Big government bounces back

Despite its spending spree in the Budget, the federal government would do well to remember that the Australian electorate is simultaneously demanding of governments and yet not necessarily grateful when those demands are met. On the demand side there seems to be an assumption in the electorate, and one encouraged by much of the media, that all social and economic problems in the community, from road safety to domestic violence, can be solved by government action and by government expenditure, even when there is considerable evidence to the contrary.