Posted on March 8th, 2010 by Ginger
NSW workers face pay cuts of up to $370 a week under Rudd government workplace reforms By Steve Lewis, National Political Correspondent From: The Daily Telegraph March 08, 2010 12:00AM.
TENS of thousands of NSW workers face pay cuts of up to $370 a week under sweeping Rudd Government workplace reforms.
In a major election-year challenge to Labor, truck drivers, funeral workers, bar staff, aged care nurses and clerks are furious at award changes.
Union leaders claimed the Government had breached its promise that no worker would be worse off. Read more…
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Filed under: Federal
Posted on March 6th, 2010 by Ginger
From the ABC Online. March 6. 2010
The Federal Opposition says the Government needs to come clean on how many asylum seekers it is expecting to come to Christmas Island.
The Australian newspaper is reporting that the Government has begun a secret audit of the island after predicting the detainee population will reach 5,000 by 2014.
Opposition Immigration Scott Morrison says it shows the current immigration policy has failed.
“But at the moment they’re not being honest with the Australian people about how big this problem has become on their watch and how much bigger the problem is going to become on their watch because of their own policies,” he said. Read more…
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Filed under: Federal
Posted on March 6th, 2010 by Ginger
Bureaucrat-in-chief may have bitten off more than he can chew. By Christian Kerr From: The Australian March 06, 2010 12:00AM
THE apologies made the headlines, but there was something far more significant in Kevin Rudd’s acts of contrition last weekend.
“One of the problems that we have had as a government,” he admitted on ABC television, “is that we didn’t anticipate how hard it was going to be to deliver things.” Moments later he added: “The reason that we’ve had problems with this is we didn’t properly, I think, estimate the complexity of what we are embarking on.”
The comments were startling because Rudd’s claim to govern was based on his claims as an administrator. Unlike most of our prime ministers, he had never served as a minister. He had never even been a government backbencher. Yet Australians were told in 2007 Rudd was a safe pair of hands because he was an experienced public sector administrator. He could deliver.
‘More than ever, Australia needs a government that will help the nation fulfil its promise, rather than a government that makes promises it can’t fulfil,” Rudd declared before the 2007 election.
The comments feed a fear among some voters that Rudd is not the man they thought he was. Leaked Labor polling that appeared in a Sydney newspaper during the week pointed to problems with “believability” and “deliverability”. The morning before the Prime Minister’s National Press Club speech on hospital reform this week, the Coalition opposition distributed a document accusing him of failures on health.
Only two of the 31 — later 36 — promised GP super clinics are open, his commitment to leave the private health rebate unchanged has been broken and his mid-2009 deadline for public hospital reform was well and truly missed.
Last month on ABC1’s Q&A he admitted to making “about 600″ election commitments. Read more…
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Filed under: Federal
Posted on March 4th, 2010 by Ginger
Public servant’s job `to help Burke’ , By Debbie Guest
From: The Australian March 04, 2010
A SENIOR public servant has claimed he was simply doing his job and being as helpful as he could when dealing with disgraced lobbyist Brian Burke over a controversial $330 million development.
Taking the stand at the former West Australian premier’s false testimony trial before a Perth magistrate, former senior Department of Planning and Infrastructure bureaucrat Mike Allen agreed he had dealt with Mr Burke on a “wide range of matters”, including the proposed Smiths Beach development in southwest WA. Read more…
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Filed under: Western Australia
Posted on March 1st, 2010 by Ginger
Garrett’s gotta go; From Online Opinion “The Domain”
Posted by John, February 22nd, 2010 – under Home insulation, Julia Gillard, Peter Garrett, Resign, Rudd Government, Rudd Labor.
Peter Garrett and the Rudd Labor Government let the roof insulation free market rip.
4 people are dead; 89 fires have broken out; at least 1000 roofs are likely electrified.
Peter Garrett and the Rudd Labor Government knew, or ought to have known, that the scheme would attract cowboys; that training would be inadequate; that safety would be breached; that fires would break out; that people would die. Read more…
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Filed under: Federal
Posted on February 25th, 2010 by Ginger
From the ABC Online. February 25, 2010
New South Wales Labor backbencher Ian West has been charged over allegations he hit a property developer over the back of the head during a community meeting earlier this week.
The 58-year-old state Upper House MP was yesterday charged with assault and served with a notice to appear in Burwood Local Court, in western Sydney, on April 13.
Police say West has also been handed an interim personal violence order. Read more…
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Filed under: N.S.W
Posted on February 24th, 2010 by Ginger
From the ABC Online. February 24, 2010
Police are investigating a New South Wales Labor MP over the alleged assault of a man at a community meeting in Sydney’s inner west on Monday.
Police say the state Upper House MP, Ian West, approached a 47-year-old man at the end of the meeting and assaulted him.
It is understood the meeting was held at the Breakfast Point property where Mr West, 58, lives.
Officers say the victim, from Clareville, did not need medical treatment but reported the matter to police.
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Filed under: N.S.W
Posted on February 23rd, 2010 by Ginger
Debacle puts decent men out of work. By Hedley Thomas and Stephen Lunn
From: The Australian February 23, 2010 12:00AM
RUSSELL Browning was determined his building services business, operating from the heart of Kevin Rudd’s Brisbane electorate, would do everything right by the government’s home insulation scheme.
At his insistence, his staff sourced only Australian-made insulation material, steered away from problem-plagued foil, made safety the priority and went out of their way to deliver value for nearly 2000 customers.
But yesterday morning, as federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett clung to his job and the Prime Minister continued to defy opposition calls to sack him over the $2.5 billion insulation program debacle, he called together his people at Loyastar to break the news that 14 of them were losing their jobs. Read more…
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Filed under: Federal
Posted on February 22nd, 2010 by Ginger
Former state health minister John Della Bosca rang the New South Wales Health chief asking for her help in the case of a Labor Party member whose vote his federal MP wife, Belinda Neal, wanted in a messy preselection battle.
ALP branch president Louisa Sauvage, 72, has alleged that Ms Neal offered to help fast-track a hip replacement for her but only in return for a vote in next month’s preselection contest for the NSW central coast seat of Robertson. Read more…
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Filed under: N.S.W
Posted on February 18th, 2010 by Ginger
From the Brisbane times Online. Up to 400,000 properties have dodgy insulation: inquiry February 17, 2010 – 2:34PM .
A Senate inquiry has been told of an alleged “gross waste” of taxpayer dollars with ineffective insulation used in up to 400,000 properties under the national home insulation program.
About 1 million homes have taken advantage of the federal government’s program in the past 10 months.
But a study of the insulation being used shows that 30 to 40 per cent is non-compliant, Tino Zuzul, an industry leader, told the Energy Efficient Home Packages Inquiry in Melbourne today. Read more…
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Filed under: Federal