Rudd "doing a Cyprus."

[The Fisheys]

Many people are shocked to see Labor now will gouge savers with a new government tax on savings deposits, just like Cyprus.

Whilst one could congratulate his honesty on announcing this measure now, before the election, one shudders to think what extortionate rate him and his kind are fantasising about really bringing in should they manage to be re elected.

[Guest]

Not really anywhere near Cyprus levels. In fact I doubt most people will notice any difference. I don't agree with the tax however.

 

But if I could vote i'd still vote Rudd as Tony Abbott representing the country would be embarrassing

[VERYSTORMY]

Yep. A bunch of lying sharks it seems. This morning they were saying how this had nothing to do with trying to achieve surpluss / clear debt. This afternoon when asked how will they will achieve surplus it's suddenly included. Con merchants.

[The Fisheys]

Not really anywhere near Cyprus levels. In fact I doubt most people will notice any difference. I don't agree with the tax however.

 

But if I could vote i'd still vote Rudd as Tony Abbott representing the country would be embarrassing

 

Yeh spot on, government overspending totally out of control, deficit last week of $18 billion, this week $30 billion, who knows what the real figure is????

And Abbott an embarrassment, you must be shameless, or a socialist. And you know the problem with socialists.............they always run out of other people's money.

[purpleal]

I love Tony Abbott. He lives two streets away from us on the Northern Beaches. Often see him jogging around the neighbourhood. Speak to many people around here and you hear alot of stories about how he has personally helped people with numerous problems - seemingly insignificant things like assistance with passports / development applications etc to far more important things. He is more ensconced in the 'real world' than millionaire PM KRudd and contrary to reports is no egotistical up his own arse man - unlike Kevin the narcissistic maniac who had a number of his inherited cabinet resign when he got back onto power. They would rather be jobless than than work for him! Oh, and he eats his own ear wax - truly disgusting!

[Guest Ptp113]

Yeh spot on, government overspending totally out of control, deficit last week of $18 billion, this week $30 billion, who knows what the real figure is????

And Abbott an embarrassment, you must be shameless, or a socialist. And you know the problem with socialists.............they always run out of other people's money.

 

Abbott is a fundamentalist, racist barsteward.

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

Are they really planning on taking tens of thousands of dollars off folk like they are in Cyprus?

[Bobbsy]

Er, I just went and read up on this. Isn't it really the exact opposite of Cyprus since the revenues from the deposit tax will go into a "financial stability fund" to protect savers from bank collapses. Perhaps if Cyprus had charged a 0.05% tax a decade ago they wouldn't have needed a 20% tax today after the place basically went bust.

 

And, yeah, Abbott is an utter embarrassment. His total inability to formulate and stick to policies, coupled with his bigoted "Christian" values should render him unelectable.

[wolvesaussie]

The banks are to pay this, not the customers

[Quoll]

Abbott will be considerably less of an embarrassment than the incompetent, narcissistic egomaniac "leading" Labor at the moment. Abbott isn't the one grandstanding on the church steps every weekend!

Just like a socialist to steal a pensioner's savings!

[Quoll]

The banks are to pay this, not the customers

And the banks will get the money from where exactly?

[Floplo]

leaving the politics aside, this levy is actually more of a precaution against 'cyprus' than doing the same. Practically the government is forcing the banks to insure themselves (or more precisely their clients with bank accounts) against bank failure (which basically happened in Cyprus). The height of the 'insurance premium' is dependent on the total size of the deposits, hence the formulation of a share of the deposit. (Right now the cost of the insurance premium is implicitly paid by the government)

 

That type of explicit insurance fund (rather than the straight out government guarantee Australia currently has) exists in a number of western countries (maybe in other countries as well, don't know). The most famous example is the FDIC in the US, created in the Great Depression (or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the UK set up a decade ago). Whether this is counted in the government budget is an accounting and organizational question which is a little bit more complicated...

[Floplo]

And the banks will get the money from where exactly?

 

Costs will be shared between banks (i.e. shareholders) and depositors, depending on how much of the fee the banks can pass onto their customers. Essentially what the government is doing is to force you to buy insurance against bank failure and the loss of your deposit (and the insurance premium is the share of the fee your bank will pass on to you)

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

Are they taking $30,000 plus off people or not, like they are in Cyprus?

[Skippy1]

This is completely different too Cyprus. Yes its is a levy of 0.05 on deposits up to 250K............... to be charged on the banks and the banks will probably pass this on i understand. But if you dont want to pay you can move your money out of the bank, simple.

In Cyprus youre money was frozen, they took most of the money over a certain limit and that was that.

One must look at the banks in Australia and wonder if they are not hugely over exposed to property loans. It looks a lot like the Irish Property Market of a few years ago from here, but not exactly sure of the finer details with Aussie banks

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

So it's not like Cyprus at all, lol

[VERYSTORMY]

So it's not like Cyprus at all, lol

 

It is similar. The main difference at the moment is that people's accounts are not frozen and I don't think they are likely to need to as they have targeted smaller deposits - it will only be a grab at accounts with under $250k. Can't have it at accounts with more in as that would hit the politicians accounts. Can't have that.

 

For those saying this to protect banks is total nonsense. On the initial announcement it was said this money would be ring fenced and not available to government to spend. Yet, by the time the figures were released, it is in the budget. So, this is nothing more than a grab at peoples bank accounts.

 

What is scary, is that he is willing to do this a couple of months before the election. Imagine what he will do if re-elected.

[thombatt]

leaving the politics aside, this levy is actually more of a precaution against 'cyprus' than doing the same. Practically the government is forcing the banks to insure themselves (or more precisely their clients with bank accounts) against bank failure (which basically happened in Cyprus). The height of the 'insurance premium' is dependent on the total size of the deposits, hence the formulation of a share of the deposit. (Right now the cost of the insurance premium is implicitly paid by the government)

 

That type of explicit insurance fund (rather than the straight out government guarantee Australia currently has) exists in a number of western countries (maybe in other countries as well, don't know). The most famous example is the FDIC in the US, created in the Great Depression (or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the UK set up a decade ago). Whether this is counted in the government budget is an accounting and organizational question which is a little bit more complicated...

 

I like this thought process. If the banks identify it on your account it becomes a cost of earning interest, which then becomes tax deductable.

 

So the go would only get about 66% of the number.

[Toussaint]

Abbott is a fundamentalist, racist barsteward.

 

 

Thanks for enlightening me, I thought he was simply a practising catholic, I didn't realise he was a Christian fundamantalist herefore trying to bring about the End Of Days prophecy, I also didn't realise he was a racisit, I thought he was just trying to stop the flood of economic and dubious migrants arriving illegaly, again, thank you for pointing out my error.

 

I think I ned to repatriate, maybe to politically correct, secular Britain, after all its working so well there.....

[flag of convenience]

And the banks will get the money from where exactly?

 

How about dipping into their profits for a start. Why should the taxpayer guarantee banks with no insurance paid by those organisations? Banks need to be accountable as we have seen international the results of their reckless behaviour. Who picks up the bill? The taxpayer of course.

[Parley]

You are supposed to think of it as an insurance premium.

Your savings in the banks are government guaranteed up to $250,000. Currently you get this guarantee or insurance for free. Their argument is you should pay .005% as an insurance premium.

 

In Victoria we did have a similar tax years ago brought in by Jeff Kennett - There was FID tax and Bad Tax.

 

Whether this is needed is debateable the banks say no. The banks will obviously pass this on to the customers.

[Bobbsy]

Exactly. The tax SHOULD come out of bank profits though I'm far from naive enough to believe it won't be passed on to customers. However, if the government is expected to insure the banks (and, more importantly, their depositors) against insolvency then the banks should pay for this insurance policy. Whether this revenue is ring fenced or just goes into general taxation matters little since the government would have to spend far more than the revenue from a 0.05% tax generates if one of the major banks goes under--but it's a start. In any case, this is the precise opposite of Cyprus and alarmist headlines like "Rudd Doing a Cyprus" smack more of a Murdoch newspaper than fact.

 

As for the $250,000 thing, again remember this is NOT being taken from individual accounts--just from the banks assets in general. This is simply a way of limiting the banks' liability rather than benefiting the rich.

 

As for Rudd being a "narcissistic egomaniac" it more accurate to say that he simply refuses to play the games demanded by the men in grey suits that lurk in the background of both parties. Rudd is the closest thing I've seen to an honest politician (an oxymoron I know) but I believe he genuinely has the interests of his country and its citizens as a priority instead of the special interest groups (miners like Gina Rinehart spring to mind) who bribe and bankroll most politicians. Judged on his track record, he was a good leader who made Aus the only developed country to not go into recession and also kept his promises like the apology to the aboriginals and the withdrawal from Iraq. This last point is important. I hope you've all read the Wikileaks documents showing that Julia was helped in her coup by the Americans (from as much as five months before her "night of the long knives" because they were unhappy that Rudd was not toeing the US line on things like China, Afghanistan and Iraq. Did we really want a PM installed by a mix of the party backroom boys and the Americans because they wanted somebody who'd do what she was told?

 

Finally Abbott. Frankly his stance on the NBN alone is enough for me to see what an incompetent loser he is. He's flip flopped his way from being totally anti anything like the NBN to now proposing a "solution" that engineers agree is unworkable and will, in the long run, be more expensive than the fibre to the home solution the "real" NBN is installing. This is just one example of Abbott not knowing what he's doing--but it sums up his policies (or lack thereof).

[Bobbsy]

Whether this is needed is debateable the banks say no. The banks will obviously pass this on to the customers.

 

I bet the British banks would have said "no" in 2006 as well but since then they've eaten up something like a half a trillion in tax payers' money.

 

Yes, the tax SHOULD come off shareholder profits rather than customers but we all know that won't happen. However, it's also fair to say that, in the event of an insolvency, the depositors will also benefit rather than losing all their money.

[VERYSTORMY]

The banks will not take this from profits. They will have two ways of dealing with it. One, take it from accounts as per the criteria of those with less than 250k in the account. This is smart as it would only hit the lower end - poorer end who can not cause enough withdrawals to cause a bank run. The other is from dividends which of course hits everyone as our super funds invest a lot in the banks and so our super gets hit.

 

This will not be the end of the grabs. They are desperate for cash to maintain their stupid spending. So, expect more to come along with tax increases.

[Quoll]

Oh dear, Rudd honest? He has done a good job on the brainwashing. His whole life has been devoted to one thing - the glorification of Rudd! He is not a nice man, honesty???? LOL not much! nor does he have Australia's interests at heart, he has Rudd's interests at heart - end of.