This is part of what Australian Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott and Deputy Prime
Minister-elect Warren Truss promised
to enact, once they formed federal government along with those Liberal and
National Party members elected to Parliament on 7 September 2013:
■ Lower the tax-free threshold from $18,200 to $6,000. This will increase
taxes for an est. 6 million Australians earning less than $80,000 per annum and
see many retirees and low income earners having to pay tax.
■
Abolish the low-income superannuation contribution. This will see the reinstatement of 15 per cent tax on superannuation contributions for people earning less than $37,000 per annum and result in an est. 3.6 million workers who earn less than $37,000 paying over $4 billion extra in tax on their superannuation
over the next four years.
■ Introduce a paid parental leave scheme that
replaces a mother's salary up to $75,000 for six months leave, paying for much of this $5.5 billion
scheme with an est. $4.8 billion of tax revenue garnered primarily from the
incomes of ordinary workers rather than with employer or industry contributions.
■ Remove franking credits associated
with the 1.5% paid parental scheme levy on business earnings of $5 million or
more. Resulting in shareholders with lower tax
thresholds or superannuants on tax concessions missing out on tax refunds.
■ Abolish the means-tested Schoolkids Bonus received by an est.1.3 million families providing up to $410 for each primary
school child and up to $820 for each high school child.
■ Abolish the means-tested Lower Income Support
Bonus for low income households, including those in low paying/part time
employment, independent retirees, old age pensioners, war widows, and single
parents.
■ Introduce a $2 billion Direct Action Plan which is predicted to fail to meet the 5 per cent greenhouse gas emissions target due to significant underfunding and, therefore will waste the tax revenue assigned to this plan.
■ Cut 12,000 public service jobs across the
country, which is likely to result in a decrease in service delivery to regional communities.
■ Require major mobile phone carriers and regional
communities to stump up over $100 million to build the towers to eliminate
blackspots. Which will almost inevitably result in higher phone charges for the average
consumer.
■ Alter the National Broadband Network rollout so that Internet users have to pay to have fibre optic cable connected to their home or business before they can access the markedly reduced download/upload speeds now on offer under this new plan.
■ Cutting $42 million from legal aid services.
■ No new federal funding for the Pacific Highway Upgrade until after the next federal election in 2016 and, Australia-wide the cancellation of one bridge and five rail projects.
I ask all those reading this post, who voted for a Liberal or
Nationals candidate, to take a short drive around your neighbourhood and wander
about your shopping centre. Most of the people you see will be affected to
some degree by these plans of Messrs. Abbott and Truss.
So don’t be surprised if in six months time (when these
measures start to affect weekly budgets) you are told the following to your face:
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