____
Gold Member
Offline
Australian Politics
Posts: 33410
Australia
Gender: 
|
$1 trillion for the military
The media called it a bland budget. Big business is extremely disappointed with the budget and the Coalition’s record. As far as it is concerned the Coalition have had almost three years to carry out a major overhaul of the role of government and how it raises income and spending priorities. The Coalition has failed dismally in the eyes of many members of the Business Council of Australia* (BCA).
It was not for lack of policy. After all, the BCA drew up an economic and social blueprint for the Coalition. As soon as the Abbott government came to office it commissioned a National Commission of Audit. Former BCA CEO Bruce Shepherd was its chair.
The BCA’s chief economist and director of policy, Peter Crone, led the Commission’s Secretariat. As a former adviser to the Howard and Victorian Kennett governments, Crone had impeccable neo-liberal credentials for the job. (See Guardian, “Abbott’s audit: By big business, For big business”, #1616, 30-10-2013)
Corporate blueprint
The Audit report spelled out a clear neo-liberal agenda, as dictated by global capital, for privatisation of government, deregulation, competition policy, dismantling the social security system and a takeover of the state by big business. The model is similar to the British conservative government’s Big Society.
The Abbott/Hockey government publicly supported most of its recommendations.
These recommendations included:
aged pension to be set at 28 percent of average weekly earnings (amounting to a real reduction)
tougher means test for aged pension to include part or full value of home in the assets
slower roll out of National Disability Insurance Scheme
co-payments for Medicare with abolition of bulk billing
means testing Medicare
those on incomes above the threshold required to take out private health insurance for medical coverage
deregulation of private health insurance premiums
higher threshold for Medicare safety net
price rises for medications on Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
Family Tax Benefit Part B abolished with a new supplement paid to sole parent families who lose this benefit
a single means tested child care assistance system
cuts to eligibility for carer payments and carer allowance
minimum wage to be set by states and reduced
funding cuts for higher education
repayment of student loans cut in at minimum wage at higher interest rates
funding cuts to foreign aid program
funding cuts to Indigenous programs
funding cuts to ABC and SBS
abolition and mergers of government departments and agencies such as of Border Control Australia by merging the Department of Immigration and Australian Customs
privatisation of government services and entities including Snowy Hydro, , Australia Post, and Defence Housing
review of GST rate (increase in GST)
single parenting payments be reduced from a maximum of 25% of Male Total Weekly Earnings to 25% of Average Weekly Earnings (a reduction of 16.6%)
abolition of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation
abolition of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency
increase in military spending to two percent of GDP.
The Audit’s only reference to “climate” was to abolish the Climate Change Authority! The only reference to “environment” was to the “fiscal environment”! In Treasurer Scott Morrison’s 2016-17 budget speech these two words don’t even rate a mention, not even a token reference.
Horror budget
The 2014-15 horror budget which contributed to the downfall of Prime Minster Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey contained most of these measures or slight variations of them. The few that didn’t appear have been the subject of rumours and the usual denials.
It was, as the Guardian said at the time, a budget “By big business, For big business”, with a massive program of cuts to spending on health, education, social security payments, public sector workforce and other areas of benefit to people. All of this to fund corporate tax cuts and tax cuts for the rich.
The changes to Medicare are in train. The proposed $7, and later $5 co-payment, is being introduced by stealth with what will amount to a six year freeze on rebates paid to bulk-billing doctors.
The cuts to family tax benefits are also waiting in the wings having been blocked by the Senate.
The attempt to deregulate university fees is stalled in the Senate. The Abbott/Hockey $26 billion budget cut to schools were not mentioned. They remain on the agenda but thinly covered up by a $1.2 billion “increase” over three years, with strings attached.
Likewise, the Abbott/Hockey $54 billion cut to public hospital funding has been buried from view by a $2.9 billion “increase” to funding. Again these cuts have not gone away.
Hockey came up with some of his own cuts, in addition to those designed by the BCA. One of the cruellest of these sought to deny young people access to unemployment benefits for six months, followed by an obligatory six months of “work for the dole.”
Fortunately, this and some of the others failed to pass through the Senate.
The GST reared its ugly head but when the opinion polls pointed to its unpopularity, was removed from the table. It now waits hidden under the table until after the elections.
Workers’ nightmare, bosses’ dream
Regardless of who wins the elections, a few months down the track Moodys and the other private ratings agencies will also rear their ugly heads.
They will point to the budget deficit, now almost twice the size of Labor’s “tsunami” deficit of 2013-14. There will be t
|
Forum
Pages: 1 
