Last year it was the pensioners, who found out just before Christmas that their payments would be cut within weeks. This year it’s the students, who will need to pay back higher education loans sooner and face caps on lifetime borrowing. 

It’s not like students have the best earning ability either; earlier this year, casual penalty rates were slashed for hospitality and retail workers, industries that attract a lot of students.

These cuts to university funding – a whopping $2.2 billion worth – are an assault on Australia’s future prosperity at a time when education and innovation are more critical than ever before. With the manufacturing sector drying up and mining becoming increasingly on the nose, we will have little choice but to find new ways to be prosperous. 

It’s hard to escape the feeling that this government is increasingly desperate to hold off Bill Shorten’s Labor, despite his obvious failings. The timing of the mid-year budget update, just days after a tight by-election race to maintain Malcolm Turnbull’s lower house majority, would have cynics questioning whether there were political games going on.

And now we have a cabinet reshuffle that will see surprise same-sex marriage hero George Brandis exiled to London while same-sex opponent David Littleproud has been promoted straight into cabinet, leap-frogging Riverina MP Michael McCormack who has loyally served the Nationals.

There are other cracks appearing in the budget update despite Treasurer Scott Morrison’s best efforts to paper over them. He will try to push through $50 billion worth of company tax cuts because “The Donald” is doing the same in the United States. The argument is that if they don’t keep pace with the rest of the world, Australian workers will get left behind. 

With stagnant wage growth, a slump in consumer spending and slowing economic growth, it’s any wonder Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen is spoiling for a fight. If big companies keep getting tax breaks while regular Australians struggle to pay skyrocketing power bills, the government will get a rude shock at the next election.

Provided, that is, there are any government members actually left the way this whole citizenship fiasco is going.