THIS wasn’t supposed to happen anymore. Joe Hockey has followed a classic playbook since coming to office – find a Budget black hole, blame it on your predecessors, then use this revelation to justify implementing an agenda more aggressive than you’d let on before the election. But this strategy wasn’t supposed to be possible after the Howard Government passed the Charter of Budget Honesty into law. The PEFO last year didn’t contain a Budget black hole. It didn’t depict a Budget emergency.Some commentators have quibbled with these projections, suggesting that they’re implausible because they adopt the previous government’s policy of restricting real spending growth to 2% per year. This policy may well have been implausible, but PEFO didn’t hinge on it. For now, this sea of red ink is being used as the justification for deep cuts in spending and a few unpopular revenue-raising measures. But don’t be surprised if, in a couple of years’ time, the Budget outlook is a lot rosier. That’s the final step in the Budget black hole strategy – show that you’ve brought home the bacon and balanced the books despite your predecessors’ profligacy.
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 11:37:20 +0000
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