A Frank View

0. Labor is still the Australian Govt – They are terrified of 2 years, 104 weeks, 730 days, 17520 hours, 1,051,200 minutes and 63,072,000 secs

1. Unemployment falls to 5.2% in Sept

2. Inflation 3.6%

3. Public Net Debts 6.1% GDP & Aust Govt deficit is 3.4% of GDP and compares to deficits of over 10 per cent of GDP in the US and UK. Best Fiscal consolidation & spending restraint in the last 20 years

4. RBA Interest rate 4.75%, compared to 6.75% when Howard was voted out.

5. For the whole of the 2010-2011 financial year, the economy grew 1.8 per cent, the ABS said. Despite all the natural disasters during the year

6. AUD Vs USD 1.02

7. Trade Surplus – $2B jun 2011- Australia’s $2 billion-plus trade surplus for June brought the tally for the last financial year to $22.4 billion – easily the biggest surplus in raw terms for the past 40 years of records compiled by the ABS

8. “ALP best manager of money, history shows” – George Megalogenis  http://bit.ly/jD9jYf

9. Australian families depending on one breadwinner pay among the lowest amounts of tax in the world and have become better off under the Gillard Government – Natsem

10. Investment in the next year in mining and related infra-structure projects $140B

11. Labor’s Tax take 21.75% of GDP Vs 25% under Liberals

12. No interest rise for the 11th consecutive month Vs 10 consecutive rises under Howard/Costello. It is now expected no rises in the future with a prospect of interest rate cuts before 2012.

13. The number of people filling for bankruptcy in Australia has fallen by 16%.

14. Australia safe from debt crisis: OECD – http://bit.ly/o4HGEI

15. Credit Rating AAA

16. We are in Asia

17. business investment spending is expected to grow by 15 per cent this year and another 15 per cent next year. – Ross Gittin

18. Australia in good shape if another crisis hits, says IMF – 8/8/11 –http://bit.ly/n7yK7k

19. Australia Stock market has finally decoupled itself from US. On 8/8 ASX up 1.2% as DJ down 6%

20. Capex investment went gangbuster in July and retail up 0.7%

21. NEW Treasury analysis finds Mining played minor role during GFC, it says service industries such as retail – which received a hefty boost from Kevin Rudd’s stimulus package – were crucial in sustaining the economy during its darkest days.

22. Spending survey shows we are better off than we think – YOU would not believe it if you listened to our politicians, but household fuel and power bills eat up no more of our wallets than they did six years ago. And petrol eats up less. he only comprehensive survey of household spending – conducted once every six years by the Bureau of Statistics – finds domestic fuel and power accounted for 2.6 per cent of household spending in 2009-10, 2.6 per cent in 2003-04 and 2.6 per cent two decades earlier in 1988/89. http://bit.ly/qbWVJw

23. For the whole of the 2010-2011 financial year, the economy grew 1.8 percent, the ABS said. Despite all the national disasters during the year. And the growth is not all attributed to the Mining sector. Households are not only spending, but saving

24. MASSIVE investment in resources and healthy household spending have delivered the best economic growth in four years and boosted the government’s chances of delivering its promised return to budget surplus. – http://bit.ly/qZuYDY

25. Wayne Swan – Treasurer of the Year 2011 – http://t.co/p1nywVMY

26. Global recovery stalled, says IMF, but Australia well-placed to weather economic turmoil. But the Australian economy has more scope to adjust than most countries, with the ability to slow its return to budget surplus if conditions get worse, and it will be buttressed by the continuing strength in Asia, the fund says. – http://bit.ly/oDr0d5

27. iiNet predicts 27% cost drop on NBN – http://www.zdnet.com.au/iinet-predicts-27-cost-drop-on-nbn-339322771.htm

28. UNHCR has put its stamp of approval on the Malaysian Solution and dispel all the negative propaganda – http://bit.ly/qGwguw

29. BHP Billiton $80B Olympic Dam copper/uranium/gold mine in South Australia creating 6000 jobs during a decade-long construction phase, 4000 ongoing jobs at the mine and 15,000 indirect jobs. – http://bit.ly/otdTFS

30. “The Atlantic magazine named Gillard as one of its “2011 brave thinkers” for her resolute strength in pushing through a carbon tax. “Whether you see the move as politically expedient or as a principled course correction, there’s no denying the risk that it entails in a country where climate change is a wildly contentious issue,” writes Geoffrey Gagnon”- http://bit.ly/oOKSHQ

31. RBA again highlights unwinding of fiscal stimulus as an offset to strong private investment.A big tick for govt management of the budget – Stephen Koukoulas

32. #NBN FTTH is on, goodbye Copper

33. Abbott has just signed his political suicide note with his Blood Pledge