We recently endured budget week. There were no surprises as such because, as seems usual nowadays, everything of consequence had already been leaked to the press. But some of the detail turned out to be alarming

Labor has recently found another hook to hang its profligate spending on – it’s called “intergenerational equity”. But it is not only its spending that now they like to portray as  being skewed towards benefitting our younger citizens but its antipathy towards wealth creation which has now been foisted on Australians.

The Labor left have always been disposed to maximising the government’s take from capital gains, reducing the benefits ordinary people might access from negative gearing and eliminating the benefits some accrue from trusts.

Emboldened by its huge majority in the House of Representatives it seems determined to finally remove these financial strategies from the few opportunities people have to build wealth. They do this in the face of repeated promises over two electoral cycles that these policies would not be touched! They have offered little explanation to voters other than the have just “changed their position”!

It exemplifies what I have always believed about the Albanese government. This is by far the most hard left anti-capitalist government we have had since Gough Whitlam. Its underlying ethos is to tax more so that it can spend more. It is determined to see the government sector displace the private sector as quickly as possible.

When John Howard changed his mind on a Goods and Services Tax (GST) he at least had the decency to call an election and seek a mandate from voters to make such a significant change. But Albanese is just seeking to steamroll these changes through parliament without seeking specific approval from the electorate.

The budget has been an unedifying, cynical attempt to force these changes through the parliament to benefit Labor’s anti-capitalist ambitions because of its huge parliamentary majority. There can be no doubt that the government deliberately lied to the electorate about its intentions to change negative gearing, capital gains tax and other tax issues. But in the House of Representatives the Speaker has intervened to attempt to prevent the Opposition calling out these lies.

It is hard to imagine a more cynical demonstration of political power.

And as for their new-found concern for intergenerational equity how hypocritical can they be when they have racked up a trillion dollars of debt which will need to be serviced by future generations! Moreover the very policies they are questioning, like negative gearing, are the very policies that most of the Labor cabinet have used to create their own personal wealth! They hace acquired their own personal wealth through this strategy but are now intent on pulling the ladder up after them!

Labor’s so-called reforms are being met with increasing scepticism from the public. For example increasing the capital gains tax on shares has actually hurt many young people. A considerable number of these people have been trying to use the acquisition of shares to create a little wealth in order to provide some collateral to get a home loan. Whilst they claim to be trying to help young people into home ownership, in truth their budget measures are making it harder.

Similarly they have provided disincentives to those young people trying to get ahead by using their intellectual property to start up new businesses.

If Chalmers and Albanese thought the budget was going to win over young people to Labor, they are sadly mistaken!

Meanwhile in the Senate there was a condolence motion passed to mourn the death of a five year old girl abducted and murdered from a Town Camp in Alice Springs. The little girl was Senator Price’s niece. There was no mistaking the deep anguish the Senator felt concerning this tragedy. She lamented that “silence is killing our babies”. She pointed out how the poisoned chalice of low expectations of indigenous people in town camps and remote communities was allowing dreadful things to happen to indigenous children that would not be tolerated elsewhere in Australian society. She argued that this, along with an inflated concern for the maintenance of indigenous culture, has resulted in child protection agencies adopting a “hands off” approach to maintain the safety of indigenous children. Criticisms of the approach are dismissed as being reflective of racism.

This was the most passionate and probably the most impactful speech Senator Price has so far delivered in her parliamentary career. In it she said:

We cannot continue pretending that lowering expectations for Aboriginal children is compassion. It’s not compassion – it’s neglect. It’s the racism of low expectations.

Senator Price continues to speak the truth in the face of criticism of indigenous activists and the complicity of many in the indigenous community and those in government.

Consider the contrast between Senator Price and the Prime Minister. Senator Price is determined to tell the truth about indigenous dysfunction even when it must be uncomfortable to do so. Albanese on the other hand is prepared to lie as an act of political expediency. Senator Price deserves admiration for speaking the truth. Albanese, on the other hand deserves contempt for blatantly lying to us to attempt to put in place the anti-capitalist ideals he has espoused ever since he was a student!