Medicare costing $250 more under Labor

There is speculation the Labor Government will increase the Medicare levy by 2 per cent in the May budget. Source: News Limited

THE average Medicare levy has grown by nearly $250 to $1120 under Labor - and much faster than during the Coalition's reign.

Amid speculation the levy will be increased to 2 per cent, the Australian Taxation Office published new statistics yesterday showing 8.66 million people were charged a combined $8.47 billion for Medicare - an average of $978 - in 2010-11.

Treasury has estimated the Medicare levy will reap $9.7 billion this financial year, pushing the average contribution to $1120.

This assumes the number paying the levy remains steady - it has risen and fallen slightly in previous years.

In 2007-08 - the financial year Kevin Rudd won government - the average was $872.

That means the average Medicare levy has increased by $248 since Labor came to power five and a half years ago.

Under the 11 years of the previous Coalition government, the average rose by $360 - just 45 per cent more for double the length of time.

Treasury forecasts the Medicare levy will raise $10.4 billion next financial year - $700 million more than 2012-13.

It upgraded its estimate by $150 million in November 2012.

Data from the Government's Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows out-of-pocket expenses have increased considerably under Labor.In 2007-08, payments by individuals accounted for 16.8 per cent of all health expenditure.

In 2010-11 - the latest available figures - the figure was 18.3 per cent, higher than at any time under John Howard, according to AIHW figures.

Under Labor, health costs have risen 31 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, while medical and hospital services have become 41 per cent more expensive.

In the preceding 11 and a half years of Coalition rule, health costs rose 50 per cent.

Medical and hospital services became 57 per cent more expensive.

And while private health premiums have been rising at twice the pace of inflation recently, the office of Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said: ''This year's average increase of 5.6 per cent remained well below rises when Tony Abbott was minister for health, which peaked at 7.96 per cent and averaged 6.44 per cent.''

However, it was Labor that removed the private health insurance rebate for more than two million Australians last year.

Ms Plibersek's spokesman said bulk-billing rates for GP services were at an equal record high, with 82 per cent of consultations free in the final three months of 2012.

''This is in stark contrast to when Tony Abbott was health minister when bulk billing rates hit rock bottom at just 67 per cent,'' Ms Plibersek's spokesman said.

The government is considering raising the medicare levy to pay for the NDIS.

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Labor in a carbon black hole

The coalition says the federal budget could be facing a black hole after Europe's carbon price plummeted.

A COLLAPSE in the European carbon price will burn a hole in Wayne Swan's budget, with the government scrambling to remodel and downgrade its forecasted price in 2015.

News of the writedown came as the European price sank below $4 after measures to prop it up failed in the European Parliament.

A new round of tax cuts due in 2015 that were to help Australians cope with what had been expected to be a world carbon price of $29 a tonne will still be paid despite the federal government revising its forecast.

The compensation will cost $14.9 billion over the first four years of the tax which started on July 1 last year at $23 a tonne.

Treasury officials had predicted in 2011 that, when the carbon tax moves to a floating price in 2015, the world carbon price would be at least $29 a tonne and as high as $61 a tonne. A floor price of $15, described by the government in 2011 as a "safety valve" that was to apply for three years from 2015, was scrapped in August last year so the Australian scheme could be linked to the European scheme.

Blaming the GFC, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet confirmed the government had abandoned its earlier forecasts.

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey claimed the hit to the budget could be as high as $7 billion a year. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chief economist Greg Evans said the collapse in the European price showed the scale of the "economic recklessness of imposing a carbon tax of $23 per tonne on Australian industry and consumers"

He also said that the extra tax burden put Australia's economy at a "significant competitive disadvantage".

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What Labor need to give up for Lent

EASTER is about crisp nights in front of an open campfire, roasting marshmallows before dirt-streaked happy little faces are tucked into sleeping bags.

It's about Easter-egg hunts and hot cross buns. It's a holy time for churchgoers, and for others simply a blessed relief from work.

But at its core, on the Christian calendar, it's a time of resurrection - of new life.

And as Prime Minister Julia Gillard's team emerges from its rotten and broken egg they need to think about Labor's new beginnings.

Ms Gillard may not have been nailed to the cross but Labor has been crucified.

As the newly emboldened Prime Minister gathers her freshly chosen team for a community cabinet tomorrow in Perth she will need to make significant changes.

What could she possibly do? How might a team of "last-picks'' improve Labor's chances? Even without a Judas in their ranks it will be tough.

Too much analysis is not necessarily good. Forget introspection and think tanks and committees and advice from foreign "experts''.

Just stop and chat to the real people on the streets and they will tell her the answer.

At school pick-up time, at the bus stop, at the community event or pub, at the ALP haunt or the sports match, the answers are remarkably similar.

Here's what Ms Gillard's team needs to give up for what's left of Lent and onwards to election day:
1) Stabbing each other in the back.
2) Class warfare.
3) Burning business (Perth is a good place to start).
4) Attacks on superannuation.
5) Changes to parenting payments for low income earners.

For a leader so disliked for so long it is telling that Julia Gillard was more likeable than ever the day the knives were pointed in her direction.

When she stood up in parliament on Thursday with an unwavering voice and steely determination, we saw, once again, a leader with strength.

But it's not enough to be at your best only when under attack, and when you are fighting for yourself, rather than for the country.

Switch off talkback radio for a moment and Ms Gillard is not hated with as much intensity as you'd expect. But there is despair over her failures. And there is despair over her shambolic divided team.

With Kevin Rudd sidelined and fewer distractions there is a real chance for the Prime Minister to take a leaf out of her own book and "take your best shot''. It may not be enough to win the next election, but just possibly to go out in a blaze of glory.

What do we want from Ms Gillard? To see her strength. For her to trust her instincts. To sell her achievements better. To speak from her heart, not from a script. She never really showed us the real Julia. What does she have to lose now?

Oh, but there's advice in spades for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, too. Mr Abbott has an opportunity here to be a stark point of difference. He needs to rein in any temptation to jeer or over-play the moment. Fourth base is so close and the other team are scrambling for the ball. He needs to play it safe and strong.

Aside from calls for Malcolm Turnbull to step up to the plate, this is what people want from the Coalition:
1) Dignity and decency.
2) Respectful debate during question time.
3) Policies.

Politics going forward may have less intrigue and less theatre, but it's about time the dull business of governing took centre stage.

No one will miss the blood-letting as they toast marshmallows around the campfire this weekend.
 

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Labor pushes for penalty rates

THE Government wants to enshrine penalty rates in law in a major appeal to millions of workers which will clash with deregulation demands from employers.

Government legislation will insist that awards protect extra payments for working on weekends, public holidays and doing overtime.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the legislation would "insert a new modern awards objective in the Fair Work Act".

"We will ensure that penalty rates, overtime, shift work loading and public holiday pay are definite, formal considerations for the Fair Work Commission when it sets award rates and conditions,'' the Prime minister told a Canberra conference held by the ACTU.

"We will make it clear in law that there needs to be additional remuneration for employees who work shift work, unsocial, irregular, unpredictable hours or on weekends and public holidays."

Employers are certain to oppose the move and claim it will cost jobs. The Government will be told that the economy no longer works nine-to-five and there was no room for penalty payments.

But the Prime Minister's announcement received a round of applause at the conference on policies to help the estimated two million Australians without secure employment.

Ms Gillard said these people "don't know how many hours they'll work next week or next month - who can't save or plan to get ahead - whose opportunities in life are restricted and whose family's future is constrained".

They included cleaners, drivers, labourers, bar staff, wait staff who earned around 85 per cent of the average wage of Australians for the hours they work - $4 to $5 an hour less than most people.

The Government wants to focus on employment issues in the six months leading to the September 14 election, including what it says is the rorting of 457 visas used to bring in skilled labour at the expense of Australian job seekers.

"The widely held assumption that the typical person on a 457 visa is performing urgently needed work for economic expansion in remote Australia on a project where a tough combination of specialist skills and extreme conditions make labour impossible to come by is just not supported by the facts,'' said the Prime Minister.

"107,000 people work in Australia as temporary overseas workers. Indeed of those 107,000 people, barely one-sixth is employed in mining and resources.

"In fact, while the overall program has rapidly grown, new applications for temporary overseas work in mining have fallen nearly 17 per cent compared to the same period last year.

"And increasingly there is a shift in these workers from those with higher skills, degrees and advanced trades, to lower skills."

Unemployment stayed at 5.4 per cent last month with an extra 17,800 full-time jobs recorded by the Bureau of Statistics today.

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