JourneyOnline
Budget time; amid the jangling discord of our nation, it would be wonderful to see a vision that is demonstrated in the budget to be bought down tonight. If it is there, it’s very hard to get that kind of meta-narrative out of all the commentators who will look at it from the narrow perspectives of their particular interest.
Some have made the comment that it’s only the federal budget, and that this nation’s destiny and character is built upon much more that a budget. Well, thankfully, yes.
By what would you say our national character is measured?
I’d be thinking our character is marked by how much we are committed to ensuring that that dignity which is God-given is respected and honoured; our character is marked by the equality of access to opportunity that our education system is called to provide, and the quality of that system. Our character is marked by how much we are committed to helping people find their feet again after encountering “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”; our character is marked by our commitment to ensuring that this physical home we call earth is tended and cared for; our character is marked by how faithful we are in determining to see the other who is different from us not as threat but as promise. Our character is marked by how much we, voluntarily, invest in our communities; their health and well-being. Our character is marked by how much we are prepared to deal with the unresolved business of our past; not in guilt, but in hope.
But still a budget tells a nation’s values and priorities. It in and of itself speaks. I hope we can get such a picture of this budget, and the political responses to it, so that we, the citizenry, have some capacity to see clearly what Labor and the Coalition are presenting of their view of this nation.
