Max O.
Like
Dracula getting hold of the blood bank, the Audit Commission's report is a plan
of blatant theft by finance capital of public welfare and property! The 'Age of
Entitlement' for capital is expanding into an era of austerity for the
Australian working class.
The
commission's 86 recommendations aim at dismantling the Medicare health scheme,
abandoning pension, disability, family, child care, unemployment and other
welfare entitlements. Other targets include social programs, such as assistance
for the homeless, with education and tertiary students also suffering increased
fees through the deregulation of the university system.
Tony
Shepherd, the Audit chairman and the Business Council's prize-fighter, spins
the reactionary time-worn argument in the commission's report: “In recent
years, Commonwealth spending has outpaced revenue collections ... This is the
sixth consecutive budget deficit. We have spent beyond our means for too long...”
The
report, as determined by the its terms of reference, only considers government
spending and not income in examining the budget debt and consequently is
nothing more than a class attack on workers and the poor. As required by
finance capital it is about reducing government's role in providing welfare.
The
plan of attack
The key
recommendations require the demolition of essential services:
• Compel
a $15 co-payment for doctor and hospital emergency visits; severe cuts to
subsidised medicines and medical services; and deep cuts in funding public
hospitals. This heralds the beginning of the end to the Medicare health system.
• Place
a ceiling on funding schools at 2017 level; handover all the financial
responsibility for education to the
states; cease commonwealth funding for vocational training and education; raise
fees for tertiary education by a third to cover 55% of costs. 'User pays'
privately run education increasingly replaces a free publicly funded education
system.
• Lift
the retirement age to 70 by 2035; means test the value of the family home for
pensions; index pensions to average weekly earnings rather than to male average
weekly earnings; and seniors health concession cards be further restricted.
This is a significant step in ridding government of this signature welfare
provision.
• Eliminate
or reduce eligibility for family tax benefits for parents who don't work; and
childcare benefits be means-tested; do away with or cap Abbott's paid parental
leave at average weekly earnings.
• Privatise
government bodies such as the Centrelink, Snowy Hydro, Australia Post,
Australian Hearing Service, Australian Rail Track Corporation and NBN Co. These
sell-offs and closures would see around 15,000 public service jobs done away
with.
If this
is not bad enough the Audit Commission really bares its fangs, going outside
its terms of reference, by calling for a 12% cut ($150 a week by 2033) to the
already miserable minimum wage. It also wants a 12 month loss of the dole for
unemployed young workers if they are unwilling to move to areas where there is
available work.
The
report asserts that Australia has a "high by international standards"
minimum wage. It urges a cut of 1% a year for a decade until the minimum wage
bottoms out at 44% of national weekly earnings.
The
Audit Commission's intention, on behalf of finance capital, is quite clear and
that is to make Australian workers a low wage work force. Whether it is wages,
conditions or welfare rights they are determined by the comparative might of
the contending classes, and the ruling class presently feels emboldened to make
wretches of the Australian people.
A
ferocious attack has been launched by corporate and finance capital against our
working class. It can only be overcome with widespread and co-ordinated
resistance by workers and its allies.
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