Questions from a Transition and a local point of view. We have been attempting to locate the stated positions of politicians and parties from public sources such as the Internet on these issues.{accordion}Debt global financial instability and growth :: Australia is not now spending all of its export windfall on buying more imports. It ran a goods and services trade deficit every month from mid-2002 to mid-2008 but this has now given way to trade surpluses. In April and May Australia ran a trade surplus of $2.8billion. Australia’s sovereign debt rating is AAA. Australia’s government deficit is $57 billion.  Net foreign debt (including corporate and household) is $650 billion (from financing the mining boom our elevated house prices and our high levels of household debt). Australia’s banks are dependent on tapping offshore capital markets. The whole lot depends on iron ore and coal prices and China.

    Q. What do you do to ensure you are informed of the risks to Australia in relation to debt and global financial stability?

    Q. What is your position on economic growth?

      • Both sides of politics committed to using all the gathering export-driven rebound in tax revenues to turn the budget deficit into surplus by 2013.
      • Both sides promise not to add “a single cent” to the budget bottom line.
      • Labor’s budget stimulas helped stave off recession.
      • Newspoll puts the Coalition ahead of Labor 47-35 over which side better at handling the economy.
      • Tony Abbott: $3.8 billion freeze on public service recruitment
      • Tony Abbott: $1.6 billion abandoning Rudd’s health reforms
      • Tony Abbott: $5.7 million axing Australia’s bid for a seat on the UN Security Council
      • Tony Abbott: 1.7% tax levy on companies with annual profits greater than $5m a year to fund paid parental leave scheme.
      • Tony Abbott: $2.55 billion Overall cut to company tax rate to 28.5% by 2013 (while retaining the paid parental leave levy)
      • Julia Gillard: Company tax rate to 29% by 2013-14

    ||||Carbon pollution::

    Q. Do you accept that CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions are changing the climate?

    Q. What is the current concentration of atmospheric CO2 in parts per million?

    Q. What do you understand to be a safe level of atmospheric CO2 concentration?

    Q. What do you understand to be a safe level of increase in global average temperature (over pre-industrial levels)?

    Q. Where do you stand on the debate about whether the current climate change has primarily anthropogenic causes or not?

    Q. What do you understand to be the consequences of exceeding 2 degrees increase in global average temperature (over pre-industrial levels)?

    Q. If you were elected what specific policies would you promote in the face of this information?

    Q. What is your position on the introduction of nuclear power stations into Australia?

    Q. What support will you offer local communities to instal community power-generation?

    Q. What support will you offer for retrofitting our homes for maximum energy efficiency?

      • Julia Gillard: $394 million “cash for clunkers spewing out pollution” scheme that offers old-car owners $2000 to upgrade to a new “green” vehicle. Funded by cutting other solar power and carbon capture programs.
      • Julia Gillard puts the brakes on carbon price until 2012
      • Julia Gillard will set up a citizens’ assembly to gain community consensus first.
      • Getup! (online campaigning organisation) is making Carbon Pollution one of its 3 campaign issues campaigning for a tax on carbon pollution and for investment in renewables.
      • Victorian State Premier John Brumby leads the nation with the launch of a 10-point climate change action plan. He said: “The reality is the world is moving to a carbon price. There is nothing more certain and so we need to be at the front of that…not behind. All the reports that have been done on the issue suggest the cost of inaction is greater than the cost of tackling this issue now. His plan includes a target to reuce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% in the next decade a phased closure of Victoria’s dirtiest power station (Hazelwood Power Plant) and committing to a price on carbon at some stage in the future. “We are moving forward in relation to these matters and I would hope that other Australian states and the rest of Australia does likewise.”

    ||||Oil supply::

    Q. What efforts have you taken to fully inform yourself about oil and other critical resource supplies and their future time-line of availability and likely cost rises?

    ||||Population and Infrastructure::

    Q. What is your position on population growth through immigration in light of the figures which show that Australia’s population growth is overwhelmingly driven by immigration particularly temporary immigrants?

      • Vast amounts of prime farm land bush land and native forests are consumed each year by urban sprawl. Each week Australia loses more than 25 football fields of land to urban sprawl as well as the additional land for roads and other amenities.  Estimated $770 billion backlog of state government infrastructure (across Australia) needs in our ports freight transport urban roads public transport and power supplies to keep up with a growing population. State governments under pressure to sell assets.
      • Julia Gillard repudiated support for “a big Australia”
      • Julia Gillard promises $742 million towards the Redcliffe rail link. (The State of Queensland would have to come up with $300 million but the hidden costs could push Bligh’s already stretched budget by forcing the state to upgrade inner-city rail infrastructure to cope with the additional traffic from bayside).
      • Tony Abbott: has matched Labors promise on the Redcliffe rail link.
      • Shadow Treasurer (LNP) will ask the Productivity and Sustainability Commission to look at population density.
      • Tony Abbott (24 Jan) “Since 1970 an Australia that’s 4 times richer has more than coped with a population that’s 2 times greater. My instinct is to extend to as many people as possible the freedom and benefits of life in Australia. A larger population will bring that about provided that it’s also a more productive one.”
      • Tony Abbot (later) – now talking down population growth and proposing pre-emptive caps on the immigration program.
      • Tony Abbott sees infrastructure as a problem of state government failure. His slogan is to cut spending. But infrastructure is capital investment and its effect on the budget is only through the interest payment. Governments have to borrow to fund infrastructure but Abbott doesn’t believe in debt. His solution is more private spending.

    ||||Food sovereignty::

    Q. What is your position on food sovereignty for Australian ownership of Australian food assets and Australian food security?

    Q. What do you know about where the food we eat here comes from and what food miles it covers to reach us?

    Q. What is your position on Coal Seam Gas mining on the Darling Downs food bowl?

    • The Foreign Investment Review Board examines investment by foreigners in commercial and residential property but not small-scale rural purchases.
      • Tony Abbott: Wants to monitor foreign ownership of farmland more closely and is prepared to take appropriate action if the scale of investment threatens national interest. “We must be in charge of what happens in our own country and obviously if we are going to be genuinely sovereign in our own country we’ve got to know what’s going on.” Not an opponent of foreign investment.  Does not want to create a formal register of foreign-owned farmland because state titles offices already hold ownership details relating to all offices. “It is important that the public understand that this country is run by the Australian Government in Australia’s national interests. We do want to sell the food rather than sell the farm. Australia would always need foreign investment just as Australian foreign investment in other countries was a “good thing” and part of a healthy vigorous world economy.”   Joe Hockey (Liberal Treasury spokesman) repudiated a call by Nationals John Cobb for a register of all foreign purchases of land and water.
      • Labor Agricultural Minister Tony Burke said the Coalition must embrace the longstanding bipartisan support for foreign investment. He says the FIRB has the power to examine any acquisition by a foreign company or government regardless of the value.
      • The Greens leader Bob Brown backs the creation of a register of foreign ownership and calls on the Nationals to protect their rural constituents.

      ||||Water conservation::

    Q. What protection will you offer us over our right to collect use and own rain falling on our properties?

    Q. What action will you take to protect Australia’s water assets and keep them within Australian ownership?

    Q. What is your position on damage to the water acquifers by coal seam gas mining?

    ||||Environment::
    Q.  How will you go about ensuring that all bio-regional refugia are identified in this area?

    Q. What support would you provide for local communities to look after the eco-systems in their local areas?

    ||||Communications::

    Upper Kedron has very little access to fast Internet connectivity. They are very keen to be first up for the new National Broadband Network.

    • Tony Abbott:  Cans National Broadband Network

    ||||Defence::

    Q.  What do you see as the security and defence issues arising out of the global instability around climate change and demand on oil and resources food and water shortage crises and population growth with pressure from developing countries for standard of living rises?

    Q. What position will you take on defence and security?

    ||||Health carers mental health::

    Q. How would you promote local health initiatives?

    Q. What would you do to support carers locally?

    Q. What would you do to promote health literacy locally?

    Q. What would you do to provide us with mental health services locally?

    ||||Disabilities::

    • Coalition: $314m 4year scheme to allow 6000 children with profound disabilities up to $20000/year towards their education allowing them greater choice in where to study (portable funding following them to the school of their parents’ choice) – theme of avoiding state government control of funds as far as possible by passing funding directly to communities particularly in health and education
    • Julia Gillard: $182m on disability assistance including grants of up to $12000/year on rebates for early intervention programs for young children with disabilities

      ||||Schools and education::

      Q. What education resources would you promote for skilling and reskilling the local population for transition to a future where fossil fuel energy resources are constrained?

        • Tony Abbott – Sees school halls program as a waste of money
        • Tony Abbott – Sees computers in schools program as a waste of money
        • Tony Abbott – Citizens’ assembly in every school
        • Private schools – Under the funding model for non-government schools money is allocated according to the socio-economic status of the school community and parents’ capacity to pay. About 55% of Catholic schools are funded at a level higher than their allocation deemed under the socio-economic status model and stand to lose money under a freeze. Q. What is the case for St Williams and St Andrews?
          • Labor – Education minister Simon Crean: private schools should not assume their funding would be rise to cover growing costs but no school would lose ‘a dollar of funding’.
          • Coalition – Will cut many programs . Prepared to adopt recommendations from the government review into the funding model set up by John Howard. Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne has written to the Bishops Commission for Catholic Education promising to keep most of the Howard system which gives elite private schools substantial sums on the basis of where students live.

      ||||Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC & RN)::

      • “When the Coalition came to office last time under Howard after Labor it immediately announced major cuts to the ABC. Its hostility and intimidation was also acted out with constant attacks on the ABC’s integrity and allegations of bias.” Friends of the ABC

        ||||Seniors and retirement income::

        45% of the Australian electorate are over aged 50.

        Q. What about dental care under Medicare?

        Q. How can we get help for the work we do for our local communities?

        Q. How can we get help for grandparents who have responsibility for their grandchildren?

        Q. How do we distribute wealth and work across the generations?

        Q. How do we ensure that we leave the world in as good condition for the next generations as we found it?

        ||||Local business ::

        Q. What will you do to enable local cooperation with the case on Kangaroo Island of local doctors who cooperated together to provide an after hours service and were challenged and fined by the ACCC being particularly relevant?

        Q. What will you do to ensure that local businesses are able to cooperate for the benefit of their local community?

        ||||Work and Industrial Relations::

        Q. What employment support will you offer local communities such as our to develop local-living economy solutions for business and employment?

        ||||Childcare and Paid parental leave::

        • Labor’s 50% rebate applies to chilcare centres family daycare and after-school care but not nannies.

          ||||Border protection refugees::

          • Australia First Party: Is putting out leaflets that are extreme hate-propaganda targeting refugees from Africa  www.electionleaflets.org.au
          • Liberal candidate David Barker lost pre-selection after comments on Facebook accusing Labor of bringing the nation ‘closer to the hands of a Muslim country’.
          • Getup!  (online campaigning organisation) is making Refugees one of its 3 campaign issues.
          • LNP: Reintroducing offshore processing in another country for illegal boat arrivals Denying permanent residency for illegal arrivals by reintroducing a temporary protection visa and requiring those who receive benefits to make a contribution through a ‘work for benefits’ scheme Presuming asylum seekers are not refugees if they have disposed of identity documents Turning back the boats where circumstances allow Maintaining a fair and generous refugee program for refugees who come to Australia legitimately.

          ||||Gangs and Crime::

          {/accordion}