We’re being bought with our own money. And it may well work

The Federal Budget is not a ‘giveaway’ when ultimately taxpayers will have to pay for it, writes Keith Woods.

Fiscal responsibility is like development. Everyone’s all for it until they’re the ones affected.

While most people on the Gold Coast strongly welcome the prospect of the Coomera Connector, the so-called ‘second M1’ designed to ease traffic on the Pacific motorway, there will be some living along its proposed route who will greet the prospect with great alarm. Roads yes, but not in my back yard.

Financial prudence by governments provokes a similar response. The overwhelming majority of people will tell you they are for it. But watch how dramatically their position alters if their own taxes rise or benefits dip in order that it be achieved. Prudence yes, but not if my wallet takes a hit.

Politicians know this is how people think, if not how they speak. Which is why, despite all the fine talk of balancing the nation’s books from Josh Frydenberg last night, like all election year Budgets, last night’s offering looked like it has been framed by a shopaholic in possession of a fresh credit card.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has fun doling out the goodies in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

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How strange that Mr Frydenberg chose to celebrate his announcement that the Budget is “back in the black” by doling out goodies to all and sundry. An odd way to keep spending under control.

Handing one-off payments to pensioners to help with energy costs – $75 for singles and $125 for couples – does nothing to ease the long term burden of soaring electricity prices.

Would those same payments be in the budget if the election was years away rather than weeks?

The tax cuts for people earning up to $126,000 is also a neat political trick. No mention of the fact that the Government has been enjoying years of rising income tax revenues thanks to bracket creep. People are literally being bought with their own money.

There was, inevitably, a hefty dollop of infrastructure spending also announced, a massive $100 billion over 10 years.

But despite the huge size of the fund, there is little real extra spending for the Gold Coast.

The $112m for the extension of the light rail has already been previously announced on multiple occasions.

The $500m announced to go towards upgrading the M1 between Daisy Hill and the Logan Motorway is dependent on the state government chipping in the same amount – which they have already indicated they will not.

And the $8m set aside to study the possibility of a fast rail link to Brisbane certainly qualifies as small beer, especially when one considers the mammoth likely cost of any such project.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the Gold Coast last November to announce funding for the light rail. Picture: Jerad Williams

The truth is, the real spending will take place elsewhere in the nation, where seats are more marginal. It is infrastructure spending based not on the greatest need of citizens, but on the greatest need of politicians to win votes.

It is not good government. But it is good politics, and it might yet yield results for Mr Morrison. He is aided by the fact that Labor is being pulled so far to the left that Bill Shorten finds himself forced to abandon basic political principles.

In order to avoid leaching more votes to the latter-day communists masquerading as Greens, Mr Shorten on Monday found himself announcing radical policies on the environment.

Although, like Mr Shorten himself, most voters will struggle to make sense of the intricacies of Labor’s plans, they will fear the cost.

Faced between a choice between being handed back more of their own hard-earned cash, or seeing it burnt on the bonfire of Labor vanities, the choice appears simple.

It is vote-buying at its crudest, but despite the Coalition’s many travails, it could yet work. Let’s just hope that in years to come there is no buyer’s regret for the goodies loaded up on Mr Frydenberg’s shiny new credit card.