the \u201cinstant asset write-off\u201d and the \u201closs carry-back\u201d provisions<\/a>. The first of these measures gives businesses a tax deduction for buying gear like utility vehicles and computers. The second offers a tax refund for profits they made back in 2018\u201319 \u2014 free money, in effect.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, the Coalition has ignored sectors that it doesn\u2019t approve of, or even punished them. There is nothing in the budget for the environment, and no spending to address climate change. The universities face a 9 percent cut in funding spread out over several years. Scott Morrison\u2019s government sees universities as hostile ideological territory, and it has treated the sector accordingly. In 2020, universities shed around seventeen thousand high-wage, high-skill jobs; this budget will make thousands more vulnerable in 2021.<\/p>\n
The political economy underpinning this budget is shrewd. Frydenberg realizes that consumer confidence is rebounding strongly as Australia emerges from the pandemic doldrums. Record low interest rates, consumers with nowhere to spend their savings, and the huge stimulus measures of last year have sparked another manic surge in Australia\u2019s housing market. House prices have shot up in 2021, rising by double digits in most capital cities.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s great news if you own a house already \u2014 as many people in the Coalition\u2019s voting base do. It\u2019s also great for housing construction. Tax cuts to small businesses also favor Liberal voting groups such as white, male tradesmen.<\/p>\n
Throw in the extra social spending and this looks like an election budget. Having discarded its doom-laden rhetoric about \u201cdebt and deficit disasters,\u201d the Coalition has decided to offer some a Keynesian spending boost to its friends and supporters.<\/p>\n
Labor predictably botched its response to the budget, falling right into the Coalition\u2019s trap. Party spokesmen criticized the government for engaging in deficit spending \u2014 something that many Labor voters clearly support.<\/p>\n
The party still seems to be stuck in the past, spooked by criticism it faced for stimulus spending when it was in government during the financial crisis. While Labor is preoccupied with fighting old battles, the Coalition is moving into new territory to solidify its base.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n\n \n
\n \n\n\nThis post was originally published on Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cJobs are back,\u201d Australia\u2019s treasurer Josh Frydenberg told journalists at a press conference on Tuesday, just before handing down this year\u2019s budget. The Australian media have mostly lapped it up, taking at face value Frydenberg\u2019s assertion that this budget will create jobs. The announcements that have dominated the headlines revolve around some major commitments. Frydenberg [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5022"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162401"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164692,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162401\/revisions\/164692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}