It's a pretty bad political look to have a huge budget surplus and to not have made some structural spending decisions in core Labor areas to address years of Coalition parsimony, writes Laura Tingle.
A submission was "being made". A submission which would clearly differ from a plan which made no reference to urban renewal or housing. Even now, if you care to look it up, artists' impressions show a dirty big stadium and a vaguely shaded in area nearby which "could" be the possible sites of some housing.
Given this has all been magicked up in record time, it will be interesting to hear at Senate Estimates just how much detailed infrastructure planning was put forward to the federal government before it "apparently" committed to this funding last week.
Yet on the other side of the fence, the government keeps warning us about how tough things are in the budget: how it has had to find another $5 billion for "unfunded" government programs and activities ; and the releases detailing huge debt interest bills linked back to the former government.
As economist Chris Richardson observed, the monthly numbers until March were already showing a small surplus. The government has data, which the rest of us don't, for April which has clearly made it confident the surplus would be significant.After the political caning that Labor has received for years about its economic management, this should be manna from heaven.
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