Australian spending has flatlined over the past 30 years. You did not learn that from the National Commission of Audit. You would never learn that from the National Commission of Audit. Narrow. Biased. Constituted purely to serve the 1 per cent.
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This week its chairman, Tony Shepherd, was caught slouching in Virgin’s business class – business class, for God’s sake – for the brief flight from Melbourne to Canberra, head buried in a book, avoiding public scrutiny. If he is not embarrassed by his work, he should be.
I don’t know what he was reading, but here’s a few recommendations. The Fundamentals of Political Science Research. Public Health for Dummies.
And Auditing the Auditors: the People’s Commission of Audit.
It didn’t cost $3 million. It didn’t come with a narrow ideological agenda. And it comes with deep research and thinking about the state of Australia. The National Commission of Audit is, quite possibly, the most shocking waste of public funding in the history of Australian governments.
And we know this now, in detail, because of the hard work of researchers, academics, non-government organisations, unions, journalists. And the congregants of a tiny church in Melbourne. They are the 110 women and men of Melbourne Unitarian Peace Memorial Church and today they bring you the People’s Commission of Audit.
When I spoke to her earlier this year, Marion Harper of the Unitarian Church said: ''The starting point for the terms of reference of the audit were all wrong – they were inviting us to treat the public sector as if it is illegitimate and unnecessary.''
The baseline assumptions of the NCA are built on myths.
Myth one: Australian governments have a lot of debt
Mythbust: Australia’s present debt levels are historically small. In fact, if you compare us to 30 OECD countries, only six have a lower net debt to GDP
Myth two: Australia is a high taxing country
Mythbust: Whoa (this even surprised me). We pay just about 26 per cent in tax. That makes us the fourth-lowest taxed country. Please. Tax me more. I’m in the 18 per cent.
Myth three: Australia has a big-spending government.
Mythbust: Big in the Whitlam and Hawke years. Since then, it’s been about 25 per cent of GDP. Flat. Keep calm, commissioners.
Myth four: Australia has a large deficit.
Mythbust: Straight from the People’s Commission: ''Australia’s budget balance ... is around the middle to low end of observations elsewhere in the world at 1.8 per cent of GPD.''
Myth five: The National Commission of Audit was done with the best interests of the Australian people.
Mythbust: As Richard Denniss, the director of the Australia Institute, said yesterday: ''The NCA really was a narrow group of people who consulted narrowly and drew on a narrow range of evidence and in turn made very narrow recommendations which benefited the top 1 per cent.''
As Marion told me last month: ''They [the NCA] should have been more neutral about the role of government instead of taking the 'private is good and public is bad' approach.''
Australians must be careful not to allow this government, its overlord think-tankers and its lobbyists to destroy our way of life.
And in order to prevent that, we need to tax the people who can pay, we need to tax the rich, the polluters, the big corporates. We can no longer afford to let companies negotiate the taxes they pay.
Because it is completely unjust to allow the 1 per cent to continue to benefit while we tax the old, the sick, the disabled. While we cut adrift those women who have benefited from the low income superannuation contribution. While we watch those in rural areas, who already avoid going to the doctor (or can’t because there isn’t one nearby), never go because they don’t have the spare cash.
If you think a $15 price signal is going to have an effect on an urban dweller like me, think about what it will do to those on the land or in the regional areas of Australia. Those people already suffer disadvantage.
What kind of a country taxes those who are sick and then taxes them even more when they become sicker?
It is the government which is sick. Once again it employed yes men and women, hench-commissioners, to do its dirty work.
Congratulations to the Unitarians. We can only hope that Joe Hockey puts down Hockeynomics and picks up the Australia Institute’s report.
There are 99 ways to damage Australia. But taxing the sick isn’t one.
Follow me on Twitter @jennaprice or email jenna_p@bigpond.net.au
