Louise Yaxley reported this story on Wednesday, May 21, 2014 18:10:00

MARK COLVIN: The Federal Opposition has confirmed that it will oppose some of the key measures in the budget, including the controversial Medicare co-payment.



The Prime Minister's been defending the new $7 fee today as he tries to convince voters of the merits of his budget.



But he's stumbled by giving the impression that the co-payment only applies to ten visits, when that safety net only applies to concession card holders and children.



Louise Yaxley reports.



LOUISE YAXLEY: The Prime Minister's been defending his first budget today by taking on all comers on talkback radio in Melbourne.



But he's tripped up on two of his own policies.



Tony Abbott said people would be bulk-billed after they have paid the $7 co-payment at the GP ten times.



TONY ABBOTT: This is an important reform. It is important to have some modest price signals in the system. There will be a strong safety net, and once anyone has had 10 co-payments in a calendar year, it'll go back to the standard bulk billing arrangement.



LOUISE YAXLEY: But that's not right - that safety net is for concession card holders, pensioners, and children under 16 only.



Mr Abbott also contradicted the budget papers when he said students starting a degree next year would not be affected by the proposed deregulation.



TONY ABBOTT: If you start a course under one system, you'll finish it under that system.



INTERVIEWER: So the fees will start in 2016 -



TONY ABBOTT: For the students that start in that year, that's right.



LOUISE YAXLEY: But the budget papers specify that caps on the amount universities can charge will be removed from January 2016 for students that accept offers to start a course from budget day this year.



Some of the measures Mr Abbott's arguing for are set to fail in the Senate. The Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen set out his budget reply today, condemning it.



CHRIS BOWEN: Australians are angry about this budget, not only because it represents a farrago of broken promises, but because it represents a fundamentally unfair manifesto which launches an unmistakeable class warfare on low and middle income earners.



The gesture politics of a one year politicians wage freeze and high income tax surcharges do very little to hide the fact that this Government has thrown equity out the window.



LOUISE YAXLEY: Mr Bowen's confirmed again Labor will oppose the Medicare co-payments.



CHRIS BOWEN: If the Government succeeds in introducing its $7 charge to see a doctor, the fundamental principle of universal healthcare would have been undermined and Medicare trashed.



LOUISE YAXLEY: And the ALP (Australian Labor Party) will oppose the measures to make unemployed people under 30 wait six months for welfare payments.



CHRIS BOWEN: If they succeed in freezing the benefits of people under the age of 30 enough so that if they experience unemployment they will not have access to Newstart, they will have purposely created an underclass, forcing people into the arms of overstretched charities or onto the streets.



LOUISE YAXLEY: Mr Abbott was challenged by Fairfax Radio's Neil Mitchell on that policy this morning.



TONY ABBOTT: If you need government support, you'll get government support as a student, but you won't get government support if you are work ready and you're under 30 for the first six months because -



NEIL MITCHELL: A lot of people are trying to get jobs, seriously trying to get jobs, and can't.



TONY ABBOTT: Yes, and, and if you want government support and you're under 30 and you're work-ready and you can't get a job, well, go out and get the training that will help you to get a job.



NEIL MITCHELL: But that's easier said than done too. I mean, I've spent years training for something, I'm having trouble getting a job, it might take me months to get a job - how do I live?



TONY ABBOTT: Well, um, we think that the best thing we can do for the young people of Australia is to ensure that they don't start their working life on unemployment benefits if they are capable of work, if they are work-ready. Now -



NEIL MITCHELL: It doesn't explain how I eat.



TONY ABBOTT: Well if you need government support and you haven't got a job and you're under 30, there's no reason why you can't sign up for a course.



NEIL MITCHELL: In what?! I'm fully trained as a, I don't know, as a computer programmer, and I can't get a job, so I've got to go and sign up in a course in basket-weaving to get any money!



TONY ABBOTT: Well if you're fully trained as a computer programmer, I'm confident that, particularly if you're prepared to move around the country, that you will find work.



LOUISE YAXLEY: The Government's accusing Labor of standing in the way of its budget strategy by opposing so many measures in the Senate.



Mr Bowen won't say how many billions of dollars of cuts he's blocking but defends the strategy.



CHRIS BOWEN: There's much to object to in this budget, and for those who ask 'how could we oppose some of these measures?' I say to you, how could we not? I ask you whether the nation can afford not to block some of these cuts. Can we afford not to oppose them?



LOUISE YAXLEY: Chris Bowen says Labor's blocking proposals adding up to less than four years of spending on the Government's paid parental leave scheme.



MARK COLVIN: Louise Yaxley.