It appears the ‘leanest election ever’ is still allowing for both Libs and Labor to still find ways of paying us for our vote.  We’ve had to say goodbye to an outright bogan lottery this time, because handing out random, one-off payments to various low socio-economic groups will be labelled as financial mis-management, no matter which team does it. So of course they’ve had to find less obvious ways, and tax rebates is again turning out to be the most popular.

This time, it’s the Education Tax Rebate. Also known as the ‘buy a new laptop every financial year’ rebate, because basically that’s all you could do with it the past two years.  It didn’t cover textbooks, uniforms, excursions, or any of the other expenses that school aged children actually incur.  So, two years down and a few more laptops lying around the house, internet connection beefed up with rebate moolah, and parents of school kids are left twiddling thumbs, wondering what else they can claim.  Thankfully, we’re saved by an election! Both Libs and Labs have added more random crap to the claimable list. Uniforms, books, stationery etc are on both lists. Excellent.

Liberals, in another awesome example of promoting middle class welfare, have added a few hilarious extras. School fees, both public and private. Now, seriously, how many families out there with kids in private school actually get FTB part A? And to how many of them, would $500 per year rebate on school fees make any kind of difference? That’s probably the locker padlock safety deposit taken care of.

The best part though, are these items:

Extra-curricular school activities, such as music, sports, dance and drama lessons
Musical instruments
Sporting fees & equipment
School photos

Yes, that’s right. As long as I stay home, earn piss all, and allow my husband to be the bacon-earner to my little missus, the Government will pay for my children to learn ballet. Excellent.  And, this year I can go ahead and order that bumper pack of glossies from the school photographer, so everyone I’ve ever met gets a copy of  an extreme close-up of my kid glaring in front of a faux-Japanese garden backdrop. Yay government!