It Was Class Warfare. And it Sucks.
Many pages have been written about the budget and as one bled into the next one thing became abundantly clear. It was about class warfare.
It was about who should pay in the long term for the necessary
corrections to budget fiscal policy. Corrections that either side of
politics would eventually have to make. There was no immediate budget
crisis to correct in the short term. They were lying about it and the
public to their credit didn’t take the bait. The conservatives had
decided that the privileged would be protected. One example hidden deep
within the labyrinth of the budget papers was that Private School
funding would be quarantined from education cuts. There were many others
like the School Chaplaincy program.
The cigar smoking toff, Jolly Joe, and the Prime Minister decided
that it would be the poor and the middle class who should pay the price.
Certainly not the wealthy.
“How on earth is it fair that a single mum with three
kids is going to be $3000 a year worse off than someone on $300,000 a
year who is being let off relatively lightly by paying $2400?’’
‘’The poorest 20 per cent of Australian families will pay $1.1
billion more into government coffers than the richest households as a
result of the budget, highlighting the huge inequity in the government’s
four-year blueprint for fiscal repair’’
They decided to hit the unemployed young and the old. Pensioners and
the disabled, the sick and the poor. Work longer and if you haven’t a
job get one they shouted without pointing out where the jobs are.
The media in general and the blogosphere in particular since budget day
has been awash with examples of neo conservative inequality.
The point however is that if they had been prepared to put aside their
ideology and govern for the common good things might have turned out
differently. And they might have won over the public. Class warfare was more important.
These were left alone. Its class warfare.
$32 billion pa in subsidies for superannuation and the rich getting richer;
$31 billion pa subsidies for religion. They don’t pay tax
$10 billion pa in subsidies for fossil fuel. $5 billion pa subsidies for negative gearing and the rich getting richer.
$5 billion pa for a Parental leave scheme that is unaffordable.
These were left alone. Its class warfare.
“The latest tax statistics show 75 ultra-high-earning
Australians paid no tax at all in 2011-12. Zero. Zip. Each earned more
than $1 million from investments or wages. Between them they made $195
million, an average of $2.6 million each. The fortunate 75 paid no
income tax, no Medicare levy and no Medicare surcharge, even though 60
of them had private health insurance. The reason? They managed to cut
their combined taxable incomes to $82. That’s right, $1.10 each.”
The electorate felt at the last electorate that they had to rid the
country of the Labor Party but at the same time they were deeply
mistrustful of Tony Abbott. Their fears have been vindicated. We are now
seeing an electorate alarmed with a government intent on enforcing its
neo conservative agenda on them. Its class warfare.
What follows is an article I wrote during the period last year when Wayne Swan was accused by the Murdoch press of wagering class warfare.
Class Warfare. My Arse it is.
What the hell is this class warfare everyone is talking about? I
would have thought that there was less class distinction in Australia
than in most countries. We do however have an attitude known as “them
and us” syndrome.
This phrase speaks of the wealthy who are privileged beyond
conscience and then, we’ll there’s us. The battlers with aspirations to
also be wealthy (and I am assuming that class identifies itself in
wealth) but with the common sense to know that not everyone can be.
Although if you are one of them of course (the wealthy) it does afford
you a better class of education, of medical treatment and access to the
law. In fact it gives you distinct societal advantages. Like tax havens,
tax avoidance and superannuation discounts not available to us. Oh and I
forgot negative gearing.
In the United States they worship the “Great American Dream”. That
being, that in the land of the free anyone can aspire to be rich. And
the poor actually believe it. The constitution tells them so. So the
dream is perpetuated on an unsuspecting population who support the
wealthy because the dream will happen to them some day. Some say it is
thus called because you have to be asleep to dream it. In Australia we
are more circumspect.
The term “Class Warfare” originates from the USA and
is a favorite form of attack by Fox News and the Republicans against
President Obama and Democrats in general. Like most things that have a
basis in the worship of wealth and privilege. The right in Australia
adopt the same negative position. Fox News also uses the term “War on wealth” in their efforts to support wealth as a national goal. Everyone should aspire to be rich even if everyone cannot.
Who is waging this so called war? I don’t see the middle and lower
classes up in arms over their treatment. But I do see the wealthy and
the super-rich getting cranky every time there is a threat to their
privilege. Or at the suggestion that they should contribute more to the
public coffers.
In fact never in the history of this nation have the rich and
the privileged been so openly brazen about their economic
self-righteousness.
They are ably supported by the Murdoch press who invariably perpetuate and use the phrase “Class Warfare”
in a manner that suggests the lower and middle classes and particularly
the Labor Party are at war with the rich. But ask yourself who is doing
all the complaining. It’s the wealthiest it’s”them” not “us”.
When for the first time Australian mining companies campaigned
against a government. Effectively telling them how much tax they were
prepared to pay, the media and the companies said Labor was playing the class warfare
card. Such is the power of wealth that Gina Rinehart, Twiggy Forrest
and Clive Palmer got away with it. The fact that the minerals belong to
all of us seemed unimportant to them. They don’t seem to understand the
concept of fairness. There is them and us.
When Wayne Swann makes a speech encouraging an equitable share of the country’s wealth he was accused of engaging in class warfare.
Even newspapers like the Herald Sun who pitch to a common man
demographic pander to the class of rich without hesitation. Perhaps it’s
because they are owned by one of the world’s wealthiest men. Ironic
isn’t it.
Let’s look at the GST for example. It burdens the poor and those with
the least capacity to pay. It discriminates against the poor and the
pensioners who are living a hand-to-mouth existence and spending the
bulk of their income on the necessities of life— clothing, rent,
heating, power etc. The middle and lower classes pay more GST than the
rich but I don’t see them in open warfare because of it. Goodness once
the rich had to pay a luxury tax of 33% on their BMWs. Now it’s 10%.
Media commentary research shows that the Murdoch press is the major
contributor to this supposed idea of class warfare. The Financial Review
has recently run 10 articles on this theme. The Daily Telegraph 21 and
the Australian 77. Add to that a few disgruntled Labor hacks who
couldn’t get their own way and you can identify who is leading the
chorus. But us, well we seem to be leaderless.
When the wealthiest in the land have for years virtually been
practicing tax avoidance in terms of superannuation contributions are
asked to pay more, the MSM and Abbott portray it as an attack on the
wealthy. Its class warfare they shout. However, when
the coalition plan to cut the rebate for low income earners (mainly
women) and take away the school expenses subsidies the war becomes a one
sided impasse. Yes the rich are in a class of their own. And their
success is judged on the size and value of their assets. A poor measure
by any standard.
Even when it’s suggested that equality of education is a noble
pursuit, and the right of every child people like Christopher Pyne see
it as class warfare and he has ludicrously described Gonski as such. If
it is, it’s against us certainly not them. It appears to be a very one
sided war. When a person like Pyne suggests that the implementation of
Gonski is practicing class warfare it’s easy to see who is actually practicing it. Those elitist bastards, not us.
When the government tries to reduce the cost of private health insurance the shadow health minister Peter Dutten calls it class warfare.
Piers Ackerman described the governments closing of the much rorted
Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme as class warfare. So the war it
seems is only being waged against those who are wealthy and can afford
it. Poor buggers. I’m tempted to donate 10% of my pension if they are
doing it that bad. Gosh where I live you can wait three years for a
filling.
So this “Class War” would appear to be a Clayton’s
one at best. Only one side is fighting it. It’s them not us. And it’s
very hard to get through to a class who believes that what’s theirs is
theirs and what’s yours is negotiable. They want excesses that come with
wealth and then they want some more.
As for us we don’t confuse what we want with what we need.
You can be assured of one thing: When the opposition and MSM refer to class warfare they are simply saying.
“They are trying to take something from us and it’s not fair”
And remember that the poor will be looked after by the drip down effect of our wealth. My arse it will! It never has before.
There’s them and there’s us. Its class warfare and it sucks.
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