When Prime Minister Tony Abbott recently threatened to "shirtfront" president Vladimir Putin, Russian diplomats rushed to find a dictionary.

Once they worked out what he meant, the word was quickly adopted by world leaders, commentators and comics.

The PM had succeeded in taking a word familiar to Australian football fans - traditionally describing a confrontation - and making it world famous.

Perhaps not surprisingly, "shirtfront" has been named as Australia's word of the year by The Australian National Dictionary Centre.

"Look, I'm going to shirtfront Mr Putin ... you bet you are, you bet I am," Mr Abbott said in October.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-10/shirtfront-named-australias-word-of-the-year/5956328

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Meanwhile the petty immature infantile incompetent shirtfronter is also shitfronting medicare by hook or by crook...

Tony Abbott didn't say it, but his Medicare co-payment backdown is a belated admission that a centrepiece of his May budget was unfair to the elderly, to families with young children and the vulnerable.

Just like the promise that his signature parental leave scheme will be better targeted and that modest entitlements for defence personnel facing a pay cut will be restored. In each case, the unfairness of the original decision is the common denominator.

But will Abbott be given a tick by voters for removing his third "barnacle" in little more than one week, or punished for the "raggedness" that preceded the cave-in and the questions that remain unanswered?

Will voters accept that "a good policy" has been improved after the cabinet took on board the "principal concerns" of the community, or judge that a bad policy (which broke a promise) has simply been modified?

Will they accept Abbott's characterisation of "an intelligent and sophisticated response" from government to the "quite reasonable observations" of the backbench and the community"? Or will they see the retreat as a sign of panic?

Once again, Abbott cannot bring himself to say he got it wrong, but instead chooses to blame Labor for leaving a budget mess that forced the government to make tough decisions. It matters not that revenue raised goes to a medical research fund, not the budget bottom line.

As he described it, this was a best practice example of how the system should work. "The glory of our system is you get proposals, you get reactions, you get improvements, and you get solutions" is how he put it.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/medicare-copayment-penny-drops-as-abbott-vows-to-listen-and-learn-20141209-123m55.html

Solutions?... Tony's solutions are as bad as the problem he's created and the previous dumb and unfair solutions he thought he could get away with... Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop are not improving... They are ignoramuses being dragged along screaming and kicking and only change their mind because they are losing ground... Make them loose more ground because their "solutions" are as petty immature infantile and incompetent as what they wre planning before, except they make it sound an octave higher.

Do not trust Abbott, nor Julie... They live in the same pod...

The Australian people don't want a GP tax in any form, says John Ryan.

Even though PM Tony Abbott protests that the GP Tax was discussed before the election and ought not to have been a surprise — it was.

He premises his argument on the fact it wasn’t categorically ruled out before the election.

On that basis he also didn’t rule out fire-bombing Perth, so perhaps the people of Burswood might be wise to invest in a bunker or two.

In the PM’s favour, maybe he believes the selective leaking, part of the "conditioning process" that occurred before the Budget in May, was akin to serious policy discussion regarding this vital function of government.

It was met with a storm of objections. Amongst many was the fact that hospital emergency departments would be overloaded — a genuine concern obviously. 

In an effort to free himself of the shackles of dire unpopularity, on 26 November PM Abbott declared he would be cleaning off the barnacles.

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/we-want-medicare--not-mediocre,7173

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The attempt at the destruction of medicare by right-wing governments is nothing new... see  Used to be Medibank...

It isn’t the co-payment they are killing; it is Medicare

Posted by John, December 10th, 2014 - under Abbott government, Medicare.

Tony Abbott hasn’t backed down on his scheme to make us pay for going to the doctor. He has merely changed the focus of who imposes the co-payment and hopes that we will blame doctors rather than the government for any increase in our health bills.

Under the Budget attack on the poor and workers it was going to be that we’d have to pay $7 to go to the doctor. Now it is a bit more sneaky.

The government will reduce the Medicare rebate for going to your local doctor by $5, ie down from $37.05 to $32.05. For pensioners, under 16s and those on concession cards there will be no change to the rebate. Yet despite these changes the Government estimates it will still receive over $3 billion from the ‘reforms’ over the next 4 years, much the same amount as for the $7 co-payment. In other words the government is confident that we will end up paying just as much under these changes as we would have under the old proposals. So nothing has really changed.

On top of that, the idea that we need to salvage Medicare is given the lie by the fact none of this $750 million a year is going into primary health care. The money will go to a Medical Research Fund, the interest on which will fund medical research. A good initiative perhaps on its own, but why are we paying for it? Why aren’t the people who benefit most in money terms from a fit workforce, the bosses, paying for it? And if public health spending is out of control, unmanageable or whatever other lies the Government tells us, why isn’t this $5 co-payment going to fund primary care, hospitals and nurses?

Doctors who bulk bill will face a choice – continue to bulk bill, but now at the lower rate, and thus reduce their income by up to almost 14% ($5/$37) or recoup all or some of that loss by charging their clients up to $5. They could also of course speed up consultations even more so they make up the loss in income by seeing patients in say 6 minute blocks rather than ten. For lawyers and accountants 6 minutes might sound familiar as the standard billing time. This government wants to reduce medical care to time billing and price signals.

The government will also freeze the rebate at $32.05 for the next four years. So bulk billing doctors will be under even more pressure over time to abandon bulk billing or speed up consultations.

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read more: http://enpassant.com.au/2014/12/10/it-isnt-the-co-payment-they-are-killing-it-is-medicare/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+en-passant+%28En+Passant%29

Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support staff will read messages of protest to call centre customers and go to work in casual dress in the first stage of an industrial action against their employer today.

But the Department of Human Services (DHS) has warned staff they could have their pay docked if they participate.

Earlier this year the department offered staff a new employment agreement, which would remove their super guarantee of 15.4 per cent and require them to work an extra six minutes per day in exchange for a pay rise of 0.75 per cent per annum.

Months of negotiations between the department and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) have failed to yield a solution and in November 15,000 members voted to take protected industrial action.

The union has directed affiliated call centre staff to read the following statement to customers throughout the day, before processing their requests:

"Sorry you have been kept waiting. The Government has cut thousands of jobs over the past 10 years. DHS union members are fighting for safer workloads and better services for you. If you want more information about our campaign, please email safeguard@cpsu.org.au. Now, how can I help you?"

DHS staff have also been told not to wear their corporate uniform, and to use an auto reply for internal emails that reads:

"Thanks for your email. I am taking industrial action in support of a fair and reasonable agreement for all DHS workers. We reject the Government's low pay offer and cuts to our rights and conditions. "

The union has also banned the use of auxiliary codes, which call centre staff use to let their managers what they are working on.

Staff in Centrelink and Medicare shop fronts have been told not to discuss the action with customers, unless they are asked why they are not in uniform.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-11/centrelink-call-centre-staff-read-protest-messages-to-customers/5958818

Doctors are being asked to play God and decide who are the 'deserving poor', and if they choose not to charge the GP copayment, the cost will be coming out of their own pockets, writes Tim Woodruff.

The announcement that the proposed $7 GP co-payment will be replaced by a $5 rebate cut to GPs when they see non-pensioners and non-concession card holders is a kick in the guts to working Australians, and a threat to affordable health care for all but the rich.

The intention of the Government is unchanged. It still regards its budget policy as a good policy, but one that isn't possible to legislate.

It wants doctors to charge co-payments. It wants patients to see doctors less often, claiming that patients see doctors too often despite a complete lack of evidence for such a claim.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-12/woodruff-this-gp-price-signal-will-work-and-thats-frightening/5962594

Tony Turdy has a frightening lack of understanding but with a frightening intent: DESTROY MEDICARE. It has always been his intention and this proves he is sneaky enough to try it once again...

From Ross Gittins

As an accountant turned journo, I try to ensure the creative accounting used to make the budget figures look better than they really are doesn't go unexposed. But I've never seen a con as audacious as the proposed medical research future fund.

I wrote at length about all the accounting tricks perpetrated by the Gillard government, but now it's the Abbott government's turn.

In their budget update during last year's election campaign, the heads of Treasury and Finance signed off on a deficit estimate for 2013-14 of $30 billion. But four months later Joe Hockey and Mathias Cormann popped up with their own mid-year review claiming the deficit they'd inherited would be closer to $47 billion.

Today you'll hear Hockey repeat that claim. But that higher number was largely the result of our heroes indulging in a little creative accounting of their own.

About $7 billion of the $17 billion increase since the election was explained by Treasury revising down its forecasts for employment and wage growth and, hence, tax collections. Fair enough. But most of the remaining $10 billion involved dubious transactions our heroes claimed to have been forced to make because Labor had left them hanging.

The biggest was a transfer of $8.8 billion to the Reserve Bank – an amount the Reserve hadn't asked for and Treasury had recommended against. Its effect was to make Labor's last deficit look bigger and to make it easier for the Reserve to pay higher dividends into Hockey's subsequent budgets.

When in this year's budget Hockey announced the GP co-payment and various other cuts in health spending, he explained that these savings would be put in a new medical research future fund.

Once the money in the fund had built up $20 billion, the annual interest on the money in the fund would be used to pay for medical research. But under the changes announced last week, these payments from the net interest earnt would instead begin in 2015-16.

This is an accounting trick, but it seems only students of government accounting rules can see it. People think that since the savings are being spent building up the fund, there won't be any net saving to the budget until after the $20 billion target has been reached.

Patients will pay more to see a GP and find it harder to obtain an appointment as a result of government changes pursued without consultation, doctors have warned.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) on Thursday expressed its strong dissatisfaction with the government’s revised co-payment policy, which includes a four-year freeze on Medicare rebates and big cuts to rebates for consultations shorter than 10 minutes.

Estimates about the potential impact of the changes vary. The AMA’s president, Brian Owler, said suggestions by News Corp on Thursday that gap fees for non-bulk-billed patients could rise to $45 within three years “could be a conservative estimate”.

“Over the past week, the AMA went out to its members and asked our GPs what they thought of the new co-payment proposal and what we received back were some of the angriest emails the AMA has received over any issue in a long time,” he said.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/18/gp-co-payment-doctors-voice-anger-at-rebate-freeze-and-consultation-times

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has given his clearest signal yet that he may be preparing to dump his controversial plan for a fee to see a GP.

Mr Abbott also promised to appear regularly with NSW Premier Mike Baird during the state campaign in a move that could unnerve some Liberal MPs concerned that an "Abbott factor" could damage the popular Premier's election prospects.

Appearing at a press conference in Auckland following talks with his New Zealand counterpart John Key, Mr Abbott was asked about media reports that he would abandon the unpopular policy.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-hints-at-dropping-medicare-copayment-policy-20150228-13reyp.html

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About to lose his job, Abbott drops his dacks in front of doctor electorate... "See" he says, "nothing to hide in this handsome pack of budgies... All I want for myself is for you to keep me where I am, with love or not. I don't really care about Medicare, hospital care or hospices care... The only thing I care about is staying in the top job and driving you crazy (nuts)..."

See toon at top...