Things to think about as the federal budget approaches

Some Liberals had considered the GST option perhaps because they realise the infrastructure deficit will have consequences that 'flow on' to the private sector.(though in Victoria Napthine now rejects the GST option)

We need to consider both the impact upon our competitiveness from the 'infrastructure deficit'– but also the social cost to poorer families in emerging suburbs which lack transport infrastructure and schools.

Finally, today's Conservatives could do worse than to consider the example of the German Christian Democrats from the 1950s – who embraced a "social market" model. As Eric Aarons has explained,this approach suggested "a social vision couched in moral as well as economic terms…", and "recognition of the fundamentally social nature of organised production". Further, it implied a "moral community" "required to legitimate the social order…" , and the"[prevention] of the emergence of a 'two-tier' society" including a layer of permanently poor. (Aarons pp 33-34)

Christian, 'compassionate conservatives' in the Liberal Party do not have to follow the austere, heartless path of economic neo-liberalism. While this writer is a proud liberal democratic socialist as well as a Christian, sometimes it is necessary to promote lines of communication when so much is at stake. We cannot support this kind of 'neo-liberal class war' against the vulnerable and disadvantaged: a budget which hits the poor and the vulnerable in order to redistribute wealth towards the wealthy and the upper middle class.