Dear Joe,
This is absolute hogwash.
Your government’s ideology – to steal from the workers of this nation and move theiir rightful share of the nation’s wealth into the hands of a few percent of the richest and most privileged is irresponsible, immoral and destroying our community.
We both know, as do all reputable economists and political commentators, that the main economic problem the government has right now is one, not of debt but of declining revenue. There are several simple measures that the government could and should take to rectify this:
* Stop the use of superannuation for tax minimisation by the wealthy
* Put an end to negative gearing
* Stop subsidising big business through direct grants and the even more costly provision of infrastructure built largely to service their needs but funded by the public.
* End your insane and inhumane off-shore detention and “processing” of asylum-seekers which is costing many times more than it would to deal with these refugees in a humane way on the mainland and would also reduce the imposition on and cost of using our service personnel to harass refugees rather than carrying out the work for which they are trained.
In addition, two measures that you inherited and then abolished would have generated fair and substantial revenue for the government:
* The carbon tax
* The mining tax
Were all these measures to be put into place then the goverment would have more than enough revenue to balance the budget without attacking the disadvantaged and weaker end of society.
Significant savings could also be made by stopping the excessive expenditure of politicians on overseas jaunts, unnecessary travel, lavish entertainment and accommodation and other perks. It defies logic and your own rhetoric that our Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, is the highest paid such of any democaratic government in the World, being paid as much, if not more than the American president who heads a nation of 14 times the population of our own. In addition, this PM chalks up expenses equal to more than twice his salary – many of them unnecessary and down simply to his predisposition and arrogance. He, of course, is not the only politician to live lavishly on the public purse while ordinary working Australians can barely survive – and often don’t. There are many other areas of government wastage, too many too mention, but not least is the expenditure of over $300 million ot commemorate Anzac day & the sacrifice of our troops by a foreign power in a war that had nothing at all to do with Australia and which didn’t threaten us in any way. The Prime Minister’s continuing pseudo patriotic nationalism and commitment of our defence forces to foreign wars – usually illegal ones – is yet another example of wastage.
That the Abbott government continually ignore expert advice and scientific research is another cause of government negligence and mismanagement that not only burdens our budget but threatens the well-being of our nation and others in the World. The actions of the Prime Minister in deliberately ignoring the Defence Department’s wish to have the ASC build the new submarines and, instead, putting the contract out to overseas tender is just one example of the deceit and mismanagement of this government – both strategically and economically. The purchase of an obsolescent and problem plagued Joint Strike Fighter is another. More significantly still is the incomprehensible absurdity of this government’s stance on climate change which is the most urgent priority for action across the whole world. This negligence probably trumps al the others, as bad as they are, for it has already destroyed the confidence of the Renewable Energy Industry and cost jobs and investment in an areas where Australia could have been a leader into the future – and yet, with typical disdain and deceit you claim that your budget and your goverment are about “craeating jobs” and a “sustainable future for Australia”.
Your government is dishonest. It has, in any case, been increasing costs for working people by sleight of hand. The backdown on the $7 “co-payment” for doctor’s visits has been more than made up for by administrative adjustments to contracts with doctors and other health professionals. In addition, fees and charges have been adjusted (raised or imposed) for many government services, though this has not been publicised. Your supposed beneficial childcare passage is a Furphy. In many cases, women or families will be worse of under your new scheme than they are at the moment. In addition, the payment of subsidies directly to the industry will, inevitably,, push up costs so that any limited benefit that there is will land in the hands of business rather than helping working families.
You claimed last night that the Abbott government’s policy and your budget management were improving Australia’s positon and had it on the right “trajectory”. In fact, that is not the case and many of your figures are fudged. It is not an accident that you have stopped making concrete predictions about the forward estimates and are now refusing to indicate even a ball-park figure of what a particular measure will generate because, in the past, *all* of the predictions you have made have proved to be wrong. The figures in the forecasts have been extended by a year and make assumptions about Australia’s growth that are, at best, highly improbably and almost certainly far greater than will eventuate. You have made no allowance for such an eventuality despite having witnessed such a calamity with the drop in iron-ore prices. As for reducing government size – your government is spending, at a time of relative prosperity, 25.9% of GDP which is virtually the same as the 26% of GDP that you criticised the former treasurer, Wayne Swann, for spending when he was (successfully) fighting off the impact of the Global Financial Crisis – a problem much greater than any your government has had to face.
You have tackled none of the mainstream structural issues affecting the ability of working people to maintain a reasonable standard of living. Each year there are more homeless children and adults and Australia now has a rate of poverty of around 13%. That is a complete and utter disgrace for one of the richest nations in the World as is completely inexcusable your reduction of foreign aid – particularly at a time when you are stilll spending millions, if not billions on searching for a long-missing airliner and increased security to further the fear campaign on which our Prime Minister thrives and has aparently pinned his hopes of re-election. This government is shameless in its neglect of the welfare of the majority of working Australians. This budget does nothing to change the structural and ideological deficiencies in our society and, if it demonstrates anything at all, it is only that a liberal ideologue remains a liberal ideologue no matter what the situation and if he can’t have what he wants, like a small child, will have a tantrum and either take his ball and go home or fly into a rage, blame everyone else and try to destroy whatever is in front of or around him.
You are a sham, Joe Hockey, and so is your “leader” Tony Abbott and your whole government.
Enjoy your cigar – it may be your last as treasurer – one would certainly hope so.
Roger
Roger Hawcroft
[email protected]
