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The Abbott Government

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MrBurns said:
It's about time the Indonesians took some action besides being offended all the time.
Find out where the smugglers are and shut them down BEFORE they sail.
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These illegals have been a problem for Indonesia for years and they have been quite happy to pass on the problem to Australia by turning a blind eye to the people smugglers. It is also a fact that the Indonesian police are actully assisting the smugglers to load their boats with human cargo.
 
MrBurns said:
It's about time the Indonesians took some action besides being offended all the time.
Find out where the smugglers are and shut them down BEFORE they sail.
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The asylum seeker issue is a big deal for us, but it's just an annoyance to them, but from their more corrupt perspective, they do know where the smugglers are and have found a way to make some money out of it for their inconvenience.

The problem is that Aus is low down on the Indonesian totem pole, behind Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore at least. We are not high on their priority list of foreign affairs.

Secondly, their economy is growing faster than ours and becoming less dependant on aid handouts than years ago. So while we have been patronising them a bit in the past, they do likewise if there is something in it for them, such as aid or trade.

Gillard made a right royal mess of one of the trade arrangements that leaned them toward cooperating with Aus more, the live cattle exports about half a billion dollars worth a year to our economy. They went elsewhere to Brazil etc, while our cattle died because of forced overstocking or were sold at a loss before they died from starvation. We are also a drop in the ocean when it comes to their manufacturing and exports.

Hence, my main focus of more subtle negotiations, than taking a big stick to them. If you rile them too much, we and our much smaller population and slower growing country, probably needs them more than they need us... particularly regarding these boat arrivals.

One needs to be a careful not to cut off our nose to spite our face, like the live cattle fiasco, again.

Translation: The net effect/damage of our foreign affairs and trade relations goes much further than the damn boat people.
 
Whiskers said:
The asylum seeker issue is a big deal for us, but it's just an annoyance to them, but from their more corrupt perspective, they do know where the smugglers are and have found a way to make some money out of it for their inconvenience.

The problem is that Aus is low down on the Indonesian totem pole, behind Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore at least. We are not high on their priority list of foreign affairs.

Secondly, their economy is growing faster than ours and becoming less dependant on aid handouts than years ago. So while we have been patronising them a bit in the past, they do likewise if there is something in it for them, such as aid or trade.

Gillard made a right royal mess of one of the trade arrangements that leaned them toward cooperating with Aus more, the live cattle exports about half a billion dollars worth a year to our economy. They went elsewhere to Brazil etc, while our cattle died because of forced overstocking or were sold at a loss before they died from starvation. We are also a drop in the ocean when it comes to their manufacturing and exports.

Hence, my main focus of more subtle negotiations, than taking a big stick to them. If you rile them too much, we and our much smaller population and slower growing country, probably needs them more than they need us... particularly regarding these boat arrivals.

One needs to be a careful not to cut off our nose to spite our face, like the live cattle fiasco, again.

Translation: The net effect/damage of our foreign affairs and trade relations goes much further than the damn boat people.
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Cant argue with any of that.........
 
Whiskers said:
The asylum seeker issue is a big deal for us, but it's just an annoyance to them, but from their more corrupt perspective, they do know where the smugglers are and have found a way to make some money out of it for their inconvenience.

The problem is that Aus is low down on the Indonesian totem pole, behind Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore at least. We are not high on their priority list of foreign affairs.

Secondly, their economy is growing faster than ours and becoming less dependant on aid handouts than years ago. So while we have been patronising them a bit in the past, they do likewise if there is something in it for them, such as aid or trade.

Gillard made a right royal mess of one of the trade arrangements that leaned them toward cooperating with Aus more, the live cattle exports about half a billion dollars worth a year to our economy. They went elsewhere to Brazil etc, while our cattle died because of forced overstocking or were sold at a loss before they died from starvation. We are also a drop in the ocean when it comes to their manufacturing and exports.

Hence, my main focus of more subtle negotiations, than taking a big stick to them. If you rile them too much, we and our much smaller population and slower growing country, probably needs them more than they need us... particularly regarding these boat arrivals.

One needs to be a careful not to cut off our nose to spite our face, like the live cattle fiasco, again.

Translation: The net effect/damage of our foreign affairs and trade relations goes much further than the damn boat people.
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My guess is Abbott will make a better fist of it than Rudd or Gillard did.
The live cattle fiasco, then following it up with a begging session and offering them $60m bribes.
Tacky, just very tacky, an absolute disgrace.
 
From the AFR

Mr Abbott also welcomed rising property prices.

“Don’t forget … if housing prices go up, sure that makes it harder to get into the market, but it also means that everyone who is in the market has a more valuable asset,” he said…

Translation

All those who generally vote Liberal are doing nicely from rising property prices and I'm not going to do anything that would help the younger generation to be able to buy affordable housing and risk my re-election chances.
 
So four days before the election Abbott said: no infrastructure projects worth more than $100 million would be funded without a "published cost-benefit analysis".

But now he's providing $1.5B for the east-west link in Melbourne.

Mr Abbott told radio station 3AW that he trusts that the East West Link is a viable project despite not being provided with the full business case, which the state government has refused to make public.

He said he had accepted the judgment of those briefing him on the grounds that the project makes social and economic sense.

"I have given a commitment that we won't spend more than $100 million on any single infrastructure projects without a published cost benefit analysis."

So the Labor version of the NBN was BAD BAD BAD since no CBA done, but a Liberal toll road with no such CBA provided is GOOD GOOD GOOD.

I wonder how many more projects over the $100M threshold will get their funding without a CBA :confused:
 
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/ministers-claimed-costs-for-wedding-trip-20130928-2ul6a.html

Two of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's most high-profile ministers claimed thousands of dollars in taxpayer entitlements for attending the wedding of close friend and Sydney shock jock Michael Smith.

According to travel expenses lodged with the Department of Finance, the duo collectively billed taxpayers nearly $3000 for flights, hire cars and incidental expenses incurred on the trip.
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Senator Brandis claimed $1700, including more than $1000 on return flights, $143 on a hire car and the overnight ''official business'' allowance designed to cover accommodation and incidentals.

The federal Department of Finance's guidelines state MPs are allowed to claim travel and accommodation expenses for official business including ''meetings of a government advisory committee or taskforce'' or ''functions representing a minister or presiding officer''. Meeting with journalists is not a purpose sanctioned by the guidelines.

Mr Joyce claimed a flight to Moree the next day and about $500 worth of charges for the use of a Commonwealth car on the day of the wedding. He said he could not recall whether he had other meetings that day but defended the use of public resources to attend the wedding.

''There were, no doubt, lots of people there involved in politics,'' he said. ''It was one of these things where you're noted more by your absence than by your participation.''
 
Palmer seems really, really determined to give Newman and Abbot a real pain in the @r$e. At first read I thought he's kidding, BUT when I looked at the perilous state of the Qld ALP reduced to 7 seats, 4 others and LNP 78, it's not too big of a stretch, all things being equal, to give it a damn good shake.

THE state arm of the Palmer United Party will name 90 candidates by the end of January to contest Queensland elections it claims will be held no later than October next year.

Based on its own polling and federal election analysis, it says it can win every Sunshine Coast seat from the LNP and sufficient statewide to secure government.

And it argues that without PUP preferencing the way it did at the September 7 Federal Election, the LNP would have lost 11 of the 21 seats it claimed in Queensland including Wide Bay (Warren Truss), Fisher (Mal Brough) and Longman (Wyatt Roy).

PUP won three Senate spots and is on course to rip Fairfax from the LNP.
http://www.news-mail.com.au/news/palmers-pup-set-to-dog-newman/2035309/​

...and if the poll in the local paper is any guide he's only going to keep getting more confident and up the ante as time goes by.

Silvio Berlusconi did it in Italy, two George Bushes in the US... so I suppose we should start to consider the possibility of PM Palmer next federal election! :eek: Seriously!

I think I'm starting to admire this guy, he's got guts! ;)
 

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sydboy007 said:
So four days before the election Abbott said: no infrastructure projects worth more than $100 million would be funded without a "published cost-benefit analysis".

But now he's providing $1.5B for the east-west link in Melbourne.

Mr Abbott told radio station 3AW that he trusts that the East West Link is a viable project despite not being provided with the full business case, which the state government has refused to make public.

He said he had accepted the judgment of those briefing him on the grounds that the project makes social and economic sense.

"I have given a commitment that we won't spend more than $100 million on any single infrastructure projects without a published cost benefit analysis."

So the Labor version of the NBN was BAD BAD BAD since no CBA done, but a Liberal toll road with no such CBA provided is GOOD GOOD GOOD.

I wonder how many more projects over the $100M threshold will get their funding without a CBA :confused:
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Syd if you are going to 'maintain the rage', for the next three years, you will make yourself sick.:D
 
drsmith said:
That little analysis doesn't take into account the creative accounting of offloading costs from 2012/13 to 2011/12 so the original 2012/13 surplus could be forecast in the first place.

Even after stacking the deck, Labor still couldn't come close.
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True and its referred to in the article and the reasons why.

You seemed to have missed this point

And of course there's the other question of where the "budget emergency" is, and why the Coalition isn't rushing to address it with a mini-budget to slash spending and bring Australia's debt under control.
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oh dear..........wonder if the Coalition will apply the same standards to this pair of dimwit's as they did to Slipper, Gillard and Thompson.

Adults in charge.....more snout, trough etc etc

Ministers claimed costs for wedding trip

Two of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's most high-profile ministers claimed thousands of dollars in taxpayer entitlements for attending the wedding of close friend and Sydney shock jock Michael Smith.

It was a little less than two years ago and Smith had just left 2UE after a falling out over his attempt to raise allegations about then prime minister Julia Gillard's relationship with a former union official and the misappropriation of funds.
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...edding-trip-20130928-2ul6a.html#ixzz2gEy3Nkpa
 
IFocus said:
True and its referred to in the article and the reasons why.

You seemed to have missed this point
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How many times did Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard say they were going to deliver a surplus in 2012/13 ?

That's right. Wayne Swan actually delivered it, but obviously didn't.

The economic failure of the Gillard/Swan government was not to act earlier in their term and to make matters worse, compromise the budget even more by dealing with the Greens for office.

In 2012/13 they paid the political price.
 
sydboy007 said:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/ministers-claimed-costs-for-wedding-trip-20130928-2ul6a.html

Two of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's most high-profile ministers claimed thousands of dollars in taxpayer entitlements for attending the wedding of close friend and Sydney shock jock Michael Smith.

According to travel expenses lodged with the Department of Finance, the duo collectively billed taxpayers nearly $3000 for flights, hire cars and incidental expenses incurred on the trip.
Advertisement

Senator Brandis claimed $1700, including more than $1000 on return flights, $143 on a hire car and the overnight ''official business'' allowance designed to cover accommodation and incidentals.

The federal Department of Finance's guidelines state MPs are allowed to claim travel and accommodation expenses for official business including ''meetings of a government advisory committee or taskforce'' or ''functions representing a minister or presiding officer''. Meeting with journalists is not a purpose sanctioned by the guidelines.

Mr Joyce claimed a flight to Moree the next day and about $500 worth of charges for the use of a Commonwealth car on the day of the wedding. He said he could not recall whether he had other meetings that day but defended the use of public resources to attend the wedding.

''There were, no doubt, lots of people there involved in politics,'' he said. ''It was one of these things where you're noted more by your absence than by your participation.''
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George Brandis has promptly put out a media release advising he has refunded his claims from that weekend.

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/201...bution-to-his-expenses-that-wee.html#comments

That though still leaves the smell of having claimed it in the first place.

I'm not sure what the issue is with Barnaby Joyce's flight from Sydney to Moree the next day is but in his case that still leaves the comcar claim outstanding. According to Michael Smith,

Barnaby also attended my wedding that day. He didn't claim his accommodation expenses that night. He did have some Commonwealth Car expenses during that day and the next.

My wife and I paid for Senator Brandis and Senator Joyce's car transfers to and from the wedding - see the correspondence at the bottom of this post.
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http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/201...journalists-is-not-a-justifiable-expense.html

ABC News report,

Senator Brandis has confirmed he claimed nearly $1,700 on flights, accommodation and a hire car, but says he attended the wedding primarily for work purposes.

He told Fairfax that he used the wedding as an opportunity to collaborate with Smith over his work covering the Health Services Union scandal involving former MP Craig Thomson.

Senator Brandis says to resolve any uncertainty he will pay the money back.

"It is clear that the relevant criterion is the purpose of the travel, not the nature of the event. However, I accept that there can be uncertainty about the circumstances in which attendance at a private function for work-related purposes is within the entitlement," he said.

Fairfax newspapers reported that the cost of flights, hire cars and incidental expenses were among travel expenses lodged with the Department of Finance.

Mr Joyce rejected the Fairfax report, saying he may have used a Commonwealth car on the day, but that he did not claim flights or accommodation.

"The only thing I can see in this, and it was two years ago, was the use of a COMCAR on the same day as the wedding," Mr Joyce said.

"I will now dig back and do what I can to find out about that and if there's some ambiguity I'll pay it back, but the idea I claimed thousands of dollars is just wrong."
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-...barnaby-joyce-george-brandis-expenses/4987502

My personal view is that I don't like to see this sort of snouts in troughs behaviour from our politicians regardless of whether it's within the guidelines or not, from any side.
 
drsmith said:
My personal view is that I don't like to see this sort of snouts in troughs behaviour from our politicians regardless of whether it's within the guidelines or not, from any side.
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Barnaby Joyce is or at least was a CPA, so one would expect he'd know what the law said... or at least what the law allowed you to get away with.

George Brandis is quite correct in that it's the purpose of the trip, rather than the nature of the function that's the relevant point. The same terminology is used in tax law for claiming expenses. For example the tax office can decide whether a trip is for a business purpose, but they cannot rule on how much you can spend and claim on that purpose.

But I agree the whole charging expenses to the public purse scheme probably needs a good overhaul and deem a lot more of the typical snout in the trough stuff as being provided for in their normal salary and allowances.
 
sptrawler said:
Syd if you are going to 'maintain the rage', for the next three years, you will make yourself sick.:D
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No rage, just holding them to the standards they screamed for in opposition.

What's the point of a policy if you don't plan to implement it? Wasn't the claim not t spend more than $100M on a project without a CBA part of Abbotts claim that the Coalition were better economic managers and they would cut back on the waste and mismanagement?
 
drsmith said:
George Brandis has promptly put out a media release advising he has refunded his claims from that weekend.

My personal view is that I don't like to see this sort of snouts in troughs behaviour from our politicians regardless of whether it's within the guidelines or not, from any side.
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:)

Strange how some MP's get crucified for lying, I just don't understand why others can sweep their transgressions under the rug, and still hold their head up high for 'high' office.
 
13ugs13unny said:
:)

Strange how some MP's get crucified for lying, I just don't understand why others can sweep their transgressions under the rug, and still hold their head up high for 'high' office.
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It's more the double standards that gets me. The witch hunt of Slipper and Thompson and then the I've paid the money back so it's OK.

I just don't understand the reasoning behind going to a friends wedding and looking for some sort of excuse to bill it to tax payers. Even if there's some small legitimate reason, it's such a bad look

Even worse, there doesn't seem to be anything in place to easily show person X made claim on Y date for this reason. While Joyce should be able to provide the info, the parliament systems should be able to provide the information easily or it needs to be set up so that it does. Joyce should have been able to log in and provide the information pretty much instantly.
 
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