Swan’s ‘balanced budget' overshadowed by sleaze.

Cartoon: By Pickering.

It hasn’t been a very bad week for Julia until now. Our PM Jules, that is, not President Obama’s composite welfare tart who was put out there to let women know that they can never make it in the real world without state intervention.

Jules had managed to string together almost two consecutive days without a major screw-up or scandal and was looking forward to Treasurer Swan’s smoke and mirrors ‘balanced budget.’ Unfortunately, just at that stage, the senate released the report by FWA on the HSU scandal:

A Fair Work Australia (FWA) report has found former Labor MP turned crossbencher Craig Thomson used work credit cards to pay for escort services while he was national secretary of the Health Services Union (HSU). A senate committee has published the 1,100-page report after being handed the document by FWA this afternoon.

The report found more than 150 breaches of union rules by Mr. Thomson, including that he spent almost $6,000 using union credit cards on escort services while he was travelling away from home and staying in hotels.

The report says the money was spent either for Mr Thomson's benefit or that of someone else. It also details almost $270,000 in spending on activities connected to helping Mr Thomson win his seat in parliament.

The budget will come down as ‘balanced’ aided by the already programmed end to stimulus spending, and taking the NBN and other items off budget. Given that during the incumbency of the current government, the nation has been in the midst of an unprecedented mining boom, it begs the question, “Why the hell have we been borrowing our way into bankruptcy to stimulate the economy in the first place?”

The Bolt Report has an interview with economics professor Judith Sloan who at the three minute mark in the video details some of what is going on: