A new tax cut leads cost-of-living measurers in Labor’s budget

ABC NEWS (Australia)

As always there's been a mixed reaction to this year's budget. Reporter Claire Simmonds has been speaking with people in Sawtell on the New South Wales mid north coast.

Transcript

00:00Sautel sits within the federal electorate of Cowper, which is the nationals most marginal

00:07seat in the country. At 2.5 per cent, it's shaping up to be one of the seats to watch

00:12this election. Here in Sautel's main street, we didn't find any voters who had watched

00:18the budget. No one we spoke to was interested in the 1 per cent tax cut, although to be

00:24fair, most of the people we spoke to, and indeed a large proportion of the electorate,

00:29are retirees. What was working when we spoke to people was the tripling of the Medicare

00:34incentives for GPs, and the electricity rebates were issues that mattered to them.

00:39Oh, just the discounts, yeah, I think it would be handy for everyone.

00:45The electricity cut would be, you know, the electricity subsidy would be good, yep, every

00:50cent counts. Some small business owners we spoke to today

00:54say they are seeing first-hand the impact of cost-of-living pressures.

00:59Our customers are waiting as long as they can before they have to do services, and especially

01:04stuff like brakes, they're holding off as long as they can, and that becomes a very

01:08big issue for us, because it's a safety issue. And while Jim Chalmers touted the record spend

01:14on Medicare, we found people who wanted dental care included.

01:19And it's saying that our people are getting sick because they're not getting to the dental

01:24help, because it's very expensive. It should be covered by Medicare. Hello, we are in first

01:32world country. But while voters we chatted to said they liked

01:36the Medicare push and the electricity rebate, it didn't shift the dial for how they would

01:41vote.

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