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January 19, 2011
The political holiday season is slowly coming to an end.
We have the Coalition finding yet another reason to attack the national broadband network (NBN) and have it scrapped. Abbott says that since the NBN is an unnecessary project--- a luxury that Australia cannot now afford---the money (its been inflated to $50 billion by the Coalition) should be diverted to the flood recovery in Queensland.
Why not cut money from defence if the priority is to save the budget surplus from an increase in expenditure? There are lots of efficiency savings to be made there. Why not roll back expenditure in the subsidy to private health insurance?
These are not goers for the Coalition--they'd block them in the Senate --- because Abbott is not interested in the budget surplus; he is using the floods to try to undermine a policy that is seen to both popular and successful for the ALP. So mud has to be thrown at it, in the hope that some of it sticks, whilst Abbott ensures the austerity (slash and burn) credentials remain with the Coalition. It's politics: --keeping Labor inside the big spender/high taxation box.
We have the Gillard Government's commitment to return to surplus by 2012-13 to be achieved by capping extra spending at 2%b real growth and banking the increased revenue revisions. If this commitment is locked in concrete---to avoid a Deficit--- then whyy not a temporary flood levy? That is what Howard did when he introduced a levy to fund a $500 million gun buyback in 1996, after the Port Arthur massacre. No doubt the Coalition will say cut spending not raise taxes.
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How does the Coalition get $50 billion when most commentators talk about a public investment in the NBN of around $28-$35 billion?