Australia led the world in handling the global financial crisis by acting fast with stimulus spending, to help save big banks from insolvency and to preserve and generate jobs. Australia also had a legacy of negligible government debt.
But both stimulus spending and the abolition of government debt have come at a price. Stimulus spending needs to be repaid, primarily from taxation. And the low government debt was achieved by withholding crucial funds from health, education, public transport, housing, infrastructure, disability programs and the transition to renewable energy use.
There ia a deplorable moral vacuum in the government’s and the opposition’s election platforms, which squander funds for short-term, hip-pocket benefits (pork barrelling) in place of long-term investments and greater funding for the environmental and social crises which now face our nation. In particular we need to invest more in renewable, clean energy production as well as greatly increased funding for infrastructure and essential public services, especially for the poorest Australians.
Last week we learned that Rio Tinto made $6 billion profit in a half year – more than twice the already exorbitant profits made by the big banks. How much of the excess profit obtained by Rio Tinto, banks and other wealthy corporations will be going to the federal government to put in place long-term developments which will ensure that we leave a sustainable social, environmental and economic future for our children and grand-children? Most economists agree that profits obtained from commonwealth land which is leased to mining companies for the purpose of extracting mineral resources should be adequately taxed for the benefit of all.
Also, governments should never borrow money from overseas for essential services, capital works or infrastructure development. Where affordable Australian sources of capital are not available, the government should use its constitutional right and ability to spend money directly into the economy on infrastructure projects, to be paid back either interest-free or at low rates of interest. There are workable solutions to the looming crises we face. However they have not been developed thus far because few politicians have had the insight, integrity or courage to advocate them.
Could anything be more insane than for the human race to die out because we couldn’t afford to save ourselves?