Labor’s mid-year budget changes will hit Bradfield hard

Labor’s recently announced mid-year budget changes are bad news for the people of Bradfield’, Member for Bradfield Paul Fletcher said today.

‘Labor has been overspending – and to pay for it Wayne Swan is now taking from the pockets of Australian families’

He has cut the baby bonus from $5000 to $3000 for the second and each subsequent child, and reduced the level of rebate the government will provide for private health insurance.

The cuts to the baby bonus will begin on July 1, 2013, and will save $461 million over three years.

‘These cuts to the baby bonus will be unwelcome news for prospective parents in Bradfield.

The changes to private health insurance will start in April 2014.

Under the new cuts – which follow earlier attacks this year on private health insurance, the government’s 30 per cent rebate will no longer automatically be increased to match the annual increase in premiums.

Instead, it will go up in line with the lesser of the rate of inflation or the rate at which the premium increases.

 ‘Almost 125,000 people in Bradfield today pay private health Insurance premiums.

‘They will now be worse off.

‘Labor has always been hostile to private health insurance – and to people who make an effort to provide for themselves by paying for private health insurance.

‘A government should thank these people – because they take the pressure off the public system. 

‘Instead, Labor is punishing them.’

‘This is just another example of Labor’s never-ending attack on self-reliance’.