Middle class welfare

The federal gov is obsessed politically with bringing it's budget back into surplus this year. The opposition Liberal party has for some decades (rightly or wrongly) been perceived by Australians as the party better able to manage the economy. That's something I very much disagree with but that's another subject.

Abbott the head kicker and politician, has been able to maintain a big lead over the gov in the polls since the last election. He's not had any particular policies that have woed the electorate to love his party and his leadership, in fact he's had hardly any policies at all. In a performance that makes me seriously wonder at the average intelligence of Australians, he has succeeded in gaining a 16 point lead over the gov in  polling (as of last June) over a carbon tax scare tactic (with his mate Alan Jones screaming from his radio show) and political opportunism. In June Labor was polling a mere 27% or so, and looking like being annihilated in next years federal election.

Then July came. The carbon tax started and Abbott's and Jones' end of the world predictions of the sky falling didn't materialise. People started to realise they'd been duped by Abbott's exaggeration and pretty much lying about what effect it was going to have. Pensioners got extra payments, workers got big tax cuts (the tax free threshold was increased from about $6,000 a year to $18,000 a year). People started to finally see that Abbott was full of shit. So much so that perhaps a bowel cleaning might be in order. The 16 point poll lead in June is today reduced to only 4 points, with poll after poll showing the gov steadily improving. The gov senses a comeback. Then Gillard delivered the misogyny speech that saw Abbott destroyed not only on national telly here, but globally. 

But still the gov wants to continue whatever winning trend it's found. IMO it's increase in popularity is more about the self destruction of Abbott than the gov doing anything differently. But anyway, so the gov has promised a while back to get the budget back into a surplus next budget speech time to prove to the electorate it's fiscal responsibility, and that they're better than the Liberals at running the economy, and they'll do anything to get that surplus. They just had a mid year mini-budget thing where they've introduced more cuts to gov spending.

The most controversial parts of this little budget are cuts to middle class welfare here, something that IMO is way way long overdue. The gov is reducing the baby bonus from $5,000 to $3,000 for the second child (yes, the gov pays you to have babies here, um, that started from the so called fiscally "responsible" Howard gov). They're also cutting private health insurance rebates, for people who have private health insurance (yes the gov subsidises private health premiums). This is a good start, but pretty weak really. It needs to go far further than that. What about the bazillions the gov gives to private schools? All middle class welfare paid for by taxpayers.

You'd think with all that welfare getting splashed around all over the place that the entire population would be on easy street right? Wrong. ACOSS (the Australian Council of Social Services) has recently released a report into poverty in Australia, and it states that 13% of us are living below the poverty line. So why isn't the huge amount of money being paid in welfare in Australia finding it's way to the people who really need it? They aren't concerned about private school fees and private health insurance, these being completely beyond their reach. It's public schools and public health. They're concerned about where the next meal is coming from for their family.

How can this be in Australia, that we have these levels of poverty? Where people are honestly expected to survive on a $250 or so a week dole (unemployment benefit). Where people are having to rely on charities for food and clothing. Where perhaps their self respect is under attack from being so poor, I mean I dunno how it would feel if I'd not been able to afford food for my daughter growing up.

Middle class welfare, that's why. WTF is the gov doing paying for peoples health insurance fees and such, people who can well afford to pay all the fees on their own, when that money could be much better used by the 13% of people in this country below the poverty line. But it'd be unpopular amongst middle class voters wouldn't it. And it would threaten the surplus..... 

Nonetheless, there is still an awful lot of taxpayers' money devoted to greed rather than need. If the need were less pressing, this misallocation could perhaps be justified on the grounds of Realpolitik, but if the ACOSS figures are right - and they have not been seriously disputed - the situation is urgent, even desperate. But there is no sign that the Government is treating it as such; so far, the reaction has been muted and indirect. 

At the weekend, Treasurer Wayne Swan wrote a rather smug article about how much worse things are in the United States than they are here. And Employment Minister Bill Shorten suggested that yes, perhaps the Newstart Allowance - the dole - was inadequate. But quizzed later, he made it clear that the Government had no immediate plans to increase it, and fell back on the mantra that the very stinginess of Newstart was a positive; it encouraged the unemployed to find a job. Well, they might want to, but if they can't afford to travel - or even to dress decently - their chances of doing so are somewhat limited. 

This is the Catch 22 facing the forgotten 13 per cent. Well, perhaps not entirely forgotten; but for the time being they have definitely been consigned to the too hard basket. Newstart currently stands at $246 a week - just 42 per cent of the statutory minimum wage. To bring it up to even half the minimum wage would cost nearly $2.5 billion a year - and that's at a time of low unemployment and is just for those actively looking for work. A great many of the 13 per cent would still miss out altogether. more

*Update:

Just on the Abbott doomsday carbon tax claim. Today in the news, an indication at just how much shit Abbott is full of. Turns out the carbon tax starting in July 1st has had fuck all impact on anything. Honestly, he was blaming the carbon tax for everything. If someone stubbed their toe he'd have probably blamed it on the tax. I'm all for political debate, but fuck at least keep it remotely factual. This was supposed to be nigh on life as we know it ending in Australia:

THE carbon tax has boosted the cost of living scarcely at all. Despite dire talk of an ''almost unimaginable'' increase (Tony Abbott) and $100 for a Sunday roast (Barnaby Joyce) the first official consumer price figures show a far lower impact than predicted by the Treasury. 

Last July, Treasury said the tax would push up the consumer price index 0.70 percentage points, adding $9.90 per week to average household costs. In return, households were given compensation averaging $10.10 per week. 

But 0.70 percentage points looks like being an overestimate. Inflation figures for the September quarter - the one that encompasses almost all of the electricity and gas price rises - show them adding 0.44 points to the CPI. It's a big figure, but not that much bigger than the usual September quarter slug. Read more