Quoted from aquamonkey

And what do the brains trust come up with............ they want a republic, anyone going to be asking the other 21,278,497 members of the population? What was never answered before the previous vote on becoming a republic, what is the benefit to the country?

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"we should wait until Queen Elizabeth finishes her reign before we actually become a republic"

Quoted from SuziH

Well said IMHO, maf-you!

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Brace for economic storm, warns Kevin Rudd

KEVIN Rudd has warned Australians to brace for tough economic conditions as he refused to rule out a recession driven by what he described as the most uncertain global financial conditions in three decades.

The Prime Minister blamed global factors and the Howard government for the turmoil, insisting his economic policies and $22 billion budget surplus had given Australia greater insulation against the worsening global situation than most other nations, The Australian reports.

Mr Rudd's admission the economic outlook was bleak and would hit family budgets came as Brendan Nelson demanded he "stop talking Ruddish" and accept responsibility for economic mismanagement.

The Prime Minister's gloomy forecast follows a string of bad economic figures, including continuing high inflation, a 1 per cent fall in retail turnover in June and the lowest level of bank lending in 25 years.

The slowdown has triggered predictions the Reserve Bank board, which meets next week, will cut official interest rates from their 12-year high of 7.25 per cent by October.



But it has raised questions from the Opposition and economists of whether the Reserve Bank's 12 successive interest rate rises and the spending cuts in the Rudd Government's first budget, delivered in May, might have caused economic activity to slow too quickly and increased the risk of recession, defined as a contraction in economic growth for two successive quarters.

While the Reserve Bank is expected to consider cutting interest rates next week, leading bankers are warning that the reductions might not be passed on to consumers.

In a radio interview yesterday, the Prime Minister was asked if the downturn could mean further job cuts such as those at Qantas, the Starbucks coffee chain and the Don smallgoods business.

He said the combination of global instability and the high inflation and interest rate rises caused by the previous government's policies would flow through to hamper economic growth and employment.

"One just follows from the other," Mr Rudd told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

And he went further in a speech in Melbourne last night, warning that the global economic downturn would match budget estimates of a fall-off in employment.

He expected the unemployment rate would rise from its current 4.2 per cent to 4.75 per cent by June next year.

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Fix NSW first, Kevin, not the UN, says Malcolm Turnbull

MALCOLM Turnbull last night demanded that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd fix the "financial ruin" of NSW rather than fly to New York next week.

The new Liberal Leader said Mr Rudd owed his political promotion to the Labor faction which was in charge of the NSW Government.

Quoted from Tasman

I have to say, I think he's doing a great job with the current financial crisis. He seems to be staying ahead of things as well as anyone can.

Quoted from aquamonkey

With yesterdays paper predicting 200,000 jobs to go I wouldn't be so sure. The huge stockpile of cash he's sitting on will be able to help the country greatly if used correctly, but lets not forget who pulled that cash together...