The Guardian 21 May, 2008
Budget 2008-09:
The long-term aims
Peter Symon
It would be a mistake to see the recent ALP government’s budget in the same short-term way that previous Budgets have been viewed. It has more long-term objectives and is aimed to meet the present serious crisis that is confronting the capitalist system everywhere. It anticipates far-reaching changes in taxation and in government although the changes in government are not yet being openly stated.
No one should be fooled by the "working families" spin. At the present time, when the government is still in its honeymoon period, it has to consolidate its popular support while commencing the changes that are in store in the years ahead. As Treasurer Wayne Swan put it, "… we don’t have a moment to waste".
Here are some other of Wayne Swan’s remarks:
"This budget is designed to meet the big challenges of the future."
It is "A budget that begins a new era of strategic investment in Australia’s future challenges and opportunities."
"Tonight, we begin a new era of investing in Australia’s long-term future needs."
"The government supports the aspirations of Australian business … for a simpler tax system and less regulation."
What is not mentioned, except in passing, is the serious and fundamental crisis that has overtaken the capitalist world as the credit bubble is leading to many business collapses and even affecting big banks and lending institutions. Large-scale credit is tight and the interest on loans — not only on home mortgages — is high.
Huge investments
So where is the money to come from for the huge investments needed in infrastructure, water supply, electricity generation, education, health, etc? And how is the pressure on the corporations and businesses to be eased? How are these corporations going to ensure that their interests and plans are going to be implemented without interruption in the long-term?
Wayne Swan says: "The Rudd government’s first budget lays the foundation for a modern and competitive economy that can meet the challenges of the 21st century."
That is a political, economic and military task for the government and the ALP government takes on that task on behalf of Australia’s ruling class — the big corporations. Just before Bob Hawke was first elected in 1983 he claimed that the ALP could manage the system better than the Liberal Party — and he was right at the time. Kevin Rudd could justifiably make the same statement in the present situation.
So where is the money to come from to keep the expansion of capitalism going? What better place than from GST revenues and the superannuation pool. There is now about a trillion dollars in the superannuation pool — workers’ money available to be invested by the fund managers in capitalist enterprises.
There is a pointer in the budget. Wayne Swan, in announcing a root and branch review of taxation specifically exempted the GST and superannuation. They are not to be touched because they are the source of the investment needed by the corporations. Superannuation is workers’ money and the GST comes from consumers who are mainly the very working families that the government claims to be concerned about.
Economic rationalist policies
But, there are even deeper issues involved. For several decades capitalist governments throughout the world have implemented economic rationalist policies. The wholesale privatisation of publicly owned enterprises, the privatisation of aspects of government and an attack on welfare programs are at the core of these economic rationalist policies. The so-called "welfare state" was to be done away with.
These policies have been only partially implemented and the next step is to take them to their logical conclusion — the complete and open management and control by the corporations of government and the economy. They are to be run by and for the corporations and financial institutions.
Government as we know it is to be changed and virtually replaced by the appointment of administrators. This is already being trialled by several state governments who have sacked some municipal councils and replaced them with government appointed administrators.
The federal government is accumulating more and more control to the point where state governments become virtually irrelevant. The multiplicity of governments is something that the corporations complain of.
Special funds
The federal government is also moving down this path with the various special funds set up in the budget — the Build Australia Fund, the Education Investment Fund and the Health and Hospitals Fund. These three funds are to be overseen by the Future Fund already set up by the Howard government. This year’s budget surplus of just over $20 billion is to be handed over to these funds and administered, not by elected representatives, but by appointed boards comprising top businesspeople and "experts". A similar amount of surplus is planned for next year and subsequent years and all is to be invested in these funds.
In a few years these funds will control the investment of billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money — by and in the interests of the corporations.
Other essential services are to be privatised such as education, hospitals and housing. Already private schools are being promoted and heavily subsidised. There is little talk of any public housing being built; private hospitals abound. Public/private partnerships are already a well used format for various projects — projects by which the private element of the partnership reaps the profits while the state carries the risks.
Not least is the steady increase in the expenditure on Australia’s military forces — a guaranteed three percent each year well into the future. These forces, together with the US and NATO, will be used against other countries which dare to follow policies opposed to those of the imperialist governments. They are available to help maintain the capitalist and imperialist system everywhere in the world.
They are available to be used against the Australian people as well. We are heading towards what the famous Bulgarian revolutionary George Dimitrov described "as the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital". The degree to which we resist this terrorist dictatorship will depend on the level of development of people’s struggles against the policies already set in train by successive Australian governments.
The government’s policies will not save the system although they will bring much pain to the people in the future. But the battle of the corporations to save their world of exploitation, terror, war and oppression has already been lost.