Diary of our stinking opposition

[village_person]

Labor frontbencher Andrew Leigh shifts position on previous support for a GP fee

Labor's shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh was once a strong supporter of a compulsory fee for visits to the doctor - a policy now slammed by the opposition as a “GP tax” that would hurt the community’s most vulnerable.

But in a 2003 Sydney Morning Herald article Dr Leigh, then a PhD student in economics at Harvard University, argued a Medicare co-payment was “hardly a radical idea”.

“As health researchers have shown, cost-less medical care means that people go to the doctor even when they don't need to, driving up the cost for all of us," Dr Leigh and co-author Richard Holden wrote.

“But there's a better way of operating a health system, and the change should hardly hurt at all.

“As economists have shown, the ideal model involves a small co-payment - not enough to put a dent in your weekly budget, but enough to make you think twice before you call the doc."

Dr Leigh argued the fee should be enough to deter “frivolous GP visits”, but not enough to limit genuine preventive care. The fee should apply to everyone, including pensioners, except those who are chronically ill, he wrote.

Dr Leigh, who has opposed the proposal in media appearances over recent weeks, told Fairfax Media: "Since 2003, a lot has changed in the health care system, and I've changed my view on co-payments.

 “A GP co-payment was originally a Hawke government proposal led by Brian Howe, a member of the Left faction,” he said.

“As long as it is applied fairly across the community, a co-payment is a perfectly valid policy measure. If Andrew Leigh, before he had to toe the party line, recognised that then I welcome his contribution to the debate. I respect Andrew Leigh as a sensible economist.”

On Saturday, Dr Leigh, a former professor of economics at the Australian National University, distanced himself from an article he wrote in 2004 supporting fee deregulation for universities – another policy opposed by Labor.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labor-frontbencher-andrew-leigh-shifts-positio...

Yes, it’s the very well respected ALP whey-faced Dr Andrew Leigh who virtually declared his previous books and speeches as mere works of fiction. This brings into sharp focus Dr Leigh's economics degree.

[ladydeburg]

It staggers the mind that this topic is all the Labor party and the chattering classes can latch onto because the real topic, the budget, is a good one so they pick on the actual double dipping and actual fraud and defend it.

No clothes.

[debra9275]

I always notice abbott's lies

[alexander*beetle]

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@ladydeburg wrote:

It staggers the mind that this topic is all the Labor party and the chattering classes can latch onto because the real topic, the budget, is a good one so they pick on the actual double dipping and actual fraud and defend it.

No clothes.

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It may well be your opinion and you are perfectly entitled to believe that the budget is a good one but economists etc are declaring that behind the major headline grabbers, there are some real nasties in there receiving little or no publicity and it appears for all intents and purposes to be a pre election budget. Some savings that were declared in the budget have already been shown to be out by hundred of millions of dollars.  

Once again, the maternity leave issue is not double dipping. Many women negotiated the leave into their salaries so they could forgo financial benefits on a weekly basis to be able to have paid maternity leave. They are also entitled to the federal PPL scheme. The PPL scheme developed by labor was developed to work alongside individual PPL contracts negotiated with employers. LNP also voted the policy in with the full knowledge of how it worked. They can't now turn around and accuse people of rorting when they knew all along how it worked. 

In law, fraud is deliberate deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain. 

[icyfroth]

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@debra9275 wrote:
I always notice abbott's lies

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What was actually said:

Treasurer Joe Hockey on Sunday agreed with Channel Nine journalist Laurie Oakes that getting money from both schemes was "basically fraud".

The next day, Social Services Minister Scott Morrison told Sky News that being able to benefit from both schemes was a "rort".

Mr Morrison said: "Well, she will get the balance through the paid parental leave scheme which is provided by the taxpayer.

"She will get the same thing as someone working for the bakery, and that's the important thing here — we are getting rid of what is an inequity and frankly in many cases I think is a rort."

Entire Article Here

 Mr Abbott didn't call anybody anything, so where do you notice a lie?

[debra9275]

 Mr Abbott didn't call anybody anything, so where do you notice a lie?

Budget 2015: Tony Abbott denies Joe Hockey and Scott Morrison called mums 'rorters and fraudsters' over paid parental leave 'double-dipping'

um, that was the lie, I heard him say it  in Paliament as I've also heard these words in relation to mothers and the PPL

"double-dipping" " rorters" ." fraud", numerous times by numerous liberal politicians in numerous interviews

[tezza2844]

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@village_person wrote:

Perpetual undergraduate Tanya Plibersek, also deputy Opposition Leader believes in rorting as long as it suits her views. She wants to go after the big end of town and catch those nasty industry captains who rort the tax system but she won't have a bar of the public servants who rort paid parental leave.

Budget 2015: Tony Abbott denies Joe Hockey and Scott Morrison called mums 'rorters and fraudsters' over paid parental leave 'double-dipping'

Labor has used the first post-budget Question Time to accuse the Federal Government of labelling mothers claiming two lots of paid parental leave as "rorters and fraudsters".

Abbott says Labor claims 'simply false'

Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek seized on the quote in Question Time on Wednesday, asking Prime Minister Tony Abbott whether he agreed mothers benefiting from two schemes were "rorters and fraudsters".

"Claims that have been made by members opposite about statements by ministers in this Government are simply false,"he said.

Tanya Dahling, rorters are rorters no matter which end of town they dwell in.

Shame Tanya Shame.

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Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg have conceded their families benefited from the current paid parental leave system where parents can claim benefits from both their employer and the government.

The government has been under fire for saying receiving two sets of entitlements is "double-dipping" and "a rort" as it moves to prevent families from accessing two schemes.

What a great example our "Government" is setting

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/coalition-ministers-admit-their-fami...

[tezza2844]

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@ladydeburg wrote:

It staggers the mind that this topic is all the Labor party and the chattering classes can latch onto because the real topic, the budget, is a good one so they pick on the actual double dipping and actual fraud and defend it.

No clothes.

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[icyfroth]

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@tezza2844 wrote:

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@village_person wrote:

Perpetual undergraduate Tanya Plibersek, also deputy Opposition Leader believes in rorting as long as it suits her views. She wants to go after the big end of town and catch those nasty industry captains who rort the tax system but she won't have a bar of the public servants who rort paid parental leave.

Budget 2015: Tony Abbott denies Joe Hockey and Scott Morrison called mums 'rorters and fraudsters' over paid parental leave 'double-dipping'

Labor has used the first post-budget Question Time to accuse the Federal Government of labelling mothers claiming two lots of paid parental leave as "rorters and fraudsters".

Abbott says Labor claims 'simply false'

Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek seized on the quote in Question Time on Wednesday, asking Prime Minister Tony Abbott whether he agreed mothers benefiting from two schemes were "rorters and fraudsters".

"Claims that have been made by members opposite about statements by ministers in this Government are simply false,"he said.

Tanya Dahling, rorters are rorters no matter which end of town they dwell in.

Shame Tanya Shame.

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Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg have conceded their families benefited from the current paid parental leave system where parents can claim benefits from both their employer and the government.

The government has been under fire for saying receiving two sets of entitlements is "double-dipping" and "a rort" as it moves to prevent families from accessing two schemes.

What a great example our "Government" is setting

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/coalition-ministers-admit-their-fami...

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Well the buck stops with this budget.

[icyfroth]

IT was smart of Labor to pack the parliament’s public galleries with trusting students, staffers and party members to cheer Bill Shorten’s Budget-in-reply speech on Thursday night — no thinking adult would have succumbed to his specious claims as readily.

When Treasurer Joe Hockey’s Budget was delivered two nights earlier, it was met with healthy scepticism from many — largely because of its extraordinarily optimistic revenue forecasts for the next four years.

Shorten’s promised handouts eclipsed Hockey’s largesse to such an extent that the cheery Liberal’s generous Budget measures now appear to be models of financial rectitude.

Even before Shorten had spoken his unfunded promises were reckoned to leave a $51 billion black hole in the Budget. Before he had sat down, the cost of his giveaways was running at somewhat more than $58 billion.

Shorten’s thought bubbles, conveyed in declamatory tones that might have made the most orotund Shakespearean thespian pause, were as theatrical as his offers of bipartisanship.

Even the ABC’s Leigh Sales was obliged to point out to the opposition leader that Labor had inherited a budget surplus when it took office in 2007, but left a huge debt and rising deficits.

“You do have a credibility problem,” she stated.

Unabashed, Shorten then challenged Sales to “look at our record,” adding “I am really glad that I and the Labor Party pioneered a national disability insurance scheme.”

Had Sales taken up Shorten’s offer she might have pointed out that Labor’s credibility problem went well beyond the NDIS — a bi-partisan program but unfunded by Labor beyond a trial period, leading to a ballooning debt.

Shorten’s speech was crafted to appeal to those who the consumer protection laws are meant to shield with mandatory cooling off periods and guaranteed product returns.

His promise to deliver a 5 per cent tax cut for small businesses should have had a big asterisk beside it and the explanation: only available if the government is prepared to blow out its Budget even more than Labor has already managed to do.

Labor proposed a 25 per cent corporate tax rate which it said could be financed with revenues from its mining tax.

The record shows that there were no revenues from the mining tax. The tax cut would have been unfunded and the Coalition and the Greens were wise not to buy the snake oil.

If Labor wants a bipartisan approach to cutting taxes it will have to come up with a more plausible method of meeting the lost revenue than a dud tax that cost more than it ever raised, and it will have to put forward some modelling to show that there is an outside chance that its measures will deliver a realistic benefit.

Shorten’s promises were delaminating within hours of delivery. His promise to write off the HECS debts for 100,000 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students was initially costed at $353 million, 12 hours later it was costed at $45 million and the 100,000 beneficiaries had shrunk to 20,000 STEM students

Meanwhile, the Education Department conservatively costed the program at more than $2.25 billion.

He wants to put an end to $100,000 university degrees — but there aren’t any.

It was more of the historic Labor bunkum.

Three years ago, when former treasurer Wayne Swan stood to deliver his last Budget in Canberra on May 8, 2012, he began with words which should be permanently etched on tablets mounted on the approaches to Canberra to remind travellers of Labor’s false promises.

“The four years of surpluses I announce tonight are a powerful endorsement of the strength of our economy, resilience of our people, and success of our policies,” he said.

“In an uncertain and fast-changing world we walk tall—as a nation confidently living within its means.

“This Budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time.”

Entire Article Here

No clothes.

[tezza2844]

 icy quoted:

"It was smart of Labor to pack the parliament’s public galleries with trusting students, staffers and party members to cheer Bill Shorten’s Budget-in-reply speech on Thursday night — no thinking adult would have succumbed to his specious claims as readily"

Just the usual garbage from Piers Akerman of the Murdoch dynasty. Just as bias as Bolt and just as stupid.