Julia's deception on 'savings' makes credibility a joke

YESTERDAY Julia Gillard proudly repeated a line Wayne Swan has been misleadingly spruiking for months.

She said: "I want to reinforce this point, we have already made as a government more than $80 billion of savings since 2007".

Sounds impressive, right? The only problem is it isn't true. When the Prime Minister and the Treasurer talk of "savings", they include tax increases, dividends and levies, not just cuts in government spending.

The planned flood levy would be classified as savings. What a joke.

Here are some examples of what Gillard includes in her list of so-called savings. A one-off dividend of $150 million the government demanded from Australia Post, $555m from luxury-car tax rises, $402m from higher visa application charges and, in the most recent budget, $275m from more fuel taxes as a result of amending ethanol arrangements.

Added to that are billions of dollars from alcopops and tobacco tax rises. Even the yet-to-be-collected mining tax is included in the $80bn in so-called savings.

Labor's biggest challenge is overcoming a relentlessly negative opposition and failures in programs during its first term. But its credibility is hurt, not helped, by misrepresentative statements.

It is political alchemy to include tax increases and one-off dividends as savings. It simply doesn't pass the commonsense test. No wonder the public is loath to believe what politicians tell them.