Wednesday 13 May 2015
Who is to blame for Abbott Government 2015-16 Budget?
“The budget belongs to no individual minister, it belongs to all of us but it particularly belongs to all the members of the Expenditure Review Committee.”
CHAIR: Prime Minister Tony Abbott (Liberal Party Leader)
DEPUTY CHAIR: Treasurer Joe Hockey (Liberal Party MP)
MEMBERS:
Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss (National Party Leader)
Minister for Social Services Scott Morrison (Liberal Party MP)
Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann (Liberal Party MP)
Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (Liberal Party MP)
Make no mistake, the contents of the Abbott Government 2015-16 Budget Papers are heavily influence by the worldview of Tony Abbott.
He would not have been able to resist the urge to dominate and override his ministers, as his frequent 'captain's picks' demonstrate.
Labels:
Abbott economics,
Abbott Government
The Australian general public overwhelming rejected a national medical records database but the Abbott Government is still insisting on gathering every piece of medical data on citizens that is available
On 10 May 2015 the Australian Minister for Health Sussan Ley freely admitted that two years and ten months after the federal government’s national database of personally controlled health records (PCEHR) opened for business as eHealth less-than one-in-ten Australians have decided to opt-in to this scheme.
Less than one-in-ten appears to indicate that an estimated 18 million adults have decided to not hand over their own medical records and those of their children to a federal government agency.
The Abbott Government’s response, to what can only be seen as an overwhelming rejection by both the general public and GPs, is to insist that all citizens now be mandatorily included in this national database which will allegedly have a new opt-out provision.
The reason given for this move to add every citizen to a re-worked national database is a recommendation contained in an ‘independent’ six-week review of eHealth by a three person panel ordered by then Minister for Health Peter Dutton in November 2013.
This recommendation by Messrs. Royle (Australian Private Hospitals Association), Hambleton (Australian Medical Association) & Walduck (Australia Post) was for an opt-out model to be implemented by 1 January 2015 as there was little meaningful use of the existing opt-in eHealth database.
A brief background of the evolution of this national database on North Coast Voices:
Friday, 17 April 2009 So you want to look through my medical records?
Wednesday, 10 June 2009 Federal Labor and Health Minister Roxon crossing a bridge too far
Thursday, 13 August 2009 Hoyden Laurelhed quite rightly expresses disquiet over Federal Government progression of a national e-health data base
Sunday, 24 January 2010 Australian Health Minister Nicola Roxon is not telling the truth about the Medicare e-card
Thursday, 28 January 2010 e-Health: something's rotten in the State of Kevin
Sunday, 7 March 2010 And these are the people Rudd & Co intend to trust with access to a national database containing all your sensitive personal information?
Monday, 15 March 2010 Who's guarding the guards guarding your personal information?
Wednesday, 9 March 2011 Felling unwell? Take two aspirin and stay away from NSW hospitals
Thursday, 14 April 2011 PCEHR opt-in provision expected to allay privacy concerns. Pull the other one!
Tuesday, 13 December 2011 So you thought the Gillard Government had promised you would control your own e-Health database information?
Tuesday, 7 February 2012 eHealth – when “We told you so” gives no satisfaction
Wednesday, 7 November 2012 e-Health: join at your own risk
Tuesday, 6 May 2014 e-Health PCEHR platform: what is the Abbott Government trying to hide?
Tuesday 12 May 2015
Tony Abbott's latest budget pork pie
Excuse me?
Every single one of these people receiving a part aged pension will continue to do so – it will just not be in the form of cash into their bank accounts.
Under Abbott’s sleight-of-hand the announced changes will lose them the small fortnightly cash transfers some currently receive, but they will all retain the highly financially lucrative seniors health card – a benefit worth thousands of dollars a year to the average retiree.
If you want proof of this just look at the paltry savings the Abbott Government is supposedly garnering from the this measure – a total of est. $177.7 million each year over the next four years.
An estimated 91,000 of those independent retirees (some of them millionaires) who structured their post-retirement assets, tax-free superannuation lump sums and income streams to allow themselves a regular federal government welfare payment and/or benefit, will lose their Centrelink cash transfer, but retain the right to bulk-billed medical services, heavily subsidised pharmaceuticals, subsidised public transport travel, telephone account concessions and, energy supplements etc via retention of the seniors health card.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Treasurer Joe Hockey, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and the rest of their far-fight rabble must think Australian voters are fools if they expect them to swallow this politically convenient stop-gap measure aimed at neatly sidestepping the need for superannuation tax status reform.
Treasurer Joe Hockey spinning so hard he loses all memory of his own past media releases
It has become increasingly difficult to take this Australian Treasurer seriously.
He treats the economy as his political plaything.
Joe Hockey on Tuesday 4 December 2012
Joe Hockey on Tuesday 5 May 2015
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