- by M Santos
- The Guardian
- Issue #2162
Photo: pickpik.com (public domain)
People with disabilities, the aged, the sick, the unemployed and other social security recipients, the most vulnerable in the community and those who capitalism sees as worthless are expected to make a massive contribution to the funding of AUKUS and “budget repair.”
Ronald Mizen writing in the pro-AUKUS Australian Financial Review let the cat out of the bag:
“The Albanese government faces billions of dollars in public sector funding cliffs, which bureaucrats warn threaten service delivery, key government initiatives and thousands of jobs.
“Key government departments including Health, Climate and Energy, Social Services and Attorney-Generals sounded the alarm in their incoming briefs to ministers, warning of budget cuts as large as 50 per cent in coming years and asking where they should plan to cut workers.”
In addition, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has forecast a three per cent decrease in the wages bill for public servants. This, along with a ten percent wage increase, does not add up. Something has to give. According to the PBO that would mean the loss of 22,500 jobs if departments were to meet their budgets.
“The worst of the looming budget shortfalls take effect from 2026-27 when at least 100 programs, and likely dozens more, will have their funding expire,” Mizen says. There is no certainty that these programs, many of them important community programs will have their funding renewed.
The cost-cutting to fund AUKUS is already underway.
AGED CARE
Amendments have been made to the Act governing aged care, with changes to come into effect late this year to home care packages. The government describes the measures as “better targeting,” weasel words for making it harder to qualify.
At present there are 120,000 people on a waiting list for the necessary assessment to qualify for a package and another 87,000 already assessed as eligible waiting for packages to be released.
The government had delayed release of additional aged care packages until November promising 83,000 new packages. Some have been waiting more than 12 months. Some have died waiting. When the Greens, other cross-benchers, and the Coalition joined forces, the government was forced to release 20,000 now.
Labor is seeking to cut costs by keeping people off the scheme when costs could be significantly reduced by replacing the market-based system with a public one.
NDIS
The NDIS’s administrative body, the NDIA, has been sending out reviews to participants, costing them thousands of dollars in medical and other reports to prove their needs have not changed only to still cut their funding.
The government has announced transfer support for children with “mild to moderate developmental delay and autism” from the NDIS to Medicare. The promised $1 billion in funding for them does not match the amount spent under the NDIS.
A joint statement from 10 disability representative organisations expressed disappointment that the government had not consulted the disability community before making the announcement.
Nick Avery, the chief executive of the South West Autism Network (SWAN) in Western Australia noted: “Ejecting kids with lifelong, permanent and significant disability breaks the promise of the NDIS. There needs to be investment in providing flexible, individualised and group-based supports …”
SOCIAL SECURITY
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek’s department is forecast to have a total cut in funding of $213 million by the end of 2028-29 with an estimated loss of 1,190 jobs from 3,418 staff – a reduction of 35 per cent with further cuts to follow.
Age pensioners have just taken another hit with the government increasing the deeming rate of financial assets they hold by 0.5% to make a saving of $1.8 billion. This cut will see many pensioners removed from their pension or have their payments reduced.
The unemployed remain subjected to a punitive $793.60 per fortnight – around $56.69 per day. The Youth Allowance is the same, also well below the poverty line or enough to meet basic needs, let alone present at job interviews.
HEALTH CARE
To cut costs to Medicare of GP visits, pharmacists are gradually being given a greater role in prescribing common medications without a visit to a GP.
At the same time, Medicare rebates have not risen enough to encourage GPs to bulk bill general patients.
It should not be forgotten that while these and other cuts are being made, the population is increasing annually.
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland’s department has warned that 32 programs due to expire by 2028-29, stand not to be renewed, resulting in an $81.2 million or 26.6 per cent funding cut.
These programs include parts of the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021-2030 and the High-Risk Terrorist Offenders Scheme, which is designed to manage individuals convicted of terrorism offences after their prison sentence ends.
EDUCATION
John Falzon from the progressive Per Capita think tank when addressing the Australian Education Union (AEU) in the ACT on Education Day 2025 made the point that education is a human right. “It should not be treated as a commodity. Which is why the public education system should be properly resourced and funded.
Public education is a powerful reminder that there are some things too precious to leave to the market. Public schools, and the educators who work in them, are a bulwark against growing inequality, a defence of democracy, a space for creativity, learning and respect, and building blocks for a more equitable society.”
Public schools continue to be chronically underfunded. Instead of increasing funding to public schools the Productivity Commission has suggested that off-the-shelf lesson plans should be developed for teachers to help them save time and teach outside their area of expertise!
The AEU said the Commission had correctly identified unsustainable workloads and teacher shortages as major issues in school education. ‘One size fits all’ lesson plans and no additional funding are not a solution – nothing could be worse. Student needs vary considerably with classes and across schools.
Universities have been slashing staff and Labor has not repealed the previous Morrison government’s a hefty increase in the cost of non-STEM degrees.
As for public housing, that is not on the Labor government’s agenda. Instead its schemes support first-time home buyers and developers.
Labor also steadfastly refuses to tackle the rental crisis, not just the shortage of rental accommodation but unaffordable and rising rents.
CLIMATE
Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s department forecasts its funding would be cut by almost half from $357 million in 2025-26 to $180 million by 2028-29.
At the same time Labor aims to hit 82 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2030, necessary to reduce emissions to its inadequate target of 43 per cent on 2005 levels.
A spokesperson for Bowen said the 50 per cent budget reduction was “simply the result of a number of time-limited programs coming to their natural conclusion.”
“This doesn’t mean we’re reducing our commitment to climate and energy policy,” he said.
These cuts to government departments and other shortfalls in areas such as women’s and Indigenous services all contribute to the funding of war preparations including AUKUS.
