Letters of 1 April 2022: A good budget, on the surface

It may seem strange thinking about Christmas in March, but the Treasurer’s budget reminded me of my childhood experience of unpacking a pillowslip with a colourful and promising item at the top, followed by socks and bathers, and eventually jellybeans at the bottom which were quickly consumed before breakfast (“The mega cost of getting Joyce to back net zero”, March 30; “Gas, hydrogen projects in $1.3billion windfall”, March 30).

Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg with the budget. Photo: Adam Taylor

Like the promising items at the top of the pillowslip, the generalised rhetoric in the budget about strong economy, jobs, national security, health, supply chain resilience, women’s economic security, and fiscal restraint was impressive.

But missing was the serious approach to climate change, disaster planning, and wage growth needed to achieve these aspirations.More than 70 per cent of the Treasurer’s own electorate of Kooyong understand this.

However, with mega billions squandered on Barnaby Joyce’s demands to agree to an increasingly elusive emissions 2050 target and continued subsidies to the reducing employment requirements of fossil fuel industry as it transitions to renewables, and the jellybeans gone, what future are we leaving our children and grandchildren? We have a Father Christmas budget from the Treasurer, but without the hair and beard.

Bill Chandler, Surrey Hills, Vic

Business hasn’t learnt anything in two years

Jacob Greber’s article makes it quite clear to me: business has not learnt from the pandemic (“The ‘biggest issue facing business’ that the budget didn’t solve”, March 30).

All they are focused on is a return to their obsession with “growth”: economic and population growth.

I cannot say it often enough: the planet is a finite resource. All life as well as all non-biological resources on this planet are finite. That applies to humans as well.

If Australia’s population would be capped at, say, 20 million (or less), business would have to reinvent itself to adjust to the new normal. And they would.

People are flexible, they can adapt. It is not even difficult to do.The current incessant clamouring for more imported labour, stealing it more often than not from emerging and developing countries, is just a lazy way of not wanting to change.

Such an attitude does not bode well for future generations.

Margit Alm, Eltham, Vic

A prospectus could replace annual process

Another annual federal budget and another short-term political fix, overly driven by the assumed interests of swinging voters in the marginal electorates (“Cash splash dash to the polls”, March 30).

It is time to dump the annual budget and replace it with a three-year economic planning prospectus for the term of a new or continuing federal government.

The annual budget has become a disruptive and unproductive farce. It undermines government, business and community certainty and planning and helps to keep everybody fixated on the short term.

Sure, there will need to be regular adjustments and updates, but they should all be clearly and consistently framed by the objectives, targets and financing of the overarching three-year plan.

Stewart Sweeney, Adelaide, SA

Sacrifice of urban areas for Nationals’ agenda

The Nationals, in exacting funds for some of the most adventurous infrastructure projects this country has embarked upon, may well ring the death knell for some of the government’s inner city and coastal electorates, where the focus is more on looming environmental threats.

Barnaby Joyce’s “Outback Way” linking Cairns and Perth by road and rail is the most audacious and is going to take some explaining (“The mega cost of getting Barnaby Joyce to back net zero”, March 29).

We can be sure the man who believes the recent east coast “rain bombs” are a once-in-a-3500-year event will give it his all, but it’s clear that developing remote infrastructure has one main beneficiary: the mining industry.

With the state of our medical, aged care and mental health services exposed by the pandemic, the thinly disguised blackmail paid out of taxpayers’ funds may swing a few votes in the bush but the election will be won or lost in the population centres.

John Mosig, Kew, Vic

No place for reform in short-term outlook

The 2022 federal budget is a classic “pork-barrelling” one: an open and desperate attempt by the Morrison government to buy votes from swinging voters, with an election just a few weeks off.

Primarily short or shorter term relief measures. No mention of the long overdue “structural reform” of our outmoded taxation system.

The 2022 budget redefines the meaning of economic/fiscal responsibility, negatively. Whether the ploy pays off at the ballot box remains to be seen.We shall know in about eight weeks.

Arcarius, Belmont, Vic

How about making more room for the arts?

If you lack vision, you will never have competent policy. The Dutton and Morrison government proves this daily.

They don’t see the benefit of the arts and as a consequence cut the budget and fail to create policy. The role of the arts is to raise up a nation. To see ourselves and our way ahead. We need a government with eyes that see.

Martin Bell, Balgowlah, NSW

Incurring travel cost without benefit analysis

Having spent 25 years finding a variety of ways to deliver faster travel times between Sydney and Newcastle, as a consultant adviser to both the NSW and commonwealth governments, I am pleased to see government finally moving on funding this.

But why the commonwealth has selected the Tuggerah-to-Wyong sector is puzzling, not the least for the lack information available for scrutiny.

This is already one of the fastest running sectors of the line and Wyong and Tuggerah are major passenger uplift locations.

Even more puzzling is the statement by the minister that the travel time savings this investment will deliver are not known. The value of travel time saving is a major input to assessing the cost-benefit of a project in a business case, which makes me wonder if there has been a business case prepared at all. As for Labor promising a 45-minute travel time, they will have to find over $4 billion just to get across the Hawkesbury River and the challenging terrain either side. Bring it on.

Peter Thornton, Killara, NSW

IR reform best done as a bipartisan issue

Employers are right in calling for industrial relations reform. But they are wrong in expecting a government that may be on a knife’s edge electorally to heed their call and make a commitment prior to the election (“Employers tell Morrison the time for IR reform is now”, March 31).

IR, due to its current adversarial nature, is a controversial area. But there is little doubt that current structures, regulations and practices are cumbersome and hugely expensive. Ideally, progress in this area is best made in a bipartisan way. Anything that has all-round agreement will be longer lasting than what is enforced unilaterally.

Therefore, both the current government and the Opposition could jointly agree to, and announce now, a joint review of IR and the development of recommendations for improvement for the ensuing term of government.

Michael Schilling, Millswood, SA

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