I keep hearing how we have dodged a bullet. How the stewardship and steely nerve of our Prime Minister and the gang of four averted a recession (the GFC, so called, if you like acronyms), and how the RSPT (another acronym) is going to fix all our ills and bring the nasty billionaire miners to heel and “make them pay their fair share”.
He’s got cred after all, he wrote an essay on the evils of unbridled markets and the greedy speculators in the monthly, and how the age of the neo-con was over and the social democrats would restore balance to public policy.
The problem is that from where I am situated as the owner of a modestly small electrical contracting firm that is responsible for the livelihoods of 5 people, things aren’t that great.
Work is very, very slow and we have had our two apprentices on holidays for a couple of weeks because we simply don’t have the work in front of us.
Furthermore, to use a vernacular term he is “cutting someone else’s grass”, and to mangle the English language even more and para-phrase Forrest Gump, “I may not be a smart man…. but I know what bullshit is”.
Kevin Rudd has over promised and under delivered on just about everything ... grocery prices, fuel prices, indigenous disadvantage, homelessness, pokie machines, whaling, housing affordability, carbon trading, government advertising (cancer on our democracy), binge drinking, stopping boat people, education revolution, laptop per student, “I’m a fiscal conservative”, etc, etc, etc.
This mob are relying on the groundwork laid by the Howard government. Forgetting the back down on the CPRS (long winded stupid acronym), my beef is with the fig leaf of the GFC, the RSPT, the massive debt, the waste and the winding back of the single biggest factor in our resilience as a domestic economy in labour market flexibility.
I will briefly try and explain in my reasoning on these themes.
I reckon the melt down in global markets was not the fault of people who create value and make things, i.e manufacturers, miners, intellectual property etc, it was the folly of banks and traders bundling up packets of nothing, and playing a game of pass the parcel with them until all the chairs were gone.
Now if there was to be a “super profits tax” for a sector of the world economy that was more culpable for the problems of the GFC, surely it should be the banks and not the mining companies.
The banks received government/taxpayer support and guarantees, and the single biggest sector of our economy that held our heads above water was the mining industry. The banks get to keep making their “super profits” and the miners get to wear a retrospective tax for making a paltry 6% return on their investment.
If your super fund was only making 6% on your investment you would be looking to shift your money to a fund or investment that was doing better. That is exactly what will happen to investment in the mining industry, and the only reason that the government is picking on the resource sector is that they can’t take their existing operations “physically” offshore.
If they tried it on the banks, with a few clicks of a mouse money would be fleeing our shores to investments that didn’t attract the burden of this tax. These blokes have spent too much money and looked around for an easy target, and tried to sell their tax grab with a good ole’ class envy, bosses vs workers argument.
I am not advocating for our banks to be slugged, nor am I denigrating the prudent way in which Australian banks have managed their investment practices (due to good regulation), I am merely making the point that sectors with “bricks and mortar” are far easier to hit than the very fluid nature of modern finance.
If I hear one more government minister intone solemnly about the dire economic consequences of the GFC and how we alone out of advanced western economies… blah, blah, blah… I think will put my size 13 steel capped boot through the tele (old fashioned tube type, not plasma bought with $900 cheques).
The absolutely bleeding obvious is that they were left with money in the bank, without the budget surplus, well regulated banking system, and labour market flexibility, we would have been no different to the other western style democracies.
To use another vernacular, we would of been “wallaby ted’s cousin”. When Peter Costello talked about a tsunami on wall street he was scoffed at by Rudd and Swan, and they talked of the inflation genie having to be corked back into its bottle.
I have no doubt that a Howard or Costello government would of stimulated the economy during the downturn, but I bet my leftie it would of been smaller and programs like the BER (another bloody acronym) would of had more of a focus on local control over the money rather than a cookie cutter approach.
With the centralised big business focus of the program, I don’t know of many small firms who actually shared in the BER stimulus bounty. The mythology built up around the response the GFC by the ALP using the BER to stimulate the GNP and as an excuse to dump the CPRS, and raise money therefore by a RSPT to fill the hole in the budget caused by the PM, is just BS.
Finally, there are more people today who are self employed than are members of a union. This is a very large reason why we have been able to absorb the shock of the GFC.
In the real world outside of the 30 something’s in PM’s inner circle and the political apparatchiks who spout knowledge and opinion but are devoid of wisdom or experience, small business is doing it tough, AND small business IS the engine of the economy.
We have pulled our belts in to the last notch, we have paid wages to staff using our home loans or overdrafts not wanting to put good people out of work who have families and commitments.
Contrary to the class war bullshit perpetrated by the ALP and unions that bosses are bastards, every single small businessman/person that I know values their staff and takes their responsibilities as an employer very seriously.
Without the amount of self employed people taking a pay cut, without the workplace flexibility for employers to be able to give staff the choice to reduce hours and/or wages to keep an income going until things pick up, I believe we would be in double digit unemployment right now.
I heard Tony Abbot say that “I used to think that the Rudd government made the Howard government look good, now I am starting to think that they make the Whitlam government look good”. I agree. Lets hit the reset button, draw a line under this episode in our democracy and get the party of pragmatism, experience and business back in charge of the levers.
Chris Lehmann is a Director of a small electrical contracting firm in Brisbane, that specialises in renovations and extensions. He is a member of his local branch of the LNP (Liberal-National Party).
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
@karalee_ yeah, have concluded same after cursory look at a few. Scary that some brands might actually use them
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
Schapelle has done her time
Schapelle Corby has served more than seven years in Kerobokan prison for attempting to import 4.2 kilos…
Do women need to know when to walk away?
Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond has sparked controversy over her advice that young women should sometimes…
Who murdered the Arts degree?
Have we murdered the liberal arts education? That was the final question on Monday night’s Q&A…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments
Michael S says:
"A teacher at Geelong Grammar had criticised her for using words that were too long, which had left her confused and had made her doubt her ability to write essays. She became ''quite distressed'' when her English marks began to fall." I can sympathise. My scholastic mentors conveyed to me a causal relationship… [read more]From: Welfare for breeders is a bonus for everyone
Change Up! says:
I have no problem paying my taxes. As a single, childless person on a very decent income, I can afford it and not have my life severely altered. Plus I understand that my taxes paying for things like schools, childcare and infrastructure is ultimately a good thing. A better community is better for me… [read more]Gentle jabs to the ribs
They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments
A private school girl’s family is sueing her elite, extremely expensive private school for not… Read more
Most commented