Well there was an air of inevitability about the $42 billion package being approved by the Senate. This is the price that 56 per cent of Australian families, who actually pay income tax, will have to pay for the Senate approval:
…bring forward $500 million over four years…to buy back water for the stressed river system…$400 million…to save water and improve planning in Murray-Darling communities and to encourage stormwater-harvesting projects that weaned towns off the basin.
However,
NSW Irrigators Council chief executive Andrew Gregson said the massive injection of funds would push prices up to unaffordable levels for other buyers. Irrigators priced out of the market would shed jobs, he warned.
This is not just about the merits of the proposals; they will do nothing to solving the current economic downturn.
Mr Turnbull also said Mr Rudd’s stated aim that the spending would boost the nation’s GDP by 0.5 per cent this year and up to 1 per cent next year represented a “pathetic, incompetent return” for the outlay.
Agreed. I am becoming more of the mind that there should be an amendment to the Constitution to make it illegal for the Federal Government to go into debt, except in a time of war or major national calamity. Certainly not because of an economic downturn. My basic reasoning is that if businesses can cut costs during a downturn then so can government. That way the burden for poor governance is spread evenly throughout generations, not just for those that have to pay off the debt of a previous incompetent and crony government.