It seems both parties struggle to get the balance right between these two opposing forces of fiscal management and social responsibilty.
My own view is more of the surplus needs to be used to upgrade our infrastructure and services while we are able to. These great opportunities to advance us as a nation come around very rarely and need to be seized upon. In years to come Australia will be struggling to balance the books again regardless who's in power and the chances for major infrastructure upgrades will be lost.
There has been huge private investment in Australia in the last few years and the Government has to ensure they put the money raised through it back into services to support this growth. Unfortunately both parties have decided self preservation is more important than the good of the nation and taken the populist approach of tax cuts instead. The tax-free threshold needed to be lifted but the rest could have been left alone.
Better for the surplus to be used now whilst they already have it rather than start borrowing again when the economy slows down.
