Category: General news

Wow. The response to our alternative Budget proposal has been overwhelming. A phenomenal 750 GetUp members just signed up to make a recurring donation to support fair policy alternatives to Mr Abbott’s austerity Budget.

That’s an incredible show of support for a whole new way for GetUp members to create change — proactively putting forward our own policy package instead of waiting for the major parties. And it’s a powerful response to those in the right-wing media saying that Australians can’t handle “reform”.

Now that we have all that ongoing support, all we need is an immediate injection of funds to jump-start the project. We’re talking to policy experts right now to determine how many fair policies we can research and release before the next Budget. Can you make a one-time donation today to support a fairer Budget?

Yes, I can chip in.

Let’s show the Government that “reform” means asking polluters and tax dodgers to pay their fair share, not putting the burden on the sick, seniors, young people and families – for more details, read the original email below!

Thank you for all your support,
Mark, Lily, Nat, Georgina and Evan, for the GetUp team

Dear NEVILLE,

Ultraconservative News Limited columnist Janet Albrechtsen has the explanation for the Abbott Government’s disastrous unpopularity: Australians’ “extraordinary selfishness”.¹

Treasurer Joe Hockey launched into the “selfish” attack this week too.² In fact, all over the right-wing media, we’re getting attacked for the failure of Abbott’s Budget — treating us like children who can’t handle “reform”. Why? Because we stood firm against cuts that unfairly targeted pensioners, students, the sick, young jobseekers and families.

Now’s our chance to show them all that not only can we handle reform, we can lead it. And we’re even willing to selflessly pitch in to fund a truly fair Budget agenda — proving just what everyday Australians can do, when we all work together.

We’re working with respected think tanks to commission modelling for a game-changing policy report — with up to 10 fair policy alternatives to counter Mr Abbott’s austerity measures. We need to raise immediate funds to jump-start the research, before moving onto a public media campaign to put our progressive vision before Australians. And to get out ahead of Mr Abbott’s next Budget, we have to start now.

Click here to show the right-wing ideologues your commitment to creating a better, fairer Budget, by starting a recurring donation as a GetUp Core Member today.

If we don’t make the case to raise government revenue in the fairest way possible, we’ll always be on the back foot, fighting cuts to everyday Australians, from $100k university degrees to GP copayments that undermine our universal health system. It’s only a question of when and by how much we’ll lose.

So with the Abbott Government’s austerity Budget in shambles, and their next Budget looming, now’s the moment to break the conservative policy cycle and get on the front foot with our own progressive vision.

We’ve got a strategy to fight back against the Abbott Government’s taxpayer funded megaphone. That’s to act early – get our policy alternatives out with expert voices on social and traditional media, targeted to marginal electorates with the compelling messages that resonate best. That means strong research, backed by polling to show our leaders what’s popular, and strategic ad buys to get the message out.

To achieve all that we need to start immediately by funding the critical research that starts it all. Can you help?

Yes, I can chip in today: https://www.getup.org.au/fair-budget-now

Mr Abbott’s thrown down the gauntlet over his Budget, telling Parliament: “If you don’t like what we’re doing come up with your alternative.”³

In our conversations with key crossbench senators and other progressive organisations, everybody’s hungry for real, costed policy alternatives to throw back at Abbott’s challenge. Here’s just a few of the reforms we’ll be putting on the table:

• Subsidies for polluters. Stripping back billions in fossil fuel subsidies, which perversely reward big business for polluting more.
• Super concessions. Reforming superannuation tax breaks, which go predominantly to higher income earners – estimated to have cost the government $35 billion last financial year alone.⁴
• Super profits tax for banks. Taxing the inflated profits made by the big banks thanks to the higher fees they can charge in an uncompetitive market.
• “The Packer rule”. Preventing the wealthiest people from reducing their tax rate to almost nothing, as Kerry Packer famously did, by capping their use of deductions and tax loopholes.⁵

With this year’s Budget preparations happening right now, we need to get everything ready to launch as quickly as we can.

Chip in today and show Mr Abbott and Murdoch’s right-wing media what real reform looks like.

Thank you for making all this possible,
Mark, Lily, Nat, Georgina and Evan, for the GetUp team

PS – We’ll also be continuing our campaign work to crack down on corporate tax dodging, to make sure Australians get a fair share of profits made in this country. Click here to help keep up the fight.

References:
[1] “We, the people, are the threat to fiscal reform”, The Australian, 18 February 2015.
[2] “Spiralling debt no legacy for your children warns Joe Hockey”, The Australian, 19 February 2015.
[3] “Prime Minister Tony Abbott defends reforms to GP visits”, news[.]com.au, 14 January 2015.
[4] “Guess what – the rich get the breaks”, The Age, 6 August 2014.
[5] “Budget pain? Not for millionaires who pay no tax”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 May 2014.