When Tony Abbott addressed the nation with his job application in 2013, he made a lot of promises about his “positive plan to restore the hope, reward and opportunity that should be your birth right.”
“We have the plan, we have the team and we are ready.”
He promised to “end Labor’s big waste – like the $11.5 billion in border protection cost blowouts.”
Despite stopping the boats from landing, Tony has committed far more than this in increased defence spending, setting up his new Border Force, and signing new five year contracts for detention centres that are supposed to be empty.
He promised to “end Labor’s small waste – like the $180,000 that the Department of Human Services spent studying ergonomic chairs.”
The lavish Canberra home Tony Abbott never moved into cost the government nearly $120,000.
He promised to “end Labor’s ridiculous waste – like selling the parliamentary billiards tables for $5000. Then they spent another $100,000 on an investigation into why they were sold for so little.”
I wonder how much was spent on the prosecution of Peter Slipper for $900 of cab charges.
Tony said “We know that you expect us to be as frugal and prudent with your money, which we hold on trust from you, as you would be with your own hard-earned savings.”
Not many of us catch helicopters rather than driving for an hour.
And how does his line about “no country has ever taxed its way to prosperity” fit in with the push to increase the GST?
“We’ll abolish the mining tax so investment and employment will go up.”
Economic analysts BIS Shrapnel released a report in November 2014 which stated that “Oversupply across most commodities is currently driving a brutal downturn in mining investment in Australia, which still has several years to run.”
In the same month, the Department of Employment released a report detailing employment projections for the next five years.
“Against the backdrop of an expected peak in capital expenditure and the transition of new mines from a construction phase to a less labour intensive operational phase, employment in Mining is projected to decline by 40,700 (or 17.8 per cent) over the five years to November 2019.”
Tony promised that, on day one of a Coalition government, “the motor industry will be saved from Mr Rudd’s $1.8 billion tax on company cars.”
They were also “saved” from the government assistance required for them to stay in business with the promise of tariff free (subsidised) cars flooding the market under our new free trade agreements, thus “liberating” tens of thousands of workers.
He also promised that, within one hundred days, “The NBN will have a new business plan to ensure that every household gains five times current broadband speeds – within three years and without digging up almost every street in Australia – for $60 billion less than Labor.”
Current analysis suggests that “the Coalition’s NBN will be so slow that it is obsolete by the time it’s in place, it will cost about the same as Labor’s fibre-to-the-premises NBN, and it won’t arrive on our doorsteps much sooner.”
“By the end of a Coalition government’s first term, the budget will be on-track to a believable surplus. The WestConnex in Sydney, the East West Link in Melbourne, the Gateway Upgrade here in Brisbane, the North South Road in Adelaide, and the Swan Bypass in Perth will be well and truly underway. And the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be operating in large parts of every state.”
As they would say on Get Smart… I find that hard to believe.
“We won’t increase the humanitarian migrant intake until such time as it’s no longer being filled by people smugglers.”
Now would be good.
Tony also promised that, by the end of their first term, “there will be a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme in place, because factory workers and shop assistants deserve to get their actual wage while they are on leave – just like public servants do.”
Or not.
Tony said, in ten years, “There will be two million more jobs, in manufacturing as well as in agriculture, services, education and a still buoyant resources sector.”
According to their own report, over the last five years, employment growth in a few areas has been offset by falls in employment in Manufacturing (down by 58,500 or 6.0 per cent) and Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (down 53,900 or 15.1 per cent), while the previous strong employment growth in Mining has ended with employment in the industry declining in recent years. Over the next five years manufacturing and mining jobs are predicted to decline even further with agriculture only contributing 12,000 new jobs.
“Within a decade, the budget surplus will be 1 per cent of GDP, defence spending will be 2 per cent of GDP, the private health insurance rebate will be fully restored, and each year, government will be a smaller percentage of our economy.”
Government spending on defence was the only thing that kept us from having no growth at all last quarter, and Treasury officials have confirmed the federal budget is unlikely to return to surplus at any time in the next 40 years on the basis of currently legislated measures.
Tony tells us that he wants “our workers to be the best paid in the world” whilst trying to abolish penalty rates and facilitate the importation of cheap labour from overseas. In the meantime, real wages are going down.
“When I look at the benefits that all Australians rightly enjoy such as Medicare and good public schools and hospitals, I don’t see “middle class welfare” but the hallmarks of a society that gives families a fair go.”
That fair go is just about gone, with Medicare under attack, tens of billions stripped from health and education, and a push towards privatisation of these services.
Tony said “you don’t build a better society by issuing a press release. It’s performance, not promises, that will earn your respect; it’s actions, not words, that you are looking for.”
Just as well it wasn’t the promises that were supposed to earn our respect because they are long gone. Stay tuned for signs of action.
Tony closes with some good advice.
“Choose change, and we’ll send a signal to people in authority that we can forgive honest mistakes but not persistent incompetence and deception.”
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