Text of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s speech to the Young Liberal convention on the Gold Coast.
This summer, we’ve been shocked by the flood disasters that have hit Queensland, Victoria and parts of New South Wales and Western Australia but thrilled by the upwelling of generosity from family, friends, neighbours and tens of thousands of unknown benefactors towards their fellow Australians in trouble.
In dozens of evacuation, recovery or disaster control centres from Grantham and Murphy’s Creek, to Emerald, to Rochester, to Echuca, to Grafton or the Brisbane showgrounds, thousands of people, mostly volunteers, have been striving around the clock to help Australians whose homes or businesses have been in peril. In places such as Toowoomba, Bundaberg, Dalby, Horsham and Dadswell’s Bridge, home of the Big Koala, people devastated by the loss of homes and businesses have been buoyed by the support they’ve had from good Samaritans who turned up when they were needed most. [Read more...]
The full tax on excess profits by the coal mining industry, as recommended by Treasury, should be imposed with half set aside for future natural catastrophes in Australia, Greens Leader Bob Brown said in Hobart today.
