The Coalition talks in terms of smaller government and rolling back the welfare state its policies (paid parental leave, dam construction, and Direct Action for carbon abatement) are those of Big Government. Mark Latham spot it, and he sees the significance----the Liberal Party is in retreat.
Moir's cartoon is pretty accurate by you would guess that from business and political journalism. As we know the media’s commercial interest masquerading as news is not new and that a lot of the commentary is PR-driven churnalism.
The media commentary around Abbott's Budget reply has by and large been positive.
Both Tony Abbott and Matthias Gorman on Radio National Breakfast espoused austerity economics, which, they claimed , would lead to a anew age of prosperity.
Mark Blyth’s Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea looks at the ideas of those austerians who have succeeded in casting government spending as useless profligacy that has made the economy worse and centered the economic policy debate on budget on cuts to government spending.
The Gillard Govt's budget strategy is one that locks in its long-term social welfare reforms in education and disability in the context of the shortfall in tax revenues caused by falling commodity prices and a high Aussie dollar. This strategy also involves cuts in spending--eg., the baby bonus, university funding, research incentives, and clean energy funding.
An incoming Coalition is committed to the politics of austerity, given its economic mantra of “stop the taxes” , "cut the debt" and only run budget surpluses always. It is also committed to the supporting multinational capital--- Big Miners, the coal industry and the fossil fuel companies/generators--- by rolling back the mining tax and restricting renewable energy. They also plan to cut back the taxation on corporate profits and personal income.
It's hard to arouse much interest in the 2013 budget and its deficit. The latter has become a fetish.
We know that government revenue is declining, and that this means the naive commentary that the deficit is caused by a profligate, wasteful Labor Government blowing the revenue from the mining boom and maxing the credit card is too one sided.
Nick Cater’s book The Lucky Culture And the Rise of an Australian Ruling Class is the voice of the Murdoch media in Australia, which controls 70% of the press and a fair slice of the screen. Cater speaks for the political power that is centred on big business, the Murdoch global media empire, elite private schools and the Liberal and National Parties.
Roy Green in Beyond the boom: have we frittered away our opportunities? asks a very good question: "Where are jobs and growth to come from after the commodity boom?"