This weekend’s promises

November 4, 2007, 1:52pm,  229 views

The parties have had a break from cloning each other to make some feel-good announcements this week. There was nothing stunning about them and they are unlikely to sway many votes.

Labor revealed a plan to create tax breaks for first home buyers. The $500 million pledge is designed to address the problem of housing affordability.

It’s little more than a symbolic gesture really, and will only help at the margins of what is a growing malaise. As I mentioned previously, major surgery is needed if the government is to intervene constructively.

The Coalition’s announcement was a $10 billion “transport plan”. This is focused on road and rail improvements in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Although welcome “news” it isn’t really news in the sense that $23 billion for the Auslink program was announced in the May budget. Both parties are just in the process of saying how they will spend that money.