I’ll have the boats, please
With the news during the week that a boat with 21 Vietnamese asylum seekers had been shoved back to sea came the solemn warning from Immigration Minister Peter Dutton that:
“People smugglers in Indonesia are watching very closely and they believe if there’s a change of government on July 2, the people smugglers will be back in business and people will be back on boats coming to our country”.
How convenient. In the shadow of an election . . . along comes a boat. All very juicy stuff for Peter Dutton who seized the moment to remind us of the fearful prospect: a Labor Government will not stop the boats.
If Minister Dutton is so eager to inform the electorate of what they will ‘get’ under a Labor Government perhaps he should have mentioned that a Labor Government would also:
- Provide $570 million in additional support for students with disability and additional learning needs.
- Increase the Child Care Benefit by 15% for low and middle income families. Every one of the 813,000 families that rely on the Child Care Benefit will be better off – an increase up to $31 per child per week, or up to $1,627 per year.
- See that an additional $96 million go towards improving outcomes for Indigenous students around Australia over school years 2018 and 2019. In addition, Labor will provide $4.8 million over the forward estimates to fund 100 scholarships per year for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers.
- Invest $6 million over three years from 2017-18 to continue the Safe Schools program and support the Foundation for Young Australians to keep working with school communities to reduce bullying and discrimination.
- Restore indexation of the Medicare Benefits Schedule from 1 January 2017.
- Scrap the Liberals’ cuts to the PBS, ensuring there will be no increase to the co-payments or safety net thresholds on top of regular indexation.
- Reverse Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to bulk billing incentives for pathology and diagnostic imaging.
- Deliver the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
- Scale up the rollout of fibre-to-the-premises and phase out the rollout of fibre-to-the-node.
- [To] achieve a target of net zero pollution by 2050, set a target at 2030 for a 45% reduction in carbon pollution on 2005 levels.
- Will ensure that 50% of the nation’s electricity is sourced from renewable energy by 2030
- Introduce a domestic emissions trading scheme that will have two distinct phases. The first phase is designed to get Australia’s pollution levels back under control and to establish the architecture for an enduring ETS. The second phase will then drive the long-term transition in our economy.
- Protect Weekend Penalty Rates.
- Will shut down loopholes which allow big multinational companies to send profits overseas, ensuring they pay their fair share of tax just like everyone else has to. Labor’s plan has been fully costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, and will bring at least $7.2 billion back to Australia in tax from big multinationals over the next decade.
- Reform negative gearing effective from 1 July 2017.
- Restore CSIRO’s capacity to drive the national science, research and innovation agenda that will grow new industries and build a smarter Australia.
- Deliver more than $70 million over three years in targeted funding to ensure those suffering from family violence can access critical services when they need them.
- Commit almost $50 million to frontline legal services, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, to ensure women suffering from family violence get legal support. The aim of this is to ensure, at least, that women facing court have access to appropriate legal services.
- Make an initial investment of $15 million in Safe at Home grants to help people affected by family violence stay safe in their own home.
- Will legislate for marriage equality within the first 100 days of the next parliament.
- Will hold a Royal Commission into misconduct in the banking and financial services industry.
- Appoint a full-time LGBTI Discrimination Commissioner to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), to ensure the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians are protected, and they are free to live their lives without discrimination.
- Will renew investment in Australian multiculturalism, with $28.3 million of new funding to support social cohesion and economic inclusion.
Well, no wonder Peter Dutton just wants to talk about boats.
If is this is what we’ll get (plus more) with a Labor Government . . . I’ll have the boats please.
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Return to home pageAre we talking about a bent copper in a fancy suit, or someone who’s afraid of water and other matters, or both…
Well the Libs certainly can’t talk about their plan for the economy when a good number of eminent economists state that continuing negative gearing distorts the economy, that their business tax cuts will create a minimal number of new jobs with the majority of the $$s heading overseas and that their planned plebiscite when the vote results in a yes, is not binding on anyone so they may not even get it through. Or perhaps they could talk about their dud of a Direct Action climate change plan where the $$s are going to double dippers.
Pity no one in the MSM bothered to ask….
Jack, no comment on that one, the fact that a number of Border Force personnel are on suspicion of corrupt dealings. Again, pity no one in the MSM bothered to ask…
Not sure I’d care to elaborate further either Carol (lol) but I do think this country could do better if political candidates had to meet much stricter qualification requirements (social justice ethics, and solid grounding in Bill Mitchell’s economics for a sovereign government) and agree to a very thorough background check including past and present affiliations, before being permitted to stand for office,
Agree with you wholeheartedly, Michael.
I’ll have the boats with a side order of social justice for all Australians.
And let’s send Dutton and his corrupt Border Farce cronies for a holiday on Manus Island or Nauru.
Michael provides what I’d call an “educated” list, easily arrived at by simply including everything the Telegraph and the ABC excludes.
Not at all surprised that this man has been unsighted throughout the campaign.
Appoint a full-time LGBTI Discrimination Commissioner to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), to ensure the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians are protected, and they are free to live their lives without discrimination and at the same time kowtowing to Muslims who by their own admissions show a total hatred and intolerance towards these very same people. Makes sense to me!
What a talentless, incompetent mob of ideas-free, pork barrelling drones this Coalition is. This is crystal clear from the media, despite today’s editorials consistently supporting returning the Coalition. The only idea this mob has is to funnel more wealth to the top. However the polls are close, either 50/50 or 51/49 to the drones. What on earth are the voters thinking?
I believe that both major parties are aware that the majority of uninformed Australian voters are very frightened of Islamiv Immigration, and for that reason both parties have adopted the policies that they have. In my humble opinion.
Doug, Unfortunately it appears that the voters are thinking what the murdoch rags want them to think, and have encouraged them to think.
Peter Dutton is the embodiment of the aptly named Peter Principle.
The Peter principle is an observation that in an organizational hierarchy such as politics, every player will rise or get promoted to his or her level of incompetence.
The quandary is : what level of competence has Peter Dutton ever demonstrated in his dismal career ?
It seems that I have voted ( yes) as I did in complete ignorance of what Murdoch has been instructing.
What is interesting is that only when an election is looming does the LNP allow/give out info about refugee boats.
Ie they temporarily abandon the concept of no information to smugglers when it is politically opportune to do so as it becomes useful propaganda.
Of the policy list.
I personally disagree entirely with the following policy, but agree with the rest.
“Increase the Child Care Benefit by 15% for low and middle income families. Every one of the 813,000 families that rely on the Child Care Benefit will be better off – an increase up to $31 per child per week, or up to $1,627 per year”
Unless they also drop the high limit of $154,697 from which no benefit applies, this is “middle class welfare” that promotes population increases (my big ticket issue), affects already over the top housing prices (more disposable income) and hampers working class people from seeking justifiable pay increases from employers.
I am against payments for children of full time employees, as I see it as an egotistical vested interest issue. Having children is fine – but as they do it for entirely personal reasons/benefits then it should be user pays. If people need this allowance, and many do, I’d rather the essential needs be provided by standard government services such as free schooling, free transport, health etc
My thoughts on childcare – fully integrate all childcare and childcare workers into the public school system under the administration of the Department of Education, with purpose-built rooms constructed on the premises of all primary schools (and some high schools if necessary).
It would ensure there were always enough places available, instead of the first in first served unfair nonsense that goes on now. It would ensure that all personnel were indeed properly qualified, and properly paid. It would mean one destination when dropping kids off and picking them up before and after work. It would mean a familiar place for kids commencing school . . . well, you get my drift.
Oh, and it would eliminate most of the private sector and the outrageous profiteering that takes the lion’s share of low-paid workers’ wages.
Good idea, or not?
The media know that most adults never think, they emote, and this can be manipulated.