This includes:

$30 billion in “Direct Action” payments to polluters;

$5.5 billion in maternity leave payments to the “forgotten families” on $150,000 to $250,000 who need a helping hand, funded by a 1.5 per cent tax on 3300 businesses - the same ones who complain about paying penalty rates to their employees;

$45 billion in superannuation tax concessions that will be “absorbed”, of which $17 billion will go to the top 10 per cent;

$8 billion will go to capital gains and negative gearing;

and $12 billion to the mining and agricultural industries.

Not to mention the fringe benefits tax, the first home owners grant, private school funding, and the minng tax, which was ambushed by the big miners with a $20 million dollar ad campaign and threats to dispose of the elected government unless it revised the tax to nil, zilch zero, etc., etc., etc.

Who runs this country again?

Budget talk also has six-monthly income adjustments for pensioners being reduced, and just to add insult to injury, federal politicians have received a 37.6 per cent income boost over the past two years. What have the elderly done to deserve this?

There are many ways to target “excessive fat” without attacking pensioners, but the treasurer keeps telling us there is no money left.

With that line-up of beneficiaries, I am not surprised.

Elderly Australians know when they are being taken for a ride. The over-55s in our society contribute an estimated $74.5 billion annually to the economy in caring for spouses and doing community and voluntary work, without which our economy could not function - but they don't even rate a mention.

Once you are unable to work you become a liability on day one. The day before, you were a nation builder and a valued citizen.

As that age-old saying goes, it's a battle from the womb to the tomb.

We battle to reach the pension milestone, and are then confronted with the realisation that the biggest battle in life is just beginning.

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