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This paper has been waiting for one of the three | Nationalists contesting the Swan to favor Western | Australia with something in the way of a hint indicative | of what he contemplated doing in the matter of the | public indebtedness. The poll is fixed for to-morrow | and the electors know nothing at all respecting the | highly important question of what Nationalism proposes | to do to enable the Commonwealth meet its | progressively increasing expenditure. That something | will have to happen shortly is patent to the world at | large however much it seems to have evaded the political | outlook of Messrs Hedges, Murray and Watson.

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Mr Watt's budget was good enough to let us know that | in addition to a war expenditure last year of sixty-six | millions there was an outgoing of ordinary revenue to | the tune of nearly thirty-five millions. This year an | increased expenditure from revenue amounting to more | than eight millions has to be met. Watt further | estimated that the war would for the current year take | 100,000,000 pounds, of which nearly seventy-nine millions | was to come from loans. Even that is not the whole story, | for with these amounts raised and paid we would still | have a commitment of thirty-eight millions unpaid. It | is of course true that the budget includes various | taxation proposals which lift up the revenue fairly | substantially. But neither Watt nor Hedges, or for that | matter Murray or Watson, have said a word anent the very | colossal problem of placing the finances of the nation | on such a basis as permits us to see daylight.

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The truth is that no estimate of revenue and | expenditure reveals the state of the public solvency. At | the end of this year the war debt will be about | 370,000,000 pounds. This total excludes war pensions, money | for repatriation, and the entirety of the State and | municipal indebtedness. That the position is already | staggering is shown by the taxation levied on | incomes - particularly that which applies | to small incomes. The point to keep in mind is that | practically none of this taxation is employed directly | in paying for the war, and therefore it will not cease | when the war ends. On the contrary the yearly increased | expenditure is due very largely to the payments made | because of the way in which the war is not being paid | for. This is made apparent by a glance at the | expenditure on interest, pensions, etc, since Armageddon | started. The table is a staggerer once its implications | for the future are comprehended:~~

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There is a consensus of opinion that at the end of | next June the combined Federal and State debts will | total 750,000,000 pounds, and that the interest alone on this | sum will pan out at 33,000,000 pounds. Each conversion of a | due loan will add to the interest out-going. It is no | marvel that Hedges, Murray and Watson have been | discreetly silent upon the problem of how and by what | means Australia proposes to balance its cashbook.

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That the situation is one which the pre-war order | could not square is patent. All the great business men | are keen to avoid proposals which trench on the | beautiful preserves of capitalism. They bestow the cold | stare on every proposition which regards property as a | legitimate source upon which to levy the financial | obligations of the country. And it is because of this | supreme fact that the whole conspiracy to drive Labor | into the political wilderness became an urgent part of | the capitalist war policy. Already we have the evidence | of what the Nationalist Party has in its mind, now that | its control of the machinery of government is | complete.

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Take the new taxation contained in Watt's budget as a | guide-post of the mental processes of Fat. To find the | additional eight millions needed to square this year's | ledger, Watt has to impose new taxation yielding | according to his estimate 5,356,000 pounds. He proposes to | get 2,200,000 pounds of this from additional taxes on incomes. | 380,000 pounds is to come from further taxes on land and a | further 275,000 pounds is to come from an additional levy on | entertainments. If the public wants a clear | illustration of how the Nationalists manifest their | tender solicitude for the great landlords, it has it in | the fact that whereas the Land Tax yielded 2,040,436 pounds in | 1915-16 and is called on to provide 2,380,000 pounds this | year, the Income Tax jumps from 3,932,775 pounds in 1915-16 | to 9,585,543 pounds in 1918-19. But that is not all.

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The taxation incidence further accentuates the | sanctity of property. An income of 300 pounds a year from | personal exertion pays 6 pounds 14/ per annum. The same | income from property has to pay 7 pounds 11/5. The tax is | therefore practically as heavy on the man who grafts for | what he gets as it is on the man who sits back on a heap | of title deeds. That this is true is seen in the case | of an income of 20,000 pounds from personal exertion which has | to pay 5,326 pounds, while the same income from property has | to pay 5,856 pounds. If figures mean anything they mean in | this case that land and capital are not taxable to a | greater degree than sweat and brain. In any equitably | governed community the man who got an income without | having to graft for it would most assuredly have to | contribute more to the upkeep of the State than the man | who did. But Nationalism is not run on that | principle.

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Neither is it disposed to for a moment consider the | organisation of direct revenue producing activities such | as the nationalisation of coal, tobacco, insurance, | banking, and, say, coastal shipping. Here is a field | wherein the nation could itself derive a tremendous | reinforcement towards the settlement of its accounts. | But again that is a policy hateful to the plutocracy. | Each of the activities named is already highly | trustified. The profits made in them since the war | started are enormous. Much of the profit has come from | the war and because the State was prepared to pay any | price the trusts demanded for the services they | controlled. Particularly is this true of the coal | barons, the shipping magnates and the financial thugs. | The spectacle of a nation staggering along the road to | bankruptcy with its people impoverished by ruinous | taxation while these economic cormorants fatten at the | feat moves the forces dominating the Government not at | all.

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It certainly has not moved the Nationalist candidates | in the Swan to public speech. How could it? They know | that promises to soldiers, capital for repatriation, and | all the betterment projects which were to make a new | world for labor are dependent entirely upon the capacity | of the State to realise its bond. A yearly interest | bill of thirty-three millions is the primary fact which | is at the bottom of the whole future of Australian | politics. Taking a half-penny from every three-penny | patron of a picture show and a penny from each of the | onlookers at a football match is not the way a great | nation places its finances on a stable basis. A further | example of folly is found in the fact that the customs | and excise revenues are estimated to exceed 14,000,000 pounds. | The bulk of that is derived from the same source whence | comes the entertainments tax. Last year a return showed | that the value of freehold land in the Commonwealth was | 455,876,104 pounds. Watt asks it to pay but the 2,380,000 | pounds already referred to. The whole character of the | Government is disclosed in that one act. It is | conceived entirely in the predatory interests of | plutocracy. It is a system of national upkeep which | leaves the fat property holder practically immune and | casts the whole burden on the lean producer.

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Let the Swan administer a needed reproof. Hedges and | Murray may talk long and loudly about patriotism. But | something more serviceable than talk is demanded. | Australia needs emancipation from the political thraldom | exercised by rings and combines. Corboy is the man to | help in that essential prelude to the adjustment of the | national finances. His opponents are serving men in the | game the plutocrats are playing to make democracy safe | for themselves. Watt's budget is a step on the road they | are travelling.

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