A hole in the “safety net”
The Government’s decision to hack a hole into its Medicare “safety net” comes as no surprise, despite Tony Abbott’s “absolutely rock-solid, ironclad commitment” to maintain it in its previous form.
John Howard said today that “at the time of the last election we did not believe that it was going to blow out quite to the extent that we believe that it is now,” but that’s just rubbish. Anyone who paid the slightest attention to the policy could see that it was poorly targetted and unsustainable.
During the election campaign, this blog said over and over again that the “safety net” was an expensive joke that shovelled money into leafy Liberal electorates.
But who’s going to be hurt most by the threshold changes? Who’s going to fund this upper class welfare?
The poorest Australians, that’s who.
Update: Michelle Grattan’s column is incisive:
John Howard has treated the voters with total disdain in hacking into the safety net. He has absolutely no excuse for breaking an election promise that was repeated over and over, and formed a central part of his campaign. … [P]erhaps [Peter Costello] and the PM think that punters who believe politicians can be taken for mugs. And, on the latest evidence, perhaps they can.”
Trackback.
I agree that Grattan’s comment is spot on. The rodent seems to think he can get away with anything, particularly at the point in the election cycle.
Hard to imagine voters remembering this deceit (or at least gross incompetence) at the next election.
Dunno, Guy, Keating breaking his promises shortly after the 93 election was the beginning of the end – particularly with the tax rises and spending cuts in the 94 budget.
But The Rodent is so adept at bullshitting, that people believe him unquestionably. Plus he has the benefit of a compliant media ala Big Kerry & Uncle Rupert, and he also has to mention Keating and the Great Unwashed will forgive him and vote the wanker back in :-(
One shouldn’t forget that the electorate specifically (albeit narrowly) gave John Howard the ability to much more easily break these sorts of promises by giving him control of the Senate. If they had not done that, this reversal would probably not be possible, as it would probably not have passed the current Senate.
It is an early sign that Howard is very comfortable that his backbench Senators will not give him any trouble, as any one of them could stop this backflip by saying they will not support the necessary legislation in the Senate (not that I’m expecting any of them to do so).
There are no doubt many reasons why the election delivered the Senate to Howard, but that result does tend to suggest that the majority of the electorate don’t much care about having some form of protection (however flawed) against blatant fibs and breaches of promise.
Trackback replacement:
http://52nd.blogspot.com/2005/04/off-with-their-heads.html
I’d like to say about the Safety Net ” I told you so”. Click on that “again” in your links and see my comments at the time.
I love the new masthead, Rob.
Heaps of orthodontic work here at the Cast Iron Balcony after dentist described what would happen if we didn’t fix daughter’s teeth (think the Simpson’s episode where the dentist sets up a computer sim of what Lisa will look like years down the track)
Bugger, bugger, bugger. I could have had about 3 laptops with WAP and broadband, one to keep just for myself and blog from wherever. Bugger.