Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) will release its submission for the 2017-18 Budget on 27 February morning. The full submission is available here and the press conference is streamed live via Facebook.
ACOSS will note that Australia spent just 9% of GDP on welfare compared with the OECD average of 12.4%.
Budget cuts proposed by ACOSS include:
- Applying the Medicare levy surcharge to all high-income earners even if they have private insurance ($4.1bn in 2018-19);
- Abolishing the private health insurance rebate ($3.5bn in 2018-19);
- Reforming alcohol excise by taxing wine at $56 a litre of alcohol and cider at $33 a litre ($2.3bn in 2018-19);
- Abolish fuel tax credits for off-road use, except agriculture ($2bn in 2018-19);
- Taxing private trusts ($1.5bn in 2018-19);
- Superannuation contributions reforms ($1.3bn in 2018-19); and
- Taxing income retained in private companies ($1.2bn in 2018-19).
Revenue raised from the measures could pay for a range of improvements to the welfare safety net, including:
- increasing the dole and student payments by $54 a week ($1.95bn in 2018-19);
- restoring community service funding levels, including through the Indigenous advancement strategy ($1.89bn in 2018-19);
- reform family payments ($1.24bn in 2018-19);
- increased affordable, accessible dental care ($1.23bn in 2018-19); and
- establish the affordable housing growth fund ($1bn in 2018-19).
Other notable measures:
- increasing commonwealth rent assistance ($.8bn in 2018-19); and
- indexing community services funding to wage movements ($.391bn in 2018-19)
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