It was reported that Mr Abbott took almost identical proposals to todays policy to Shadow Cabinet in November 2009 (http://www.smh.com.au/national/abbott-targets-welfare-payments-20100223-p0p5.html).
Then, Mr Abbott costed his plans to boost participation in the economy at $11 billion.
At the time he proposed to pay for the plan by:
- Hiking the pension age
- Increasing the excise on alcohol
- Increasing the excise on cigarettes
This is typically reckless economic mismanagement from Mr Abbott and his finance spokesman Andrew Robb. Mr Abbott and Mr Robb have no credibility when it comes to savings measures. The last time they unveiled a package of savings measures, in response to the January natural disasters, it contained $700 million in double-counts.
And during the election campaign, Treasury and the Department of Finance found a $10.6 billion black hole in their election costings.
Mr Abbott is not serious about finding genuine savings; he is only interested in a political fight.
If you can't manage a budget, you are not fit to run the economy - and if you can't run the economy you are simply not fit to be Prime Minister.