getting rid of welfare system, so people have to work. Make things easier

Again, while 0% unemployment is admirable, it is not ideal. Reading material.

[Fleet Lists]

It is not even admirable.

[MaxHeadway]

Some people have that many tattoos I doubt they would get a job in many places.

They would in the region where I live. In fact, most employers here prefer their staff to look like criminals. And this is in the retail and "customer service" jobs.

[Douglas]

It is not even admirable.

I apologise, you're right - it's an utterly ridiculous idea that if one were to propose while one was Prime Minister would result in one's party immediately having a leadership ballot which one would spectacularly lose followed by being sent off into the back benches while the media mercilessly mock you for your complete and total idiocy for the remainder of your term.

[Mr OC Benz]

High unemployment is bad, but you need some frictional unemployment of movements around the workforce, and anything around 4-5% is pretty good they reckon. We're still very low compared with many other countries.

[Douglas]

Exactly - there's a sweet spot you need to find, and we're pretty much in that sweet spot at the moment.

[eddy]

It would be far more realistic if it was hours worked rather than the unemployment number when it is just a joke if you are considered to be employed if you work one hour a week.

[1whoknows]

Jobs figures are also absurd. I.E the government (of whatever sort) tells you "we have created 6,000 jobs this month" - well no they have not. That just means that 5,950 people left their job and were replaced and maybe (in a good month) 50 actual new jobs were created.

As Mr Twain said "Lies, damn lies and statistics"

"Follow the buzzard"

[rogf24]

Jobs figures are also absurd. I.E the government (of whatever sort) tells you "we have created 6,000 jobs this month" - well no they have not. That just means that 5,950 people left their job and were replaced and maybe (in a good month) 50 actual new jobs were created.

As Mr Twain said "Lies, damn lies and statistics"

"Follow the buzzard"

If 6000 jobs are created, the unemployment rate will generally decrease ceteris paribus. If 5950 people loss their jobs at the same time, then that will be accounted for in the unemployment rate unless those 5950 people drop out of the workforce, which will be accounted for in the participation rate.

It would be far more realistic if it was hours worked rather than the unemployment number when it is just a joke if you are considered to be employed if you work one hour a week.

Not just that, if you do unpaid volunteer work for one hour a week, then you are counted as employed.

[Paul_Nicholson]

We are constantly told how bad the economy is.

So a prime minister with intestinal fortitude should make each and every Australian endure the necessary pain and suffering to get the nation back on track.

Really hard times for the next few years!

My parents did it hard during the 1930s depression, the second world war in the 1940s and the 1960s credit squeeze.

They did it hard but managed and survived well into their old age. Both are gone now.

Why can't the people of 2013 do the same?

Both Kevin and Tony are good at posturing and rhetoric but we're yet to hear the definitive measures of what they WILL do to restore the nation to what it once was (under both Labor and Liberal governments so it's a bipartisan issue). The so called lucky country!

Paul in Melbourne