Dear Julia, who gave you the idea that your voters are loyal enough to put up with you throwing our hard-earned money around?
You certainly are desperate in your attempts to buy ‘popularity’ here and abroad; but not with our money please!
Yes, a half-a-billion dollars to Indonesia last year, to keep the boats away (and that didn’t work) and now a billion dollars to Afghanistan to repair the damage we have done there, when at the same time short-changing our own defence forces.
Dear Julia, our defence forces are one of the few legitimate functions of Federal Government; not so, the international grandstanding.
Our media is littered with stories of your misguided handouts; even those you promise will offset the crippling carbon tax.
How can you keep a straight face when you tell us that, “This will make Australia more competitive.”? How can high costs make us more competitive?
Dear Julia, when you start adding up the billions here and the billions there, it really stacks up to some serious money and I wonder how prosperous our nation would have been if that same money were left in the hands of us millions of individuals to make our own choices, rather than have it confiscated and placed at the disposal of your team.
However, just to conclude on a note of culture, when things get really rough like this, we often turn to poetry and here’s one that may have been dedicated to your own Canberra comrades.
“Well, fancy giving money to the government.
Might as well put it down the drain.
Fancy giving money to the government.
Nobody will ever see the stuff again.
Well, they’ve no idea what money’s for –
ten to one they’ll start another war.
I’ve heard of a lot of silly things, but Lor’!
Fancy giving money to the government!”
….. Sir Alan Patrick Herbert
So, Julia, please slow down in your urge to spend more and just remember one thing…
“It is our money, so it is not yours to give.”
Ron
Short changing the defence services - wasn’t it this government that in the fine print cancelled free airfare family reunion trips to our defence service personnel…
What with the Household Assistance Package, carbon tax handout, school kid bonus: all serving to embed a sense of entitlement (and dependence on government largesse) rather than a sense of responsibility, duty and independence. Ensuring the voting bloc of the future…
Catallaxy had an intriguing post on electricity costs post July 1, echoes of Warwick McKibbin’s forewarning that Treasury models were seriously flawed. RET will only exacerbate the spiralling cost of electricity impacting households, business and government alike. A tax on an essential service - for surely provision of reliable affordable electricity is exactly that.
Lunatics are running the show!