Weak Leaders Follow The Power Elite
PM Anthony Albanese was never going to stand up to the gas industry downunder. Weak leaders follow the power elite. They are content to see inequity and inequality flourish in this time of zombie neoliberalism. Nero fiddled whilst Rome burned or so the story goes. Governments do little these days but talk and let the markets run the show to the detriment of the working poor. We have a severe housing crisis and it is not getting any better. What is the government doing about it? Talking about it, but talk is cheap. They are not actually getting their hands dirty and getting into the game by building houses themselves. No, they are ineffectually encouraging private interests to do something about the housing crisis. The figures do not stack up in terms of meeting the challenge of new housing stock being built at the required rate.
“Housing construction is falling behind both on estimates of demand and the government’s target of building 1.2m homes in five years, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.”
Albanese A Timid Leader Doing Little
Timid fiddling around the edges of structural problems will not fix things. Australia is headed for a return to feudalism, according to OECD economists, on our current tax and housing settings. The divide between rich and poor is growing like it is on steroids. 20 years of Coalition federal governments, prior to this Labor one, have put us on this collision course, with the 50% CGT discount, negative gearing, rampant overseas investment in property, superannuation boltholes, and the transfer of public assets to private hands all doing their work over decades. The Commonwealth Bank was once a national asset owned by all Australians. Now, in private hands it boasts a massive share price, which is great for the few who are investors. On average, home loans deliver $200K profit to lending banks downunder. Is it any wonder that buying a home is now more unaffordable than ever? Unfortunately, changing the CGT discount back to pre-Howard years will not be a silver bullet to fix the rampantly overinflated property market. It will take much more than this single adjustment to fix things.
Playing Politics Results In Nothing Getting Done
Why action has not been taken to redress these economic inequities for so long is all about politics. Australia has been in the grip of our leaders ‘playing politics’ for decades. This is fed by our media and journalists emphasising the political contest over policy content for their own need for ratings and eyeballs on screens. Even the ABC, follows suit in this regard, despite being paid for by tax payers. Anthony Albanese is a political animal, which is one of the reasons why he is in the position he is. That and the vicissitudes of time or dumb luck saw Peter Dutton lose all credibility with a batshit crazy nuclear power policy and the blowback from Trumpism. Albo in his second term, now leads Labor in its largest federal parliamentary advantage ever. Is he making use of this to make much needed change? No, he sees it as an opportunity to appeal to those voters who didn’t vote for him instead. Politicians see their legacy in terms of the duration they stay in power, rather than what they actually get done whilst in power.
Right Wing Alternatives Are Even Worse Downunder
Of course, the alternative to Albo is far worse. The Libs self-destructed under Dutton and things have only stagnated since his departure. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is an oligarch’s plaything, billionaire mining magnate Gina Rhinehart. Weak leaders follow the power elite. One Nation voters are equivalent to Australia’s MAGA, right wing folk looking for simplistic answers to complex issues. Populism has never solved anything but made things worse down the track for vulnerable members of the community. Blame it on the immigrant and all those who don’t fit in with a narrow definition of what white Australia views as the national identity. Meanwhile, the wealthy make hay at the expense of everyone else. Take a look at Donald Trump’s America to see where this extreme right wing agenda leads. Tax breaks for billionaires and savage cuts to welfare spending on the needy.
What Is Zombie Neoliberalism?
It is a long standing belief that markets always know best and that governments have a minimal role to play in running the country. The housing crisis has come about for a number of reasons but governments getting out of building houses has only made things worse. Private enterprise has not been building affordable housing for workers and governments stopped building social housing. Australia has a long history of social housing projects creating rooves over the heads of its citizens. Neoliberal policies saw the demise of these and no private groups have filled the black hole. Housing is way too expensive downunder because of banks filling their boots, overseas investment in the sector, negative gearing and the CGT discount. Combine this with local councils making development hard via onerous bylaws and a building industry stuck in outdated modes of practice slowing things down and you have a recipe for nothing much happening quickly. The market is a bunch of rich people and companies betting on things. These gamblers define the prices of things. Every night on the news you can tune in to hear how stock markets are going, whether up or down, as if these somehow reflect the wealth and aspirations of millions of ordinary citizens.
“While mortgages for owner-occupiers make up 22.7% of the big four banks’ loans, they make up 39.3% of their profits – suggesting owner-occupiers disproportionately contribute to the $43 billion in pre-tax profits the big banks recorded last year.”
Workers Pay Whilst Investors Profit
You know if you are running a café or restaurant in Australia you may well be operating on a 1% or 2% profit margin. That is very different to the Big 4 banks or Big Gas exporting $69 billion worth of LNG. Weak leaders follow the power elite and let the rest of us suffer being screwed by large corporations not paying their fair share of tax. Aussie workers pay the lion’s share of tax revenue via personal income tax. On top of that many are burdened with huge amounts of excise on their booze, bets and smokes. Shareholders, property owners and company executives are comparatively lightly taxed in Australia if you take a look at the ATO figures. This Labor government should really change its name, because it does not represent the worker’s interests in truth.
“We need an Inquiry into why LPG gas deals have been so financially bad for the nation as a whole. Why do the gas companies pay so little tax and royalties on the huge amounts of gas they export for enormous profits? When elected representatives are deaf to their constituents, you know something is wrong with our democracy. Polling has indicated that 75% of Australians support a 25% export tax on LPG gas. Yet, this federal Labor government has knocked back proposed legislation to make this happen.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
©WordsForWeb
