Australians would pay more for health and education and receive lower payments for unemployment, pension, family, childcare and parental leave over time under a radical blueprint to shrink the role of government that foreshadows the Coalition's resolve to deliver a deep "pain" for long-term economic gain in its first budget, due in two weeks.

The sweeping report from the Commission of Audit, which was charged with bringing national spending under control, proposes a plethora of tougher eligibility rules and lower annual increases in pensions and payments – including adding the value of the family home to the means test for the aged pension, forcing young single people to move to find a job after one year on the dole and reducing payments to stay-at-home spouses. It also advocates co-payments for visits to the doctor and buying medicine, a means test for receiving the full childcare rebate and another drastic reduction in Tony Abbott's recently pared-back paid parental leave.

On the national disability insurance scheme, the report proposes that it should be rolled out more slowly and that the agreements already signed with the states should be changed to achieve this, with the head of the Commission of Audit, the Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd, saying there was "no point signing up for things we cannot afford".

The report also proposes handing over all policy and funding responsibility for government and non-government schools to the states with lower federal funding over time than that would have flowed under the former government's Gonski plan, and increasing the proportion of education costs paid for by territory students through the Higher Education Loans Program. It also proposes that patients should pay $15 co-payments for visits to the doctor, with concession card holders paying $5, and an extra $5 co-payment for all medicines.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/01/commission-of-audit

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I believe the Commission of Audit has no social expertise. Nor even any accounting expertise... They are just a bunch of slash and burn tourists with an inflated title.

It reminds me of a bunch of accountants taking over the running of a firm once — starving it of funds that would have created new product — in order to declare profits... After two years of declining health, the firm which was making reasonable moneys went broke... Stupid. No foresight...

Thus the government is going to have to hire the people it sacks under new employment guidelines like "Consultants" for three time the cash... Corrupt? Not per se but far more open to corruption...

It's insane... The Liberals (CONservatives) are focused on destroying this country bottom half not realising that the bottom half is what supports the top one per cent. With all their talk of "austerity", the mongrels at Hockey's cafe have not realised that they are shooting their customers. Insane... Two years ago, Australia was the best and most happy country in the world... and as foreseen by Gus, Tony Abbott has already made his mind to change all this... Most of the country's folks, especially the weakest are being punched silly by Tony and his rich North Shore geezers who have no understanding of social structures. 

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Tony Abbott says we should not ask what’s in the budget for “me” but what’s in it for “us”. He wants us all to take a bit of pain for the good of team Australia.

But what’s in the Commission of Audit report for those of us on low or middle incomes, those of us who are sick or disabled or old age pensioners, those of us who are “working families” and as such have become used to various forms of government aid – or those of us who are going to become any of those things over the next 10 years – is an inexorable squeeze.

Benefits that are harder to get, pensions that reduce in real value over time, services which were once free but for which we now have to pay.

The Business Council of Australia head, Tony Shepherd, who led the Commission of Audit review, denies it is an “austerity” plan because the “deeply disadvantaged” are still looked after. Everyone else, he says, should now look after themselves.

For the Abbott government the problem is that because it deliberately chose to consider spending first, and then taxation later, in a quite separate review, the pain right now is going to be felt by the poor and those on lower incomes who receive the bulk of government payments

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/01/in-abbotts-team-australia-the-weakest-players-must-do-the-heaviest-lifting

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 A few month ago in Davos, Tony the Prick told the rich assembly that no country ever got out of its problem by raising taxes... So what does Tony the Prick wants to do? RAISE TAXES to help the Australian Government go back into surplus, NO MATTER HOW MUCH DAMAGE THIS WILL DO TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE RICH...

Treasurer Joe Hockey is offering privileged access to a select group including business people and industry lobbyists in return for tens of thousands of dollars in donations to the Liberal Party via a secretive fund-raising body whose activities are not fully disclosed to election funding authorities.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is probing Liberal fund-raising bodies such as the Millennium Forum and questioning their influence on political favours in NSW.

Mr Hockey offers access to one of the country's highest political offices in return for annual payments.

The Treasurer, Joe Hockey, has engaged lawyers over media reports of a fundraising forum which offered access to the treasurer in exchange for donations of thousands of dollars.

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, has backed Hockey, who said he found the allegations in the Fairfax Media story “offensive and repugnant” and has engaged media litigator Mark O’Brien from Johnson, Winter and Slattery to take legal action.

The North Sydney Forum (NSF) is a fundraising arm of the Liberal party, which is not registered as an entity of the party with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). It touts itself as a group of business and community leaders supporting Hockey but will not reveal who makes up its membership.

“By joining the North Sydney Forum you will have the opportunity to participate in a regular program of events including boardroom lunches with Joe Hockey, focused on key policy areas that are nominated by forum members,” the website says.

It offers memberships ranging from $5,500 per year to $22,000.

Its chairman, John Hart, has not returned calls from Guardian Australia. In a letter on the website, Hart says it is “vital” the business community is active in supporting Hockey.

There are a range of other clubs and forums set up as entities of political parties across Australia which can raise donations that go well into six figures within a financial year. The entities do not have to declare who has made donations unless it is more than $12,001.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/05/joe-hockey-engages-lawyers-over-media-reports-of-fundraising-forum