Surplus
Poor money-management is a hallmark of government, whether it’s characterized by a deficit or a surplus. Canberra has been touting its annual budget surplus for a few years now, pointing it up gleefully as if it represented good government. It doesn’t. Good government spends into deficit when it has to, but generally runs its books balanced. But while they’ve got all that money – indicative as it is of a robust economy – they might as well spend it. So they’ve spent over AU$55 million on advertising for their plans to reduce the minimum wage and eliminate the balance of power between workers and corporations, patently in service to their commercial masters. You can’t switch on your television without seeing at least a half-a-dozen ads of an evening or open a newspaper without encountering two full face-to-face pages touting the desperate need for the legislation, as if the economy were in dire straits. It isn’t, and the legislation is very bad, and, interestingly, the overall public response to the advertising – and the legislation - has been wholly negative. Calling the ads “educational” is fatuous. Meanwhile, Howard’s “mandate”, unexpressed during the campaign last year, and his government’s surplus just burn a hole in his pocket.