Chris Bowen not knowing his tax rates/cutoffs in an interview, what a plonker.

-PB

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-17/chris-bowen-unable-to-identify-tax-free-threshold-in-interview/6133774
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/chris-bowen-struggles-to-name-taxfree-threshold-during-alan-jones-interview-20150217-13hngs.html
Look at all the biased lefty media giving him a free ride :lol:

I love those sorts questions, they fill me with joy when they make a pollie look silly. The reality is though it's not that important for a Treasurer to know these sorts of numbers off the top of his/her head. Who knows every single detail in their job off the top of their head without ever needing to look it up? Yep it's just a stunt that shock jocks like to perform. It would be far more embarrassing if he had said something like
"Poor people don't drive so they won't have to pay petrol excise"
"High income earners pay 50% income tax"
Which are prepared statements rather than thrown at the interviewee with no warning...

He didn't actually say those things though, you're putting words in his mouth he didn't say. He did say that an increase in the fuel excise would have a lesser impact on poor people, which is true because they DO tend to drive less distances and less often than people who are better off. It was politically silly thing for the Treasurer to say the way which it was twisted by the media but it doesn't mean it isn't true.

Anyway it's very important for the Treasurer to know what the basics are pertaining to his his/her job, because these are the same people who want us to trust that they have a credible plan back to surplus. How can we trust that Bowen is capable of forming a credible plan involving a complex problem when he can't even grasp the basic details? Don't we want our Treasurers to be well informed, knowledgeable and experts in economic matters? Isn't this the bare minimum we can expect from one of the most important jobs in the country? It would be like going to the doc and getting a diagnosis but the doc not knowing what its called or giving the wrong one. Would you trust him to prescribe the right medicine?

It's not exactly the leading story on the ABC website :lol:

Yep poor people don't live further away from the CBD where there are fewer public transport links and longer commutes.

The basic details are that we have an income tax which is a progressive tax with a tax-free threshold not that its $x and the first bracket is x%.

Dunno what doctor you go to but I always see my doctor look up what the correct dosage should be for my medicines not go off the top of his head.

I think you're just making excuses for the opposition treasurer. You could train a monkey to understand that tax is progressive, tax rates, tax free thresholds etc, would you put a monkey in the treasurers seat? This high paying job actually requires a bit more than a rough, slipshod understanding of how government makes its money. If Bowen was on Dragons Den he would've been torn to pieces and got no co investment, we should expect better from a guy who wants us to believe he is competent and trustworthy to run the government finances properly and return it to surplus.

It's great your doctor knows what page to turn to in order to confirm the right dosage.

I don't recall Hockey's hobgoblin act from opposition leading the news, either.

I don't recall Hockey not being able to name the tax free threshold and tax rates?

I want a treasurer that can have the facts and figures presented to him via Treasury analyse what's there and in co-operation with the Treasury produce informed policy decisions. I don't want an autistic savant that can memorise pi to 1000 digits. A Treasurer making comments about paying 50% tax shows a failure in analysis. Difficult concept I know...

I'm very happy that my doctor knows how to do that. Whenever I'm involved in the employment process at my work, I look for people that know how to analyse and solve problems not memorise factoids.

Hockey has done plenty to demonstrate that he has little understanding of how our tax system works, including asserting how many months an Australian needs to work before earning any money for him/herself.

I don't think you need to be an autistic savant or memorise pi to 1000 in order to know the tax rates. I'm neither of those things and yet I could answer the questions that Bowen couldn't. I would say it's fairly important to understanding something as simple as the tax thresholds if you want to convince people you have the knowledge, skill and expertise to run the countries finances prudently and implement fiscal repair by adjusting taxation and spending. It's gonna be difficult for him to convince people he make produce informed policy decisions with treasury when he is so obviously uninformed himself.

I'll dumb it down to LNP-style slogans for you
Remember numbers not important
Understand numbers important

If you still don't understand then I give up.

Edited by mcjules: 18/2/2015 12:10:31 PM

It's impossible to understand numbers if you don't know them.

Not actually true, understanding the mechanism is Moe important than the number itself.

Hockey has demonstrated that he doesn't understand the mechanism of thresholds, Bowen couldn't remember the specific number of the threshold kicking into gear but has not demonstrated that he does not understand the mechanism itself the way Hockey continuously has.

Which is worse? Well, to steal a much loved LNP line 'well, people will form their own views on the matter'.

I'm 100% sure Chris Bowen and every member of parliament can read numbers and the words around them.

notorganic gets it. I will say I'm critical of Bowen actually trying to answer the question. Don't pretend you actually know the numbers if you don't as it's perfectly acceptable not to know exact figures.

What tosh. It's incumbent on our ministers to be experts in their portfolios and be able to recall basic facts when asked. Having a hazy, vague understanding of important details doesn't inspire confidence in the shadow minister that he has any grasp of the "mechanism". It's not understanding of the "mechanism" that's going to set a trend to surplus it's making specific adjustments with taxation brackets and spending and the wannabe treasurer should know they are and how they're going to do it.

I wonder if David Thodey can recite all the different mobile plan options and their features. After all these are basic facts and are a big part of Telstra's revenue. :roll:

I bet he knows the share price and profit figures.

Yep the equivalent would be government revenue figures and expenditures. This is getting boring now :lol:

Government revenue figures and expenditures would the equivalent of Telstra revenue figures and expenditures, profit and share price are actually different things. I wouldn't even count on Bowen knowing what those are, since according to you the basic facts aren't important. Also mobile plans and their respective features are a function of marketing department whereas tax rates and adjustments are the direct remit of the treasurer.

I am aware of the differences. Having worked in both public and private sectors I know the analogy of a CEO and a Minister don't match up perfectly but where they are both the same is that they both need to have a good working understanding of how the organisation (govt department or business) works, where it gets it's revenues and what it spends on. It also has dedicated staff working beneath them that they rely on to work on the day to day things. This is the important things not a figure thrown at them out of the blue.

Anyway I said this is boring and I'm not going to post on the matter anymore. My post count is a basic figure isn't that important to me :lol:

C'mon mate, just be frank for a moment. The guy who wants to be treasurer doesn't even know the basic tax rate. Most folks who a casual interest in politics know it kicks in after $18,200 at 15% of wages. It's an appalling gaffe and he should be slammed for not knowing the basics while pretending to know how to fix the budget by influencing tax rates. He's not credible.

Let's.

The guy who IS treasurer doesn't understand how the tax-free threshold works.

It's an appalling gaffe and he should be slammed for not knowing the basics while pretending to know how to fix the budget by influencing tax rates. He's not credible.

.

He also doesn't understand poor people and how much they drive, but meh. There's a lot Joe Hockey has demonstrated that he doesn't understand, it's probably how he has managed to turn a fake budget emergency into a real budget emergency in such a short amount how time.

There's a lot of evidence of how this trash talking that he's been doing has had a negative affect on confidence which in turn has made the situation worse. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Well clearly you don't.


$18,201 – $37,000: 19c for each $1 over $18,200

Does this mean that you are not credible?

How can you say that? Business confidence is now at the lowest it’s been in 30 years and unemployment has hit a 12 year high. On top of that, youth unemployment is at a 13 year high with around 14 per cent of young people unemployed. Oh ....

inb4 labors mess just getting worse

I was talking about the superannuation concession.