When is a budget really a budget? – Jamie McIntyre
If everyone created budgets like our current Government, we’d all be in a bit of financial bother.
You know, the sort of bother where the money runs out before the month runs out!
Imagine if publicly listed companies could fudge figures (and be legally allowed to) as much as Treasurer Swan does.
Or if households ran that way – expecting to have food on the table at the end of the year, when instead the money runs out because the budget is so hopelessly inaccurate.
What do I mean?
Well this financial year just passed (2011/2012), the budget papers stated the deficit was $44.4 billion.
Yet when Treasurer Swan released the budget this time last year, Australians were told it would be $22.6 billion.
Now of course budgets are forecasts, but being $22 billion out or 100% out is hardly what you could call the makings of the world’s best treasurer!
So how can we rely on this year’s budget surplus forecast of $1.5 billion to actually occur when over the last 12 months this Government spent $22 billion more than the budget they told us this time last year?
You see this year’s forecast $1.5 billion surplus is an accounting trick.
Such as: moving a lot of expenses to this year’s expenses, prior to June 30.
And then postponing next year’s expenses to a year later, along with other fudging of the books (and creating a poison pill for the Coalition to swallow when it comes to power, because they’ll have to find ways to fund the postponed expenses).
Think Enron and others who fudged the books, and what happened eventually.
Of course the Government will simply borrow to plug the deficit that occurs next year when its paper-thin surplus of $1.5 billion never eventuates because it’s simply an accounting trick and not a budget you can bank on.
And add this to the time tested strategy of Labor Governments: bribe the lower income earners to vote for them by diverting monies into sweeteners, instead of gaining votes by having a credible Government.
Sure, maybe it’s good politics but it isn’t good economic management.
Overall though, perhaps we should give them some credit for at least trying to get a budget surplus.
Because it’s not in their DNA to run budget surpluses, or to cut back on spending money used to bribe the electorate to maintain power.
If this Government had not run up $180 billion (and counting) in budget deficits since it started, I’d be more excited by Australia’s economic prospects.
The best thing about the 2012 budget is it isn’t that harmful, which is unusual for this Government.
And considering it’s likely to be the last one Treasure Swan gets to deliver, at least that can excite us.
What are your thoughts on the budget?
As a small business owner and someone who is trying to fund my own retirement I feel like I am constantly chasing my tail as the government is hell bent on punishing anyone who wants to have financial success.
Hi Jamie,
I agree with your comments 100%. There is no way in the World that this Government will achieve a $1.5 billion surplus by the end of next financial year, and that is just another lie along with all of the other lies that this Labor Government has presented during their term in Government. I am hoping for an election at the earliest possible opportunity and I expect the result to resemble the recent Queensland election.
Can’t argue with any of that.
I will say that companies are just as likely to ‘stretch’ the budget so that things are postponed until the next year because they ‘aren’t in budget’. Just ask any maintanence man at any establishment and he will gladly tell you stories of where they were told to put off ‘critical’ maintenance because it wasn’t in the budget. I’ve worked for my fair share.
Sincerly and in good faith
Anthony Wasiukiewicz
This just confirms the role of the Treasurer needs to be means-tested just like welfare, and now medicare. Australia’s most successful should be invited to make a difference and contribute to the budget. After all, it is the budget of our country we are talking about.
…then there is the management of the very projects that the budget promises. Or the loss minimisation of cut projects. But that is a separate issue. Entrepreneurs help us!
The idea of any political body is to be independant of the people and/or their adgenda. Just like that of any independant body during any investigation or reporting, gaining facts from outside and making decisions on those facts.
The Entrepreneurs have just as much ability to have their say on what they want to be done. They have to go though their local representatives like everyone else. This is the idea of democracy.
*My comments above (may 12) refer to the main article*