Kevin 08 - A dud round

kevin_rudd.jpgAlan Jones [Radio 2GB] - Well, Kevin Rudd more than the Government is in real political trouble over petrol, and in particular FuelWatch. [snip] It's now clear that Kevin Rudd was warned about this by no fewer than four economic departments. About the possibility of price hikes arising from FuelWatch. Amongst the warnings in departmental language were, "the increased financial cost it would impose on service stations, especially small independent operators". The Prime Minister's own department told Cabinet, "Econometric modelling indicates that a small overall price increase can't be ruled out".

Treasury warned, "The proposed scheme will result in ongoing increased operating costs of around 4,000 dollars per annum to affected small businesses". The Finance Department advised, "Introduction of a price commitment rule may result in higher average petrol prices over time, as the option may lead to the creation of a de facto price floor." The Finance Department said the FuelWatch proposal would add 20.7 million dollars to business costs in the first year with "the impact likely to fall disproportionately on independent retailers".
The Department of Resources and Energy expressed concern, "The scheme will reduce competition and market flexibility, increase compliance costs and has more potential to increase prices". The Government's own Department of Resources and Energy said of FuelWatch, "It has the capacity to increase petrol price coordination amongst retailers". [snip] As Dennis Shanahan writes in The Australian today of Kevin Rudd, "For six months ... every decision has been put before him and he has demanded oversight of the entire Government's media relations and public image."

Dennis Shanahan writes, "Rudd has tried to make and shape every decision, causing inordinate delays, frustration and confusion. "Now," writes Dennis Shanahan, "Rudd has lost control of his Cabinet process or his senior public service, or both."
So that's FuelWatch going up in a ball of flames, there's another stuff up from the Dudd government regarding the $8000 solar panels rebate. I heard a fellow on the radio who runs a business that installs the solar panels on people's roofs. Long story short, he had to expand, invest more money into and take on more staff for his business after the Howard [out of touch with climate change] government introduced the rebate. He used to get around 4-5 orders a week and just too much for himself to handle. Prior to the election the Dudd government never mentioned anything about means-testing the rebate, but now that the election is over and PM Dudd doesn't really give a toss about your vote, the rebate is means tested. So those nasty squillionaires who earn more than a 100K a year, by exploiting slave labor and forcing children to work for them for 5c an hour with no benefits obviously, won't get the rebate.

This fellow who runs this business said that most of his customers earn more than $100K a year but not into the millions, less than $180K however they need the rebate to offset some of their cost. Now they've started canceling orders and his weekly number is down to 1 or 2 a week. So the money he invested is down the crapper and the extra people he employed will soon get the boot. I hope none of them voted for PM Dudd based on his 'Your rights at work' wiffle-waffle because now it's no work and hence no rights. So much for PM Dudd's green posturing as well, signing Kyoto and all that. The business man had a meeting with that useless oxygen-thief Peter Garrett, to no avail. Moving on to the alcopops tax that was an important front on PM Dudd's glorious war on binge drinking.
The Australian - SALES of alcopops plummeted by almost 40 per cent in the fortnight after last month's lightning tax hike on the drinks but any health gains have been offset by a 20 per cent jump in stronger, straight spirit sales. The first national data on sales of pre-mixed and straight spirit sales will be released today by the Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia as the Rudd Government continues to defend the alcopop excise increase as a way to cut binge drinking. The council's information and research manager Stephen Riden said the data made a mockery of the Government's stated aim.

"The words 'abject failure' would spring to mind," Mr Riden said. "This is an unintended consequence of the Government's decision to tax a narrow range of products. It defies common sense that people would not shift to other products." Mr Riden said one major company, which did not want to be named, had seen its bottled, full-spirit sales skyrocket: up 85per cent in the month after the April 27 excise increase compared with the same period a year earlier. Its alcopops volume declined 30 per cent.
The idiot health minister Nicola Roxon was still defending the stupid tax on alcopops yesterday evening. I guess technically the consumption of them has dropped, but the problem is worse. Isn't it shocking that when leftists endeavor to fix something, they somehow manage to screw it up and make it all worse, oh and waste/steal a lot of money in the process. In just six months Kevin Rudd, with his various committees, media stunts and half-baked policies has revealed himself to be a bungling dud, a dud enough of us unfortunately voted for.

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