A survey the other day found that barely anyone knew what was in the Federal Government’s Budget last week. That shows how intelligent people are because most Budget speeches have descended into a whirlwind of spin that’s hard to get much sense out of.
But there are some important figures in the Budget about how much you pay in taxes and how much of your money is being spent and how much debt our children now owe because of that spending.
So, to make it a little more understandable I will convert the Budget to what it means for you as an individual taxpayer.
For example, the average individual taxpayer pays $1,465 in fuel excise every year. And, we are just getting started.
On average, you pay $5,733 of GST every year and then the real big one, $22,368 in income taxes.
When you add them all up, the average taxpayer pays $31,779 in taxes every year. This does not include taxes levied on companies, banks, mining or farmers.
Now the Government has made a big deal of the promise that it will give everyone a $300 discount on their power bill next year. So instead of paying $31,779 in taxes you can look forward to only paying net tax of $31,479! Strangely, the Prime Minister seems to want some kind of thanks for taking $30,000 off each of us and then handing us $300 back.
Of course, we do get some things in return for our $30,000 in taxes. Roads, hospitals and schools are all important things but are we getting good value?
In just two years, the Labor Government has increased annual spending by $65 billion more than what was expected. That means the Government is spending an extra $4,300 per taxpayer. Are we getting better roads, schools and hospitals to the tune of $4,300 each?
This Government has cut funding to our beef roads, reduced its share of funding to national highways, and the Bruce Highway has never been in a worse state. Our school performance continues to decline compared to overseas student results. And, our hospitals have never been more jam packed. It is hard to be seen in a reasonable time.
So, where is all the money going? Our population is ageing, so around $1500 extra per taxpayer is being spent on pensioners. Money well spent. We must support our elderly.
We now spend just as much on assistance to people with disabilities, again a worthwhile cause. But this spending has blown out by $20 billion in just two years as the costs of the National Disability Insurance Scheme grow out of control.
We spend another $427 per taxpayer on schools even though our school standards continue to decline. We have tried throwing more and more money at schools and this approach has failed.
We are spending another $311 per taxpayer to support renewable energy even though the more we spend on renewables the higher our electricity bills go. The Labor Government came to power promising that their investments would slash power bills by $275. Instead, the average power bill has gone up by more than $500.
Now, because of their failed policy, the Government is using our taxes to reduce power bills by $300. This is on top of the $311 they are giving to renewable energy investors. It would have been cheaper to give us the $300 directly and cut out the renewable energy.
All of this extra spending is being borrowed. The real number that should scare you is that each taxpayer now owes $62,439 in government debt. You did not hear the Treasurer tell us that number on Budget night. No wonder hardly anyone tunes in.
