Election news – two sides to every story
Federal Labor has released a 10 page document updating Tony Abbott’s Health and Hospitals Hit List of services which it says Tony Abbott has pledged to cut if he becomes the Prime Minister this weekend.
The full list of health and hospital facilities receiving Federal Government funding that the Coalition does not support is based on Tony Abbott’s plans to:
- Cut Emergency Departments
- Cut elective surgery improvements
- Cut GP Super Clinics
- Cut after hours services
- Cut local control
In addition Mr Abbott will also:
- Cut the My Hospitals website, restricting the public’s access to Information about the performance of their health services
- Cut funding for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, which will drive improved safety, quality and performance of health services – including important initiatives like the Hand Hygiene project, which helps tackle the spread of ‘super bugs’ in our hospitals.
The full list is available at http://www.alp.org.au
On the other side, Tony Abbott and Seniors spokeswoman, Bronwyn Bishop, have promised that a Coalition government will pursue a range of measures to support employment, secure retirement incomes, help with cost of living pressures and ensure better representation of senior Australians.
To create more employment opportunities for senior Australians, the Coalition will introduce a Seniors Employment Incentive Payment. The Incentive Payment will be paid to employers who hire a jobseeker aged 50 years or older.
The Incentive Payment will be worth up to $250 a fortnight, for a total subsidy for 6 months of $3,250 for employing a worker on a full time basis.
The Incentive Payment will be paid in a single lump sum directly to the employer after six months continuous employment by the eligible worker. To qualify for the Incentive Payment, employees will need to serve a period of continuous employment of six months.
The Incentive Payment is designed to help employers overcome any reluctance to taking on older jobseekers and will be paid for workers who are registered with Centrelink at the time of their employment, including the unemployed, people with a disability and age pensioners.
Recent NATSEM data confirms that there are around 900,000 people aged 50-65 years who could qualify for the Incentive Payment. The Incentive Payment would commence from 1 July 2011.
The Coalition will also introduce the indexation of the eligibility income thresholds for the Commonwealth Senior Health Card (CSHC). The CSHC helps senior Australians with the cost of prescription medicines and other health services and is available to people who are of age pension age but do not qualify for the pension.
Income thresholds are currently set at $50,000 for singles and $80,000 for couples combined. Indexing these thresholds will allow CSHC holders who maintain their incomes in real terms to continue to be eligible for the discounts the card awards. Funding of $25 million will be provided to the indexation of the CSHC.
The Coalition will also retain the existing income rules for the Commonwealth Senior Health Card.
The Coalition will abolish the Superannuation Guarantee age limit from 1 July 2013. The current age limit unfairly discriminates against older workers and forces them into retirement when many would like to stay in the workforce.
