The ridiculous rhetoric of the LNP/Murdochracy being repeated by the politically ignorant, infuriates me!!

Re Labor being wasteful during the GFC.

I don't think anyone ever expected that the BER rollout for example would be perfect.. It was an emergency undertaking for all the right reasons. However, we live in a democratic country and with the right to vote comes the responsibility of remaining well-informed re the political, economic and social issues in our country. That doesn’t mean repeating the empty rhetoric of the LNP, the Murdoch press or the likes of Alan Jones! While I concede it can be difficult for some people to source a wide range of information due to the Murdochracy’s stranglehold on the print media in particular, I think that makes it even more imperative that we seek to be as informed as possible via sources that are creditable and have authority beyond partisan politics.

Andrew Leigh is/has been a Professor of Economics at ANU so definitely has a degree of authority I would place somewhat ahead of most members of the LNP. I would urge the politically challenged to read at least some, if not all of the following so that the idea that Labor was just a government of reckless spending might be somewhat adjusted. Most of these authors have a good degree of authority.

Economic comparisons are useless without context    By ABC's Emma Alberici  2013 [Studied Journalism and Economics at Deakin Uni. Has been a business/Economics reporter]

Hey, big spender: Howard the king of the loose purse strings  Date  January 11, 2013  Peter Martin [Peter Martin is reporting on an IMF study . Howard was a bigger spender that Rudd/Gillard.

Myth of Coalition govts: Howard the biggest spender of all    Stephen Koukoulas | Feb 13, 2013 11:16AM [as above][SK is one of Australia's leading economic visionaries, past Chief Economist of Citibank, heading global research in London for TD]

Audit report: much ado about a manageable problem by Ross Gittins  Friday, May 2, 2014 [re how it’s not just spending that’s the problem .. but more about revenue] [Gittins was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2003 for service to economic journalism in Australia]
  

Business self-interest and economic ideology a good fit by Ross Gittens Wednesday, May 7, 2014

How bad was Labor spending? / Peter Brent - 20^th May 2014  [PhD in Political Science]

The Rich And The Rhetoric Won The Day By Ben Eltham  13 May 2014 [Eltham is a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development and a Research Fellow at Deakin University’s Centre for Memory, Imagination and Invention

Mining boom policies dig a hole for economy  by Ross Gittins [The Sydney Morning Herald's Economics Editor]  June 24, 2014 

Joseph Stiglitz tells Tony Abbott to spend more by Jacob Greber  PUBLISHED: 27 Jun 2014 11:35:00 | UPDATED: 28 Jun 2014 02:45:55 [an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences ]

American Delusions Down Under    Joseph E. Stiglitz      JUL 9, 2014 

The Poor Will Always Be With Us: So Says The Book Of Matthew [Ben Eltham] 14 Oct 2014

Equal to our core: making the case for egalitarianism as Australia's national value   Posted by Andrew Leigh Mp  on October 14, 2014