Politics again

[Kali7]

Please don’t shoot the messenger. This is the last two paragraphs of the Democrats Victorian Senator Allison’s speech in response to the budget.

After listening to some of the blind leading the blind after the budget announcement by the Howard Government (and no I am not a democrat voter….. at present), I found the below interesting and quite apt:

To conclude, we looked for inspirational leadership to deal with the menace of climate change: we got dust thrown into a powerful and growing storm. We looked for tax reform: we got money returned to low-income earners from whom it should never have been taken in the first place and nothing to protect them from it being nicked again. We looked for childcare and school funding that would cut to the heart of the problems in those sectors: we got a spray of surgically enhanced early payments and subsidies. We looked for funding that would ensure all our best and brightest would have access to university, regardless of their income: we got a fund that will improve the look of facilities but little to finance the students who populate them. And Indigenous Australians continue to be treated in the same shameful way they have always been treated.

This is a budget which cements old prejudices and bribes voters. Its centrepiece? Truckloads of money. It could have done so much, but actually did so little. Sure, the Treasurer threw back to us some of it and, like kids in a lolly shop, we are expected to scramble for our share. But you can bet your bottom dollar that we will all end up paying for it in a multitude of ways and in the not-too-distant future. If you missed Tuesday night’s budget, do not worry: there will be another: ‘2007 Budget: the Sequel’. Just before election day, another large stash of money will be found and another round of promises and spending will commence. And I am tipping that the sequel will be just as show-stopping as the first: a daring taxation robbery; a dramatic fight scene in which the key players alternatively fall away and then claw their way back; lots of special effects; and a winner-take-all scene at the end. But whether you will see reparations made in Indigenous communities, a lid on interest rates, a commitment to tax reform, access to higher education or a real response to climate change when you finally get out of the theatre remains to be seen.

If you want to read the whole speech, I have it as a pdf (I seem to be on every pollie's mailing list).

cheers

[Vat69]

Here here!!

On a side note, do you think I could hire that speech writer to do a few of my essays for me?

[Hoppa1874]

I'll take one of those PDF's ..thanx for the offer..
interesting reading!!

[nickamon]

Isn't the budget always about bribey-bribey, especially in an election year?