As I've said before, I'm not worried about the big tax on miners, I think they should pay dearly for their huge profits which go out of the country. But it looks like Rudd has made a bobo with the big miners regarding the 40 per cent tax on their profits, he didn't check with the states first about abolishing mining royalties - he said they'd all get a refund on their state-based royalties. But rogue WA Premier Colin Barnett has said he's planning to raise the royalty rate for iron ore to 7.5 per cent by July next year. Understandably, mining companies now fear being hit with a "double whammy".

Peter Costello on the Budget.

For the record, government spending will exceed revenue in the next financial year - a deficit of $40 billion - which will be financed by new debt. In dollar terms, it is the second-highest deficit on record, and in percentage terms about the level we had in the recession of 1983 and the recession of 1992. Except we're not in recession. We are in the middle of the greatest mining boom since the gold rush.



The decision to focus on the budget that comes after the one after this one worked a treat. Watching Kerry O'Brien interview Wayne Swan on The 7.30 Report, I was struck by how he immediately focused on the 2013 outcome. We were out of the present. It was like we had gone forward in a time machine. Swan even made the absurd claim that the government will balance the budget three years ahead of schedule.

What schedule would that be? That would be the schedule in last year's budget, which dumped the schedule of the year before. In 2008, we were going to have surplus as far as the eye could see. In 2009, we were going to have deficit as far as the eye could see. The 2008 forecast was complacent. The 2009 forecast was a counter-reaction. Neither represented reality. You cannot beat something that was never going to occur.



And since the 2008 forecast was out of date after six months and the 2009 forecast went the same way, logic suggests we should be careful talking about outcomes for 2013.

[url=http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/swans-balancing-act-wont-add-up-20100512-uxyv.html]Link[/url]

Terry McCrann on the budget.

THE government's claim to fiscal rectitude is an utter sham. Wayne Swan's budget is built on two great fiddles.



Appropriately, the fiddles relate to the Rudd Government's two great stupidities - the National Broadband Network and the Emissions Trading Scheme.



The fiddles enable the government to [i]hide up to a massive $50 billion of new spending[/i].my italics.

It's a little bit complicated, but it's worth detailing to show the fiscal deception which gives the lie to Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan's pre-election claim to be fiscal conservatives.

[url=http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/terry-mccranns-column/treasurer-wayne-swans-hidden-50bn/story-e6frfig6-1225865745117]Source[/url]

Thanks Koko, that was interesting, I don't think anyone would deny that Peter Costello knows his onions when it comes to money.

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I'm a bit disappointed in our Tony, he needs to come up with some meaty policies.

Toot, he must be doing something right.

Have look at the latest Morgan Poll.



[url=http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/morgan_confirms_rudds_long_fall/]Click here.[/url]