There is something I sometimes failed to
comprehend. When I was living in Hong Kong I paid tax honestly every year. It is
not a small amount considering my income but then I was happy to do so as I do
think it is the duty of a responsible citizen. Also the great thing was that
you know exactly where the tax money went. We got great healthcare system,
great infrastructure such as an efficient rail and underground transport system
and a great education system. So you know that at the end of the day your citizen
duty paid off, not just for yourself but for the rest of the society too. Hong
Kong may not be a democratic state but things were done properly in terms of
using taxpayers’ money.
Fast-forward to now, I am living in Sydney
and continued to fulfill my citizen duties. However, I have never felt as
disappointed and lost with my money spent as before. Australia is a great
country with great resources and it is a great place to live in. However,
sometimes I do think that the democracy that we have is not serving the
Australians justice they deserved. I am not saying democracy is bad and I do
believe that some of our fellow Australians do think that the current
government is a government they want. But then for me what I question is “Is
this the government that is suitable for modern Australia?” I keep hoping that
the answer would be yes but I do have a hard time to articulate that “y” word
from my mouth.
Today we were informed of the Abbott’s
government’s intentions of introducing a debt levy on the back of a promise of
there will be no new taxes during his office. I was disappointed, not because
of the new tax but because of what we have as a government. If there is a real
need yes, I do think we should all pull in the weight to support a new tax.
However what we saw in the past few months were repeated iteration of cuts in
education and healthcare, the threatening of reducing funding for ABC and SBS
because there is simply no money. Of course the reason was because of the
previous government, as it is never the Liberals’ fault when they could not
manage the books. And then last week, it was announced that the government
would spend $12.4 billion to acquire some super fighter jets from the States.
Abbott claimed it would be good for the economy.
Now personally, I do not see how spending
$12.4 billion on fighter jets while claiming no money for education, health and
cultural development is “good for the economy” I mean at least at that time.
But now I start to understand why – because then they can introduce new tax to
finance the spending and turn around saying, “See how good we manage the
books”. The thing is this debt levy is for people who earn between $80,000 and
$180,000 a year. Most of these people are already the middle group in the
society who are actively financing everything in the society. They got
penalized with tax extra if they do not have private medical insurance, they
represent most of the highest tax rate contributors and they received the
least, if not zero, government benefits. What is happening here is that the
Liberal bunch of wealthy friends is right outside of these brackets. So they
were not being affected while at the same time enjoying other benefits such as a
new carbon price subsidy “to encourage the reduction of carbon emission”. If
that is good for the economy I certainly failed to see how.
What disappointed me most is that
everything sounded so legitimate from the Abbott government’s point of view.
Think about that $12.4 billion they are going to spend on fighter jets. Are
they necessary? Surely if there is a need to use it but then if someone needs
to fly all the way down to the ass of the world to invade Australia, that
country must really have nothing to do or must have conquered all other parts
of the world and there is nothing left for it. If the levy is going to
subsidize schooling and a better healthcare system that’s fine, but for fighter
jets? Really? And then you have no money to finance a national broadcasting
service when you can spend an amount of money on trophies in a hanger that is
sufficient to fund ABC for the next 9 years? I can’t help but think what is
wrong with this government?
I might sound angry but I am not. I am just
extremely disappointed. There is no point of getting angry with this government
because anger could cause health issues that I might not be able to afford to
deal with because the government has no money for healthcare. If democracy were
actually for the well being of its people, I personally want to see this
happening, and I hope it would happen soon.
Have been
avoiding writing this blog because the last election result was so
disappointing that I was quite sure I would not be able to maintain my
neutrality. The last thing I want to see is my blog becoming one condemning
piece after another. However there always comes a time that you know you have
to start writing again because you are compelled to do so by your good
conscience.
With the
current Australian government personally I think things have gone from bad to
worse. Sometimes it is hard to comprehend that this is what the general
Australians think a government we deserved but voila, this is what we got stuck
with at least for the next few years.
One of the
most disturbing things I feel about is their use of freedom as a relative word.
They championed themselves as freedom fighters and it has been deployed as the
main reason behind the proposed change of the Racial Discrimination Act. The
advocacy of George Brandis saying everyone has the right to be bigotry had
raised a lot of people's eye browse. When the proposed changes were announced,
my first question was "Why do a bunch of upper middle class White
Australians think they understand racial discrimination and thus can change the
Act when in their whole life had never been on the receiving end of such
acts?" That is something I still have no answers to. The proposed change
was to protect the freedom of speech and expression but was it for everyone or
just for some?
Surely
under such change I should be able to call Tony Abbott and George Brandis upper
class trailer trashes who know nothing about the modern Australian society. But
then am I really free to do so? I am not quite sure.
Take the
recent threats the current government has on ABC about cutting their funding
because in more than one occasion Tony Abbott said they should do more for the
home team but ABC failed to do so. The fact that the current Government
questions the existence of ABC because it is not churning out propagating
materials for Tony Abbott and his gang directly contradicts to the basic act of
freedom of expression and speech. To think about this if ABC can only survive
because they became a propagating machine, what is the difference between the
Abbott government and other totalitarian states that they condemned against regularly?
Do they still have to rights to hail themselves as freedom fighters?
Another
case is the threat of future legal actions on artists who pulled out of the
Sydney Biennial Festival because of their political differences on asylum
seekers issues. George Brandis said artists should be liable for these actions
as they jeopardised the Festival despite their contempt that a guy whose
company was running the detention centres chairs the Festival. I do not know
how close the relationship of this guy is with George Brandis, and I do not
know what legal obligations these artists have with the Festival. What I can
assume is that these artists have checked their agreements and knew that it was
within their rights to do so before pulling out. Is this good for the Festival?
Certainly not. Is it their right to express their contempt? Certainly is. So if
that is the case and the government want them to be litigated, is that a violation
of the basic right to freedom of speech and expression? I certainly think so.
For me
freedom should not be dealt with in a fluid relative term. This is what
totalitarian authorities do. Freedom, if you do have the real heart to upkeep
should be dealt with in an absolute social term - is it good for the society?
If one thinks that people have the absolute right to be bigotry, then people
should also have the absolute right to condemn such bigotry, disregarding where
it's funding comes from. People should also have the freedom to pull out of
events due to differences in political views within their contractual
agreements. If freedom is not protected in this way, then it is not real
freedom and thus enters an age of true hypocrisy. And in my opinion, this is
the age most Australians are living in at the moment.
