The Economic News Thread

[Will]

For the Sth Australian voting population I think the BIGGEST issue has to be the GST policy of Abbott. If he agrees with a per capita distribution this will financial disaster for SA. If Abbott supports it and you vote liberal, prepare for the worst in SA. You simply cannot take another $1b out of our finances, which are a mess as it is, and not expect massive repercussions. State debt is ballooning, the gst issue could plunge this state into another state bank style recession/stagnation for a long long time.

FWIW I think Barnett is an arrogant tosser, I hope they create a north west economic zone and they push for their own state, scession from WA. See how hard working the overpaid populous of Perth is then when they don't have the pilbara, north west gas shelf gravy train flowing their way.

James, have you ever been to Perth, or know anyone who works there. From my perspective within my own industry, the people of Perth work longer hours with worse conditions than what their SA counterparts are prepared to work.They earn more because of the hours they work, and therefore pay more tax. Win win for that state. The workforce here of SA I find to be a lazy whinging lot, constantly looking for handouts/ payrises/better conditions. Re Barnett, if he is successful in his quest, good luck to him...as the premier of WA he is just doing his job. Re Abbotts GST...if you really believe any federal government would rip $ billions in funding from the likes of SA and TAS without some kind of other funding arrangements you are falling for our state governments scare capaign on behalf of the Labour Federal government.

How do you explain this then?

SA working harder than other states

Posted Fri Apr 5, 2013 1:59pm AEDT



Figures from a private survey show South Australia has the highest availability of skilled workers in the nation, but employees are working longer hours.

The Bankwest Skills Shortage Survey reports that people employed in 80 per cent of 170 local businesses work more hours than their interstate counterparts.

That is well above the national average of almost 63 per cent.

Bankwest chief economist Alan Langford says ready access to technology may be the cause.

"It's great that we're able to access things at home, but equally you tend to get emails at all sorts of odd times as well, so that's seemingly contradictory but I think it just reflects the modern working environment," he said.

"Only about 26 per cent of businesses cite difficulty in finding skilled labour as a problem, which is less than 31 per cent which is the national figure. Certainly a lower proportion in South Australia is a good thing relative to the rest of Australia."

[JamesXander]

For the Sth Australian voting population I think the BIGGEST issue has to be the GST policy of Abbott. If he agrees with a per capita distribution this will financial disaster for SA. If Abbott supports it and you vote liberal, prepare for the worst in SA. You simply cannot take another $1b out of our finances, which are a mess as it is, and not expect massive repercussions. State debt is ballooning, the gst issue could plunge this state into another state bank style recession/stagnation for a long long time.

FWIW I think Barnett is an arrogant tosser, I hope they create a north west economic zone and they push for their own state, scession from WA. See how hard working the overpaid populous of Perth is then when they don't have the pilbara, north west gas shelf gravy train flowing their way.

James, have you ever been to Perth, or know anyone who works there. From my perspective within my own industry, the people of Perth work longer hours with worse conditions than what their SA counterparts are prepared to work.They earn more because of the hours they work, and therefore pay more tax. Win win for that state. The workforce here of SA I find to be a lazy whinging lot, constantly looking for handouts/ payrises/better conditions. Re Barnett, if he is successful in his quest, good luck to him...as the premier of WA he is just doing his job. Re Abbotts GST...if you really believe any federal government would rip $ billions in funding from the likes of SA and TAS without some kind of other funding arrangements you are falling for our state governments scare capaign on behalf of the Labour Federal government.

So you think it's just going to be a numbers shifting exercise of they change the gst distribution method? Rubbish. Coalition wants to cut spending and reduce revenue.

Nice call to the workers of SA. In my experience the only ones whinging constantly are the Perthites (gst, boat people, secession, paying out tas, lecturing non resource states about how easy it is to run a resource state in a resources boom)

Barnett is working for his state and against the whole purpose of federation. GST distribution method should not be touched.

[monotonehell]

Does anyone here actually speak to business owners?....you know the people that actually employ workers that keep the populace employed and paying tax. Make no mistake, this government is on the nose big time.

Business owners always complain. Like anyone else they only view the World through their tiny focus. The idea that any one sector of society has the best view, due to their particular importance (ie they employ people) is a fallacy. Business owners do what they see fit for their own interests. No matter if that's employing locals or shifting their work offshore. Anyone with a tiny focus is going to call for things that see them right, no matter if it's at the detriment of the economy as a whole.

[[Shuz]]

Whether you like Barnett or not, he is an outstanding leader, and is doing exactly what the job of the Premier is to do, and that is to look out in the best interests of the State which they govern, even if it is at the expense of others.

Same goes for Anna Bligh and Jeff Kennett.

[monotonehell]

Whether you like Barnett or not, he is an outstanding leader, and is doing exactly what the job of the Premier is to do, and that is to look out in the best interests of the State which they govern, even if it is at the expense of others.

Same goes for Anna Bligh and Jeff Kennett.

So should we rename the Commonwealth to A Loose Affiliate of Selfish States?

[JamesXander]

Whether you like Barnett or not, he is an outstanding leader, and is doing exactly what the job of the Premier is to do, and that is to look out in the best interests of the State which they govern, even if it is at the expense of others.

Same goes for Anna Bligh and Jeff Kennett.

Bligh & Kennet did not comment near daily on federal or other states issues.

I mean Barnett is the dude that literally runs a daily commentary on how screwed over WA whilst they are in a mining boom. Every economic statistic there is will say they are doing exceptionally well. Their finances are just fine, and many large scale projects completed, underway and ready for developement.

He complained like all buggery about the MRRT and months later lifted the royalties on IO & coal anyway. Will he drop them when Abbott gets in goverment? Unlikely!

Barnett doesn't believe in the egalitarian principles of federation/commonwealth. He would rather a gold plated rail network taking passengers to a gold plated hospital in Perth, and let the people of Hobart catch the donkey & cart to the next village to have your ailment treated by the local missionaries.

[Waewick]

The WA position is an utter joke.

If they what more GST funding then the the rest of the Country should be requesting they have different interest rates and $AUD rates applied.

Your silly rhetoric aside, different interest rates for funding infrastructure would be a great improvement on the current situation where the interest rate is the same everywhere despite having a different inflationary effect in different places, and the extent to which infrastructure pays for itself is barely recognised.

my silly rhetoric? you didn't even get what I was saying

I'm talking different central interest rates and rates for a "western Australian Dollar" which would apply to WA if they were a sovereign state (not different interest rates on debt parcels) - they are blessed by the struggling Eastern seaboard providing WA with cheap money and ensuring the dollar is isn't inflated too much.

[Aidan]

The WA position is an utter joke.

If they what more GST funding then the the rest of the Country should be requesting they have different interest rates and $AUD rates applied.

Your silly rhetoric aside, different interest rates for funding infrastructure would be a great improvement on the current situation where the interest rate is the same everywhere despite having a different inflationary effect in different places, and the extent to which infrastructure pays for itself is barely recognised.

my silly rhetoric? you didn't even get what I was saying

I'm talking different central interest rates and rates for a "western Australian Dollar" which would apply to WA if they were a sovereign state (not different interest rates on debt parcels) - they are blessed by the struggling Eastern seaboard providing WA with cheap money and ensuring the dollar is isn't inflated too much.

Your silly rhetoric! I did get what you were saying, but I don't think you got what I was saying.

The suggestion WA should leave the Australian dollar in favour of its own currency is silly, and not a natural consequence of changing the way GST revenue is distributed. There does need to be a transfer of wealth, but it doesn't need to be GST sourced (there's plenty of revenue from income tax and corporation tax). And some of the transfer can be in the form of cheap loans - after all, the inflationary effects of more money in depressed areas are far less than those of more money in booming areas. And it really doesn't make economic sense to charge commercial rates of interest to fund public works that will have a much greater long term deflationary effect on the economy than lending the money to the private sector.

[Waewick]

Your silly rhetoric aside, different interest rates for funding infrastructure would be a great improvement on the current situation where the interest rate is the same everywhere despite having a different inflationary effect in different places, and the extent to which infrastructure pays for itself is barely recognised.

my silly rhetoric? you didn't even get what I was saying

I'm talking different central interest rates and rates for a "western Australian Dollar" which would apply to WA if they were a sovereign state (not different interest rates on debt parcels) - they are blessed by the struggling Eastern seaboard providing WA with cheap money and ensuring the dollar is isn't inflated too much.

Your silly rhetoric! I did get what you were saying, but I don't think you got what I was saying.

The suggestion WA should leave the Australian dollar in favour of its own currency is silly, and not a natural consequence of changing the way GST revenue is distributed. There does need to be a transfer of wealth, but it doesn't need to be GST sourced (there's plenty of revenue from income tax and corporation tax). And some of the transfer can be in the form of cheap loans - after all, the inflationary effects of more money in depressed areas are far less than those of more money in booming areas. And it really doesn't make economic sense to charge commercial rates of interest to fund public works that will have a much greater long term deflationary effect on the economy than lending the money to the private sector.

no I don't want them to, is is more of a response to WA people who somehow claim the country is piggy backing off WA.

which is a different discussion to the sourcing of money for public infrastructure, but I get your method that you are proposing.

[Aidan]

no I don't want them to, i

I was aware of that, hence I acknowledged that it was rhetorical as well as silly.

s is more of a response to WA people who somehow claim the country is piggy backing off WA.

At the moment the country is piggybacking off WA to a significant extent - just as it's previously piggybacked off Queensland, NSW and Victoria, and is likely to piggyback off SA some time in the future. Even Tasmania may eventually take the strain for a while.

which is a different discussion to the sourcing of money for public infrastructure, but I get your method that you are proposing.

Do you think it's a good idea, and if not, why not?