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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