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in the land of excitement .....

in the land of excitement ....

Here we are at the end of 2015, and apparently there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian.

Maybe, maybe not.

What about lowest-paid workers in Australia? Apparently they need to give up penalty rates so that the economy can create more jobs.

What about people who are sick in Australia? Apparently they need to pay more for medical care in order to fill a hole in the Turnbull government’s budget. 

What about Australian women? They face the grim statistic that one woman is killed each week by a partner or ex-partner. Apparently they have to wait years just to get a government-funded advertising campaign to address the terror some women face in our homes. 

What about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians? Apparently the devastating impacts of dispossession of land and destruction of culture – impacts evidenced in higher morbidity and mortality rates, higher incarceration rates, and poorer education outcomes, just to name a few – aren’t enough to reverse the savage cuts to Aboriginal Affairs in the 2014 budget.

What about gay and lesbian Australians? Apparently laws that would grant them the right to marry can’t be debated by the Parliament, even though Malcolm Turnbull says he supports marriage equality. 

What about Australian families? Apparently they have to play a game of snakes and ladders with the Turnbull government. Some families can get more childcare if others give up tax breaks. One family can only gain if another family loses.

What about the Australians working at Spotless? They are amongst the lowest paid, yet apparently they have to pay a higher rate of tax than the company for which they work. 

What about Australian workers on an average wage? Apparently they have to fill the Turnbull government’s revenue problems by moving into higher and higher tax brackets.

What about Australian taxpayers? Apparently our money can be handed out by the Turnbull government to big companies to pay them not to pollute, rather than require those companies to pay a tax to the government when they do pollute. 

What about the Australian states and territories? Apparently the Turnbull government can take money away from their hospitals and schools and still deny them more funds from an increased GST.

What about any Australian who purchases the staples of life, like food and clothing? Apparently the Turnbull government thinks they can pay a higher GST to fund things like a lower company tax.

Why is it that the Turnbull government always reaches first for the sick, the old, the young and the poor? 

Why is a Labor government’s deficit of $18bn and a debt of $191bn a “disaster” and an “emergency”, but the Turnbull government’s deficit of $37bn and debt of $336bn is simply analogous to a long, annoying, family car trip?

Why is the Turnbull government the highest taxing and highest spending Australian administration since the Howard years?

Why doesn’t the Turnbull government have a serious look at proposals that aren’t regressive: a medicare levy, superannuation tax reforms, and multinational tax avoidance?

And while we are at it, there are some people who are not Australian but who, for one reason or another, are affected by the Turnbull government. For them it’s not a very exciting time. Why do the poorest people in the world, women and children in developing countries, need to lose Australian foreign aid so the Turnbull government can dubiously claim it has a path back to surplus?

Why do the some of the most vulnerable people in world – asylum seekers and refugees, and their children – need to be held hostage on Nauru by the Turnbull government as some kind of human deterrence system?

Does anybody really believe the cheerleader-in-chief, Malcolm Turnbull, when he tells us how excited we should be to be alive during his administration?

In 2015, the Australian government changed leaders. In 2016, the Australian people can change the government. 

Now, that would be an exciting time.

2015: the year it became exciting to be alive ... apparently

 

birthday cake down the toilet...

From Victoria Rollison

Dear Malcolm Turnbull

As we head into 2016, many people are reflecting on the year that has passed. But I’ve had enough of looking back at 2015, so instead I’m looking ahead. And while I do this, I just wanted to check with you if you’re sure about what you said about it never being a more exciting time to be Australian? I’ll admit now, I don’t feel excited about our future. I feel a sense of trepidation and doubt. Just like your government told me to.

To give you some context, I am a 34 year old with a husband and one child. My husband and I have careers that we enjoy, a comfortable home and a great lifestyle. We have all the ingredients for this exciting time you keep harping on about. But what is missing is optimism about the future. I don’t think I’m alone amongst my generation in my sense of doom and gloom about what the future holds for us. But can you really blame us after the last 7 years we’ve had? Let’s have a look at what might have dented the optimism of Australia’s young families over the last few years so you’ll understand why we’re struggling with understanding why on earth you think we should be excited.

Just as our careers were being established, the Global Financial Crisis hit. We were lucky enough to live in a country with a government at the time who acted quickly to avert disaster, and a recession was avoided. The rest of the world weren’t so lucky. Of course world financial crises are bad for everyone in a globalised market; it’s hard to think of many industries in Australia who didn’t take a hit. Nevertheless, our economy chugged along and didn’t go backwards, and we avoided devastating unemployment and its associated social problems far better than most other developed economies. So why didn’t we feel excited? I’ll tell you why. It’s because your Liberal Party – while in opposition and in government – turned Australia’s death-defying-recession-avoiding stimulus package into a bad thing for the economy and told everyone that the Labor government were wrong for doing it. And guess what? When you tell everyone the economy is ruined and that debt and deficit monsters are hiding under the bed and that the country is going to-hell-in-a-handbasket because we spent money saving the economy from ruin, guess how everyone feels when they’ve seen this all on the news every day for 7 years? Everyone feels a bit nervous! And then what happens? The economy feels a bit nervous and there is no optimism. See how your party’s political games cost this country 7 years of hope and optimism?

So now you’re here, telling us to be happy, to be excited, to get out there and invest in new businesses and to be entrepreneurs and to create the future jobs and to make a bright future for ourselves. But how are we meant to do this when you’ve spent all this time telling us the economy is a debt-ridden, risky, job-less mess? How are we meant to do this when you and your Liberal mates have turned this economy into a debt-ridden, risky, job-less mess? Hardly any of us have had a proper pay rise in 7 years and house prices are just getting more and more unobtainable on our stagnant wages. Jobs are disappearing too, even in new industries that were just getting started, like in the renewable energy sector. Do you see how your political games have hurt our country and how throwing around a few phrases about ‘exciting times’ is about as little too late as thinking you can eat a birthday cake after it’s already been flushed down a toilet?

Read more: http://victoriarollison.com/2015/12/29/an-open-letter-to-malcolm-turnbull-2/