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Five Labor failures, or one silly meme?

Despite Labor having only been in government for less than three months, the Liberal Party have already come up with a new meme titled 5 Labor failures. It’s worth addressing each of their claims individually.

  1. BROKE THEIR PROMISE TO REDUCE POWER BILLS BY $275

The actual projection was to “cut power bills for families and businesses by $275 a year by 2025, compared to today”.

Aside from the timeline for price reductions, this modelling was done in 2021, before the war in Ukraine and before the fossil fuel market went crazy.

Adding to changed expectations is the revelation that Snowy Hydro 2.0, due to start production in 2025, is currently 19 months behind schedule.

  1. HIGHEST ELECTRICITY PRICES ON RECORD

According to the AEMO’s Quarterly Energy Dynamics Q2 2022,

Key factors underlying the extraordinary rise in wholesale prices in Q2 included:

– The impacts in local fuel markets of extremely high international prices for traded gas and thermal coal.

– Reduced availability of coal-fired generation, due to scheduled maintenance as well as long- and short duration forced outages, driving high levels of gas-fired generation, which both raised electricity prices and put pressure on local gas markets.

Australians were paying higher prices for gas than our overseas customers and, when the regulator interceded to cap prices, the gas companies withdrew supply.

The only thing more expensive than a “gas-led recovery” would be to follow the Coalition down the nuclear rabbit hole.

  1. BLOCKED A COAL MINE IN QUEENSLAND

Tanya Plibersek has invited public comment on her draft decision to refuse Clive Palmer’s Central Queensland coal mine.

The Queensland government last year deemed the proposal “not suitable” and said it posed “a number of unacceptable risks” due to its location, the prospect of polluted water discharge and a lack of effective mitigation measures.

Despite the state government’s rejection, the project remained viable and sat on the desk of then federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, awaiting a determination. Apparently, she was too gutless to make a decision either way.

  1. NEUTERED THE CONSTRUCTION WATCHDOG

The ABCC was re-established in late 2016 under the “Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Bill”.

The Productivity Commission’s 2017 Shifting The Dial report found labour productivity between 2007-08 and 2015-16 in construction had seen annual 2.1% average growth, topped by a 5.8% increase in 2011-12.

After the restoration of the ABCC, in 2017-18, construction sector labour productivity fell by 2.4%, followed by further falls of 2.6% in each of the following 2 years before the pandemic hit.

Putting aside some of the more ridiculous cases pursued and lost by the organisation, If the goal of the ABCC was to improve productivity, it has been a very expensive abject failure.

  1. REAL WAGES GOING BACKWARDS

That they had the gall to include this as a Labor failure shows severe cognitive dissonance.

At every turn, the Coalition has fought against wage rises for anyone except politicians. Even worse, they successfully advocated for a reduction in penalty rates for our lowest paid workers and removed government paid maternity leave from women who had a workplace entitlement, deriding it as “double dipping”.

They also abandoned or delayed the scheduled increases in the tax-free threshold and the superannuation guarantee.

Labor fulfilled their promise to make a submission in favour of an increase in the minimum wage which realised a positive outcome. They have also asked for a significant increase in aged care wages.

Unfortunately, these wage rises are being eaten up by inflation which I am pretty sure Labor didn’t cause.

It looks like the Liberals will be about as effective in Opposition as they were in government. They can’t even mount a vaguely credible critique. Don’t hold your breath for any viable alternative policies.

 

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17 comments

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  1. Phil Pryor

    An aggregation, an aggravation, of devious, lazy, inadequate, deficient, regressive, primitive sphinctres, collectively known a the opposition, will now try to cover a near decade of derisive delusional dickheadery and utter emptiness by slathering to an imaginary group of supporters, one decaying, shrinking, hiding. Even though Mr. Scott Regular-Onanist has gone, he floats back, a hydrogenloaded turd, to haunt the memory of decency and behaviour. But Barnaby Pissup-Rootem is still there.., and so many oozers, stinkers, proven liars, nonperformers and downright fools remain. How lovely for a slowing society…

  2. New England Cocky

    I look forward with some hope that Benito Boofhead will be elected Leader for Life of the Liarbral Party and so become the longest serving Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition assisted by his Deputy Suspect Airhead promoting lies and mistruths about the economic vandalism, alleged treasonous behaviour of present & future GGs, plus exposing the too many undercover handouts to Liarbral voting electorates to encourage those Australian voters to act against their own best interests.

    Bring on the republic of Australia with an Australian born Head of State.

  3. Terence Mills

    The former treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, in his final budget in March claimed “the government’s actions have helped reduce residential electricity costs by 8% and small business costs by 10% over the past two financial years”.

    The cheeky possum delayed telling us about a key electricity pricing update until after the election, which left Australian voters in the dark over upcoming changes to their electricity bills.

    Frydenberg knew that electricity prices were about to rise. The Australian Energy Regulator had already told him that wholesale prices, had more than doubled in the year to March and had increased further since and that the recent spike in spot prices would be be reflected in higher charges soon.

    Frydenberg lied to us !

  4. Michael Taylor

    With the Libs it’s their modus operandi, State or Federal.

    In NSW they have history of blaming all the woes and inaction on crucial matters within a week of losing power to them.

    It’s becoming laughable.

  5. RomeoCharlie29

    This would be laughable if we didn’t know it’s the sort of misleading shit the Murdoch hacks and deluded Libs will accept without questioning. Good to see you back in the hunt Kaye Lee.

  6. Kaye Lee

    They even had to change regulations to delay announcing the price hike.

    The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has been required to release its so-called default market offer (DMO) on 1 May each year since the “price safety net” was introduced in July 2019.

    According to the AER, the direction to change the regulation was made on 31 March. [Morrison announced the election date on April 10] The offer delay until the “first business day after 25 May [was] to provide more time for the AER to include the most recent network costs in the final price determination,” it said on its website. “This change will ensure greater accuracy in price determinations.”

    The two treasurers certainly didn’t want “accuracy” out there. Hey…I wonder if that was another example of the phantom multiminister flexing his hidden muscles. Someone should ask Josh.

    PS Thanks RC. I’m always watching but often busy. Brushed off COVID in time to be mother of the bride.

  7. Michael Taylor

    Congratulations on the wedding, Kaye. It must have been a proud moment. ❤️

    And sorry to hear about Covid, but glad it’s behind you.

  8. Michael Taylor

    Electricity prices are certainly high, but I can’t blame Labor for that.

    We have 25 solar panels and 2 solar batteries yet our monthly bill for July was $236. We received a whole $1.23 in solar rebates. That’s not Labor’s fault. That’s just greed from the energy providers.

    I went and spoke to the company that installed the batteries. The manager said that I’m one of the dozens of customers who had come in to find an explanation for the hike – so it must be across the board. Some customers received bills three times what mine was.

  9. Kaye Lee

    COVID was no problem for me – a couple of days of slightly runny nose causing sneezing. No aches or pains. (I guess being quadruple vaxxed helped). The wedding is next weekend but she is well-prepared and the household is calm but no doubt things will be busy next week.

  10. Kaye Lee

    Ok now that’s spooky. I hadn’t read that. Guess there’s a few of us turning our minds to the obvious questions.

    “The amendment was signed by Mr Taylor on behalf of the treasurer — but it is presently unclear who played the treasurer’s role.

    It was revealed on Tuesday that, at the time of the amendment, Mr Morrison had secretly been sworn in as a second treasurer, without the knowledge of then-treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Mr Morrison was also a secret second energy minister.

    The ABC has asked Mr Frydenberg whether Mr Taylor signed the amendment on his behalf, but he has yet to respond.

    Mr Taylor has also been asked whether it was signed on behalf of Mr Frydenberg or Mr Morrison.”

  11. Kaye Lee

    Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley was on 2GB earlier, and she insisted Morrison had done enough to apologise on the subject, and urged the current PM to move on,

    “For four days (the Prime Minister) has been issuing a spray on this subject. Not one comment or reassurance about bringing the price of your mortgage down, or your grocery bill down, or the cost of fuel and power.”

    I felt compelled to reply on her Facebook page:

    I know you want us all to “move on” but there are serious questions to be answered. Who made the change to the legislation that directed the AER to not reveal the new DMO until after the election. Why was the date of release changed from May 1 to May 25 and on whose say so? Surely the public have a right to know about large increases in default market offers in sufficient time to research and make changes. Or was the election more important than any concern about our cost of living?

  12. Michael Taylor

    If sharing a birthday with Peter Dutton isn’t bad enough then sharing Angus’s surname is.

  13. leefe

    They have nothing to offer but lies and distractions, so that’s where they turn.

    OK Suss, just what did your mob do in the previous nine years to bring down grocery bills and/or the cost of fuel and power?

    (ps: good to see you again Kaye, and even better to hear you got through the dreaded C so smoothly.)

  14. Kathryn

    WOW, WOW and DOUBLE WOW! Talk about a stratospheric level of unspeakable hypocrisy! These nonsensical accusations wreak of desperation and are made by a catastrophically unpopular, despised Opposition IN SPITE OF THE FACT that the last Abbott/Morrison regimes were, indeed, the absolute worst, most depraved and thoroughly corrupt pack of lying miscreants this nation has EVER seen! The ONLY thing the inept, callously inhumane, rotten-to-the-core, totally corrupt bible-thumping hypocrite of a PM (MorriSCAMMER) will forever be remembered for is being absolutely incompetent, internationally discredited as a pathological liar and as a backstabbing megalomaniacal narcissist who’s ruthless ambition saw him mercilessly betray and ruthlessly backstab everyone who stood in his way (even his own colleagues) as he crawled his way to the top of the faecal heap known as the LNP!

    Morrison’s delusional, ill-conceived and ruthless ambition to control EVERY facet of government allowed himself (in collusion with yet another crawling LNP-supporting imperialistic governor general) to stomp over the top of at least five of his colleagues, steal their portfolios in an undemocratic act of autocracy in order to micromanage and control just about every facet of governance he could get his grimy hands on!

    SHAME ON THE LNP AND THE GORMLESS, MURDOCH-MANIPULATED FOOLS WHO VOTE FOR THEM!

    However, there is one last glimmer of hope! The LNP have an almost uncanny knack of elevating the worst of the worst, most brutal and corrupt deviants as leaders. As “luck” would have it, the LNP made the irrational decision to nominate Peter Dutton as their next “leader”! As long as Australia’s blood-curdling answer to Voldemort, ie Dutton – who was once an insignificant, racist ex-cop from Queensland who rose and rose to become widely known as one of the most sadistic, callously inhumane psychopaths the LNP has ever vomited up – is at the helm of the worst, most malignant political party in living memory, there is a very good chance these regressive egocentric political parasites in Dutton’s version of the LNP will stay rooted in Opposition for a long, long time!

  15. Canguro

    Michael: ‘If sharing a birthday with Peter Dutton isn’t bad enough then sharing Angus’s surname is.’

    It’s not that bad, Michael.

    Sharing Angus’s surname might be a thing, but then there’s the singer James, the actor Elizabeth, the philosopher Charles, the Queen’s drummer, Roger, along with Andy, Dean, Dick & John… all successful musicians. Pfft… Angus is a nobody alongside these luminaries. Share the glory, don’t sit in the ol’ grass-poisoner’s shadow.

    As for Spud and the 18th of November, why, there’s also Margaret Atwood, Alan Shepard, Chloë Sevigny, the Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia, Howard Thurman, Dennis Sciama, Compay Segundo, Eugene Ormandy, Einstein’s younger sister Maja, and even Dorothy Dix, amongst a long list of notables. Double pfft… Spud is a nobody against these luminaries.

    Two nobodies don’t make a somebody, like yourself or these examples.

  16. paul walter

    “Look over there, something bright and shiny”.

    Whatever they were cooking up is wiped by Scomo, (smirk).

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