Do these guys have any idea what they’re talking about? Abbott’s ministers struggle with Federal Budget 2014
SOME of Tony Abbott’s ministers should sit down and have a read of the Budget because they’re struggling with the facts.
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IF YOU are still confused by the Budget’s detail, you’re not alone. Government ministers are also struggling with some aspects, and it’s their Budget.
HEALTH
1. Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Melbourne radio listeners an average person would only have to pay the $7 GP fee 10 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 10-visit safety net just for pensioners and children.
Mr Abbott’s office later corrected: “The safety net of 10 visits applies to concession card holders and people aged under 16.”
2. Treasurer Joe Hockey told a victim of a chronic disease: “You wouldn’t be hit by the so-called Medicare co-payment. You wouldn’t be affected ... because you’d be on a care plan with your doctor. Obviously you’ve got a number of chronic diseases. In that situation you are not affected by the co-payment.”
The Australian Medical Association corrected this, saying Medicare’s chronic disease management item will be exempt from the $7 GP fee, but the exemption would only apply to the one doctor visit a year where a GP plans a patient’s care for their chronic illnesses.
Every other visit a chronically-ill patient makes to the GP, or medical test that is ordered, would be hit by a $7 GP fee.
EDUCATION
3. Education Minister Christopher Pyne said he’s not ideologically opposed to demanding outstanding HECS payments from the estates of deceased former students.
Treasurer Joe Hockey said that it would be policy: “If you owe money to the government or you owe money to the bank that debt is applied to your estate if you pass away, but it doesn’t go to your parents or your siblings or anything else.”
Prime Minister Tony Abbott then had to correct his ministers: “This government is not going to change the existing rules, and the existing rules in respect of university debt ... is that they cease on decease.”
4. Education Minister Christopher Pyne said changes to interest rates on HECS debts won’t affect existing students: “Anybody who was enrolled before May 14, nothing will change in term of their arrangements.”
The Department of Education website says from June 2016, the rate at which all higher education loans, including existing ones, will be changed. They could go as high as six per cent.
WELFARE
5. Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews says the pension supplement — $1635 a year to singles and $2464 a year to couples — would continue to be paid and would increase again in September.
The “seniors supplement” will be abolished on September 20. It is attached to the Seniors Health card for self-funded retirees will cost couples $1320 a year.
6. Kevin Andrews also flagged the possibility of drug testing of those on unemployment benefits. He declared: “We won’t rule this in or out.”
Soon after Prime Minister Tony Abbott rules it out: “It’s not something that we’re planning. Simple as that.”
Mr Andrews then joins in ruling it out: “Well, I don’t think we’re going to go down that track.” And: “It’s not something on my agenda.”
Originally published as Do these guys have any idea what they’re talking about? Abbott’s ministers struggle with Federal Budget 2014
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