http://australianpolitics.com Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:23:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth AustralianPolitics.com no Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://australianpolitics.com/category/parties/liberal http://australianpolitics.com/2012/02/07/abbott-speech-to-coalition-partyroom.html http://australianpolitics.com/2012/02/07/abbott-speech-to-coalition-partyroom.html#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:23:43 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=5047 http://australianpolitics.com/2012/02/07/abbott-speech-to-coalition-partyroom.html/feed 0 http://australianpolitics.com/2012/01/31/abbott-npc-speech.html http://australianpolitics.com/2012/01/31/abbott-npc-speech.html#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:00:12 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=5025 http://australianpolitics.com/2012/01/31/abbott-npc-speech.html/feed 0 http://australianpolitics.com/2012/01/23/pyne-gillard-richard-iii.html http://australianpolitics.com/2012/01/23/pyne-gillard-richard-iii.html#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:34:22 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=4982 http://australianpolitics.com/2012/01/23/pyne-gillard-richard-iii.html/feed 1 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/12/31/tony-abbotts-2012-new-year-message.html http://australianpolitics.com/2011/12/31/tony-abbotts-2012-new-year-message.html#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:33:20 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=4741 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/12/31/tony-abbotts-2012-new-year-message.html/feed 0 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/12/24/tony-abbott-christmas-message.html http://australianpolitics.com/2011/12/24/tony-abbott-christmas-message.html#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:52:51 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=4719 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/12/24/tony-abbott-christmas-message.html/feed 0 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/12/22/swan-letter-to-abbott.html http://australianpolitics.com/2011/12/22/swan-letter-to-abbott.html#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:49:16 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=4708 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/12/22/swan-letter-to-abbott.html/feed 0 Bob Brown,Chris Bowen,Christine Milne,Tony Abbott,Wayne Swan The federal government has capitulated to Tony Abbott's demand for a specific proposal on breaking the deadlock over asylum-seeker processing. - For the past week, the Opposition Leader has refused to authorise Scott Morrison to meet with Chris Bowen ... The federal government has capitulated to Tony Abbott's demand for a specific proposal on breaking the deadlock over asylum-seeker processing. For the past week, the Opposition Leader has refused to authorise Scott Morrison to meet with Chris Bowen unless a proposal was put on the table. Tonight the government has written to Abbott offering to implement the Malaysia arrangement and offshore processing on Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The government's decision was announced by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen. Listen to Chris Bowen: PLAY Listen to Senators Bob Brown & Christine Milne: PLAY Download Wayne Swan's letter to Tony Abbott (PDF) Download the previous exchange of letters between Gillard/Swan and Abbott (PDF) Text of letter from Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott: ACTING PRIME MINISTER 22 DEC 2011 The Hon Tony Abbott MP Leader of the Opposition Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 Dear Mr Abbott Thank you for your response to the Government's further correspondence of 19 December 2011. As you know, the Government has attempted three times to secure your agreement for discussions between Mr Bowen and Mr Morrison to examine opportunities to identify a mutually agreeable outcome on offshore processing. Those offers were made in good faith and clearly demonstrated the Government's willingness to engage constructively with the Opposition on this matter. In response to these expressions of good faith, you have insisted on a written proposal before discussions could begin. I am writing therefore to advise you that the Prime Minister, with whom I have been in regular contact on this matter, has authorised Mr Bowen to discuss the following proposal with Mr Morrison: The Opposition will support the Government's offshore processing legislation, without the Opposition's proposed amendments, through the Parliament; The Government will fully implement its transfer arrangement with the Malaysian Government; The Government will work with the Governments of Nauru and Papua New Guinea to establish offshore processing facilities for Irregular Maritime Arrivals who make the journey to Australia. I should note that the Government will not implement Temporary Protection Visas. The clear experience and expert advice on their use under the Howard Government was that following their implementation, well over 9000 asylum seekers arrived by boat and that included an increase in the percentage of women and children making the dangerous boat journey to Australia. I trust that this correspondence satisfies the Opposition's demand for a proposal in writing. The Govermnent will come to the negotiation table in good faith, including a preparedness to discuss reasonable and effective ways to strengthen the package outlined above. Minister Bowen is available to meet Mr Morrison at his earliest possible convenience to discuss this matter. His office will be in contact to find an agreeable time. The Government has been very clear about the consequences of inaction on this issue. It is apparent that if this impasse continues, people will continue to undertake dangerous boat journeys and all of the risk that goes with that. That is not acceptable to the Government, nor do we believe that it is acceptable to the Australian public. The Government believes that politics should never trump the lives of men, women and children. And we are not prepared to let it. For this reason, we are willing to implement both the Malaysia Arrangement and offshore processing on Nauru (and Papua New Guinea). Such a compromise brings together the core element of the Government's preferred solution and the core element of the Opposition's preferred solution. The clear and consistent expert policy advice provided to the Government is that the Malaysia Arrangement is the most effective deterrent available because it removes any certainty of resettlement outcome in Australia. AustralianPolitics.com no http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/29/abbott-responds-to-myefo.html http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/29/abbott-responds-to-myefo.html#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:20:01 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=4600 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/29/abbott-responds-to-myefo.html/feed 0 Andrew Robb,Joe Hockey,MYEFO,Tony Abbott Tony Abbott has described the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook as a "crisis mini-budget." - Speaking at a joint press conference with Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey and Shadow Finance Minister Andrew Robb, Tony Abbott has described the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook as a "crisis mini-budget." Speaking at a joint press conference with Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey and Shadow Finance Minister Andrew Robb, Abbott claimed there is now no buffer against international economic problems because of the incompetence of the government. Listen or watch Abbott, Hockey and Robb speak on MYEFO. PLAY Transcript of joint press conference with Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey and Shadow Finance Minister Andrew Robb. TONY ABBOTT: Today the Government has finally admitted what the Coalition has been saying for months. Namely, there is a crisis in Europe, there is a global economic slowdown and it will impact on Australia. I want to make the fundamental point that this is a government which is imperilling our ability to respond to this global problem. It is imperilling our ability to respond to this very serious set of international economic numbers. This is a government which is making a bad situation worse with its new taxes and with its continuing waste. There is no good time to introduce bad taxes but this is the worst possible time to be introducing a carbon tax and a mining tax which are going to damage Australia’s international competitiveness. This is a government which is continuing to waste the taxpayers’ precious dollars. We’ve seen the pink batts disaster which has become a byword for government incompetence, where they spent more than $1 billion putting pink batts into roofs and then spent $1 billion taking them out again. We’ve seen the school halls which this government couldn’t build without rip-off after rip-off and now of course, the daddy of them all, the National Broadband Network which we learned yesterday is going to cost $15 billion, at least, more than the Government is telling us. There is now no buffer against international economic problems because of the policies and the incompetence of this government. Under the former government we had a $20 billion surplus, we had $70 billion worth of net assets. That has been completely blown because of the policies and the incompetence of this government. We have now seen the four biggest deficits in Australian history delivered by Wayne Swan. There’s the claim of a tiny, wafer-thin surplus next year – a surplus which is just 0.1 per cent of GDP and is obviously hostage to international events and of course we’ve seen the debt blow out and out and out and today we have the revelation that the debt is not $107 billion, but well over $130 billion. The final point I want to make before throwing to Joe and then to Andrew is that we saw in the parliament last week a Prime Minister who would do whatever it takes to make her parliamentary numbers stack up but today we’ve seen a Prime Minister who will do whatever it takes to make her budget numbers stack up. But frankly, they don’t stack up. They are just not believable and I’m now going to ask Joe to elaborate on those points. JOE HOCKEY: Thanks very much, mate. The Government claims that it is being responsible with spending. The numbers today reveal that they are increasing government expenditure by $11 billion over the forward estimates, in six months since the budget was announced. $9 billion of that increase in expenditure is coming from their own policy decisions. The Government claims that Europe is having an impact on their revenue and yet they’re only revising down revenue by $9 billion over four years and that represents just .6 of one per cent of revenue that they claim will be lost because of the economic downturn. The fundamental point is you have to look at what Labor does, not what they say. They claim that they are going to have the biggest fiscal consolidation in modern history and yet the budget deficit this year is blowing out by $15 billion. Now, in 12 months alone the budget deficit has tripled in size. So, AustralianPolitics.com no http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/29/myefo-predicts-small-budget-surplus.html http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/29/myefo-predicts-small-budget-surplus.html#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:42:33 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=4595 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/29/myefo-predicts-small-budget-surplus.html/feed 0 Andrew Robb,Bob Brown,Joe Hockey,MYEFO,Penny Wong,Tony Abbott,Wayne Swan The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has released the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO). It forecasts an increased budget deficit for 2011-12 and a small surplus in 2012-13. - Key points from MEYEFO: - The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has released the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO). It forecasts an increased budget deficit for 2011-12 and a small surplus in 2012-13. Key points from MEYEFO: 2011-12 budget deficit has increased to $37 billion from the budget forecast of $23 billion. The budget surplus for 2012-13 has been downgraded from $3.5 billion to $1.5 billion. Deteriorating economic conditions have cut $20 billion from revenue over the four-year forward estimates. Additional savings of $11.5 billion over four years have been announced. The baby bonus has been cut from $5400 to $5000. A 2.5% efficiency dividend, on top of an existing 1.5%, will produce savings across government departments of $1.5 billion. The federal and High Courts, and cultural institutions such as the Australian War Memorial have been been protected from cuts. There will be a crackdown on living away from home tax concessions, an increase in the eligibility age for the dependent spouse offset. Gross Domestic Product is now forecast to grow by 3.25%, down from 4.25%. Unemployment is expected to be 5.5% in 2011-12 and 2012-13, slightly up on budget forecasts. The complete AustralianPolitics.com no http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/21/tony-abbott-speech-to-sydney-institute.html http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/21/tony-abbott-speech-to-sydney-institute.html#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:50:36 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=4587 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/21/tony-abbott-speech-to-sydney-institute.html/feed 0 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/20/liberal-party-attacks-on-labor-anniversary.html http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/20/liberal-party-attacks-on-labor-anniversary.html#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:05:47 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=4582 http://australianpolitics.com/2011/11/20/liberal-party-attacks-on-labor-anniversary.html/feed 1