The Politics Thread

[Mububban]

Who is losing 3-4000 a year? How do they arrive at that figure? What actually is it?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-1...g-says/5463008

benefits.jpg

[MegaWatty]

So apparently the bottom 20% of the population is going to be hit the hardest and the wealthiest 20% will be hardly affected, some even being better off. So much for Hockey's claim that the population will "share the burden."



Getting parents back to work is fine, but what happens to the kids the parent was at home looking after? I haven't heard anything in the budget about increasing affordable childcare places, so how are people going to afford to pay for childcare so they can go back to work? Grandma and grandpa will still be working till 70 so forget them as babysitters.

That's 20 years away for Grandma and Grandpa and it's only 3 years more anyway because in case you didn't realise, the Labor Party lifted the age of retirement to 67 in the 2009 budget.

[MegaWatty]

This could cause problems too:

I would have no issues paying $7 to have my children immunised. It's 7 ****ing dollars, FFS. I pay more than that for kids Panadol!

[coalesce]

Dumb pom question: On co-payments, don't you guys have to pay to go to the doctor already anyway? Then you get some percentage but not all of it back?

[AndyP]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-1...g-says/5463008

Attachment 30627

Who are all these crazy people having two kids 7 years apart?

[MegaWatty]

http://m.theage.com.au/comment/uppin...515-zrd7b.html

The young should not have to fund the retirement of an older, pampered generation.

Note who wrote the article...

[PeteyD]

What are the benefits listed there? I'd like to see a more comprehensive list to see just what it is that is being removed, particularly from the low income ones.

We are not too far from the bottom one, kids are 11 and 13, and as far as I know we get no benefits, let alone the 10k claimed in that graphic.

[goughy]

I wonder if they came up with the horror budget then will negotiate stuff back to where they truly want it to be, and try and make it look like they can be swayed.

[PeteyD]

That is most likely the case. They know they will have to give ground to get some measures through, although a lot depends on Clive.

[simmsy]

People have to understand if you have children you are responsible for them. Stop thinking the government should make it free!
$7 friggin dollars to stop your child potentially getting all sorts of horror diseases and you're bitching about it!
Give me a ****ing break.

Why should someone who has not been able to have children or chose not to have children pay for children to be vaccinated?

[MegaWatty]

People have to understand if you have children you are responsible for them. Stop thinking the government should make it free!
$7 friggin dollars to stop your child potentially getting all sorts of horror diseases and you're bitching about it!
Give me a ****ing break.

Why should someone who has not been able to have children or chose not to have children pay for children to be vaccinated?

Welcome back old mate.

[simmsy]

I keep forgetting. So old.

[PeteyD]

Vaccination is preventative medicine that is for the good of everyone. It protects those that are imuno-compromised, the elderly, younger children etc. I have no issue at all with the government funding vaccination for all.

[simmsy]

But we should not be crying about $7 to protect our kids.
How much crap does everyone waste on meaningless crap to stop their kids from whinging?

[Bruce]

The $7 is a price signal to make sure you go when you need to and not when you don't. Apparently the 4-6 times on average we go to the doctor (not 11 as is being claimed) is too much for the system to handle and so they impose this cost to deter you from going.

Immunisation is such a clear benefit I would be paying people to get it done. Hand out Happy Meal vouchers or similar things to folks who get things done on schedule. $20 of prevention seems like a good investment to me. How much does an iron lung cost over a lifetime if we let polio come back? (To use an extreme example)

[PeteyD]

Nah. There seems to be this expectation that the government will give us lots of money for doing nothing, but that we get to pay less and less tax. We pay to go the GP at the moment, don't see a great change for us along those lines.

There is also the mentality that the rich should pay more. They already do, and they get none of these benefits that are being removed from middle income earners. Benefits that make the net tax paid 0 or even +ve in their favour.

[Marto65]

But we should not be crying about $7 to protect our kids.
How much crap does everyone waste on meaningless crap to stop their kids from whinging?

Like a Kinder Surprise?

[Marto65]

Nah. There seems to be this expectation that the government will give us lots of money for doing nothing, but that we get to pay less and less tax. We pay to go the GP at the moment, don't see a great change for us along those lines.

There is also the mentality that the rich should pay more. They already do, and they get none of these benefits that are being removed from middle income earners. Benefits that make the net tax paid 0 or even +ve in their favour.

You're spot on there PeteyD.

Make the rich pay more ... make it not worthwhile taking the risks to try to earn more ... take away all incentive to run businesses and employ people ... and then you'll find more people on the benefits roundabout.

[simmsy]

God I hate the kinder surprise!!


Always get the shitty toy.

[Ashes]

No, his clapped out 15+ year old Falcon was still running last time I saw him. Where the hell do you live if your GP drives a Porsche?

My GP drives a Range Rover Vogue and has a big home in Mosman Park overlooking the river.

[simmsy]

Well with your immune system I'm not surprised.

[Daves]

I recently went to our Doctor to get a Flu Shot. The charge was $12 (plus the Medicare card gets swiped). In the consultation the Doc did nothing other than write out the practice's form for the injection, and then sent me to the Infirmary. The Nurse prepared the shot but didn't administer it, she told me that the Doctors get a bonus ($6.50 I think she said) for administering the injection. Not sure from where the bonus is paid, it may purely be a practice thing? But I was bemused that the Doc actually got her hands "dirty", she is usually a lazy so and so. By the way she drives a Beemer.

[Mububban]

This should go into the Gold Standard Book of Politicians Saying Insulting Things:

Joe Hockey has told Australians to stop worrying about a new GP fee because it’s cheaper than a pack of cigarettes.
“One of the things that quite astounds me is some people are screaming about the $7 co-payment,” the Treasurer told ABC Radio this morning.
“One packet of cigarettes cost $22. That gives you three visits to the doctor,” he claimed.
But that wasn’t Mr Hockey’s only comparison.
“You can spend just over $3 on a middy of beer, so that’s two middies of beer to go to the doctor.
“Let’s have some perspective about the costs of taking care of our health,” he argued.
“Is a parent really going to deny their sick child a visit to the doctor which would be the equivalent payment of a couple of beers or one-third of a packet of cigarettes?”

[Mububban]

I would have no issues paying $7 to have my children immunised. It's 7 ****ing dollars, FFS. I pay more than that for kids Panadol!

Vaccination is such an important community health program, I'm surprised they didn't give it an exemption. They need to make it as easy and hassle-free as possible and not have any impediments at all.

[Marto65]

This should go into the Gold Standard Book of Politicians Saying Insulting Things:

Quite frankly, I dont see anything wrong with the truth he expelled on this occasion.

Next you'll be upset that he was dancing with his kid .... or having a cigar ...