Opinion: Tony Abbott trying to save Australia, nation trying to destroy him

Courier-Mail (Brisbane) ^ | 16th February 2015 | Rowan Dean

[naturalman1975]

FOR crying out loud, can we give this bloke a break?

.....

And yes, there will need to be measures to increase government revenue as well as cut spending. But the bottom line remains inescapable: Government expenditure must be reduced dramatically in order to remain affordable into the future, and the three main areas are welfare, education and health. If we continue spending the same vast sums on those three areas that we have become accustomed to, and keep promising ourselves more and more of, we are robbing the next generation of the standard of living that we now enjoy.

.....

Abbott and Hockey’s survival now depends on two things – both of which appear mutually incompatible.

A sound budget strategy and an uplift in the opinion polls. Almost certainly, as things stand in the current Australian mindset, success in either one of them will only come at the expense of the other.

A responsible, intelligent, carefully constructed reduction in excessive expenditure (yes, that means cuts) in the current frenzied climate will be howled down as “unfair”, “excessive” etc etc.

And the polls will plummet; and with them the best hope we have of avoiding heading down the euro-route to ever higher youth unemployment will disappear for many years (By which time the problem will be a whole lot worse).

The sad irony is that it’s not just Tony Abbott we are desperately trying to consign to oblivion.

It is ourselves.

[Travis McGee]

[pbear8]

Please Lord, save us from ourselves, we are so stupid.

[Zhang Fei]

The Australian minimum wage is around $15. Seems a tad high.

[Zuse]

I have Australian friends who absolutely shocked me with their hatred of Tony Abbott. They think he is a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal who wants to lower their wages and send most business overseas. The “intelligentsia” despises Abbott. He is not one of “them.” Sound familiar?

[naturalman1975]

The Australian minimum wage is around $15. Seems a tad high.

I don't think so. Not when you understand the context.

At the moment, the Australian Adult Minimum Wage is $16.87 per hour in Australian dollars. On today's exchange rate, that's about $13.20 US. But that's with the Australian dollar trading at 0.78 ($1 Australian = 78 cents US).

The Australian dollar fluctuates against the US dollar. At times, the Australian dollar has been worth more than the US, but generally speaking it's worth less. At its worst, it has been down below half (the record was .47 in 2001).

At half, we'd be down to a comparative rate of less than $8.50 in US terms.

Most of the comparisons that talk about Australia's high minimum wage base their assessments on the 2011 high (when our dollar peaked at $1.10 US).

It's also important to understand that the rate is the Adult minimum wage, and adult in this sense means over 21. Anybody under that age has a minimum wage set at a percentage of the Adult wage - Under 16s get about 37%, 16 year olds get 47%... it rises each year until a 20 year old is getting about 98%. And apprentices or trainees (people in a formal apprenticeship agreement or traineeship agreement) also have a reduced minimum wage.