Media release
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Aoife Champion, Labor Candidate for Hume said “The Turnbull Government continued to show its true colours last night in a budget that was more of the same; favouring the rich above the rest in a bid that would put King John to shame. This budget was about re-election and nothing to do with sustaining or growing a future, healthcare, hospitals or jobs in Hume.”
Duty Senator for Hume Deborah O’Neill said “the Turnbull Government’s Budget was a blatant election sweetener that can’t hide the bitter pill of cuts to schools, hospitals and denying tax relief for average-wage earners.”
Despite announcing cynical band-aid school funding and tax relief for the 20 per cent of workers who earn more than $80,000 a year, the Liberal-National Coalition will still:
- walk away from the Gonski needs-based funding reforms;
- cut $56 billion from hospitals over 10 years;
- cut pathology bulk billing for tests and X-rays;
- cut Labor’s $1000 per child free dental program.
“For the vast majority of people in Hume this Budget is a prescription of what you don’t get, not what you do,” Aoife Champion said.
“Hume workers are once again presented with a Federal Government who spends inadequately on health care and winds back spending on teaching their kids, then puts the boot in further by giving tax breaks to people who can better afford to go without them.”
School cuts to stay
Aoife Champion said “The Turnbull Government gives with one hand, then takes with the other hand, foot, and other foot as well. Mr Turnbull hatched a plan to wash his hands of public school funding and shift it to the states, while still giving hand-outs to private schools, with which his electorate is replete.”
The Turnbull Government has washed its hands of education. The $1.2 billion the Liberals put back into schools in this Budget is $29 billion shy of the $30 billion it ripped out of the system in 2014 cutting years five and six of Gonski.
Before the election the Coalition promised to match Labor’s education spending “dollar for dollar”. But it broke that promise passing on cuts to schools in Hume – and its 29,785 students – of $163 million.
“This budget doesn’t fix that broken promise,” Senator O’Neill said. “Mr Turnbull has confirmed that a vote for the Liberals is a vote to cut schools funding.”
Hospitals still waiting
The Abbott-Turnbull Government’s $17.7 billion cuts to NSW’s health system coupled with the removal of the bulk billing rebate for pathology and imaging services will hit hard in regions such as Hume.
Aoife Champion said “It is essentially a Medicare co-payment by stealth where you won’t pay in the front door of the GP but you’ll pay at the back if the doctor determines you need a blood test, pregnancy blood test, pap-smear, x-ray, MRI, etc. And the $650 million cut to health means prescriptions will rise by $5.”
The Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association’s President Dr Christian Wriedt has gone as far as declaring Mr Turnbull’s shock Budget decision last December to cease pathology rebates as worse than Tony Abbott’s failed $7 GP Tax.
Senator O’Neill said the bulk billing cuts mean regional centres with higher unemployment will be hardest hit. “Unaffordable testing means delays in diagnosis for the people of the south west and regional NSW,” Senator O’Neill said. “With cancer we know a delay can be a death sentence.”
“Labor is deeply concerned by reports these cuts could force women to pay more for crucial preventive health checks such as pap smears that are essential for detecting life-threatening conditions such as cervical cancer.”
Senator O’Neill said the $2.9 billion in hospital funding the Turnbull Government intends to carve up among the states is a band-aid solution designed to get it through the election campaign.
It has dumped Labor’s Child Dental Benefits Scheme, which has already helped a million kids access badly needed dental care, many of whom had never been able to afford to see a dentist.
The Australian Dental Association has denounced the Turnbull Government’s plans as “a smoke and mirrors” trick, while the National Oral Health Alliance points out the scheme amounts to a massive cut for those who need it most.
Senator O’Neill said “When they have to fork out for blood tests and X-rays or join a long waiting list for the kids to have their tonsils out or to see a dentist, they will know it wasn’t the case before the Abbott-Turnbull Government came to power.”
Aoife Champion said “Australia enjoys one of the best publicly funded health systems in the world, but clearly the Coalition want to Americanise it. This is the thin end of the wedge. Was it ironic or was it foretelling that John Grisham’s Rainmaker graced our free to air last night as the budget was handed down in Canberra? This budget utterly lacks any comprehension of the health or economic benefits of preventive health. We must always rise above a system that believes the credit card carries more weight than the Medicare card.”
Cost of living
Unfortunately, the majority of people living in the south west and regional NSW will also miss out on the tax relief package for people earning more than $80,000, simply because most of them earn less than $80,000. Three out of four Australians will get nothing.
Coupled with cuts to Family Tax Benefits and Paid Parental Leave there is no relief in sight for struggling Hume families. In fact this budget ensures that a typical family earning $60,000 will now start receiving about $5000 less in support per year. That is to be contrasted with someone earning $300,000 a year who will now get a tax break of $2600 a year.
“These measures hit countless families in Hume with small children like my own. If they’re going to treat us like this is Sherwood Forest then we need a Robin Hood, and Mr Shorten fits the bill.” Aoife Champion said.
“The electorate won’t be played for fools: they know how much money they get on payday and how far that pay packet goes,” Senator O’Neill said.