It was not only the poor, the aged, the sick, the weak and the disabled who copped it in the budget this week. It was homeless animals, too. They axed the Department of Agriculture's Australian Animal Welfare program. And a good thing, too. What did animals ever do for the Liberal Party? You won't see any hairy-tailed wombats propping up the bar at Joe Hockey's North Sydney Business Forum gala VIP dinners. Not of the marsupial variety. If animals want access to senior party figures they can damn well do it the right way and creep under the back fence. That's right, hire a lobbyist, you animals.

What has been missed in the fury of the budget aftermath is the reality of ROI (return on investment).

Power: Protesters celebrate at the Bentley Blockade. Credit:Martin Jacka

Those who stump up the most money for influence achieve the best returns; those with the fattest and best-connected colonies of lobbyists lurking in Parliament House.

So it is that higher education, foreign aid and social services - the mug punter demographic - are doing the heavy lifting for the banks, the miners and defence. How much did the Australian Council of Social Service spend on lobbying compared with the Financial Services Council? How much did the Salvos tip into Coalition coffers compared with members of the Minerals Council of Australia?