Government needs to spend more wisely

Farmers instinctively do so, but look on amazed as governments blithely keep spending at the same level even when the income has fallen through the floor, making you wonder if they believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden who will magically provide a fillip when the money runs out.

Tragically, we may soon have to learn to enjoy austerity similar to Greece is currently weathering.

Today’s government is not unique, as federal government spending in 21 of the past 35 years has been greater than income.

The worry is the deficit is getting bigger as time goes on and trying to get your head around the issue is confusing, so perhaps an easy way is to look at how much is spent per head of the population with the amount rising from $6440 per person in 1992 to $10,200 today on welfare education and health.

Government income comes mainly from taxation which varies substantially as economic conditions change in Australia and with our trading partners, with the price of our major exports, such as iron ore and coal currently a problem.

As our income deceases our welfare bill increases as less people find work.

Don’t take too much notice of the decreasing rate of employment as you only have to work one hour a week to be called employed, so it is meaningless in terms of impact on the economy.

The federal government is budgeting to get us in hock another $30 billion this year, bringing the total to $400 billion by 2017.

This would not matter much if it had been spent in the right areas, but rapidly coming over the hill is the reality that about 1 in 5 Australians will be over 65 by 2040.

This means the social security bill through pensions and health cost will only keep increasing and there will be an even greater pressure on the federal government.

Governments at the end of the day are there to plug holes private enterprise cannot fill such as defence and social welfare and market failure in other services, but of increasing concern is the difficulty to examine how the money is spent, particularly in regional Australia.

If farmers could easily see how much total federal government dollars comes into a community they could more readily assess if the money is well spent.

Politicians are addicted to getting into local media announcing they are giving “X” dollars to “modernise the local sports oval” or some other arcane spend when regional communities desperately need innovative thinking to find jobs.

Farmers would much rather know the total amount of federal government money coming into a community has increased or decreased from election cycle to the next.

Only then could they make an informed decision if the federal government is spending their tax dollars wisely.