Bribing the right people
Wednesday May 10th 2006, 8:31 am

image: Alan Moir for the Sydney Morning Herald

Alan Moir nails it in one (again)… but is $37 billion in tax givebacks to the rich over 4 years enough to buy back public confidence after AWB propped up Saddam Hussein with $280 million in bribes, with the full knowledge of Australian government? Given recent experience with Howard’s bribery of the electorate- yes, it’ll probably be plenty.

But why on earth is there a $15 billion budget surplus? Costello got one part right; if Australia is running that level of budgetary surplus, taxes are far, far too high… or we’re not spending the largesse where it’s most desperately needed. The fact that Aborigines have a 20 year shorter lifespan than the rest of us makes that much bloody obvious.

-weez


6 Comments so far
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Would some part of $15bn be enough to buy out the toll road operators or to improve public transport to the point where it is actually usable to more people in Sydney than just Malcolm Turnbull?

Comment by Fair Enough 05.10.06 @ 8:58 am

Effie, as long as there are people without adequate healthcare in Australia, I think you’ll agree that toll road buyouts and public transport improvements are a bit down the list of priorities. However, I do agree with you that there’s myriad things that could be done with $15 billion which are of much greater import than running a budget surplus for its own ends.

Comment by weez 05.10.06 @ 9:04 am

Absolutely, Weez. And that cartoon’s a cracker.

Comment by Guy 05.11.06 @ 12:44 pm

Thanks for that, Guy.

Editorial cartooning is a dangerous game, but Moir has been hitting much more often than not of late.

I wish ABC would hire a few toonies. While the Fairfax cartoonists and Bill Leak over at The Aus do often nail the issues whilst pulling few punches, they have inherent limits based upon advertiser connections. This assures that there are some no-go zones.

Comment by weez 05.11.06 @ 12:54 pm

It’s a sad state of affairs that the cartoonists are often the only ones telling the truth in the corporate press. So many embedded journalists havn’t left their offices for years…

Comment by Antony Loewenstein 05.11.06 @ 9:18 pm

Antony, I’m really becoming disappointed with the ‘new’ SMH. It is looking more and more like The Australian, with about 0.6% less fluff-n-nonsense.

Comment by weez 05.12.06 @ 8:22 am



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