Budget basics: Breeders, boomers to reap benefits by Leon Gettler.

Opinion on the budget: Shameless vote-buying by Tim Colebatch.

I can't believe my 600th post on this blog is about the budget. Why am I paying attention to the budget? Oh yes, that's right, I work and now own a home. Well, the bank really does until I pay off the loan, but you know what I mean. Lord knows I hate these responsibilities that come with adult life, but there we are! The budget!

Again, tax cuts for high earners (oh that makes sense to me...). No tax cuts for the lower income earners who actually find it more pressing to have perhaps an extra $10 a week in their wallets. Boosting childcare places and family benefits (fantastic if you're a family and want to force something the size of oh, say a watermelon from your loins now and then). Money heaped on "defence." Nothing much invested in Australia's actual future with things like working to make education affordable for everyone, more money for the arts, investment in infrastructure, etc. And cutting the tax totally on superannuation now will probably just see it having to be reintroduced down the line somewhere or else taxes on other things increased to make up for it.

Ohhh, call me a latte-sipping-Leftie but I DON'T GIVE A DAMN! When is there going to be a government that is actually interested in working to build up our country and look seriously at not only problems we have now, but problems that will exist 10, 20 or 50 years down the track if we continue as we are now? We need to be making sure that we have lots of education for all people so that we can at least pretend to keep on being a "clever country." The importance of education and the positive effects that it has on society cannot be underestimated.

Investing in the long-term betterment of our country, rather than just sucking up to the people who already vote for the current government, would have been so much wiser and made me feel a lot happier about the government taking the money I earn. Sure, people are "winners" now and in the short-term with this budget, but who knows what the future holds.