An unhealthy income statement

Name:        CHAN, Sin Fong

Subject:     An Unhealthy Income Statement

Visit Time: 13/12/2007 2:48 AM

Remark:

Kevin Rudd is definitely a no-nonsense Prime Minister who keeps to his promises in rectifying the Kyoto Protocol, setting in motion to provide every Year 9 to Year 12 student a laptop computer, and expending $600 million to improve the hospital waiting list.

If he continues on at this pace, he will probably spend $2 billion to roll back the WorkChoices, if that was the amount claimed by Labor what Howard’s government had spent. He will also spend $42 billion for schools funding guarantee, $4 billion on high speed broadband network, $2 billion on health and hospitals reform, $1 billion to secure nation’s water supplies and desalination projects, $100 million for innovative manufacturing, and so on.

He will not forget to handout cheap travel for older Australians and provide a new 50% Education Tax Refund to help families of school-age children meet the costs of education. This Santa Clause will also help aspiring first home buyers save a larger deposit by establishing a new, low tax, First Home Saver Account.

If Australia is a listed public company with the Stock Exchange, I shall not be investing in it. Not a single pledge by Kevin Rudd involves in creating wealth for Australia. A healthy Income Statement (also known as Profit and Loss Statement or Statement of Financial Performance) requires more than just generous expenditure, but most importantly, income generation.

I sincerely hope that the income will be derived from company taxes in a rising economy rather than increased GST or income tax rates, which will badly affect the working families.

Workplace discrimination

Name:        CHAN, Sin Fong

Subject:     Workplace discrimination

Visit Time: 28/11/2007 12:56 AM

Remark:

The Parliament is the workplace for parliamentarians, and we the citizens of Australia are the employers of the parliamentarians. For those who voted John Howard out of office because he had been there for too long, or he was too old to be the Prime Minister, then those voters would have been in breach of workplace discrimination Act.

It is interesting to note that after Mr John Howard’s debacle, many former Liberal MPs blamed him directly and indirectly for the introduction of AWA / WorkChoices. I find these former MPs to be very un-Australian, and un-Liberal. They were in with the government team. Were they just naive or plain ignorant to play the follow-the-leader game, or just gutless to confront the former PM to raise their concern?

Many programs or projects cannot achieve perfection at first go, not even the billion-dollar lunar exploration program. If AWA / WorkChoices were so bad, why did the small businesses and WA mining industry welcome them? That proved that not everyone disagreed with the introduction and implementation. Space exploration techniques have been improved and refined so much that present day probes go beyond the solar system. AWA / WorkChoices can be amended and enhanced to be “fairer” to the workers and employers.

Many students found part time and casual jobs to support their studies because businesses were prepared to take them on without the fear of union interference.

I hope that the pendulum does not just swing from one extreme to another. We don’t live in a world of just black and white – there are many shades of grey.