Politics

This Year’s Budget Is Just Damage Control For A Dysfunctional Government

The government botched looking after older people, so it needs to paper over that. It’s embroiled in multiple rape scandals, so it’s throwing money at women in the hopes we'll forget about them.

by Joshua Badge  12 May 2021
Budget 2021 scott morrison

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Chances are you were doing something more enjoyable than watching Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s speech last night. In that case, you missed him saying that being Australian is all about “helping those who need it most”. Except if they’re poor or refugees, obviously.

This year’s centrepiece is an $18 billion package for aged care, a response to horrid conditions of abuse and neglect that developed on the government’s watch. Think ants crawling from wounds and elderly people left without food for days.

That’s a fair few zeros, but it doesn’t change the “free-market” model that’s turned patients into consumers. It also falls short of the commission’s recommendations—around twenty-thousand older people will still lack support.

There’s $3.4 billion for childcare subsidies and violence prevention, partly because the previous “budget for blokes” overlooked women, but mainly because the Morrison government is dodging rape scandals (yes, plural).

It’s not nothing. Still, it’s hard to believe the government’s sincerity when senior officials describe sexual assault allegations as “he said, she said” situations and call survivors “lying cows”.

The extra $2.3 billion for mental health centres and suicide prevention is welcome, but it’s still a bandaid on a flesh wound. Therapy is great but what most people really need is money. If Frydenberg and Morrison were serious about mental health, they wouldn’t be literally starving people on JobSeeker.

The Feds will also extend the middle-income tax breaks for one year. This is to keep upper-middle-class voters onside for the coming election (word on the street is October). The tax cuts for the rich are, of course, permanent. At a cost of $7.8 billion, these tax handouts could pay for liveable welfare rates, but here we are.

The government’s solution to the deteriorating housing crisis is, predictably, for people to raid their retirement fund. What we’ll see is young people surrendering their super to property investors, driving up house prices even more. Oh, and more people will be at risk of poverty in the years to come.

In his speech, Frydenberg proudly exclaimed that “The NDIS has made Australia a better country”. Perhaps this is why they’re trying to kick disabled people off the scheme. As we speak, they’re rolling out “robo-planning” which uses crude formulas to cut corners, just like they did in their unlawful robodebt scam.

The administration also plans to gut universities with a 10% cut to their funding. This is after they’ve already haemorrhaged 21,000 jobs. Among much else, we can expect thousands more job losses and higher student fees in the near future.

Without a hint of irony, the Treasurer alluded to fires and droughts (read: climate change) before announcing a combined $113.5 million for gas projects. He said we will “preferably” hit zero emissions by 2050… before we, y’know, make the world uninhabitable.

All of this pales in comparison to the $270 billion being funnelled into the military over the next 10 years. Men in suits demand to know how we will pay for education, healthcare and social security, but curiously, never ask the same for missiles, hypersonic weapons and submarines.

The Opposition’s response has been to drone on about “debt and deficit” like anyone who isn’t a blood-sucking libertarian vampire knows what the deficit is, let alone cares. Since this is more or less a standard Labor budget (rhetoric about workers aside), they don’t have anything interesting to say.

When asked who they thought would do well under this budget, most people said rich people and big business. Well, they weren’t wrong. At the end of the day, this budget is about the ambitions of the ghouls in Parliament House, not the people they’re meant to serve.

The Commonwealth bungled aged care right up until COVID ripped through facilities, killing hundreds. The (former) Attorney General stands accused of rape while the Prime Minister refuses to hold an independent inquiry. Meanwhile, government policies have long ruined people’s mental health.

Morrison and Frydenberg clearly hope that voters will forget if they throw enough money at them.

The Coalition has been in power for almost 8 years now. All we have to show for it is record high inequality and deepening poverty. Now, the richest 20% holds two-thirds of the nations’ money. Around 3 million people live hand-to-mouth, including nearly a million children and young people.

Over the last day, economists and journos have labelled us “winners” and “losers” as if we are contenders in some morbid game. The truth is that we belong to a community where everyone should have the chance to flourish. Ultimately, we need to look out for each other since the government sure as hell isn’t going to.

Joshua Badge is a queer writer and philosopher living on Wurundjeri land in Melbourne. They tweet at @joshuabadge.