This is an unfair budget that attacks the most vulnerable people in our community, says the federal member for Macarthur, Labor’s Dr Mike Freelander.
His Labor colleague in neighbouring Werriwa, Anne Stanley, agrees: “This federal budget pretends to be fair, but hits just as hard as previous budgets and continues to give the big end of town an easy ride.’’
Both local MPs have a long list of faults with the budget presented by treasurer Scott Morrison last night in federal parliament.
Dr Freelander’s hit list includes:
another delay in reversing Medicare cuts putting bulk billing at risk;
• The energy supplement will be abolished leaving pensioners up to $366 a year worse off;
• Students will be forced to pay more for university and pay their HECS back earlier;
• The only solution to housing affordability is to get young people to dig into their super giving investors an enormous advantage by not changing negative gearing;
• People receiving welfare payments are being victimised and humiliated with freezes on payments and random drug testing. Stopping payments to those with addictions will lead to wide spread harm and unintended consequences;
• The failure to guarantee rail to the second Sydney airport on opening is disgraceful
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“This is not a budget that will fix the unfairness of the last four years,” Dr Freelander said[/social_quote]
Ms Stanley’s take on the budget is that it’s “long on talk but short on practical support for struggling residents in South Westn Sydney’’.
“While handing down tax cuts of $16,400 for high income earners, penalty rate cuts starting on July 2 will also see workers in Werriwa lose $77 on average at the weekend,’’ Ms Stanley said.
“The Turnbull Government continues to preside over an appalling loss of apprenticeships, with 130,000 apprenticeships already missing since 2013 and no plan to stem this tide.
“They have said that they will target multinational tax avoidance, but its effectiveness will be questionable with no detail on how much will be recouped.’’
Ms Stanley said the budget contains no relief for struggling Medicare users, with the Medicare freeze remaining in place for at least another 12 months, with specialists and diagnostic services also remaining frozen for another three years.
Centrelink wait times are set to get even worse, with the slashing of 1,188 jobs from the Department of Human Services in the coming year.
“The government’s housing affordability measures are a long way from the lofty platitudes of the last few months,’’ Ms Stanley said.
“The measures in the budget merely tinker at the edges and do nothing to put first home buyers back onto a level playing field with investors, or take the heat out of the housing market.’’
