2002 Federal Budget Student Essay
The fiscal policy plan for 2002-03 is not a reflection of what the people want. Last year the Budget went into a $1.2 billion deficit, and now Australian families have to pay the bill. Added on top of the deficit is the government・s plan to create ：safer Australia, secure borders, strong defence and a strong economy.；. To reflect this, much of the spending from the Budget will go into defence and border security. An Intergenerational Report was created for the first time to show the cost of current policies in 40 years, and to face up to the challenge of the ageing population, cuts were made to health and welfare.As a result of the Terrorist attacks on September 11th, the 2002-03 budget・s main concern was on border security and defence. Defence is the big winner in this budget, with a $912 million jump in defence spending. Almost $200 million of this will go into Australia・s contribution to the war on terror in Afghanistan, while $22.3 million will go towards paying the navy to car . . .
The defence spending should never have been so high, and from the figures the cuts in health and welfare are there to counteract the spending on defence and not actually to aid in our better future. The need for spending on defence is understandable, but this will only provide a short-term solution to deal with the war on terror. 2 billion in border protection is the new weapon against asylum-seekers, with a large proportion of that money used to build the new state-of-the-art detention centre on Christmas Island. The Intergenerational Report showed that policies needed to be changed, but the Government has done little to lower the tax burden on our next generation. Therefore it can be clearly seen that the Government has not done enough to help the Australian economy, as it has placed its own goals in front of what the Australian people really want. Those who fail the test will be forced to register for the Newstart allowance, which represents a maximum loss of $52 a fortnight from the benefit. The funding also included more money for spies at home and abroad, and new defence units to respond to terrorist attacks on Australian soil. People with moderate disabilities will now have to face the competitive job market as the Government plans to make savings of $336 million over four years from a crackdown on the disability support pension. The Howard Government is not taking the Australian economy in the right direction. The Government・s solution to the problem of the ageing population was to make cuts to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and tighten eligibility rules for the disability pension. Money will also be set aside to help tackle people-smuggling in transit countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
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