You're the only Richard Cranium around here - correction: you're a standout.
If you followed the signals you would know that Abbott is not planning cuts to the pension in the near future, nor in health or education. He may be planning more efficient spending, for which he deserves support & praise.
Joe Hockey is warning Australians to brace themselves for a new era in which government services they have taken for granted will require a co-payment or be means-tested or provided by the private sector.
In a speech ahead of next week’s release of the commission of audit’s 86 recommendations for reining in government expenditure, the treasurer has made it clear that the $40bn a year the government spends on the aged pension is squarely in the budget razor gang’s sights.
The government has already flagged raising the pension age, over time, to 70, but in the speech to the Spectator magazine in Sydney on Wednesday night, Hockey signalled the changes might be broader, possibly targeting the large number of people on part-pensions or receiving government health concession cards.
“The $40bn we spend on income support through the age pension is much more than we spend on defence, or hospitals or schools each year. It is our single biggest spending program,” he said, pointing out that between 2010 and 2050 the number of people age 65 to 84 is expected to quadruple.
And the vast majority of over-65s receive some form of government payment.
“Of Australians over the age of 65, four out of five receive a full or part pension. If we also take into account the concessionary health card, then only 14% of older Australians receive no government payments,” Hockey said.
“And the pharmaceutical benefits scheme is the tenth largest category of spending. Nearly 80% of the scheme’s expenditure is attributable to concessional recipients.”
The seniors health card is available to pensioner couples with an income $80,000 a year or singles with an income of $50,000 but has no assets test.
But prime minister Tony Abbott is also insisting that the government will keep its election promises, one of which was “no changes to pensions”.
“We will keep our commitments, because the point I keep making, if there is one thing that we learnt from the fate of the former government,
you cannot say one thing before an election and do the opposite immediately afterwards
,” Abbott said when asked about mooted budget cuts Wednesday.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/23/joe-hockey-issues-new-warning-of-ra...