‘Eschew sugar hits to sectoral beneficiaries’. Budgeting in the public interest post-COVID, part I

Public budgeting is not easy. Yet governments make it more difficult for themselves by assuming that boosting the economy is the primary objective of public policy, writes Geoff Edwards.

Numerous commentators have been urging governments to take advantage of the disruption caused by COVID-19 to remedy long-standing structural defects in the policy settings governing our nation.

There is precious little evidence that the national government is heeding this advice, as the themes emerging in its legislative program seem little different from a neoliberal government’s typical agenda: weaken workers’ conditions, deregulate environmental restrictions on development and push through tax cuts for the higher-income class.