KEVIN Rudd has made a $200 million withdrawal from the budget’s secretive contingency reserve fund to prop up the car industry amid warnings his fringe benefits tax changes will smash domestic manufacturers
In a separate measure, Labor has mandated a 100 per cent Australian-made target for the commonwealth car fleet.
The Prime Minister said supporting the car industry was critically important for the economy, as it provided an estimated 250,000 direct and indirect jobs.
If the car industry is so important to the economy why the hell did you do your honest best to cripple it with changes to the fringe benefits tax?
I heard Senator Carr rattling on about how he was telling every government department, including the Army, that they had to buy local.
The standard ALP rule of unintended circumstances applies. Can’t you just see Rudd’s thought bubble appearing;
“I’ve got a geat idea to fix up our disasterous economic situation – let’s change the FBT….done. Hang on, the industry is now reeling, looking to close down…mmm – let’s throw them $200 million – noone will notice – we are already $30 billion in deficit.”
No wonder Holden has today stated they are going to wait until after the election before committing money to expansion.
Waiting for the adults to take over like most of the business investment decisions around the country….32 days to go.
Trust the ALP on the economy – my arse