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| Colossus, 1808-1812 Francisco de Goya |
Why am I angry? How to put it in a few short and probably intemperate words -
This bloody stupid arse of a government that Australia is currently having to endure!
Where to start? Yeah gods, where to stop! We all know all the stupid, short-sighted, heartless, mean-spirited things that are in the budget, all the ideology-driven idiocy that has been spewed out over the country.
Let's see - unemployment. What are people supposed to live on for six months WITH NO MONEY COMING IN? How are they supposed to afford to catch a bus or train to a job interview? How are they supposed to pay for their phones so they can ring about jobs? WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO LIVE? HOW THE HELL ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO EAT?
Not content with that, the LNP in all its "wisdom" has cut funds to vital training schemes, job skills courses and to youth support programs, such as Youth Connections, which has done such great work here on the Central Coast. Comparitive chicken feed funding, which was vital to programs and which was money well spent, will go, causing immediate job losses and closing off vital avenues for those trying to find work.
The Disability Support Pension - I have a brother who is on this. He barely manages to get through. Even with rental support my mother (who is on the age pension) has to help him out so he does not end up on the street. The linking of the pension to CPI rather than wages makes me worry if he will be able to continue to live independently. He is unbelievably stressed about what is going to happen to him. He is petrified of being forced to work (which is beyond him) or of being left with no support.I am sure he is not alone in his fears. The number of people rorting this pension is small, and all who are should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. But the government decides it will put all recipients on the rack. The rorters are merely a convenient excuse for the government to reduce payments to the vulnerable in our society.
The Aged Pension is also to be CPI linked, rather than linked to the average male wage, so again it will go up more slowly (note the politicians do not link their wage increases to CPI). And we all know about the age eligibility increase. Clearly a decision made by people who sit on their arses all day long. How are labourers to work until 70, or builders, or shearers, or anyone doing any other form of manual work?
No, wait. The plan is really plain to see - make sure that such uncouth people are WORKED TO DEATH before they even make it to pension age. The savings will just keep rolling in.
Climate change? Don't make me laugh. What did everyone think was going to happen? Abbott has said long and loud he thinks climate change is "crap". One of his first moves on getting into office was to ditch the Minister for Science. The trouble with scientists is that they tend to say things that a man like Tony does not wish to hear, things that may contradict the interests of his high-powered friends, things that may actually require all of us to change our habits for the good of the entire planet. He can't be having that.
Universal healthcare? The LNP has made no secret of its hatred of Medicare since it came in, back when it was Medibank. And now there's the perfect way to kill it. Make no mistake, that is what these co-payments are really about. Costs in healthcare are not blowing out at the GP level. It's higher up, with specialists that you start to see problems. The co-payments are a false economy, costs rise as illnesses are left untreated and the mild becomes the serious. But this is not about a handful of savings, or "user pays" (gods, we pay taxes and the Medicare Levy and we have a safety net, so sod "user pays" - we already do). This is about killing Medicare, the end of universal healthcare. This is about services only going to the deserving (ie, those who can comfortably pay for them).
And on, and on. I could write a whole post on its own about how the education crap is making me feel, how short sighted it is. I could write a whole post on the attacks on renewable energy investment. There have been whole posts on the attacks on the video game industry (very lucrative, but clearly beyond the limited imaginations of the cabinet). The huge waste that is the humanitarian disgrace of asylum policy is beyond words. I am sure you can each come up with your own foci of seething anger.
Let me get this straight, right now. THERE IS NO BUDGET CRISIS. What there is however, is an underlying structural problem with our economy. Our spending compared to other OECD countries is quite low. The problem we have, the reason there are deficits that are increasing, is a very simple one. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH COMING IN. Howard started the rot, he massively ramped up middle class welfare, pushed up negative gearing as a great tax dodge (and that is all that it is, one great big tax avoidance scheme), undermined tax streams. And guess what? The people who benefitted from all this were in the top part of society - middle class and up, with the burden falling on the poor. Rudd and Gillard failed to fix the system (I could write a whole post on how cranky I am with Labor).
Abbott makes Howard look like a big softy. The gloves are definitely off and the poor are getting absolutely hammered.
But the 2014 budget is not all doom and gloom. If you are a mining company you have it good. That nasty mining tax is gone, just as it was about to pour huge amounts of money into the Australian bottom line (remember that structural problem in the economy? Abbott sure as hell hasn't). A polluter? No problem. The carbon PRICE has gone out the window (it was a PRICE on carbon, not a TAX on carbon, you economic pygmies. There's a difference. Aaargh). And don't be fooled by the politicians' pay freeze. They recently got a 20% pay rise, so it is a freeze in name only. As usual, they are only pretending to join in the pain.
Got a family trust? An investment property (or a string of them)? Happen to be one of the 75 richest people who pay $0 tax? One of the 1000 next richest who pay next to nothing? Well, have no fear, you are all okay. No one is going to make you pull your weight. None of you are going to have to do any "lifting".
Cuts all round and yet $245 million goes into the school chaplaincy program. Inane, stupid, inefficient. Does Abbott think he is buying brownie points with the Pope? Demonstrating his Christian ideals? Don't make me vomit.
Here is the worst thing about all this. I have heard a lot in the last few days about the cabinet having no idea how ordinary Australians live, and less idea about how the poor and the vulnerable manage, and that is the case. They don't know
AND THEY DON'T CARE. That is the really awful truth of the matter.
THEY
DON'T
CARE
You could explain it a thousand times, use facts and figures (oh no, wait, that smacks of science. Cross off that approach), get in those hardest hit to talk to them, hell, ask the Pope to talk to Tony. None of it will make the slightest difference. They aren't interested. They don't care.
So what can we do? We can sit back and bitch to each other about how awful it is. We can share memes on facebook and pass comments. We can have a good moan.
Or we can start making a nuisance of ourselves. Abbott may have a large majority in the lower house, but I don't think he realises that a lot of that majority is made up of VERY MARGINAL seats. Got a local MP who is in the LNP? Ring them up and give them a serve. You'll probably get their hapless PA, so be polite (don't shoot the messenger, so to speak), but be firm. Don't just ring once, ring a few times over a few weeks, asking each time what has been done to address your concerns. Let them know their seat is in peril. Email your MPs. Email government ministers. Email Tony Abbott (you can't ring him. His office number has been removed from the PM's website). Flood his inbox. Tell him what an evil little scroat he is (only be polite when you do it). Tell him we expect better.
If you haven't already, join GetUp. We have been hearing a lot about lobbyists and the sway they have over OUR parliamentarians. GetUp is US AS LOBBYISTS. It is our opportunity to get our voices heard. Think how much the powerful hate GetUp. We must be threatening their position or they wouldn't be so bothered.
March in May is on this weekend. Sunday, 18 March, meeting in Belmore Park at 1pm in Sydney. Times and places for other capitals can be found by following the link. This is a great chance to join with others in the immediate aftermath of Budget night and say "NO".
Think all this is a little too difficult, a little too time-consuming? As Edmund Burke said,
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing".
So what's it going to be?
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