The AFR has a lineup of corporate plutocrats bewailing the Budget schmozzle today that leaves a bit to be desired:
“I think the budget was very sound, in particular because it addresses some of the structural changes we need in our economy if we are able to provide an adequate standard of living for future generations,” said Michael Chaney, the chairman of National Australia Bank and Woodside Petroleum.
“My hope is that the opposition and minority parties in the Senate accept that reality.”
…“This is the new normal in Western democracies to have governments hamstrung by minorities in the parliamentary system. I would be disappointed if the government has not left itself room for negotiation,” said Graham Bradley, the chairman of Stockland and former president of the Business Council of Australia.
…“The budget situation, it’s really creating some uncertainty and that’s both at a consumer level and from a business level,” Simplot managing director Terry O’Brien said.
…Dick Warburton, the chairman of Westfield Retail Trust and Citi Australia chairman said: “Overall, it was a pretty fair budget but what is happening now with cherry picking it is going to be a very unfair budget.”
And on it goes. There are three points to make. While I obviously agree that obstructionist politics is a big problem, first and foremost the current schmozzle is built upon the poor policy-making process of the government. If you wish to push through economic reform then you must do two things:
- first, you must build consensus around the need for it in the centre of the polity. Only that way will it survive the inevitable attacks that comes from vested interests. The Abbott Government did not do this. It never mentioned the end of the mining boom. It never acknowledged it’s own party’s roles squandering the mining boom. It never described the competitiveness challenge that have arisen from twenty years of the borrow and inflate economic model. It has simply blamed Labor for rising debt and segued that with an attack on union power. It short, the Abbott Government has framed the Budget problem in political not national interest terms so it’s going to get a political response in return.
- second, once the polity is on side with your ideas, the formulation of your policies must take into account the equity of the reforms to ensure the centre support holds. The Abbott Government has clearly allowed its political leanings to overly influence its Budget cuts with far too much emphasis placed upon the young and vulnerable. Any Australian political centre is going to reject that and empower obstructionist politics in the senate in the process.
The schmozzle is primarily the failure of the Abbott Government who, like the two government’s before it, has not prepared and carried the political centre. Indeed, it’s quite ironic given it was the Abbott opposition that so exploited the same failing in the Rudd and Gillard regimes to gain power.
The final point to note is that the lineup of plutocrats has it’s own irony. Each has or has had strong interests in the very sectional bodies that are part and parcel with the rise of divisive politics. Michael Chaney is on the board at the libertarian think tank the Centre for Independent Studies. Graham Bradley is the former head of the Business Council. Terry O’Brien is chairman of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, Dick Warburton was the founding chairman of Manufacturing Australia, an industry lobby.
Let’s have a little practice what we preach, here.
To end, the gong goes to one final anonymous contributor to the AFR piece who hits the nail right on the head:
One senior company chairman who did not want to be named said:“The general view I’ve heard in the business community is that everyone is absolutely appalled at the politics and appalled at Abbott’s performance.”
