By CAROLINE STRAINIG
THE 2014 Federal Budget has been handed down, with many cost-cutting measures which will impact on the country as a whole.
The budget has understandably been slammed by many sectors of the community, although nationally there is support for the government’s claim that was needed to put the country on a better footing for the long term.
For the Port Macquarie region, which is a major retirement area, one of the downsides is that aged pensioners will be hit with slower growth in their pension payments and tightened eligibility tests.
Treasurer Joe Hockey says the moves are necessary to ensure the government can “make pensions sustainable and affordable for decades to come”.
From September 2017, the aged pension will be indexed against inflation twice a year rather than growing in line with average male weekly earnings as they currently are.
But on the positive side the government has not adopted a recommendation by the Commission of Audit to include the family home in asset tests.
The pension age will also go up to 70 by 2015. The government will pay subsidies of up to $10,000 to businesses which employ workers over 50 who are receiving some form of entitlement.
Fuel excise will also go up, making petrol in Port Macquarie – already much more expensive than most areas in Australia – even more costly.
Greens candidate for Oxley Carol Vernon described the budget as one of “broken promises and harsh attacks on the young, the sick, pensioners and the vulnerable”.
“This is a heartless budget implemented by those committed to a failed, conservative ‘trickle down’ economic ideology,” she said.
“On the Mid North Coast our affordable housing crisis will be made much worse because of cuts to the Rental Affordability Scheme of $235 million.
“Unemployment will rise, as, Australia wide, 16,500 public servants lose their jobs. This must impact on services that support our most vulnerable.
“Jobs are scarce on the Mid North Coast, and if the under-thirties can’t find employment they must survive on no unemployment benefits for six months, then exist with six months of ‘work for the dole’. This cycle will continue until the age of 30.
“How can the homeless, the unemployed and the ill engage in the alternative of our more costly education services?”
Ms Vernon said across the Mid North Coast, hospitals and schools would suffer from cuts to health and education, a total of $80 billion dollars by 2024/25, as would the many pensioners on the Mid North Coast because pensions would no longer be indexed to wages.
“The pension will gradually fall below what is required to keep pensioners above the ‘poverty line’,” she said.
Ms Vernon predicted charities would be overwhelmed by the demand for aid from people unable to survive.
The Hastings branch of Climate Change Australia was equally negative, but a lot more concise: “For everyone who wants a safe climate and clean energy for Australia there is only one positive from last night’s budget – increasing the fuel excise,” president Harry Creamer said. “Every other measure is a negative and some.”
Mayor Peter Besseling has his say on what the budget will mean for council in Inside Council on page 7.
What the politicians say
FEDERAL Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker and Federal Lyne MP David Gillespie said the budget would deliver increased investments in the Pacific Highway and local roads.
“This budget will ensure the continuation of the current $4 billion schedule of Pacific Highway works. It also includes more money for local roads through additional investments in the Roads 2 Recovery and Black Spots programs,” they said in a joint statement.
Mr Hartsuyker said all Australians would contribute to repairing the budget.
“At the election, the Coalition made the solemn promise to get the budget back under control, as well as scrap the carbon tax, end the waste, stop the boats and build the roads of the 21st century. This budget keeps that pledge,” Mr Hartsuyker said.
“The budget is part of the Abbott/Truss Government’s Economic Action Strategy to build a strong, prosperous economy for a safe, secure Australia.”
