What you should know about the Budget SAM GET UP

Last year it was ‘The Age of Entitlement’. This year they’re calling it ‘Responsible, Measured and Fair’.

They may have a different slogan, but this year’s budget papers tell the same story: The Abbott Government is continuing its attack on the fair go.

Whether it’s giving mums a massive cut to paid parental leave on Mother’s Day, or pushing ahead with $80 billion in cuts to our schools and hospitals, we know this leopard isn’t changing its spots.

For a quick review of this year’s Federal Budget, and three reforms that should have been included, watch this video straight from Parliament House last night.

While there’s still a big fight to win back the future of the fair go, this new Budget also shows what GetUp members and our allies have won by fighting together over the last 12 months:

• GP Co-payment: “Dead, buried and cremated.”¹
• Cuts to indexation of the pension: Gone.
• University deregulation: Still stalled in the Senate.
• Young jobseekers forced to wait 6 months for Newstart: Clawed back to 4 weeks.

Unfortunately, we have new attacks on Australian families, with cuts to Paid Parental Leave for 80,000 families, along with the old attack on benefits for 700,000 families with children over 6.² And some of the worst measures are still with us: $30 billion in cuts to schools, which dims the future for our students, and $50 billion in cuts to our hospitals, which puts the health of ageing Australians at risk.³

But we know now that if we fight for a better budget, and a brighter future for Australia, we can win. Check out this video to see how: https://www.getup.org.au/brighterbudget

Thanks for all that you do,
Sam, for the GetUp team.

PS – Recently, our Prime Minister threw down the gauntlet when he said, “… to all of the critics: if you don’t like what we’re doing come up with your alternative.”⁴ GetUp members responded: funding a report from The Australia Institute, which features eight fully-costed alternative policies that would raise revenue fairly, without hurting low income earners. Click here to be a part of this groundbreaking campaign.

References:
[1] “GP co-payment fee is ‘dead, buried and cremated’: Tony Abbott”, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 March 2015.
[2] “Federal budget 2015: Almost 50 per cent of mums to lose government paid parental leave entitlements”, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 May 2015.
Community Affairs Senate Committee, Report on Social Services 2014 Budget Measures, page 52.
[3] “Don’t shed a tear for the states: Joe Hockey confirms school, hospital cuts”, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 May 2015.
[4] “Prime Minister Tony Abbott defends reforms to GP visits”, news.com.au, 14 January 2015.

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Our team acknowledges that we meet and work on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We wish to pay respect to their Elders – past, present and future – and acknowledge the important role all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within Australia and the GetUp community.

Authorised by Sam Mclean, Level 14, 338 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000.