This budget would look extremely different, I believe, if it
had been drafted by economists that had a full grasp of the responsibility of
ensuring the welfare of all Australians and not a select few that are
politically and financially aligned. This is not the time for politicking or
showing off. This is a time for humility and compassion and an understanding of
what life is like for ALL Australians.
This budget fails the Australian people. This budget harms
individuals for the benefit of business, and by business, I don’t mean the
businesses that are small employing the people within our communities, I mean the businesses that
employ foreign workers and have the majority of their operations offshore or
employ foreign workers instead of Australian workers in their facilities here
in Australia. The budget benefits the type of big business that pillages the
earth of its natural resources with the sole interest of profit guiding
decisions. The resources that belong to ALL people are benefiting and profiting
businesses that support this government to ensure they continue to thrive
financially to the detriment of the people of this nation. And that is only one
side of the coin, the environmental implications of these businesses is
incomprehensible!
The rhetoric in the lead up to this budget illustrates the
character of the government delivering the budget. The national debt was blown
out of proportion in order to scare monger people into thinking that the
drastic cuts made by the government were necessary. The government was
disingenuous in failing to provide context and the big picture to the people,
in essence, the government was underestimating the people of this nation to
read between the lines and understand the numbers thrown around.
There are too many issues with this budget to go through
each and every one, but here is a brief summary of some key points that have raised
my eyebrows and anxiety levels:
·
The Company tax rate is being reduced by 1.5
percentage points down to 28.5 percent, because let’s face it, those poor
companies really need a tax cut (cue next financial years’ record profits from
the big banks and Gina Rineheart);
·
Working mothers or fathers supporting a spouse
or dependent child, will no longer be entitled to an offset;
·
The Paid Parental Leave Scheme is going ahead.
It will include 6 months full pay including superannuation for mothers earning
up to $100,000.
·
The new tax for the purported debt reduction
will see those earning $180,000 or above, in addition to the increase in
Medicare Levy, paying 49 percent of their earnings in tax. Regardless of anyone’s
thoughts on people who are fortunate enough to earn an income of this
magnitude, paying almost half of those earnings in tax, when companies pay only
28.5 percent is an absolute farce!
·
The Medicare Levy is being increased to 2
percent, whilst those reliant on Medicare (and most certainly paying the levy
because their budget does not stretch to include private health), will not be
entitled to the free universal healthcare that ought to be guaranteed. Instead,
they will be paying for all medical practitioner appointments, all x-rays,
emergency department attendance at hospital and as if that wasn’t bad enough,
the cost of prescriptions will be increasing by $5 per prescription on average.
·
Retirement age to increase to aged 70 for people
born after 1 July 1958, so those people working hard for their lives and
investing into superannuation that gets hit by a share or global market crisis
and lose a large portion of their superannuation and then require the aged
pension in order to survive, will have to keep working until they are 70 (if
they are lucky enough to have a job at that age and not be discriminated
against on the basis of this age and if they don’t have a job, tough luck, live
on air until you’re 70).
·
Anyone under 30 years of age will need to wait 6
months for any assistance from Centrelink if they lose their jobs or are
unemployed following school. So for those foster children who turn 18 and do
not have a job or a home once they are no longer a problem of the system, you
may need to live on the streets for the 6 month waiting period because this
government wants to “crack down on welfare.” I am all for coming down on
welfare cheats, but not at the expense of those who need assistance. Again, patriarchal
decision making without an ounce of empathy for those who were not born into
families on the north shore of Sydney with opportunities abound.
·
Hardly surprising that this government who doesn’t
believe in science has cut science budgets, CSIRO and ANSTO are receiving cuts
in excess of $100 million. These scientific organisations are pillars of the
science community and this will lead to our educated and brilliant scientists
taking themselves elsewhere to apply their skills because there would be no
draw to staying here with a government clearly against the development of this
area of research and discovery.
·
This government will allow coal seam gas mining
which is destroying water supplies and land without raising an eyebrow, but
considers wind farms a blight on the landscape. So they are getting rid of this
environmentally friendly energy source at a “saving” of 1.3 billion. Who needs
clean and healthy water and land? As long as we have $1.3 billion dollars on
the books to prove what smarty pants we are right?
·
Dental healthcare was drastically cut in the
budget, so don’t get a toothache people, and if you do, you might need to YouTube
some dental procedures because you won’t be able to afford the dentist and won’t
receive any assistance from this government.
·
So those men in blue that are there to keep your
community safe and prevent crime, yeah we don’t need them right? Good, because
the government has cut $54.2 million from the police budget.
·
The government receives taxes from cigarettes,
so it is no surprise that the anti-smoking education and advertising programs
have had $3 million cut.
·
Health has taken a major hit in funding with
final figures not outlined with any clarity but it is safe to assume that it
will be far worse than we can imagine.
·
Fuel prices are likely to go through the roof
with twice annual indexation reintroduced.
·
If you are planning to go to university, get
ready to pay ridiculous fees and if you’re a HECS student, you will be paying
hefty interest.
So what are the priorities for a government hell bent on
making living life in this very expensive country even harder?
·
$122 billion on defence aircraft.
·
$1 million on a residence for ballet dancers in Melbourne.
·
Paying the national debt (the national debt when
considered in the context of GDP is less than the average Australian having
$20,000 in personal debt, clearly a manageable amount with a payment plan over
5-7 years).
The national debt is not small,
I am not trivialising debt. Debt is serious and needs to be paid. The people of
this nation ought not suffer through this budget because this government is
short sighted and cannot see that the money expended in accumulating that debt
ensured Australia averted a national recession. As the government cannot recognise fundamental concepts of fiscal policy, then they need to go back to study
the basic concepts of economics.
This budget has no heart or
soul, this budget does not even have intellectually clever albeit clinical
economics. This budget is a political pissing contest amongst men (and one
token woman) that need to overcompensate for their lack of size in the……………………brains
department.
This government does not have a
long term vision. This nation is fast losing all industries that contributed to
Australia being one of the top economies in the world. All the developed
nations are now looking at China and marvelling at the economic powerhouse it
is becoming. WHY? Because it has INDUSTRY!!!! It is not solely a service based
economy. It has production.
We as a nation (and by nation, I
mean the liberal government voted by the people of Australia) have not
supported our industries. There is nothing in this budget that will
meaningfully support our farming industry. Our farming industry is essential
not only to our economy, but to the health and welfare of Australians because
we can ensure the production meets with our regulations.
We as a nation have not
supported our production industry. Metal works, sawmills, car manufacturing,
food manufacturing and the list goes on. These industries are the foundation of
Australia being such a strong economy but we have not provided the financial
support that we have provided media moguls or mining magnates to ensure it flourishes.
We let the grass roots
industries take a hit or completely fizzle out so Gina Rineheart can stand on
her soap box and bang on about Australians “helping themselves” when her
hypocrisy is as obvious as a punch in the face because she has inherited her wealth and not worked a
hard day in her life. The government has thrown around terms of ‘the age of
entitlement being over,’ well perhaps the government ought to pass that on to
the entitled, not the everyday Australians that are treading water simply to
survive.
It’s interesting that when the
average Australian goes for a job, they need to have a set of credentials in
order to ensure they are capable of performing the necessary functions of the
role. The treasurer? No credentials, but Abbott considered him capable of
drafting a budget for an economy the size of Australia’s? The depth of Tony
Abbott’s intellect will never cease to amaze me. I mean, I seriously need to
meet this man so I can stand in awe of him and wait for some small parcel of
knowledge to pass from him to me and I will then walk around for the rest of my
years marvelling at the brilliance of the man.
On a serious note, get ready
Australia, we are in for some seriously rough years. Years where the sick
cannot afford to get treatment, the elderly work themselves to the bone, the
young become a generation of homeless or endless renters and the
socio-economically advantaged solidify themselves on the top of the political
and financial hierarchy.
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