By Michael Griffin
One would expect that the Treasurer of a nation entrusted with the duty of protecting a nation’s accounts and economy would be capable of performing the basic arithmetic involved in formulating a Credit/Debit balance sheet such as a national budget. When it comes to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s chosen Treasurer, Scott ‘the hypocrite Christian’ Morrison, one can’t be so sure that is the case.
Despite his semblance of training in economics at NSW University, albeit in economic geography, Treasurer Morrison seems to have underestimated the cost of his government’s proposed personal tax cuts to the bottom line of the budget over the medium term by nearly $100 billion. Such a large miscalculation is a concerning and astounding error by a national Treasurer who claims to have some understanding of economics. Put in perspective, $100 billion is almost one third of the gross Australian national debt.
On the day of the release of his 2018/2019 budget papers, Morrison announced to members of the press, in the lock up at the release of his budget, that the total cost of his government’s proposed personal tax cut was $140 billion or about $14 billion per year over the next ten years. Morrison is reported to have stated:
It is not the practice of any government to provide itemised year-by-year costs over the medium term because they’re not reliable. You do it over four years and that’s what we’ve done, $13.4bn, and that is covering completely step one of that process, because as you know the remaining steps actually come in over the medium term and the overall cost over the medium term is $140bn. That is the standing practice for budgeting in this country and we haven’t departed from those transparency rules.
When quizzed in Parliament about the $140 billion cost quoted to the media both Morrison and his leader Turnbull refused to produce any official costings or any documents whatsoever to verify their claims and merely reiterated the $140 billion cost earlier quoted to the media.
However, recently produced Independent Parliamentary Budget Office costings indicate that the cost quoted by Turnbull and Morrison in Parliament and to the media was incorrect by nearly $100 billion dollars. The Independent Parliamentary Budget Office official costings indicate that the total cost to the budget bottom-line was closer to $24 billion per year for ten years or $240 billion in total for the ten years and not the $140 billion represented to Parliament and to the media by Turnbull and Morrison.
The huge discrepancy between the Independent Parliamentary Budget Office official costings and the costs (mis)represented to Parliament by Turnbull and Morrison also indicates the reasons why Turnbull and Morrison were reluctant to release any documents or official costings to Parliament when requested to do so and, further, the reason why Turnbull and Morrison wanted the Budget Bills passed so quickly. Passing the Budget Bills quickly would give little opportunity for other members of Parliament or the media to scrutinise them and Turnbull could then sneak his tax cuts through without anyone noticing their true cost to the bottom line in the future. Of course, once it was too late to realise that the cost was actually greater than what was represented in Parliament it would then be too late to reverse the cuts and, when the costs subsequently ‘blew-out’, Turnbull and his cronies would then argue that the nation was again ‘living beyond its means’ and that austerity measures, that is, further cuts to services and programs, were necessary to bring the budget back into surplus.
Given his qualifications and ministerial standings, one must consider that Scott Morrison is adequately competent and professional and that such a qualified and competent person simply does not make mistakes to the magnitude of $100 billion. On that basis, the only possible explanation for the discrepancy between the cost of the proposed personal tax cuts, as represented to Parliament by Turnbull and Morrison, and of their true costs, as represented by the Independent Parliamentary Budget Office, is that Turnbull and Morrison have lied.
It now seems that Turnbull and Morrison, and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, have conspired to mislead the Parliament and, via the media, the Australian people about the true cost of their proposed tax cuts in order to get consent for their tax plan and to have the cuts passed into law by Parliament as a matter of urgency to avoid scrutiny.
A $100 billion misrepresentation to Parliament would count as one of the most serious attempts to mislead Parliament, and of contempt of Parliament, in Australian history. It is a porker of such magnitude that charges of misleading Parliament and of contempt of Parliament against Turnbull, Morrison and Cormann should now be necessary. If that does not occur, the Australian Parliament is a sham of a democratic forum and the whole system under which Australia is governed is in drastic need of ‘renovation’.
However, with few mechanisms in the current system by which dishonest Governments and politicians can be held to account in Australia, for instance, without a mechanism facilitating impeachment, it is most unfortunate that none of the co-conspirators involved will ever face any judgement or penalties now or in the near future.
[textblock style=”7″]
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
[/textblock]
