Over the past 24 hours debate has been raging across the country as to whether or not we should pay an additional levy to pay for the damage caused by the recent flood disasters across Regional and South East Queensland. I believe the levy would also go part of the way to rebuilding required in Victoria and Western Australia but as the bulk of the rebuilding required to be undertaken is in QLD that is where the debate is focussed.
The Government is suggesting a levy associated with income taxes, which the Opposition has labelled "just plain dumb stuff" claiming that the Government should rather cut further spending than those cuts which will be required to be made along with the proposed levy to cover the cost of the floods.
People don't seem to realise that whichever tactic is taken, the Australian taxpayer is the one who will pay. If there is a levy, clearly the taxpayer pays, he sees that money taken from his wages along with his income tax and can deal with it in his weekly budget. What the average taxpayer fails to see is that with spending cuts comes a reduction in services and potentially greater economic impacts such as interest rate rises. Personally I would prefer a levy, in this case, a one off levy of a small percentage of my income than potential further reaching impacts which further down the track I am likely to whinge about having forgotten that those cuts were made to allow for rebuilding in flood damaged areas.
It seems too, that people are quick to forget that it was not too long ago that this Government (in it's past reincarnation) paid to many, many Australians an economic stimulus payment, in fact, more than one to most people if I recall correctly. People were quick to complain that these payments reduced the Country's budget surplus and equally quick to forget that the rest of the world's great economies were being torn to shreds all around us.
What it comes down to, in it's simplest form is that we can't have everything that we want. We simply can't. Ever.
Queensland is a great contributor to our Country's fresh produce, dairy produce and meat production markets. If we take that into consideration (not even including other primary productions operated in QLD such as mining) we must look at the levy being collected as being the cost we pay to have these products made readily available to us once again. Sure, we pay the levy this year but next year the cost of fresh food goods to all Australians are reduced sooner, thereby returning the money to the Australian Taxpayer's personal household budget.
Money, the economy, is always a cycle, there are ups and there are downs. We see this in our personal budgets, our household budgets and our business budgets, why do we expect the money the Government has available to it, the National Economy, to be any different to our personal money?
Perhaps if we think of the Government as being the parents in a family and look at the ebb and flow of money in a family sized economy. for a period both parents are working, then they decide to have a child, their family economy slows for a time whilst one parent takes time off work (most often the mother but that's besides the point.) A little further in the cycle another child is brought into the family and they have to tighten their belts once again. Eventually both children are at school and both parents are working again, their budget may be freed up a little, they increase their spending on leisure activities (contributing to someone else's economy) and have more money to direct into savings. More time passes and the parents decide it's time to move to a bigger house, both parents still work, their income is the same but they go into deficit (by way of a mortgage) and once again the money available to them in their budget is reduced. They want to continue with the leisure activities they had instigated in their previous budget cycle and therefore decide to make cuts elsewhere, they reduce their family's private health insurance, sell their boat and second car to reduce their mortgage and thereby their monthly payments. They have freed some of the money available to them. The children start high school and again, the parents must decide, which school do they send them to, if only it didn't have to be a financial consideration, but it must be, so, no point whinging about it, just have to reassess our priorities again, drop one or two of the leisure activities, holiday closer to home, etc. As the children grow they get part time jobs and start contributing to the family economy by way of paying board, again the parents have money freed up in their budget.
The cycle continues, a constant ebb and flow throughout our lives. Just as is the economy for the Government at any given time; there are both good times and bad in any economy, we all have to roll with the punches, take the good with the bad. It is entirely unrealistic to expect that we will never have to pay more for anything. It is entirely unrealistic to expect that a Government, any Government can perfectly manage the economy at any time. As there are, in our personal lives (health issues, redundancies and other unexpected events) so there are unforetold events that a Government must deal with (such as natural disasters and global economic events.) There is no such thing as a perfect budget, no such thing as a perfect economy, no such thing as a perfect way to deal with the unexpected events that derail our economies.
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