Sweet Budget for well-off leaves a sour taste for everyone else

SWEETS for babbies. I know that’s a harsh assessment of Tuesday’s budget, but we have endured too much to be faced now with more of the same.

You can’t build a society of fairness and sustainability based on tax cuts and hand-outs. You do it with massive public investment. If there really was a case for failing to heed the advice of the Fiscal Advisory Council, and for borrowing an extra half-billion to stimulate the economy, then every penny should have been invested in our future through education, public transport, housing, energy and communications.

Instead, this Budget has allowed for a 29% reduction in spending on broadband, a 12% reduction in spending on energy, a 2.9% reduction in spending on transport, and a 4% reduction in spending in our struggling higher-education sector.