Tony Abbott - a Robbin' Would-if-he-Could

Nicholas Reece, in to-day's Fairfax, examines all the current carry on from the ever-more conservative right in Australia of class warfare.

To put it simply, while Australians of both sides of politics have, for the better part of a century, tried to provide a safety net for those at the lower economic end. We now have a section of our population who are very well off and who have a sense of entitlement on show for all to see.  Their greed could now imperil the ability of this nation to assist those with real need. 

Reece sets out the list as follows:

■ Lower the tax-free threshold from $18,200 to $6000. This will drag more than one million low-income earners back into the tax system. It will also increase the taxes for 6 million Australians earning less than $80,000.

■ Abolish the low-income superannuation contribution. This will reimpose a 15 per cent tax on superannuation contributions for people earning less than $37,000.

■ Abolish the proposed 15 per cent tax on income from superannuation above $100,000 a year. The combined effect of these two superannuation changes is that 16,000 high-income earners with superannuation savings in excess of $2 million will get a tax cut while 3.6 million workers earning less than $37,000 will pay more than $4 billion extra in tax on their super over the next four years.

■ Abolish the means test on the private health insurance rebate. This will deliver a $2.4 billion tax cut over three years for individuals earning over $84,001 a year, or couples earning over $168,001. People on lower incomes will receive no benefit.

■ Introduce a paid parental leave scheme that replaces a mother's salary up to $150,000. To put it crudely, this means a low-income mum gets about $600 per week while a high-income mum gets close to $3000.

■ Abolish the means-tested Schoolkids Bonus that benefits 1.3 million families by providing up to $410 for each primary school child and up to $820 for each high school child.

Australians need to consider carefully their vote at this election.  Even if you don't like the Gillard Government much - you could find that if you think you are in the frying pan now that a vote for Abbott could land you in the fire.