In for a penny, in for $449 million

The danger of the government abandoning it’s commitment to fiscal discipline is this:

NON-GOVERNMENT parties plan to ramp up pressure for a rethink of the $449m research funding cuts, after the government last week abandoned plans for a budget surplus next May.

Acting Greens leader Adam Bandt asked Treasurer Wayne Swan to consider reversing the cut to the Sustainable Research Excellence program, along with the diversion of foreign aid funds to asylum seeker programs and harsher single parent payment arrangements.

“A number of harmful cuts have recently been made in the name of achieving the now abandoned surplus timeline,” Mr Bandt wrote.

Wayne Swan now lives in the worst of all worlds – all the budget “pain” he has inflicted is for naught while his fiscal credibility is in shreds.