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Peter Costello was at it again the other day. When asked whether there would be tax cuts in the Budget (and why is this the only question that journalists ever ask about the Budget these days?) he refused to answer except to say that 'tax cuts were always better for the economy than government spending'. Where does he get this stuff from? Why wouldn't it be the case that it would be 'better for the economy' (not to mention the people of Australia, who he, theoretically, serves) to spend money on educating our children for the uncertain world ahead, or spending on hospitals for an aging population, or spending on improved infrastructure like roads and rail and ports? And the big one - how could it possibly not be in the interests of the economy to spend a lot of money reducing greenhouse gases and preparing Australia for the devastation we know is coming as a result of CO2 already in the air?
Would the Murray-Darling irrigators rather have a few dollars back or something done to address climate change and its consequences? Would old people rather have a few dollars back or more confidence in the nursing homes they may have to go to? Would young parents rather have a few dollars back or be able to find reliable and affordable child care in their district? Would families rather have a few dollars back or better public school facilities? Would exporters rather have a few dollars back or better port and road and rail services?
As is so often the case with this government, it is these small Marie Antoinette moments that tell you all about their philosophy (Mal Brough saying there is plenty of child care, parents just have to drive a long way to find it). Mr Costello is showing yet again that the Liberals, as fundamental parts of their ideology, don't believe in planning ahead, and don't believe in community, don't believe, in spite of their harping on about Australian values, in the Australian value of working together, of sharing burdens, of, dare I say it, some sense of equality.
The fundamental message from Peter Costello here is this. Liberals prefer tax cuts to thinking about the future because they are the party of the rich. The rich will benefit far more from tax cuts than the poor. And the rich will always be able to pay for private hospitals, private schools, private child care, private nursing homes, so they have no interest in contributing to the common good, for the benefit of the community. They even have little interest in climate change. With enough money they can move to places where things will remain not too bad for a few decades longer, they can buy food no matter how expensive it is, they can have private security, and afford whatever kind of transport is still available. The rest of us left behind won't find that the few dollars in tax cuts are going to help at all.
When I was young there was a much smaller gap between rich and poor, and little evidence that the rich were separating themselves off. I don't remember gated and guarded estates, nor even individual homes being walled off from the outside world. As the gap has become bigger and bigger over the last ten years, and the rich have become very rich and then super rich, their isolation from the community that provided their wealth has become greater and greater. Peter Costello's preference for tax cuts over a benefit for society as a whole is the Treasury equivalent of the gated estate. How long ago it seems that John Howard was promising to govern for ALL the community.
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