Tax cuts unfair and reckless

The Coalition’s announcement that they will hand out $34 billion in tax cuts over 3 years is unfair to the electorate of Macquarie and reckless.

Once again we see the blatant unfairness of John Howard’s Coalition Government. John Howard is proposing to spend Australian’s surplus on cutting tax rates, especially for high income earners, whilst neglecting investment in services and programs that will make a real difference.

Between 20-25% of households in the Macquarie electorate have a weekly household income of less than $600. Better health care, dental care and raises in pensions and benefits would make for a fairer society than tax cuts will.

Almost a quarter of all Macquarie citizens are aged between 5-24 years old, the key years for gaining an education. It is reckless to continue the neglect of our education system. We are lowest on the list of the 30 OECD countries in terms of our investment in early childhood education and 23rd lowest in our total public expenditure on education.

The Greens have called for a $7 billion injection of federal money to bring government spending on education in Australia up to the OECD average.

It is reckless to throw away our surplus on tax cuts when the Blue Mountains is already starting to feel the effects of climate change in the form of more hot days, bushfires, droughts and intense storms.

We need to invest in the research, development, commercialisation of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies that will put Australia back at the forefront of innovation.

We need sustained investment in areas which we know are going to make differences in people's lives. That is the fair and reasonable course of action. It is the action that the Greens will take.

19 October 2007