Bill’s Budget for the battler

BILL Shorten has delivered a Budget for the battler and for younger Australians by cracking down on well-heeled excess, and pouring a massive $36 billion into education, health, skills and the environment.

With a war chest stuffed with cash by targeting negative gearing and tax refunds, the Opposition leader in his Budget-in-Reply neutralised some sting by unveiling a $2.3 billion plan to slash out-of-pocket costs for cancer patients.

Heralded as “the most important reform to Medicare since it was introduced by Bob Hawke”, the buoyant Labor Leader declared, “cancer makes you sick and then paying for the treatment makes you poor”.

Invoking memories of his deceased mother, Ann, Mr Shorten lamented the emotional and financial costs of fighting the burden.

The big-spending, traditional Labor manifesto unashamedly targets the rich to help low-income earners, and diverts money away from some older Australians to give opportunity to the younger.

Mr Shorten said last night that 3.6 million working Australians would get better tax cuts after being “ripped off by the Liberals”.

For this financial year, workers earning up to $37,000 a year will receive a tax cut of up to $350.

Those earning between $37,000 and $48,000, the lowincome offset will be up to $1080.

“By not providing a tax cut that is equal to Labor’s commitment, the Liberals are threatening over three million working class Australians, mostly women, with higher taxes.

“The Liberals’ priorities are all wrong. With the Liberals, low-income workers get less than $5 a week but an investment banker gets more than $11,000 a year in tax cuts.

“This is not a tax plan, it’s a ticking debt bomb. It is neither fair, nor responsible to lock in those billions of dollars in tax giveaways flowing disproportionately to a relatively few Australians and so far into the future.”

The Labor Leader reaffirmed his commitment to spend an extra $2.8 billion for public hospitals, and $14 billion for schools.

He announced more money for TAFE to help boost apprenticeships, and more help for youths to get a head start.

The election pitch was primarily directed at younger Australians and women – Labor’s biggest voting bloc are people aged 18-35 years.

“We believe the government has a responsibility to leave the place better than when we found it,” Mr Shorten said.

He said the “intergenerational bias that the tax system has against young people” must be called out.