The Dog Ate My Homework Budget

Just be prepared. Tomorrow’s budget will be a shocker. Deficits for ever. If you are young and still working, more taxes. If you are young and to be born, more tax.

It will be Jim’s the Dog At My Homework Budget. The fiscal calamity he will deliver will have nothing to do with him:

• It was international factors.

• It was the previous government.

• It was the RBA.

• It was a recalcitrant senate.

• It was climate change.

• It was Trump administration.

• It was values-based capitalism not properly implemented.

It was anyone and everything other than the person Jim Chalmers sees in the mirror.

Tax collections are in record area. Spending is in record area. Debt is about to crack $1 trillion. This is debt that will be left to our children and grandchildren with a usurious unindexed income tax system. And there is surprise that the young struggle to buy a home let alone pay rent.

The budget will be repleat with politician logic:

Pass laws to increase prices then tax and borrow to provide subsidies to counter the effects of increased prices. And then expect to be thanked for creating this fiscal doom loop.

Energy. Healthcare. Childcare. Agecare.

This is why government is so large and expensive because rather than reversing bad policy, our politicians keep adding layer upon layer of crud upon crud.

I have spent 15 minutes thinking and can offer more budget savings that 151 members of the lower house would be prepared to name:

Areas for saving:

• Privatise NBN, CEFC, ARENA and Western Sydney Airport and use what limited proceeds are generated to pay down debt to save on interest payments.

• Either liquidate the Future Fund to pay down debt (to reduce interest payments) or get it to do the job for which it was set up for – to meet the cost of unfunded public servant and politician pensions which currently cost around $20 billion per annum.

• Means test NDIS , and get serious about means testing childcare subsidies – where currently families earning $530K per annum qualify. And bring back the activity test.

• Energy rebates are ridiculous but they should at least be means tested

• Address the waste and fraud in NDIS. A former Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission CEO estimated 15-20 per cent of NDIS funds were misused. This is $10 billion with ‘b’ per annum

• Implement the Jacquie Lambie solution that senior public servants are way over paid. This is not going to save serious money but it is symbolic and will show some modicum of respect for taxpayers.

• Have a serious look at the Commonwealth Departments of Health and Aging and Education who combined have annual operating costs of over $1.1 billion and employ near 9,000 people. Each Department has a Secretary on a $1 million plus salary. This without operating a single school, university, hospital or aged care facility.

Will any of this be proposed? Hell no. To much of a threat to the featherbeds and egos of our political leaders.