Reference:- Shape shifting Prime Minister , Mr Scott Morrison tells us we are all in this together.

Reference : -   The polls show that everybody is pleased with Mr Morrison's changed approach to spending .

 Mr Morrison bought votes with his sports clubs cash rort , before sacrificing Senator Bridget McKenzie .  The same thing is inadvertently  happening with the current cash splurge , necessary though it is .  But while we are all thrilled to the back teeth with the handouts , we must remain alert .  Sometimes before I open the gate , I throw the dog a bone to occupy him while I get the ute out and leave him behind .

So while we are gleefully anticipating our much needed freebies , let's have a deeper think .

For starters ,  the government tells us that we have very low government debt by world standards   Indeed that is so , despite the doubling of debt under the coalition .  Yet they have been telling us for years that austerity budgets were necessary because we had too much debt .    And we didn't .

 We now hear that free childcare is important so that  vital workers can maintain the economy .
 If  that is true now , it must also have been true over the past few years as the economy waned despite desperate measures , such as lowering interest rates to near zero .

 We now hear that people on social security need more help , and that giving them more cash to spend will boost the economy . If that is true now , it must also have been true before the pandemic .

 Treasury tells us that government debt might double as we deal with the pandemic , which will still leave us as one of the least indebted countries in the world .   But , we are warned , this debt will need to be paid back .  ( Perhaps it should , though there are a several ways to get cash into the economy without generating excessive debt . )

 And how will it be paid back ?  Well apparently , we are told, " we are  all in this together" .
 Except we aren't .
 Mr Morrison  ( 500,000 plus salary ) and Finance Minister Mr Cormann  yesterday refused to accept pay cuts,  and said  that cutting their salaries would achieve nothing .  Perhaps the money would not make a big difference , but the gesture would .   It would give the impression that the statement  " we are all in this together " was not simply marketing spin .   ( Mr Trump just donated his entire income for the quarter to the Surgeon General's Office , a well received gesture .  )

So if we are not all in this together now  , I guess we won't all be in it together as we pay back the debt .   After the last collapse of that evil teetering structure we call free market capitalism , it was the taxpayer who picked up the tab , and not the oligarchs .  Years of austerity followed , and we couldn't even complain effectively  , since thousands of anti -austerity demonstrations around the world were suppressed by the media .

 And  , regretfully ,we now have lots of draconian new laws. These laws  are  useful now , but could easily be used to keep us quiet if we object to protecting the assets of  the rich by paying for this crisis , as we did the last . 

 Mr Morrison has so far refused to drop his  recently proposed tax cuts for the top end of town  .

Those tax cuts should be the first unnecessary baggage we throw overboard to save the ship.

While we gratefully chomp on the bone of cash we are about to be thrown  ( those who get one.  sometimes I pretend to throw a bone to the dog ,  and it still works ) it might be a good idea to keep an eye on what's slipping  through the open gate .

 Your comrade , Ken .