The coalition under Abbott is just a propaganda machine. He uses the media to not only get his point of view across but disgraceful distorts and perpetuates outright lies in order to support his position.
A few examples.
Budget Emergency & Labor's debt disaster
If this is true, then why is his government INCREASING spending over the forward estimates ... thats right, increasing it, not decreasing it.
The pre-budget release of the completely political 'it's Labor's budget mess we're fixing' was classic propaganda, the stuff that North Korea would have been proud of.
Also, he has repeatedly decided the need to curb increasing spending on pensions. I'm not sure how Labor contributed to this long standing issue because they didn't. In fact, it was Labor under Hawke/Keating that introduced the Super Guarantee that we all now enjoy, and it was the previous Labor government under Rudd/Gillard that proposed to increase the Super Guarantee from 9% to 12% but was vehemently opposed by the coalition.
Budget Deficits
The Budget claims that 2014-2015 is forecast to deliver a $30B deficit with their budget measures, an improvement of $20B from the estimated position ($50B) due to Budget measures, therefore claiming a fiscal windfall of $20B due to their superior financial management. They also claimed the the previous Labor government 'cooked the books' to come up with their estimates. Well $8B of this $20B budget improvement comes from manipulating the Reserve Bank, effectively cooking the books as they accused Labor of doing. A significant portion of the remaining 'savings' are just cost shifting to the States and Territories, like reducing Health and Education payments. Then to make sure they have the best chance of getting there, the government rips unprecedented massive amounts out of the foreign aid budget, hoping that the xenophobia that drives the 'illegal boat crisis' will allow them to get away with it without too much scrutiny.
Health and Education
It is widely accepted that approx $80B LESS will be funded by the Federal Government for Health and Education over then next 10 years. This is a $80B cost shift from the Federal government to the States and territories. Gonski and NDIS pre-election commitments have been broken.
University funding will be reduced by approx 20%, with the shortfall to be recovered by allowing the Universities to set their own fees from 2016. Student repayments of HELP will increase due to the interest rate increasing from 2% to possibly 6%. A double whinny for Uni students.
The Federal government is trying to divert attention from this cost shifting in education and health by creating a health and medical research fund, which will be funded by the $7 co-payment for doctors visits. The figures of a $20B fund are impressive, but remember that overall the government will be cutting funding to the sector. I have worked and am currently associated with health and medical research so the fund is a great thing, but unfortunately created by deceit and by ripping out funding the Universities, who will therefore have LESS funding for their own research.
GST
Abbott and his colleagues consistently stated prior to the election that thy have no plans to increase the rate of GST, claiming that to change the rate all States have to unanimously agree. Well actually, they DON'T. The Federal government has the power to change the rate of the GST without the unanimous approval of the States.
Also, with their clear strategy of starving the States of funding in Health and Education, they have deliberately setup a fight with the States, in order to goad them into requesting and demanding more funding. Anyone's guess what will happen? Yes, that's right, the GST rate will increase and the States will be blamed for it by the Federal government, even though they (the Feds) deliberated caused the issue.
Stop playing politics and allow us to govern
This is the genius of Tony Abbott. From the day he became opposition leader, he had a very clear and deliberate strategy to throw every parliamentary convention out the window. Bi-partisanship was dead.
He requested the suspension of standing orders so many times we lost count. This was a calculated move to allow him to grandstand in parliament and grab media headlines to get his message across. He used politics at every opportunity, and on many occasions when it was totally inappropriate.
He also is the master of repeating his message ad-infinitum with his infamous '3 word slogans'. Listen very carefully to the way he speaks. He very deliberately doesn't try to accuse the Labor party or his opponents, he does it in a way of commentary to strong suggest that what he says is fact. Most journos fall for it every time and rarely question him on it. It's a very clever way to get a message across and to be part of the everyone's thinking.
Now in government, he has appointed the most partisan speaker in living memory who so blatantly is favouring the government in parliament that's its an embarrassment. This is to ensure that Labor doesn't resort to the tactics that he so successfully employed himself in opposition.
So he used his infamous 'wrecking ball' to make parliament and the act of governing almost impossible, regardless of how competent or otherwise the Labor government was at the time.
He has almost single handedly brought down any respect the electorate had in politicians and the running of parliament.
But now that he is in government, any attempt to make his government responsible for their actions is met with the 'you' re playing politics' response. Let us govern he says. Well, this is where the karma bus revs up.
So im summary, this government will no doubt in my mind be looked at as the most deceitful in living memory, and will drag it so far to the right that in years to come, it wouldn't be totally outrageous to suggest that John Howard may himself disassociate himself from it as Malcolm Fraser has clearly done in opposing his former party for so long.
I'm not confident that Labor has the ability to capitalise on the absolute gift that has been presented to them by Abbott. Labor has no real right to expect to form government for at least 6 years. The action of the current government has given them hope, and I'm an certain that Abbott will be brought down by his own party to save themselves from disaster when the enormity of what they have setup with this budget takes hold. Malcolm Turnbill will drag the party towards the centre where they belong.
We can only hope.
