Andrew Bolt: Deeply cynical election bribe could blow up in Labor’s face

Jim Chalmers put his party above his country in a bribe-heavy Budget plainly designed to get Labor elected, not to make Australia stronger — and there is a massive trapdoor opening under our feet.

Are we crazy? How embarrassing for this country that the big Budget debate is the Albanese government’s “tax cut”, and whether the Liberals back it.

How can anyone take seriously the government’s insulting promise to give back just $5 a week of its massive tax take, but only from the middle of next year?

In fact, this deeply cynical election bribe could blow up in Labor’s face if Opposition Leader Peter Dutton offers something bigger in Thursday’s Budget reply.

A word of advice to Dutton. Labor has just made this “tax cut” the big election issue, even though it couldn’t even pay for one Big Mac a week to feed your family.

Well, double it. If you were thinking of spending that money on some new program instead, don’t.

But really, this fuss over a tax cut so ridiculously small is not just completely beside the point.

It distracts us from something frightening – the massive trapdoor opening under our feet, thanks to the most economically destructive and irresponsible government in our lifetime.

At least Jim Chalmers told us that things could get very ugly for Australians very soon. Picture: Martin Ollman

I’ll give Treasurer Jim Chalmers credit for just one thing in his Budget speech on Tuesday. At least he told us that things could get very ugly for Australians very soon.

He’s right. What’s almost criminal is that he then promptly ignored everything he’d just admitted.

It’s not just that economic growth is weak, living standards down and inflation tipped in the Budget to go up again next year.

Chalmers chirped: “Storm clouds are gathering in the global economy … Trade disruptions are rising, China’s growth is slowing, war is still raging in Europe, and a ceasefire in the Middle East is breaking down.”

That’s not even the worst we could face, and I don’t just mean China’s open threats of war in our region.

China could destroy our economy by cutting its imports of our coal, iron our and other resources. All our eggs are in the basket of this hostile dictatorship.

If Chalmers actually listened to himself, he’d conclude his patriotic duty would be to do everything he could to prepare us for trouble. Build up our savings to cushion a future shock; build up our military to defend us; and build up our economy to ride out any trouble as best we can.

His Budget did none of that.

Jim Chalmers has gone on such a spendathon that every Budget in the decade to come will be in deficit, with gross debt to hit $1 trillion next year. Picture: ABC

Chalmers instead put his party above his country, in a bribe-heavy Budget plainly designed to get Labor elected, not Australian stronger.

Build up our savings? Chalmers in fact has gone on such a spendathon that every Budget in the decade to come will be in deficit, with gross debt to hit $1 trillion next year.

Build up our defence? Chalmers promised only the most leisurely build up of military spending, to just 2.3 per cent of our economy in a decade from now. That. When the Trump administration urging that we hit 3 per cent and soon, with war possible within the next five years.

And build up our economy? Instead, the deliberate destruction of our economy continues.

This climate-obsessed government is doubling down on the green energy policies that have helped drive up power prices; it’s increasing investments in green schemes that are money pits; it’s rejecting the nuclear power that is our only guarantee of reliable emissions-free electricity; it’s done flat nothing to cut the green tape and the black tape that are strangling investments.

Living standards under this government have fallen sharply under this government, and are likely to fall again.

Living standards under this government have fallen sharply under this government, and are likely to fall again. Picture: Martin Ollman

Here’s something for everyone in high school and our universities to now consider. Most of us, at your age, were as Left wing as most of you are today, trusting to Big Government and cheering handouts as a sign of compassion.

Only when we got older, and saw the huge bite taken out of our taxes, did many of us start to question why, and what our money is splashed on.

If I were you, I’d do this growing up a lot faster, because who do you think will pay back Labor’s massive debt, that will still be rising 10 years from now?

It won’t be me, who will hopefully be reading on a couch in my retirement.

It will be you, then around 30, trying to raise a young family and save for a home – while your taxes are gobbled by a government trying to pay off the debts racked up by your Labor-voting parents.

Better hope the economy will be strong enough to cope, but this Budget makes me fear the worst.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Deeply cynical election bribe could blow up in Labor’s face