Is Rudd a dud?

In other words, Labor also supports the further deregulation of Australia’s labour market, although it has tempered the speed of reform.

Social welfare

In terms of social welfare assistance, Labor has adopted some important reforms in line with its centre-left traditions. This includes a commitment for greater funding for education and health; a savings scheme to aid first-home buyers; means-testing the Family Tax Benefit B to exclude single parent families with an income of $150,000 or more; and increased the income threshold for a family from $100,000 to $150,000 before those without private insurance have to pay an extra 1 per cent Medicare levy.

But Rudd’s attack on the mean-spirited Howard government in 2006 actually gave way to support for many of the Coalition’s policy approaches in 2007 and 2008. This included a commitment to 90 per cent of the Coalition’s proposed $34 billion of income tax cuts; the health insurance rebate and the Medicare safety net (despite Labor having opposed such policies in recent years); mutual obligation for social security recipients, although it indicated during June 2008 that it would soften the rules; government intervention in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory; funding arrangements that aided private school enrolments; and a $22 billion surplus to establish three new funds for infrastructure, education and health (worth around $40 billion) to meet capital shortages.

For Rudd, supposedly inspired by Bonhoeffer to help the vulnerable, it did not matter that there was considerable public support to reverse some recent policy trends as expected of a centre-left government. For instance, a Newspoll (May 12, 2008) found 65 and 57 per cent support for means testing the baby bonus and childcare rebates.

And what is to become of the Coalition’s decision to exempt superannuation payouts from taxation given that it was another policy which clearly favours the rich?

What should be done about Commonwealth assistance for primary and secondary schools given that funding for private students when compared to government students has increased from $3.50 for every $1 in 1996 to $5 for every $1 today, as noted by Ross Gittins (Sydney Morning Herald, February 6, 2008).

Why won’t Labor introduce means-testing for first-home buyers, although most attending interest group representatives on SBS’s Insight program (March 25, 2008) suggested that such assistance helped force house prices up.

Of course, Labor has addressed some important social concerns. This includes apologising to Australian Aborigines for past treatment by the Commonwealth; ratifying the Kyoto Treaty; withdrawing troops from Iraq; implementing a strategy towards an emissions trading scheme (ETS); reversing the Coalition’s bid to cut Australia’s migration zone by relaying almost exclusively on the so-called Pacific Solution; and increasing foreign aid levels to 0.35 per cent of GNP by 2009-10.

However, while Rudd assumed himself to be morally superior to Howard in terms of motivation and purpose in The Monthly (2006), it remains to be seen just how generous Labor will be on many other issues. This includes the ETS - in terms of assisting or penalising polluters and compensating those most in need of assistance from the higher costs associated with cleaner energy. It also includes resources to aid the promotion of necessary infrastructure or the promotion of renewable energy, and compensation for pensioners and other battlers given much higher prices for rent, food, utilities and petrol.

As I argued in Quadrant (April 2007), policy limitations have become increasingly evident in recent decades as all national economies have been forced to become more competitive in line with a greater commitment to freer trade, meaning that a Labor government will not be dramatically different to the Howard government.

While Labor milked Howard’s statement in March 2007 that “working families in Australia have never been better off” for all its political worth, Labor may choose to make some controversial decisions which reflect the reality that resources are limited, at least until a time when the wider public demands that greater resources be spent.

At a time when Australian governments appear determined to keep government outlays at a similar proportion of GDP, it is hardly surprising that Labor has supported higher fees to help fund the expansion of TAFE education, despite Rudd’s comments during 2006 about the skyrocketing costs of tertiary education.