Saturday, December 13, 2008

Liberal Messages Saturday 13th December

Economic measures welcome but where is the detail?
The Treasurer should release an updated economic forecast that takes into account the impact of all new spending since the release of the Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 5 November.

Rudd adopts Coalition small business policy 23 days later
I’m delighted the Rudd Government has after 23 days finally heeded the Coalition’s calls to provide small business with PAYG Instalment relief.

Rudd right to re-think funding quality infrastructure
Today’s announcement by the Rudd Government is made up almost entirely of road and rail projects that were initiated and supported by the former Coalition Government.

Labor silent on new laws to prevent money laundering
The Minister for Home Affairs, Bob Debus has been remarkably silent on new obligations that take effect today under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) Act 2006.

Further delay for interested childcare operators
Individuals and organisations that have already registered an expression of interest in an ABC childcare centre and received no response will be stunned that a whole new process will now be started by new court appointed ABC receivers.

Where's the water infrastructure funding?
The Rudd Government has again forgotten about water infrastructure for the Murray-Darling Basin in today’s announcement.

No money left to monitor illegal drugs economy
The Australian Crime Commission will be monitoring Australia’s illegal drugs based economy for the next twelve months with just $200,000, as reported by the ABC yesterday.

Turnbull Joint Press Conference with Robb - Unemployment, ETS
Now we’ve had the very unfortunate news that one of our global mining giants, Rio Tinto, has been forced to shed thousands of jobs as a consequence of the global financial crisis and the economic slowdown around the world. And we hope that for the benefit of all its employees Rio Tinto is able to clarify where those job losses are going to be, and so that those employees whose jobs are not at risk will get the assurance of continued employment. Rio employs a lot of Australians, as we all know.

New CEO of Australian Crime Commission
Former Justice Minister, Senator Chris Ellison today welcomed the appointment of John Lawler, Deputy Head of the Australian Federal Police, as the new CEO of the Australian Crime Commission (ACC).

Turnbull interview with George Moore & Paul Kidd (Radio 2UE) - Stimulus package,pension,tax cuts,polls,Kevin Rudd and NSW Labor,the Coalition
We believe that government’s role is to enable you to do your best, to enable you to exercise your freedom. Labor believes government’s job is to tell you what is best. So our focus all the time is on recognising that the prosperity of this country is not created by politicians or bureaucrats, it’s created by millions of Australians investing, taking risks, hiring people, working, pursuing their own dreams.

Julie Bishop Doorstop Interview - 150,000 families miss out, unemployment, stimulus package, payment for former Governer General
I am calling on the Government to explain to the 150,000 families that we estimate will not receive their stimulus funding until next year. It seems that recipients of the Family Tax Benefit who get it through their annual tax return will not get the payment this week, in fact they won’t get it until next Christmas.

Moral outrage will not combat child pornography
This successful operation undertaken by the AFP highlights the importance of giving adequate funding to the AFP and it is disturbing that the Rudd Labor Government has diminished the AFP’s capacity to work with international agencies by cutting $2.8 million from the Online Child Exploitation Taskforce.

Rudd must act to stop people smugglers
Prime Minister Rudd continues to deny that his softening of policy on border protection since mid August this year has reactivated the network of criminals.

Government ignored interested childcare operators
The Government has continued to ignore childcare operators interested in some of the ABC centres which are either unviable or set to close creating undue distress amongst affected parents, children and staff.

Kevin's latest 'Clayton's War'...
Kevin Rudd’s ‘Declaration of War on Unemployment’ is in essence nothing more than a Clayton’s War. The Minister for Employment Participation remains bunkered down in his foxhole and appears intent on introducing an already obsolete employment services model in July 2009.

Coalition welcomes next step toward constitutional recognition of councils
The Coalition today acknowledged the proposal from the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) outlining key principles for a referendum to amend the Australian Constitution.

2018 Soccer World Cup
The Opposition supports the Football Federation Australia’s bid for Australia to host the 2018 Soccer World Cup.

Labor Senator blows Rudd's cover on cutbacks to crime-fighting
Labor Senator Steve Hutchins today blew the whistle on the damage Kevin Rudd has done to the fight against organized crime, by exposing savage cuts to the Australian Crime Commission (ACC), Australia’s elite organized crime policing agency.

Turnbull interview with Alan Jones (Radio 2GB) - Economy, bank deposit guarantee, Building Australia Fund, Fair Work Australia Bill, ABCC
It is important as an Opposition that we hold the Government to account, certainly that we criticise them, but we always do so constructively, and that is precisely what we’ve done. I mean we have, far from being just a negative knocker, we have proposed alternative approaches – in some cases the Government has ignored them and rejected them.

Jobs, jobs, jobs key to housing affordability
The Rudd Government and its Housing Minister have failed to realise the best way to keep people in their homes and make housing more affordable is to focus on keeping Australians in their jobs and creating new ones.

Taxpayers pay for Rudd Government bungle on ABC
Taxpayers are being forced to foot an extra $34 million bill as a result of the Rudd Government’s mishandling of the ABC Learning crisis.

Bowen's "active" Petrol Commissioner fails to deliver a fair go for motorists
Thousands of motorists continue to pay too much for their fuel, despite claims by Assistant Treasurer, Chris Bowen, that the Petrol Commissioner is ‘very active’.

Turnbull Doorstop - Wayne Swan's comments regarding stimulus package, polls, LNP, Local Government...
I made the point yesterday that there’s a lot of economic evidence from the United States that a more affective stimulus – and this has to be borne in mind for further or future stimulus programs, if they’re to be undertaken – a more affective stimulus is tax cuts because they provide a permanent incentive and of course they provide an incentive for people to hire, to invest, to get to work, and all of that provides, so the economic evidence is, a more affective stimulus to the economy then simply one off payments.

Banks should follow Westpac's lead and cut credit card interest rates
The Coalition welcomes Westpac's announcement today that they are cutting interest rates on their credit card products and encourages all credit card providers to follow Westpac's lead.

Garrett back flips on decision to close Music Academy’s doors in 2009
Labor appears to have back flipped on its bungled decision to axe the Australian National Academy of Music, now deciding to keep ANAM’s doors open. Media reports, if true, represent a huge win for students, however Minister Garrett’s decision making process over the past few months has been a debacle, Shadow Arts Minister Steven Ciobo said.

Julie Bishop Fairfax Blog - Bank guarantee crunches states
One of the consequences of the Rudd Government's guarantee on bank deposits and term funding is that it has made it more difficult for State Governments to raise funds at a time when they are under pressure from declining taxation revenues.

Rudd needs to get his own house in order on carbon emissions
Today’s Herald Sun used records from the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet to reveal that Kevin Rudd has burnt more carbon emissions at The Lodge than 21 average Australian households.

Congratulations to the Royal Military College of Australia graduating class of 2008
The Shadow Minister for Defence Science, Personnel and Assisting Shadow Minister for Defence Bob Baldwin, extends his sincere congratulations to the 144 members of The Senior Class of the Corps of Staff Cadets at the Royal Military College Duntroon, who today celebrated their graduation.

Second former Rudd ministerial advisor flouts lobbyist code
“Today’s reports in the Canberra Times that a second former Rudd ministerial Chief of Staff has accepted a job which involves lobbying, is just more evidence that Kevin Rudd’s lobbyist code is a media stunt gone wrong

Big four banks should review interest rates on all credit cards
Luke Hartsuyker, has called on the big four banks to immediately review the interest rate on all credit cards, following Westpac’s decision to lower interest rates on credit cards.

Pearce calls for choice in superannuation to be protected
Chris Pearce called on the Government to ensure that the Australian Industrial Relations Commission’s (AIRC) proposal to write default industry funds into newly simplified awards does not undermine superannuation choice provisions.

Rudd Government fails to deliver promised rebate
Nearly half of all eligible families had not received the Government’s promised quarterly payment of the 50% child care rebate that was due in October.

Peter Dutton Daily Telegraph Blog - What if Kevin Rudd is the Ari Gold of Australian politics
How could Kevin Rudd turnover 6 or more personal assistants in a 12 month period? People who apply for those positions don’t go in there expecting to work 40 or even 50 or 60 hours a week. So the long hours would not have hit any one by surprise.

Leader of the Opposition Address to the Millennium Forum
In terms of dealing with the global financial crisis I have to say to you that we are worse off now then we would have been had the Rudd Government undertaken an economic strategy rather than simply a political one. We would have been better off if the Government had based its policies on fact, on economics, on careful analysis, if they’d thought them through or indeed if they’d just copied what other governments had done. Instead they undertook a series of measures which have damaged our economy. There are people who are worse off today because of the decisions taken by the Rudd Government.

Kerryn McCann
I was deeply saddened to learn today of the death of Kerryn McCann. We have lost a true champion and hero to millions of Australians.

Pyne Address to QUT: Bradley and Beyond - Higher Education Reform
What exactly has the education revolution delivered? Most famously, there is the Computers in Schools pledge. Every student in year 9‐12 is due to receive a computer. Originally costed at $1 billion. Now being delivered for $2 billion. God alone knows what it will have cost by 2012 when the computers have finally been delivered, if we ever get that far...

Confidence key to economic stimulus package success
Consumer and business confidence will be critical to the economic stimulus package achieving maximum economic benefit for our economy.

Turnbull interview with Peter Dick & Chris Adams (Radio 4BC) - stimulus package, Senator Joyce, global financial crisis, deposit guarantee, Christmas
I agree that families should use it very wisely. I see the Prime Minister has been saying spend, spend, spend. If people feel that’s appropriate they should do that but I think everyone should assess their own circumstances and deal with the funds they receive as wisely and prudently as they can.

Navy is on Christmas holidays - come on down!
The people smugglers have cottoned on very quickly that Labor is soft on border protection with yet another load of asylum seekers attempting to enter Australia illegally.

Work for the Dole in Labor’s Crosshairs...
Labor’s decision to cut funding for Work for the Dole proves their intent to wind back Work for the Dole until it is no longer financially viable for providers to offer.

Parents and industry left in dark by Rudd Government
The announcement by the Receivers last week that they are working with the Government on a “plan” but need more time to decide the fate of the 386 Centres still under review, has raised more questions than it answered.

Border security not a priority for Rudd
The latest interception of 47 people off Western Australia’s north coast clearly demonstrates that people smugglers again see Australia as a soft target. This is not a ‘seasonal’ surge as stated by the Minister for Home Affairs - the illegal arrival of boats is happening as a direct result of the Rudd Government’s failing border protection policies.

ALGA’s broadband attack on Coalition baseless
What the ALGA also conveniently ignores in its statement today is the fact the Rudd Labor Government cancelled the Coalition’s broadband project for rural and regional Australia (OPEL), which would have delivered new, fast and affordable broadband services to more than 500,000 under served premises across the country by the middle of 2009.

Missing in action: Where is Brendan O’Connor?
Today’s release of the ANZ job advertisements shows the largest 2 monthly decrease in newspaper advertisements in the series 30 year history. Yet the Minister is keeping his head down.

Coalition looks forward to Local Government Reform Agenda
Federal Shadow Minister for Housing and Local Government, Scott Morrison today welcomed the start of the Local Government constitutional summit in Melbourne and said he was looking forward to seeing their programme for reform.

Australia's Muslims celebrate Eid
On the 8th December Australia’s Muslim communities celebrate the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, or Hajj, Eid ul-Adha.

Turnbull Doorstop - Border protection, Coalition, stimulus package...
The Prime Minister spent last week in parliament denying there was a problem with people smuggling. The arrival of the sixth boat of people smugglers off Broome just today, shows there is a real problem with the security of our borders.

Extra border protection welcomed, but people smugglers will remain in business
The promise today of additional resources to monitor Australia’s northern sea borders over the Christmas holiday period is welcomed by the Federal Opposition, but will do little to dispel the view that Australia is now a soft target for people smuggling.

A Wong water re-announcement on the eve of UN climate talks
Senator Wong has today re-announced Labor’s urban water funding for the third time.

Interest rate cuts must be passed on to help protect jobs
Australia’s banks must move quickly to pass on in full the cuts to official interest rates, with thousands of jobs threatened by an accelerating slowdown in construction activity.

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