TODAY, a large proportion of the Australian populace is groaning after hearing of the measures which have been brought down in the 2014 budget.
Last September, many of those people blithely voted for the Liberal and National coalition and propelled them into government.
There’s just one thing to say to this mob: suck it up.
Abbott has brought in a rise in university fees, something in keeping with this government’s anti-intellectual character.
There is no mention of climate change and no planning for it; this will again affect the younger generation who will have to cope with a warmer world when they grow up.
Abbott has also ensured that Australians no longer have universal healthcare. Everyone who visits a doctor, apart from those who have seniors cards or healthcards, will have to pay $7. Those who have medicine prescribed will have to fork out another $5 per prescription.
Some part of this money will go into a medical research fund which is touted as reaching $20 billion by 2020, six years from now.
But the figures don’t add up. Let’s assume that Australia has 23 million people (the actual figure is a wee bit less) and that every one of those people goes to the doctor 10 times a year. That adds up to 230 million visits; multiply that by $7 and you get $1,610,000,000.
The doctor gets $2 of the $7 fee so this measure will raise $1,150,000,000 for the fund.
Let’s again assume that each Australian gets five prescriptions; that gives us 115 million prescriptions and at $5 a pop it gives us $575 million. That makes it a grand total of $1.725 billion.
Over six years, we get $10.35 billion. Let’s add $1 billion as interest over those six years, assuming the money is invested as it comes in. Yes, it’s a high rate of interest, but never mind.
The government has said it is putting in $1.1 billion at the start; in total, that gives us $12.46 billion in all.
Where does the other $7-odd billion come from?
Abbott can’t do sums, it appears. Neither can his treasurer Joe Hockey. Nor his finance minister Matthias Cormann.