Family Tax Benefit B to be scrapped?

[onthefly]

May 13. I reckon the commission was established to set us up to welcome the 'soft' version of "economic recovery" [if we buy their EMERGENCY line at all] offered by the Abbott government. It's bull****.
They - let's face it, they're stooges of the liberal party - were tasked with finding costs savings to bring us back to surplus, which is apparently the holy grail of all good governments (uh, no, missing the point of running a country, people) and were not meant to look at income at all. Because, let's face it, those big businesses et al need their tax breaks and rebates and what not, so let's not even examine avenues for increasing income. Except maybe in the form of a debt levy. Because debt is bad and people should pay for that.
I mean, if we cut handouts to big business, then people might lose jobs. And we don't want that. (cutting funding and employment in the public sector - never frontline services, right - doesn't count as people losing jobs.)

[onthefly]

Given the general sentiment of late, the performance of small parties in recent elections and dissatisfaction with budget stuff, I wouldn't be surprised if smaller parties push for major changes and/or maybe, possibly threaten supply over this. they actually stand to do well out of a double dissolution. Labor would not and would not block.

[wysiwyg]

May 13. I reckon the commission was established to set us up to welcome the 'soft' version of "economic recovery" [if we buy their EMERGENCY line at all] offered by the Abbott government. It's bull****.

It seems most budgets there is talk of something before which then makes us think 'phew' when the real budget comes through. There is an infographic going round on FB at the moment -

"Government Gross Debt as a percentage of GDP

Australia 33.7%
UK 109.1%
US 109.1%
GREECE 183.7%
JAPAN 228.4%

If Australia's Economy is in crisis then the rest of the world is doomed"

I am sure there is a need for some scale backs - but I think they have to be careful of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater"

[wysiwyg]

Looks like FTB B won't be scrapped but the means testing of it may be changed:

The government will *apply tougher tests to family tax benefits but will not follow the Commission of Audit’s recommendation to abolish Family Tax Benefit B.

The government confirmed that there would be changes to the family tax benefits following reports there would be a $100,000 means test for families to receive Family Tax Benefits A or B. However, it is understood that Family Tax Benefit B will not be abolished.

Family Tax Benefit B provides assistance to sole parents and families with a stay-at-home parent. It currently covers families with a primary income below $150,000. The maximum rates paid are $4,241 for families with a child under five and $3,070 for families whose youngest child is between five and 18.

From the Guardian - Families face tougher benefits test but budget to spare sole parents

[wysiwyg]

It seems most budgets there is talk of something before which then makes us think 'phew' when the real budget comes through. There is an infographic going round on FB at the moment -

"Government Gross Debt as a percentage of GDP

Australia 33.7%
UK 109.1%
US 109.1%
GREECE 183.7%
JAPAN 228.4%

If Australia's Economy is in crisis then the rest of the world is doomed"

I am sure there is a need for some scale backs - but I think they have to be careful of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater"

There is also an article that elaborates on the above called "Australia’s economy is healthy, so how can there be a budget crisis?" on the Conversation which looks at a few different measures including the one above. (I won't paste it here as is full of graphs)

The last paragraph

While short term measures such as expenditure cuts and debt levies may have an impact on the size of the deficit, they cannot “fix” the economy. The economy is not in disarray, and long-term budget deficit and debt issues require well thought-out policy on the structure of taxation and expenditure.

The series of articles on the conversation about the budget and the audit commission - unlike the popular press, do not focus on - who's fault it is, "entitlement" and pitting different groups of society against each other and are worth a read IMO plus comments on the articles are also usually pretty informative.