Tag Archives: Co-payments

The Week That Was – May 25 to May 31

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The Budget Saga continues.

The ALP and the Greens has said that they will allow the ‘deficit levy’ to pass through the senate, but anything else will be rejected – because guess what…they’re unpopular! Government Senators and MPs have admitted that the Budget is sort of hard to sell to their constituents. They seem to say that their electorates are ok with the deficit levy, but nothing else. Also of concern is the fact that certain agencies have been cut or had their funding – including security at Parliament House. Cue Bill Heffernan:

Mathias Cormann says that “This is the budget we had to have” which has reminded the older people in my house of Paul Keating, and there was lots of yelling in Question Time as Parliament resumed.

There has also been concern in Aboriginal communities, where a large number of people are on unemployment benefits. They say that job are hard enough to find, and that both the “earn or learn” and the “work for the dole” programs will make life difficult for Indigenous youth. The Government has said that they will be more lenient on Indigenous communities, but there are also huge funding cuts to Indigenous services.

There was talk that the government was going to use taxpayers’ money to explain the budget, which is a bit of an issue given they said the were cutting funding to a lot of things, but that was quashed by the Prime Minister. There is also concern from within the back benches, with one government MP, Dennis Jensen, asking about science funding – which has become “incoherent”.

But the government has said that they will now negotiate the GP co-payment – begin Politics and Budget Gymnastics 2014.

Still on the budget, there were concerns that the government might chase after HECS debts when you’re dead – Abbott quashed that idea too, which could be putting the Treasurer into a difficult position.

Clive Palmer showed up to parliament in his own (chauffeured) car, saying he didn’t need Commonwealth car (com car) and that it’s a waste of the taxpayers’ money. He also said that he wouldn’t be making any decisions until he had more information about the Budget. He was seen having dinner with Malcolm Turnbull and Treasury officials – which lead to Joe Hockey (who has had gastric sleeve surgery) making fat jokes. Not a good look.

A report into the riot on Manus Island, run by Robert Cornall, came out this week and it does suggest that there were warning signs that a riot was possible. The report says that a Salvation Army staffer from PNG was the most likely person to have killed Reza Berati, the asylum seeker killed in the riots. It says that G4S, the security company knew there were issues. However, while it appears the Papua New Guinean Government’s report is similar to the Cornall Report, the PNG police are accusing them of a cover-up. They say they never entered the centre and that G4S didn’t co-operate with their investigation, and neither did the Australian Government.

The Greens are very concerned, and have called for Scott Morrison’s resignation – though that probably won’t happen.

South Australia had some pretty cool political drama this week, with former Liberal leader Mark Hamilton-Smith defecting to support the Jay Weatherill’s Labor government. He will become and Independent Liberal, and a minister in Weatherill’s cabinet, as Minister for Trade, Investment, Veteran’s Affairs and Defence Industries. The SA Liberal are angry and are calling it a betrayal, and some in his electorate are unimpressed because they voted Liberal, not Independent or Labor.

Finally this week, as the Thai coup continues, the Australian government is stepping down relations with the Thai Army, there were protests against the budget and changes to Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, Tim Mathieson (Julia Gillard’s partner) dissed Margie Abbott, and Joe Hockey circa 1987:

Quote of the Week

“Some people do drugs at university, I did the Young Liberals” – Nick Xenophon’s standard reply when people bring up his membership of the Young Liberals in his university days.

Tweets of the Week

Christopher Pyne also supports chasing after your HECS debt when you’re dead…

https://twitter.com/DeptOfAustralia/status/471807846900723712

And there was talk that the ABC and SBS could be merged…so here’s what people came up with…

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Malcolm Fraser warns against the combining of ABC and SBS – Canberra Times

We don’t need to change section 18C to have free speech, because we already have it – A Tony Abbott version of Pharrell’s Happy.

The Week That Was – May 18 to May 24

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Well, this week saw further dissent on the budget with protests across the country…and it wasn’t just the young angry ones

The Premiers and Chief Ministers of states and territories had an emergency meeting – called by Campbell Newman – to discuss the budget changes and they will not be taking them lying down – although the WA Premier, Colin Barnett, didn’t show up. They were asked if they were going to ask for a raise in the GST, which to some might seem like a good idea, but Newman said that they were not going to. I can see why though. The Federal Government hasn’t raised the GST in years, and by cutting state funding, the states will then ask for a raise in the GST….making the State governments look bad, and not the federal government. The states will not accept the budget or the budget cuts, and said that Tony Abbott is wrong about when the effects of the Budget will begin to show.

Tony Abbott said the voters were ‘on notice’ about the budget and that the Coalition was upfront, but funnily enough, most people don’t see it that way – including some government backbenchers. The government needs to sell the budget to not only the people of Australia, but independents and small parties in both houses, especially in the Senate, where the Greens and the Palmer United Party hold the balance of power – and Clive Palmer actually seems to be genuinely concerned about the budget, and how it affects the average Australian.

In fact, this budget is the most unpopular in 20 years, and Abbott, as well as the Coalition, have taken a huge hit in the polls. Abbott says the budget was meant to get the country’s finances back on track, not for popularity, and that if the country is borrowing money to pay off other borrowed money, were kind of stuffed – how that was relevant, I have no idea, but it was said. Tony Abbott says that the polls are the least of the governments worries right now, and that the Labor party are being “fiscal vandals”.

Although, if you’re a university student you probably think the “fiscal vandals” are the government. Again this week there were student protests in Sydney, both on Wednesday at an organised protest in the city, and on Thursday outside a debating contest being held at St John’s College, where several key Liberal figures were moderating or attending. Not only that, but when Universities Australia asked the government to reconsider the timeframe for implementing funding changes to universities, Pyne refused. He doesn’t think students will be burdened by costs, and moreover, it appears that there is now confusion over who pays what when the changes get through.

However, the responses from Abbott and Pyne were unfair and unjust. To suggest that these university students “were looking for a rumble” or “wanted to get a riot on national TV” is rude and unfair. They were not looking for a riot or a rumble, but looking to get their voices heard, and given that the government is not listening, but making snide remarks, they are going to continue protesting until they are heard, no matter how long it takes.

Ok, I’ll stop being opinionated now – sorry.

Anyway, doctors are now more concerned about the $7 co-payment. It turns out that people are already avoiding seeing the doctor because they think the co-payment is already in force, to the point where surgeries have been sending texts to their clients reminding them that is not the case – and hey, $5 of the co-payment goes to the government, and only $2 to the GP. Not only that but statistics show that a lot of women in violent and abusive relationships often tell their GPs what is going on before telling anyone else, and there are cuts to Legal Aid and housing/shelters – two other important things that help women in abusive relationships. However, it appears that some doctors are considering waiving the co-payment for these women so that they can get help.

Also this week, Australia moved closer to sending asylum seekers to Cambodia. It seems that the only things left to be done are to finish negotiations and sign the piece of paper.

And now to this week’s gaffe:

Yep, he winked – and it made international headlines.

Oh and he used an interesting analogy to explain the budget crisis too.

Finally, I thought I’d let you know that this is the 100th post on Kara L. Thanks for reading and following.

Tweet of the Week

Oh, the weather has been lovely in Sydney this week…

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

How #winkgate was covered around the world – ABC Online

The less important, yet interesting, #whitehousegate – New Matilda

A collection of collated social media reactions to the budget – Buzzfeed

The March in May protests on the budget…witty signs galore – Buzzfeed