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  • Abbott wants dole clampdown

    Abbott wants dole clampdown

    AAP July 27, 2010, 8:10 pm
    • 36 comments

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    Reissuing to clarify 4th par.

    By Cathy Alexander

    SYDNEY, July 27 AAP – Everyone on the dole could have half their payments quarantined for spending on essentials if the coalition wins the election.

    Opposition leader Tony Abbott says he would like to extend an existing scheme under which the federal government quarantines welfare payments to people in the Northern Territory.

    Half of each payment is set aside for food, rent and other essentials; the money cannot be used for alcohol, gambling or cigarettes.

    The scheme was originally brought in for the NT’s indigenous communities and is now being extended to cover up to 20,000 Territorians.

    Mr Abbott says if the scheme is good for the NT, it’s good for the country.

    “If it’s right and just in the Territory … why not elsewhere?” he said in a speech to the Sydney Institute.

    “It should produce a better life for long-term unemployed people,” he said, adding that it would also reassure taxpayers that welfare payments were being put to good use.

    Mr Abbott said if he won power at the August 21 election, the coalition would review the NT scheme in July next year with an eye to extending it, possibly to more regions or possibly “more generally, right across Australia”.

    This was the type of reform that “real economic conservatives” should engage in, Mr Abbott told the audience of about 200 people at a Sydney hotel.

    His dole quarantining proposal is likely to be unpopular with some social and welfare groups who argue the NT scheme is paternalistic, doesn’t work, and takes away people’s right to control their finances.

    Mr Abbott also flagged that the coalition would like to reform the tax system in line with recommendations Treasury chief Ken Henry made in his tax review.

    Dr Henry came in for some praise from Mr Abbott, who said the economist had devoted most of his professional life to thinking about improving the tax system, so his recommendations on tax should not have been ignored by the government.

    Dr Henry’s suggestion that the tax-free threshold be raised to $25,000 and personal tax rates be made lower and flatter “should be considered a priority once budget surpluses are big enough to afford them,” Mr Abbott said.

     

  • Labor rejects food security concerns

     

     

    Concerns remain

     

    The Coalition’s spokesman on food security, John Cobb, says Labor has dropped the ball on agriculture policy, including quarantine and research and development.

    “We are not a country that puts foreign ownership to one side, we allow it,” he said.

    “But I think there is a case to look at the amount that any one entity from overseas owns, I don’t have a problem with that.

    “I think there are a lot of things we can do about food security and we will be announcing more of those next week.”

    Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan is chairing a Senate committee inquiry into food production that will report on August 23.

    “At the present time there’s no differentiation between private investment and sovereign investment,” he said.

    “In other words, other countries’ sovereign wealth funds buying our assets and then excluding us from access to them.

    “We need to put all this on a register, we need to lower the trigger point for reporting of foreign sales and we need to consider this as part of our sovereignty, strategic investment in Australia.”

    Senator Sherry says that all foreign governments, or any company owned by them, must get approval from the FIRB before making a direct investment in Australia, “whether it’s for one dollar or a billion dollars”.

    According to farmer advocate Richard Bovill, if foreign interests take too great a share of Australian farms, the nation may not be able to cope with future food demands.

    “Foreign investment in Australia is an open book – we have a fear of the potential of the Chinese, but we shouldn’t isolate the Chinese,” he said.

    “The fact is the model in Australia allows anybody to come in and acquire our assets, to exploit basically those people who are vulnerable in Australia.

    “That’s the scary thing. That’s what we should be looking at.

    “We do the basic commodity production – we grow the grain and the milk and mine the minerals and allow everyone else to control the value-adding and the downstream processing and all of those things that actually create real wealth – we sell those opportunities to everybody else.”

     

    ‘Real concern’

     

    And he says the concerns have nothing to do with xenophobia.

    “If foreigners want to come and buy up Australia, we shouldn’t be concerned about them buying up Australia.

    “We should be concerned about the fact that we’ve let our agriculture in Australia deteriorate to the point where Australian farmers cannot participate in that sale process – that’s the real concern.”

    He also accuses Labor of neglecting the sector.

    He says the Government has overburdened the dedicated minister, Mr Burke, by assigning him the additional and onerous sustainable population portfolio.

    “You can’t have a regional strategy for regional Australia if you don’t understand good agricultural policy,” he said.

    “Unfortunately I think, politically, Labor has never been close to agriculture and it’s been very clear in the actions of this Government that they’ve made agriculture a very low priority. Maybe because they believe farmers don’t support the Labor Party.

    “But many, many other people in rural communities do support the Labor Party and Labor is letting those people down, because without viable farming communities you can’t have a viable regional community.”

    Tags: food-and-beverage, government-and-politics, rural, federal-elections, australia

     

  • Justine Deserts promises of 2004 and 2007

    Justine's press releaseThere is no better place to use that fire than right here in federal parliament, representing the people of Richmond. I want to work with all levels of government and within the community to make sure their needs are met. I have always said that I will put the community first. Forget the buck-passing and politics—I am here to do a job, and that is to represent Richmond. So I look forward to working with anyone, in a bipartisan fashion, to find new opportunities and to deliver for the people of Richmond…
    …Richmond reflects the challenges of an ageing population—20 per cent of people living in Richmond are aged 65 and over. This fact alone means there is enormous pressure on our health and social services. Health services and access to aged care facilities are vitally important to people living in Richmond. I will be making sure that our elderly people get what they need, including access to health care services; an after-hours GP clinic; a bed in a nursing home, if they need one; access to home care services, if they want to remain in their homes; and safe, affordable public transport—in particular, a long-term commitment must be made to the restoration of our XPT train. Many locals are very positive about federal Labor’s long-term commitment to restoring the train…

    She repeated these promises in the 2007 campaign, reiterating that it was a priority for her second term.

    Obviously that fire has gone out in the 2010 election campaign, because she washed her hands of the issue.


  • BP stations across London put out of action by Greenpeace Volunteers

     

    But there’s more. This is also about realizing what we can achieve if we set our minds to it.

    We can end the oil age. We already have the tools we need to leave it behind and move towards a clean energy future. All that’s missing is the determination to make it happen fast.

    Over the coming months we’ll be calling together to “go beyond oil”. There will be many actions to get involved in, from lobbying politicians to transforming our local communities.

    Today we’re asking you to take a first step, and help push for the strongest possible European law on fuel quality.

    BP and other oil lobbyists are hard at work trying to water down the Fuel Quality Directive which hopes to set limits on how much of the dirtiest, most polluting fuels can be imported here and put in our tanks.

    So while teams of volunteers are out on the streets of London stopping BP selling its fuel, we can all help curb the company’s ability to cause further damage to the environment – whether in the Gulf of Mexico or the Tar Sands of Canada.

    Write to transport secretary, Theresa Villiers, to make the UK support a European law which restricts imports of the most damaging fuels. Together we are louder than the BP lobbyists.

    Tags:
    fuel quality directive, fuel, energy, climate change, BP
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  • No one assassinated Rudd, he simply topped himself

     

    I suggested he should join a political party, run for office and, if successful, seek the premiership or prime ministership. It appears he took my advice.

    Related Coverage

    When we met years later, he made it clear he did not appreciate my comments.

    We had another altercation when he misunderstood an article I wrote for The Age about the Middle East.

    Despite repeated attempts to clear up the misunderstanding, my letters and requests to his office were ignored.

    He found it impossible to admit to a mistake.

    Both prior to the 2007 election and for almost two years afterwards it was clear the public had fallen in love with K. Rudd. His popularity ratings at 70-plus matched those of Bob Hawke.

    However, nasty stories began to emerge about his treatment of staff and public servants. The first was his appalling behaviour towards a stewardess on his VIP plane when he was served the wrong meal, and later when a hair-dryer was not provided for the prime ministerial locks.

    The press gallery gradually got a different picture of the all-smiling Mr Nice Guy appearing nightly on television.

    At a Parliament House dinner late last year with three prominent Labor MPs, I was stunned by the fear and loathing directed at their leader. Having served with eight prime ministers and seven leaders of the opposition, I was familiar with unflattering remarks about leaders but nothing to match the vitriol heaped on Rudd.

    It was not ideological but personal. In time there was hardly anyone he hadn’t insulted.

    Nor was Rudd helped by the three 28-year-old neophytes who were clueless about running a prime ministerial office and acted as a praetorian guard to ensure that nobody, including senior cabinet ministers, got to see the man himself.

    One senior backbencher recounted how he had been screamed at by one of the three amigos for issuing a press release the prime minister didn’t like.

    I asked why he hadn’t told him where to go. He replied, “I was too stunned.”

    The rudeness of Rudd and his cohorts to almost everyone in caucus was legendary. One told of walking through the house and regularly being totally ignored by the PM. “It was as if I didn’t exist.” And he had supported Rudd against Kim Beazley.

    Another story that has become part of Labor folklore is the experience of a senior minister, born in England, who, scheduled to speak at an international conference in Europe on a Sunday, decided to leave on the Friday and, at his own expense, spend a couple of days with his family.

    With his luggage checked in, he was waiting in the VIP lounge when he received a phone call — not from the PM, mind you, but from one of the three idiot flunkies — telling him that he was to abandon the trip and return to Canberra.

    The piece de resistance, however, was the celebrated “printing allowance” episode. John Faulkner, then the special minister of state, had decided to cut the overly generous printing allowance in half.

    A delegation of eight senior Labor MPs and senators went to see the PM, to be greeted with a screaming rant that included every imaginable expletive from the man himself. It was not only rude but incredibly stupid.

    He chose to insult the most influential members of the Labor factions and the trade union movement. Some will consider these events of minor importance but, despite opinions to the contrary, politicians are human beings and resent being treated as excreta.

    How had it come to this? How had this Jekyll and Hyde character not previously revealed himself? Simple. After almost 12 years in opposition and five changes of leadership, Labor was desperate to return to the Treasury benches.

    Rudd had charmed the electorate and the caucus with the cheesy Luna Park grin and it was clear he would defeat John Howard. Prior to the 2007 election, Rudd, aware of the euphoria building up, decided to break with Labor tradition and announce that he would select his own ministry. No one had the balls to deny him. After taking over caucus he then started to pick his own candidates. The ALP became the RLP.

    With any other leader it may have worked but not with an egomaniacal control freak who not only believed he was a genius but considered his colleagues to be his intellectual inferiors.

    Why was he not stopped? Because caucus was prepared to overlook his appalling rudeness, his egomania, his vindictiveness and his dictatorial control of caucus and cabinet in the expectation he would give them a second term. That all changed when the polls indicated that support for Rudd had dissipated. He was now a loser. Enter Gillard. Which brings us to those who are wailing that Rudd was “brutally assassinated?” Rubbish! Rudd committed political suicide. Had he treated his colleagues even halfway decently, he would have survived.

    All political leaders have their friends and their enemies. In the end Rudd had only enemies.

    Barry Cohen was a minister in the Hawke government.

    32 comments on this story

  • Gillard falters on tax rate question

     

    “To fund his paid parental leave scheme he will increase tax on big businesses like Coles and Woolworths. If they pay more tax it’ll feed into what you buy in the supermarket,” she said.

    But during questions over the mining tax Ms Gillard was asked more than half a dozen times when the tax cut would take effect before she answered: “It’ll go to 29 cents in the dollar in 2012.”

    The tax rate will begin to fall to 29 cents in 2012 for smaller companies and 2013 for others.

    “The important thing is that we will take it down to 29 cents in the Government’s budget period – so it’s there in the Government’s estimates,” she added.

    Ms Gillard’s membership of the Socialist Forum in her university days – an attack which was used by the Coalition during the last election campaign – also raised its head during the interview.

    When Jones tried to link her involvement with the forum to a recent preference deal with the Greens, Ms Gillard gave the idea short shrift.

    “What a load of old cobblers,” she said.

    “For you to suggest or in any way imply that somehow those things in the past are related to things that are happening today is just ridiculous.”

    Tags: government-and-politics, elections, federal-government, tax, gillard-julia, federal-elections, australia