Caleb Bond: Welfare is like heroin — time to cut the supply
After years of treasurers paying lip service to budget repair, people want the government to get on with it, writes Caleb Bond, beginning by weaning people off welfare.
Opinion
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PEOPLE want cuts in next month’s federal Budget — 70 per cent of people, in fact, according to this week’s Newspoll.
After years of treasurers paying lip service to budget repair, people are finally saying it: Get a move on.
Wayne Swan, then Joe Hockey, now Scott Morrison. So many promises, so little delivery. Federal deficits are expected to total up to $400 billion over 12 years to 2020.
Hockey, under the leadership of Tony Abbott, at least tried taking steps towards surplus, but many involved taking more money from people.
Indeed, after promising “tax cuts without new taxes” and “the only party that is going to increase taxes after the election is the Labor Party”, Abbott introduced a deficit levy that pushed the top tax bracket up to 49 cents in the dollar.
Not great conservative policy. And, according to Newspoll, unpopular — only 20 per cent of voters support raising taxes.
But that’s where we hit a snag. See, people overwhelming want budget cuts — and they don’t want to pay extra to pay down the debt — but nor do they want the cuts to affect them.
A significant 61 per cent of voters don’t want cuts to extend to welfare, presumably because they’re profiting from it. Yet about 60 per cent of Australians pay no net tax.
But no pain, no gain. Welfare spending spiralled to $158.61 billion in last year’s budget — almost $6 billion more than the year before. It is more than a third of the federal Budget each year and is the single biggest expense.
It’s time the nation had a discussion about our over-reliance on government money. The rot started with John Howard’s middle-class welfare. Family tax benefits and assistance were extended far up the pay scale, introducing a whole new group of people to the poison of government money. The baby bonus put $5000 in the hands of new mothers, simply because they’d had a baby.
Kevin Rudd handed out the $900 stimulus bonus, showering money on eight million Australians without them even asking.
No wonder it’s so difficult to wind back welfare payments. Big government, you see, is like a drug. It reaches out its hand, filled with a dirty wad of money and what are you going to do? You’ll take it. Who wouldn’t?
But soon, you’re hooked. One payment isn’t enough. You develop a reliance and you’re begging for more.
Big government is poisonous. People clearly know that, because they don’t want to hand over any more taxes. But like a heroin addict who keeps saying he’ll go to rehab, we keep sticking the needle in our arm.
Australians are addicted to welfare. Though it would be politically unpopular, someone has to show the fortitude to wean us off.
@TheCalebBond
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