Page 2620 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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Having said that, we must not lose sight of the fact that our superannuation investments and land sale revenues still represent bookable assets and are essential to painting a complete picture of ACT finances. In fact, I doubt that the Chief Minister’s much cherished and hard-won AAA credit rating would have remained intact without their being on the books. Mind you, cuts to community spending programs always gladden the hearts of single bottom line bean counters and the swingeing cuts to the community sector in this budget were no doubt delivered partly for the benefit of Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s.
As the cliche goes, single bottom line bean counters know the price of everything and the value of nothing. They are so well versed in the black arts of neoliberal economics that they no longer see the value in indices of community health, standards of public education, environmental integrity, clean water, biodiversity, low crime rates, personal relationships, general public happiness, community cohesion and personal fulfilment. Virtually every other measure on which the rest of humanity bases wellbeing is eclipsed in the eyes of the single bottom liners by the all-powerful single bottom line of financial statements.
Not having undergone empathy and imagination bypass surgery myself, I beg to disagree with them. I know that some will brand me as naive or economically illiterate, but I consider the social and environmental dimensions and responsibilities of my life to be at least as valuable and important as the financial dimension. Is has been shown that, beyond a certain of level of income and the satisfaction of basic needs, the correlation between income and happiness breaks down. There are many studies that indicate that happiness and wellbeing are not merely products of higher incomes.
At the estimates hearings the Treasurer said that the continuation of an AAA credit rating is the very point of the budget. Call me crazy, but I think that one of our main tasks as politicians is to maximise community wellbeing. Given that increasing wellbeing is more important than merely increasing measures of GDP, I do not place such overwhelming importance on the maintenance of our AAA credit rating. Rather, I put it in perspective as only one of at least three good indices of good governance, the other two being measures of social and environmental wellbeing. I do not think that an AAA credit rating and the marginally lower interest rates it brings are worth sacrificing all those other things for. I am not sure that the one precludes the other, but this year it looks like it.
Historically, ACT governments do not borrow money to fund infrastructure spending. This being the case, I do not think that the marginal benefits of maintaining our credit rating are worth the negative impacts of the unfairly targeted spending cuts that will fall disproportionately on the weakest members of society. It has become abundantly clear to me that Mr Costello did not employ triple bottom line accounting principles in his review. This implies that his brief from the ACT government did not include a requirement to do so. It is sad to reflect on the fact that the government’s commitment to triple bottom line reporting seems to have buckled as soon as the going got tough and, ironically, when it matters more than ever. Old habits die hard, and perhaps Bomber Beazley’s ex chief of staff thought that a large increase in the Chief Minister’s spin budget would take care of any social or environmental blowback caused by his economically rationalist prescriptions.
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