Max O.
In line
with the trend throughout the Western capitalist world, the Hockey Abbott
budget is implementing the demands of international finance capital by tearing
down the poor and workers welfare rights, as well as the nation-wrecking
sell-off of government assets. Using the spin, that readers have become all to
familiar with, ('end of the age of entitlement', 'pain with purpose', 'nation
of lifters not leaners') the government has used a manufactured 'debt crisis' to justify the enormous cutbacks to government
welfare and vital public institutions.
The
real purpose of the budget cuts is to shift billions of dollars over the next
couple of years from the less well off to the wealthy, large corporations and
financial institutions. It will also have an ideological function of instilling
fear and misery into the poor and working class.
Hockey's
budget announcements, in the main coming straight from the Business Council's
and Audit Commission's wish list, amount to the following:
• Will
now prevent people who are aged 30 or younger from getting Newstart
(unemployment benefits) unless they’ve done an “employment services activity”
for six months. The under 25 will have to scrape by on the pitiful Youth
Allowance because they're no longer be eligible for Newstart.
• The
pension age to be increased to 70 by 2035. From 2017 the age pension and the
disability support pension will be indexed to inflation, rather than average
weekly earnings and so fall behind the cost of living.
• Family
payments are to be cutback by $8 billion!
• Sole
parents and stay at home parents are to be penalised. Parents (essentially
women) with children over the age of six, with no regard to their
circumstances, will be pushed and poked back into work.
• Through
the use of co-payments Hockey has attacked the universal nature of Medicare.
The sick will be hit with a $7 charge to see their GP, or get a pathology test
and for X rays. There will be a $5 increase to the cost of every single
prescription drug. This in effect is double dipping with the 'user pay'
philosophy, because people already pay for their Medicare through the 1.5% tax
levy.
• Reintroduction
of the six monthly fuel excise indexation that will raise $2.2 billion. This
will go to fund road infrastructure, with public transport being overlooked. In
fact there’s plenty of handouts to the construction companies and property
developers, with $12 billion from the government thrown their way to build
infrastructure for the benefit of big business - more and bigger polluting
roads (like Melbourne’s East West link), ports, railways and airports.
• University
funding will suffer a massive cut, but Hockey will now allow vice chancellors
to charge students whatever fees they like. Government contributions to HECS will
shrink and repayments will start earlier and at a higher rate.
• Over
the next decade the budget tears out $80bn funding to the states for hospitals
and schools. This is an arrant attempt by Hockey and Abbott to push the states
into agreeing to increase the unpopular GST. The Coalition have now blatantly
reneged on the promised Gonski funding, aggravating the widening gap between
private and public schools.
• A
deficit tax will be levied for three years of 2% on incomes of over $180,000.
This to feign the impression that all (rich and poor alike) must share the
burden of the debt crisis, and predictably was disapproved by the likes of Tony
Shepherd from the Audit Commission and Business Council.
• To
make co-payments more palatable finance raised from them will go to a dubious
Medical Research Future Fund, which will receive $20 billion by 2020.
• Company
tax to be reduced down to 28.5%, a 1.5% reduction.
•
$10,000 subsidy over 24 months for businesses who employ over 50s.
There
is money to be had but it is in the wrong hands. Governments could quite easily
redress their revenue problems by making the RICH PAY! For example a proper
Super Profit Mining Tax of 40% on all minerals, with a fixed state royalty and
a change to depreciation would collect $35 billion straight away.
They
could also look at permanent options like trusts, superannuation tax
concessions and negative gearing. The forgone tax revenue cost the budget this
year $34 billion rising to over $50 billion in 2016/17.
Let’s
not forget the deceitful scheme of profit shifting to tax havens by multinational
corporations. This is wealth produced
from workers’ labour power that is sneaked out of the country instead of being
used here to fund social programs.
But of
course this won't happen, because our 'parliamentary democracy' is in fact a
covert capitalist dictatorship, a social and economic system that only exists
to serve the needs of capital accumulation/profiteering for Australia's comprador
capitalist class.
The
Abbott Coalition government have just started stage one of their austerity
attacks. Following stages will include increasing and extending the Goods and
Services Tax (which hurt the poor and workers), more nation-wrecking privatisation
and further outsourcing of public sector services, and vicious attacks on
minimum wages and worker rights.
By now
many people don't have faith in parliamentary parties and are beginning to lose
faith in parliament itself because of its perpetual service to capitalism and
the continual neglect of their needs. Resistance to this budget and other
attacks on the working class can best be sustained through workplace and
community based organisation.
Mass/participatory
democracy is the weapon that ordinary people can use in their workplace,
suburbs and the streets to start the fightback against this budget and
parliament that has declared class war on them.
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