Budget bloodletting

“This is a tough but fair budget.”

Yeah? It’s fair if you don’t care –

• A regressive Doctor Tax is imposed, affecting the poorest and sickest most;
• Doctors and hospital emergency departments will become de facto tax collectors. More paperwork. Just what they need.
• $80bn is removed from Commonwealth funding for schools. The states will have to make up the shortfall, which will mean higher state taxes and charges;
• $30bn is removed from Commonwealth funding from hospitals. Ditto.
• Massive cuts to funding for aboriginal health and welfare schemes. For the racist abo haters, this is wonderful, of course.
• Big cuts to public dental health schemes. It’s funny – wealthy people usually have good teeth; poor people usually don’t. It must be their own fault.
• etc etc

Most of the damage is being borne by the young, unemployed, the middle class who are going to have to accept yet more increases in State charges, pensioners in the near future and the sick who use doctors more often.

Who is least affected? High income earners who use doctors less and can easily afford the Doctor Tax, and companies, which will benefit from a 1.5% reduction in company tax. This will make it much more attractive to shift income so as to avoid personal income tax.  What a surprise.  Liberal Party mates and donors.

Funding has been cut for ASIC, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.  They are calling it a move to self regulation. Leaving the white collar crooks more room to play with less fear of being caught more like it. Again, Liberal Party influence. Looking after mates.

As well, science has once again been hit with yet more cuts to the CSIRO.  The lawyers and accountants can’t see the value of science because they are incapable of understanding it.

Tough but fair?  If you don’t think it’s fair, tough.

A large majority of West Australians voted Liberal in the last couple of elections. Well, you can’t complain. You’ve received what you voted for.

What amazes me is how people believe what they are told and forget the recent lessons.  Did the example of Queensland, where Campbell Newman has culled jobs far and wide mean nothing? Have people forgotten all the WA Liberal government’s trashing of all their election commitments mean nothing?  It seems so.

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This is interesting:  http://www.universetoday.com/111820/moscow-delivers-double-whammy-to-us-space-efforts-bans-rockets-engines-for-military-use-wont-prolong-iss-work/

When the Shuttle program ended last year, and the US Congress cut NASA’s budget severely, they were forced to buy Russian rocket engines for their heavy lift rockets, i.e. the US’s space program depended on Russia supplying the rocket engines.

In addition, all US astronauts must go back and forth to the International Space Station on Soyuz rockets launched from Russia. How embarrassing.  NASA has been largely crippled by Congress.

Now it’s come back to bite them. Russia is saying, if you impose sanctions on us over Crimea/Ukraine, then forget about getting rocket engines from us.

There is huge progress being made by private firms in the US in developing rockets with their own engines, but they are not up to the size required for heavy lift yet and won’t be for some years.

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I’m a bit engrossed in the series Fargo on SBS, but I don’t know why, because it’s so incredibly violent.  The killings shown are so graphic.  Blood spurts, skulls are crushed, a bound man is dropped through a hole in the ice.  Why is it that shocking violence is allowed to be shown uncut on TV, but nudity and sex have to be so disguised?

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I’ve just received a letter from P&O Cruises about my complaints about the Arcadia cruise in March.  The gist of the letter is that I should have advised P&O before the cruise of my medical condition, and essentially blames me for not being more specific in telling them beforehand and filling out a questionnaire about my health.  They say, “We are sorry that you were highly disappointed with the service you received on board. Passengers are advised to inform us prior to sailing …”

All I wanted was a working fridge!  I asked three times that something be done, but no-one got back to me.  The nurse in the medical centre knew I was making a simple request for cool storage, and she knew my name and cabin number, but she never followed up.

Not good enough, Ms Caballero at P&O.  You’ll be hearing from me again.  But P&O will never get me as a passenger again.