Budget Priorities More Benefits for Veterans In recognition of their service to Australia, more veterans will receive the Gold Card for health care and war widows will receive better compensation.
more veterans aged over 70 to receive the Gold Card, providing access to a full range of health care services		The Government has extended the Gold Card to Australian veterans who are 70 years of age and have qualifying service. This will cost $93 million over four years. Gold Card holders can access the full range of repatriation health care benefits including choice of doctor, concessional rate pharmaceuticals, optical care, physiotherapy, dental care, podiatry care and products, and chiropractic services.
better compensation for war widows		The Government will index the ceiling rate for the War Widows' Income Support Supplement twice yearly. This will cost $85 million over four years. Indexation will be based on increases in the Consumer Price Index and Male Total Average Weekly Earnings and will apply from 20 September 2002. This will ensure payments to lower-income war widows keep pace with other pensions.
Vocational Education The Government is providing additional encouragement to employers to hire apprentices who are still at school, and to send their employees to train in new and emerging areas of industry. It also is encouraging mature age people to undertake IT training.
supporting apprenticeships		The Government will provide further incentives to employers who take on new apprentices who are still at school, and provide a subsidy of $1,100 per employee attending a training course in new and emerging areas of industry. This will cost an additional $54 million over four years.
IT training for mature age people		In addition, the Government will provide 11,500 vouchers each year for four years to mature age people to help them gain basic skills in computing and information technology. People who are welfare dependent will be given priority. This will cost $23 million over four years.