Governments Budgets and Competing Class Interests -MAKE THE RICH PAY

Written by: Ned K. on 11 October 2026

Every year Federal, State and Territory Governments announce their Budget expenditure for the coming financial year. Budget announcements by governments are preceded by lobbying from competing sectional interests of the capitalist class. The biggest corporations, many of them foreign owned, usually engage the most expensive lobbyists to present their case to governments. Small businesses which may influence voting patterns in marginal electorates, especially in an election year, still come a distant second behind the large corporations.

Regional corporate interests are taken into account more so if the commodities they produce are mainly for exports. An example of this is iron ore mining in the north-west of Western Australia.

Government budgets are attempts to manage capitalism as a whole for the coming year and to minimise corporate campaigns against the governments of the day.

The other factor determining the allocation of government money in the yearly budget is the voice and actions of the working class.

The major parliamentary political parties and the large corporate sector of the capitalist class keep an eye on the voice and actions of the working class. That is why Prime Minister Albanese and State Government Premiers attend conferences by big business 'think tanks' such as SEC Newgate Australia which surveys thousands of Australian people each year to get a sense of what are the issues that the majority of Australians are most concerned about.

In SEC Newgate's 2026 Survey, they asked what issues were either extremely concerned about or quite concerned about. The results were not all that surprising with the percentages of people for each issue answering extremely concerned or quite concerned listed below.

Cost of living 86%
Crime/safety 72%
Housing Affordability 66%
Health Care Services 65%
Interest Rates 60%
Political Uncertainty 60%
Housing Availability 60%
Rental Availability 54%
Rental Affordability 59%
Education 54%
Immigration 54%

Under capitalism, it is impossible for governments to address all the issues that are most widely and deeply felt by the working class (which includes a broad range of income levels) and the interests of big business in particular. So many large corporations pay minimal or no tax at all that State Governments, fearful of increasing more tax burdens on to workers and losing the next election they face, borrow more and more from big banks, including foreign owned banks. 

For example, the South Australian Government debt level in 2026 is $26 billion and predicted to be $37.6 billion in a couple of years' time.

The Gross State Product (GSP) in South Australia in 2026 is $115 billion which means the debt level is 22.6%. In its 2026 budget it announced that it will spend $45.4 billion over the next four years on Health Services, while still throwing money to Santos who pays little or no tax and even more money to AUKUS's nuclear submarine base in South Australia. 

The SA Government Budget papers included plans for A "Red Tape Reduction" review by an SA Productivity Commission with the aim of "lower costs for business".

In South Australia as in other States and Territories, the main sections of their economies are in the control of big corporations, many of these foreign owned.

Nowhere in the Budgets at any level of government are there even moderate TAX increases on the profits of large corporations with huge profits going overseas.

Even the most well intentioned of governments at any level to hand down budgets to solve the people's major concerns such as cost of living will fail unless they are budgets whose underlying aim is "MAKE THE RICH PAY"

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