The Abbott Government’s decision to stick by $80 billion in cuts to already cash-strapped hospitals and schools will hurt struggling inner west families.
Last night’s budget revealed that the sick, students, and families will continue to wear the brunt of the Abbott Government’s cuts.
Despite last year’s failed attempts to introduce $100,000 university degrees, the Coalition is set in their view that students should be saddled with a lifetime of debt.
In a further blow to higher education, last night’s budget also revealed that funding for undergraduate student places will be cut by 20 per cent.
This will cost universities around $3 billion over the current forward estimates.
The inner west is home to a great number of students, many living out of home and struggling to get by on what they can.
We need to look at ways to make education accessible for all students, not create more obstacles.
On Mothers’ Day, Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey announced cuts to Paid Parental Leave, describing 80,000 mothers around the nation as “double dippers”.
We know the valuable contribution mothers make each day in our community.
Labor will oppose the cuts to Paid Parental Leave.
Labor’s scheme was designed so that Paid Parental Leave could be topped up by employers who wanted to add to the government’s scheme.
This is not double dipping and the Coalition is leaving mothers in the lurch.
Families in the inner west will also lose out under proposed changes that will see them cut off Family Tax Benefit B when their youngest child turns six.
The Coalition remains committed to freezing Family Tax Benefit rates, eroding the value of these payments.
As a result of last year’s Budget, a single income family on $65,000 a year will be as much as $6,000 a year worse off.
Tony Abbott also wants to abolish the Large Family Supplement.
This is all while abolishing the Low Income Supplement, and reducing the portability of Family Tax Benefit Part A.
Tony Abbott’s rhetoric on families may have changed but his cuts to family payments haven’t.
The Coalition has once again shown how short-sighted and out of touch they are with this unfair budget.