Socialist Party Australia - Analysis of Federal budget and Mark Latham's response

Editorial from upcoming issue of The Socialist

John Howard's recent budget, while clearly an attempt to get him and the Liberals elected was also clearly a massive handout for the class that he represents.

The tax cuts that are on offer only take effect for those earning over $52,000. So the vast majority of workers will get nothing from these tax cuts.

The other main thrust of the budget was the extra payment for new born children a very blatant attempt to reinforce the role of workers in capitalist society as not only producing the necessary labour power to create surplus value for the bosses but also to produce their replacements when they grow too old or ill to be productive. In other words factory fodder. Treasurer Costello was very blunt about it 'One for the mother, one for the father and one for the country.' This is one plank of the Howard governments plans to deal with what it perceives as a forthcoming crisis where there will be not only not enough younger workers relative to older retired workers and therefore not enough tax dollars to support them but a deficiency in the number of workers altogether. The other plank of course is the work until you drop super proposals. Basically planning to have people work for as long as possible to save as much money as possible.

These tax cuts and family payments represent the paying back of the excessive amount of tax that the Howard government has already taken from Australian workers via bracket creep and excessive marginal tax rates and by cut backs on government spending on health, education and other government services. So it is not entirely unsurprising that opinion polls straight after the budget have indicated that the budget will not be changing the minds of many voters as far as not voting for the Liberals is concerned.

And of course the liberal could not help doing a little welfare recipient bashing along the way. Savings of more than $400 million are expected in a new compliance crackdown, including increased data matching and service profiling. Sole Parent Pensioners will have to attend face to face interviews each time they change address to report if their circumstances have changed.

But where is Mark Latham in all this? While not saying he is shoulder to shoulder with Howard he might as well be. With the tax cuts he is saying that he will go further and give them to those on lower incomes as well, whilst maintaining the payouts for families. He congratulated Howard on the new baby care payment of $3000 saying he announced it as policy 2 months ago and so was happy to have it in the budget. And as an accompaniment to Howard's breeding program, he will be ensuring that the children produced are doing what it is they are produced for "they can be either learning or earning. No third option of sitting around doing nothing", i.e. working a low paid, low condition job or amassing a huge debt to keep them poor and servile for the future. There is no talk of ensuring decent paying jobs with decent conditions and no junior rates of pay (no you might as well learn young that its work till you drop), nor is there any talk of free University education for all those who want it. Of course there will be some tinkering around the edges, some of the more recent cut backs of Howard on education like the recent 25 % HECS hike will be got rid of , but fundamentally nothing will change.

One question that has to be asked is how is Latham's 'generosity' going to be paid for Latham's solution " A Labor government will reduce burearaucy, abolishing seven government agencies and cutting a further 13 government programs. And as we examine this budget , more cuts will be made" Latham boasts that $8 billion in "savings" have already been found with more to come.

Perhaps the clearest indication of Latham and ALP's core values when it comes to social policy and government policy is when he talks about "a new program of social investment". He talks about "Investing in early childhood development, in our schools, universities and TAFE colleges. Investing in our doctors and dental services. Investing in families and newborn babies."

You cannot talk about investment with out talking about the return on the investment and who gets the benefit from it. For both Liberal and Labor the return on investment is for the benefit of the ruling class in the form of more, suitably educated, longer living , healthier ( and therefore more productive) factory fodder. Some benefits of course trickle down to workers and after sifting through the budget and counter budget proposals it may be that one lot of policies is marginally better for workers.

Any defeat for the ALP at the federal elections this year the blame can be firmly placed on the right wing policies of Mark Latham. His mimicking of the right wing policies of John Howard, with a few soft and fuzzy tweaks will give workers no clear choice as to what party would be of real benefit to them.

If you are not interested in having to use a microscope and tweezers to sift through policy, but want a party that fights unashamedly for working class rights and interests, then none of the existing parties satisfy. What is needed is a new workers' party that will stand up and defend working class interests. Unions, community leaders and forward thinking individuals need to create such a party if they want a political party that sees value in human beings as human beings rather then as grist for the capitalist mills.