Agencies divided over ‘best’ or ‘cruel’ Budget

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
23 May 2004

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Agencies divided over ‘best’ or ‘cruel’ Budget

By Chris Lindsay

Catholic Health Australia and the St Vincent de Paul Society have divided opinions on this years Federal Budget, varying from “Howard’s best” to “cruel and cynical”.

Catholic Health’s chief executive officer, Francis Sullivan: said it was “the best from the Howard Government for the aged care sector and older Australians”.

However, Vinnies’ Social Justice Committee president, Terry McCarthy, described it as “a cynical vote-buying exercise, cruel in its exclusion of the disadvantaged and delivered at the expense of the nation’s long term development, prosperity and equality”.

Vinnies accused the Government of stashing away a massive Budget surplus for the election while millions of people were being deprived of the services and benefits they should have received on a regular ongoing basis.

Mr Sullivan said the $2.2 billion aged care package in this year’s Budget delivers “welcome relief to a sector facing a crisis”.

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