When the government is in surplus, the people are in deficit.
That’s never been truer than it is today. Treasurer Jim Chalmers tells us the budget surplus this financial year ballooned from an expected $4.2 billion out to $19 billion.
Ordinary Australians, desperately trying to keep their budgets under control and cost cutting wherever they can, should expect some kind of relief from this surprise windfall.
Rough sleepers should expect immediate assistance. The latest count found there are 300 homeless people in Byron Shire alone, more than double last year’s count.
The problem is particularly acute for women.
Meanwhile, our local MP, Justine Elliot, continues her taxpayer-funded social media campaign against The Greens, simply because they are trying to persuade her government to take real action to help the homeless and desperate renters. Her social media account blocks anyone, including me, who is too ‘vociferous’.
Her top priority should be finding suitable accommodation for people sleeping on the streets of her electorate.
The prime minister suddenly found a lazy two billion dollars to throw into the kitty to help states deal with the housing catastrophe.
He could easily add another eight billion from that surplus right now. Then we might just start seeing a difference.
The government is nervous about fuelling inflation, and say they are going to pocket the surplus. That surplus belongs to all Australians. Helping the homeless absolutely must have priority over any inflation fears.
There are other urgent issues that also need dealing with. Australia is likely moving into another potentially deadly El Nino cycle. Heaven knows how hot and dry it’s going to get this coming summer.
The planet has just had the hottest June day ever. Greenland ice is melting at an unprecedented rate. Anything could happen in a few months.
Australia has a fleet of about 150 firefighting planes. Judging by the raging forest fires in Canada this year, we need to gear up for the worst-case scenario.
Coulson Aviation of Canada has been converting Boeing 737s into FireLiner tankers. These are highly effective and capable of carrying 15,000 litres of water at a time. One of these tankers, named Phoenix, was ordered in January this year and is based in Sydney.
FireLiner tankers cost $2.5 million a year to lease. The Albanese government could invest in any number of these and it would have zero effect on inflation. Tankers, and other effective firefighting equipment, need to be stationed in vulnerable areas all over Australia. It must be top priority.
Many lives, properties and so much forest and wildlife can be saved. Australians will never forgive the government if it fails to prepare to prevent disasters that could be stopped in their tracks.
Inflation-free investment
Another inflation-free investment would be retiring a chunk of tertiary student debt. Many mature women have needed to go to university to retrain to earn an income after relationship breakdowns, taking time out to have children, or the death of partners.
There are over one hundred thousand people over sixty carrying an average HELP (Higher Education Loan Program) debt of more than ten thousand dollars.
The total HELP debt owed by those sixty-and-over is around $1.4 billion. That has leapt this year as interest on the debts is tied to inflation. People are retiring, often in poverty as rents and the cost of living have skyrocketed, with this burdensome debt hanging around their necks, further stressing them out. Retiring the HELP debt of the over-sixties would cost less than ten per cent of this coal and gas export-fuelled budget surplus. It’s just a book entry, would have zero effect on inflation, and give peace of mind to tens of thousands of vulnerable and struggling elders.
There are multiple ways the Albanese Labor government could recycle this huge surplus to assist people who are really suffering from the cost of living crisis, the lack of health care, and to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis, without having any impact on inflation.
As for our local MP, Justine Elliot, she needs to take time out from her Greens-bashing campaign to attend to the urgent needs of her electorate. It is truly shameful we have hundreds of people sleeping rough in Byron Shire.
She could, for example, organise for them to be housed in some of those empty Airbnbs, until more permanent accommodation can be organised. The cost of doing that wouldn’t add a cent to inflation. Look how the homeless were suddenly housed during the covid pandemic. Why not now?
This government needs to wake up to the rising groundswell of discontent at their appalling failure to help Australians desperately in need.
The unprecedented wealth disparity in today’s Australia has turned us back into a feudal society. Instead of barons, we have billionaires who call the shots. It’s surprising young Australians aren’t already rioting in the streets!
Wake up Albo! Time to listen to the people.
♦ Richard Jones is a former NSW MLC 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. 
