Things must be getting bad, when i find myself totally agreeing with the former Premier of Victoria, Jeff Kennett. Good on him for saying what many of us out here are thinking, that handouts are going to ruin this country.
No serving politician would dare say these things, for fear of being turfed out of office by greedy people who have come to live off my purse. I have pasted an article from The Age below, where Kennett talks about "...the acceptance of personal responsibility" and that there will be "...no assistance in years to come if there aren't people who are producing the wealth."
These comments come just after the most recent handouts to the "working families" and pensioners of over $10 billion of what was a government surplus. I can understand the need to try to kick start what might become a flagging economy. What makes it hard to swallow, is the talk just 3 months ago that inflation was the real bogey to be dealt with, thus the rising interest rates.
And its also incredibly difficult to stomach the need to throw this money, yet again, at select groups in the community - namely pensioners and families. If you wanted to distribute the money fairly, hand it out in the form of tax cuts. Or better still, invest in nation building infrastructure projects.
Keep in mind that families who have kids and receive family tax benefit part A will receive $1000 per child. Pensioners will receive around $2000 per couple. This comes on top of the $1400 odd bonus paid just 4 months ago.
And also remember that this $2000 will be paid to self funded retirees who have the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card - that is, they are not on a pension but are over 65 and earn under around $80,000 per year. That's right. If you are 65 and earn under 80 thousand smackaroos per year, you get another $2000. They probably own their own home, and aren't really doing it tough.
Meanwhile, i, like most other singles, have a mortgage to pay and I'm doing it on my own. I'm hardly doing it easy. The thing is, i don't mind paying my way, i understand that taxes need to be paid - its a part of life. I just object to the blatant vote buying exercise that these handouts have become. And they are ultimately unsustainable.
If you don't believe me, have a look at the state of the former Celtic tiger economy, Ireland. When Ireland was booming, they revelled in massive handouts across the country, to farmers, families and seniors. House prices boomed, construction was at an all time high, and unemployment at its lowest level ever. But its all over now.
Unemployment is heading higher and higher by the month, investment has ceased and construction companies are facing massive bankruptcies. House prices have collapsed as have the shares of all the banks who encouraged all the bad behaviour.
The Irish economy is already in recession.
Now get this. They have just brought down an early budget, in response to the crisis. Thousands of seniors will lose state health care. Income taxes are up from 1-2%. They have also increased the VAT, their version of the GST. On cigarettes, the prices go up a whopping 50 cents a packet, or the equivalent of 1 Australian dollar. And they have raised the tax on petrol by 8 cents a litre - that's right - the equivalent of about 16 cents here. These are just some of the major examples. There wont be anyone in Ireland who isnt affected in a serious way by this budget.
And its all because Ireland perpetrated the same thing we have here - in good economic times, keep giving handouts, but give them to the select middle class voters. And its unsustainable. It means people do live beyond their means. And there is no personal incentive. And each government needs to give this money to win the votes. In the process, they ignore investing in the economy and investing in infrastructure.
Ireland will take a long while to recover from this downturn, possibly longer than most. Australia runs the risk of following the same path.
So Jeff Kennett is right. I agree with him. Actually, I'm proud to agree with him. I'm glad someone is talking about this.
Here is the article:
Hand-out mentality growing, says Kennett
Kate Lahey
October 17, 2008
TOO many Australians are relying on government hand-outs, eroding their own independence and making it harder for the nation to cope in economic hardship, former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett says.
Mr Kennett told the Municipal Association of Victoria conference yesterday the pressure on councils to provide welfare services and investment in infrastructure would increase as the economic crisis deepened.
Mr Kennett said about 40% of Australians received government assistance. "The trend line is getting to the stage where more and more people are receiving rather than contributing," he said. "We have slowly been allowing ourselves to destroy the independence that every male and female should have, and the acceptance of personal responsibility."
Mr Kennett said he was not opposed to assistance where it was genuinely needed, "but they've extended the criteria so much the reality is there'll be no assistance in years to come if there aren't people who are producing the wealth".
"We've just come to the end of the best 14 years of economic output in one sense … (yet) what have we done with the billions of dollars of surplus?"
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