Conservatives fume over tax-and-spend budget dubbed ‘Labor-lite’

TREASURER Scott Morrison called it the Budget of “fairness” but one group of people don’t see it that way and they’re fuming.

CONSERVATIVES have reacted with fury to Malcolm Turnbull’s Federal Budget, accusing him of turning his back on Coalition principles.

His tax-and-spend agenda has been dubbed “Labor-lite” by some commentators, with its $6 billion bank levy and Gonski 2.0 funding package coming in for particular criticism from the right-wing side of politics. It is also being widely seen as Mr Turnbull’s attempt to press the political reset button, killing off the ghosts of the Abbott-Hockey disaster budget of 2014.

Tony Abbott’s former chief-of-staff turned Sky News pundit Peta Credlin blasted the budget as not credible.

“It beggars belief when last year’s Budget hit our base with superannuation. It beggars belief that this year’s Budget would again hit the aspirational Coalition base on schools funding. It is a fight we don’t need. We are behind in the polls, when are we going to stop hitting our own?

“I don’t think it is credible for the Coalition side of politics to deliver a tax-and-spend Budget. This is a Labor tax-and-spend Budget, this is not who we are as a Coalition, this is not who we are as Liberals”

During an interview with 2GB radio host Alan Jones this morning, Mr Turnbull was confronted by Australia’s ballooning debt.

Jones pointed out Australia’s debt ceiling had been lifted to $600 billion and total debt was now rising by about $5.3 million per hour.

“People are saying to me ‘I never thought I would see the day when a Coalition government would increase the debt ceiling to $600 billion’,” Jones said.

“Out there they are worried sick ... how can you say we are living ... within our means? It’s worrying the tripe out of people.”

But Mr Turnbull said the government was doing everything it could to bring the deficit down and the government was increasing taxes on banks and the Medicare Levy, but had not been able to get savings through the Senate.

“Labor backed in a lot of spending which we have sought to pare back — we have had a lot of success actually but not enough,” Mr Turnbull said.

“You cannot turn the federal government around on a dime.”

Jones also criticised the government’s backing of Gonski school funding which will see it tip $18.6 billion into the sector, saying the PM didn’t discuss the move with the party and it was “dudding Catholic schools”.

He also pointed out that Mr Turnbull even confronted Opposition Leader Bill Shorten over the issue of increased education spending, saying it didn’t guarantee results.

“You said that last year ... now Gonski has become an article of faith, some kind of religious relic,” Jones said. “What are you doing?”

Mr Turnbull tried to appeal to Jones’ experience as a former teacher saying “You know as well as I do, you are a former teacher, an old chalkie ... you know that the charisma of the teacher is the most important element”.

But Jones was having none of it, saying: “don’t soften me up, don’t try and soften me up”.

If there were any @LiberalAus principles left that Turnbull hadn't already torched, he well and truly did so tonight. #budget2017 #auspol pic.twitter.com/XBkID4pWap

— #BringBackAbbott (@TeamTAbbott) May 9, 2017

Former Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi, who quit the party in protest in February to form the Australian Conservatives, said the Coalition had delivered “economy sucking vampire measures” that would leave every Australian family worse off.

“This is a great Budget for Australian Conservatives because it proves definitively, that the Coalition is now just another faction of the Labor Party,” he told Sky News.

“[They are] tackling businesses that make a profit, simply because they make a profit. There is no principle attached to it.”

.@corybernardi says the Coalition is now just another faction of the Labor party. #Budget2017 MORE https://t.co/i9NLwAjnID pic.twitter.com/Q0sUbrfxxz

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 9, 2017

He said the only Budget measure he backed was drug testing for dole recipients.

Both the Coalition and Labor have been accused in recent weeks of trying to appeal to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation voters in Queensland, but the firebrand Senator was not buying last night’s Budget either.

“(I’m) not happy, not happy at all. It’s all about the spending, and I believe the government needs to rein in the spending,” Senator Hanson told Sky.

“We are paying top dollar for all of this.”

Bipartisan support for the government’s commitment to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme was also a source of suspicion.

“I know of someone who got on a disability pension for chronic fatigue [and] has not been investigated for four years. We have to have these people reinvestigated,” she said.

“We have to get tough on this. People are ripping us off left, right and centre and they must prove they are still eligible because taxpayers have had a gutful.”

.@PaulineHansonOz says wants to have those on the NDIS re-investigated to ensure they are eligible. #Budget2017 MORE https://t.co/DzIp1Zh5Aq pic.twitter.com/8k4RKLBFZV

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 9, 2017

Veteran Channel Nine commentator Laurie Oakes said the “Labor-lite” Budget was a clever political move that “stole the thunder” of Opposition leader Bill Shorten by neutralising Labor on heartland issues such as Medicare, education and the banks.

“I think it could have been brought down by a Labor treasurer and if it was, the Coalition would criticise it as a tax-and-spend Budget,” he said.

But Mr Shorten said there were some key differences.

“Tonight, Malcolm Turnbull is delivering a tax cut for millionaires and a tax hike for every working Australian. People are saying this is like a ‘Labor budget’. A Labor budget wouldn’t cut schools to give millionaires a tax cut,” he said.