Abbott: The Coalition’s Plan For A Cleaner Environment

Apr 20, 2012

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has delivered what the Liberal Party describes as a “landmark speech” on the environment.

Tony AbbottAddressing the Australian Industry Group in Brisbane, Abbott said the Coalition “supports sensible measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions..but will never accept the proposition that you could save the environment by killing the economy.”

Abbott said: “Today, I’m stating what the Coalition will stand for as well as what the Coalition has stood against. We support direct action that will reduce emissions, not just make them more expensive. We support the creation of a Green Army marching to the rescue of Australia’s degraded waterways, wetlands, and native vegetation.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Audio, Audio2012, Climate Change, Environment, Liberal Party Tagged With:

Hockey On Lateline: The End Of The Age Of Entitlement

Apr 18, 2012

Joe Hockey11.15pm – Notwithstanding the usual annoying and incessant interruptions from his interlocutor, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has just offered up a remarkably woolly performance on Lateline.

Hockey has delivered a speech in London – transcript not yet available – in which he argues that The Age of Entitlement is over.

In the interview he was pressed on how this would be achieved in government. Aside from a defence of the Health Insurance Rebate as a government spending measure which actually reduces expenditure on other entitlements, Hockey was less than specific about what he will do as Treasurer in less than 18 months time.

  • Listen to Hockey explain his entitlement policy:

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Update: Click here for a transcript of Hockey’s speech.

Filed Under: Audio, Audio2012, Economy, Liberal Party Tagged With: , , ,

Hockey Speech: The End Of The Age Of Entitlement

Apr 17, 2012

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has used a speech in London to call for an end to “the age of entitlement”.

Joe HockeyAddressing the Institute of Economic Affairs, Hockey said “entitlement is a concept that corrodes the very heart of the process of free enterprise that drives our economies”.

He said: “The entitlements bestowed on tens of millions of people by successive governments, fuelled by short-term electoral cycles and the politics of outbidding your opponents is, in essence, undermining our ability to ensure democracy, fair representation and economic sustainability for future generations.”

Hockey said economic problems in Europe were attributable in part to an entitlement culture: “The sovereign debt problems we are seeing in Europe and the US today are the outcome of countries wanting a lifestyle they cannot afford but are quite happy to borrow from others to pay for.”

In a wide-ranging speech, Hockey gave contrasting examples from China and the United States. He said the only solution in the long term “is for countries to live within their means”.

“We must rebuild fiscal discipline. Budget surpluses must be restored, ideally until the debt is repaid.”

“THE END OF THE AGE OF ENTITLEMENT”

SPEECH NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS TO THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Introduction

I wish to thank my friends at the Institute of Economic Affairs for the opportunity to discuss an issue that has been the source of much debate in this forum for sometime….that is, the end of an era of popular universal entitlement. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Liberal Party, Social Welfare Tagged With: ,

Alby Schultz Announces Retirement From Hume

Apr 17, 2012

Alby SchultzAlby Schultz, the Liberal member for Hume, has announced that he will not contest the next federal election.

Schultz has represented the safe Liberal seat in south-east NSW since 1998. Prior to that, he served ten years in the NSW Legislative Assembly as the member for Burrinjuck.

The Hume electorate includes Bargo, Binalong, Boorowa, Bundanoon, Cootamundra, Cowra, Crookwell, Goulburn, Grenfell, Gundaroo, Gunning, Harden/Murrumburrah, Jugiong, Marulan, Murrumbateman, Picton, Sutton, Tahmoor, Tarago, Thirlmere, Wilton, Yass and Young.

At the 2010 election, Schultz polled 53.56% of the primary vote, an increase of 12.96%. After distribution of preferences, he won with 58.72% of the two-party-preferred vote, an increase of 3.37%.

Text of statement from Alby Schultz

As 2012 is the commencement of my 25th year in State and Federal politics as the elected Liberal Member representing the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Div) I have advised the New South Wales State Director Mr Mark Neeham that I will not be contesting the next election. The time is right for me to move on and allow the Liberal brand to be maintained in Hume by a capable committed Liberal. [Read more...]

Filed Under: House of Reps, Liberal Party Tagged With: ,

Kevin Rudd: Building An Asia-Literate Australia

Apr 17, 2012

Queensland Labor backbencher Kevin Rudd says Australia is failing to do enough to become China-literate and Asia-literate in the 21st century.

Kevin RuddLaunching a paper, “Finding a Place on the Asia Stage”, by Carillo Gantner and Allison Carol, at the University of Melbourne’s ASIALINK centre, Rudd said there has been a decline in the teaching of the four principal languages of Asia: Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and Korean.

As “an outpost of the Occidental world”, Rudd said Australia needs to “do more work in understanding the minds..of Asia”. Despite a belief that English is now the universal language, Rudd said the truth is “the bulk of the intellectual discourse, political and policy debate as well as economic exchange within Asia occurs in languages other than English.”

Rudd posed the question: “How much is literally being ‘lost in translation’ in straightforward transactions between individuals, corporations and governments, not to mention the media, everyday around China, Asia and the world.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: A.L.P., Education, Foreign Policy, Rudd Government Tagged With: ,

Bob Brown Resigns As Greens Leader; Leaves Parliament Mid-Year; Christine Milne New Leader

Apr 13, 2012

Senator Bob Brown has resigned as leader of the Australian Greens.

Brown’s surprise decision was announced at a party meeeting in Canberra. Senator Christine Milne was immediately elected as the new leader.

Later in the day, Melbourne MP Adam Bandt was elected deputy leader.

Brown said he would leave the Senate later in the year when the Tasmanian Greens division has finalised pre-selections. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Audio, Audio2012, Greens, Senate, Video Tagged With: , , ,

Lionel Bowen, Former Whitlam Minister, Deputy PM To Hawke, Dies At 89

Apr 01, 2012

Lionel Bowen, a minister in the Whitlam government and Deputy Prime Minister under Bob Hawke, has died, aged 89.

Bowen was Deputy Prime Minister for the first three terms of the Hawke government from 1983 to 1990. He was Minister for Trade in 1983-84 and Attorney-General from 1984-90.

Lionel Bowen at the first meeting of the Hawke Cabinet in 1983

Bowen was one of the original Whitlam government ministers, serving as Postmaster-General between 1972-74. He was Special Minister of State and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister between 1973-75. [Read more...]

Filed Under: A.L.P., Audio, Audio2012, Hawke Government, Whitlam Government Tagged With: , , ,

Senator Judith Adams Dies

Mar 31, 2012

The Liberal Party’s Western Australian Senator Judith Adams has died, aged 68.

Senator Judith AdamsSenator Adams reportedly died as a result of breast cancer.

She was in her second term in the Senate, having been first elected in the 2004 federal election. Her term commenced on July 1, 2005.

A former nurse and farmer, Senator Adams was Deputy Opposition Whip and had been Temporary Chair of Committees since July last year.

According to her personal website, “Judith was born in Picton, New Zealand and after completing her secondary education trained as a general nurse, a midwife and gained a Diploma in Operating Theatre Nursing.

“In 1963 Judith joined the NZ Territorial Army as a Nursing Sister, obtaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant and in 1967 was appointed to the NZ Surgical Team in Vietnam as a civilian nurse auspiced under the Columbo Plan. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Liberal Party, Senate, Video Tagged With: , ,

The Death Of Margaret Whitlam

Mar 23, 2012

Margaret Whitlam died, aged 92, on March 17, 2012.

Parliamentary tributes were delivered on March 19. A memorial service was held on March 23.

Margaret Whitlam Memorial Service

  • Mar 17: Prime Minister Julia Gillard comments on the death of Margaret Whitlam

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  • Mar 17: Remembering Margaret Whitlam
  • Mar 17: Margaret Whitlam Dies, 92
  • Mar 19-20: House of Representatives & Senate Condolence Motion Speeches:
    • Julia Gillard (ALP)

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    • Tony Abbott (Lib)

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    • Tanya Plibersek (ALP>

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    • Julie Bishop (Lib)

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    • Kevin Rudd (ALP)

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    • Malcolm Turnbull (Lib)

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    • Senator John Faulker (ALP)

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    • Senator Marise Payne (Lib)

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    • Senator Bob Brown (Greens)

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    • Josh Frydenberg (Lib)

    • Natasha Griggs (CLP)

  • Mar 23: Tony Whitlam’s eulogy for his mother

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  • Mar 23 Catherine Dovey’s eulogy for her mother

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Filed Under: A.L.P., Audio, Audio2012, Video, Whitlam Government Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“Fellow Earthians” – Bob Brown’s Green Oration

Mar 23, 2012

This is the text of the Third Annual Green Oration by Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens.

Senator Bob BrownFellow Earthians,

Never before has the Universe unfolded such a flower as our collective human intelligence, so far as we know.

Nor has such a one-and-only brilliance in the Universe stood at the brink of extinction, so far as we know.

We people of the Earth exist because our potential was there in the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago, as the Universe exploded into being.

So far, it seems like we are the lone thinkers in this vast, expanding Universe. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Greens Tagged With: