THAT BUDGET

"The real tax story is in the total revenue to be collected from individuals. Last year it was under $25,000 million. In 1984/85 it tops $30,000 million" Eric Risstrom, in The Sun (Melbourne) August 22nd.

Mr. Risstrom is National Director of the Australian Taxpayers' Association. He is not a politician, so has no political axe to grind; and he is not (as far as we know) an economist; so he has no sacred cows of economic Theory to protect. We recall the 'economic theory' of a Sydney economist during the Great Depression of 1929 onwards, to the effect that a key factor for the Depression was sunspot activity (Yes, a grown man, with a degree in Economics!)

Let us scrape away all the waffle. Australia will be paying at least 23% more tax in the next financial year; and we use the phrase at least advisedly. The Opposition Treasury spokesman, John Howard, claims that the Hawke Government will introduce a tough mini-budget after the next Federal election. Science and Technology Minister, Barry Jones, has let the cat out of the bag that the Government needs lots more money to give Australia the next big shove towards their Socialist Utopia. Now that, for example, wine has been taxed for the first time, we can now expect this tax to go on increasing until consumption of wine falls away to such an extent that the industry is just kept viable; like a cow being kept in sufficiently good condition to be milked regularly. The same goes for all the "tax targets". The taxman does not want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg: he wants the goose alive, and laying those golden eggs, but with the very minimum possibility of that goose escaping from taxman control.

Only one of the commentators, to our knowledge, put the finger of the gamble that Paul Keating, the Treasurer, is taking in his "election Budget" by way of "gambling" on increased revenue in the next financial year from a significant rise in employment. But we are inclined to think now that the idea of the tough mini budget, after the next Federal election nullifies the issue. We cannot foresee any reduction in unemployment. We can foresee fiscal problems ahead for the Hawke Government.

AUSTRALIA'S FOREIGN DEBT BOMB

"...major debts are being piled up overseas to finance the socialisation of the Australian economy and to further undermine the already abysmal productivity growth record of Australia". - Maxwell Newton, in The Australian, August 22nd.

Maxwell Newton isn't telling us anything we didn't already know, of course. The Institute of Economic Democracy, the specialist Division of the Australian League of Rights on economic matters, has been warning on Australia's growing foreign debt for years. Maxwell Newton quotes Dr. Ian Story, of a Sydney brokerage firm, who warns that, "Australia's debt service ratio has now reached the dangerously high level of 52%. In other words, 52% of our export income is required to be sent back overseas to service our growing level of foreign debt. The corollary is that Australia has just less than one half of her export income to pay for imports of goods and services! These in turn are financed by more debt.

The National Institute of Economic & Industry Research forecasts that unemployment will rise further, and would reach 10.6% in 1989, and we, ourselves, expect something like this: this is why we made reference (above) to Paul Keating's "gamble". This Institute insists that Australia's economic growth in the early 1980s was bought at the cost of its growing foreign debt, and the March 1984 issue of Enterprise (quarterly organ of the Institute of Economic Democracy) quotes Queensland economist, H.W.Herbert: the past 12 months, Australia's imports of goods and services exceeded our exports by more than $6,000 million. Trade in goods nearly Balanced. The big deficit was in services, such as freight, dividends, interest, where we paid out far more than we received".

Mr. Paul Keating has only recently remarked upon an effective move by the Taxation Department in recovering some tens of millions in revenue from sections of the building industry. "This is an auspicious beginning", he said; or words to that effect. We well know from what has been presented above that the Treasury is hungry for even more revenue. What astonishes us is the sheer lack of perspicacity of these politicians and Treasury economists. Surely, if the taxman finds ways to rip off tens more millions of dollars where he could not before, then those tens of millions of dollars will no longer be available to buy consumer goods; to go to the races; to send that son and that daughter to a private school in order to dodge (as far as possible) the encroachments of Big Brother into Education. On the one hand, the politicians and the economists behind them are urging Australians to have confidence in the future ("the recovery is well under way") - to get out there in the market place and spend up: and on the other hand, their taxman is ripping off the millions from the taxpayer so that he/she cannot spend any more, if as much.

1984: BIG BROTHER RIDING HIGH!

"It's 1984, and Big Brother is checking on how much we spend on kid's lollies, ladies' gloves, and postage stamps". - Des Colquhoun, in The Advertiser (Adelaide), August 16th.

Did you know that an Australian Bureau of Statistics computer has selected, at random, 1,320 households in each State to record every personal daily expenditure in a special diary? Gross invasion of privacy? Most certainly. Tell them to go jump in the lake? That's a normal reaction; BUT if the chosen people refuse to co-operate they can face a fine of $100 (one hundred dollars) per day. The "selected ones" must "show the date you make the purchase or payment. The type of store or outlet, e.g. supermarket, service station, milk bar, vending machine. The weight, volume, or number of items, e.g. petrol, ladies' gloves. The type of payment, e.g. cash, cheque, Bankcard..." Winnings must be given.. "The EXACT amount of the purchase or payment in dollars and cents. ."WINNINGS from lotto, bingo, lottery tickets, poker machines, TAB, pools, etc." There is much, much, more.

The Bureau's Household Expenditure Survey literature stresses that the information provided is "Strictly Confidential". Mr. Colquhoun roundly condemns the snoopiness of Big Brother. So do we. There is even more to it that that. Big Brother is now fobbing off more and more departmental internal work on to the general public, and the business sector. As regular users of Australia Post's bulk mail facilities for our regular journals, we have seen the quantity and quality of service from the Department to the customer decline evenly over the last thirty years. We are now paying more and more for less and less service. The many forms and surveys sent to the various sectors of the business world to be compulsorily completed are taking up more and more of the business world's time. This in inflationary, as (a) more and more bureaucrats are employed in processing generally quite useless forms, and (b) suppliers of goods and services are hindered from operating more efficiently because of the invasions of the bureaucrats.

FROM NEW ZEALAND 'ON TARGET' (August 18th, 1984)