The Abbott Government have celebrated their first 100 days and awarded themselves a tick in every box. Everything they have done has been handled efficiently, smoothly, swiftly and professionally. That is, of course, if you listen to the Government’s own glowing but exaggerated assessment.
Thanks to Michael Trembath, here is a link to the articles that provide us with the real story of the Abbott Government’s first 100 days. Satirically sub-titled ‘Delivering on our Plan‘ it delivers an absolute mockery of the claim that the Government has done just that. Our thanks go to Michael for giving The AIMN permission to reproduce his compelling list.
Here is Michael’s fact-finding assessment and evidence of the first real 100 days of the Abbott Government:
Immigration Minister accuses media of ‘misrepresentation’ and claims that they “never had a policy of towing boats back to Indonesia” despite on occasions, the then Opposition Leader suggested he would bring the policy back
The Immigration Minister said that for the sake of correcting the public record … two (boats) were accepted and two were not. The Jakarta Post reported on Saturday that Agus Barnas, spokesman for the Indonesian co-ordinating minister for Legal, Political and Security Affairs, said his country had declined to receive three out of six Australian requests for transfers since September.
The Australian Greens’ Order for Production of Documents passes the Senate and forces the Coalition to table reports about on-water incidents under Operation Sovereign Borders.
Immigration Minister refuses to tell Parliament whether any asylum-seeker boats have been turned back to Indonesia – a Coalition election policy – prompting ridicule from Labor He acknowledges a Senate motion calling him to release reports on asylum-seeker arrival
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has announced the creation of a new taskforce to stamp out corruption in the Customs and Border Protection Service: which will identify officers or groups who pose a risk to the service, as well as their outside criminal associations
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on a profoundly disabled four-year-old Tamil asylum seeker in a Brisbane detention facility who will be transferred offshore along with her father: “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a child, it doesn’t matter whether you’re pregnant, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a woman, it doesn’t matter if you’re an unaccompanied minor, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a health condition – if you are fit enough to get on a boat, then you can expect you’re fit enough to end up in offshore processing.”
A delegation of Russian politicians was in Indonesia to discuss the Australian phone tapping revelations, while giving “permission” from Moscow to Indonesian MPs to meet with former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who lives under temporary protection there.
Demonstrators in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta have burnt an Australian flag in protest over the alleged tapping as anti-Australian sentiment continues to escalate.
Indonesians express Aussie hatred with hashtag #GanyangAustralia which means ‘Crush Australia’
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison refuses to reveal what anti-people smuggling activities have been shelved in Indonesia as a result of the spying scandal
The Abbott government was rebuked by Japan and New Zealand for ditching Australia’s commitment to monitor closely its catch (the lion’s share of a global catch split between nine nations) of the critically endangered southern bluefin tuna. Parliamentary secretary to the Agriculture Minister Richard Colbeck has shelved the proposal, claiming its $600,000 cost was unwarranted in an industry worth $150 million a year in exports.
Barnaby Joyce postpones trip to Indonesia, state-owned cattle firm halts talks amid spying allegations
Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan has confirmed that the dispute with Australia over spying allegations has accelerated his country’s desire to source beef from other countries.
Australia faces strained diplomatic ties on a new front after China lashed out at comments from Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and called for an immediate correction. But Abbott says Australia will speak its mind on China’s territorial dispute with Japan
Abbott arrived noticeably late to the first session of the APEC leaders meeting in Bali. Mr Putin being less than pleased and ignored Mr Abbott’s presence when he finally turned up to be seated next to him
The National Commission of Audit will report to the Prime Minister, Treasurer and Minister for Finance with the first phase due by the end of January 2014; and the second phase due by no later than the end of March 2014
Members of the team hand-picked by the Abbott government to lead the commission of audit will be paid $1500 a day: more than what a family received through the scrapped Schoolkids Bonus each year.
The NDIS will not be exempt from its commission of audit and may allow the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to contract out some administrative functions to the private and not-for-profit sectors
Debt
Treasurer Joe Hockey wants to cut waste by hiring expert external consultants to repeat an audit of Treasury forecasts which was done 10 months ago by expert external consultants
Treasurer considers delaying mid-year budget to “avoid hurting confidence”
Concedes that it will have to boost its own spending (and debt levels) if it is to get a rapid injection of funds into infrastructure projects, overlooking spending on programs such as welfare and education
Transport unions warn thousands of Qantas maintenance, catering and other support staff could be sacked and their jobs sent offshore if restrictions on the foreign ownership of the national carrier are lifted
The Attorney-General reinforces NBN ban on Huawei, a blow to the world’s biggest manufacturer of telco equipment and could strain ties between Australia and the Chinese government, which are negotiating a free-trade agreement that Abbott wants signed within a year
Shares fell for the sixth day in a row as offshore investors trimmed their Australian equity portfolios ahead of expectations a depreciating local currency will eat into their profits, the longest losing streak in 17 months for shares
The Treasurer is determined that his senior public servants spend more time in the ‘real world’, with executives, bankers, bond traders and corporate investors by decentralising Treasury. Shifting parts of Treasury out of Canberra – last done in the early 1990s but reversed in the late 1990s to save money
Abbott will be unable to abolish the fixed price on carbon pollution before 2015 unless he goes to a double-dissolution election, before July 2014
Clive Palmer is threatening to block all the Abbott government’s legislation – even measures he supports such as scrapping the carbon price – unless his party gets more staff and resources
Early repeal of carbon price scheme could cost $2 billion
Boost productivity, reduce regulation and create jobs
Abbott is asking childcare providers to “do the right thing” and hand back $62.5 million given to them to improve wages in the poorly paid sector
Increasing costs
The Education Minister floats the possibility of privatising $23 billion of HECS student debt Which when done in the UK, investment bank Rothschild had pushed for students’ interest rates to be raised
Considering changes to lower the GST threshold on imported goods from $1000 to $20, raising more than $550 million per year in extra revenue at the cost of $1.5 billion per year in administration costs
NBN Co’s interim satellites are reaching full capacity and the government-owned company has started turning away new customers in rural Victoria. These customers must rely on existing broadband infrastructure until NBN Co launches two custom-made satellites in 2015.
The shadow minister for communications, Jason Clare, calls on the Government to fully disclose the contents of the NBN Strategic Review.
The Abbott government expects to make less money from the NBN because of slower speeds available under the Coalition’s copper-based network, a Senate committee has heard. ABC link
The Coalition’s national broadband network model will prove inadequate for many businesses, is poorly planned and is unlikely to be completed on time, according to NBN Co’s internal analysis for the incoming Abbott government.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull admitted the Abbott government will break its NBN election promise of giving all Australians access to 25 megabits per second download speeds by 2016
Handing over $1.5 billion in federal funding for the east-west link without seeing the full business case, despite an election promise that any investment of more than $100 million would require a published cost benefit analysis.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull rings the ABC boss Mark Scott to tell him he had made an “error of judgment” in teaming with the Guardian to run revelations that the Indonesian president’s phone was bugged
Senator Cory Bernardi declares that ABC’s funding should be cut and the national broadcaster forced to sell advertising and paid subscriptions online to compete with commercial newspapers
WA’s Young Liberals will call for the federal Liberal government to “eliminate laws that require radio and television broadcasters to be `balanced'”.
Visits to www.schoolfunding.gov.au are redirected to the departmental website of Education minister Christopher Pyne, where there is no mention of the word “Gonski” at all, let alone a copy of the report or its 7000 submissions.
“He’ll repeal parts of the Racial Discrimination Act making it dangerous to ask why some people identify as exclusively Aboriginal – and deserving of special treatment – when all but one of their great grandparents were white.”
Abbott forms the Prime Minister’s indigenous council to provide advice on Aboriginal economic reform by recuiting powerful business and indigenous figures
Aiming to review $25 billion spent on indigenous affairs – “If there’s no economy and there’s no job there we need to think about other options that will move people to productive engagement.”
The Community Cabinet, the Major Cities Unit, the Social Inclusion Unit, the Australian Institute of Criminology, the Australian National Preventative Health Agency, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the National Health Performance Authority, the Independent Reviewer of Adverse Security Assessments, the Australian Research Council, the embassy in Senegal, the national Children’s Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission all facing cuts or abolition.
Funding for the Alcohol and other Drugs Council (ADCA), the national peak body representing organisations and workers in the sector, has been axed, undermining years of work to minimise alcohol and other drug-related harm across the Australian community Forcing the immediate closure of the 50-year-old organisation.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt won’t attend annual United Nations climate change talks in Warsaw, saying he’ll be busy repealing the carbon tax in the first fortnight of parliament
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has rejected a proposal from the 53-nation Commonwealth to establish a new fund to help poor and island countries to combat climate change.
Prosecuting conservation groups who seek boycotts of products alleged poor environmental practices Greens blast Coalition proposal
Taxpayers would be stung with a $150 million penalty if it broke the fifteen-year lease Labor signed to house the Department of Climate Change in the six-star energy efficient “Nishi” building in New Acton
Deliver strong, sustainable and accountable government
Silence echoes across Canberra as the Coalition clams up: Since winning office, Abbott has fronted the nation’s media just eight times (in two months). Calls to his office, and to his ministers, frequently go unanswered or unreturned. (Includes list of roadblocks)
Abbott quietly repays $609 in taxpayer-funded entitlements he claimed to attend the 2006 wedding of one-time colleague Peter Slipper, who is now facing charges for alleged expenses rorts Link to a comprehensive list of travel allowances claimed by Abbott totalling $84k in 3 years
Defence Department records revealed that senior figures in the Abbott government were among those who enjoyed free travel on VIP military aircraft to fly to Canberra for parliamentary sitting weeks, amassing a taxpayer bill of more than $2 million
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has been busted for a third time using taxpayer funds to attend a wedding, repaying more than $300 claimed on ComCars to attend a journalist friend’s wedding five years ago
Foreign Minister warns Australians travelling overseas they need to take responsibility for their own actions and can’t count on the federal government to bail them out if they get into trouble
What a list! It’s take 100 days to read it all………. but I don’t have to read any of it to know what a total disaster this government is…. they haven’t got A clue. Totally out of their depth.
"Slick" Abbott is so proud of the job Aussie troops have done in Afghanistan he has cut foreign aid …………………… which sets up another generation of Aussies to go to war.
FSM is coming.
Thank you and all involved that goes that extra yard to compile something like this.
The future is dark. We have some of the worse narcissists ever running this country. The major symptom is total lack of self blame. In Abbott’s eyes he can never do anything wrong. Ever. Forget even telling him. He’s so caught up in his own lies he even convinces himself. Joe Hocking is identical in this sick personality disorder. You ask any psychologist what is the hardest personality disorder to treat and I’m sure narcissism is right at the top.
Tim “Twat” Wilson a Human Rights Commissioner…? More like a definition of an oxymoron.
M. R.
A children’s author, Susan Cooper, wrote a series called “The Dark is Rising”, and that’s what seems to be happening in Australia. What Michael has posted is not risible, not farcical, not even unbelievable: it’s actually terrifying. Who doesn’t believe these horrible people might do their utmost to legislate, in some way or another, such as to ensure they’re kept in power? I wouldn’t put ANYTHING past them.
Kaye Lee
And just to add to that list –
They have just announced that Tim Wilson from the IPA has been appointed the Human Rights Commissioner to add “balance”.
Have a look at the IPA’s 75+25 wish list. We are racing through and this appointment should help get rid of a few more pesky things like
As someone else has stated. It would take 100 days just to read the entire report that Michael put together. Irrespective, the Abbott government has proven one thing to the Australian community and to the world at large, and that is that “ignorance” at election time and how you place your vote will cost you money, jobs and your security, and above all, it makes you (voters) look foolish and child like. It is not the time to chuck a tantrum.
Gail T
Thank you greatly for this level of detail. The work involved is OUTSTANDING.
Bacchus
I hope so bighead1883 @2:38 pm You get ice-cream in heaven! 😆
Ricky Pann
diannaart
@ Ricky Pann – Excellent video.
100 days of LNP government, well at least they can’t be accused of doing nothing – guilty of everything else, especially anything that can be described as ‘unethical’ – LNP just loves that.
Gail T
@Kaye Lee It is great to be reminded of those achievements and the time frame being equivalent just of course REINFORCES what we already knew putting it nicely we are being GOVERNEd by a bunch of GALAHS can you hear them as they fly repeating Labors debt, BUDGET BLOWOUT, labors debt labors debt, cra cra, CA CA budget emergency etc.( apologies to real natural galahs of course). @bighead The other comments were DELETEd from that other place so no-one WILL KNOW now that my text was hacked by a troll while I was writing it and it is not the FIRST TIME. It happened last night and it hs happened before that the comments were simply disappeared but not being moderated. Regards. Others need to know.
Ricky Pann
Whitlam had a Legacy, this guy will leave us legless
Kaye Lee
When Gough Whitlam was elected prime minister of Australia in 1972, he was so eager to begin representative office that rather than wait the 10 days between his election and the full confirmation of electoral results, he divvied up all 27 ministerial portfolios between himself and his deputy.
In the 10 days of this duumvirate, Whitlam and Lance Barnard withdrew all Australian troops from the Vietnam war, ended conscription and freed all conscientious objectors from prison, recognised the People’s Republic of China, and re-opened the equal pay for women case before the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and appointed a woman to lead it. They also eliminated taxes on contraception, made significant arts grants, barred racially discriminatory sports teams from touring Australia and ordered Australian representatives at the United Nations to support Nelson Mandela’s campaign against apartheid.
Whitlam, by contrast, spoke very loudly to his vision. Once his second ministry was formed, in his first 100 days he passionately abolished racial discrimination in immigration policy, replaced the British Honours system, ended the reign of “God Save the Queen” as the Australian anthem, and instituted environmental protections for Australian fauna. Further, he’d already begun legislative action to end the death penalty, make university education free, sewer every urban home, reform healthcare and introduce both the Racial Discrimination Act and no-fault divorce.
Jeffbrad07
I realise now that Abbott doesn’t intend to lir. He’s just delusional.
As Tony Abbott marks his 100th day in office as Prime Minister a 7News/ReachTEL poll has revealed what voters think.
It shows the Coalition’s, and Mr Abbott’s own performance ratings, have slumped during a difficult first few months.
Today Mr Abbott produced his own assessment of his government’s first 100 days.
“I’m very satisfied with the job I’ve done,” Prime Minister Abbott said.
But voters are not, with an exclusive 7News/ReachTEL poll showing that 50 percent of people rate the Abbott Government’s first 100 days as poor or very poor.
Only 30 percent thought it was good or very good, and 20 percent said it was satisfactory.
As a result, the Coalition’s primary vote has fallen four points and Labor’s has jumped six in the past month – putting Labor ahead 52-48 after preferences.
Mike, are we getting what we asked for? We, as in the Australian public. We voted in a political party which promised to stop doing, well, mostly everything. We never asked them what they were going to do *instead of*. Sadly, the answer seems to be, not very much at all.
This Abbott government seems to think that having fooled the public enough to win themselves government, that whatever they do thereafter doesn’t really count for very much. Let’s just hope that people are a little bit smarter this time around, and going by Abbott’s immediate plummet in the polls, it’s very hopeful that they have.
Paul Raymond Scahill
I was fortunate (unfortunate) enough to see the Bag of Wind and his imported off-sider tell all their lies about the MYEFO. It was a little off putting that they continued their lambasting of the LPA but had very liittle substance in what they proposed. To my way of thinking it was all hiss and wind, but typical of this guvmint or whatever it is supposed to be. They both used a variation of words to befuddle those in attendance, however, I did note that the journos in attendance were more rightwing than left, (hand picked I guess). We dont want to be exposed as liars or magicians when we are presenting our budget update but left many of the questioners with fuzzy word replies. Just proving how incapable the entire LNP are!
The half Senate election re run in WA might turn out to be veeeeery interesting..!
Today’s Newspoll, published in The Australian, shows a rapid cooling of the relationship between voters and the Coalition government. Newspoll shows that based on 2013 preference flows (in the House of Representatives), an election today would return a Bill Shorten Labor government, 52 per cent to 48 per cent in two-party-preferred terms.
Most commentators believe the Tony Abbott/Christopher Pyne mishandling of the Gonski reforms is to blame, but the flare-ups with Indonesia and China can’t have helped.
There is also a strong whiff of cooked-books coming from Treasurer Hockey’s office – the $8.8 billion he shovelled into the Reserve Bank of Australia’s capital reserves was widely criticised as a way to blow out the budget now, to look good later.
So if a Western Australian election is held before the new Senate sits on July 1, there could be some very large swings, and major re-routing of preferences.
Ricky Pann
Add this to the list “She has extensive experience in manufacturing” (the truth)
In just 100 days, Abbott has appointed a cabinet without a science minster, abolished the Climate Commission, moved legislation to abolish the carbon price and the Climate Change Authority, removed critical federal environmental safeguards for biodiversity, taken the Murray-Darling Basin off the threatened ecosystems list, rolled back the no-fishing sanctuaries in Australia’s newest marine parks, announced a review into the Renewable Energy Target … and approved the world’s largest coal port in Queensland.
$20 million from the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program
$6.7 million from the Caring for our Country program – which grants money to conservation projects – to help fund its royal commission into the Rudd government’s home insulation scheme.
$40 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency
The Coalition will also wind up the Low Carbon Communities program, which provides grants to local councils and other groups to make energy efficiency upgrades to community buildings.
Westmead Children’s Hospital will lose $100 million in funding for the first stage of a comprehensive redevelopment
Children’s Medical Research Institute will lose $10 million
Millennium Institute will lose $12 million.
$43 million of funding from indigenous legal aid.
The government has also announced plans to cut the position of Co-ordinator-General for Remote Indigenous Services.
more than $1.5 billion in education cuts, including ending the trades training centre program and slashing before and after school care assistance by $450 million.
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Kaye Lee
Return to home pageWhat a list! It’s take 100 days to read it all………. but I don’t have to read any of it to know what a total disaster this government is…. they haven’t got A clue. Totally out of their depth.
and one more backflip (on a really stupid policy mind…)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-17/coalition-shelves-indonesia-asylum-boat-buy-back-plan/5160914
<
"Slick" Abbott is so proud of the job Aussie troops have done in Afghanistan he has cut foreign aid …………………… which sets up another generation of Aussies to go to war.
Thank you and all involved that goes that extra yard to compile something like this.
The future is dark. We have some of the worse narcissists ever running this country. The major symptom is total lack of self blame. In Abbott’s eyes he can never do anything wrong. Ever. Forget even telling him. He’s so caught up in his own lies he even convinces himself. Joe Hocking is identical in this sick personality disorder.
You ask any psychologist what is the hardest personality disorder to treat and I’m sure narcissism is right at the top.
Tim “Twat” Wilson a Human Rights Commissioner…?
More like a definition of an oxymoron.
A children’s author, Susan Cooper, wrote a series called “The Dark is Rising”, and that’s what seems to be happening in Australia. What Michael has posted is not risible, not farcical, not even unbelievable: it’s actually terrifying. Who doesn’t believe these horrible people might do their utmost to legislate, in some way or another, such as to ensure they’re kept in power? I wouldn’t put ANYTHING past them.
And just to add to that list –
They have just announced that Tim Wilson from the IPA has been appointed the Human Rights Commissioner to add “balance”.
Have a look at the IPA’s 75+25 wish list. We are racing through and this appointment should help get rid of a few more pesky things like
82. Abolish the Human Rights Commission
73. Defund Harmony Day.
http://ipa.org.au/publications/2080/be-like-gough-75-radical-ideas-to-transform-australia
http://ipa.org.au/publications/2110/25-more-ideas-for-tony-abbott
Just to give you a handle on what Tim Wilson and the IPA think about human rights
http://www.ipa.org.au/publications/2146/ipa-australian-human-rights-commission-should-be-abolished
F—–A——–R———-K———–E———-N~~~~~~~~H——-E——L———-L
As someone else has stated. It would take 100 days just to read the entire report that Michael put together. Irrespective, the Abbott government has proven one thing to the Australian community and to the world at large, and that is that “ignorance” at election time and how you place your vote will cost you money, jobs and your security, and above all, it makes you (voters) look foolish and child like. It is not the time to chuck a tantrum.
Thank you greatly for this level of detail. The work involved is OUTSTANDING.
I hope so bighead1883 @2:38 pm You get ice-cream in heaven! 😆
@ Ricky Pann – Excellent video.
100 days of LNP government, well at least they can’t be accused of doing nothing – guilty of everything else, especially anything that can be described as ‘unethical’ – LNP just loves that.
@Kaye Lee It is great to be reminded of those achievements and the time frame being equivalent just of course REINFORCES what we already knew putting it nicely we are being GOVERNEd by a bunch of GALAHS can you hear them as they fly repeating Labors debt, BUDGET BLOWOUT, labors debt labors debt, cra cra, CA CA budget emergency etc.( apologies to real natural galahs of course).
@bighead
The other comments were DELETEd from that other place so no-one WILL KNOW now that my text was hacked by a troll while I was writing it and it is not the FIRST TIME. It happened last night and it hs happened before that the comments were simply disappeared but not being moderated. Regards.
Others need to know.
Whitlam had a Legacy, this guy will leave us legless
When Gough Whitlam was elected prime minister of Australia in 1972, he was so eager to begin representative office that rather than wait the 10 days between his election and the full confirmation of electoral results, he divvied up all 27 ministerial portfolios between himself and his deputy.
In the 10 days of this duumvirate, Whitlam and Lance Barnard withdrew all Australian troops from the Vietnam war, ended conscription and freed all conscientious objectors from prison, recognised the People’s Republic of China, and re-opened the equal pay for women case before the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and appointed a woman to lead it. They also eliminated taxes on contraception, made significant arts grants, barred racially discriminatory sports teams from touring Australia and ordered Australian representatives at the United Nations to support Nelson Mandela’s campaign against apartheid.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/16/100-days-under-abbott-is-his-real-legacy-what-were-not-being-told?CMP=soc_568
Further on Gough’s first 100 days
Whitlam, by contrast, spoke very loudly to his vision. Once his second ministry was formed, in his first 100 days he passionately abolished racial discrimination in immigration policy, replaced the British Honours system, ended the reign of “God Save the Queen” as the Australian anthem, and instituted environmental protections for Australian fauna. Further, he’d already begun legislative action to end the death penalty, make university education free, sewer every urban home, reform healthcare and introduce both the Racial Discrimination Act and no-fault divorce.
I realise now that Abbott doesn’t intend to lir. He’s just delusional.
As Tony Abbott marks his 100th day in office as Prime Minister a 7News/ReachTEL poll has revealed what voters think.
It shows the Coalition’s, and Mr Abbott’s own performance ratings, have slumped during a difficult first few months.
Today Mr Abbott produced his own assessment of his government’s first 100 days.
“I’m very satisfied with the job I’ve done,” Prime Minister Abbott said.
But voters are not, with an exclusive 7News/ReachTEL poll showing that 50 percent of people rate the Abbott Government’s first 100 days as poor or very poor.
Only 30 percent thought it was good or very good, and 20 percent said it was satisfactory.
As a result, the Coalition’s primary vote has fallen four points and Labor’s has jumped six in the past month – putting Labor ahead 52-48 after preferences.
Mike, are we getting what we asked for? We, as in the Australian public. We voted in a political party which promised to stop doing, well, mostly everything. We never asked them what they were going to do *instead of*. Sadly, the answer seems to be, not very much at all.
This Abbott government seems to think that having fooled the public enough to win themselves government, that whatever they do thereafter doesn’t really count for very much. Let’s just hope that people are a little bit smarter this time around, and going by Abbott’s immediate plummet in the polls, it’s very hopeful that they have.
I was fortunate (unfortunate) enough to see the Bag of Wind and his imported off-sider tell all their lies about the MYEFO. It was a little off putting that they continued their lambasting of the LPA but had very liittle substance in what they proposed. To my way of thinking it was all hiss and wind, but typical of this guvmint or whatever it is supposed to be. They both used a variation of words to befuddle those in attendance, however, I did note that the journos in attendance were more rightwing than left, (hand picked I guess). We dont want to be exposed as liars or magicians when we are presenting our budget update but left many of the questioners with fuzzy word replies. Just proving how incapable the entire LNP are!
The half Senate election re run in WA might turn out to be veeeeery interesting..!
Today’s Newspoll, published in The Australian, shows a rapid cooling of the relationship between voters and the Coalition government. Newspoll shows that based on 2013 preference flows (in the House of Representatives), an election today would return a Bill Shorten Labor government, 52 per cent to 48 per cent in two-party-preferred terms.
Most commentators believe the Tony Abbott/Christopher Pyne mishandling of the Gonski reforms is to blame, but the flare-ups with Indonesia and China can’t have helped.
There is also a strong whiff of cooked-books coming from Treasurer Hockey’s office – the $8.8 billion he shovelled into the Reserve Bank of Australia’s capital reserves was widely criticised as a way to blow out the budget now, to look good later.
So if a Western Australian election is held before the new Senate sits on July 1, there could be some very large swings, and major re-routing of preferences.
Add this to the list “She has extensive experience in manufacturing” (the truth)
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/coalition-appoints-sophie-mirabella-to-board-of-governmentowned-shipbuilding-firm-20131217-2zj2n.html
Tony may think he is doing well……
In just 100 days, Abbott has appointed a cabinet without a science minster, abolished the Climate Commission, moved legislation to abolish the carbon price and the Climate Change Authority, removed critical federal environmental safeguards for biodiversity, taken the Murray-Darling Basin off the threatened ecosystems list, rolled back the no-fishing sanctuaries in Australia’s newest marine parks, announced a review into the Renewable Energy Target … and approved the world’s largest coal port in Queensland.
And on the 102nd day he cut……
$20 million from the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program
$6.7 million from the Caring for our Country program – which grants money to conservation projects – to help fund its royal commission into the Rudd government’s home insulation scheme.
$40 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency
The Coalition will also wind up the Low Carbon Communities program, which provides grants to local councils and other groups to make energy efficiency upgrades to community buildings.
Westmead Children’s Hospital will lose $100 million in funding for the first stage of a comprehensive redevelopment
Children’s Medical Research Institute will lose $10 million
Millennium Institute will lose $12 million.
$43 million of funding from indigenous legal aid.
The government has also announced plans to cut the position of Co-ordinator-General for Remote Indigenous Services.
more than $1.5 billion in education cuts, including ending the trades training centre program and slashing before and after school care assistance by $450 million.