In October, Labor voted to pass nearly $3 billion in budget savings with revised welfare legislation which will see Family payments cut and young people on a disability support pension will have their cases reviewed.
The laws will:
- reduce the primary income earner limit for Family Tax Benefit B from $150,000 to $100,000
- limit the FTB – A large family payment to those with four or more children
- review the cases of people under 35 who are receiving a disability support pension
- include untaxed super income in eligibility assessments for the Seniors Health Card
- remove scholarships for students moving between major cities
The most substantial cuts will involve those families who lose entitlement to FTB Part B, worth just over $3000 per year, when their youngest child turns six and is at school, although transitional arrangements will apply until July 2017. Low income lone parents will instead get a payment of $750 dollars a year per child aged 6 to 12 years.
About $10 billion in budget measures, including increasing the pension age, reducing the rate of increases to pensions and freezing family payments, remain blocked. In a bid to woo the crossbenchers, the Government has “repackaged” those cuts and changes to a new series of bills.
The Government proposes to freeze all income-test thresholds for most benefits for three years, and FTB payment rates for two. Freezing payment rates is regressive, since lower-income families bear proportionally higher cuts.
Lone parents earning around two-thirds of the average wage lose between 5.7 to 7.1 per cent of their disposable income. A single-income couple with two school-age children and average earnings loses nearly $90 per week or 6 per cent of their disposable income.
Compare this to the $29 or less than 1 per cent of disposable income paid through the Deficit Levy by an individual on three times the average wage – close to $250,000 by 2017–18. High-income couples could together bring in up to $360,000 per year and not contribute an extra cent.
There will be no transition for unemployed people under 25, who will receive Youth Allowance rather than Newstart. People under 30 will be required to wait for up to six months before getting unemployment benefits and then Work for the Dole.
An unemployed 23-year-old loses $50 per week or 18 per cent of their disposable income. An unemployed lone parent with one 8-year-old child loses $60 per week or 12 per cent.
Senator Abetz backed down from his ridiculous idea of making unemployed people apply for 40 jobs a month which would have led to 30 million job applications a month when there’s not even a couple of hundred thousand jobs on offer.
The Government has also launched a tender process for a new $5.1 billion employment services plan and work for the dole scheme to operate for five years from July 1 next year. One wonders which private companies will benefit from this $5 billion cash splash and whether the money would not be better spent creating jobs rather than providing slave labour for the private sector who will receive generous payments to administer the scheme.
I also wonder has this government done any modelling on increasing the pension age to 70. When they increased the age for females from 60 to 65 in 1995, women with disabilities in this age group increasingly claimed the DSP. The proportion rose from close to zero to about 13 per cent by 2013. But as the number of women receiving the DSP went up, the number receiving the age pension went down by much more.
In 1995, only about 650 women aged sixty to sixty-four received the DSP and 211,000 received the age pension. By 2012, 86,000 female DSP recipients were in that age group, but only 28,000 age pensioners. So the total number receiving one or other of these pensions has nearly halved, and now the majority receive the DSP.
Increasing the pension age to 70 will just force more people onto the DSP and increase the medical and administrative costs to receive their payment. So much for cutting red tape.
I sincerely hope Labor have the number crunchers working out exactly how much people are worse off under this government’s policies. Add in the delay to the increase in the superannuation guarantee, higher fees for university students, cuts to health and education, increased fuel excise, scrapping the increase of the tax free threshold, and every single person is worse off though inversely proportional to their income and wealth.
The Australian Council of Social Service released a new report revealing that poverty is growing in Australia with an estimated 2.5 million people or 13.9% of all people living below the internationally accepted poverty line.
The report provides the most up to date picture of poverty in the nation drawing on new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics Income and Expenditure surveys for 2011-12 and previous years. It finds that 603,000 or 17.7% of all children were living in poverty in Australia.
The poverty line for a single adult is $400 per week yet the maximum rate of payment for a single person on Newstart – when Rent Assistance and other supplementary payments is added – is only $303 per week. This is $97 per week below the 50% of median income poverty line.
It also emphasises the danger posed by Budget proposals to reduce the indexation of pension payments to the Consumer Price Index only, which is likely to result in higher poverty rates over time than would be the case if payments were indexed to wages and therefore community living standards.
Most at risk groups
- Women – significantly more likely to experience poverty than men (14.7% compared to 13%);
- Children and older people – face higher risks of poverty compared to other age groups (17.7% and 14.8% respectively);
- Sole parents – at high risk with 33% in poverty in 2012 and 36.8% of all children in poverty were in sole parent households;
- Born overseas – Poverty is higher amongst adults born in countries where the main language is not English (18.8%) than amongst those born overseas in an English speaking country (11.4%), or in Australia (11.6%);
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – ABS data does not include information to accurately measure this poverty rate, however 2011 HILDA data found 19.3% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in poverty, compared to 12.4% of the total Australian population;
- People with a disability – latest available data does not allow this poverty rate to be calculated, however our previous report found 27.4% of people with a disability were living in poverty in 2009-2010 compared to 12.8% for the total population.
Abbott’s strategy to help these people is “we removed the carbon tax”. Come on Labor, let’s compare that to all the other things they have “removed”.
Morrison doesn’t see helping these people as his responsibility. He views them as his targets, the challenge he must face and subdue.
In the May budget they cut $44 million from the capital works budget for the National Partnership on Homelessness.
Three days before Christmas they axed funding to Community Housing Federation Australia, National Shelter, Homelessness Australia, disability groups and financial counselling services.
In the next budget, Scott Morrison is going to do something about making childcare more affordable. This will be a welcome move if it isn’t just about making politicians able to claim for their nannies.
He will also be trying to sell Tony’s signature Paid Parental Leave Scheme or some sort of renegotiated version of it. If it is means tested, completely unavailable to those over a certain income, then it may be worthwhile though it basically defeats Tony’s stated purpose of encouraging “women of calibre” to breed. It’s interesting that this “workplace entitlement” is being promoted by the Minister for Social Security who wants the government to pay for maternity leave rather than the employer. I guess Tony is desperate to have an answer other than carbon tax about what he has done for women but let’s not let it blind us to the needs of our most disadvantaged citizens.
As this government silences advocates for the homeless, the disabled, the young and the needy, our Indigenous and refugee communities, we, the public, must raise our voices to help protect our most vulnerable and to tell the government which direction we want this country to go.
“…the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. ” – Hubert H. Humphrey.
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Great post as always, Kaye showing the terrifying implications of this appalling government’s intentions toward the poorest & most vulnerable members of our country.
I think we will have to bombard all Labor MPs & senators with tweets, emails, texts & every other means of communication at our disposal, threatening to vote for progressive parties unless they vote to protect the poor & defenceless.
If they have their wits about them, they should realise they could be faced with a Greens/Independent coalition in the next Parliament.
It’s the only way to stop the Liars in their tracks and ensure this repellent mob is frustrated at every point.
I agree with Jane. Only an unrelenting mail and phone campaign to all Labor members, waking them up, pushing them along to ask the right questions in parliament, using door stop interviews to say something meaningful will be needed.
The misery,hopelessness,despair and inevitable increase in crime and suicide is just around the corner.
Kaye, disgraceful that on 23/12/2014 we are force to answer such tripe and rubbish. At the end of the day, there will be more on SS not fewer. More unemployed.
When Morrison and Hockey start on about childcare, keep these headlines in mind.
May 19: The bad news for childcare in Joe Hockey’s budget
May 19: Parents warned budget cuts will put family day care in danger
May 30: Budget will cut childcare places, make costs soar, say Vic councils
June 30: Federal government budget cuts spur childcare crisis nationwide
July 17: Senate committee calls on government to halt childcare budget cuts
December 9: Family day carers confused about Government’s plans to both cut and boost child care funding
Opposition education and early childhood spokeswoman Kate Ellis said Mr Abbott’s plans for child care were unclear and parents were worried.
“We’ve heard him say that they’re looking to provide more support for child care, but they’ve now cut over a billion dollars from the childcare sector since they came to Government,” she said.
“The best example of that is family day care, which was specifically mentioned in the papers when the Prime Minister was briefing about this change of heart he’s had, but they’ve cut $157 million.
It’s a bit like abolishing the National Intercountry Adoption Advisory Group and then a couple of weeks later Abbott announcing that he had ordered his department to set up an interdepartmental working group on overseas adoption, as part of his push to make it ”much easier” for Australian couples to adopt from overseas, to be headed by Deborah-Lee Furness, Hugh Jackman’s wife. I guess it made the photo shoots more memorable – dump the experts who have been working in the field and employ an actress.
Childcare is getting more confusing than Gonski backflips and GP co-payments.
No government in this country has ever declared war upon the working people and poor to the extent of this rotten front bench. How they got elected is clearly because of the mess inside the ALP, with the various right factions stabbing each other in the back. The result was the sort of opposition “leader” it is now saddled with. The very legitimacy of our institutions is being undermined by idiots in the political class, and such undermining will surely end in tears.
“In October, Labor voted to pass nearly $3 billion in budget savings with revised welfare legislation which will see Family payments cut and young people on a disability support pension will have their cases reviewed.”
Surely you mean LNP?
Whilst we all despair at times, the further we spread the information to counter Murdoch’s propaganda and Credlin’s spin, the more chance we have of ordinary Australians saying hang on, this isn’t what I want.
There are some people who will never be interested in being informed. They have chosen a team and will brook no criticism. For me, no team is beyond improvement, and our elected representatives will be forced to listen to us if we speak loudly enough. We cannot wait for an election. We must act now and reward those who help in the campaign for decency with our support. The HoR is a lost cause with Abbott in charge so concentrate on helping Senators know exactly how you feel, constructively rather than with abuse which will be dismissed, and continue to pressure Labor to revert back to its core principles. We need to start hearing from them. Let the Greens be our conscience, Labor our pragmatists, and the Independents our mediators. Encourage them to talk to each other so we can protect our country from corporate rape.
This calendar year to date this site alone has had 4,015,539 views. Keep sharing your ideas and holding the government to account.
deanyz, Labor agreed to these Coalition proposals, assuring them of passage. They are blocking the more draconian measures.
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I remember you posted this quote in a Comment a couple of weeks ago Kaye Lee :
“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” …Warren Buffet.
Each and everyday it becomes more and more applicable to the Liberal party.
I agree with Jane too. I’m always agreeing with Jane. She thinks I’m a very agreeable person.
And it has nothing to do with us both barracking for the same football team.
Oh, btw, great post Kaye. 🙂
I thoroughly and unreservedly agree with Roswell who agrees with Jane who agrees with Kaye.
Now ain’t that thoroughly agreeable?
And in the echo chamber of life.
Great post Kaye.
Tada!
I remember the days when brothers came up through the juniors and spent their entire football careers with one club. I remember when my cousin won player of the year in the 60s for the Sydney Rugby League comp. He got a mantel clock. I remember going to Ray Price’s house one night after an evening at Parramatta Rugby Club. There was a huge pile of video cassette players in the corner still in their boxes. No, they hadn’t “fallen off the back of a truck” – they were man of the match awards from whoever was the sponsor of the day.
Whilst I understand that athletes have a finite career and need to be paid for the damage they do to their bodies, corporate money has spoiled sport too. The amounts of money are obscene and cause people to make decisions against their best interests.
It’s harder to follow the team when money outweighs loyalty and integrity. Have you also noticed that our athletes cry and hug a lot more now? They must be under such incredible pressure – physical, financial, and emotional.
(All of your posts send my mind in so many directions)
I always find it amusing how there are some people hell bent on blaming Labor for the LNP’s budget. It is like Tony Abbott’s bagging of Labor telling everyone it is all Labor’s fault is really getting through to some people.
What is not mentioned in this article, is Labor forced the LNP back to revise their $10 Billion dollars worth of cuts to families and pensioners and forced them to split the Bill and would only support $2.7 Billion of moderate cuts addressed below. Labor prevented $7.2 Billion dollars more of harsh and unfair cuts to families and pensioners, including letting people starve for six months with no income and preventing low income families being approximately $6,000 worse off a year. Thanks Labor. But it’s all Labor’s fault!
This article does not address any of the work Labor did with these Bills and how they were renegotiated in the Senate or what Labor negotiated them down to. The Bills that were passed in this form, are very moderate reforms, considering we should be attempting to make some modest cuts (not harsh cuts) towards a surplus. If the senate was a favourable senate to the LNP, we would be seeing very unfair and harsh cuts to pensions and families. We would see families go without any family payments for children over six, we would see harsh cuts to pensions and families worse of by the thousands, but yet; it seems more ‘hip’ these days to blame Labor, rather than to thank them for fighting against the original cuts and forcing the LNP to split the Bills and renegotiate measures.
What this article does: is highlights a list of changes approved by Labor, with no explanation; then moves on to a tirade about poverty. What is the agenda of this article? To have people think that Labor is hell bent on putting people in poverty? That is it Labor’s fault if people are experiencing hardship, when it is the LNP Budget? Or is it that Labor passed all these ‘cruel cuts” when in fact they forced this Bill back quite a number of times and only a hand full of very moderate changes were passed?
Reducing the PRIMARY income earner threshold to $100,000 for family tax benefit A from $150,000. I cannot simply fathom how anyone on $100,000 per year would need assistance from Social Security/Centrelink. That is $2,809.73 take home per fortnight, after taxes and medicare levy. Families may still quality for Family Tax Benefit B. This is a change to the upper limit and the lower income threshold still remains. This is a moderate change.
The large family supplement used to only be for four children or more; now it is reduced to three. This is a reduction of $12.32 per fortnight for those with three children. Considering the LNP has kept the carbon tax supplement ongoing, this should balance out.Once again, a moderate change.
Remove RELOCATION scholarship. I have highlighted relocation, as this is very ambiguous in the post as it says “remove scholarships for students moving between major cities” the Australian Labor party did not vote to revoke anyone’s scholarship. The budget measure is to cancel relocation allowance for those moving from capital city to capital city. The reasoning behind this, is that most students in a capital city can apply for their degree in their own capital city. Moving assistance scholarships still exist from Regional to Regional, from Capital city to regional and from Regional to Capital City. One of the reasons behind this is also to encourage participation in our Regional Universities; which is not a bad thing at all. Once again, a moderate change.
The reason behind the support of review of people with disabilities and employment has carried on from the Government to Government since Keating. A recent report highlighted many young people on a disability are ‘forgotten about’ rather than assisted into employment. Reviews have always occurred, participation in a plan at present is voluntary. Labor supported this measure to enable and assist people with a disability into employment after the McClure review. If the LNP want to use their ideology to manage it poorly, that certainly is not Labor’s fault. (But hey, blame them anyway). Reviewing people on a pension is a reasonable and moderate measure.
The included untaxed super income in eligibility assessments for the Seniors Health Card, simply means that another income stream, as in income for that person, is considered within the payment. This comes in, in 2017 and does not affect existing pensioners. This is a reasonable and moderate measure, as well.
The Australian Labor Party have always stated that they will fight against harsh cuts; but they will support reasonable and moderate measures to assist the budget and economy. There is nothing that has been highlighted in this article that has been passed, that necessitates the need for another attack on Labor, disguised as a heading as an attack on LNP.
The ALP are expected to be in a position to Govern. They take a moderate approach and a reasonable approach. They don’t have the luxury of being an “All or nothing opposition” like some parties that have never had the experience of actually forming Government.
Still not good enough Trish. You haven’t got my vote. Labor need a backbone not false rationalizations. We are not happy.
Remember we are Labor supporters that go back years and have deep and long memories.
Trish,
You seem to have completely misunderstood this article. As far as not addressing the issues you mentioned is concerned…
“About $10 billion in budget measures, including increasing the pension age, reducing the rate of increases to pensions and freezing family payments, remain blocked. In a bid to woo the crossbenchers, the Government has “repackaged” those cuts and changes to a new series of bills.”
I agree the opposition to the more draconian measures is more important than the agreement for these less controversial issues which is why I said “Labor agreed to these Coalition proposals, assuring them of passage. They are blocking the more draconian measures.” I did not go into detail about the measures that have been passed because they are far less important than the measures that have been blocked which I did discuss in some detail.
That you read this as an “attack on Labor, disguised as a heading as an attack on LNP” makes me more concerned about Labor’s paranoia than my article. You have jumped to defend something that is not under attack.
“What this article does: is highlights a list of changes approved by Labor, with no explanation; then moves on to a tirade about poverty. What is the agenda of this article? To have people think that Labor is hell bent on putting people in poverty? That is it Labor’s fault if people are experiencing hardship, when it is the LNP Budget? Or is it that Labor passed all these ‘cruel cuts” when in fact they forced this Bill back quite a number of times and only a hand full of very moderate changes were passed?”
Could I suggest you go back and reread the article. This is not an attack on Labor. It may be a “tirade about poverty” but I find your choice of words disappointing because I find poverty an important issue.
I have no agenda other than the truth. I am not here to promote any political party. Can the same be said of you? I had always thought so.
What you considered an attack on Labor, I meant as an exhortation to all non-Coalition MPs to stand firm in their opposition to the worst of these proposed cuts and to the public to support them in doing so
Another excellent post Kaye Lee. Thank you
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Perhaps I misread Kaye Lee's Article as well.
That must be why I originally posted this :
"There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” …Warren Buffet.
Pretty much covers both Abbots gang and the Labor party ….. which is what I was going to add.
But I went with this instead :
"Each and everyday it becomes more and more applicable to the Liberal party."
But lets not pretend that Labor isn't on a knife's edge.
<
I would also like to add as an aside:
It appears Abbotts comments about the carbon tax and ironing has now resulted in a "heightened level of terror".
Becoming a stock in trade, when clangers are dropped, to raise the spectre of terror.
There is no question that Labor would be preferable to the current mob (as would my pet budgie), but it really aggravates me that they refuse to enunciate alternatives. They were elected to represent their constituents. They know what we want to hear. Saying that they won’t reveal their policies yet makes me think they are scared of billionaire funded advertising against them, and perhaps rightly so, but you are not going to be able to avoid that. Have conviction, take time to explain your stand. Of course you can’t know what the budget position will be at the time of the next election. Using that as an excuse is ridiculous. Have ideas, you don’t have to give firm numerical and time objectives but a direction is crucial. Any suggestion of not wanting to reveal your strategy this far out makes a mockery of public service and tends to indicate that personal ambition is more important.
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@Kaye Lee
You nailed in here :
"Have conviction, take time to explain your stand."
The ALP doesn't have to start revealing their policies …. they just have to "enunciate" what the stand for.
Kaye Lee:
What’s your taxable income, Kaye Lee? Do you support increased military spending? How old are you? Are you self employed? And… above all… what is your electorate?
These are the sort of things that will determine Labor’s policies. Not what WE want to hear… Because WE aren’t the voters they really really want…
Look hitting poor when your down is wrong and unforgivable I currently dsp doing lot of volunteer work looking for full time work and wanting to set up life that is fair and there more people out there like me and u be hit by by these nasty men
mars08,
I am mostly self-employed though I work for others when I need more income (or they need me). My husband and I own a business. I just turned 57. My taxable income varies greatly. I keep getting contacted by people who obviously think I should be supporting the Coalition.
I don’t actually give a damn what the politicians WANT to hear. The thing that has really pissed me off is that they think their job is to get re-elected whereas I think that should be a consequence of DOING a good job.
I have worked hard for a very long time and I have, for myself, crystalised my priorities as time goes by and life experience teaches me things.
I know the joy of helping others, I feel the despair of those for whom life feels like a hopeless struggle. I have been relatively blessed in my life and my head is full of ideas about how to make the world a better place for our most vulnerable. We CAN make a difference. Go hard or go home.
No, no, no… Kaye Lee. Your life, financial situation and beliefs are YOUR business. I was just trying to demonstrate why some votes are more crucial than others… You vote, and mine (being solidly on the left of the current scale) are just taken for granted.
I understand mars08. Just saying that caring isn’t necessarily divided along stereotypical lines. And I do think that our conversations here make a difference.
Yes Kaye ya got to do what ya gotta do not for any rime or reason other than you know it is the right thing to do. How it pans out will be different for all of us however I want a world where kindness, goodness and love are our natural predilections not greed and hate. I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks of me or what I have done because it is none of there damn business. If I want to disclose things about myself then that I will do.
I belong to no one or nothing yet I stand in the light of my own insight and experience which is broad and eclectic but at least its original and mine. I don’t want to conform to anyones ideas. I want to find out the facts for myself. I have done some damn weird things in my life yet they are the things that have changed me dramatically.
There is an old African saying:
“If you want to drown do not jump into shallow waters”.
Or when a monk asked master Haro what is insight he replied:
“An open eyed man falling into a well”
I will not bogged down by other peoples expectations or prejudices and I want our kids to be able to do the same.
I love difference, diversity, abstraction, art, science and creativity and will not be told by others what I should or should not believe
In short I am a pig headed loving old fart.
Mars8 I am not trying to be critical I just want to point out there are windows of opportunity and experience that are vast textures of abstract potentialities redolent within our minds. It is they that help make life interesting.
Fair enough. There ARE “windows of opportunity and experience” in our minds. But, unfortunately no man is an island entire of itself. There are others in this continent who insist on curbing or corrupting out potential.
I’d just like to see all those clods being “washed away by the sea”. Then we could start fixing some REAL problems.
I find myself increasingly reminiscing about out first female PM. Remember when we weren’t embarrassed?
When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair!
Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
As the images unwind, like the circles that you find in
The windmills of your mind!
‘Labor’ voted to pass…..?
This sounds like a nice little money spinner for Employment Providers. We can find $5.1 billion to give to these private businesses. How many families would that feed and house if we cut out the middleman.
Key features of the new arrangements for Employment Providers include:
a standard Administration Fee will be paid in advance at six monthly intervals for each job seeker and outcome payments will be available for maintaining the job seeker in employment for four, 12 and 26 weeks
Employment Providers will have access to an Employment Fund for work related items, post placement support, professional services and targeted training needed by job seekers to find and keep a job
there will be five year funding deeds with less red tape and a mid-contract price adjustment for specific payments
there will be 51 Employment Regions outside remote Australia, each with up to six Employment Providers
a regional loading will apply to eligible payments in specified locations.
The new national network of Work for the Dole Coordinators will source Work for the Dole places and projects with not for profit organisations such as local councils, schools, community organisations and state and federal government agencies.
The New Enterprise Incentive Scheme will assist eligible job seekers to establish and run their own small business, including accredited small business training, business advice and mentoring for up to 52 weeks as well as an allowance for up to 39 weeks.
Harvest Labour Services will gather vacancies from growers, provide eligible job seekers with information and supply harvest workers to horticultural producers in regions where there is a need for out-of-area harvest workers. The National Harvest Labour Information Service will develop and promote information about harvest related work opportunities across Australia.
So another name for tenured slavery and jobs for your mates.
when this promises something, immediately look to she what poor bastard is going to lose something to pay for it.
Surely making adjustments and reductions, graduated over time, to the Capital Gains Tax, the amounts given to negative gearing, and to private health insurers and their clients, and we get ………. no budget problem.
Kaye. I read the article a few times before posting a comment. If you view the article from the standpoint of an average reader – it opens with Labor voted to pass…… then lists a range of cuts…..then moves onto discussing poverty. I too am very passionate about poverty and that is why I felt I needed to comment on an article that could leave people with the impression that Labor are just as bad as the Liberals. In my view this just ends up with people voting for minor parties or independents who preference Liberals and we are back to square one with the Libs. This article in my view is attacking Labor as if they are the ones that have put this on the table. I openly state I am very pro-labor party on my own blog, so no, I am openly not neutral. I think I’m just really fed up with Labor being attacked for the Liberals agenda.
Maybe you wouldn’t have to put up with “Labor being attacked for the Liberals agenda” if the ALP clearly articulated one of their own… united, loudly and proudly.
Maybe you are not hearing
A little bit louder please…
@Kate Lee: cf. “The Windmills of my mind”. We need a laugh and Merry Christmas all:
Trish,
You say “I think I’m just really fed up with Labor being attacked for the Liberals agenda.”
If you consider reporting what legislation Labor has passed and what they are opposing as an attack then it is going to be very hard to get your message across. Is it supposed to be a secret?
“it opens with Labor voted to pass…… then lists a range of cuts…..then moves onto discussing poverty.”
Actually it moved onto a discussion of the implications of the legislation that Labor is opposing which in my opinion is far more important than the changes they passed (though I do have concerns about government doctors reviewing DSP).
This is not an attack on Labor but if I was writing about asylum seeker policy it would be. I don’t care about political parties, I care about truth and decency. I love my children dearly but that does not make them immune from criticism or expecting them to do better. Political parties can expect the same from me.