Here's Why

Budget Loser

I watched the Federal Budget last night, and the commentary, and heard more this morning.

Commentators and politicians agreed that there are no Budget Losers, everybody gets more money from the disgustingly huge surplus of tax sloshing in the Treasury. They did point out that the wealthy get more per week back than the middle earners, but everybody has missed that the poorest get zero to LESS. More money per week for people earning $60 000 and upwards, and LESS MONEY for Disabled people, and less for people on Unemployment benefits. Part time workers are screwed. If you are kicked off Disability to Unemployment, you can lose $70 per fortnight. This would kick you out of Sydney and into a life of crime. You couldn't afford to pay rent and eat. The Government is also confiscating most of the savings of the Unemployed, so you will no longer be able to supplement your below-poverty-level income with money saved from your last job. You have to leave Sydney, and lose whatever life you've managed to establish here. The Labour politicians haven't said anything about the Welfare changes.

Of course if your savings will be stolen every time you start to build them up, then you will have no money for emergencies like your fridge needing to be replaced immediately. You will have a choice of spending it immediately and getting poorer every time an expense not covered by Welfare comes up, like appliances or dentistry. What would people spend money on immediately rather than allow the Government to steal it from them?

Extra money for medical science research, but not for any other form of science. Extra money for University buildings, but LESS funding for academic staff. More students but less lecturers. Students will be paying more fees, have no representation, no services, and AUSTUDY is less than Unemployment.

TAFE likewise gets more buildings but less staff. So much for the "Skills Crisis".

So if you read the papers and see the TV reports and hear on the radio that there are no Budget Losers, think of the many who are much less fortunate than you. When they kick me off my payment, I'll be leaving Sydney for my new life as a super-criminal, having had all my savings confiscated by the Tax-surplus-rich Feds.

Any part-time positions in Parliment?

About the author: Ian Woolf lives in Sydney, has a degree in Applied Science, worked as a solar astronomer, software engineer, systems programmer, webmaster, research assistant, Cisco CCNA tutor, Physics laboratory demonstrator, Computational Theory lecturer, and subject coordinator; while changing his career to freelance writing and broadcasting. Listen to Ian on the Diffusion radio science show on radio 2SER 107.3FM Monday at 6:30pm in Sydney or streaming audio on www.2ser.com, or listen to the Diffusion podcasts. You should follow me on twitter, here