Rudd has prescription for Aussie health

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will spend billions making it easier for Australians to
look after their health - and he's promising to make sure their financial future
stays in tip top shape too.
With opinion polls diving and his personal standing with voters in free fall, Mr
Rudd will be hoping the government's third budget - delivered just months out from
the next federal election - will be the right prescription to once again deliver him
the keys to the Lodge.
Health was the big winner, getting an injection of more than $7 billion over the
next four years including $2.2 billion to build more GP super clinics, improve
access to after hours care and expand the role of nurses in doctors' surgeries.
Reforms to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, saving around $2 billion, will mean
big savings on prescription drugs.
And despite stringent denials from Treasurer Wayne Swan, who insists it is a budget
"light on politics", it sets Labor up for an election fight on financial management.
Labor will hit Opposition Leader Tony Abbott where it hurts - his economic credentials.
Mr Swan warned the coalition was ready to oppose the budget - even before it had
seen it.
"We're going to see all sorts of claims from the opposition but I don't think we're
going to see an alternative," the treasurer told reporters.
"And I think that is a risk for Australia given where we are in the economic cycle."
Only a year after the global financial crisis cast a cloud over the nation's
finances, Labor will bring the budget back to surplus three years ahead of schedule
- in 2012/13 - and will reduce debt faster.
"Australians have defied global economic gravity, not by accident but by choice," he
told parliament.
Fiscal responsibility is the cornerstone of Mr Swan's economic blueprint, designed
to help the nation "convert the economic achievements of the past year into enduring
gains for our economy and our people".
And to ensure the nation is capable of weathering further financial storms, the
government will build the economy's productive capacity, investing $660 million in
training, setting up an infrastructure fund and putting $1 billion towards improving
rail freight networks.
Apart from health, the gains for punters are relatively meagre - a tax benefit on
interest to encourage savings and simplified 'tick and click' tax returns.
Modest tax cuts - the third instalment of a 2007 election promise - will help ease
hip pocket pressures.
But Mr Swan maintains the budget was never meant to curry favour with voters.
"This budget wasn't designed to shift opinion polls, " Mr Swan said.
"We have put in place a budget for the times."
He shrugged off a reminder that only a day earlier Mr Rudd had told his caucus the
budget would be "critical" to Labor's future.
Voters began deserting the government after it shelved its emissions trading scheme
and backed down on a number of other initiatives.
While delaying the ETS will save around $3 billion, the government doesn't appear to
be too concerned about winning back green voters - its only major climate initiative
a $650 million renewable energy future fund.
The budget does, however, suggest the government has learned a lesson in recent months.
If it has come undone by over-promising and under-delivering, this document is
designed to ensure that won't happen again.
The economy, however, could still be the wild card.
"Events in Greece remind us risks in the global economy stubbornly endure," Mr Swan
said.
Unemployment is forecast to fall below five per cent and growth is tipped to hit
four per cent next financial year.
But there is one bogeyman on the horizon - inflation.
It is forecast to bust the Reserve Bank's target band in the short term - never good
news for interest rates.