The Abbott Government’s attempt to sell its budget of broken promises would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.
Asked about cuts to hospital funding in the Budget, today the Treasurer got it plain wrong.
JOURNALIST: …the entire hospital funding system should also be in the contingency reserve because your Budget’s actually talking about taking away from the existing agreement, not just changing the agreement once it’s finished. The Premiers are up in arms and saying this is not just going to hurt their budgets but their credit ratings and that you’re basically outsourcing the deficit reduction task to them…
HOCKEY: Well, the fact is we are honouring the four years of the agreements in both hospitals and schools that we said we would honour. We are doing that. We are doing that.
JOE HOCKEY – NATIONAL PRESS CLUB – 14 MAY 2013
Wrong. The Abbott Government is cutting more than $3 billion from Australia’s public hospitals and cutting funding guaranteed under the National Health Reform Agreement. This agreement applies until 30 June 2017.
2014 Budget Papers:
In another broken promise the Abbott Government will also change the way the Commonwealth funds public hospitals, resulting in billions of dollars in cuts beyond 2017/18.
The Government has also cut $368 million in money agreed with the States and Territories for preventive health, $390 million for dental services, and $3 million by getting rid of the National Tobacco Strategy.
Tony Abbott is taking a sledgehammer to health services that will hit every family in Australia.