School of the Air debacle

Forget ‘votes’ and concentrate on ‘nation building’

So the WA State Government is axing the School of the Air education for remote (productive) communities. Obviously this is a decision taken on the basis of  “there are very few votes” out there in Australia’s productive outback.

Our country people are entitled to be upset at yet another downgrade of living standards for anyone away from the comfort and convenience of cities and beaches. These country people often wonder what the vast majority of our city dwellers actually do.

What do they produce? How do they contribute to our nation?

They know that as long as political decisions are made on the basis of ‘how many votes’, they will receive very poor value for the gallant effort they put into sustaining our nation.

With their focus on “how many votes”, governments don’t appear to grasp the fact that if you reduce the after-tax reward for something you get less of it, and if you increase the subsidy of something, you get more of it. Today in Australia, we are taxing work, we’re taxing savings, investment, thrift, productivity, effort, success and risk. We’re subsidizing things like non-work, unemployment, debt, borrowing, consumption, leisure, idleness and mediocrity and we’re getting so much more of the latter than we’re getting of the former.

Governments should reduce their addiction to “votes” and think more about the national outcomes we should encourage.