Surplus? Pigs might fly
It is always an interesting cultural change of gear when I leave the hyper-analysed, politically sensitive world of Parliament to return to the people who sent me there — the people of Queensland. Later I’ll explain the transition from legislation to sus scrofa, but before we proceed to that we should reflect on David Murray from the Future Fund and his statement that our net foreign debt is 60% of our GDP - higher than America but below Portugal and Greece. This should not leave you with a sense of confidence. Let’s review the government’s contribution to that figure.
The NBN is another bucket of borrowing to sit on top of the $173.5 billion your government currently owes. Your government had a good week last week as your debt only went up by $700 million, not the $2.8 billion it increased the week before.
Labor's NBN will add at least $27 billion more to your government’s debt. It will make less than what you can get by putting your money in a term deposit.
We have to pay this debt back at some point. Labor is currently asking us to believe in the fiscal angel descending from heaven in 2013 for our first Federal Labor surplus since 1989. Australia will need decades of surpluses to pay the debt at the rate we are borrowing.
At some point, someone will be working late at a checkout or laying bricks in the sun or working late in office to earn the money, to pay the taxes, to pay off Labor's debt.
The average Australian works all of Monday and part of Tuesday to pay their taxes before they start working for themselves. Labor want to put an NBN Maserati on the credit card but ultimately a Commodore would do the job.
Investing $43 billion in a broadband network is overkill when we also need to make billions of dollars of investments in power stations, water supplies, roads and rail lines.
We only have to look at Ireland to see how quickly things can change. Just like Australia, Ireland entered the crisis with internationally low levels of public debt. The mining boom will end and the Labor party's hollow explanations won't alter the ruthless logic of international financial markets.
Back to sus scrofa. I was a world away from Ireland on Saturday at the Nindigully Pig Races. The Nindigully pub is a quintessential Australian pub on the Moonie River 550 kms west of Brisbane.
It's full of laconic humour and self-deprecating cynicism. A sign out the front announces "free beer tomorrow" and they serve T- bone steaks that would cover your metabolic requirements for a week.
The pigs in the races were more like piglets than pigs. Piglets with little jackets and about 500 or so campers, bikers and drifters wearing Queensland State of Origin footy jerseys, thongs, shorts and enjoying country music. They came from places like the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Brisbane travelling at least 600 kms to one of the oldest pubs in Queensland.
They like the space and they like to let their hair down in a kind of post 35-40 year old way. Tradesman and their partners made up the general crowd. Whilst I was there Dougie Cameron was organising a march for gay marriage. Gee Dougie, (and I actually get along with Doug), I tried this out as an issue with the punters and they were not rating it highly.
Both sides of politics would do well to go to their local version of the Nindigully Pig Races. They will probably find the same type of people who have swung their vote to kick out Labor in Victoria.
The culture shock of their reality is one of electricity prices, their dislike of debt and their suspicion of smarmy esoteric debates that have absolutely no connection at all to their life. They have a love of freedom, to drive, to ride, to fish, and yes to shoot.
Few are farmers, but they relate to them because they see them holding the land that they want kept as their own. They have more in common with farmers, who they have never met, than many pollies they see every night.
We get more than 500 at a piglet race at an outback pub and it never makes the news. Get a crowd of 1000 post -grad protesters at the Sydney town hall and it leads.