Arrogance thy name is the current Federal Cabinet when it comes to people who have lost touch with reality you don’t have to look beyond the Coalition cabinet room. They’re nothing more than a bunch of arrogant cowards who constantly thunder about “illegal boat arrivals”, “welfare bludgers” and a “sense of entitlement”. Nothing highlights their hypocrisy more than the current revelations about the Federal Health Minister, Sussan Ley.
Presiding over a portfolio that is a by word for the destruction of Medicare, she has ushered in policies that are designed to destroy Medicare as a universal health insurance scheme. Currently policies are in place that exclude an increasing number of Australians from Medicare subsidised health services. The Turnbull led government has put an embargo on Medicare fee increases for the next four years. When you add the fact that over the past two decades Medicare fees have increased at about a quarter of the rate at inflation, to the recent revelation that Medicare is not paying doctors who bulk bill for up to 10 weeks (although under current legislation the Commonwealth government has to pay its bills within 28 days of receiving them), it’s easy to jump to the conclusion these changes are designed to bankrupt bulk billing clinics.
The destruction of a viable universal healthcare system is bad news for all Australians, especially social security beneficiaries and wage earners. While presiding over changes that are designed to destroy one of the most important social reforms since World War II, Madam Ley can’t seem to stop herself from pigging out on taxpayer funded junkets in order to find herself another investment property on the Gold Coast. Arrogance and hypocrisy of the highest order.
Her little Cabinet mate, Alan Tudge, the Federal Minister for Human Services pops up telling us what a wonderful job Centrelink is doing, under his watch, protecting the taxpayer from “welfare fraud” (his words, not mine). He claims 300 million dollars has been clawed back from overpayments, over the past 6 months. What most people don’t seem to understand is that if you are on a social security benefit and receive one of those pay up letters or we will take you to court, that $100 a fortnight, about 15% of an average pension, is removed every fortnight until Centrelink receives the information they seek.
Tudge goes on and on about protecting the taxpayer while refusing to look at corporate fraud. Clawing back 300 million over 6 months from the 8.5 million Australians who receive social security benefits (approximately $35 from each social security beneficiary) is little more than beer money. Instead of targeting transnational corporations that legally pay no tax, what do our great heroes in the Federal Cabinet do? They take baseball bats to those that are least able to defend themselves. The Turnbull led Federal Cabinet is a byword for cowardice, arrogance and hypocrisy. Unfortunately, the new Cabinet that will be sworn in, once Turnbull is turfed out (in about 6 months’ time) will make the current lot look like Mother Theresa.