Councillor Column - Councillor Mark Spina

Just recently, my daughter came to me with a question whilst doing research for a school assessment. “Dad, what does fiscal policy mean?” My initial reaction was happiness, in that my tech‑savvy daughter was asking such a question.  

My response was along the lines of, ‘Well… it is about the responsible spending of taxpayers' money by the government for the best outcome of the nation’.

After my initial reaction of happiness at the question I was asked, I then had a deeper think about my response and how much more fiscal policy means, particularly now more than ever, in these uncertain times. It also reinforced to me, at the Local Government level, what this actually means.  

While on a much smaller scale compared to the Federal or State Governments, the mechanism is much the same.

I can remember that “fiscal policy” was a choice word of the day, being used by some politicians in the lead‑up to a Federal Election some years ago. How each claimed to have better “fiscal policy” than the other. It seems that the term has slowly slipped away to the dark corners of the Federal politicians' thesaurus, and is hardly heard of or spoken about in the media by current Federal politicians.

Yet, at a local Government level, it is now more critical than ever to get fiscal policy right for the common good of the Hinchinbrook residents. We can only hope that the current Federal Government finds someone like my daughter who asks them the question straight up, “What does fiscal policy mean?” — now that would be refreshing.

Hope everyone has returned refreshed from the Easter Weekend break and for those who are on school holidays, please take care, stay safe, and be kind.

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