It would be nice to see Fairfax do a ‘Whatever happened to’ series of stories on great budget initiatives of the past.

Ken, the Fin had a nice piece a few weeks ago on unspent spending.

Truth is Howard’s mob have had so much money sloshing around in federal coffers it’s been an embarrassment and they’ve been able to waste it on all sorts of things without copping any serious scrutiny. Defence ‘oh hell just round it up to the nearest $billion’ spending is a staggering scandal but for some reason voters don’t seem to notice, maybe because it would be contrary to the Spirit of Anzac or something.

Anybody who’s ever had to deal with Centrelink knows that the states have no monopoly on administrative incompetence. In the USA some true conservatives have turned on the Bush Administration for betraying the fundamental conservative ideals of small government and prudent administration … the way Howard’s bunch have escaped a similar fate suggests how few genuine conservatives there are in this country.

This story seem quite apropos: “Schools wait in vain for flagpole cash�
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/schools-wait-in-vain-for-flagpole-cash/2007/05/03/1177788310580.html

I’m sure that the great responsible position taken by the board will be reflected in the cartoons you mentioned. Obviously the threat of interest rises and inflation were a passing fantasy with no substance at all.

Just like the interest rate rises last year, a pimple on the face of history. Only hurt the poor so who cares as far as the Government and their mates at the Reserve Bank are concerned.

Right now, cartoonists around Australia are drawing ‘pork barrels’ with Cossie, sitting on one, with with a tiny little tale. It is to their drawings I wll be looking too, for balance. It will not be to the conga line of suckholes, that pretend to be the ‘balanced’, press gallery.

If Labor were to win the Federal election, which is still unlikely, given the extreme advantages of incumbency and ‘the win at all costs’ mentality of those born to rule…… a fine chance, will be available, to twig the relationship between the Fed boss, who holds all the cash and options, and their almost employees, the premiers.

Presently, the states have all the important roles to fill, but are hampered, by the flash, fully paid up boss, who will squander around 15 billion to provide fine driving experiences for those lucky enough to be RAAF pilots; while many old codgers sit at home, in pain, and are unable to get their teeth fixed.

Sounds like Rudd’s agenda.

I reckon Rudd should play it a cynically as Howard: we’ll keep the bribes pre-paid rebates coming - but you’ll get it every year, not just at elction time.

Where’s all the money diverted from the Telstra sale in 1996 gone?

That was basically about offering one fairly unpalatable move (privatising Telecom) to prevent an even worse one (environmental degredation). In this case he might have borrowed from keating’s songbook. Keating offered a bailout of the Victorian State Bank on condition that the privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank be accepted. It eliminated the resistance to privatision, even if it was a bit sleight-of-hand (the Vic State Govt still had all the debts).

Howard’s was even more sleight-of-hand. The money was put into emvironmental issues, but at the same time, according to Kenneth Davidson, the Commonwealth funding allocation was reduced. So what they gained with one hand they lost with the other.

What concrete benefits to public services and infrastructure have the Howard government actually delivered?

Mr Howard sent me a very useful “alert but not alarmed” fridge magnet that I use to hold the take-out menu of my favourite Lebanese restaurant.

I don’t think the governemnt’s problem is a lack of pork barreling. At the moment, either because of Rudd or just because of reality there seems to be a feeling that the government is lacking on the “vision thing”. That can’t really be fixed in a single budget.

The basic problem is that the government is already behind in the polls, so it has to actively do things to get ahead. But whatever it does, no matter how great it is, the question will be asked “if this is so great why wasn’t it in last year’s budget, and the one before that ?”

They did not lay down the foundation for a vision of Australia’s future or for a response to issues like climate change over the entire term. Oppositions can do things at the last minute. If governments try to do things during the election campaign they have to explain why they weren’t doing anything about them for the previous 3 years.

Seriously though the Costello budgets need to bought down in a minimum of two parts. The Core promises part which are for the Farmers and Big Business constituency and the Non -core promises which is the famous ‘Fistfull of Dollars’ for everyone else.

For example ABC Learning feeding Childcare changes should be listed in the Core area and climate change initiatives in the non core as they will be clawed back either on winning an election or the next budget. Changes to assist the community generally need to be seen as noncore

The things that have been listed in past budgets are implemented and clawed back in the next budget when the political heat moves to other issues. Outcomes have not been a measure for this Government, put political trickery rules.

CHORUS
Oh yes I am wise
But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the interest
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can vote Rat again
I am strong, but
highly leveraged
I am battler

I wonder if anyone has ever calculated whether there is a dollar threshold over which a certain percentage of the population will pay more attention. Will it be 60 billion this year, 90, or 10? Does it actually make any difference to most people what figure is announced in “increased spending” for something or does it just have to have the words “million” or “billion” at the end?

I mean, I know in science and higher education they throw around press releases with headlines like “$60 million spent on ARC centres of excellence!”, which sounds like a huge amount of money, until you do the math and realize that each centre of excellence employs 100 people and that there are something like 10 of them and you quickly work out that basically they are getting almost no money at all. The thing is, that $60 million is a BIG number to a lot of people that aren’t used to financing big projects.