The most apt adjective to describe the Liberal ‘budget’ – and I use that term advisedly – is meretricious, a term that means doing something superficially attractive, but devoid of real substance. Its etymology is from meretrix, Latin for a ‘prostitute’, selling – or buying – something that one should not. And what the Liberals are buying – and we are selling – are votes, and concomitant power, which leads to wealth and privilege.
This is, as commentators have it, a ‘pre-election’ budget, which is a polite way of saying they are spreading billions in ill-gotten gains on projects that