Each year since the 2014-15 federal budget, the government has published its spending data in a file that can be used to make the budget searchable. Most reporting focuses on the short-term winners and losers through cuts or increases in spending. These announcements are usually all the public hears about the budget and the politicians probably like it this way as the lack of context allows them to score political points.
After all, if people knew that the latest spending announcement constituted less than one per cent of the overall budget spend (as 414 of this year's programs do) would it sound so impressive? One of the fascinating elements of working with the budget data is the understanding it provides of the relative size of various programs.
Each year there are over 400 programs in the federal budget and most people, regardless of their educational background, have no idea which of those programs constitutes a significant proportion of the total cost, or which are a fraction of a percentage. However, there are lessons in this type of analysis that need to be heeded if, as a country, we are going to face up to future funding issues.
The ABC 7.30 Report has been running a series on superannuation, featuring retirees who are not able to rely on superannuation and must fall back on the age pension. Featured prominently throughout, former federal treasurer Peter Costello states that if people want to be fully independent of government and not rely on the age pension, they will need to put money into super above and beyond the compulsory system for their entire working lives.
The budget data is useful in providing context around this issue. A simple listing of the budget programs by size highlights a little-known fact that Income Support for Seniors (which is essentially the age pension) alone constitutes over eight per cent of the whole budget spend. In fact, it is the second biggest spending item in the budget, eclipsed only by the GST (General Revenue Assistance) collected by the federal government for distribution to the states.
The GST provides around half of the funding spent by state and territory governments who also shoulder responsibility for emergency services, health, housing and education. That gives you an idea of just how much money, comparatively speaking, goes into funding the age pension.
The reason this is important is because we have an ageing population. It is now becoming obvious that despite a compulsory superannuation system, many Australians will end up reliant on the age pension. Given that the age pension is already such a large cost relative to other programs, when the ratio between those of working age and those who are not increases with the ageing of the population, this has obvious implications for whether or not we will be able to fund the age pension in decades to come.
"This disparity has begun to show up in the form of homelessness, with older women now constituting the fastest growing demographic in need of shelter."
It will be women as a group who are hit hardest by any shortfall in government welfare. 'The system, I think, has failed working women and one of the big flaws of the system is not recognising that inequity in the original design of the system,' says Paul Howes, KPMG's partner in charge of wealth management. Women are particularly poorly served by the compulsory superannuation system due to the unpaid work we do raising families. This disparity has begun to show up in the form of homelessness, with older women now constituting the fastest growing demographic in need of shelter.
The National Foundation for Australian Women provides excellent summaries highlighting the lack of effort to resolve gender equality gap in budget priorities. The impact on older women states:
'Measured against the priorities for older women that we have identified, the 2019 budget contains very little to improve the circumstances of the poorest older women. The increases of 10,000 home care places announced in February are provided for along with an extra 13,500 residential places. An extra $8.4 million is allocated to mandatory reporting against quality indicators in residential aged care.
'Tax changes are of little import to older women living on pensions. They could provide only a slight benefit to those older women who earn some income. One-off energy payments of $75 for an individual or $125 for a couple will reach pensioners and carers. For an elder abuse hotline $18 million is re-announced. Over ten years $185 million will be allocated to establish a dementia, ageing and aged care research program. The crisis in housing affordability, unaffordable rents and homelessness among older women is not addressed.'
Women's groups were initially cut out of this year's budget lockup with just two representatives admitted after fighting tooth-and-nail for the privilege. With such hostility to our cause it is hardly surprising to find the budget holds little hope for women in resolving the structural inequalities baked into our lives.
Rosie Williams is an investigative and technology journalist with a strong interest in inequality and civil rights. She has a degree in sociology and significant experience with poverty due to a lifetime of disadvantage.
Main image: Rhys Hayward / Getty Creative