The Treasurer is signaling end of 'crisis spending'. Has he looked outside?

The Treasurer is signaling end of ‘crisis spending’. Has he looked outside?

It's a big call for a government that has largely failed on almost every major crisis Australians have experienced over the past three years,
NFAW Gender Lens

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is set to declare the era of “crisis spending” is over when he delivers his fourth budget tonight.

Things are looking rosy with an unemployment rate of 3.75 per cent set to arrive by September and Australians spending far fewer billions on those requiring welfare payments. What a win!

The Treasurer believes ‘crisis spending’ era is over. Has he looked outside?

And a bandaid budget addressing cost of living pressures is no match for what’s needed for addressing the future ahead, especially with inflation rising (at 3.5 per cent over the past year) much faster than wages (2.3 per cent).

One wonders if the Treasurer has actually looked outside, or perhaps checked his social media feeds lately, to see those still recovering — and very much experiencing — floods.

Is he still considering the COVID-19 positive numbers, alongside the number of deaths across the states and territories, and the stream of families continuing to go in and out of isolation?

Has he considered the urgent calls for more funding around family violence support services, particularly for trauma-based services that seek to work with those directly impacted by the uptick in domestic violence over the past couple of years?

Has he looked to the Northern Rivers in NSW, where residents still without homes and businesses from an unprecedented flood crisis just weeks ago, are being ordered to evacuate again, just today?

Has he looked to those in frontline services — the aged care workers, the early childhood educators, the nurses – all of whom continue to be underappreciated, underpaid and overworked, and are threatening further walk-offs and protests to secure a better deal?

Has he considered the pay and experiences of all workers across caring sectors – who are overwhelmingly female – and indicated burnout and difficulties continuing in their jobs, including the 73% of educators who have noted their plans to leave?

These are workers who may not be “out of work” but they’re out of energy, and out of money to afford the rising costs of living.

Ahh, but the crisis is over, the Morrison Government claims.

There’s that unemployment rate on its way, set to be the lowest figure in 50 years.

And it’s all thanks to a “remarkable” post-pandemic recovery, the Treasurer says. One that has nothing to do with luck, but everything to do with economic management – as he puts it: “the result of a clear fiscal strategy to save jobs and drive the unemployment rate to historically low levels.”  

The Treasurer has spoken about the 701,000 Australians who are no longer on unemployment benefits.

The economy is recovered, the Morrison Government wants to believe. Despite never actually effectively responding to the various crises this country has experienced over the past couple of years.

Australia was not able to effectively respond to the victims of the flood crisis for weeks.

Australia — thanks largely to egos and political infighting — has failed to effectively offer any kind of meaningful commitment and contribution on climate change, or ambitions targets to significantly reduce emissions – despite this country being at the coalface of the crisis, experiencing unprecedented flooding and bushfire crisis within just Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s last term alone.

Australia had been unable to successfully fund the current need for domestic and family violence support services, including crisis accommodation and counseling.

Australia has been unable to curb the rising rates of homelessness among older women, despite “leading the world” and — in the Treasurer’s terms — recovering faster than most major economies.

So far, what we know of the Treasurer’s 4th budget and Morrison Government plans just week before the election is a strategy based on is directionless cash splashes, aimed at addressing the “cost of living” while attempting to paint gloss over the numerous failures of the past three years.

A $250 one-off cash payment to pensioners within weeks, as if that’s going to solve anything.

A 10 to 20 per cent cut to the fuel excise to address the rising cost of petrol over six months, a bandaid solution that is projected to save households a couple of hundred dollars.

A $58 million commitment around endometriosis to support women’s health – in funding that looks suspiciously like funding that had been committed previously.

A $52.3 million funding for Lifeline Australia – over FOUR years. A boost, for sure, but hardly significant given the growing dependence on such support services.

A $189 million package over FIVE years for “strengthening prevention and early intervention” in family, domestic and sexual violence.  

Meanwhile, defence spending is expected to soon reach $50 billion a year – that would 2.2 per cent of GDP.

Put that $50 billion figure in comparison to everything else.

Just think about the $10 billion over two decades to be spent on a submarine base., alongside the pathetic $1 billion over nine years that will be slated to protect the Great Barrier Reef, which has just been hit by another mass coral bleaching event, the six such bleaching event and the first to occur during La Nina.

But there is no crisis remember. Not with that shiny unemployment rate.

×

Stay Smart! Get Savvy!

Get Women’s Agenda in your inbox