The irony isn’t lost on us that we have to preface this with the phrase “Trigger Warning” given the subject matter.
Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has warned that more budget cuts will have to be found in order to find the money to properly fund the Government’s beefed up security and military spending.
Take ten seconds to let the bubbling rage subside/bust out that bottle of scotch you’ve got stashed in your desk.
A month ago, the Abbott Government announced that a $630million package would be made available to help fund security and intelligence agencies in order to better deal with the “threat” of terrorism. And that is now being coupled by the inevitable deployment of military forces to the Middle East, which the Government estimates will cost around $500million per year.
The fresh cuts come from the failure of the Government to pass savings measures, after the highly controversial Federal Budget was met with stiff opposition from a hostile Senate.
The cuts are likely to be announced in December, when the Government is due to deliver its Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook budget update.
Despite this new announcement of over a billion dollars worth of new spending without the necessary cuts to fund it approved, the Abbott Government remains brutishly steadfast in their ability to deliver the budget to surplus in Usain Bolt-like time – which seems to be the end goal of this particular Government, and not the careful management of its public’s concerns. Surplus at all costs.
But, that said, at the end of the day the money for this defence and security spending will be found. Where exactly it’ll come from, however, is something of a worrying thought.
Isn’t it strange that the Government is prepared to spend big dollars on measures for speculative prevention. Given that 2013 was Australia’s hottest year on record, I cannot possibly think of any other area where that kind of thinking could be useful.
Nope. Can’t think of anything.
Photo: James Alcock via Getty Images.
via ABC News. Graph via New Scientist.
