In the 2013 Climate Change Performance Index, Australia ranked 40 out of the 58 OECD countries, a poor result but “In the policy category Australia has gradually improved and now ranks in the top ten. The decision to implement an emissions trading scheme and a positive attitude towards accepting a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol are highlighted by Australian policy experts.”
By 2015 we were third last ahead of only oil-rich Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia. “The new conservative Australian government has apparently made good on last year’s announcement and reversed the climate policies previously in effect. As a result, the country lost a further 21 positions in the policy evaluation compared to last year, thus replacing Canada as the worst performing industrial country.”
In 2013, National Broadband Network Australia was ranked 30th in the world for average peak connection speed. Today we are ranked 60th.
New Zealand has been able to bring their cost of FttP very close to FttN.
“We always had a declining view of the cost per premise passed as our factor gets better at delivering fibre to the home. Our build program works by having consistency and homogeneousness. Keeping things simple allows the build program to build up efficiency: for technicians to build up skills that are repeatable and for systems to allow automation. Basically, it is a sausage factory approach to just keeping it rolling out.”
Contrarily, our government and the NBN company calculate the ten-year cost for FttP as showing no productivity gains over a decade.
In 2013 we had signed funding agreements with the states for schools and hospitals. Then this government reneged on the deal and ripped $80 billion out of the funding.
In 2013 we still owned Medibank Private. The $470 million profit they made last year will go to shareholders rather than to government revenue. Medibank shares have climbed 24 per cent since its November 2014 listing, compared with the 8.6 per cent fall of the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index in that time.
The net debt a week before the 2013 election was $161.25 billion. The net debt 30 months later at the end of February was $287.92 billion – an increase of about $1 billion per week.
In 2013 there was bipartisan support for the NDIS and the electorate was happy to pay more for their Medicare levy to fund it. Today we see the government trying to take over control, slow down the rollout, make eligibility harder and doing everything possible to put off spending.
In 2013, women received 18 weeks paid parental leave at the minimum wage paid by the government to which they could add whatever maternity leave their employer offered. Now you can have one or the other (or is that one of the delights still stuck in the Senate that we can look forward to if the Coalition win a majority in both houses?)
In 2013, the school chaplains program included trained counsellors. Now it is restricted to religious proselytes.
This list could be much longer.
How much longer must we endure this incompetent bunch of ideologues who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing?
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Julia Gillard was Australia’s best Prime Minister since E.G.Whitlam QC our greatest ever PM. Turdbull is a waffler who talks a lot but does nothing, we can no longer afford this LNP approach, we must oust the LNP on the 2nd of July, and put the LNP last on each ballot paper.
A huge swathe of voters think only about their own budgets, nothing about the country’s good, nothing about climate change, nothing about anyone else. If you live in a house where every cent counts, you don’t have the energy to think about bigger things.
The Labor party needs to find the right policy, the right button to push for this group so that they WILL see what damage the LNP is doing and WILL think about voting Labor.
In the Senate VOTE BELOW THE LINE for every Senator of YOUR choice. This is the only way to beat the bastards. And the only chance to stop a Coalition blanket in the parliament.
Yes. Vote below the line, numbering 12 boxes, but do not number the LNP.
it will be critical to wake up those confused voters because too many of them don’t even know how been treated themselves after vote
Put the LNP candidate last on your House of Representatives ballot paper. Don’t forget to number ALL the boxes on the this ballot paper. On the Senate ballot paper do not vote for the Liberal or National party groupings at all. If you really want YOUR VOTE to count and go where you intend the vote to go number the squares below the line, numbering at least 12 boxes, please ensure you include at least three Labor party candidates and then anyone else you like from the Greens or the independents.
Since we are electing 12 Senators for each state I would include more than three Labor. I would also number more than 12 below the line just to make sure.
Vile, incompetent and full of hate, this ruling rabble have almost destroyed a country that has so much potential.The real national discussion really needs to be about where we would like to see ourselves in 20-50 years….. not in this small-minded, unimaginative space where we have become the whiter trash of Asia!
Hey..great post This LNP ABCC is anti worker ,an attempt to destroy the ALP and the loss of Human lives. Why would you vote for this bill anyway? . If this ABCC Bill goes through there will be a number of unionists gaoled for the crime of not talking to an anti-union tribunal of inquisition about union matters.
Turnbull has claimed that the ABCC is at the centre of his Government’s economic reform package. While the Government mouths nonsense about the ABCC bill improving productivity in the building industry, the bill is really about neutering the building unions, in particular the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy union (CFMEU). The CFMEU is one of the few unions in Australia prepared to stand up for and mobilise its members to win wage increases, defend jobs and make workplaces safe. These activities cut into the profit of the big building companies and the ABCC is about making it even more profitable for tax avoiding building companies to screw more profits out of their workers at the expense of workers’ lives.
When the ABCC was last set up, deaths on building sites increased markedly. The CFMEU says that
‘… the number of deaths [went] up: from 3.14 per 100,000 workers in 2004 – before the ABCC started – to 4.8 per 100,000 workers in 2007 and 4.27 in 2008.’ ……………https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-forthcoming-australian-election-and-the-ongoing-attacks-on-unions-and-workers,8806
I loved Julia Gillard as PM, sure she made mistakes and got some things wrong at times like we all do,but by god she was a bloody good Prime Minister, i agree with Townsvilleblog, she was the best PM since Whitlam, and this narcissistic gutless syncophantic carpetbagger from Wankworth could not hold a candle to her,and that goes for the moron who went before him.
If some Australians dont wake up to the fact that this ”’ Government;”” is taking the country and us to hell in a hand basket then they and us will pay a terrible price for our ignorance and apathy.””
Unfortunately North Queensland is NOT a separate State yet, however I was quite content to pay the price on carbon, and as a pensioner I would be the lowest income bracket, but I was reassured that my daughter would grow up into a world less severely impacted by climate change, I’d personally like to see that policy re-instituted be it part of an ETS or as was in existance, we really do need polluters to pay for their pollution, before they will change.
What The?, Am I reading ‘comments’ from Uni students? or The Socialist Party of Australia.
HOW can anyone claim Julia Gillard was the BEST prime minister? A woman who Lied, created massive debt upon the Australian tax payers which ADDED to the reckless/criminal spending of the man she stabbed in the back… Rudd (The MOST reckless wasteful spender in Australian history. ….she wasn’t far behind)…. speaking of THAT, she not only added ‘significantly’ added to HIS debt, she also ‘Rammed’ through parliament legislation for a further $200 Billion worth of commitments and infrastructure for the following Government to deal with. Totally unfunded projects that, as i said, where put through parliament in such a sneaky disgusting way that these policy’s could NOT be ‘Reversed’ by any following Government (except the POINTLESS fictional based
The ‘Apparent’ Facts and statistics in this article do NOT show the how/why & WHO was or is ‘responsible’ for the Debt this country owes NOW, the debt that has a $1.5 Billion monthly interest bill attached to it even after the largest mining boom Australia had seen (they did not save a cent) & look at the mining & commodities sectors now!!! NOT the fault of LNP for those of you too ignorant or stupid to realise.
Rudd & Gillard where the most reckless spenders of “Our Money” in History, but are not alone when it comes to ‘Hand outs’ to the Gimme Gimme & ‘I WANT’ culture of people in this country who ‘clearly’ can’t see that ALL ALP/GREEN Governments whether at State, or Federal level ‘past or current’ have the same mentality or stupidity to realise the money HAS to be paid back at some point AND, that when in such bad debt the current Government has NO ROOM to hand out ‘Feel Good, vote buying extras’ because the Budget has been dangerously abused by the previous ALP/GREEN Governments.
While you think about THAT, don’t forget that reckless spending ALSO effects our hospitals, schools, emergency services ……Gees, the list could go ON & ON. …ok, it effects EVERY decision & piece of infrastructure this Government wants to fix/address.
MAYBE, try to look at REAL FACTS, how economy’s work & what causes some Governments to make unpopular but necessary decisions to try and claw back some of that BAD DEBT your UNION run Labor & Green Governments leave behind/make.
VERY SCAREY to think we let certain people vote
“try to look at REAL FACTS”
Okay
“A woman who Lied”
August 20, 2010: “I don’t rule out the possibility of legislating a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, a market-based mechanism,” she said of the next parliament.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillards-carbon-price-promise/story-fn59niix-1225907522983
“created massive debt upon the Australian tax payers”
The Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz when visiting Australia in 2010 said it was “lucky to have probably the best designed stimulus package of any of the countries, advanced industrial countries, both in size and in design, timing and how it was spent, and I think it served Australia well.”
The net debt a week before the 2013 election was $161.25 billion. The net debt 30 months later at the end of February 2016 was $287.92 billion
“the man she stabbed in the back”
Abbott/Turnbull/Abbott?
“The MOST reckless wasteful spender in Australian history”
The IMF identifies only two periods of Australian “fiscal profligacy” in recent years, both during Mr Howard’s term in office – in 2003 at the start of the mining boom and during his final years in office between 2005 and 2007.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australias-most-wasteful-spending-came-in-howard-era-finds-imf-study-20130110-2cj38.html#ixzz43ywGFdsw
“these policy’s could NOT be ‘Reversed’ by any following Government ”
Abbott reneged on the signed funding agreements with the states on school and hospital funding ripping $80 billion out of the budget.
“the debt that has a $1.5 Billion monthly interest bill”
The Commonwealth government spent around $14.5bn in 2014-15 on public debt interest payments, equivalent to around 0.9 per cent of GDP. However, debt interest payments are nowhere near the high water mark of 1.7 per cent of GDP (equivalent to 7.1 per cent of total revenue). This reflects the fact that the government pays significantly lower rates of interest on its debt now compared with the 1990’s.
“VERY SCAREY to think we let certain people vote”
Indeed
It appears that Granger Barnett is another drive-by, scatter-gun troll who likes to SHOUT. He’ll likely trash the Guardian site next. You probably wasted useful electrons in replying to him Kaye, as he is unlikely to apear again.
Cheers,
Steeleye
Granger Barnett, I agree with you 100 per cent. When you said “VERY SCAREY to think we let certain people vote” I nodded my head so wildly in agreement that I now need two Panadol and a lie down.
Steeleye,
You are no doubt right but it made me smile. (Dusts hands off)
Poor Granger Barnett, hapless dupe of Murdoch and LNP propaganda. He really believes he has been fed the truth. It never ceases to amaze me how people can so ferociously defend a bunch of lies.
Granger Barnett, if you check with an impartial party, such as the World Bank you’ll find that Howard (his own party called him a lying little rodent), despite his enthusiasm for breathless self-promotion, actually ran one of the most financially irresponsible governments in Australia’s history and Julia Gillard one of the most successful. At the time of the Global Financial Crisis her government gave us the best economy in the world.
Look it up. Check with credit ratings agencies. Even insanely right-wing groups like Goldman Sachs agreed. The Gillard government delivered the top rating economy in the world.
The only people who said the reverse were Murdoch, through his awful propaganda rags, and Tony Abbott the compulsive liar. They were the only people in the world who said the Gillard government was anything but a massive success. How Murdoch managed to convince the Australian people of such untruths is a tribute to the power of saturation bullshit.
It really can convince people night is day. They will disbelieve their own eyes and will angrily denounce any attempt to point out the truth… as you can sadly attest.
Mick, have you conveniently forgotten the Global Financial Crisis, that was ‘world-wide crisis and Australia was the only country that survived without going into recession. Soe people like to view life through ‘blinkers’ I see the ‘whole’ story.
Mick, Julia may have had plans for ‘corporate Australia to pay their ‘fair share’ of taxation with which she could fund those infrastructure projects, instead of those parasites paying between 5% and nil, which would have raised tens of billions of ‘extra’ dollars for government revenue, but I’m guessing that you are a tory who wouldn’t like to see business pay it’s ‘fair share’ in taxation to the Australian government, but are quite happy to see working people pay 19% up to 48% in their personal income taxes?
Mick, on your last point, yes, it is scary to let working people vote against themselves and for parasite corporations, but that’s the freedom of living in a free country with a democratic system, if people want to vote against their own best interests we can’t stop you.
Miriam, How right you are, a pleasure to read your reply to the tory.
Nice line that, “ideologues who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing”. Says it all really.