The independent Parliamentary Budget Office has called into question claims health spending is spiralling out of control, noting government spending is projected to grow in line with the economy over the next decade and that health will account for only a small amount to that growth.

The PBO projected government spending would climb from $384 billion to $682 billion over the coming decade and warned that "elevated community expectations are likely to put ongoing pressure on governments to increase discretionary spending on major programs over the medium term".

The PBO report also found spending on medical benefits accounts for just 1.8 per cent of the projected growth in government spending over the next decade, while spending on public hospitals accounts for just 1.4 per cent.

At our ages why worry........you two should stop writing boring crap on here and get out more.

.  Personally it will not affect me one way or the other but I am concerned for the next generation who are not known as savers and they will be wanting the same pensions, concessions of the seniors of today and if things continue on as they are now it will not be available when they are of pensionable age. 

We must get more people into the work force and we need for money in the coffers.  We are not in dire straights at the moment but as any sensible person realises debt has to be paid back.  The alternative is not an option.  The sooner we get back into surplus the better.

Back to that $96 billion "Labor debt" inherited by the Howard government in 1996 - which actually comprised $40 billion of Fraser government debt that carried through the Hawke-Keating years taking the true level of Labor debt in 1996 to $56 billion. Bringing down that debt wasn't all about constrained spending and higher taxes, in fact neither of those things were characteristics of the Howard-Costello years. Government asset sales between 1996 and 2007 worth $72 billion wiped the net debt out entirely with $16 billion to spare. With Joe Hockey as Coalition treasurer after September 14, Medibank Private could be the next to go for what was estimated during the 2010 election campaign would reap $4.5 billion.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-07/alberici-economic-comparisons/4672166

source

I take it you have reliable data to show that govt revenue in real terms from Telstra would be less ? I also take it you understand what in real terms means . I am sometimes an optimist . Shareholders do not count as its not govt but personal revenue they receive ie cannot be counted . It can however be added to revenue lost . Scratching my head to think of one govt utility that delivered same or better service cheaper once being sold off . In fact forget cheaper , the same taking in inflation etc . Power prices have grown greatly , well above the small addition of the carbon price . 9% of total prices rices of 60% . Now if I added the social contract and training of apprentices I would be here all night .

Still no concern to a person who has the mantra , bugger you jack I,m alright is it ?

Added to these costs, state governments except Victoria and South Australia are maintaining their ownership monopolies over electricity networks that account for half of the delivered cost. Confirming common knowledge about government businesses’ inefficiencies, the Productivity Commission has found that electricity networks in state ownership are 80 per cent more expensive than those under private ownership.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/why-paul-howe-is-almost-right-on-energy-costs/story-fni0dcne-1226847447114

Senator Cormann told the ABC's Insiders program there was "no rush to deal with specific structural reforms", such as the university funding changes, because many of these changes did not begin until July 2015 or later.

"We have laid out our plan to reduce the unsustainable spending growth trajectory Labor left behind," he said.

"Essentially, if we stay on a spending growth trajectory that takes us to 26.5 per cent of the share of GDP when tax revenue on average over the last 20 years was 22.4 per cent of the GDP and [if] you don't want to balance the books by reducing spending, the only alternative to balance the books is to increase taxes."

Federal spending rose by 3.8 per cent a year over the past decade to outpace the 3 per cent growth in the overall economy.

This could be brought under control over the next 10 years — with spending growth of 2.4 per cent compared with economic growth of 3 per cent — but only if the budget reforms are passed.

There are figures that say one thing and figures that say another if said differently . You have a big nose or your nose suits your face .

History of winners

Kim Williams claims governments should never be in the game of anointing winners (''How NBN used fibre to hang itself'', Insight, 23/8). Yet for decades, Australian governments chose to invest in copper infrastructure to build one of the best telecommunications networks in the world. When Telstra was privatised, the capital from copper was transferred to the Future Fund, which now stands at more than $100 billion. A nice little government earner.

During the 1940s and '50s, the grants from the government in Washington to scientific and academic institutions fostered the development of what became the internet. Interestingly, when the largest private phone company in the world, AT&T, had the opportunity early on to acquire the internet, it declined - based on its own cost-benefit analysis. In the 1960s domestic satellites were developed as part of the US space program. And since the 1990s, a clear case can be made that had Telstra not been privatised, and the regular annual $4 billion dividends to government continued, then the NBN could have been half built and half paid for by now. Instead Australian taxpayers are most likely now to have to pay Telstra $11 billion to create the latest NBN model.

Professor Trevor Barr, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn

Pete. Your writing style is very similar to a journo mate I worked with years ago.

You didn't work with the Daily Planet by any chance did you?

If you recall a tall handsome chap with glasses , that's me