Beam me up Scotty

I’m not really a believer in reincarnation, but if I did I would want to come back with better financial and economic nous – oh, and an additional 4 inches so that my height and weight were finally a match.

And, I have to confer that I have not yet received my copy of the national Commission of Audit so that I can write with true authority about the proposal that a select group of business interests are suggesting for our future as a nation. So I am for the moment dependent on the intelligence I can gain from vicarious sources on which to form an opinion. I was tempted to say the intelligence I can get from the local press, but I pulled myself up!

I know Joe Hockey says this is not the budget, but I can’t help but think that the current government has turned on its head the adage: under promise and over deliver.  We have had nothing but daily leaks, tweets, squeaks and psssts about all the possible/likely/expected/anticipated/proposed/ manoeuvres that this government will adopt to create a budget that they can claim will pull us out of a seemingly manufactured crisis.

If you look at what international economists are saying, Australia is in an excellent position. Sure, we need to be secure for the future, but what appears to be happening is scaremongering to prepare us for the bitter pill that Joe will no doubt be delivering to us all in the near future. And  why?  Because having campaigned on the basis that  there was a financial crisis there is an imperative to create one.

I’m appalled at Tony Shepherd’s comments in response to the audit report,  that public servants, many of whom stand to lose their jobs, should not think in terms of my job, but think in terms of my country. Spoken like a true bean counter and every chief financial officer and treasury official I have ever encountered.  I’m sorry, but that’s a bit like telling a homeless person not to worry about sleeping out in the freezing cold with no food because on average people across Australia are in a warm bed and have just had a good lamb roast.  

From my high school economics there are two things you have to do in a budget:

1. Secure an income

2. Spend within your means.

Now, as a country there are a number of ways to secure an income and one of those is to put an appropriate level of tax onto the profits derived by companies from resources that belong to us all – especially those that come out of the ground. I concede there is a need for incentives to invest and make a profit, but there is also an ethical need to return to the country appropriate profits from the minerals and wealth that is being raped from it.

You can also increase you income by reducing spending – not on social welfare and community services, but on needless or badly thought out activity like: buying orange boats to tow back legitimate refugees; purchasing large and expensive fighter planes when drones are probably the way of the future;  ditching the whole notion of paid parental leave; scrapping the counselling hand out to engaged couples;  abandoning the repeal of sensible legislation and the costs that come with it and its associated inquiries; travelling to sporting events and weddings on parliamentary allowances; restricting access to parliamentarians pensions until age 70…. Need I go on?

 Instead what is being bandied about attacks our very livelihood and future. All because Joe Hockey thinks we have been in an age of entitlement. Well, Joe, let me tell you. I have worked for 45 years, making a contribution to our society through my taxes and effort. If in my latter years I need to be supported through health care and services, then I think I have more than paid my dues.

I suspect that come budget night we will have been so battered by the worst case scenarios that whatever is handed down will be received with: At least it could have been worse.

But I’m sorry. That’s just not good enough. 

And don’t get me started on when a levy is not a tax – oh, of course, I remember I have to use the core promise argument.

I have a confession.

Yesterday I was polled!

Question: Does that mean I will have to change the name of my blog?

  

Answer: No.  I just have to insert some UWS’s (Understood Abbot Words).

Just like he said: We will stop (telling you about) the boats

My blog will now say:   Nobody polls me (about the particular matters I wish to comment on at this point in time)

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Art Work of the week

I've been knitting beanies for Beaniefest in Alice Springs. One of my friends suggests that if Joe makes me work until I am 70, that this can be my new job. That will get me less than $7 a hour, before tax and before GST.   Do you reckon I can live on that Joe?