The budget has been handed down and the salesmen have hit the road peddling their plan. The only trouble is they don’t seem to know what they are selling.
Tony Abbott told Melbourne radio listeners an average person would only have to pay the $7 GP fee ten times and then they would be bulk billed.
In fact the government has put no limit on the number of times an ordinary worker will pay the $7 charge, however, there is a ten visit safety net just for pensioners and children.
The Australian Medical Association accused Treasurer Joe Hockey of also getting it wrong when he says the chronically ill won’t be hit by the $7 GP fee. AMA spokesman Dr Brian Morton said “He either doesn’t understand or is misusing the statistic or is lying.”
LNP backbencher Steve Ciobo also told ABC radio listeners ‘if they have a chronic disease they are exempt from making the co-payment”.
While it is true that Medicare’s chronic disease management item will be exempt from the $7 GP fee, this is only for one doctor’s visit a year where the GP plans the patient’s care for their chronic illnesses. All further visits, treatments and tests will attract the co-payment.
A spokeswoman for Mr Hockey said yesterday “his comments stand”.
When asked whether the government would be introducing new chronic disease treatment items exempt from the $7 charge she said “the legislation was still being drafted…I can’t give any detail”.
So even though the details haven’t been finalised, this woman is sure Hockey is right even though his own budget papers and the AMA say otherwise. These people don’t like criticism and truth is irrelevant. Look what happens when Andrew Robb tried to tell the truth after a previous budget reply – his staffer nearly had apoplexy trying to shut him up.
And then we have the debacle over the deregulation of uni fees.
Mr Abbott told ABC radio that only students who start studying in 2016 would face potentially higher fees when universities can charge what they like. But the budget papers clearly state that anyone who enrols after May 14 will face deregulated fees in 2016. Only those who were already studying on budget day would continue to have their fees capped – and only if they finish their studies by 2020.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne reiterated this in a separate ABC radio interview after Mr Abbott’s comments. A mother asked him whether her daughter, already at university, would have to pay more.
“If that student stays in the course that she’s doing, she’ll continue under the rules that she started. If she changes course, then quite rightly she will face the new measures.”
A spokesman for Mr Pyne said the prime minister “may not have been as clear as he could have been”.
National Union of Students president Deanna Taylor wasn’t surprised by the confusion at high levels.
“I don’t think the government really put a great deal of thought into their policy,” she told AAP, saying it appeared to be very ideologically driven. “They’re trying to make us sound like spoiled little brats who don’t know how good we’ve got it. They have a very clear agenda,” she said.
Christopher Pyne is still selling his cuts to education as an increase in funding. Alan Jones, while interviewing him on Wednesday, was astounded that despite the education minister’s “brilliant” advocacy skills the “blockheads” running state governments could not understand that the allegation of an $80bn cut was totally wrong. In fact, Jones said, “there hasn’t been a more monstrous lie perpetrated since Julia Gillard said there’d be no carbon tax”.
Pyne somehow neglected to refer Jones to page 7 of the government’s glossy budget overview which clearly states that the government is changing indexation of state grants and “removing funding guarantees for public hospitals. These measures will achieve cumulative savings of over $80bn by 20024-25.”
David Gonski made an impassioned plea last night for the government to reconsider education funding from 2017.
Even the IPA are sick of the lies saying the party which was elected promising to reduce the size of government and reduce taxes, will preside over large expenditure growth and is hiking, not axing, tax. The following is an excerpt from Chris Berg’s article about the budget.
“For all the fire and brimstone that accompanied last week’s commentary on the budget, the bottom line is simple: under the Coalition, government spending is going up, not down.
This is the long-term significance of Joe Hockey’s first budget.
A modest 1.7 per cent real reduction in expenditure next financial year will be more than offset by 0.4 per cent growth the year after, 2.1 per cent growth the year after that, and 2.6 per cent growth in the 2017-18 financial year (the end of the Treasury’s forward projections).
And tax? Well, while this year the government will collect $363 billion, by 2017-18 it plans to collect $467 billion. That’s a jump in the tax take from 23 per cent of GDP to 24.9 per cent.
The most controversial policies (like the “learn or earn” welfare changes, the increase in the pension age, and the university reforms) sound like classic austerity measures but in truth don’t alter the fiscal equation all that much. They’re social reforms being smuggled in under the cover of a budgetary crisis.
And most of the big spending cuts to health and education have been punted far into the future – beyond the next election, and many out past the Treasury’s forward estimates.
The budget is also full of policies that superficially look like aggressive cost reductions but are in fact new spending.
For instance, the $7 GP co-payment is, astonishingly, being poured into a huge new medical research fund. It will apparently be the biggest in the world.
This is a bizarre decision. The policy case for a co-payment is that introducing price signals will give patients a financial stake in their healthcare choices. But using that money to fund an entirely new government program makes the $7 charge look less like a co-payment and more like a research tax.
Likewise, the reindexation of the fuel excise isn’t to fix the budget emergency, but for new road projects. This is so Tony Abbott can live up to his self-applied “infrastructure prime minister” nickname.
Abbott said in August, 2013 that “the only party which is going to increase taxes after the election is the Labor Party”. It’s worrying the Coalition now pretends no such commitment was made.
In opposition Coalition spruikers said Abbott offered two things: the integrity Julia Gillard lacked, and the fiscal discipline Kevin Rudd lacked. After this budget, what’s left?
Abbott is no Gough Whitlam-of-the-right. He has no plan to redefine the relationship between state and citizen, despite his stirring oratory from opposition.
Nor, contrary to Joe Hockey’s assertions, has the age of entitlement come to an end. The paid parental leave scheme puts a lie to that little fantasy.
Governments think election to election. But Australia’s fiscal problem is measured in decades, not electoral cycles.”
It is hard to know whether the government just didn’t read their own document or whether they are deliberately trying to mislead us. A quick look at the Prime Minister’s page suggests the latter.
“Over six years, Labor ran up a $667 billion debt on the nation’s credit card. Every single month this debt is costing us a billion dollars just to cover the interest bill.”
His own budget papers show this to be a lie.
Total CGS on issue as at May 8 2014 $319 billion.
Net debt in 2014‑15 is estimated to be $226.4 billion.
Net interest expense in 2013-14 $10.952 billion
As an employer, I expect my staff to know what they are talking about and they are required to undergo ongoing education to keep up with current developments. If they tried to sell products they knew nothing about, or lied to customers to make a sale, they would be receiving their notice.
Tony, I am hereby providing you with notice. Should you choose to leave before your period of notice expires, the nation will be eternally grateful.
With the deregulation of UNI fees, isn’t it reassuring to learn that the poor have been taken care of: Tony’s poor daughter has received a scholarship worth $60,000.00.
i cannot wait for this incompetent mob to start turning on each other!
No I would not.
Alan Jones has never been one to let the truth get in the way of an interview or a public toilet.
Somebody is going to have to be honest about the $7.00 Medicare co-payment – $5 of which will go into a research fund and $2.00 as a commission to GP’s for collecting it.
Peter Dutton, who appears periodically in the guise of our Health Minister, seems to think that some patients are over using the system but rather that discuss this with the AMA and encourage some factual feedback, he believes that the $7 charge will discourage this alleged over use ; he offers no evidence to support his theories and allegations.
Initially we were being told that the co-payment was required to supplement the Medicare coffers but that argument appears to have been dropped in favour of the research fund.
This is classical government red-tape forcing doctors to collect the money which some have said is, in fact, a GST on medical services : sounds about right.
If the Abbott government are serious about the sustainability of Medicare they should increase the Medicare levy – why worry about another broken promise – and leave questions of over servicing for GP’s to resolve.
In the meantime, let’s have some honesty in this discussion.
“No way Tony Abbott can now budget for a second term”
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/no-way-tony-abbott-can-now-budget-for-a-second-term-20140521-zrjie.html#ixzz32Om1wPfZ
There is the truth….
“This tells us that were 116 more DSP recipients in December last year than there were in December 2011. One hundred and sixteen people. Over the same two-year period, the Australian population (aged 15-64) rose by 431 000 people. Put the numbers together, and you find that the proportion of people aged 15-64 who were on DSP was 5.4% in December 2013, down from 5.5% two years earlier. I, for one, think that decline in the proportion of the working-age population receiving DSP is more informative and meaningful than the slight increase in the number of people receiving the payment, just as I think comparing the 20% unemployment rate of 1932 with today’s 6% tells you more than comparing the number of unemployed people in the two periods.
The proportion of the working-age population on DSP has risen only by a little over the past decade or so. When you take into account population ageing, it’s been more or less steady, remaining below its 2002 level in 2012. The latest Intergenerational Report projects that we’ll spend around 0.1% of GDP more on DSP in 2049-50 than we did in 2009-10.
There is no crisis of sustainability in our disability support system.”
http://mattcowgill.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/dsp-reform-a-solution-in-search-of-a-problem/
and then there is the Telegraph
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/nsw-disability-support-pensioners-now-outnumber-australias-total-war-wounded-by-more-than-44000/story-fni0xqrc-1226926318057
Listened to Steve Ciobo this morning as he reported (supposed) feedback from his electorate. Irony, here, there and everywhere. Particularly liked to story of one constituent who claimed to pay his taxes and sent his children to private schools BUT claimed he did not get a single dollar from government.
The sad part was that the interviewer let it pass without comment.
Good to know that the “adults” are so clever they don’t even need to read their own propaganda. Oh, hang on, actually they don’t really want to know the truth about anything because when you tell a different lie to each audience the truth becomes an inconvenience, because you’ve got to remember what it is and where you left it and that would just make life sooo confusing.
Jonathan Green is really cool:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-22/green-real-politics-snuffed-in-the-wink-of-an-eye/5469588
Like it with a passion.
Still astounded, though, about the lack of reportage on the situation of the thousands like me: age pensioner, no other income, no assets, living in assisted housing that takes 25% of my pension every fortnight. If all the fiendish cuts relevant to me go through, it will be as follows:
Age Pension – $1,532.00 monthly
Clean Energy Supplement – $27.80 monthly
Pensions Supplement – $125.70 monthly
Rent Assistance – $116.40 monthly
TOTAL: $1,802.00 monthly (based on two payments per month)
N.B.: My rental is charged on 25% pension/rent assistance – $412.10 monthly (plus 25% any bank interest)
Mr Rabbit’s intentions:
(a) Government drops Supplement
(b) Government adds $5 to every script: I have 3½ every month – $17.50 extra monthly
(c) Government adds $7 to my seeing my GP: let’s say once – $7.00 extra monthly
$1,802.00 less $125.70 = $1,676.30
$1,676.30 less $17.50 less $7.00 = $1,651.80
This ‘budget’ will take $150 a month from every age pensioner – and that’s a CONSERVATIVE estimate.
My rental will remain at $412.10 monthly (plus percentage any bank interest)
I will have left $1,239.70 a month, or around $44 a day.
Out of this comes gas (going up by a truly huge amount in July), electricity (already appallingly expensive and without doubt to be increased further), ISP, ‘phone, mobile, food, and occasional bills I simply can’t bear to try to call to mind.
Are we not worth talking about, then ? Imnsho, forget the co-payment in terms of pensioners: talk about the loss of the Supplement, at least !!!
heard hock boar is quite wealthy…..good for him but I feel he has never been in the real world of Australia therefore has no idea what so ever how the working class has kept and helped him …free uni…..to get where he is egotistical fat pig….or fat cat….both apply….WHAT ABOUT THE HOMELESS…..I have seen and been involved with these poor individuals…..and not all are dole bludgers….some are people who have come upon hard times…..and there is to be more……young people trying to keep their homes in the climate he and that despicable abbott are now going to create……..bill shorten SPEAK LOUDER…..we the decent are behind you!!!!!!!
And if you want to know what Abbott thinks about Hockey’s “Fudge-it”… “Said the Abbott to the “Smokin'” Joe.” 😉 Just posted 😀
Cheers 😀
Snake oil is what they are selling
“I don’t think the government really put a great deal of thought into their policy,” she told AAP, saying it appeared to be very ideologically driven.
Ya think? I don’t the government put a great deal of thought into any of their policies.
Seems lying is Ok with Australia, called the balance product apparently. NASA says climate change consequences is 97%.
http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus
Balance™, all about increasing click bate potential. Nothing else.
To the top directly? Lies are no balance. Compulsive lying is a serious mental illness. A national focus on our major mental health industry fail is much in need I think.
No, I wouldn’t buy a used car off this man. And I’m definitely not buying his budget.
M-R, as an age pensioner you qualify for a 10 visit safety net.
Of course I wouldn’t buy a used car from this man! The damn thing would probably have no brakes and always pull to the right!!
Does he offer 10 serfs to push the car around as part of the deal?
I haven’t read the article yet, but I got Osmosis. Only yesterday I was comparing Abbott to a used car salesman.
And about 3 weeks ago, I called Hockey, ‘Smokin Joe’ in a comment or two before Hockey was snapped with a stoogie in his mouth.
I wonder if he smokes anything heavier? and I’m not sure whether that thought was triggered by osmosis.
I have a chronic DIS EASE… it’s call tonyabottitis.
“Big business has never been so directly influential with government and senses that it might be a winner which takes all on environmental matters,” he said.
“The difficulty is compounded by an extraordinary fact – that the four business leaders who have been given the most senior advisory roles to the current Commonwealth government share a strong view that the science is wrong on the most important of the environmental issues under current discussion – climate change.”
Garnaut did not name the business leaders, but was obviously referring to Dick Warburton, heading an inquiry into the renewable energy target; David Murray, in charge of the financial system inquiry; Maurice Newman, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council, and Tony Shepherd, who headed the Commission of Audit.
“We can expect trench warfare over development projects, delays, increases in the supply price of investment and damage to all relevant interests until is brought to an end,” Garnaut said.
this phase of Australian management of the interface between the environment and the resource sector
http://theconversation.com/business-environment-conflict-now-intense-garnaut-says-26988
Here’s to bringing “this phase of Australian management of the interface between the environment and the resource sector” to an end. 🙂
M-R,
Keep an eye out for the pensioner
bribesbonuses so popular with the Howard government to take your mind off the evil gubbermint just before elections 😉“Creation is not a property, which we can rule over at will; or, even less, is the property of only a few: Creation is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we care for it and we use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude,” Francis said.
Francis also said that humanity’s destruction of the planet is a sinful act, likening it to self-idolatry.
“But when we exploit Creation we destroy the sign of God’s love for us, in destroying Creation we are saying to God: ‘I don’t like it! This is not good!’ ‘So what do you like?’ ‘I like myself!’ – Here, this is sin! Do you see?”
The pope’s comments come on the heels of a five-day summit on sustainability convened at the Vatican earlier this month. The summit, entitled “Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature, Our Responsibility,” drew together microbiologists, legal scholars, economists, philosophers, astronomers, and other experts to discuss ways for the Catholic church to address a range issues caused by climate change. In a joint statement published after the close of the conference, participants echoed Francis’ belief that environmental justice and economic justice are inextricably linked.
“Human action which is not respectful of nature becomes a boomerang for human beings that creates inequality and extends what Pope Francis has termed ‘the globalization of indifference’ and the ‘economy of exclusion’ (Evangelii Gaudium), which themselves endanger solidarity with present and future generations,” the statement read.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/21/3440075/pope-francis-if-we-destroy-creation-creation-will-destroy-us/
@Lee: this I’ve missed. Where should I be finding out more, please ?
@Bacchus: I say to everyone on my blog who asks (most aren’t Aussies) that that’s exactly what’s going to happen. But I somehow doubt it will be the pensioners, as by then we will have been scraping the bottoms of our barrels for 2½ years, and foaming non-stop at the mouth about the lying bastard. He must know the oldies are the least likely to forgive and forget; so it’ll be another group that’s targeted.
This must be total crap or why did Gillard not shoot the rabbott down in the 2013 budget when he was raving about the debt? Even now the crisis is real because little billy cannot come up with simple figures to show it is just a disingenuous plan to fool those who believe in opus dei, read murdoch papers, bolt or listen jones and watch ch9.
But amoral is as immoral can be.
M-R, it’s near the top of this article.
“In fact the government has put no limit on the number of times an ordinary worker will pay the $7 charge, however, there is a ten visit safety net just for pensioners and children.”
That will make a difference of $14 a year to the $1,651.80 that M-R has to live on each month, or an extra 4c a day. Go treat yourself.
But as I understand it, that means the co-payment CUTS OUT AFTER 10 visits, not the other way ’round …
Um but the GST only applies to the ingredients of the cake. Ok which ingredients and how will it effect the price of the cake. Is this Abbott and co s John Hewson moment trying to explain what they don’t understand
Billy moir
Absolute drivel!
Pity it did not include well qualified experts such as the Bolter and George Pell. Those two would’ve sorted out those ‘other experts’ in double quick time.
[the co-payment CUTS OUT AFTER 10 visits]
I wonder how the hell that will be administered. Different doctors, doctors systems would need reprogramming, would need integration between doctors and other providers such as the blood analysis companies, X-Rayers etc.
Do the GPs still get there $2 admin share regardless.
You’d need a smart Health Card to go with it. Wonder what that will cost.
Without a Health card you’d have to claim it back afterwards. Stand in line for a half hour to claim your $5-7
M-R……… you live on more than me!
“Disability pensioners pan tabloid tactic”
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2014/s4009683.htm
Doug Cameron gives his view about the Telegraph and the budget
This mongrel lot of IPA Office boys were a rabble and couldn’t agree on anything in their policy vacuum before being elected and have only got worse since. They are now they are taking Australia into a demented Plutocracy.
Double dissolution, ASAP!
Kaye Lee, another nail on head moment, thank you. At this rate perhaps Tony will build his own coffin. Thanks to you Kaye and the all the others above, providing links to “everyone needs to read” stuff. You are liberating our lost souls.
“Without a Health card you’d have to claim it back afterwards. Stand in line for a half hour to claim your $5-7”
Or provide your bank account details to Medicare and you won’t have to stand in line. My Medicare rebate is always back on my Visa card before the original payment comes off.
“That will make a difference of $14 a year to the $1,651.80 that M-R has to live on each month, or an extra 4c a day. Go treat yourself.”
I’m assuming M-R’s estimate of 1 visit per month is based on his current chronic health problems. Some people average more visits than that, and then there is the unexpected illness or injury that may necessitate further visits.
Thanks Lee, its been so long since I’ve claimed. I tend to choose Bulk Billers whenever possible.
Seem to remember some “creep” saying that the “adults” would be in charge and there would be no policy on the run. Just try and decipher the 2014-2015 budget and explain no policy on the run. Come-on guys give us a break – the right hand does not have a clue what the left hand is up to! What a mob of losers run by the biggest loser of all time. I reckon people like John Howard, John Hewson et al, must just squirm at the creep running the show now. The WORST Prime Minister??? of all time, supported by the worst treasurer, amd all the way down the line. Bishops(2), Truss, Andrews, Morriscum, Turnbull et al. do not forget Prissy Pyne et el. What a prize mob of half-wits and morons. Nothing more to say!
Kaye Lee:
Why aren’t Labor shouting this from the rooftops???!??!?!!?
There was no real reason for such a brutal and unfair budget. There is NO BUDGET EMERGENCY. Australia isn’t at risk of financial collapse.
Why is Labor letting Abbott and Hockey spread lies about the state of our economy? Why is Shorten letting this government add another tale of Labor financial mismanagement to LNP folklore? Why isn’t Labor drawing attention to the TRUE state of the economy? Why is the basis of this budget going unchallenged?.
It’s easy for Shorten to grumble along with the unhappy taxpayer…. it’s nice to show some empathy for the public. It’s touching to demand justice for the battlers … but it is also a short-term distraction. It’s dangerous. Abbott, Hockey and their boosters are already playing the martyr card. They are… apparently… risking their political future trying to do the right thing for Australia. They are…. apparently… willing to sacrifice votes in an attempt to fix Labor’s “debt and deficit disaster.” How DARE we belittle their efforts!!!!
Labor MUST go on the attack. Either expose this budget as being based on distortions… or risk adding a chapter to the LNP fable that Labor cannot be trusted to run an economy.
Kaye Lee:
“Governments think election to election. But Australia’s fiscal problem is measured in decades…”
“Why aren’t Labor shouting this from the rooftops???!??!?!!?”
Because Labor does it too. I work in state government. Every government, Labor and Liberal, only looks ahead 3 years for most of its planning. I shudder to think how much money is wasted by this approach. Every few years we have a complete turnaround of what we do and then a few years later change it back again. Many of us at the coalface are fed up with it.
Emmo’s on the job!
More here:
https://www.facebook.com/drcraigemerson?fref=nf
Things getting interesting in the US. This whole right wing drive for oligopoly is starting to come to pieces. Bit over the top however a good dose of paranoia and fear would not hurt.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/why-american-conservatives-are-suddenly-freaking-out-about-guillotines
http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-right-wingers-are-amping-their-war-science-and-reality
Bacchus:
The trip into loopy land just continues. They have lost all sense of constraint and propriety wink, smoke, dance, no lie, no tax, well maybe a tax – and they think their treatment of Julia is not going to come back to bite them in the ankles. Every day I become more gobsmacked at their delusional elitist sense of self righteousness while pissing off nearly everyone in the country.
Too late to step back and too dangerous to step forwards. Only those who are truly inept would find themselves in such no-exit circumstances.
And it only took them twelve months. They are more stupid than many of us thought. So much for benefit of the doubt.
Today there is no doubt they are certainly psychologically challenged and intellectually inept. They have no idea what is in their own budget and continually have to be corrected. Dumb is as dumb does.
The mask is off the smugglers around the ankles as embarrassment turns cheeks red at both ends.
Mars8:
You got it. Hands to ear with no more than a few random shouts. Time to yell lying hypocrites fellas.
Common Labor the facts are out there the the arrow ready because the truth is undeniable.
Unfortunately Labor didn’t help itself by choosing to play by Abbott’s “all deficit is baaad” rules. That was never going to end well.
And they are still playing by Abbott’s rules by not challenging the necessity for such a harsh budget.
So the Prime Minister winked like a leering adolescent, does that suddenly derail a coldly calculated fiscal strategy? Or does it just distract us from what has true substance?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-22/green-real-politics-snuffed-in-the-wink-of-an-eye/5469588
I thought the adults were in charge.
It goes to show the character of the man. If Abbott was genuine to the concerns of a pensioner, he would have shown compassion regardless of what her profession was or whoever she voted for.
This granny, to make ends meet had to resort to phone sex, she wasn’t proud of it, she was highlighting her predicament of trying to work to supplement her pension.
Instead she was derided with a wink and a smirk.
As a business, when you employ someone you usually put them on a period of probation, to see if they are suitable and up to the task.
Well Tony, your probation period is over and we’re afraid things just aren’t working out. It’s time for you to go.
It has been an interesting time for everyone, but we’ve decided we would rather employ someone who doesn’t tell lies all the time and bad-mouth previous employees, someone who doesn’t try to sell-off company property to his mates, someone who doesn’t just take lollies form the charity box without paying for them, someone who doesn’t make grandiose promises and deliberately renege on them, and we’d certainly prefer someone who doesn’t insist on charging all his expenses and those of his mates and family, on the company credit card.
Here’s a cardboard box to collect your stuff. We’ll be deducting the money you owe us from your final payout. No, we won’t be offering you a reference – consider yourself lucky we’re not pursuing sexual harassment, fraud, theft and corruption charges against you.
Security will wait and escort you from the building to make sure you don’t try to steal any more company property.
it is apparent that members of the current government have absolutely no concept of speaking the truth under any circumstances. Every comment is a blatant attempt to spin the story to their advantage. Odious and vile behaviours by equally odious and vile people.
Confusion, delusion, lying both in fact and omission. How are the voters of Australia supposed to know what the Government is actually doing, or going to do, when they can’t make it plain themselves?
Just watched video of Gillard’s slap down of Abbott.
One thing Gillard was pretty spot on was,and the voting public did not give weight to, that she accused Abbott of DOUBLE STANDARDS.
There was a prima facie case to prosecute Abbott for lies and deceit and yet we gave them the trust of office.
Like trusting a fox in the chook pen.