High fives and big smiles all round as the Turnbull government completes another year full of achievement – or so the Liberal Party talking points say.
Yesterday I had a look at Tony Abbott’s achievements whilst PM. Today it’s Malcolm’s turn, once again, using the handy list provided by the Liberal Party.
Malcolm’s first listed achievement ironically underlines the division in the government – “An innovation and science agenda to help create the jobs of the future.”
For starters, how can an “agenda” be counted as an achievement?
This agenda/achievement has been roundly blamed for almost costing them the election. Malcolm’s slogan didn’t have the same ring as Axe the Tax and Stop the Boats. There was nothing to get angry about.
Tony Abbott echoed the feelings of many of his colleagues when he said, on November 27, “It is good we’re no longer talking about innovation and agility.”
Achievement number 2 is “Landmark reform of Australia’s competition law – to help small to medium companies compete with big business.”
As far as I am aware, this is still only at the draft legislation stage. No achievement yet.
His next two ‘achievements’ relate to defence spending commitments – “The 2016 Defence White Paper which will secure Australia in the 21st century” and “A defence industry plan which backs local advanced manufacturing, particularly in regional Australia.” So we have a white paper and a plan to spend a lot of money on armaments. Achievement? Not so far.
Number 5 is “Taking action to address domestic violence through the $100 million Women’s Safety Package.”
About $30 million of that funding is for front-line legal assistance and family law services which falls far short of replacing the $52 million the Coalition cut from community legal centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services and legal aid services.
In 2014, police recorded 95 homicides from family and domestic violence-related offences, 3074 victims of family and domestic violence-related sexual assault, and tens of thousands of physical violence cases, and these were only the ones reported to police. How much do we spend on “the war on terror” and how many victims has it claimed in Australia?
Malcolm’s sixth achievement is “Overseeing the release of all children from onshore immigration detention (which compares with Labor’s record of 8,469 children in detention).”
Note the omission of children in offshore detention and the gratuitous and misleading shot at Labor? The number of children in detention was 1,165 at the end of September 2013 and was about 2,000 at its highest.
According to the DIBP, as of October 30 this year, there were still 45 children in detention on Nauru, 5 children in mainland detention, 251 children in community detention, and 4,021 children languishing on bridging visas.
Malcolm’s next ‘achievement’ tells us that he is “Cracking down on multinational tax avoidance to ensure companies that make money in Australia pay tax in Australia.”
As we have heard in a plethora of reports, companies are not paying tax in Australia and, what’s more, we are going to reward their tax avoidance with a 5% tax cut. Great expertise and experience was lost when thousands of jobs were cut from the ATO and belated rehiring of a few of them will not replace it. Likewise, giving back a fraction of the money and jobs that Abbott cut from corporate watchdog ASIC does not give them the resources to adequately do their job.
Then we move on to the Free Trade Agreements.
Can “Legislating to implement the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement” be counted as a Turnbull achievement when he did nothing towards it other than vote?
And does “Signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership” count as an achievement when it hasn’t been agreed to? It hasn’t delivered any “substantial new trade and investment opportunities for Australian businesses” yet that I am aware of, let alone any jobs or income. It’s just another piece of paper at this stage.
The ex-Communications Minister’s list of achievements does not mention the NBN, and nor should it, but it does mention “Bringing our media laws into the digital age and ensuring local media outlets remain viable.”
Once again, this is just a proposal, not an achievement. It appears certain to concentrate media ownership even further, lessen diversity significantly, and mean the end of regional programming.
The Conversation’s analysis of the proposal sounded a warning.
“There is a pressing need to rethink policy and regulation in light of the ongoing transformations surrounding digital convergence. Traditional sector-based approaches to media policy are being challenged. But diversity and pluralism remain policies of high consequence because they are directed at maintaining an informed population.”
We will be increasingly informed by Rupert Murdoch and his minions.
Malcolm is proud of “Establishing the $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund.”
The gall of this is staggering. Firstly, the $1 billion has been taken from the existing, and profitable, Clean Energy Finance Corporation and just called a new name. On top of that, as part of the Omnibus Bill, the Coalition wanted to strip $1 billion in funds from ARENA. In September, Labor eventually agreed to them cutting $500 million after previously agreeing to a significant reduction in the renewable energy target.
The next great achievement was “Banning excessive surcharges on credit cards to protect Australian consumers.”
Merchants can still charge surcharges for using a credit card, they just can’t be “excessive”. Conveniently, no-one has actually defined excessive, but you may save a dollar or two on airline and concert tickets which was probably being illegally charged in the first place if the ACCC had the staff to follow it up.
And it wouldn’t be Malcolm without some public transport – “Investing in important public transport projects, including the $95 million Gold Coast Light Rail, the Sydney Metro and the Melbourne Metro.”
In return for the privatisation of the NSW electricity network and the Port of Melbourne, the Sydney Metro rail project will receive $1.7 billion in federal funding and the Melbourne Metro rail project will receive $857 million from the Federal Government.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said his state was always expecting to receive the money for the Melbourne Metro.
“This payment is the state’s entitlement, it’s not a gift for Scott Morrison to disperse wherever he pleases,” Mr Pallas said. “This money is money the Commonwealth owes the state for the lease of the Port of Melbourne. This is not new funding.”
And whilst Malcolm did offer $95 million for the Gold Coast Light Rail, it is projected to cost $700 million to build the 7.3 km line for the Commonwealth Games.
Next, Malcolm reminds us of his “Senate voting reform that ensures Australians, not preference whisperers, choose their Senators.”
Combined with an, as it turns out, unnecessary double dissolution, this replaced Glenn Lazarus and Ricky Muir with people like Malcolm Roberts and Rod Culleton and made Pauline Hanson think she has authority.
The last achievement on the list is “The abolition of Bill Shorten’s truck tribunal which was putting owner-operator truck drivers out of business.”
The RSRT was created after the National Transport Commission found in 2008 that there was a link between driver remuneration and safety outcomes for truck drivers and recommended a national scheme to set minimum safe rates for employee and owner drivers.
Once again, the Conversation issues a warning about its abolition.
It is not surprising that some owner drivers are anxious about this payment order … These drivers are probably among the most poorly remunerated in the industry and have extensive debt wrapped up in their trucks. Many are making a marginal living at best.
However, this situation cannot go on forever. Their situation will not improve until the supermarket chains, product manufacturers and other organisations at the top starting negotiating decent pay into their contracts. If the RSRT is abolished, these corporations will continue to avoid responsibility.
Malcolm’s latest achievements – the Registered Organisations Bill, the ABCC and the backpacker’s tax – haven’t made it onto the list yet.
The take home message from those pieces of horse-trading is that we could have avoided an election if the Coalition had been prepared to negotiate in the first place, and that they would rather have higher taxes and lose one or two hundred million from the budget bottom line than agree with Labor.
Aside from an agenda and some proposals and claiming credit for other people’s work, Malcolm has spent most of his time giving back just a little of what Tony Abbott took away.
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