Growth, jobs and sandbagging

large part of the funding canbesourced from shelvingthebudget proposal of loweringlargebusiness company tax to 25%from thecw-rent 30%.

BYPAWAN LUTHRA

Thiselection may well be decided by one dichotomy: delayed vs instant gratification. TheTmnbuli-ledCoalitionis chantingthe mantraof 'jobsandgrowth' and promotinga concept whichcanbe aligned cotrickle-down economics.Bill Shorten andhis Labor teamarebuilding ontheir credentialsof findingsolutions to the problems in education and health today rather than putting theseon hold for a better tomorrow.A prime e.xample is theCoalitionannouncementinthis month'sbudget to freeze theindexation of Medicare rebatesuntilatleast 2020, whichdoctorshave warned willlead to lessbulkbilling,whereas theLabor Partyhas declaredthat if elected, it will spend$12 billion to unwind this freeze. \Vh.iletheLaborpolicy is populist,it will addto thecurrent$150billionannual health budget. Labor believes thata

Loweringthistax ratewillallowfor the so-called trickle-downeffect,the termwhicl1,accordingtosomepundits, originated withUSPresidentReagan. Inanmshell,taxbreaks atthetopend (individualsandcompanies)canspur economicgrowth.Companiespay lesstax andtheninvestthemoniesin productive activities,whichcanincreaseeconomic growth,creatingjobsand oppormnities. Therewill bea trickle-down effectto thoseinlower ta_xbrackets. Onecan wellsee thelogicin this,buttheconcept of loweringtaxhasbeen criticised by manywhobelievethatitdrainsawaythe revenue from theTreasury totake careof thecountry'sneedstoday.USPresident Obamahasbeenopenlycritical of this theorywhich wasputinpracticeby RonaldReagantostimulate theeconomy. But then believers inhis theory advocate thatthispracticeactually gave people anopportunity to earnmore,as there wasa large increaseinproduction and emplo}mem.

However,itcakestime tofilter throughtheeconomy,and thequestion for Election2016 is,istheelectorate patientenough togivethis theory a cry, or does it prefer instant grati.fication of daily needs?The challenge is that w th coday's lifestyle trends, we do want inseam solutions to problems.Labor will no doubt build on thisneed asthenext few weeks of campaigningprogress.

According tothe polls,as to which way will the votego on2July,cw-rently it looksclose.The latest Newspollhas bothpartiesnecktoneck,withLabor havingnarrowed the gapwiththe Coalition.Attl1isscage,it seems that theCoalitioniskeenerto "sandbag"its currentseatsratherthan go to war over thosewhichit feelsmay take awayits resources from theonesinhand. An example was the Prime 1.-finister's day in\XlestemSydney recently: he raced to theCoalition-held Lindsay seat of Fiona Scott and decided to thenmakehis way to theReid seat of CraigLundy.That hedrovethrough witbomstoppingat thetwo Labor-held marginalseatsof Parrarnatta andGreenway, wasaclear sign of his strategy.

Growthandjobsis themantra; sandbaggingis the game plan.