The budget has missed the mark

Funding is spent, and wasted, on wrong items including new gas projects, continuing fossil fuel subsidies, carbon capture and storage, and the new Australian Climate Service which is for adaptation to, not mitigation of, the climate change emergency.

In short, there is no science-based, positive, exciting vision of our clean energy, healthy ecosystem, hopefully pandemic-free future, into which the budget fits and which it facilitates.

Masses of young voters and many, many others are rightly furious with this dishonest, deadly wrong government which must be soon replaced by a unifying, speedily reforming one.

This year, 2021, is the time for that.

Transformative for how many, where and when by? ("Minister promises 'transformative' age care investment", canberratimes.com.au, May 11)

A "top up" of $18 billion for aged care over four years is scary. Taxpayers have little idea about how this funding for extra care packages, and more minutes of attention and improved food quality per person in care facilities will be delivered. Nor do we now how spending will be monitored and scrutinised by regulatory and standards authorities which have not done a great job to date.

How much transparency will be attached to the many billions that are already directed every year to the aged care industry?

The 6000 who made submissions to the aged care royal commission and individuals in care who also contribute to services received would feel more reassured by closer analysis of the business and personal tax affairs of care facility investors and owners, and home care providers. A peek into their non-work lifestyles and garages for luxury items like Lamborghinis and Ferraris might pay off too.

The so called fossil fuel subsidy quoted by Jim Allen (Letters, May 14) is nothing more than an urban myth.

It is almost totally made up of the diesel fuel rebate which is available to all primary producers including those mining materials for solar panels. It is no more a subsidy than GST rebates on materials used in manufacturing wind turbines.

The Australia Institute has a record of creating fake news. Treasury, the Department of Finance and the Productivity Commission have all shown any net subsidies to fossil fuel are negligible.

The car depreciation limit ($59,136 for 2020-21) can seriously distort the decisions of those using their car in a business, particularly so if they are considering buying an electric car.

The depreciation limit prevents any income tax deduction for depreciation on the car's value over the limit and caps the GST credit available (to $5,376 in 2020-21). This means that the tax system isn't recognising the full cost of doing business and is therefore taxing more than the business profit.

An electric car has a significantly higher purchase price but significantly lower operating costs. It will frequently be more economic to buy a petrol car below the depreciation limit and claim income tax deductions and GST credits for the operating costs rather than claim depreciation only up to car depreciation limit.

Two sentences stood out in the opinion article by Stephen Howes ("When it comes to development, Australia is sitting on its hands", canberratimes.com.au, May 13 May), namely, "Australia's economy is doing better than expected." and "Many parts of the world are doing worse than expected".

Surely this fact should be lead to an increase in Australia's aid program in the budget, not a cut of $144 million. When every night we see harrowing images from India of a country crumbling under the effects of COVID-19 we should be sending help by the financial bucket loads. Yet we now have a foreign aid budget less than a tenth of our defence budget.

We have never reached the UN recommended 0.7 per cent of gross national income for overseas aid, but this year we have sunk to a shameful low as we slip from 14th in the world to 21st for providing aid in a mere six years.

While there has been some welcome help for our neighbours such as PNG, also struggling with COVID-19 there have been serious cuts to the Middle East and Africa. Despite the number of people experiencing acute hunger almost doubling on pre-COVID-19 levels, the government has not delivered on its $150 million famine prevention package.

In global terms it was a selfish budget, despite all the self-congratulations. Has the PM read the sermon on the mount?

Enough is enough. In this week's Food & Wine (May 11, p24) John Lewis reviewed two Italian-style Australian reds. He informed us that the Nebbiolo had ruby hues and scents of rose petals, that the front palate had a spicy black cherry flavour and the middle palate bramble jelly, liquorice, spearmint and savoury oak and a ferric tannin finish.

He assured us that the Corvina shone "bright garnet" in the glass and shows gamey scents, that the front palate has intense cassis flavour and the middle palate, Maraschino cherry, truffle, spice, cedary oak, and a dusty tannin finish.

Surely Lewis is having a lend of us.

The federal Labor opposition seems to be at odds with the ACT Labour/Greens Government when it comes to provision of social housing.

Jon Stanhope, a past Labor Chief Minister has been regularly critical of his compatriots in the ACT on this.

Hopefully, following the federal opposition's lead, Andrew Barr will change his position on this. If not we could be excused for thinking there is considerable hypocrisy in the Labour party policies.

If, as has been extensively reported, the United States has Australia's "back" when it comes to Chinese economic coercion what should we make of the 748 per cent increase in US coal sales to China in the last quarter of 2020; the complete takeover of Australia's barley market by US exporters and, the takeover by the US and the French of all but four per cent of Australia's wine market in China?

Is that not also economic coercion of Australia by the US or are the Americans being good international citizens by filling our markets? In reality of course the ineptness of the current Australian government in not being able to "shirtfront" China politically without damaging our economic interests (as the US can obviously do) must have the Americans laughing at us behind our "back".

How times change. Back in the last century, when I worked in what is now the big black and yellow Bank referred to by Glenda Naughten (Letters, May 11) a teller was provided for each teller's box all day.

A standing instruction in all the branches I worked in was that no client was too be kept waiting at a general or inquiry counter by any staff member, including the branch manager, not engaged in servicing another client.

Staff levels back then were luxurious by today's standards. Internet banking and the profit imperative have changed all that. The empty tellers' stations and lack of general enquiry counters in most banks are a reminder of those halcyon times.

Still, we should consider ourselves lucky to have a branch somewhere near us as an increasingly large number of more isolated communities do not enjoy that luxury.

Thousands of Australians have been separated from their partners for nearly two years as Prospective Marriage Visa (Subclass 300) holders are not exempt from the governments travel restrictions.

The latest budget said the government is expecting $275 million to be sent out in refunds for temporary visa holders which is essentially saying they don't have any kind of plan for us to reunite.

That's a quarter of a billion dollars that could be used setting up more quarantine facilities around the country.

I haven't seen my partner in 17 months, I'm supporting the two of us this entire time because my partner lost his job due to COVID-19 and our lives are just on hold.

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