Its here
https://economicplan.gov.au
A page on which the unwary may be gathered expecting some sort of guidance on who they should be voting for, running off the back of the Treasury Department.
The Government is getting in early to divide us into individuals and business…
Both offer delights.
But before we go there let us think about this government. It has been in power 9 years, and anyone following Macrobusiness over that time knows that Australia’s basic economic malaise over that time hasnt really changed in its fundamentals.
Australia has an economy which has the following distinctive traits. It
- Encourages speculation in housing – making Australian housing amongst the most expensive in the world.
- This leaves very large numbers of Australians spending more than anything on housing – either rents or mortgages – and going ever deeper into debt. Australians are amongst the most heavily indebted people in the world.
- To service those debts Australians work in an economy which is distinctive for having amongst the worlds most expensive people, education costs, land costs, energy costs, and internet costs. This means that no investor with a business plan in front of them, and a rudimentary understanding of mathematics, will be at all interested in investing in Australia, unless they are getting some form of major tax break.
The government response to that uneconomic economic framework has been to turn the national economy – Australia per se – into a giant economic bubble.
The bubble runs off the revenues of the mining and resources sectors – notably iron ore, gas and coal, with a bit of gold, where the Federal government creams off the royalties of the sales of Australia’s national bequest. Those revenues are then channeled inside the bubble to reward large business and particular interests – notably the banks and real estate speculation. To maintain the appearance of ‘growth’ (or that represented by GDP) thousands of of new Australians are encouraged to migrate from offshore. Many of these are often those who have first shelled out for Australia’s ludicrously expensive education which is only attractive because of the expectation that after spending some time here as students the individual will be allowed to stay as a migrant. Anyone familiar with Macrobusiness will know the dynamic as the ‘population ponzi’
The ‘population ponzi’ adds to Australia’s economic story by adding to demand for large corporates while at the same time having the effect of smothering incomes for people already in the inward facing economy. All those extra people need part time jobs while they are at University or TAFE, and when they finish their courses all too often find that the jobs market is so tough that they need to take whatever they can get. This dynamic provides the backdrop to Australia’s pervasive issues with the worlds highest level of casualised or temporary employment, and spectacular examples of employee exploitation. Of course all that additional exploitation and casualisation means that everyday Australians looking for an income increase get told the queue at the door is keen to do the job they are doing for less, and so baulks at the idea. The queue at the door to do those jobs is much the same as the ever growing queues at infrastructure, public transport, and on the roads – meaning Federal and State governments are locked into spending ever more on infrastructure which never seems to do all that much about the numbers being experienced by users.
The above feeds back into the bubble as ever increasing desperation at a family level (for starters) to service debts while paying costs involved in raising families, with ever increasing numbers of people ‘competing’ for work, and on the roads or transport.
It all came to an end with the 2020 Covid outbreak. This ended immigration almost overnight and the government response was to shovel money into the hands of many (but not all) Australians, and has led to many experiencing a pay rise for the first time in a decade.
OK if you click through to the individuals side of things you find a Treasury (on behalf of our government) thinking primarily about Australia’s eye glazing housing expense.
A little something for 10 thousand first home owners
another little something for ten thousand ready to buy before June 30 this year
A little something for single parents with dependants
and a little something for those looking at reverse mortgages
Beyond that there’s a tax offset which they have been trying to get rid of for 2 years which would be worth maybe half a months rent on a 3 bedroom house anywhere in Urban Australia, or maybe less than half a months payment on Australia’s average mortgage debt.
That’s a pretty niggardly offering for a lot of Australians and their families.
If you click through to the business side of offerings its primarily about tax avoidance.
An expansion of tax avoidance for 2019-2023 losses against prior year profits – notwithstanding that many Australian businesses posted record profits on the Covid stimulus
An extension of the tax offset for buying business related kit (always a winner for the trades and small business owners section of the community)
And a ‘patent box’ for medical and biotech plays to further their tax avoidance scope, seemingly pitched at encouraging global pharma and biotechs to come and avoid paying taxes here in Australia – someone needs to have a chat with whoever decided on that pic to accompany, as not many biotechs will have hi vis over steel capped shoes descending stepladders [or is someone in Treasury assuming that tradies will do the biotech R&D?].
And a 50% boost to apprenticeships based tax avoidance
How much of the above takes Australia out of its economic malaise?
The public should await the first instalment from the opposition before making a decision.