[John Towers]

Hi,

I’ll start by saying this doesn’t directly relate to NSW at this time but it is something I think people should be mindful of.

As you will recall the Feds reduced their rebate funding in the last budget. At that time the State stepped in & guaranteed funding at the same level as previous years for the 2015/2015 year. There was no comment made regarding future funding.

It has come to my attention that the SA Government, who did something similar for the 2014/2015 year, has announced that they will not be picking up the shortfall for future years. In effect there may be NO rebates in SA from July 1 2015.

LGASA has been in contact with all Councils advising of this development & is requesting that Councils do not pick up the tab for these rebates going forward. It will be interesting to see if & how this develops.

The issue is NSW is further complicated in that there is a state election due in March so I can’t see the Government making a bad news announcement such as this prior to that, but who knows what may happen after.

If you want to read the SA stuff http://www.saira.com.au/.

As I said nothing has happened at this stage but better to be ‘prepared’ than just get a shock closer to July 2015.

JT

[John Towers]

I have been advised that there was commentary in The Sunday Telegraph of 25/1/2015 regarding this matter. It would appear there is still some time until the bite of the Federal Election hits.

Premier Baird announced:

NSW Premier Mike Baird has pledged to bail out a previously federal-funded pensioner concession scheme while calling on the commonwealth to reverse its “savage” cuts. The election pledge follows the scheme being gouged of millions of dollars in funding by the federal government at the last Budget. The state government stepped in temporarily to ensure pensioners were not suddenly
forced to pay full price for public transport fares, energy and water bills, council rates and car registrations.

Mr Baird will today announce a Coalition government will continue to prop up the scheme for another three years at a cost of $343 million, while at the same time demanding the commonwealth
reinstate its funding.

“We believe the cuts to these concessions were harsh, which is why we acted swiftly to restore this vital support to the state’s pensioners and seniors for 12 months,” he said. “With our budget now
under control and the state’s finances strong we are in a position to extend this vital support for a further three years.”

Minister for Ageing John Ajaka said the government would continue to demand the commonwealth fulfil its commitments to NSW seniors, with the government set to raise the issue in future white paper discussions.

“A key commitment of the NSW Liberals and Nationals is protecting vulnerable members of our community, such as pensioners and seniors,” he said.

If I was cynical I’d think there was an election looming……………… and/or there were amalgamations in the wind.

JT

[Suzi Flynn]

Thanks for the tip, JT.

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