Federal budget was 'biggest con job in years'
The first thing I noticed on post budget morning in Canberra, was the thick fog hovering over the nation's capital.
It seems even the weather was bemused by the budget that was thrust upon us the previous evening.
Not for the first time, our add man Prime Minister Scott Morrison sounded like a second-hand car salesman on a mission to sell all of his lemons before the buyers have time to spot the defects.
This year's budget deficit is $14.3 billion and we are expected to believe a $21 billion turnaround, to a surplus of $7.6 billion next year.
Maybe if this bloke had a better track record he may be at least half believed.
They have doubled the debt, but there is no debt and deficit disaster, only to us personally. Three Prime Ministers, three Treasurers and a Finance Minister have declared that low wages was the aim of the LNP.
Even their base has deserted them.
Of the $158 billion tax cuts, only $20 billion will be delivered in four years, so there you see it, now you don't.
People are struggling.
The $75 payment to single and pensioner couples represents $1.44 and $2.40 per week respectively, or 0.053 per cent of their yearly electricity bill - and I reckon I am being generous - never mind the gas bill as well (if we have any left after selling it overseas).
This budget reminds me of the ride to Melbourne on the train, things flying past that fast and not lasting long enough to make an impression. ]
If you are in the older category nothing changes because once you stop paying little or no tax you become irrelevant.
Frankly this is the biggest con job in years, and that is saying something.
Ken Price, Eaglehawk
NDIS: a sham that has fallen well short
NDIS is a complete sham under the pretense of being a much broader disability scheme.
The only change under NDIS besides individual packaging is that the scheme picked up those who were missed under the old scheme.
The old scheme required one to have two incapacitated states which under NDIS is still the same.
Rigid requirements leaving a massive number of disabled people unaccepted by NDIS and out in the cold without any support.
What governement must do is scrap TAC and Workcare and replace it with NDIS to provide all encompassing short-term and particularly life long disabilities, disability care packages.
Too many Acquired Brain victims have been refused NDIS such as myself, a medically damaged patient (of which are many) and if not for quality of life medication I would be accepted despite the ongoing life threatening health issues that remain.
This is a common thread of complaint about NDIS. Perhaps all that money spent on promoting NDIS would have made a huge difference to many of those now rejected.
So I say not good enough governements, NDIS has fallen well short of what is expectations of support and help to those disabled left helpless.
Lizzie Graham, Bendigo
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