Again how old are you??do you pay bills my friend or do you live at home with the rents ??

If the Libs want to scrap the Carbon Tax because it "isn't making any money" then why are gas and electricity bills going up 10%?

Perhaps you'd like to read this to see how low income earners are helped with the carbon tax
http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/subjects/clean-energy-future

tl;dr: people hit hardest received tax cuts and payments up to $300 to soften the blow

Also electricity bills have gone up way above CPI for ages well before the carbon tax as companies were spending heaps on upgrading the infrastructure to reduce the number of failures and brown outs.

Edited by mcjules: 24/4/2014 07:49:58 PM

Everybody is already contributing to Medicare through the tax system. In fact the rich pay more through the Medicare levy. The whole idea of universal health care is that there's no fee for use - everyone pools money through tax revenue, and people use it when they need it.

This isn't about a $6 charge. It's about bringing in user pays and destroying bulk billing.

It won't actually discourage anyone from going to the doctor, except for the very poor. The ones who have to pay most are the ones who will need to use it the most.

Don't believe their lies.

That's actually the mining tax that's costing more in administration then the revenue it generates

are you saying gas & electricity bills aren't rising and won't year on year ?

uwut

-PB

Because Energy companies and the like are just passing the cost of the tax onto end consumers so that it doesn't affect their profit margins lol.

EDIT: And when the Carbon Tax gets scrapped (it will, only a matter of time) there is nothing forcing those companies to apply that reduction onto the end consumer either, most will treat it as an easy increase in those same profit margins.

-PB

Edited by paulbagzFC: 24/4/2014 08:33:10 PM

Again how old are you? Do you pay bills? Even before the carbon tax ,my bills were going up

I really need to find out what is up with the electricity bill at my place. In a house of 4 adults the bill hasn't gone up any significant amount in the last few years. More often than not it goes down or stays at a steady level.

Not complaining though :lol:

Edited by sydneycroatia58: 24/4/2014 08:49:53 PM

If the tax isn't making any money then the electricity companies can't be paying any tax, so their costs aren't going up, so why are their prices allegedly going up 10% - above the rate of inflation? So either the carbon tax IS making money and Abbott is lying, or we're being blatantly ripped off by the electricity companies and Abbott is doing nothing about it.

You're absolutely right that any decrease in costs won't be passed on to the consumer. But if the government was smart they'd heavily tax the profits of companies with a rapid annual profit increase.

Everything increases year on year. It's called inflation and is one of the core pillars of our economy.

The tax has to be making money though, otherwise what are they taxing? And if that isn't the case then ofc it should be scrapped straight away.

Like I said, they just pass the extra cost straight onto the end customer,.

-PB

So if the tax IS making money then why are they saying it isn't and using that as justification to scrap it?

If our electricity costs have gone up as much as claimed then the tax must be making money which means it's doing its job which means there's no reason to scrap it.

The $6.00 thing is a good idea. Too many peanuts with a headache and nothing to do going down to bother their doctor and chewing up vast swathes of health funding which should be spent on people with real dramas. My local doctor's waiting room looks like every reprobate in the local area has come there directly from the centrelink office.

Don't forget what's proposed means that you don't pay the $6.00 fee straight off the bat until you'e exhausted your quota. (I thought I read the first 12 visits are free for a single person(?))

Every time I go down to the local shopping centre every coffee shop is chock-a-block with your typical fat bogan "gubbmint is ripping me off, I'm so poor" and they're sitting their stuffing themselves full of a $7.00 piece of cake and a $4.50 flat white all the while whinging about how hard they have it.

God almighty it's $6.00 (and the rest) for a bloody schooner these days.

Either taxes go up or they introduce measures like this. Revenue is not a bottomless pit.

And for transparency I consider myself to be a socialist bleeding heart but I can't fault the logic here.

That policy and the proposed one whereby all the disability welfare recipients will now have to go and be assessed by an independent doctor to see if they really are unable to work. About bloody time.

800 000 people on some sort of disability hand out. Give me a friggin break!





Edited by munrubenmuz: 24/4/2014 11:22:28 PM

That's all well and good. But on the other hand, while it may be just $6 now after 12 visits, how much is it going to be in 10 years? $20 after 5 visits?

6 dollars may seem small change but it does add up to low income earners . I for one don't go the doctors unless I need to but my taxes are paying for Medicare i damn have the right to use it . Universal health care is a right not a privilege . Go to America if you want the rich to pay for it and let the poor die .

And.....?

Either taxes need to be raised or fees like this need to be introduced.

With people living longer than ever and the health budget taking up a massive 16% of all overall government spending (and set to rise dramatically over the coming decade) it is simply unsustainable to keep carrying on maintaining the status quo.

http://theconversation.com/tough-choices-how-to-rein-in-australias-rising-health-bill-13658

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-09/interactive-budget-2013-where-will-your-tax-go/4682404

No I don't like it but something has to give.

And I pay medicare too. I believe in medicare and I certainly don't want to go down the American path. I think universal health care is a wonderful part of the socialist democracy that we have here in Australia. I'm bang up for medicare.

However the current spending and expenditure is unsustainable which brings me back to my earlier point. Raise taxes and stop whinging about it or introduce fees like the one above. Something has to be done. (I'd be raising taxes.)

Whilst on medicare and although it's the greatest thing since sliced bread it has some faults.

Here's what pisses me off about it. If I earn $150k a year I am paying 3 times the medicare levy that someone is who earns $50k a year and yet the bloke who earns $150k, AND (disproportionally with regards to average wages), contributes to medicare is punished for not having private health insurance.

How is that fair? If I'm paying 3 times the average contribution to medicare aren't I just as entitled to use the government system? Not only do you pay the medicare levy you are lumped with another 1.5% surcharge on top of your original contribution due to not having private health.

What a joke.

And before you go off at me consider the above facts. Play the ball, not the man.

My point is, if this is where it starts then where does it stop? In 20-30 years time we're paying $40 a doctor's visit and we've regressed to the american healthcare system.

How often are you going to the doctor that $6 is adding up and making a significant difference to your life? If you're on a pension or welfare you don't have to pay. If you aren't on welfare then you've got a job and if you're fit enough to work then I can't see why you need to go to the doctor that often.

I have a lot of friends who arent Australian and they are wondering what is this public holiday we are having today

I tell them its our equivalent of War Memorial Day

You just hate poor people and pensioners!

...and the point of this post was..?

Whilst I totally agree the common argument is that the richer should pay more because they can. You can only tax low income earners so much where as there is more wiggle room with people on a more comfortable wage.

Its the same with everything. The minimum cost of living remains the same.

I'd be happy with a 'get taxed for what i use' system but that disadvantages the low income earners with prolific health issues. It's all well and good for the likes of us who go to the doc's once or twice a year.

I too see a lot of people complain about how the government is ruining them while at the same time smoking a pack of smokes every 2 days.

What pisses me off to no end is the whinging of people who think that the government is constantly trying to screw us while demanding better roads, better education, better public services and with no affect on any other service.

All services cost money. Improvements cost money and our revenue is finite. It's a balancing act and someone will always feel 'screwed' by changes. You can't improve everything without a significant cost.

^that's what I'm saying . This will effect the low income earners or the very sickly.

If you're fit enough to work you're not going to the doctors that often. If you aren't fit enough to work then you're on some kind of centerlink benefit in which case you don't have to pay. So I fail to see how this is a valid argument.

There are far better options for Govt getting money back than reaping $6 every time someone or their kids goes to a doctor.

Superannuation, FBT, mining subsidies, non-government business subsidises, taxing companies and rich people more, removing negative gearing are just a few.

So you want to destroy people's retirement packages.

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/04/john-hewson-end-the-superannuation-rort/
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/04/report-negative-gearing-is-on-the-chopping-block/

Cunt. #politics

The tile of this thread just became that much better.