Foley’s Budget gets big business thumbs up – hits low paid, pensioners

“Peter Vaughan of Business SA has given Kevin Foley’s latest Budget the thumbs up but it’s one in the eye for the low paid and pensioners,” Bob Briton, State Secretary of the Communist Party of Australia, said last night.

“The people with the least resources will be paying the most for Foley’s golden credit card with extra water charges, increased car registration and public transport costs,” he continued. “The meagre increases given via the aged pension in the Federal Budget would by now have been wiped out.”

“The Premier claims the heart of the Budget is water and the heart of that is the desalination plant. The spending on the desal project absolutely eclipses other water commitments and, together with the attack on public transport users, shows just how out of touch the government is from the environmental needs of the time,” Mr Briton added.

“The capping of public services wage increases at 2.5 percent locks in a pay cut for these workers meaning lower living standards, reduced purchasing power and downwards pressure on the economy. Workers and small business are being handed the bill for the recession.”

“The effective wage cut will make it harder to attract teachers to public education and nurses and midwives to the public health system. Our Party will support union efforts to resist this wrongheaded approach,” Mr Briton concluded.