From Shanghai: The Victorian Budget, delivered on May 20, foreshadows the Albanese government’s policy direction. Victoria’s basket-case economy mirrors federal Labor’s attempt to buy votes from those uninterested in the commonweal.

Australia is heading toward a future where entitled leaners live off the sweat of those who are doing their share of the lifting. Victoria is at an advanced level of providing ‘free stuff’ to voters. Is this where Albo is leading us?

The Victorian budget delivers a $600 million surplus for the first time since Covid. This will be achieved by axing thousands of public servant jobs and it is about $1 billion less than the original forecast due to increased government spending on free stuff.

Before the budget was released, Victorian Treasurer Jaclyn Symes said:

‘I can confirm in tomorrow’s Budget there will be no new taxes… I have not changed any of the tax settings for tomorrow’s Budget.’

However, the controversial new emergency services tax paid by all ratepayers (but with larger amounts levied from farmers) will raise $600 million. It has not been received well.

The Victorian government’s ‘Budget at a Glance’ website mentions the word ‘free’ 37 times in relation to the cost-of-living package.

Victorian teenagers will get year-round free public transport anywhere in the state. Not just to get to school, but to go anywhere and at any time. At a cost of $320 million, this will no doubt inculcate a sense of entitlement in our youth.

Kids will get to go to the state’s zoos for free, too, at a cost of $15 million.

There’s also $12 million for roof insulation (remember how that worked out for federal Labor), $30 million for some 27,000 households to install electric heat pumps and solar hot water systems, and funding for the Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub (MREH) ‘big battery’. The MREH battery cannot function during a grid blackout, though proponents claim it will lower power prices.

(Incidentally, I received a letter last week advising that my electricity charges in NSW are going up by 34 per cent from July 1. I live in an area where I can see wind turbines in every direction that generate ‘the cheapest form of energy’. But I digress.)

All of this ‘free stuff’ seems to come at quite the cost.

Victoria’s net debt is projected to reach $194 billion, with interest payments at $7.6 billion in 2025-26, jumping to $10.6 billion in 2028-29. This high debt level raises concerns about the state’s long-term viability, especially given the Budget’s focus on social welfare over wealth creation measures.

The second Albanese government has outlined policies that echo Victoria’s ‘free stuff’ approach. For example, the government will cut 20 per cent of student loan debts, transferring around $16 billion of debt from three million Australians (who will earn more as a result of their degrees) to everyone else.

Those contributing even more to the educated elite include young people who do not attend university, those who have already repaid their student debts, and pensioners already facing hardship.

Further, the Albanese government plans to build 100,000 homes exclusively for first-time buyers from 2027 and allow purchases with just a 5 per cent deposit, supported by a $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. This focus on housing affordability aligns with Victoria’s efforts but targets a different segment – first-time buyers rather than social housing recipients. Either way, apparently, it’s free.

In their scariest move, however, the Albanese government is emphasising climate change in foreign policy and it’s only a matter of time before their plans to legislate a nature positive framework are back on the agenda. Such policies will be restrictive and expensive.

The parallels between the Allan and Albanese governments are evident in their prioritisation of redistribution rather than the creation of wealth. It is a lie to say that redistributing wealth makes something ‘free’ or that taxpayer-funded debt is somehow ‘wiped’. Somebody has to pay and, in these cases, it is always the taxpayer.

Victoria’s record debt levels, with interest payments consuming significant resources, suggest a model where increased spending on free stuff will lead to economic strain and ultimately higher taxes. Assuming the economy will turn around by itself is naïve.

The Albanese government’s policies will follow a similar trajectory, with the projected record $1 trillion in national debt driving long-term instability. The focus on free stuff has already embedded a culture of dependency in our people.

As a consequence, resources have been diverted from critical areas like national security, infrastructure. These are vital for future generations of Australians to enjoy a safe and prosperous future.

The Victorian budget serves as a harbinger for what Australia will become under the Albanese government: a nation focused on transferring wealth from those who create it to those who don’t.

Leftists have been pushing for higher taxes since Albanese’s 2022 Jobs and Skills Summit. Perhaps to guarantee continued government subsidies. With federal Labor likely to be in power for several election cycles, and federal debt due to hit $1 trillion by September, higher taxes are almost inevitable. Taxing the unrealised capital gains of wealthy superannuants will be just the tip of the iceberg.

As the saying goes, the path to hell is paved with good intentions. The high debt levels in Victoria and the federal government’s spending commitments will create a future where entitled voters will want to get something for free until everybody else runs out of money.

Regrettably, we now live in an increasingly transactional society where benefits are exchanged for votes. Both Labor and the Liberal Party are complicit in such policies that can only weaken us. This is not an inter-generational shift, it is economic vandalism and the abrogation of responsibility and wisdom.

When the mainstream media refers to the National Party’s rejection of the Liberal Party’s basket-case policies as ‘petulant’, perhaps it is time to follow the money.

The reality is that without a National Conservative Party to champion real welfare through hard work and prosperity, our commonweal will be short-changed. In the meantime, the leftist Uniparty, which now includes the Liberal Party, is focused on redistributing wealth rather than creating it.

A nation of free riders is not the same as a free nation.

PS Plastic straws are the greatest. Perhaps the Nationals or One Nation can bring them back like Trump did?

Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is The Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. All opinions in this article are the author’s own.