PM to dump GP co-payment: report

The Abbott government is likely to yield to public outrage over a planned $7 GP co-payment and ditch the plan as the budget bill backlog in the Senate continues to hurt the Coalition in the polls, The Australian Financial Review reports.

The government is also tipped to dilute its planned paid parental leave scheme and may also give up on some of its higher education reforms in a bid to start 2015 with a clean slate.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott reportedly took the plans to Coalition MPs on Tuesday, with sources telling the paper that pragmatism was set to rule over the government’s near-term agenda. It leaves any major budget reform that can’t clear the Senate by Christmas destined for the scrap heap.

“We’ve been taking water on this stuff and we’d just continue to do so,” a government source told the AFR.

Originally published as PM to dump GP co-payment: report