A year since the federal election and the more things change, the more they stay the same.
1. Major victory for patients – Labor backflips on medicines
In a major embarrassment, Julia Gillard will soon announce a significant backdown regarding the subsidy of new medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Earlier in the year, a defiant Nicola Roxon announced the deferral of new listing on the PBS, despite them having been approved by the expert advisory committee.
As well as my Small Business responsibilities, I also Chair the Senate Finance & Public Administration References Committee. On Wednesday I tabled a report that condemned these changes and called upon the Labor Government to return to the arrangements that had previously existed.
Source: Australian Financial Review, 18.08.11
As well as getting the front page of the Australian Financial Review it received national coverage in The Australian and received the endorsement of industry leaders Consumer Health Forum and Medicines Australia, who stated on their media release;
“I congratulate the Committee on its excellent report and thank the members of the Committee for the hard work they have undertaken in preparing it.”
This represents a major victory for the Coalition and patients across Australia.
2. The Economy
As we have highlighted previously, small business in particular is hurting under Labor. Recent business surveys have confirmed this.
In June, the Dun & Bradstreet survey revealed a sharp downturn, and only this week the ACCI Small Business survey illustrated further falls in confidence, expectations, sales and investment.
Source: ACCI Small Business Survey: November 2010 – August 2011
3. The Budget
Just as they did before the 2007 election, Labor promises financial responsibility and budget surpluses, but Australia is still running up record levels of debt.
And we are still no closer to a budget surplus.
In his budget speech only three months ago Wayne Swan assured the Australian people that:
“We are on track for a surplus budget in 2012-13, on time, as promised”.
If that wasn’t enough, the Treasurer then made the promise even more explicit:
“We’ll be in the black by 2012-13, on time, as promised”.
At the time, Tony Abbott said:
“And let’s not forget that this isn’t an actual surplus. It’s a predicted one – from a government which has shown all the forecasting accuracy of Nostradamus.”
By last week however Wayne Swan’s promise to have the budget back in the black by 2012-13 had become an “objective”. As of last Tuesday, the promise is now a “determination”.
As Tony Abbott said last weekend, it will soon only be a dream.
Parliament returns next week. The Coalition will continue to challenge the ALP and hold the Prime Minster and her government accountable for her broken promises and maladministration.