Culture

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is Being Slammed For His “Casually Racist” Speech

"Beyond fucked up that a national leader turned my parents, heritage & culture into a racist punchline to score cheap political points."

by Rachael Conaghan  28 February 2020
Josh Frydenberg

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One of our top politicians has been called out for some casual racism in Parliament — a stunt he of course got a big laugh for yesterday, because that is the current standard of debate in Australia.

The point of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s outburst was to mock the idea of a wellbeing budget — something our government apparently finds ridiculous, because who cares about the wellbeing of our citizens right?

“I was thinking yesterday, as the member for Rankin was coming into the chamber fresh from his ashram deep in the mountains of the Himalayas, barefoot into the chamber, robes flowing, incense burning, beads in one hand, wellbeing budget in the other, I thought to myself, what would the yoga position that the member for Rankin would assume?” Frydenberg said.

The member for Rankin is Jim Chalmers, the shadow treasurer, who has spent the last week promoting the idea of a wellbeing budget similar to that of New Zealand. The point of such a budget is to redefine “what success means in terms of economic outcomes”.

Dr Chalmers raised the idea in the context of our recent bushfires which will have a huge financial impact, but also a significant social impact on things like health and the environment.

The government has been completely dismissive of the idea. Now people aren’t impressed that Frydenberg used elements of eastern culture as a punchline to score political points.

Ashrams are a place of spiritual retreat, and are a place of meditation and instruction for religious Hindus. People are also noting that Frydenberg, who is Jewish, often speaks out about discrimination and anti-Semitism he has experienced.

Measuring What Matters To Australians

Aside from all that, people are frustrated that a politician would be so dismissive of something that is looking to measure the wellbeing of people he was elected to represent.

Labor has been pushing for a wellbeing budget similar to the one in New Zealand. Our antipodean brethren’s new budget process will focus on five key priorities including mental health, child wellbeing and supporting Maori and Pacific aspirations.

They’re not the only country to look to other measurements to help quantify a country’s success — famously, Bhutan has been measuring Gross National Happiness since 1998.

Dr Chalmers said while the traditional financial yardstick of the GDP was central for tracking the overall economy, that didn’t capture everything that is valued by Australians.

“Traditional measures have a place, but don’t paint the whole picture. We can do more to measure what matters,” he said.