THERE were some bold, and some would assert, misleading, comments made down here in Canberra in recent weeks.
From the Prime Minister no less.
In response to a question from the Leader of the Opposition, he claimed; “we delivered cheaper childcare, we delivered cheaper medicines, delivered fee-free TAFE, expanded the single parent payment. Those four measures had something in common. They were all opposed by those opposite.”
I feel compelled to correct the record.
The Opposition did not oppose cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines, expansion of the single parent payment and has simply questioned, whether taxpayers are getting value for their $1.5 billion spend on the Government’s floundering “Fee-Free TAFE” scheme.
Estimates of TAFE completions indicate the failure or non-completion rate could be as high as 60 per cent across these taxpayers funded courses.
Some in the training sector have indicated courses could have failure rates as high as 70-90 per cent, while numbers of apprentices and trainees have collapsed, according to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research – by more than 85,000.
As for cheaper medicine – the opposition had made a very similar pledge to reduce the PBS co-payment.
Only ours took in legitimate concerns from pharmacies.
We back single parents, and we back our childcare workers.
What we don’t back is the crippling cost of living pressures, brought on by this government.
The Prime Minister was clearly asked why “instead of reducing costs for working families, he’s delivered 12 mortgage rate increases, a 22 per cent surge in electricity prices, and the cost of food and groceries has jumped 11 per cent”.
A clear and tight question that he danced around every way conceivable.
We know that out-of-pocket childcare costs have increased 8.4 per cent in the last six months alone.
Australians are working harder than ever to make ends meet and keep up with the fallout from Labor’s poor economic management.
Health is up 11 per cent; education up 11 per cent; housing up 15 per cent; rent up 15 per cent; financial and insurance up 17 per cent; electricity up 22 per cent; and gas is up by 25 per cent.
No wonder the government dances around questions on the domestic crises they’ve created.
