While I entered the Budget lock-up with a little excitement, my emotions quickly switched to disappointment as I began to read the approximately 25cm high stack of Budget papers. No bringing along the battler or the underdog here. No promises to end child poverty. No indignation at the of treatment asylum seekers. Just the simple economics of global risk and uncertainty, followed by fiscal caution, and a budget bottom line to bring political comfort.
With the exception of the substantial new initiatives in the Health Portfolio, this Budget presented very dry economics. That is to say, the Budget presents a vision that is based almost entirely around economic goals, rather than social goals. Unlike the previous Budget, there is very little effort made to even dress the economics in social rhetoric.
Perhaps this will be the most damaging and lasting legacy of the Global Financial Crisis. Apart from the human cost that the Global Financial Crisis has wrought in the homes of those left unemployed or those suffering under mortgage or rental stress, the Global Financial Crisis seems to have allowed a shift in public priorities. It seems a treasurer can now be rewarded (politically) for 'fiscal responsibility' as an end in itself, rather than as a means to achieving greater social goals.
I suspect that one of the reasons many voters were originally attracted to this government was because in opposition, and even as a new government, they conveyed a strong sense of a broader social vision for a more inclusive Australian society. I suspect many of those same voters may find it hard to see that vision reflected in the new Budget.
The team I work with at Catholic Social Services Australia made some very direct claims on the government in the pre-Budget process, but this Budget has not responded to those claims.
We asked for increased incomes for the poor, especially the unemployed. The Newstart allowance for the unemployed and other government benefits are too low and trap many people in poverty. This Budget fails to deliver even modest increases to the Newstart allowance. We maintain that an Independent Entitlements Commission should be established to make objective recommendations regarding an adequate level of payments from government.
We asked for more opportunities for people to enter paid work and supported employment. As the economy now begins to grow there is a risk that some Australians