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HEALTH
- Force high-income earners to take out private health insurance and remove access to the private health insurance rebate
- Introduce co-payments for all Medicare services: $15 per service for general patients and $5 per service for concession holders with payments reduced after 15 visits
- Encourage states to introduce co-payments for emergency ward visits for non-urgent medical complaints
- Increase co-payments by $5 for all medicines in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. No increase for concession card holders below the safety net threshold
- Deregulate ownership and location rules for pharmacies
EDUCATION
- Decrease Commonwealth contribution to higher education costs from 59 per cent to 45 per cent and increase the student share from 41 to 55 per cent
- Partial or full deregulation of university fees
- Increase interest rates on student (HELP) debt
- Graduates repay HELP debt once they earn the minimum wage ($32,354)
- Transfer all policy and funding responsibilities for schools to the states. Provide funding in three, non-transferable pools for public, Catholic and independent schools
- Do not proceed with final two years of Gonski funding
- Abolish all Commonwealth vocational education and training programs including support for apprentices
AGE PENSION & AGED CARE
- Link eligibility age to 77 per cent of life expectancy from 2033
- Include the value of family home in an assets test for new pensioners, but with a high threshold
- Peg the Age Pension to 28 per cent of Average Weekly Earnings after 15 years
- Include the full value of the family home in the aged care means test
- Limit carer payments to one payment per carer
- Introduce a $150,000 income test for carer payments
UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE MINIMUM WAGE
- Scrap the national minimum wage in favour of a new Minimum Wage benchmark of 44 per cent of Average Weekly Earnings. States can set their own minimum wages
- Single people aged 22-30 without dependents must relocate to high employment areas or lose access to unemployment benefits after 12 months
- Toughen income testing for unemployment benefits
FAMILY PAYMENTS
- Abolish Family Tax Benefit Part B
- Tighten eligibility for Family Tax Benefit Part A, removing the base rate for higher income families
WELFARE AND DISABILITY
- Slower phase-in of the National Disability Insurance Scheme
- New Disability Support Pension (DSP) pegged to 28 per cent of Average Weekly Earnings
- Introduce tougher means testing of DSP and end existing grandfathering arrangements
- Outsource the Department of Human Service's payments system to the private sector
DEFENCE
- Commission a new Defence White Paper
- Re-assess commitment to increase Defence spending to 2 per cent within a decade
- Increase transparency and control over new equipment projects
- Reduce size of Defence headquarters to 1998 levels
PAID PARENTAL LEAVE AND CHILDCARE
- Lower the Paid Parental Leave scheme wage replacement cap to $57,460
- Scrap the child care rebate and child care benefit and replace them with a single, means-tested payment
- Parents must be working, training or studying to receive childcare benefits
FOREIGN AID
- Don't tie foreign aid spending to Gross National Income
- Don't increase above inflation
PUBLIC BROADCASTING
- Benchmark ABC and SBS against each other and commercial broadcasters
- Scrap the Australia Network
TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURE
- Expand road user charges, especially for heavy vehicles
- Reduce tied funding for state infrastructure projects by creating a single infrastructure funding pool
- Introduce rolling strategic reviews of major spending programs
INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
- Consolidate 150 Commonwealth Indigenous programs into no more than seven programs
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
- Abolish 35 government bodies
- Merge 6 bodies
- Consolidate 57 bodies
PRIVATISATIONS
Short term:
- Snowy Hydro Limited
- Australian Hearing Services
- Defence Housing Australia
- Australian Submarine Corporation
Medium term:
- Australia Post
- Australian Rail Track Corporation
- Royal Australian Mint
Long term:
- NBN Co
