The budget didn’t cause a ripple of anxiety among well-heeled Australians, big business or Murdoch shock jocks, and that was the precise intention of Treasurer Jim Chalmers. It was basically business as usual, with a few slight tweaks and a handful of lollies thrown in the direction of the needy.
Mustn’t frighten the horses, must we? As a result, there were no banner headlines like ‘SPEND! SPEND! SPEND!’ or ‘Albo Does a Whitlam!’ and no thundering editorials excoriating Chalmers for profligacy.
As Albo has clearly stated, to make change you need to be in government and to be in government you need to appeal to the centre. The question is though – where is the centre now? While Albo is busy trying to make Labor the ‘natural party of government’ as he said, there are millions who are desperate for real change, not just a slight shift in direction.
The Medicare bulk billing changes were welcomed, as was raising the youngest child age-trigger for single parents to be moved to JobSeeker, from eight to 14. The extra rent assistance was welcomed but, in so many cases, instantly gobbled up by greedy landlords.
The JobSeeker increase of $20 a week was pitiful and downright cruel.
Every Australian knows it’s impossible to survive on JobSeeker. Rents are still rising, as are food prices and everything else. These clearly are the most desperately poor in our society. Many people are simply unable, for a variety of reasons, to hold down any kind of regular job. There are some on the right who still think of unemployed people as ‘undeserving dolebludgers’. There is almost no such person.
Why be so parsimonious towards the most needy? Possibly to stop the shock jocks baying about giving hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars to the ‘leaners’ in a time of supposed full employment?
An accounting quirk gave Jim Chalmers a temporary budget surplus to prove Labor has the management skills to bring the budget back into the black, even if only for a single budget according to their own forecasts. As the end of the financial year is but weeks away it is very likely there will indeed be a surplus.
The truth is, this wasn’t an authentic Labor budget, even though Anthony Albanese is from the left faction. It did nothing to tackle the huge issues of tax reform, inequality, inadequate capital gains tax watered down by the Howard government, or getting anything like a reasonable return from our woefully undertaxed resources shipped overseas by largely foreign-owned corporations.
‘It said nothing about the massive multi-hundred billion dollar Stage Three tax cuts due to start next year.’
It said nothing about the massive multi-hundred billion dollar Stage Three tax cuts due to start next year. Apart from cruelty to the unemployed, the most glaring and unnecessary gap in the budget is the provision of accommodation for the homeless and those desperately trying to find affordable housing or recover from natural disasters.
With much fanfare the government has announced the $10 billon housing fund, supposedly designed to build 30,000 dwellings in five years. It’s like one of those fantasy ‘announceables’ in the ABC TV comedy Utopia and about as real.
The ten billon will be invested to attempt to generate sufficient funds to build six thousand homes a year. If the legislation is passed, intact in the next few weeks, it will take a while to invest the money; and in what, fossil fuels, nuclear submarine manufacturers, gambling corporations?
There’s not a ghost of a chance that the fund will generate sufficient income quickly enough to build 6,000 homes by this time next year. Anyone who says so is either deluded or lying through their teeth. The building industry is in crisis with lack of building materials, tradespeople, and rising costs.
The Greens want to turn the government’s promise into a reality by negotiating a much better deal. To make it really happen we need innovative solutions; like energy efficient architect-designed prefabs, using sustainable materials. By now, we should have had a thriving hempcrete industry using locally grown hemp. Prefabricated factory built eco-houses could have been bypassing the shortage of tradespeople and traditional materials.
The Greens have resisted allowing speedy passage of the legislation while trying to negotiate a better deal that really would build thousands of homes quickly.
Senator Pocock too has suggested doubling the fund to $20B.
Sadly, local Labor MP, Justine Elliot, has taken the opportunity to bash the Greens mercilessly in an advertising blitz.
Her message is so misleading: ‘The Greens, Liberals and One Nation have yet again teamed up to prevent a Bill on affordable housing and emergency accommodation for those fleeing domestic violence’.
She knows the Greens and those others are worlds apart.
Labor cannot get elected without Greens preferences. Greens voters got them into office. Instead of bashing your allies, it would be better to sit down and negotiate a much better, genuine, housing deal. Playing dirty party politics at such a time is inexcusable.
♦ Richard Jones is a former NSW MP and is now a ceramist.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
