“It seems the Coalition Government doesn’t understand the meaning of ‘shared sacrifice’ – the notion that if the Federal Budget is on an unsustainable footing, then expenditure cuts and/or tax increases should be spread across the community in order to share the pain and restore Budget balance. Yesterday, Coalition Social Services minister, Kevin Andrews, flagged that the Government was planning to cut-back welfare benefits for the unemployed and disabled via changes to the NewStart and Disability Support Pensions – reforms that would adversely affect the poorest members of the community. This follows cuts to Aboriginal legal services, as well as revoking promised pay-rises to childcare and aged care workers – both among the lowest paid in the community. At the same time, the Coalition has ruled-out any changes to the Aged Pension and retirement system, despite this being one of the biggest and fastest growing areas of Budget expenditure and retirees receiving generous welfare support, in part due to an ineffective means testing system that allows wealthy retirees to receive taxpayer assistance”.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 03:19:53 +0000