Another Missed Opportunity.
The Rudd announcement today of $10.4billion in handouts is the reactive easy way out to the current situation and represents the absolute dearth of policy talent in the Federal Government.
It is "shut up" money to all those who are feeling the pinch of the financial crisis, unless, of course you happen to be young, have a job and own your house. Out of the budget surplus goes payments to pensioners (who needed it) and carers (who deserve it) and then to first home buyers. Most of the first home buyers bonus will be eaten up by state duties and taxes anyway. Existing home owners have already been let down by the Government's refusal to try and pursuade the banks to pass on the full interest rate cut. This is just salt in the wound.
A paltry $157 million for new training places from the government who wanted to lead the "education revolution".
The voters will love it, the economists will love it, but it is a missed opportunity. The short term financial fluctuations in the market (and, taken in a long term historical view, these are short term fluctuations) have blinded the Australian Federal Government to the big picture items they campaigned on at the Federal Election.
A golden opportunity has been missed for a massive investment in infrastructure. There will still be an investment, but this $10 billion pork barrel of the worst kind will eat into that money dramatically.
Pensioners and carers did need some money. I'm not convinced they needed $8billion. The building sector does need stimulus, but how about being more creative and smarter about it?
There are a number of crises affecting the world today: Global Poverty, A new Nuclear Arms Race, and Climate Change to name but a few. The ALP said "we are different" in the election campaign. The ALP criticized the Howard-Costello Government for one off hand outs. My how things change when you're on the other side of the chamber.
Enough negativity, what would I have done?
The Southern Cross Climate Coalition is a group made up of the Australian Conservation Foundation, The Australian Council of Social Service, and, bless them, Australian Council of Trade Unions.
One of the plans they hit upon is to "eco-makeover" every house in Australia with things such as better insulation, more efficient heating, water tanks, solar power, etc. The goal is to reduce the power usage of Australian households and bring existing buildings up to current new building standards.
http://www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=1965
The plan is quite clever in that it creates jobs in the trades (plumbers, electricians, etc), reduces our greenhouse emissions and reduces the living costs of normal Australians who cannot afford to renovate or live in rental accommodation where there is currently NO incentive for the property owner to do so.
So, this package would create jobs, stimulate the economy, save money in the short term on power bills, reduce our greenhouse emissions and prepare Australians better for a Emission Trading Scheme. No handouts, just a positive bit of leadership and governance and a change from the Rudd Crisis Campaign.
The SCCC estimates $5500 per home. How many homes could we do for $8 billion? How many of those will belong to pensioners and carers?
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