By Graham Greenwood
IT is amazing how the values of today’s society and what is most important to them in regard to government action have changed from those of other eras.
Once, getting debt under control was a key policy of any party hoping to gain or retain government.
Yet, it was interesting to read recently that following a survey of federal Liberal MPS, paying off national debt did not rate one single mention from any of their constituents.
In other words, the “live for today, worry about tomorrow when it comes” philosophy of today’s generation indicates the way society thinks.
The Liberals built their success around an ability to be good economic managers by paying off debt, some of which was often left behind by a free-spending Labor party.
But today the Libs are as bad.
They inherited a $250b debt left by Labor in 2013 but since then this debt has doubled, although to be fair, it was announced they expect to achieve a $4b surplus in 2019-20 and the Libs are now slowly retiring the debt.
But nobody cares, no-one is listening because people have “switched off” as far as the government is concerned.
What will be interesting is that according to the polls Labor will romp in at the next election leaving many asking how long it will take for Labor to spend the $4b surplus.
Regardless, the worrying point is, that few in society seem to be worried about the huge debt we are leaving our children and grandchildren.
There appears to be little concern that Australia is living off its “credit card” and has absolutely no hope of ever paying it off.
When John Howard and Peter Costello took charge of government in 1996 they were faced with a $90b debt, which following a lot of financial pain, took many years to pay off.
Our debt is now more than five times that figure.
That does not appear to worry our leaders as both opposition leader Bill Shorten and Prime Minister Scott Morrison are already on a spending spree, promising to spend more than $7b on election promises so far.
In regard to this, Labor always appears to be able to grasp what the electorate is looking for much more quickly and campaign more effectively than the Libs.
Their focus is aimed at providing affordable housing, better education, health and improved wages, but to achieve this all too quickly comes at a cost which affects the economy and debt.
It becomes a balancing act.
People do not want to pay more in taxes, yet there is more and more demand for welfare, plus unnecessary waste by governments, all of which adds more to the national debt, leaving many shaking their heads in dismay.
It is interesting the appointment of a new governor-general attracted more comment, criticism or praise from the media than what Labor’s Annual Conference received.
Yet Mr Shorten’s policy agenda is said to be “busy” and the most wide-ranging since Gough Whitlam took Labor to victory in 1972.
What is interesting about that is history itself – it is becoming a repeat of what happened in 1972.
Similar to today, the Libs were then on the nose, a tired government and while they based their re-election on the economy, no-one cared.
Today’s Labor is much like Labor of 1972.
It has a full policy agenda which appeals to the younger generation, as it did back in 1972.
Many tuned in to Mr Whitlam’s campaign catch-cry, “It’s Time” and voted Labor in huge numbers.
Some quickly regretted their decision and within three years the debt grew as Labor’s welfare and other policies could not be funded.
As it was in 1972, today it is difficult to make a case for the Liberal Government, acknowledging it has its achievements but because they have been overshadowed by in-fighting and failure on so many basic issues, the electorate is no longer listening.
By living beyond our means today we are committing our grandchildren and their children to the pain of paying off our debt.
Happy new year everyone.
