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Joint Media Release.
Around the country thousands of Dads and other ‘ordinary’ blokes come together every week under the ‘Men’s Shed’ banner.
The Men’s Shed – there are more than 400 of them across Australia – provides a location and support system f...or many men who are socially isolated, lonely or who just want to connect with others.
However the organisation is in danger of disappearing.
Australian families would be amazed to learn that The Men’s Shed Association only receives $50,000 a year from the Rudd Government and that this is potentially under threat.
Shadow Minister for Health Peter Dutton said ‘shed nights’ were a vital community resource for many men and had proven to be an important aid in dealing with men’s health issues.
.“Mr Rudd is quite literally starving to death The Men’s Shed Association, and thousands of Australian males who benefit from the shed activities may miss out on the incredible support provided,” Mr Dutton said.
Shadow Minister for Families Kevin Andrews said the Department of Families and Minister Jenny Macklin must guarantee support for The Men’s Shed Association.
“Minister Macklin is creating uncertainty and making it very difficult for the Association to do its work. Connecting with men in need of help is not easy and the Men’s Shed Association has successfully done that and they need support,” Mr Andrews said.
Mr Andrews called on Ms Macklin to end the uncertainty immediately.
“This is a practical local program that deserves ongoing support, he said.
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The proposal for a National Inquiry into a sustainable population for Australia has real merit according to Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison.
“The Coalition wants a sustainable future for Australia and a sustainable population is argua...bly the single largest determinant,” Mr Morrison said.
“The Coalition has been expressing concern for some time about the Rudd Government’s willingness to sign Australia up to a population of 36 million by 2050 without thinking through the consequences,” he said.
“We cannot take a passive approach to future population growth. It will have profound impacts on our economy, our environment and quality of life. Australians should be given the chance to have their say about this important issue for our future.
“The Rudd Government has put Australia on a default path to a population of at least 36 million people and has said we all should just get used to it.
“Sixty percent of our population growth is the product of immigration. While immigration has been a key reason for our current prosperity, we cannot just assume this will be true in the future without good management or careful policy planning.
“In 2008/09 net overseas migration increased to 285,000 people, a one third increase on the previous year. The intergenerational report estimate of 36 million people by 2050 assumes an average net overseas migration of 180,000 per year.
“Concerns about water resources, public transport, affordable housing, hospitals and schools are all connected not just to how much we spend in these areas, but the size and location of the population they must serve.
“Population policy must connect these issues and determine just what our immigration intake should be for the future.
“There are growth path alternatives and the Coalition is prepared to consider them. But first we need to know just how many people we believe we can responsibly sustain in the future and work backwards from there.
“This planning must especially involve the states and local government who basically have to live with the population parameters set at a federal level whether by decision or by default, as is the case under the Rudd Government.
“The population challenges will be different in regional and metropolitan areas. It is therefore very important we hear from Australians from right across the country.
“We need a sustainable population policy for Australia. This policy must reflect the views and aspirations of the Australian people, not the dictates of an out of touch Rudd Government,” Mr Morrison said.
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The arrival of the 92nd boat following the Rudd Governments wind back of the Coalitions strong border protection regime comes just days after the UNHCR reported that push factors have been easing in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizens...hip, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.
“Just this week the UNHCR has been saying the global situation in places such as Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have been improving in recent times, providing increasing opportunities for those previously seeking asylum to return home,” Mr Morrison said.
“Yet over the same period we have seen an escalation in illegal boat arrivals under the Rudd Governments soft policies to the highest rate on record, more than 25% higher than it was prior to the arrival of the Tampa,” he said.
“In 2010 we have had 24 boats and almost 1200 people illegally arrive in just 10 weeks.
“We have known for several months that the number of illegal arrivals from Sri Lanka has been declining. The Government has refused to release this information, knowing that it would undermine their spin about global push factors.
“There will always be a big market for people smugglers in our region, regardless of the global situation. The issue is whether we give them a product to sell.
“Under the Rudd Government the people smugglers are doing a roaring trade. Under the Coalition we drove their business into the ground. The difference between the approaches of the two parties could not be starker,” he said.
Mr Keenan said: “Over the last 8 days, only two have been spared another boat arrival.
"This is an appalling record. The Rudd Labor Government is failing to protect Australia's borders.
"Yet the Labor Government refuses to acknowledge they have a problem and have no will to fix it,” he said.
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The Rudd Government continues to hide behind announcements of water buybacks to conceal the absence of an integrated national plan for the Murray-Darling Basin.
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Water, Ian Macfarlane, said the Government’s latest announcement o...f a water tender in Queensland would not offset the consequences of its failure to invest in water efficiency projects.
“Water buybacks have a role to play in managing the Murray-Darling, but they should take place alongside a comprehensive, Basin-wide infrastructure investment program,” Mr Macfarlane said.
“The consequences of the Rudd Government’s inaction on infrastructure are becoming more apparent, as water from record floods in Queensland makes its way into the Basin, on the back of floods in New South Wales earlier this year.
“While it will be months before the full impact of this deluge is known, what is clear is that the Rudd Government has wasted the opportunity to make full use of the floodwaters because of its refusal to invest in infrastructure.
“The most glaring example is Water Minister Penny Wong’s failure to address the chronic wastage in Menindee Lakes, offering empty promises of a $400 million investment that has yet to materialise, leaving hundreds of billions of litres of water to evaporate.
“The Coalition Government left a $5.8 billion fund for infrastructure upgrades, but the Rudd Government has ignored the opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime investment in Basin infrastructure.
“So far this month we have seen the Rudd Government announce $220 million for water buybacks, compared to just $38.5 million for water efficiency projects. To make a real difference to the Murray-Darling this proportion should be two-to-one in favour of infrastructure, yet the Rudd Government persists with its lopsided approach.
“The Rudd Government has shown it has no long-term strategy for the Basin and has allowed state scuffles to continue to dominate the management of the Murray-Darling Basin.
“While the Rudd Government prepares for a water buyback in Queensland, Minister Wong is continually undermined by the four per cent water cap in Victoria, implemented at the behest of her state Labor colleagues.
“In the absence of a truly national management system for the Murray-Darling, including a comprehensive infrastructure investment program, irrigators, the environment and urban water users will all miss out.”
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New story from Liberal Party News
Subjects: Labor Party’s paid parental legislation; home insulation; acknowledgement of traditional owners.
E&OE
TONY ABBOTT:
If the Labor Party were serious about paid parental leave they would have their legislative scheme ready to go. The fact is th...ey don’t have legislation. It’s not listed. They’re talking about introducing it into the Reps in May. If that’s the case it’s going to be quite difficult, depending upon an election timetable, to get it passed this year. I think if Labor were fair dinkum about paid parental leave they’d have their scheme ready to go.
We certainly want them to introduce it as soon as possible because this is something which is urgent. It’s overdue. They should be ready to introduce legislation now. Certainly we’ll want to amend it to improve it. We’ll want to make it more closely reflect the scheme that we announced last week. But it just goes to show how hollow Labor’s protestations are when having criticised our scheme, having even talked about us obstructing their scheme in the Senate, we now know that they don’t even have legislation. It’s not even listed to be introduced into the House of Reps. The bill is not even in the parliament and they’re talking about obstructing.
So, I call on the Government to introduce their paid parental leave scheme as a matter of great urgency. We certainly want to be constructive about it because the important thing is that Australian women get a fair go, they get a fair go quickly, the important thing is that this very significant economic reform measure be introduced quickly as well.
QUESTION:
When would your scheme start?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well our scheme would start as soon as possible after we won an election. The point is that here’s Labor, they don’t have legislation ready to go. They’ve been talking about us obstructing legislation on paid parental leave in the Senate, they haven’t introduced the legislation into the parliament. I call on them to introduce the legislation urgently so that this matter can be dealt with and so that Australian women and Australian families can get a fair go quickly.
QUESTION:
On insulation, how would you feel if you were one of the home owners whose name was being sold by dodgy installers and what should the Government do about it?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, the Government should never have gone down this path. It was warned again and again that this scheme would be a disaster. What we are now seeing is proof that this is a Government marked by waste and incompetence. The Prime Minister is all talk and no action but when he finally does decide to act he invariably gets it wrong and the insulation scheme is proof of this and I think the Australian public are wondering how on earth the Prime Minister can fix public hospitals when he’s been so incompetent and wasteful when it comes to home insulation.
QUESTION:
Is it political correctness gone mad, Mr Abbott, with the Prime Minister acknowledging the traditional owners of land at every public function?
TONY ABBOTT:
There’s a place for this in the right circumstances but certainly there are many occasions when it does look like tokenism.
QUESTION:
Wilson Tuckey says it shouldn’t happen at all?
TONY ABBOTT:
There’s a place for it on occasions. I certainly make these acknowledgements at what I think are suitable occasions but to do it as a matter of course, to do it automatically, it does just look like formalism and tokenism.
QUESTION:
He also said it was a bad idea to give aboriginal people the vote, what’s your response to that?
TONY ABBOTT:
Oh well look, you know I think it’s very important that all Australians have full participation in democracy.
QUESTION:
On tonight’s Four Corners former Prime Minister John Howard says you’re the best chance to lead the party to this years election, what do you have to make of his comments?
TONY ABBOTT:
Oh look, I haven’t seen the programme. Obviously I’m waiting for it with baited breath and if there’s any comment to be made I’ll make it after I’ve seen the programme. Thank you.
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Australia will join other nations in celebrating International Womens' Day on Monday 8 March.
Dr Sharman Stone, the Shadow Minister for the Status of Women, said Australian women are world beaters in many fields, including public service, science, the arts, busines...s, sport and politics. They work in and out of the home, are paid and unpaid, raise children, care for elderly and disabled family members and donate their time and energy to thousands of causes.
“However, alongside these achievements is a pay gap of about 17 per cent for men and women doing the same or similar work. Women were granted equal pay 40 years ago in Australia, but this gap is widening, particularly for high earners,” Dr Stone said.
“International Women’s Day is the ideal time to start a conversation about this pay gap and the meaning of equal pay for equal work. We must value the work of women whether it is paid or unpaid, inside or out of the home.
“While many women are achieving success in their careers, many face a retirement in poverty after years of part-time work or time out of the workforce have left them with little superannuation or savings.
“As well, Australia remains one of the few developed economies without a statutory requirement to offer paid parental leave.
“While International Womens' Day is a time to reflect on gender inequalities and discrimination somewhere else, we need to also acknowledge that women in Australia, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, face a lot of unfinished business if we are to be the land of equal opportunity.”
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Liberal Party of Australia New Blog Post:
Rudd's promises
Mr Rudd and Labor are all talk, no action:
Bring petrol prices and grocery prices down. BROKEN Keep our borders secure. BROKEN Take over hospitals. BROKEN Fix Australia's water problems. BROKEN Budget in surplus and no reckless sp...ending. BROKEN Computers for all Year 9-12 students. BROKEN Whaling. Take Japan to international court. BROKEN Trade training centres for all secondary schools. BROKEN 36 GP super clinics. BROKEN 750 new houses for Indigenous Australians. BROKEN National high speed broadband network for $4.7 billion. BROKEN No means test on private health care rebate. BROKEN
Reject talk. Or all you'll get is more talk.Australians are now demanding action... real action.Tony Abbott and the Liberals are committed to keeping Mr Rudd and Labor to account. We’ll be scrutinising every one of Mr Rudd’s promises and highlighting every piece of Labor spin.
New story from Liberal Party News
Subjects: Labor Party’s paid parental legislation; home insulation; acknowledgement of traditional owners.
E&OE
TONY ABBOTT:
If the Labor Party were serious about paid parental leave they would have their legislative scheme ready to go. The fact is th...ey don’t have legislation. It’s not listed. They’re talking about introducing it into the Reps in May. If that’s the case it’s going to be quite difficult, depending upon an election timetable, to get it passed this year. I think if Labor were fair dinkum about paid parental leave they’d have their scheme ready to go.
We certainly want them to introduce it as soon as possible because this is something which is urgent. It’s overdue. They should be ready to introduce legislation now. Certainly we’ll want to amend it to improve it. We’ll want to make it more closely reflect the scheme that we announced last week. But it just goes to show how hollow Labor’s protestations are when having criticised our scheme, having even talked about us obstructing their scheme in the Senate, we now know that they don’t even have legislation. It’s not even listed to be introduced into the House of Reps. The bill is not even in the parliament and they’re talking about obstructing.
So, I call on the Government to introduce their paid parental leave scheme as a matter of great urgency. We certainly want to be constructive about it because the important thing is that Australian women get a fair go, they get a fair go quickly, the important thing is that this very significant economic reform measure be introduced quickly as well.
QUESTION:
When would your scheme start?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well our scheme would start as soon as possible after we won an election. The point is that here’s Labor, they don’t have legislation ready to go. They’ve been talking about us obstructing legislation on paid parental leave in the Senate, they haven’t introduced the legislation into the parliament. I call on them to introduce the legislation urgently so that this matter can be dealt with and so that Australian women and Australian families can get a fair go quickly.
QUESTION:
On insulation, how would you feel if you were one of the home owners whose name was being sold by dodgy installers and what should the Government do about it?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, the Government should never have gone down this path. It was warned again and again that this scheme would be a disaster. What we are now seeing is proof that this is a Government marked by waste and incompetence. The Prime Minister is all talk and no action but when he finally does decide to act he invariably gets it wrong and the insulation scheme is proof of this and I think the Australian public are wondering how on earth the Prime Minister can fix public hospitals when he’s been so incompetent and wasteful when it comes to home insulation.
QUESTION:
Is it political correctness gone mad, Mr Abbott, with the Prime Minister acknowledging the traditional owners of land at every public function?
TONY ABBOTT:
There’s a place for this in the right circumstances but certainly there are many occasions when it does look like tokenism.
QUESTION:
Wilson Tuckey says it shouldn’t happen at all?
TONY ABBOTT:
There’s a place for it on occasions. I certainly make these acknowledgements at what I think are suitable occasions but to do it as a matter of course, to do it automatically, it does just look like formalism and tokenism.
QUESTION:
He also said it was a bad idea to give aboriginal people the vote, what’s your response to that?
TONY ABBOTT:
Oh well look, you know I think it’s very important that all Australians have full participation in democracy.
QUESTION:
On tonight’s Four Corners former Prime Minister John Howard says you’re the best chance to lead the party to this years election, what do you have to make of his comments?
TONY ABBOTT:
Oh look, I haven’t seen the programme. Obviously I’m waiting for it with baited breath and if there’s any comment to be made I’ll make it after I’ve seen the programme. Thank you.
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Our scheme is a very, very important social and economic innovation
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Lindsay on highly anticipated Henry Tax Review - 7.30 Report
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The Coalition condemns the ongoing persecution of Aung San Suu Kyi by Burma's military rulers
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The Rudd Government has been unable to shed light on basic details of its commitment to remove foil insulation from more than 50,000 homes
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Labor MPs have united to discredit the Howard Government's record on homelessness while, ironically, speaking on a bill which enacts an initiative that the Howard Government trialled and worked on
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Our scheme is a very, very important social and economic innovation
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Simply put, this Bill fails to recognise the unique nature of military service and the proposed Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation (CSC) will not function in the best interests of military members
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There is no plan to find and fix the 240,000 houses out of the potential million
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It is so important that more Australian women get the opportunity to spend serious bonding time with their children and that's what the Coalition's paid parental leave scheme is all about
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I place on record my thanks to Mr Michael Johnson MP, the Member for Ryan, for his significant contribution as Opposition Whip and respect his decision to stand down from this position in order to focus solely on the people of Ryan
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Another environmental program bungled by the Rudd Government, affecting the livelihoods of thousands of Australians
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While any agreement on people smuggling is welcome, the test will be whether it stops the boats
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The Coalition Joint Party Room this morning endorsed a proposal to introduce Paid Parental Leave if elected to government. The proposal is first part of our broader package of support for Australian families.
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The Rudd Government has begun the process of unravelling the Coalition’s off shore processing regime by transferring detainees from an over crowded Christmas Island to Darwin before their asylum claims have been tested
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Claims today of flying in Learjets, country club memberships and phantom defence contracts worth millions of dollars only reinforces the view of the Opposition that part-time Minister Greg Combet needs to lift his game
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The Coalition has long acknowledged the need for a central storage repository for our nation’s low level and intermediate radioactive waste
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I think even the Labor spin doctors now know 'the great big tax on everything', the Emissions Trading Scheme, is electoral poison
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It's high time this country had a national paid parental leave scheme. It's got to be for six months and it's got to be at people's real salary
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This is the 20th boat to arrive illegally this year, the second in 24 hours and the 88th since the Rudd Government rolled back the Coalition’s strong immigration laws
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International Women's Day will be celebrated in Australia and around the world on Monday 8 March
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My personal commitment is that Australia will finally have a national paid parental leave scheme that’s more than a mere token acknowledgement of women’s rights
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Isobel Redmond is strong enough to stand up to Kevin Rudd, and, if it comes to that, she’s strong enough to stand up to me.
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