Latest pet tax hike bites Victorian families The Allan Labor Government’s decision to double its pet tax on dogs and cats is another cruel hit to families already struggling with rising costs. From July next year, Labor will increase the levy from $4.51 to $9 per animal, a tax collected through local council registration fees and funnelled straight into state government coffers. The move forces councils to act as Labor’s tax collectors while households continue to bear the brunt of Victoria’s financial mismanagement. Whether it’s the Emergency Services Tax or now a tax on our pets, Labor just can’t resist finding new ways to take more from hardworking Victorians. With around 2.2 million registered pets across Victoria, this so-called ‘small increase’ will deliver Labor an extra $10 million every year, while state debt continues to climb by the hour. Families are already under pressure and don’t need another unnecessary cost added to their household bills. After a decade of waste and mismanagement, Labor is scrambling to raise revenue any way it can and now even our cats and dogs aren’t safe. The Allan Government should be focused on fixing its budget mess, cutting waste and easing cost-of-living pressures, not taxing our beloved family pets. Tim McCurdy, Nationals' MP for Ovens Valley Older Australians with MND deserve equal support MND Australia is calling for urgent action to end age-based discrimination in care funding for people diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). Every year, hundreds of Australians are diagnosed with MND after turning 65, but instead of receiving the comprehensive and flexible care available under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), they are diverted into an aged care system never designed for rapidly progressing, complex neurological conditions. The result: they are left behind twice, first by a disease that moves faster than any bureaucracy and again by a system that values age over need. Under the NDIS, a person living with MND can access an average of $302,000 in annual support. In stark contrast, those diagnosed after 65 are limited to a maximum of $108,000 under the new Support at Home Program, leaving a funding gap of nearly $200,000 every year. People living with MND aged 65 and over are battling a terminal condition that steals movement, speech and independence, but they are also forced to fight a system that decides their care based not on urgency or need, but on the year they were born. This inequity is leaving older Australians, their carers and families to shoulder enormous physical, emotional and financial burdens. In October, a Senate inquiry into aged care delivery sounded the alarm on this widening inequity, echoing MND Australia’s long-held concerns. The committee’s report called for equity to be considered between the NDIS and aged care supports including improved transparency, specialist assessments and an end to the rationing of home care packages, but MND Australia says the government must go further. MND Australia is urging the Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, to act on the Senate committee’s recommendations and establish a fast-track pathway within aged care for Australians diagnosed with MND after 65. Unfortunately this alleged fast track is approval within three months. The NDIS does the same within five working days. This highlights the unfair two-tiered system of inequity for people living with MND who get diagnosed after aged 65. MND can’t wait, and neither should the system. Clare Sullivan, CEO of MND Australia
