How to talk lots & say nothing

See I am not always wrong!

Mark Latham didn’t deliver anything ‘chunky’ or exciting in his vague reply to the 2004 budget last night. He sounded flat, and his content, whilst full of soclialist cliches, it was, well, uninspiring. Or as Crikeys' Hugo Kelly called it:

Latham promises to throw more tax cuts at voters than even Costello and Howard. In a speech that was more soapbox oration than Budget in reply, Latham left an awful lot of blank canvas to be filled in and enough policy gaps for a gleeful government to drive a fleet of lorries through.

So what is the opposition’s alternative agenda to the $34 billion in tax cuts and welfare increases over the next five years? Well Latham says they want to make the tax cuts fairer and broader. But just don’t ask him how that will happen, cause he’s not telling yet, or maybe he simply doesn’t know.

So I thought I'd offer some suggestions to Maybe Mark so that he can reach his "forgotten people" After all, I am sure he checks shannonsays often ;)

Idea #1: Make some cuts at the bottom end of income earners.
According to today’s AFR, raising the tax-free threshold from $6000 to $7000 would cost $1.5billion, and tax payers would only reap a miserly $150 a year. And guess what? Given that most very low-income earners receive more benefits and offsets than they pay in tax, and that most of these can’t be refunded, they’ll get bugger all, if anything. And toying with the low end brackets will generally have a similar result.

Hmm, so what else could Mark try to help the forgotten people?

Idea #2: Maybe he could increase the level of welfare?
Hang on though. Wouldn’t this just benefit the people who already got some goodies from Cozzies budget? And what about forgotten people who have no kids, what would they get then? Probably the same as what a single person would get from more family tax benefits, child-care bonuses and maternity care. Zip. Scrap that then.

This is too hard, I don't know what to do. What about you Mark? Sorry, thats right, he's not telling.

Probably because he doesn’t know.