Appeal for carers' bonus to stay
Posted Sun Mar 9, 2008 4:28pm AEDT

A wheelchair bound elderly woman from Tasmania's north has appealed to the Prime Minister to retain the annual bonus for carers.

Pat Stafford is alarmed by speculation the $1,600 payment will be scrapped in the Rudd Government's first budget.

The 79-year old has motor neurone disease and says the payment's been a godsend.

It helps keep a car on the road and pay the winter heating bills.

Mrs Stafford is cared for by her 80 year old husband.

"If it weren't for him being able to care for me I would either never get out of the house or I would be in an institution," said Mrs Stafford.

Tasmanian Liberal Senator Guy Barnett says the economic value of carers seems to have escaped the Prime Minister.

"They are the unsung heroes in our nation they provide billions of dollars in savings each year," said Senator Barnett.

He says almost 70-thousand carers in Tasmania alone rely on the bonus for quality of life.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday he had no intention of leaving carers in the lurch and that'll be evident on budget night.

Rudd created false image of economy in crisis
- Abetz
March 11, 2008 10:04am



THE Federal Opposition has accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of creating a false image of an economy in crisis.

The "silly" campaign is causing the Labor government policy difficulties such as the reported plan to axe one-off payments to carers and pensioners, coalition frontbencher Eric Abetz says.

Mr Rudd yesterday rejected continued reports the government was looking to shelve the payments as part of wider budget cuts.

Senator Abetz said Labor had falsely denigrated the former Howard government's economic record and that was causing them problems with their own policies.

"What we have had in the first hundred days of the Rudd government is spin upon spin and now the chickens are coming home to roost and he (Kevin Rudd) has to make some decisions and he is finding that very, very difficult," Senator Abetz told reporters in Canberra.

"What all this is about is Kevin Rudd trying to create the imagery of an economy in crisis which clearly it is not.

"If he wouldn't have embarked on the silly campaign of denigrating the Liberal economic heritage that was left to this country he wouldn't be in the trouble that he is in today."

Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham said Mr Rudd was "clearly fudging his words" on payments to carers and pensioners.

"He (Rudd) needs to be very clear cut that pensioners and carers ... will not be worse off," Senator Birmingham said.

There was much concern coming from the carers and elderly in his state (South Australia).

"I would expect to see people there disgusted if Mr Rudd were to take one cent out of the pockets of the carers and the elderly."

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said Labor's election promise of $31 billion in tax cuts would better be spent on carers and the elderly.

"What Kevin Rudd has said is that he might hold the status-quo in some way or another but there is going to be nothing new in the budget for carers and pensioners," Senator Brown said.

"The big end of town is going to get the lion's share of $31 billion in tax cuts and these Australians who have done so much for this country are going to get nothing new."

Senator Brown called on Labor to review its election commitment.

"When it comes to squeezing carers and pensioners - 2.5 million people - it is just a terrible comment on the Rudd government, the hard heartedness of this government at its first budget."

Liberal Senator Guy Barnett said pensioners and carers knew they would be better off under a coalition government.

He said a constituent with motor neuron disease confirmed this to him during the weekend.

"(She said) John Howard was the quiet achiever and Kevin Rudd was the quiet deceiver because they (carers) knew nothing about this before the election."
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...-29277,00.html