审计委员会报告发布，提议从出生到死亡一连串的削减,澳洲大众地产投资集团微信公众号文章

隶属于联邦政府的审计委员会发布报告，建议对政府服务和福利支付进行一连串的大幅削减。

受到影响的包括家庭福利，托儿，医疗，教育，失业金和养老金，老年护理以及全国残疾人保险计划。

审计委员会还建议大力削减行业补助以及公共服务，并建议政府大幅改革对企业的收税方法。

财长Joe Hockey反应很快地指出，这并不是预算，但是没有排除采纳委员会建议的可能。

委员会从去年10月成立，主要关注政府15项重大开支项目，并指出预算的长期前景非常不妙。

这篇报告长1200页，提出了86项建议。委员会说他们建议的结构性的变革能为国家每年节省几百亿，到2023-24年实现盈余1％的目标。

家庭

有孩子的家庭受打击严重，FTB B废除，而FTB A 收紧。目前约有60％的家庭，大多数是单亲或者单收入家庭，领取FTB B，最多每年可达4,241元。

托儿及产假

目前的托儿费补贴和回扣，将被合并，并进行收入测试。但是委员会建议托儿费补贴也包括目前那些不被包括在内的托儿服务，比如保姆。

这部分的款项将由减少带薪产假支付省下的钱来支付。委员会希望带薪产假工资上限降为目前的平均工资－年薪57,460元。

昨天带薪产假政策取得了重大突破，艾伯特同意把工资上限从15万降低到10万。

医疗

委员会建议政府采取行动，迫使高收入者使用私人医疗保险，并废除私保补贴。

被广泛报道过的看病付费也在委员会的建议单子上。但是和之前说的高收入者每次看病付6元不同，委员会建议每次看病付15元，有优惠卡的则付5元。

委员会建议砍掉包括化验在内的几百项医疗服务，节省190亿。

免费药物也将成为历史，药物补贴计划将进行全方位的改革。病人自掏腰包买处方药的支出将提高5元，而优惠卡持有者在安全网的上限达到后，每张处方多出2元。

教育

政府对学校的投资将以2017年的支出为上限，2018年以后额外的拨款要求将由州政府承担。

委员会要求大学生付更高的学费，“把学生承担的部分由41％提高到55％”。

对于那些年龄在22－30岁之间，无孩并且领取失业救济金超过一年的人，政府可以要求他们搬迁到其他工作机会更多的地区，不然他们就无法领取失业补贴。

最低工资的增长应该受到控制，最多是平均工资的44％。

退休

关于政府养老金的变革是此次报告的中心内容。委员会要求政府支出的最大头项目，价值高达400亿的政府养老金（aged pension）和平均周薪挂钩，为后者的28％，而不是福利部目前使用的较高的男性平均工资。

委员会建议到2053年，把符合领取政府养老金的年龄提高到70岁，并说这不会影响出生于1965年之前的人。

委员会还建议收紧残疾人以及照顾残疾人的补贴。

对于那些自供的养老金，委员会建议把提取年龄，目前为60岁，固定为领取政府养老金的年龄减去5岁。

委员会还建议政府考虑外包目前由福利部管理的福利支付系统。

残疾人保险计划

得到两党支持的NDIS也将被放慢引入速度，而不是之前由工党政府设定的2019年7月1日。

公务员裁员

报告的一个重要话题就是削减公共服务，减少资源重叠，并允许私企进入这个领域。

如果委员会对此的建议全部被采纳的话，将有15,000名公务员失去工作。

委员会建议对政府机关的角色以及数目进行改革。对现有的主要73个政府机关，它建议裁掉7个，合并35个，22个并到其他部门，私有化9个，另有22个有待评估。

税

这个报告提出的最惊世骇俗的建议之一就是让联邦政府允许州和领地自行收取个人所得税。

委员会把目前的32％的税率作为一个例子，说这个税率可降为22％，然后由州和领地来决定他们的“州附加所得税”。

如果这条被采纳的话，那么情况就会和美国类似，各州之间展开竞争，使得税费从总体来看不会增加。

Commission of Audit recommends cradle-to-grave cuts in report released by Federal Government

A raft of potentially explosive spending cuts to government services and payments have been recommended by the Federal Government's Commission of Audit.

Family payments, child care, health care, education, unemployment and pension payments, aged care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme are all among those areas in the firing line.

The audit also recommends swingeing cuts to industry assistance and the public service and a radical shake-up of the way all governments tax and do business.

Treasurer Joe Hockey has been quick to emphasise that the report is "not the budget" but has not ruled out adopting any of the proposals.

Since it was set up in October, the commission has focused on the 15 biggest Commonwealth spending areas and found the long-term outlook for the budget is "ominous".

Its 86 recommendations, detailed in more than 1,200 pages, address major structural changes that the commission says could save the budget tens of billions of dollars a year and achieve a surplus of 1 per cent by 2023-24.

Commission chief and former head of the Business Council of Australia Tony Shepherd says the best course of action for the Government is to "act now, act incrementally, act fairly".

He has advised against "sudden shocks" for people, but says the Government "must bring future spending commitments in line with our means".

"Let's spend the taxpayers' money as though it were our money," Mr Shepherd said.

"Let's spend it carefully and frugally."

The commission says in its report that it has "not undertaken detailed costings of these recommendations" and says portfolio-by-portfolio reviews should yield "significant additional savings".

The Treasurer says the report proves the Coalition "inherited a mess".

"The challenge now is to get on with the job of fixing the mess, and we will," he said.

Some key recommendations

· Raise age pension age to 70 by 2053

· Include family home in means test from 2027

· Slow roll-out of NDIS

· Allow states to impose personal income tax surcharge, offset by reduction in federal rates

· Scrap Family Tax Benefit Part B and a new means test for Part A with maximum rate of payment reducing from at $48,837

· Lower paid parental leave scheme salary cap to average week earnings (currently $57,460) and use savings for expanded child care payments

· Privatise Australia Post, Snowy Hydro among other government-owned enterprises

· Abolish the Australia Network

He said the report is "to the Government, not of the Government", but would not lay out which recommendations the Coalition would adopt or reject.

"I want to lay down to you - this is not the budget," he said. "And we have carefully and methodically gone through the recommendations.

"There are a number of recommendations that would be described as courageous, to use a term familiar with some in Canberra.

"There are some recommendations that represent common sense. When you see our budget you'll understand that we are focused on responding to the challenge in a measured and methodical way."

Labor has leapt on the report as proof the Government plans to hit working families in this month's budget.

"It is a plan to cut the services that families rely on and to put greater pressure on cost of living," Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said.

"If he gets his way, Tony Abbott will turn the most basic things in life - education, health care, support for older Australians - into a massive every-day struggle for working families."

Families

People with children would be hit with cuts to Family Tax Benefit payments, with FTB Part B abolished, and Part A subject to tighter eligibility tests.

Around 60 per cent of families, mostly single parent families or those with one parent staying at home, receive FTB Part B, which pays a maximum of $4,241 a year.

But the commission says it is "not well targeted" and is a "significant" disincentive for mothers to work.

The other payment, FTB Part A, costs the budget around $15 billion a year and is paid to around 70 per cent of families.

The commission says the income cut-off should be lowered to better help "those in need".

Childcare and parental leave

Childcare payments, currently the Childcare Benefit and Childcare Rebate, are proposed to be merged and means-tested.

However, the commission recommends the payment be available for types of child care not currently covered, including nannies.

That would be funded by savings made to the Prime Minister's signature wage-replacement paid parental leave scheme. The commission wants to lower the threshold and cap it at average weekly earnings – currently $57,460 a year.

Yesterday, in a major backdown, Tony Abbott confirmed he had already decided to lower the cap from his preferred $150,000 annual wage to $100,000.

Health

The health system is currently "not well equipped" to deal with Australia's ageing population and rising costs, according to the commission.

It says high income earners should be forced to take out private health insurance to cover basic health needs, in place of Medicare, with no access to the private health insurance rebate.

The widely reported Medicare co-payment is also on the commission's wish-list, but at a higher rate than has been mooted: $15 per visit and $5 for concession card holders, instead of the $6 fee for high-income earners.

It wants cuts to the $19 billion Medicare Benefits Schedule, which includes hundreds of medical services, for example pathology.

Free medicines would also be a thing of the past, with broad changes recommended to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The commission says co-payments for medicines should be increased by $5 and for concession card holders a $2 fee should be imposed when the safety net limit has been reached.

Learn or earn

Schools spending from the Commonwealth should be capped at 2017 levels from 2018 and beyond, according to the commission, with all policy and funding responsibility handed to the states.

It wants university students to pay more for their education, calling for "increasing the average proportion of costs paid by students from 41 per cent to 55 per cent".

People between the ages of 22 and 30 with no children who have been on unemployment benefits for a year should be required to move to areas with more job opportunities or lose the payment, the commission argues.

Growth in the minimum wage should be contained by establishing a benchmark of 44 per cent of average weekly earnings, even though the minimum wage has little bearing on government spending.

Retirement

Changes to pensions are central to the commission's proposals. It calls for the age pension – the budget's single biggest item at $40 billion – to be indexed to 28 per cent of average weekly earnings instead of the current link to the higher average weekly earnings of men.

The commission says the rationale is an "anachronism" given the major role women now play in the workforce. As previously reported, it wants the age pension eligibility age raised to 70, by 2053, and says the change would not affect anyone born before 1965.

The age at which someone could access their superannuation - currently set at 60 - should also be increased to five years before the age pension age, according to the commission.

It wants fewer people able to access the seniors health care card by including superannuation payments in the eligibility test for the first time.

The commission also argues the full value of the family home should be included in the means test for aged care support.

The disability support pension and carers payments would also be subject to tighter eligibility rules.

Acknowledging the "significant risks involved", the commission has also recommended the Government examine the option of outsourcing the government payment system currently administered by Centrelink.

NDIS

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which passed Parliament with bipartisan support and to wide acclaim a year ago, is also set to be wound back.

The commission says it must be introduced more slowly than the July 1, 2019 date set by the previous Labor government.

It also wants the scheme implemented by "exercising budget control to ensure long-term financial viability".

Public service targeted

A key theme running throughout the report is the need for cuts to the public service to avoid duplication and to allow the private sector to step in.

The commission says if all of its recommendations are adopted, 15,000 public servants will lose their jobs.

It wants wholesale changes to the number and role of government bodies, reducing the number of existing major government bodies from 73 by cutting seven, merging 35, consolidating 22 into departments and agencies and privatising nine, with a further 26 to be reassessed.

Taxes

One of the more startling recommendations from the commission is that the Commonwealth allow the states and territories to collect income tax to "make them more responsible in their own sphere".

It gives the example that the current rate of 32 per cent could be cut to 22 per cent, allowing the states to raise the gap or set their own level in a "state income tax surcharge".

If adopted, it would allow a United States-type scheme of tax competition between states with a guarantee that taxes would not rise overall.

The audit's key recommendations

· Raise age pension age to 70 by 2053

· Include family home in new means test from 2027

· Raise superannuation preservation age to 62 by 2027

· Slow roll-out of National Disability Insurance Scheme

· Up to $15 co-payment to visit doctor and access Medicare services

· Require wealthy Australians to have private health insurance and drop rebate

· Increase co-payments for taxpayer-funded PBS-covered medicines

· Open pharmacy sector to competition, such as from supermarkets

· Allow states to impose personal income tax surcharge, offset by reduction in federal rates

· Scrap Family Tax Benefit Part B and a new means test for Part A with maximum rate of payment reducing from at $48,837