Dear Peter Dutton

I have received your letter of June 2010, reproduced below.

While some of the expenditure programmes, eg school buildings, computers,
insulation programmes etc. may have been poorly administered, the important
issue is that stimulating the economy one way or another was necessary, and
probably still is.

The arguments by ‘deficit hawks’, that such spending is wasteful or ill advised,
betrays ignorance of the purpose of such spending, which is only secondarily to
provide useful benefits to the community and primarily intended to sustain the
flow of income into the community generally.

The real problem has been the failure of the financial system and the prevailing
system of capitalist investment, which your party strongly supports. The
Thatcherite notion that a national economy is to be run like some corner store
is entirely wrong. The global financial crisis was largely an external event
that required urgent countercyclical action to maintain economic activity, by
whatever means, and advocating draconian cuts to public expenditure remains a
dangerous policy, particularly since there is little sign of inflation in the
economy.

The proposal for a mining tax is long overdue, and redresses the balance between
private advantage accruing to the wealthy few, and general benefit from mining
public resources generously granted to mining companies by state and federal
government. As has been explained, the big miners were the first to begin
massive layoffs with no thought to the harm done to the communities where they
reside. Furthermore, taking into account the huge government subsidies enjoyed
by this sector, the burden of taxation is by no means heavy, otherwise there
would not be so many fat-cat billionaires strutting about jerking the strings of
their political puppets.

On immigration, a great deal of resources are being wasted on John Howard type
concentration camps, when it would be much more cost effective to accept the
relatively few boat people arriving ‘illegally’ in this country, particularly
since many of them are fleeing the illegal and immoral wars supported by Labor
and by the opposition. The continued appeal to the inherent racism and ignorance
of the electorate is the real basis for such appeals.

The housing market in Australia is heading for a severe downturn in the

not too distant future, mainly because of the disparity between incomes and
house prices, rather than due to excessive interest rates. In any case, high
interest rates can be traced to profiteering by banks and finance companies
rather than to the present governments policy. What you should be promoting is
more affordable housing for the less well off. This would require significant
release of land and corresponding government subsidies.

Regards

Tony Thomas

Mr Tony & Mrs Dale Thomas 7 Sunblest Court

EATONS HILL QLD 4037

Following the recent Federal Budget, many residents have contacted me concerned
that the Rudd Government's Budget did nothing to ease the pressure of rising
living costs.

Many residents are worried that the Rudd & Gillard Government is still borrowing
$700 million per week (that's $100 million a day) to fund its reckless spending,
rather than make the tough decisions to cut waste and mismanagement and 'live
within its means'.

The Labor Government has wasted billions of your hard earned dollars on a
bungled home insulation scheme that tragically resulted in 4 deaths and 120
house fires and the infamous 'school hall rip-off' which has seen the Federal
Government spend over $16 billion to deliver maybe $8 billion of value (if we
are lucky!)

The Coalition has a plan to payoff this debt and ease the pressure on the cost
of living -

we have announced a range of spending cuts that will return the Federal Budget
to surplus and bring back common sense principles of thrift and low taxes that
have been the hallmark of Coalition Governments in the past.

We will oppose the Rudd Government's great big new mining tax which threatens
our superannuation and investments, and will put Queensland mining projects and
jobs at risk.

The Government's debt can only lead to higher taxes, reduced Government services
and more interest rate rises in the future. All Australians - especially those
with mortgages and those on fixed incomes like pensioners and self-funded
retirees - will pay the price for reckless spending.

Peter Dutton MP

Federal Member for Dickson