No welfare for the well off?

Finally. Is something, anything, actually going to be done about the wealthy getting welfare in Australia? I don't even understand what half of the shit is they're talking about with this:

The spending cuts, according to excerpts from her speech notes released to the media, were ''tough and necessary'' in a new ''low-revenue environment'', a reflection of flat company tax receipts after the mining investment boom peaked. 

Her speech raises the possibility that years of accumulated concessions for upper middle-class and wealthy voters, handed out by successive governments and continued under Labor, may now be either trimmed or axed. 

This could include changes to family payments, cuts in concessional tax arrangements for self-funded superannuation contributions, a further tightening of the private health insurance rebate, a decrease in the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount, and a clampdown on loopholes such as the exemption from fringe benefits tax for employees of churches and charities. 

The potentially risky strategy is consistent with Ms Gillard's conviction that Labor's best hopes for victory lie in reconnecting with its traditional heartland, even if that means alienating some comparatively well-off families. With the government still reeling from its backdown on delivering a budget surplus, Ms Gillard's language reveals a preference to get the bad news out early. 

That would clear the way for it to focus on its national disability insurance scheme and the Gonski education reforms, both premised on a budget that is coming back into balance. Read more

Years of Howard throwing money at voters. People who didn't need the money, who earned a lot, got big tax breaks and gov support. Completely absurd.

We will know more later after her speech to the press club.