THE ECONOMIC QUAGMIRE
The size of the Morrison government's first round of tax cuts has fallen well short of expectations, as workers shun accountants and fail to make deductions, casting doubt on their impact on Australia's sluggish economy.
Ahead of Tuesday's Reserve Bank board meeting at which official interest rates are expected to be cut to a fresh record low of 0.75 per cent, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can reveal that despite the new low and middle-income tax offset that promised to pump up to $1080 into the pockets of cash-strapped households, there has only been a modest lift in refunds.
Economists, the government and the Reserve Bank had hoped the larger tax offset would give a major financial boost to households that would then flow into the retail sector and the broader economy.
Areport by the parliamentary budget office (PBO) has revealed that the tax cuts legislated by the government overwhelmingly benefit higher income earners. It opens the budget to risks of an economic downturn given a narrowing of the tax base and projections within the budget that are very much based on an optimistic outlook for the economy over the next decade.
One of the best aspects of the minority parliament during Julia Gillard’s prime ministership was the creation of the parliamentary budget office. It provides an independent view of the budget because, unlike the Treasury, it does not report to a government minister; it reports to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the Senate.
The federal government’s response to drought is looking more like the shimmering mirage you get on a hot sunny day across hectares of dust-bowl paddock
Mr Morrison hot-footed it to the parched Darling Downs town of Dalby on Friday immediately on his arrival back in Australia after a triumphant week in the thrall of Mr Trump.
Again “people” – this time the coalition’s core bush constituency – were showing signs of being unimpressed with the expensive shambles masquerading as drought policy.
In Dalby the PM was very keen to answer the social media campaign going viral in the bush asking “Scott Morrison where are you?”
Mr Morrison hot-footed it to the parched Darling Downs town of Dalby on Friday immediately on his arrival back in Australia after a triumphant week in the thrall of Mr Trump.
Again “people” – this time the coalition’s core bush constituency – were showing signs of being unimpressed with the expensive shambles masquerading as drought policy.
Scott Morrison discovers his own Greta Thunberg
An 11-year-old is being used to market government protection for farming, which should look after itself.
Aaron Patrick
Senior Correspondent
Oct 2, 2019 — 9.22am
When Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrived in the parched town of Dalby last Friday he was accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Agriculture, the Minister for Water Resources, and Jack Berne, 11.
The presence of the Sydney student illustrated how the government's response to the NSW and Queensland drought has turned into an episode of A Country Practice - a feel-good fantasy about the capricious forces of rural life.
Berne, who hitched a ride on the Prime Minister's jet from Sydney to outback Queensland, nominally launched the "Fiver for a Farmer" campaign that has raised more than $1 million in drought aid.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, right, Jack Berne and Water Resources Minister David Littleproud at Dalby in Queensland last week. AAP
A star of television and tabloid magazines, he is the drought's Greta Thunberg.
The freckled young man even has his own line of country-style logoed shirts, which the Prime Minister generously modelled on the Dalby detour, which was used to draw attention to a loosening of the Farm Household Allowance scheme that is at the forefront of drought welfare.
Bridget McKenzie, the Minister for Agriculture, has managed to cut the application forms from 15 to 10 pages. She has also made the scheme more financially generous, giving the Prime Minister a useful counterpoint in Dalby's dry earth on Friday to Washington's rich lawns a few days before.
The changes being made and proposed to the allowance, and the use of a grade five student to market state protection for Australia's second-oldest industry, demonstrate the awesome lobbying power of blue skies, barren fields and sandy soil.
On Friday, Morrison said the rules had been relaxed to make it easier for farmers to earn income from non-faming work and still receive the Farm Household Allowance, which provides the equivalent of unemployment benefits for farmers in financial distress.
The new measures add to a decision announced three months ago to permanently set the maximum assets for qualifying farmers at $5 million, instead of $2.5 million. The payment was also made available for four years out of every 10, up from three.
Morrison, with young Berne nearby, framed the changes as a way to sustain farmers until the weather turns. "We want to keep them there because it is going to rain and then there's an opportunity on the other side, like there always is," he said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison with farmer David Gooding on his drought-affected property near Dalby, Queensland. AAP
In reality, the lifeline will likely retard agricultural production. Poorly run farms that can't survive regular weather patterns should be allowed to go broke and be bought by operators who have the financial and organisational wherewithal to get through drought.
Instead, asset-rich small business owners will be allowed to live off welfare for 40 per cent of their careers.
Farmers already benefit from some of the most generous tax treatment in the economy. The value of their tax-shielded bank accounts rose over the past year by a GDP-busting 4 per cent to $5.8 billion during what some commentators mistakenly claimed was the "worst drought in a century".
If any farming family has $5 million in net assets and can't generate enough cash to cover basic living costs, they should sell up (usually without paying capital gains tax) and invest in the bond market. Vanguard's diversified index bond fund has returned 6.5 per cent over the past 10 years, which is $325,000 a year on $5 million - a sum that goes a long way in country towns.
With the macro-system policies in place, one objective of the goverment's response to the drought is getting more farmers to subsist off the state. Last year, an official review was conducted of the Farm Household Allowance to find out why only 5000 people were receiving it. The review discovered there is a reason farmers don't like applying for welfare: it makes them feel like welfare applicants.
"Many people felt the application process was ‘demoralising’ and ‘dehumanising’ in the requirements to provide third-party documentation to verify all statements," Michele Lawrence, Georgie Somerset and Robert Slonim wrote in their review. "People commented that it made the process feel like an ‘interrogation’ and with ‘no trust’ placed in the applicants."
Men and women living on the land really, really hate the long application forms, which they regard as an imposition on their valuable time. One farmer's accountant complained to the review the paperwork could take him more than five hours, and he wasn't always fully paid for the work.
Not only did the farmers want a separate website for their honour-based applications - imagine if every Australian was granted that level of trust - they asked for answers within two weeks and the program to be excised from social security law.
Turns out farmers who want the dole don't think they should be vetted by the same system used for the unemployed, students and pensioners.
For those who feel proud that a wealthy nation is prepared to help working families struggling under an adversity as old as human settlement, perhaps consider if the response might have been as energetic if the victims of nature were Halal butchers or Chinese shopkeepers.
In a way, the question has already been answered. Everyone except farmers in the agribusiness supply chain and the rural economy is banned from the allowance and most other forms of government protection for agriculture. This reflects the structure of rural politics, where farmers sit at the top of the hierarchy.
Ironically, Jack Berne isn't part of the country culture. "We are not farmers," his mother, Prue Berne, says. "We have no ties to the farming community at all. Which is why this has been an amazing learning experience."
For the rest of the country too.
It might come as a surprise to realise that Australia doesn't actually know how many of its farmers are in drought.
An 11-year-old is being used to market government protection for farming, which should look after itself.
Aaron Patrick
Senior Correspondent
Oct 2, 2019 — 9.22am
When Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrived in the parched town of Dalby last Friday he was accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Agriculture, the Minister for Water Resources, and Jack Berne, 11.
The presence of the Sydney student illustrated how the government's response to the NSW and Queensland drought has turned into an episode of A Country Practice - a feel-good fantasy about the capricious forces of rural life.
Berne, who hitched a ride on the Prime Minister's jet from Sydney to outback Queensland, nominally launched the "Fiver for a Farmer" campaign that has raised more than $1 million in drought aid.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, right, Jack Berne and Water Resources Minister David Littleproud at Dalby in Queensland last week. AAP
A star of television and tabloid magazines, he is the drought's Greta Thunberg.
The freckled young man even has his own line of country-style logoed shirts, which the Prime Minister generously modelled on the Dalby detour, which was used to draw attention to a loosening of the Farm Household Allowance scheme that is at the forefront of drought welfare.
Bridget McKenzie, the Minister for Agriculture, has managed to cut the application forms from 15 to 10 pages. She has also made the scheme more financially generous, giving the Prime Minister a useful counterpoint in Dalby's dry earth on Friday to Washington's rich lawns a few days before.
The changes being made and proposed to the allowance, and the use of a grade five student to market state protection for Australia's second-oldest industry, demonstrate the awesome lobbying power of blue skies, barren fields and sandy soil.
On Friday, Morrison said the rules had been relaxed to make it easier for farmers to earn income from non-faming work and still receive the Farm Household Allowance, which provides the equivalent of unemployment benefits for farmers in financial distress.
The new measures add to a decision announced three months ago to permanently set the maximum assets for qualifying farmers at $5 million, instead of $2.5 million. The payment was also made available for four years out of every 10, up from three.
Morrison, with young Berne nearby, framed the changes as a way to sustain farmers until the weather turns. "We want to keep them there because it is going to rain and then there's an opportunity on the other side, like there always is," he said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison with farmer David Gooding on his drought-affected property near Dalby, Queensland. AAP
In reality, the lifeline will likely retard agricultural production. Poorly run farms that can't survive regular weather patterns should be allowed to go broke and be bought by operators who have the financial and organisational wherewithal to get through drought.
Instead, asset-rich small business owners will be allowed to live off welfare for 40 per cent of their careers.
Farmers already benefit from some of the most generous tax treatment in the economy. The value of their tax-shielded bank accounts rose over the past year by a GDP-busting 4 per cent to $5.8 billion during what some commentators mistakenly claimed was the "worst drought in a century".
If any farming family has $5 million in net assets and can't generate enough cash to cover basic living costs, they should sell up (usually without paying capital gains tax) and invest in the bond market. Vanguard's diversified index bond fund has returned 6.5 per cent over the past 10 years, which is $325,000 a year on $5 million - a sum that goes a long way in country towns.
With the macro-system policies in place, one objective of the goverment's response to the drought is getting more farmers to subsist off the state. Last year, an official review was conducted of the Farm Household Allowance to find out why only 5000 people were receiving it. The review discovered there is a reason farmers don't like applying for welfare: it makes them feel like welfare applicants.
"Many people felt the application process was ‘demoralising’ and ‘dehumanising’ in the requirements to provide third-party documentation to verify all statements," Michele Lawrence, Georgie Somerset and Robert Slonim wrote in their review. "People commented that it made the process feel like an ‘interrogation’ and with ‘no trust’ placed in the applicants."
Men and women living on the land really, really hate the long application forms, which they regard as an imposition on their valuable time. One farmer's accountant complained to the review the paperwork could take him more than five hours, and he wasn't always fully paid for the work.
Not only did the farmers want a separate website for their honour-based applications - imagine if every Australian was granted that level of trust - they asked for answers within two weeks and the program to be excised from social security law.
Turns out farmers who want the dole don't think they should be vetted by the same system used for the unemployed, students and pensioners.
For those who feel proud that a wealthy nation is prepared to help working families struggling under an adversity as old as human settlement, perhaps consider if the response might have been as energetic if the victims of nature were Halal butchers or Chinese shopkeepers.
In a way, the question has already been answered. Everyone except farmers in the agribusiness supply chain and the rural economy is banned from the allowance and most other forms of government protection for agriculture. This reflects the structure of rural politics, where farmers sit at the top of the hierarchy.
Ironically, Jack Berne isn't part of the country culture. "We are not farmers," his mother, Prue Berne, says. "We have no ties to the farming community at all. Which is why this has been an amazing learning experience."
For the rest of the country too.
It might come as a surprise to realise that Australia doesn't actually know how many of its farmers are in drought.
When asked, the Agriculture Department said the Australian Government was not in the business of making drought declarations.
Instead, it said, "its support for farmers is based on preparedness, risk management and support in times of hardship, including drought" irrespective of where they live.
That, as it turns out, is easier said than done, given Australia's drought policy vacuum — perfectly highlighted by last week's drought funding announcement.
Even before the Prime Minister defended his Government for being "too supportive, too generous and too much on the front foot," having announced $1 million for a Victorian shire having its best spring in decades, Scott Morrison's trip to Dalby left many in regional Australia scratching their heads.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack gave the Queensland trip a miss, spending the day in drought-affected parts of his electorate, while National Famers' Federation president Fiona Simson was absent having had little-to-no warning of the announcement.
Instead, it said, "its support for farmers is based on preparedness, risk management and support in times of hardship, including drought" irrespective of where they live.
That, as it turns out, is easier said than done, given Australia's drought policy vacuum — perfectly highlighted by last week's drought funding announcement.
Even before the Prime Minister defended his Government for being "too supportive, too generous and too much on the front foot," having announced $1 million for a Victorian shire having its best spring in decades, Scott Morrison's trip to Dalby left many in regional Australia scratching their heads.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack gave the Queensland trip a miss, spending the day in drought-affected parts of his electorate, while National Famers' Federation president Fiona Simson was absent having had little-to-no warning of the announcement.
Before the PM had even arrived in Queensland's Darling Downs, farmer Fiona Aveyard could foresee what would happen.
"They come out, put their boots on, put their Akubras on, there's a script that they continually work off, where they talk about how farmers are incredibly resilient, the drought won't break until it rains and they're there to support us," Ms Aveyard, from Tullamore in NSW's central west, said on Thursday.
Ms Aveyard, a fifth-generation farmer, said her community was grinding to a halt because of the drought.
"We're all just walking around dazed."
For Ms Aveyard, reflecting on the Dalby announcement this week, it had seemed the Government's response was "reactionary" and simply offered more "stopgap measures".
More is needed.
It is as though there is a policy drought, instead of a drought policy.
"When it comes to drought policy, it's just made up on the run at the moment," Victorian Farmers' Federation president David Jochinke said.
"People need to know what is coming, and when," he said referring to what assistance might be available at what stage of the drought.
But like the benefits of existing drought measures — that is incredibly unclear.
AND THE REST
Not only did their targets, those who did not agree with the government narrative of the day, have every right to express their views, but their very suppression was poisoning the society as a whole.
The culture was being destroyed by the very people who thought they were transforming it into something better. They might have hoped, if only they had been capable of idealistic impulse, that they were leaving the world a better place, that they were doing good.
Instead they came out looking like grubs.
Alex had stated the common sense theory frequently in his work: far from achieving societal wide enlightenment, the suppression of debate, the derision of those who did not accept the tertiary acquired theories of tolerance and diversity, who dared to disagree with the government narrative, was leading to a lurch to the right; and straight into the arms of extremist views.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
It was a bureaucratic tendency, to quash that which did not fit their narrative, their belief system. But as they worked for their secular enlightenment, executed the theories they had acquired at the knees of their professors, they destroyed the very culture they wished to save; as they worked for the betterment of mankind and instead stirred its darkest forces as the thuggery of groupthink became the norm.
And in a more mundane sense, as they probed him for a response, there in those long nights, he built his defences.
They probed him and he resisted. They watched him and he curled into a ball. Hazing only works if the target is vulnerable. He had been very vulnerable. He had clung to old beliefs that humans were essentially good. He had never truly understood, despite all those multiple lives, the base nature of the species in which he had been landed.
Those who think humans are a nice species simply don’t understand them.
Crude, barbaric, self-interested, they had no adherence to the truth, that curse, or trait, which had made his own life so difficult.
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