The propaganda machine is working overtime spending big on blanket newspaper and television coverage instead of just doing their job… providing services. Our latest electricity bills contained a 21% increase in tariffs and a 95% increase in “supply charge” over the past 2 years while in the same period the Cost Price Index (CPI) had risen by a mere 5.37%.
The recent Queensland by-elections and their massive swings away from the government are a sign of things to come. We are angry about the untruths and a half-hearted plan to shuffle population increases into regional Queensland where infrastructure is woefully inadequate. In Townsville an all-weather bridge on the Bruce Highway has been badly needed for years but there are still no plans to build it. We do not have commuter rail, nor properly funded hospitals or schools, how on Earth are we going to cope with double our population?
The capture and then secretive trafficking of 157 seafarers from the open sea, to their destination in Nauru, was done at taxpayer expense. Not only was it cruel and legally questionable, it was very costly… for our budget bottom line and to our international reputation.
On the employment front, it is going to be more difficult for an employer to find a suitable candidate as applications pour in, due solely to LNP government policy. Small business will be hit hardest. So much for reducing the burden of red tape. If the rumoured privatization of Australia Post goes ahead, the only beneficiaries will be the new owners.
Apparently, discussions between the LNP and the AMA took place before the September 2013 election unbeknown to the Australian public. It was never mentioned in the election campaign, probably because of the widespread hostility now being expressed. Deception is never viewed favourably.
Also, a survey from ME Bank Household Financial Comfort report shows that 54% of all households have no capacity to save, as their entire income is spent on the costs of living. Indeed 12% of those surveyed are borrowing more every month in order to make ends meet. This at a time when the Hockey budget took $517 per annum away from wealthy families, while taking $844 per annum away from those already doing it tough. Makes you wonder who the ‘Leaners’ really are.
Joe Hockey is paying the price for his ultra-right wing policies as it seems that some of his more moderate mates are getting nervous about how extreme the Hockey budget is, and how their constituents have railed against it.
a) need a new stadium and
b) that the only way to get that stadium is to re-elect the dreaded Newman government.
It hasn’t taken Queenslanders long to remember why the LNP spent 14 years in opposition. Beyond March 2015, they seem destined to spend another decade and a half there.
Queenslanders want a government of the people, for the people and are looking for real parliamentary representation.
Facts are facts, when the Labor Party left office last September unemployment, with a price on carbon, stood at 5.2 percent. Unemployment has now shot up to 6.4 percent (a 12 year high), despite the removal of a price on carbon. It is now clear it is not a price on Carbon but the Abbott government who have acted as a wrecking ball through the economy.
The refusal of the Newman government to grasp solar technology and create jobs in that particular sector is another example of how backward thinking is costing our economy both investment and jobs. Rising electricity costs affect all consumers, from businesses to the consumers to which these extra costs are passed on. Last month the government increased some electricity tariffs by more than 1000 percent as a way to try to stop the solar industry while protecting the coal industry.
Trying to preserve a dying industry with government subsidy is a ludicrous way to spend taxpayer dollars, which would be better invested in the new renewable energy industry and the jobs that come with it. This saves both consumers' costs and the environment. Imagine an LNP government coming up with a win-win proposal…. You can’t can you?