The facts
The Guardian reports that federal government spending, excluding pandemic-related payments, has increased by 30% between fiscal years 2021-22 and 2025-26. Key drivers identified for this rise include increased outlays in defense, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), and health services. Inflation in the year to September reached 4.3%, significantly above the Reserve Bank's target of 2.5%. Opposition leader Angus Taylor has attributed the current economic pressures to Labor's spending and has proposed a four-year, A$31 billion savings plan. This plan includes an 80% cut to tobacco taxes, which the Coalition claims would generate A$7.9 billion, and a guarantee to adjust income tax thresholds with inflation. However, an independent assessment suggests the tax-threshold guarantee could cost substantially more than Taylor's initial estimate. Economists are divided on the extent to which government spending directly fuels inflation, with some arguing that the proposed Coalition tax cuts would not be sufficient to significantly reduce inflationary pressures.
Our take
Angus Taylor, the nation’s preeminent fiscal cunt, has diagnosed the problem: Labor spends too much. His cure? To spend differently, while huffing the delusional gas that his own bullshit somehow doesn’t count. His big brain idea is to slash tobacco taxes by 80% - because nothing says ‘responsible economic management’ like a fire sale on lung cancer - and then swear that this will magically conjure $7.9 billion. It’s the kind of accounting you’d expect from a toddler trading a half-eaten biscuit for a pony. The only thing this policy will inflate is the profit margins of Big Tobacco and the number of emphysema wards. What a prick. Then there’s his tax-threshold guarantee, a shiny lure for the economically illiterate. Independent assessments, because reality still exists outside the Coalition’s fantasy camp, suggest this little promise will cost way more than this dickhead’s estimate. So his ‘savings plan’ is actually a ‘maybe-we’ll-spend-even-more-later’ plan. Genius. Economists can’t even agree if spending is the main driver of inflation, but they largely agree Taylor’s cuts wouldn’t do fuck-all to bring it down. So this whole performative wank is about political point-scoring, not economic sense. He’s trying to sell you a used car with the engine missing, insisting it’ll get you to 2.5% inflation faster, while the exhaust pipe is billowing pure, uncut shit. The only thing out of control here is the opposition leader’s ego and his commitment to policies that are, at their core, a piss-stain on the national balance sheet. What an absolute fucking clown. He’s not offering a solution; he’s offering a distraction wrapped in a contradiction, tied with a ribbon of sheer, unadulterated arseholery. Fuck off, Angus. Just fuck right off.
