The inner-west’s most vulnerable residents will be the hardest hit by the federal government’s “unfair” budget, according to social service providers.
Local MPs have also slammed measures such as a $7 payment for GP visits, but Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called the budget “another big step forward in strengthening our economy”.
The government has scrapped Labor’s ‘Gonski’ school funding as part of $80 billion cuts to education and hospitals, while raising the pension age to 70 by 2035.
There will be a six-month wait for under-30s signing on for the dole. They will be cut off again after their first six months. At least 16,500 full-time jobs will be slashed from the public service, and $2 billion will be cut from environmental programs.
Mr Abbott said the government was honouring a promise to “end waste” and build the infrastructure of the 21st century. “By sharing the load, we lighten the load,” he said.
But in his budget reply last Thursday, Opposition Leader and Maribyrnong MP Bill Shorten said millions of Australians were “shocked by the brutality of this government’s attack on their way of life”.
“This is just the beginning, turning Australia into a place most of us won’t recognise – a colder, meaner, narrower place,” he said.
Gellibrand Labor MP Tim Watts accused the government of delivering a “budget of broken promises” that would hurt pensioners and families already struggling to make ends meet.
“Tony Abbott’s budget means families will pay every time they see the doctor and pay more every time they fill up the family car,” he said.
Victorian Council of Social Service chief executive Emma King said budget cuts would overwhelmingly hit the poorest the hardest.
“This budget will entrench disadvantage and threatens to consign a generation of young people to lives of poverty and vulnerability.”
Western Metropolitan Greens MP Colleen Hartland labelled the $7 GP fee “a vicious attack on public healthcare”.
Cohealth’s transitional chief executive Lyn Morgain said the GP fee and other cuts would increase poverty and ultimately cost Australia far more in the long run.
“I can’t think of a government anywhere in the world that thinks reducing what you spend on health is a good idea,” she said. “You don’t want … those who most need the care become the least likely to receive it because of the cost.”
Gellibrand Labor MP Tim Watts accused the government of delivering a “budget of broken promises” that would hurt pensioners and families already struggling to make ends meet.
Australian Local Government Association president Felicity-ann Lewis said councils would lose $925 million in financial assistance grants over the next four years, impacting on local infrastructure and community services.This includes $3 billion for East West Link stages 1 and 2 but no funding for the planned $8.5-$11 billion Melbourne Rail Link project.
