In the fourth of my new series of blogs headed “I have no idea”, I turn to the weekend’s Victorian election.
The Victorian result saw a whopping swing towards the sitting Labor government. As well as providing further proof of the continuing decline of the once grand Liberal Party, this result also provided me with a dose of political reality.
As “The Australian” reported a couple of days before the election, the ALP announced that it was going to double the state debt ceiling from $30 billion to $60 billion and borrow that amount, increasing state debt from 6 to 12 per cent of GDP. The Liberal opposition immediately went on the attack, stating that this was “insane and ridiculous financial vandalism,” and promised to reduce state debt by over $1 billion and to keep it within 6 per cent of GDP.
The result – people voted overwhelmingly for the promise of a Labor lead, massive infrastructure spending spree, with little if any interest in the consequent debt black hole.
I guess it should come as no surprise – we seem prepared to continually rack up personal debt to fund every-day consumables. Why wouldn’t we be comfortable with a government incurring debt that we will have to repay to fund their election promises and to keep them in jobs. They see the gain – we don’t seem to feel the pain – at least not yet!
InToWin stands for lowering government spending, lowering government debt and taking more personal responsibility for implementing our demands on society. I hate to say it, but “I have no idea” how you can successfully sell that message to any electorate!!
I foresee a future collective groan from the Victorian population, when discussions turn to the increasing level of State based taxes required to fund the debts and deficits. It might even be accompanied by a “I have no idea how we got into this mess” statement. I may be horribly out of touch, but I think if we stopped and thought about the consequences for just a moment, we might see exactly how to steer clear of this mess. In the meantime, we will continue to get the governments we deserve. At least it gives us plenty to whinge about. 🙁