George Orwell’s Budget
May 12, 2011
From John Roskam | Thursday, 12 May 2011
Read this and think about it. It’s by Phil Coorey in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald.
“After promising a tough budget to ensure the return to a forecast surplus of $3.5 billion in 2012-13, Mr Swan unveiled $22 billion in savings over four years, of which about two-thirds was achieved by cutting spending.”
Huh? What other sorts of savings are there?
According to the Treasurer the flood tax is now officially a ‘saving’. We’ve told you about this scam before (twice actually). Here it is from the government’s own budget papers.
(How do Treasury bureaucrats sleep at night? Following their logic all “taxes” are ”savings”!)
Orwell would be proud.
Here’s The Herald Sun, The Age, The Canberra Times and The Brisbane Times all swallowing this doublespeak.
Here’s what the IPA has said on the budget:
- Julie Novak in today’s The Australian on how the number of public servants continues to grow and also in Tuesday’s Online Opinion.
- Professor Sinclair Davidson in yesterday’s The Conversation on the real meaning of ‘middle class welfare’.
- James Patterson in today’s The Punch on what a real knife to spending would have produced. Here’s the reference.
- Chris Berg in yesterday’s The Drum on how the budget ignored the deficit.
On Tuesday night Christopher Hitchens won a US National Magazine Award for his articles about his cancer. Here is a wonderful 4,000 word piece by him from this month’s Vanity Fair on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.
And I’m just finishing reading a new book The Churchills: In Love and War by Mary Lovell. I’ve really enjoyed it. Here are two reviews that very nicely capture the flavour of it – this from The Spectator and this from The Guardian.
Here’s some of what the IPA said this week:
- James Paterson, War enemies, not criminals - The Drum
- James Paterson, An illiberal cause – The Spectator Australia
- John Roskam, Paternalism enshrined - The Australian Financial Review
- Tim Wilson, It’s Friday. Are you even aware of what else today is? - The Punch
- Tim Wilson, Be afraid. Criminal counterfeiting is on the rise - The Drum
- Ted Lapkin, The meme of the ‘disaffected Jew’ has been greatly exaggerated – The Drum
P.S. And don’t forget to book your place at the most intellectually stimulating event of 2011 – The Genius of Western Civilisation symposium in Melbourne on 24 June with special guest the British historian, Andrew Roberts. Details and bookings here.
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