Victorians would rightly be cynical and angry to have had their vital services squeezed since 2011 to now learn we to have to wait another 10 - 20 years for infrastructure.  Starving all our own households for three years would increase all our personal bank balances so its no economic miracle to have these surpluses.  In fact, most of us with a mortgage know we cannot buy a dwelling outright.  If the numbers can be believed, the budget confirms service cuts & sackings were unnecessary and part of a political game.  The government has been happy to play winners and losers over the last 3 years pitting programs and occupations against each other for scarce resources.  The government deliberately created an artificial divide in its own workforce.  As if the person holding the hose is more important than the person who turns it on and a further efficiency dividend being imposed on Departments is ludicrous.  The growth in the budget projected surplus over the next four years underpins just how politicised Treasury has become.  Again the surplus forecast is nearly 50% more for next year than the figure stated only months ago.  How does the Government forecasters get this so wrong?  Where does the budget account for the nearly $1B labour hire and redundancy spend?  Government’s deliberately understate their financial position post-election to justify austerity and cuts, to then appear to splurge pre-election.  How obvious this politicisation must be for voters while the Federal Government talks slashing and taxing.”

REMEMBER THIS…

“The 2013-14 surplus projection has been revised down by around $2.5 million to around $222 million, but is still forecast to reach around $900 million next financial year.”  Fri 13 Dec 2013