https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/chalmers-fantasy-of-making-a-better-capitalism-is-absurd,17189


The problem with Chalmers' essay about "value-based capitalism" is that it's a bunch of benign long term aspirations - much like Labor's talk of reforming Medicare.

But just as with Medicare, the current Labor government is hamstrung by their determination to deliver massive tax cuts promised by the last government, massively increase defense spending and pursue a lower deficit despite the fact we have among the lowest budget deficits and public deft as a percentage of GDP in the developed world.

Faced with reports of a radical reduction in this year's budget deficit, Chalmers response isn't relief so much as embarrassment and an insistence that no additional public spending is possible.

So with Medicare we get vague talk of allowing nurses, chemists and other related professions to prescribe medications that can currently only be prescribed by Doctors.

But what's actually needed is a major boost to the Medicare rebate. Which in the eyes of our current government is intolerable because it'd cost $3 billion a year for a 10% increase and probably $9-12 billion a year to significantly increase bulk-billing rates.

I'd like to think that the continuing improvement in the budget balance will prompt significant spending increases in the May Budget but it probably won't - and as a direct result, one of the richest countries in the world will continue to have one in eight people living in poverty.

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