Prophetically, on the morning of his budget address Joe Hockey admitted to journalists that “This’ll be an easy budget to criticise”. And it certainly has copped a fair share, and deservedly so, because in a nutshell, most Australians are going to hurt where it hurts most. The pocket.
Most Australian simply can’t afford to take a hit on the pocket. Among them the age pensioners, the unemployed, low-income earners, people with a disability, carers, Indigenous Australians … the list goes on.
The budget has not only delivered a hit on the pocket but also a kick in the guts. A kick in the guts to those Australians desperate for support.
In response the public outrage has been overwhelming. As a political watcher of some years I have never witnessed such emotion. With the advance of social media and the subsequent access to information it brings, the gut-wrenching stories of the struggles of the poor have flooded into the public discourse. I wonder how they survive now. I wonder how they’ll survive tomorrow. I wonder why a government would wish to make their daily existence even more miserable.
Yes, Joe, it is an easy budget to criticise. You knew that your budget would make millions of peoples’ lives more appalling. You deserve the criticism.
But some of your friends at The Australian see it differently. From yesterday’s editorial came this disgraceful piece of filth:
Joe Hockey’s first budget has brought out the whiners and whingers, the grifters and grumblers, the loonies and looters. The culture of complaint is alive and well in our noisy democracy, with myriad platforms available to those who want to participate in an orgy of angst or add to a bonfire of miseries. It is pretty puerile stuff and Bill Shorten’s budget-in-reply speech last night sits comfortably within this immature, facile political debate.
What a display of absolute contempt for the needy, the poor, or the disadvantaged. And such blatant disregard – bordering on mockery – for their desperation.
There are an estimated two million Australians living below the poverty line but I’m speculating that means absolutely nothing to you. You so rightly point at that they’re not really people worth worrying about, they’re just the ‘whiners and whingers, the grifters and grumblers, the loonies and looters‘ of our country. How dare they complain that they can’t afford an extra $7 to go to the doctor. How dare they complain that prescriptions become unaffordable if they are slugged another $5. How dare they complain if they can’t buy new shoes for the kids. How dare they complain that they will have no hope of survival without income support if they lose their job. How dare they openly express outrage that this devastatingly cruel government is going to destroy their miserable lives.
To whoever wrote that opinion piece, I am the opposite to you. You may think that the budget has brought out the ‘whiners and whingers, the grifters and grumblers, the loonies and looters‘, but in my opinion you have shown that the budget has brought out the lowest dregs of our society: people such as yourself. That you could make such a statement – or even think in such a manner – places you at the very bottom of the cesspool that has become of the favoured habitat of Murdoch journalists.
You are a disgrace. You are a pathetic individual. Can The Australian stoop any lower than the level you’ve sunk it to with what must be the most vile opinion piece from what was once (so long ago) a respected newspaper?
God help those unfortunate Australians who have had the heart and guts ripped out of them by the government, and God help those Australians who are moronic enough to be influenced by the nasty filth you offer them. Ironically, it is fortunate that there are more desperate Australians than there are desperate readers of The Australian.
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