Budget fails the future and compassion tests
If you won the lottery tomorrow you'd want to spend a bit and help out your friends and family; but if you have any sense you'd invest the rest for your future.
The Howard Government is riding on the back of the greatest resources boom Australia has seen - we have never had higher prices for our coal and minerals. Saul Eslake, the ANZ Bank's chief economist, calculates that the mining boom has delivered a budget windfall of $398 billion over nine years.
It's perfectly right to return some of those enormous tax revenues to the taxpayers who have created them, but it's also important to invest for the future.
This budget is a missed opportunity when it comes to lifting Australian productivity. The Government hasn't invested seriously in education or in broadband and the budget papers show productivity growth will fall from the end of next year.
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