A Comparison of Promises Made By Both The Coalition and ALP In The Lead Up To Election Day
On Saturday all Australians are expected to cast their vote and have their say on which political party we want to be our governing body. This vote will ultimately decide how we as Australian will live our lives for the next four years- so isn't it in your best interest to be informed about who you will be casting your vote for?
I did some research and found some of the key points that you need to know about before you decide which vote to put your number 1 in.
I have looked at a few key areas in which promises have been made, particularly in areas that will concern the people that read this blog. The areas I have looked at below are families, education, workers, health, tax, climate change and the environment and foreign affairs.
FAMILIES
LABOR: The ALP has promised to make childcare free for up to 372,000 Aussie families who have income up to $69,527.00 per year. Another 511,000 families who earn up to $174,527.00 per year with receive a reduction in childcare fees.
LABOR: Will pay superannuation contributions for both mothers and fathers on paid parental leave and for people who earn less than $450 per month.
LABOR: $660 million towards domestic violence including early intervention schemes, educational campaigns. Also included in this were 20,000 Flexible Support Packages which will provide up to $10,000 worth of support to people escaping violence.
COALITION: Will continue to allow families to split parental paid leave into smaller chunks.
COALITION: A $78 million promise to women and children who need to escape domestic violence situations, including investing in more housing options, $10.9 million for 1800 RESPECT and $67.2 million into projects through Women's Economic Security Statement.
EDUCATION:
LABOR: A promise of $1.7 billion to provide universal pre-school access, extending the age to three years who will be subsidised 15 hours of early education, and extending the current agreement for 4 years olds accessing preschool.
LABOR: The promise of an extra $14 billion to public school over the next ten years. This will be in addition to the $23.5 billion increase for all schools in 2017.
LABOR: A $1 billion pledge for TAFE, as well as incentives for 150,000 apprenticeships. This package will waive the upfront costs of 100,000 TAFE places in high priority courses.
LABOR: A promise to provide $10 billion over a ten-year course in order to end the freeze on university subsidies and allow universities access to government funding for unlimited numbers of undergraduates.
COALITION: A promise of $453 million towards a guarantee of another year of funding for four-year-old pre-school.
COALITION: $4.6 billion packages for Catholic and private school, in addition to the $23.5 billion that was committed to those schools over a ten year period from the Turnball government.
COALITION: A promise of $525 million skills package to provide funding for up to 80,000 apprenticeships and assist in vocational education and training.
HEALTH:
LABOR: Has promised to lift the Medicare rebate freeze within 50 days of the election.
LABOR: Promise of a $2.3 billion cancer care package to include diagnostic imaging, free cancer scans, and funding for free consults with oncologists and surgeons. Some new cancer treatments would also be included on the PBS.
LABOR: Provide a cap on private health insurance rate rises at 2% for the next two years.
LABOR: $2.4 billion for a Pensioner Dental Plan, this would give older Aussies access to free dental up to the amount of $1000.00 every two years.
LABOR: The promise of a $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund, including $1 billion to improve emergency departments.
COALITION: Has promised to lift the Medicare rebate freeze by July 1, 2019.
COALITION: A $461 million youth mental health plan, including prevention, 30 new Headspace services and $152 million to improving waiting times for mental health services.
COALITION: $5 million over a five year period into suicide prevention among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
WORKERS:
LABOR: The promise that within 100 days of being elected they will restore Sunday and public holiday penalty rates.
LABOR: Has promised to "ask" the Fair Work Commission to increase the minimum wage, to a "living wage" as determined by the Commission.
LABOR: Bring back the road safety body to set a pay rate and conditions for all truck drivers.
COALITION: Promised to introduce criminal sanctions for any employer who exploits its workers.
COALITION: Promise to give casual workers the right to request full time or part-time work on a permanent basis.
COALITION: Any employee misclassified as a casual worker will no longer be able to receive back pay on entitlements.
TAX
LABOR: People earning less than $37,000 per year will receive a $350 tax cut.
LABOR: Has promised $1.05 billion over the course of four years to increase the tax cuts to the around 3.6 million Australian who are earning less than $48,000 per year.
LABOR: Put a limit on negative gearing so that it only applies to brand new houses and to half the capital gains tax discount.
COALITION: The promise of a $158 billion income tax cut package over the next ten years. This will include: doubling both the low and medium income tax offset and raising the 19% threshold from $41,000 to $45,000 in July 2022.
COALITION: From 2024 the coalition plans to flatten the tax brackets and people earning $40,000 to $200,000 will pay a marginal rate of 30%.
CLIMATE CHANGE & ENVIRONMENT:
LABOR: Funding for up to 4,000 schools for solar panels to generate more energy than needed by the schools and will feed into the grid.
LABOR: Plans to regulate the National Energy Guarantee with 45% emissions reduction and 50& renewable energy target by the year 2030.
LABOR: An extra $10 billion in funding for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
LABOR: Murray- Darling plan to continue.
COALITION: A promise of $1.38 billion in support of the Snowy Hydro Scheme including the expansion of generation capacity and storage at the Snowy Dam.
COALITION: Support for the "battery to the nation" hydro project in Tasmania.
COALITION: Will provide taxpayer underwriting for one coal upgrade project in NSW, as well as a feasibility study to investigate the low emissions coal plant in North QLD.
COALITION: Murray- Darling plan to continue. Implementation of a five panel independent Murray-Darling basin authority that will undertake a study of the conditions, report to be concluded by 31 December.
IMMIGRATION:
LABOR: Maintain stance on turning back asylum seeker boats, wants the time limit of mandatory detention to be no longer than 90 days.
LABOR: Government-funded humanitarian intake to be increased to 27,000 places per year and an increase in community sponsored refugee intake to 5,000 places per year.
LABOR: Protection visas and safe haven enterprise visas will be abolished, any eligible refugees will instead be transitioned onto permanent visa arrangements.
LABOR: Promise to pursue agreements with both regional and abroad processing in order to resettle the asylum seekers currently on Nauru and Manus Island.
COALITION: Continuation of border protection program that sees asylum seeker boats turned back at sea and new boat arrivals sent straight to immigration detention.
COALITION: Continuation of the refugee resettlement deal that was negotiated with the US by the Turnball government.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
LABOR: A strong focus on strengthening "Indo-Pacific" relationships and increasing aid to those areas.
LABOR: Move away from relationships with the US.
COALITION: $2 billion plan for an infrastructure financing facility with a focus on the Pacific.
COALTION: Reinforce the ties with the US.
There have been more promises made, there will likely be more made in the last minute lead up to d-day on Saturday. Cast your vote well, educate yourself on who you are voting for, vote for a government that you truly believe will serve the people of Australia well.
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