Opinion
Back in the 2000s, Howard and Costello had the good fortune to govern during a mining boom and its consequent river of royalties gold. John Howard and Peter Costello wisely banked budget surpluses for the future. Then Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan blew the lot and threw the country back into deficit.
History is repeating: Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers have lucked their way into government on a record-low vote, and right as another mining boom hits. Instead of banking the money for when the boom inevitably runs out again, they’re already blowing the lot on desperate vote-buying and pet left-wing projects.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said cost-of-living help was on the way in tonight’s budget, however the government will be “responsible” in their approach.
Of course, we wouldn’t need cost-of-living help, if it weren’t for Labor’s lunatic policies, front and centre, “Net Zero”. Everywhere in the world they’ve been tried, wind and solar have translated directly to skyrocketing energy prices. Australia is no exception.
And when the cost of energy goes up, everything goes up.
Now, to make things worse, Zippy is out to prove Ronald Reagan right, yet again.
“What you’ll see tonight is help for everyone to make ends meet,’ he said. “I encourage you to have a very careful look at the cost-of-living package in the budget.
“There are some assumptions which may or may not turn out to be right. I encourage you to check it out. More importantly, I say to the Australian people we know that you’re doing it tough. More help is on the way in the budget.
The Australian
They’re from the government and they’re here to help. What could possibly go wrong?
And they’re already admitting that they’ve blown their windfall gain.
Jim Chalmers will abandon future surpluses in favour of “unavoidable” spending on deals with the states worth tens of billions of dollars, wage rises for low-paid workers and cost-of-living relief, as his third budget banks a $9.3bn surplus followed by deeper deficits over four years.
As Treasury forecasts in Tuesday’s budget reveal a weakening economy, higher unemployment and slowing growth, Dr Chalmers is under pressure to rein in long-term structural spending, implement tougher fiscal repair measures and speed up tax reforms.
Senior government sources said the deeper deficits, which were not released by Dr Chalmers ahead of the budget, would be “sizeable” over the forward estimates.
No spending is “unavoidable” — unless, of course, you’re a Labor government.
Leading economist Chris Richardson […] told The Australian that while the cost of running the country has risen – “budgets are choices”.
“Our national choices have to change to deal with that. In the short-term we can rely on war and inflation that’s giving us more tax revenue. You can’t rely on it long-term. We’ve got to make some choices. We can cut other spending. We can raise taxes,” Mr Richardson said.
The Australian
It’s Labor — three guesses about which choice they’ll make.
And only a Labor government could claim that a smaller-than-expected rise in spending is a “saving”. Yet, that’s what Labor expects us to believe when it comes to the single-biggest fiscal monster they’ve created, the NDIS. Its budget is predicated on the assumption that NDIS growth will be halved to 8 per cent by mid-2026. That, they say, will “save” $15.3bn over four years.
But the undeniable fact is that they’ll still be spending more. A lot more. The NDIS is already the single most expensive item on government books. Its growth is exponential. Even the assumption that that growth will be halved is heroic to the point of foolhardiness.
But it’s the Albanese government: foolhardiness is their mission statement.
