Team Howard’s Campaign ‘Launch’ is anything but economically conservative as the cost of its election promises approaches $50 billion. Any traction gained by attacking Kevin07’s me-too-ism has been lost as Team Howard attempts to out-bid on education and first home affordability. Anyone care to explain how injecting 0.5% of our Trillion Dollar Economy back into consumer’s pockets is not inflationary and fiscally irresponsible?
Team Howard’s campaign strategy underscores the fundamental problem, Rather than investing $6 billion directly into education it is to be spent indirectly through taxation reimbursements of private money already spent, regardless of income, need, or capacity to pay. Private school fees are now tax deductible, further skewing the flow of government investment in education from the private sector at the expense of what Team Howard consider to be a safety-net public school system.
Howard says we don’t need no education revolution – we need an education system that teaches kids how to read, write, spell and add up. Head Girl Julie Bishop says it about giving parents ‘choices’ for their children’s education. Pay tax-deductible fees for a private school and presumably your child can also learn take-aways, times tables and goesintas.
Team Howard’s Not an Education Revolution is an indirect, inefficient and ineffective way of improving educational outcomes and reducing skills shortages. It is dressed up as offering families educational ‘choice’ that has more to do with free-market ideology than good economic management and capacity building. Unfortunately for the economy the net result will be to shift cash from investment in education back into consumer spending, adding more inflationary pressure and doing nothing whatsoever to enhance educational capacity.
Aside from sabotaging Team Howard’s claim to being fiscally responsible economic managers, the Campaign Launch reminds the electorate that they have ignored social investment for eleven and a half years and are flooding the economy with inflationary pre-election cash bribes. Ad-hoc policy on the run and at its worst - ineffectual and always with undesirable and unintended consequences. Team Howard’s policy credibility has been further eroded and I suggest that the voters have finally woken up to their deceptive smoke and mirrors policy making and come polling day won’t buy it.
