Independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon has warned the Abbott government its “dumb” budget is toxic with a key component of the Coalition political base.
“The ‘Howard Battlers’ that re-elected John Howard on four occasions won’t cop these changes,” he wrote on a budget appraisal.
In a warning that he will not vote for key measures, including cuts to welfare and the dole, Senator Xenophon urged the government to consider a rapid rethink, headlining his analysis: “Budget is mean, nasty and dumb”.
Senator Xenophon is one of eight crossbenchers who will hold the balance of power in the Senate from July 1.
“This budget has shocked me, but it’s the government that could expect a bigger shock unless it tackles the manifest unfairness in its budget,” he wrote.
In a scathing attack to the government, senator Xenophon states his opposition to the Newstart changes, the lifting of the cap on university fees, the imposition of the $7 Medicare fee, the $80 billion slashing in health and education, the slashing of vocational education and training, and of the Automotive Transformation
Scheme, the increase of the pension age and the cutting of benefits to seniors.
The South Australian Senator has lined up with Clive Palmer, whose Palmer United/Ricky Muir bloc of senators, will wield the most power in the new Senate, against changes to university funding.
