Australia General Discussion

[Robespierre's Jaw]

I heard Andrew Robb speak on the weekend. That man is a future PM.

Robb has a better chance at becoming Prime Minister than Brendan Nelson that's for sure, hell Tony Abbot has a better chance than Brendan .

The 2020 summit began today, thoughts?

[Smid]

Nothing more than a PR stunt.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Nothing more than a PR stunt.

My thoughts exactly Smid. I don't think anything came out of the Summit, despite that we revisited some of the same ideas in previous years, like an Australian Republic.

Does anybody know how much the 2020 Summit cost? I cannot find figures for it anywhere .

[Smid]

I'll see if I can dig up some figures on it for you. Will get back to you on it.

Saw a mate on the coverage the other night.

He told me the other day that he was flying up to Canberra for a conference... I didn't realise he was going to THAT conference...

[Secretary Polnut]

I don't think it was a complete waste of time, but I dont think anything significant will come out of it.

The Republic will pop up now every few years - chances are it won't gain traction until HM dies.

[Smid]

Haven't found anything yet about the cost - I'm expanding my search on Monday (calling up a couple of other mates in MP/Senate offices to see if they know).

[Secretary Polnut]

Haven't found anything yet about the cost - I'm expanding my search on Monday (calling up a couple of other mates in MP/Senate offices to see if they know).

One thing that's v.clear, coming from friends in MPs offices is how much you are in the dark in opposition.

I think any accusations of wasteful spending from the Libs may backfire.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

I think any accusations of wasteful spending from the Libs may backfire.

Oh it will backfire, anything the Liberal Party does from now until the next Election Day will backfire, even if they replace Brendan Nelson with Malcolm.

We're getting even closer to Budget Night! Bets that despite the Rudd Government stuffing it up thanks to Wayne Swan and Lindsay Tanner's fabulous monetary skills, they won't slide in the polls. Even if they do it won't be much.

[Platypus]

It's bloody cold up here.

Anyhoo, I liked the idea of volunteering your HECS/CSP debt away.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

BUMP

Nelson fuels Budget Brawl

BRENDAN Nelson has vowed a Coalition government would slash fuel excise by 5c a litre and lift education standards by raising "embarrassingly low" entry requirements for teacher training courses.

And the Opposition Leader has also promised to reduce qualifying periods for capital gains tax exemptions for business owners planning retirement, to improve incentives for the small business sector.

Dr Nelson outlined the plans last night in his formal response to the Rudd Government's first budget, delivered by Wayne Swan on Tuesday and featuring $46.7billion in income tax cuts as well as tax increases on luxury cars and pre-mixed alcoholic drinks.

Dr Nelson savaged the economic blueprint as a fraud on the community that would increase taxes, put pressure on inflation and attack aspiration.

Dr Nelson said the Government had also ignored pensioners and retirees and masked its tax on so-called alcopop drinks as a health measure when it was, in fact, a $3.1billion tax grab. But the Treasurer, strenuously defending his budget, sought to inflame Liberal Party leadership tensions by attacking Opposition Treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull as "a pretend leader" who was trying to undermine his leader. Dr Nelson narrowly won the Liberal Party leadership from Mr Turnbull after Kevin Rudd won the November election. The former general practitioner has since struggled in opinion polls and attempted to use last night's speech to establish his policy credentials and bury speculation over his future as leader. In an impassioned speech in front of a gallery of supporters, Dr Nelson said Australians had elected Labor last year expecting it would keep its promise of new leadership, lower prices for fuel and groceries, and job security.

Instead, he said, the budget did nothing on prices of fuel and food and simply increased taxes for alcohol, cars and computer software, despite weeks of warnings from Mr Swan about the need to fight inflation.

"This is old Labor returning to haunt the Australian economic landscape," Dr Nelson said.

"This is an old-fashioned, high-taxing, high-spending Labor budget that seeks to punish those it does not like and discourage aspiration."

He said Labor put "spin ahead of substance", in contrast to the Coalition, which was able to make decisions. To underline the claim, Dr Nelson said Labor's move to deal with petrol prices now frequently above $1.50 a litre - appointing a petrol commissioner - was meaningless and that a Coalition government would act by spending $1.8billion to cut the 38.14c-a-litre excise on petrol by 5c. "By lowering the price of petrol and the cost of transporting goods, this 13 per cent reduction in petrol excise will also have a modest, but measurable, downward impact on inflation," Dr Nelson said.

The excise on petrol and diesel has been unchanged since February 2001, when John Howard scrapped six-monthly rises to reflect the rate of inflation.

Family First leader Steve Fielding, who for two years has been calling for a cut in fuel tax, said last night he was glad the Coalition agreed with him but that it should have acted when it was in government.

Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen last night refused to say whether the Government would cut the fuel excise if its Fuelwatch scheme did not work to bring petrol prices down. But he said he expected the tax review being carried out by Treasury secretary Ken Henry to examine the fuel excise. It will also review the double taxation effect of applying the GST to petrol at the bowser, where it already carries the excise.

Insisting Labor was hammering aspiration, Dr Nelson said last night he would reduce from 15 years to five years the qualifying period for a waiver on capital gains tax on the sale of businesses by people about to retire.

And he attacked university teacher training departments as mediocre, promising to lift qualification scores for teacher training, boost teacher pay levels and require universities to appoint proven high-performing teachers as tutors. "All trainee teachers will be taught how to teach children using proven techniques including phonic-based instruction," Dr Nelson said. "They must also be taught and assessed in basic sciences, mathematics, English and history.

Dr Nelson said the Opposition would use its numbers in the Senate to oppose the higher taxes on pre-mixed drinks, known as alcopops, because it doubted Labor's claim that they were at the centre of a major binge-drinking crisis, particularly among teenage girls.

He said the Government's own National Drug Strategy Household Survey had found binge drinking among young women had declined since 2001. "This is nothing more than a tax binge falsely presented to Australians as something that it is not," Dr Nelson said. "We will oppose it."

The real answer to alcohol abuse was education, prevention and policing - not a massive increase in tax - and the Coalition would convene a summit of experts to discuss the issue.

Although Dr Nelson's office said on Wednesday night the alcopop tax was the only budget measure it was likely to attempt to block in the Senate, he last night added Labor's plan to lift the threshold at which people without private health insurance need to pay an extra Medicare surcharge worth 1 per cent of their income.

While Labor has insisted the threshold of $50,000 for singles and $100,000 for families was too low and proposes to lift it to $100,000 and $150,000, Dr Nelson said the move would encourage people to dump their insurance, leading to higher premiums.

He also said the Coalition would oppose Labor moves to tighten income tests for applicants for the Commonwealth Seniors health card.

Mr Bowen accused Dr Nelson of throwing money around like "confetti at a wedding". "The Australian people understand economic credibility," he said. "They understand that tonight Dr Nelson and Mr Turnbull threw around their money but didn't put forward one savings plan."


I must admit, I was quite surprised by Nelson's rebutal to the budget last night. For the first time in his ailing leadership, I saw Nelson passionatly rip into the Rudd Government about the taxation of "Alcohopops" (pre-mixed drinks) and the current teaching crisis.

I was also surprised to learn that Nelson can actually be funny. One point during his speech, Nelson said something along the lines of "We won't have another Summit, we won't have another Treaty (or something similar) in regard to Binge Drinking. Then he actually said, we'll block parts of the Budget in the Senate prior to the ALP taking control in June! Now that was the funniest part of his speech last night .

[Platypus]

The 'alcopops' (never heard that name until Krudd came along) thing is silly, both by the gov't and the Liberal rebuttal. Focus on pensioners or something...not the fact that Yellow is more alcoholic and will have less tax. Seriously...

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Focus on pensioners or something...not the fact that Yellow is more alcoholic and will have less tax. Seriously...

Speaking of Pensioners Hugh, today at Flinders Street Station, a group of pensioners did what those taxi drivers did a few weeks back, took off their clothes protesting against their mistreatment by the Rudd Government's Budget. Apparently, a 69 year old man, did a striptease in the intersection between Swanston and Flinders Street.

[Platypus]

Wish I could've been there...

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Wish I could've been there...

Same here. My Gran was contemplating whether or not she was going to go, but she decided against it. Thanks to a damned cold, which is also keeping me from school today.

I can imagine the front page of the Herald Sun after this occuring today. "I STILL LOVE WAYNE" oh wait, that's exactly what the Herald Sun will have as their major headline tomorrow .

[Ebowed]

Any thoughts on Rudd's war on binge drinking?

I find it depressing that the government appears to think that the dangers of binge drinking will be reduced by encouraging young people to buy larger quantities of straight spirits.

[Smid]

There are no easy solutions and binge drinking certainly has some very negative impacts on health and societal issues. I obviously am no fan of the Rudd Government, but I think that steps need to be taken and at least they're not shying away from the issue and making an effort. The big problem has been that the price of RTDs has gone up because of the tax increases, making it cheaper to buy straight spirits and mixers - resulting in young drinkers at house parties making their own drinks (and the risk that these drinks may contain a higher alcohol content than RTDs. Obviously this is an unintended consequence, and the government should look at other steps as opposed to a simple taxation of alcohol. I think I've recently seen some comment from MPs on my side of the fence who've suggested that instead of increasing the tax on RTDs, perhaps there should be a maximum alcohol concentration that is lower than presently. Indeed, I think I saw a mention - and this particular mention may have actually been from a political commentator whose free daily newsletter I subscribe to - that RTDs should contain a concentration of alcohol similar to beer. Obviously that couldn't prevent people from adding additional alcohol to their drinks, but I think we need to do something and this might just help...

[Platypus]

What, 8% Vodka? That's just silly.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Rudd's War on Binge Drinking is not going to work, nor is Brendan Nelson's proposed forum on the matter.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Move over Binge Drinking, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has another problem to deal with. Petrol Prices. How could such an idiot promise to cut petrol prices, when it is out of his control to do so? Well finally, thanks to this latest news event, most of the Australian people have finally caught onto this. The "Honeymoon" is now over .

[Smid]

Yeah, the Herald Sun today reported that petrol prices in Perth are regularly higher than in Sydney and Melbourne - and that seems to be the advice of PMC, the Industry Dept and the Energy Department.

Don't know if it will finally end the honeymoon, but it might start to work.

I once heard it said that you campaign in poetry, but govern in prose... that the job of running the government is never as elegant as you make it sound before winning (and hence why the Greens can say whatever they want whenever they want).

Rudd made lots of nice soft poetic noises about interest rates, grocery bills and fuel prices for his beloved "working families" before the election... now he's running into the tough job of actually doing something about it. That old "end the blame game" and "the buck stops with me" might come back to haunt him (or then again, perhaps it won't).

[PASOK Leader Hashemite]

Petrol prices is a worldwide crisis. Australia, France, Canada etc.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Petrol prices is a worldwide crisis. Australia, France, Canada etc.

Try telling that to Kevin Rudd, the man who believed that even though the current Petrol Crisis is that of a worldwide one, he could cut petrol prices.

[Smid]

Petrol prices is a worldwide crisis. Australia, France, Canada etc.

Try telling that to Kevin Rudd, the man who believed that even though the current Petrol Crisis is that of a worldwide one, he could cut petrol prices.

Furthermore, they were just as much a worldwide problem when Rudd was in Opposition, attacking the then-Government on petrol price pain and promising that if he were elected, he'd do something about it. His problem is not that he can't do anything about petrol prices, it's that he promised he would do something about them.

Mind you, I must admire his slight-of-hand of trying to deflect the tax-on-petrol debate from the excise on fuel to the GST on the excise on fuel... When the Opposition Leader said that fuel excise should be cut by 5c per litre, he said that the GST on fuel excise should be cut. That would work out at about a 4c per litre decrease in price - one full cent less (particularly when you consider the cut of 0.5c the GST would be cut because of the 5c cut of excise suggested by the Opposition). But even though he's promising less, the real beauty of his plan is that the Federal Government receives fuel excise, whereas the State Governments receive all of the money from the GST (Federal Treasury doesn't even deduct a collection fee). So he's promising tax cuts that wouldn't affect his budget at all, only state budgets (and from what I saw yesterday, that would put a $1 billion hole in the Victorian state budget alone).

[Iosif is a COTHO]

This is one of the hilarious articles I've read recently in the increasingly shrill anti-Rudd The Australian:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23801059-601,00.html

KEVIN Rudd has personally borne the brunt of public anger over rising petrol prices, slumping to his lowest approval since becoming Prime Minister on the widespread belief he has broken an election promise.

Tapping into discontent over petrol prices since last month's budget, Brendan Nelson is in his best position against Mr Rudd as preferred prime minister, although the Liberal leader and the Coalition still trail badly.

According to the latest Newspoll survey, taken last weekend exclusively for The Australian, Mr Rudd's standing as preferred prime minister dropped from 70 to 66 per cent - his lowest rating since he was elected. The Opposition Leader's support rose from 12 to his highest rating of 17 per cent.

On primary votes, support for the Coalition was unchanged on 37 per cent, while Labor was at its lowest since the November election at 46 per cent, compared with 47 per cent two weeks ago.

On a two-party preferred basis, based on preference flows at the last election, support for the major parties was unchanged at 43 per cent for the Coalition and 57 per cent for Labor.

But in the past two weeks, voter satisfaction with Mr Rudd hit a new low for him of 56 per cent - a seven-point drop in the fortnight - as dissatisfaction hit a new high of 30 per cent.

Mr Rudd's credibility on petrol prices and his vow to keep all his election promises was set back after most people decided he had promised during the election campaign last year to keep petrol prices lower.

According to the Newspoll survey, more people think Mr Rudd did "make an election promise to keep petrol prices lower", with 51per cent saying he did and 23per cent saying he did not.

The Opposition has accused Mr Rudd of failing to keep an election promise over lower petrol prices, but the Government has responded by saying the Prime Minister never offered a guarantee to keep petrol prices lower.

Coalition supporters, at 68 per cent, are the group most convinced Mr Rudd promised to keep prices lower, while Labor voters, at 43 per cent, are the group least convinced he made a promise. The young and the old and those earning less than $30,000 were the most convinced Mr Rudd had made an election promise.

Support for the Government and Coalition on who was more capable of keeping petrol prices lower was evenly split at 20 per cent each, with 44 per cent of people thinking neither was capable of keeping prices lower.

The Newspoll surveys were taken after both the Coalition and Labor were embarrassed by revelations of internal splits over petrol price policies.
Two weeks ago, Dr Nelson's policy of cutting the 31.8c-a-litre petrol excise by 5c a litre was described as "bad policy" by the Coalition's Treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull.

Last week leaked cabinet documents showed Labor's FuelWatch was strongly opposed by Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and the four top federal departments, including Mr Rudd's department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

On Friday, Mr Rudd predicted he'd "take a whacking in the polls" because of the leaks over the Government's petrol policies. Yesterday, Mr Rudd continued to defend his FuelWatch proposal and accuse the Coalition of economic irresponsibility by proposing to cut the fuel excise.

Satisfaction with Mr Rudd went through a 14-point change, with satisfaction dropping seven points in the past two weeks and dissatisfaction rising seven.

Satisfaction with Dr Nelson was also virtually unchanged on 36 per cent and dissatisfaction on 40 per cent.

Mr Rudd has challenged Dr Nelson not to use the Senate to block the FuelWatch program and accused him of siding with "big oil". "Dr Nelson has a simple choice here. He can either back a cosy arrangement between the major oil companies, or, back the interests of motorists and consumers who are struggling to balance the family budget," Mr Rudd said.

"The Labor Government stands behind motorists and consumers, the Liberal Opposition is standing behind the major oil companies."

Mr Rudd said Dr Nelson had a clear choice in parliament: "He can kill FuelWatch, he can kill it stone dead if he votes against it. That's his option."

you hear that!

He's slumped from 70% approval to 66% approval!! He must resign now!

And i love it how they bury down the article that the 2PP poll results are unchanged at 57 Labor, 43 Coalition. This really is a serious crisis for Labor alright.

[PASOK Leader Hashemite]

Ah, more of the "low numbers mean the head of state resigns" crap. Except that in France they say it when approval is 30%, saying it when it's 66% is hilarious.