Whatever you do, don’t mention the D word.
Our Canberra correspondent writes today that the federal Labor government carries a lot of psychological baggage from the Howard years. In fact, it suffers from “the political equivalent of post-traumatic stress disorder. And the greatest damage accrued around economic management”.
That explains this nervous talk, or non talk, around whether the projected Budget surplus should be abandoned to “pay for” the cost of recovering from the floods.
Bernard Keane notes, “… the government’s oft-repeated commitment to return to surplus by 2012-13 come what may is its admission that it is stuck with a debate defined by its enemies in the Opposition and the media.”
The surplus angle has been dogging Gillard since the early days of the floods. The press gallery copped a bollocking from the public for hammering the line of questioning. A perfect opportunity, you’d think, for Gillard to show some spine by puncturing the simplistic focus on surplus and reframing the debate. She didn’t.
Experts are now questioning the allocated spend on natural disaster relief. In 2010-11, the annual provision was cut to $80 million until 2013-14, 20% less than that made by the Howard government in its last budget, according to The AFR today. As Keane writes, “under even the mildest climate change scenarios, the cost of recovering from extreme weather events is going to plague future budgets much more frequently than we’re used to.”
So maybe it’s time …
Deficit. There, we said it.
As you mentioned previously the ALP hasn’t handled this well since ’96 (and Beazelys Big Hole)…
One line that occurred to me – that the coalition might run is that if the budget deficit is increased it won’t be because of the needed and good spending on the recovery but the bad wasteful spending on the NBN -even if between now and 2012 there isn’t much spending on the NBN.
When will the moron media get one thing through their thick frigging skulls – a budget surplus has no legal basis, the constitution merely demands that government raise the amount of taxes required to supply services.
It does not say that the government can steal vast amounts from taxpayers to store in the bank and not pay for services.
If anyone else tried this sort of organised larceny we would jail them but most of the press gallery are so dumb they don’t get it or are so captured with their own tiny lives they don’t bother.
Let’s get real though.
IF the repairs cost $20 billion, $10 billion is covered by insurance they say.
That leaves $10 billion over about 2 years say, or $5 billion per annum out of a tax take of $320-340 billion per annum.
The same cost as the NBN per annum that the OO is peddling the killing of.
Why is it that journos in this country prefer to abuse the messenger than find out the truth about things?
Even the ABC does it.
They would prefer to abuse me and tell me that information about Australian law not being addressed while lies fester is “harassment” rather than address the bloody law.
Like, it is not people smuggling to give refugees a ride. Refugees are not smuggled, therefore there can be no smugglers.
But our morons don’t want to know about the truth, they would rather do their work by press release as the NT times point out today about SERCO and DIAC
Given that the recent calamitous natural events are unlikely to wait two hundred years before recurring, surely this is the time for the Government to get real and introduce a great big new tax .
The need for some means of securing revenue dedicated to dealing with the current situations and the next strikes me as imperative.
This is every a national problem and one that will require national commitment in dealing with it.
I would like to hear the Opposition rail against such a move, right now.
It’s sad but amusing to find attacks on “moron media” from posters who are economic / legal / constitutional illiterates. The people Australia’s taxes help subsidise.
It’s best we don’t mention their problems with basic numeracy, English and more — but it’s beyond their understanding, so perhaps we shouldn’t expect too much of them?