Alternative 2015-16 budget

The wave of baby‑boomer retirements has already begun and will soon become a tsunami. It is farcical to think it is too difficult to achieve a surplus now, but that we will somehow achieve surpluses in the 2020s when literally millions of baby boomers start drawing an age pension.

It would be imprudent to sit back and hope for a jump in economic growth (or commodity prices) substantial enough to generate a budget surplus. Economic growth is currently at a respectable 2½ per cent, but hoping for more is unwarranted given neither the Coalition nor Labor are promoting pro‑growth policies.

Both see multinational companies and foreign investment as whipping boys to tax and restrict, they are doing nothing about penalty rates, unfair dismissal laws and the ban on low-paid work (euphemistically called the minimum wage), and both run a mile from the politically-sensitive recommendations of the Competition Policy Review to strip protections from favoured groups and political donors, like pharmacy owners. Moreover, they ignore the lesson from the United Kingdom that cutting government spending frees up resources for the private sector to thrive.

The time is now

If the Government jettisons grown-up budgeting in favour of vote buying, they will get no joy at the ballot box. Labor and the Greens have already tied up the votes of those who can be bribed. The only votes on offer are those from taxpayers who understand that debt needs to be repaid and budgets need to balance.

My alternative budget would deliver spending cuts through bills that Labor would never block. So a feral Senate provides no excuse for another budget deficit. It is within the Government's power to deliver a budget surplus, and it is the Government's responsibility to do so.

David Leyonhjelm is the Liberal Democrats Senator for NSW