Tax, Jets, and Another Week

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.