Now that the (much anticipated) budget has finally been released I am dumbfounded, once again on the lack of forward planning.
Here's a "cut and paste" from the SMH (Peter Hartcher)"...Rudd and his ministers, so anxious to please, have lost their boldness and their roar...the Rudd Government holds 22 seats in Parliament by a margin of 5 per cent or less. Rudd's budget exposes him as a leader governing with this fact uppermost on his mind. He is quick to please, but loath to offend - even if the national interest demands it. The Government will tell us, ad nauseum, that Australia's fiscal position is vastly better than that of the other developed countries. And it's true. It's not the result of his own labour. He has shown with this budget that he is more interested in strengthening Labor's position than Australia's."
The myopia on show by our elected officials (time and time again) has me thinking that they are incapable of vision and long term thinking. A quick look at China....there are many engineer-politicians in China and this goes hand in hand with a certain way of thinking. An engineer’s job is to ensure things work, that the bridge stays up or the dam holds. The process by which projects get built is usually secondary. Engineers are supposed to focus on the long term; buildings have no merit if they will collapse after a few years. So too with our economic health.
I'm not an economist, accountant or rocket scientist. But the lack of money available for long term industries like renewable energy, transport and, agriculture absolutely astonishes me. Let's not talk about unnecessary debt. Oh boy...we are headed....
