Budget 2019: Power play as Newstarters get a late start

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg outside Parliament House this morning. Picture: Kym Smith

The Budget isn’t yet a day old, and already they’re having to tweak it.

Happily, the fix is a good one.

This Budget had at its heart something rather cold and mean.

You’ll recall Josh Frydenberg telling the nation last night: ‘We’re back in the black, and Australia is back on track!”

Under such circumstances, he could afford to be a bit generous, and so he put a little a bribe in there: $125 for couples, $75 for singles to help pay the power bills.

Provided all goes well in Parliament today, that money will land in your account in the next few weeks.

You can of course spend it how you please (anyone for ASOS, ladies? I’m generalising, obviously.)

As a budget measure, it looks warm and generous. We get that it’s tough out there, and all that.

But there was a nasty twist.

The Newstart people, who truly live on the margins, weren’t going to get it.

How stingy can you get?

Seventy-five bucks to a person on an average income, thanks very much, I’ll find a way to treat myself.

Seventy-five bucks to a person trying to decide between school lunches and putting petrol in the car?

It’s a bonanza.

The nastiness of it must have dawned on the Treasurer overnight, because he fixed it this morning.

The Newstart recipients are now to get it, as they should.

There’s some grumbling about this, because some say a bribe should be well targeted: the Newstart recipients won’t ever vote for the Coalition, so what’s the point?

It’s decent. It’s kind. It’s also fair.

That’s the point.

Also, looking at Labor’s policies as unveiled thus far, those on the margins may find themselves far better off under the Coalition, going forward.

Under Labor, when the old bomb breaks down — and it will — they’re going to be forced to buy an electric car, the cheapest of which is currently $30K.

The value of which will subsequently plummet.

Or else they could walk, which is what the Greens prefer.

Anyway, Frydenberg’s done the right thing, telling ABC radio this morning that “we will be applying to Newstart recipients, the energy supplement … that will be in the legislation we introduce in the parliament.”

Look, you could be cynical and say he’s done that mainly to avoid the smashing they were about to get in Canberra, and you’d probably be right. But it’s still a good outcome.