https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/06/16/mdkw-j16.html
"Last month’s federal budget delivered by the Albanese Labor government was
designed to give the impression of improved public health care funding, but
actually cemented damaging cuts to the crisis-ridden system.
The May budget built on a mid-year budget last October 2022, which reduced the
federal government’s share of public hospital funding with the states—from 50
percent to 45 percent—bound up with slashing pandemic spending. In total this
would mean a $2.4 billion cut over four years.
Total federal spending on health will fall by $11 billion in just two
years—from $115.5 billion in 2021–22 to $104.1 billion in 2023–24—primarily due
to the termination of COVID-19 safety measures, despite the ongoing pandemic.
A new surge in the virus is being completely ignored by governments and the
media, as part of a “forever COVID” policy adopted by capitalist governments
worldwide so that the pandemic does not impact on corporate profit.
The pressures of the pandemic have revealed the cracks in a system that has
been chronically underfunded by both Labor and Liberal-National governments for
decades. This has seen staff become infected with COVID-19, leading to massive
staffing shortages and high levels of health care staff burnout due to higher
workloads.
Many more people have died from COVID-19 under the Labor government than under
the previous Liberal-National government. It only took eight months after Labor
took office to see 9,332 fatalities, compared to 8,471 deaths under the
Morrison government."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
