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The difference between a drunken sailor and the socialist Albanese government is two-fold. First, at least a drunken sailor has actually worked for a living, unlike the entirety of parliamentary Labor, who go straight from their arts-law degrees into politics. Secondly, at least a drunken sailor pisses away his own money.
There isn’t a cent of someone else’s money Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers won’t piss up against the wall as soon as he gets his claws on it. Even a crisis like fuel is just another opportunity for Zippy the Pinhead to gouge more money out of other people’s pockets. With pump prices skyrocketing, so is the government’s tax theft – and Chalmers is going to spend every cent of it.
Jim Chalmers is considering increasing government spending in a May budget to “reflect the times” of an oil shock and cost-of-living pressures, with Westpac forecasting Labor could reap $60bn in windfall revenues over the next five years because of the Middle East war and inflation.
The Treasurer’s refusal to commit to delivering a net savings package in the budget comes as former NSW premier Mike Baird described the May budget as the most important in recent history while warning Australia’s status as a low-debt country was over.
What, and admit that they’re running the country to socialist hell in a handcart?
In a major intervention calling out the profligacy of state and federal governments, Mr Baird urged all treasurers to begin issuing a fiscal statement ahead of their annual budgets spelling out the consequences of spending decisions for the coming 10 years.
Fiscal statements that extend governments’ focus beyond the standard four-year budget cycle to a 10-year-outlook would improve “decision making, support more informed public debate, and force greater honesty about trade-offs between present benefits and future costs”.
Just think: if Julia Gillard had been forced to come clean on the consequences of her brain-fart – the NDIS – over 10 years, she’d never have been able to get away with the lie that it was ‘fully funded’. The truth was that it was fully funded for just a few years – but the real costs wouldn’t hit until long after that. And so we’re where we are, with the NDIS a bloated monster well on the way to being the single most costly programme on the government books.
Windfall revenues in the last parliamentary term allowed Labor to claim it was fixing the budget, despite government decisions adding a net $100bn-plus to the structural budget deficit.
Chalmers is like the dole bludger who wins twenny bucks on the scratchies and proceeds to blow the lot on the pokies.
And the more this grinning idiot spends, the higher inflation goes – which in turns causes the Reserve Bank to belt ordinary Australians, at least the ones lucky enough to be able to even buy a home any more, with yet more interest rate rises.
These people are almost criminally idiotic.
Economists are warning the government against using windfall gains to avoid making tough decisions on real spending cuts, with Anthony Albanese on Monday unveiling the first round of cost-of-living sugar hits through a three-month cut to the fuel excise.
‘Cost-of-living’ relief is almost insulting: it’s the government taking even more of your money and then giving you back a few cents and expecting you to be grateful. Lend me 10 pounds and I’ll buy you a drink, as Shane MacGowan once said.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said it was “basic economics” that the measure would put upward pressure on underlying inflation, while economist Saul Eslake said it was “what you would expect populist politician to say”.
Mr Oliver said windfall revenues gave the government an opportunity to claim it was fixing the budget when it was actually increasing spending.
“It is not going to solve the basic economic opportunities in Australia,” he said. “If windfall revenue gains are used to further pump up government spending then that would be a really bad outcome.”
Yes, well, really bad outcomes are Albo and Zippy’s speciality. Meanwhile, Australia is heading for its first-ever trillion-dollar deficit. Just the interest payments on government debt are costing us $48bn a year.
But, life’s pretty sweet when you’re a crook who’s never worked a job outside politics, but can still afford to buy multi-million-dollar clifftop mansions.
