LEFT RIGHT CENTRE

Socialist Alternative | ASHRAF ABDUL HALIM, KALESH GOVENDER

1. It’s very clear that the two major parties aren’t giving Australians what they desperately need. A once off $420 tax break that most low and middle income workers will receive at the end of this financial year, nor the $10 or so you might save on fuel due to the six month cut in fuel excise, is not nearly enough to make up for these drastic wage cuts that the country’s population is facing. This is a government that has presided over the biggest fall in real wages in Australia in a generation. Before the pandemic, wages were flat. Now, they’re in free-fall. In 2021 inflation was 3.5 percent, while wages rose by just 2.3 percent. For a worker on an average income of $68,000, that represents a pay cut of $832. Labor promises a package for aged care that was desperately needed years ago but neither party is willing to assess the state of social welfare and turn it into something akin to a livable wage. Also a $250 once off payment is laughable and will be eaten up in a week for most people. Victorian Socialists want to tax the rich to pay for things workers and students will actually benefit from; funding climate action, increasing healthcare, education, and welfare spending as well as building more public housing. Tens of billions more could be raised by cutting areas like the bloated military budget, or the funding for private schools that the government is planning to increase by $2.6 billion over the forward estimates. Make no mistake: both major parties advocate for more money for the bosses and Vic Socialists are the only ones putting people over profit. 2. Sri Lanka is experiencing economic crisis and intensified inequality. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and several of his family members in ministerial positions have been systemically stealing from public funds for years, and have implemented tax cuts that make the rich richer. Gotabaya is also a hard-line Sinhala Buddhist nationalist. His government are responsible for the abductions and torture of journalists and the ongoing oppression of the country’s Tamil ethnic minority. Successive Australian governments have maintained ties with the racist Sri Lankan government, defending it against charges of war crimes. Meanwhile, the working class in Sri Lanka face extreme shortages of food and fuel, and power outages of up to 13 hours. The public hospital system is on the verge of collapse owing to a scarcity of medicine and power. Thousands have taken to the streets calling not just for the removal of the Rajapaksas, but for widespread change with some pushing to abolish the executive presidency altogether. They want more power in the hands of people. The current protests show the potential for a united struggle of ordinary Sinhalese and Tamil people against the common oppressor. The solution must involve a massive redistribution of wealth, starting with the obscene riches of the ruling class and the billions spent on the oppressive military presence in the predominantly Tamil north-east. 3. The very idea that the worlds’ governments think the age of COVID is behind us is outrageous. It only further proves that we cannot expect anything from the bosses, the bureaucrats and the rest of the ruling class to care about the rest of us on this planet. The answer lies in the working class. The essential workers that are essential for society’s function. Workers need to push back and we can see that in the nurse’s strike in NSW for secure a pay increase, shift-by-shift staffing ratios, and proper COVID-19 compensation. A strike that was called ‘ a risk to public health and safety’ by the Industrial Relations Commission in the face of the government having a letit-rip COVID policy and freezing nurse wages. Or the Amazon Labor Union in the US advocating against the company’s disastrous safety policies, high turnover rates and insane union busting efforts. Greens Club | BUSBY CAVANAGH, CHAS DAVIS, It’s the workers who make everything in the world possible and we should ADIAN CARLING demand that we get what we deserve. 1. Our key takeaway from this latest federal budget is that we simply cannot get rid of this rotten government soon enough. This budget is barefaced banditry, aimed at robbing the youth of their future. More than $37,000,000,000 for oil, gas, and coal while spending on climate action takes a cut of 30%? Y’know, twenty-eight gas companies made away like crooks with profits of $55,000,000,000 last year. Know how much they paid in tax? Zero. And our federal government wants to give $37,000,000,000 more of YOUR money to their planet-wrecking industries! How’s that for a sick joke? No attempts to tackle the

housing affordability crisis, no attempts to address the cost-of-living crisis, and a big slap in the face to victims of flooding and bushfires by co-sponsoring 114 new coal and gas projects with Labor. There is nothing in this budget to combat our growing inequality issue - on the contrary, while low-income earners get a one-off payment of $420, the wealthiest billionaires get a nice and hefty tax cut. How’s that for addressing the cost-of-living crisis? Make the rich richer and the rest of us can go get fucked. Barf. The Greens want to start a clean energy revolution with a renewable energy goal of 700%, enough to export our clean energy, offset the effects of immediately canning those 114 planned coal and gas projects, and start to atone for the climate crimes of the destructive big businesses that we allowed to spread their rot both nationally and internationally. The Greens want to build over a million affordable and high-quality houses so we can end homelessness and slash housing waitlists while also giving us youth a viable pathway to home ownership. We can address the cost-of-living crisis by hammering the billionaires and the corporations and making them pay their fair share. Adam Bandt said it best when he called this a “budget of bribes”. We demand better. and limit their economic growth. Whatever the outcome of these negotiations, despite the mismanagement and misfortunes of the Sri Lankan economy, any resulting mass devastation of human life will ultimately have been preventable if other nations only give what they can to provide for the needs of others.

3. I don’t see why our approach to covid recovery should be limited to bandaid fixes aimed at patching the turmoil of the past couple of years when we could use it to greatly improve the lives of many Australians and pull many more from precarious living conditions. A recovery plan that doesn’t put the well-being of regular people first is barely worth pursuing. Thankfully for us, a jobs and income guarantee and major infrastructure investment not only achieve the goals outlined above for average Australians but are also proven to be excellent stimulants to the wider economy. Guaranteeing workers long-term, stable, and dignifying jobs not only allows those who have lost their job due to covid economic hardships a stable income but it can also give workers far more leverage when seeking jobs outside this scheme, leading to an overall more equitable job market for all Australians. Expanding renewable energy and public infrastructure, while a proven boon to any economy, is also an example of where guaranteed jobs might be allocated. Both of these schemes will act to future-proof the Australian economy against further crises.

2. Coming to power in 2019, Sri Lankans are now paying the price of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government’s policies of corporate tax cuts and a ban on fertiliser imports reducing the productivity of their agriculture sector and requiring food to be imported at higher costs. However, Sri Lanka’s tourism-reliant economy has also been impacted by the dual disasters of, first, the 2019 easter bombings of luxury hotels and, secondly, the COVID-19 pandemic. Risking a default on its foreign debt, Rajapaksa’s government is pursuing potential debt restructuring and an immediate IMF bailout. However, likely conditional on a deflationary fiscal policy, austerity will only further exacerbate the suffering of Sri Lankans

Sounds good, but how are we going to pay for it? With wealth inequality increasing over the span of the pandemic, reclaiming this stolen wealth using a progressive income tax for the top bracket would be a good start. Suffering months of food, fuel, and medicine shortages, the economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka has finally boiled over with thousands filling the streets of its capital Colombo with cries of anti-government slogans. All-time high inflation has affected all facets of people’s lives, pushing hospitals to the verge of collapse as medicines run low and causing schools to cancel exams because the government can’t afford the paper that they are printed on. With warnings that starvation could be imminent for the nation of 22 million people will rightfully ask how this could be happening. Labor Club| STEPH MADIGAN 1. This budget has one central objective: the re-election of the Morrison government. Over half of the infrastructure funding ($3.4bn) is devoted to marginal seats, while the highly touted welfare payments are one-offs. In fact, the Budget papers stated openly that the government won’t lift a finger to counteract inflationary pressures. Areas where Morrison does deepen spending, such as domestic violence prevention, see the valid concerns of minorities being steamrolled in order to create an edifice of progress. At least the government is finally investigating war crimes in Afghanistan…until you read on and realise it’s also the most secretive budget ever produced, with the term “not for publication” appearing a whopping 384 times.

2. Sri Lanka is verging on collapse, with deaths from pharmaceutical shortages expected to exceed COVID deaths. A lack of tourism revenue has left Sri Lanka struggling to service its $51bn foreign debt, while government corruption squanders the remaining funds. The country is calling for about $3bn in external assistance. Morrison spent that amount on tanks last year—surely AUKUS can chip in. Commentators also blame last year’s ban on chemical fertiliser, which implies that western countries, seemingly obsessed with clean eating, aren’t putting their money where their mouths are.

3. Australia is suffering from COVID amnesia. As public health emergencies recede, societies tend to quickly forget their experiences, and fail to prepare for future challenges. This is especially prescient, as new diseases are emerging at a higher rate and spreading faster. However it seems like every month “Is this the Final Wave?” op-eds are still being trotted out. By viewing our healthcare system as a drain on development, there’s no extra-surge capacity. We will never be prepared unless we discard our overly optimistic mindset that is incapable of processing either the past or future. Taylor Westmacott, Liberal Party Member (Liberal Club failed to respond)

1. The LNP’s focus in the Federal Budget spans across five clear domains: Defence spending; investment into training and trade skills, alongside key employer incentives to hire these apprentices; tax-cuts for high- to middle-income earners, for small businesses and sole traders; the development of regional economies, by way of transport infrastructure, telecommunications, and dam and water projects; first-home buyer incentives, via reinvestment into the Home Guarantee Scheme and NHFIC; and environmental damage mitigation, with large funding schemes directly targeting the Great Barrier Reef, Antarctica, and the rehabilitation of the koalas species.

2. Sri Lanka’s economic upturn was largely premised upon humanitarian aid (in the wake of 2004’s tsunami), the sharp rise of tourism (which grew exceptionally and consistently from 2009 onwards, with the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War), and the intrinsic growths of industry which occur as one maps into the global economy. Alongside stifled global trade during the COVID-19 pandemic, the fuel crisis—brought upon by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—has been devastating for Sri Lanka. Noting Sri Lanka’s economic relations with Japan, I believe The Quad has, or may soon have, genuine humanitarian obligations. In regards to the protesters’ foremost demand the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for claims of nepotism and defrauding the public—I personally ally.

3. Toilet paper shortages did not occur. Lockdowns cannot be so surely put behind us. A serious way forward can only begin via committed continuation of vaccine policy, mask mandates, and—in the event of sufficient loss of life—lockdowns, domestic and otherwise. The question, then, is the finding the right intensity in vaccine/mask policy, maybe defining what ‘sufficient loss of life’ might look like – something every politician seems afraid to do. Endemic is a buzzword; COVID-19 is far from finished.