The only way forwards is backwards: A budget reply

1. Abolishing fractional reserve lending.

2. Returning the Australian dollar to a sound money system.

3. Breaking up banks into 'savings and loan' and 'trading' institutions.

4. Allowing the market, rather than the Reserve Bank, to set interest rates.

In addition, the party would abolish the First Home Owners Scheme, which Steve Keen refers to as the First Home Vendors Scheme, a major contributory factor in both inflating the real estate bubble and the real estate affordability crisis.

In 2007-08 the oil storm cloud made an appearance, regularly making the nightly news as the oil price reached new highs with its flow on impact on food prices, motorists, trucking companies and airlines. The GFC and the subsequent crash in the oil price saw this storm cloud recede into the middle distance, but not for too long. Rising demand and oil production that has flat lined, despite a prolonged period of historically high prices, means that this storm is returning once again from over the horizon.

Unfortunately, over the last century we structured our entire socioeconomic system on a substance that is finite, unlike the denial shown by the major political parties, and subject to depletion. Whilst the Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency suggests that we leave oil before it leaves us, both Labor and the Coalition have actively sabotaged any such moves.

With global conventional oil production having peaked in 2006, Australia's domestic oil production having peaked in 2000, our oil imports are required to increase by five per cent per annum over the next 20 years to meet future demand. At the same time as the volume of oil exports will decline significantly and permanently, the party's policy position is that Australia needs to leave oil before it leaves us.

Whilst the Government's reform to the car fringe benefit is welcome, it is but a miniscule development when compared to the task at hand. To assist in this momentous project, the following policy actions would be taken:

• The fuel excise tariff, currently at 38c per litre for ground based fuels and 3.5c per litre for aviation fuels will be raised by five per cent per annum to provide a price signal to oil users to both increase the efficiency of use and decrease total consumption.
• The diesel fuel rebate scheme would be phased out over the next five years for all industries with the exception of agriculture.
• Investment in all new road and airport infrastructure will be halted pending a review of the business cases for such investments based in light of oil depletion.

The revenue raised or saved by these changes would be reinvested into rail, public and active transport, with the aim of structurally reducing Australia's dependence on oil.

The final thundercloud to be discussed here, but by no means the last one on the horizon, is that of population. If, as seems increasingly likely, the availability of critical inputs into industrial society, such as oil, phosphorous and many metals decline over the course of this century, then a growing population is a recipe for much lower living standards, social unrest and conflict over scarce resources. Exponential population growth is essentially a Ponzi scheme, where those born early enjoy the prosperity gained from cheap and abundant resources whilst later generations fight over more expensive and increasingly scarce resources. A smaller population both globally and in Australia is a must for any chance of a prosperous future.