That’s the traditional Beattie, Carr, Bracks, Rann, Gallup budgets that have been slowly strangling their respective states, giving rise to the famous blame game, where they try to compensate for the revenue they’ve squandered by putting the bite on the feds.
Like many Liberal voters I used to vote Liberal on the basis that while they might have been bad, the other crowd would be even worse. After tonight’s budget the verdict is not “worse”, but “no worse”.
Actually, I should probably revise that. Wayne Swan seems destined to cement Peter Costello’s reputation as being not a bad treasurer. At least in his first budget Costello managed to cut government spending by a net $4 Billion. Swan appears to have managed only $2.3 B – new expenditure of $5 Billion, and savings of $7.3 Billion.
The budget surplus is one that owes nothing to the government’s efforts, and the various investment funds are no more than public relations strategies to prevent voters complaining that they should receive the benefits of the surplus now. The interest from them won’t meet more than a fraction of the needs of the various sectors – health, education and infrastructure – that they are meant to fund.
Get set for this government to be in for a long time. Like its state brethren it is timid, directed by polling and driven by spin, not much different from its predecessor, and the Howard government lasted 12 years.