Category: Government score

Government score

Who will take the fall for the Coalition?

Tony Abbott currently lacks a head kicker to do the heavy lifting as the moment requires.

Tony Abbott currently lacks a head kicker to do the heavy lifting as the moment requires. (AAP: Daniel Munoz)

 

Why take the blame when you can push it onto others? Expect to see a Coalition reshuffle in which poor performers are demoted and Scott Morrison is given a position with daily access to the news cycle, writes Darrin Barnett.

Tony Abbott may well be in the Hot Seat, but does he really want to be a millionaire?

It’s fair to say that November 2014 was a month of misery for the Prime Minister.

Firstly, the Victorian election result was an unmitigated disaster. Australia’s second most populous state is now back in Labor hands and the Andrews Government, combined with fellow travellers in South Australia and the ACT, will now be expected to push back on a range of cuts to health, education and other social services coming out of Canberra.

Despite the best efforts of senior federal ministers to play down federal issues on Sunday, it is painfully apparent that the Abbott Government’s deeply unpopular May budget sits like a millstone around the Coalition’s neck at all levels.

After the Victorian poll, former federal treasurer Peter Costello said the budget was “clearly toxic in Victoria”, while former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett described Mr Abbott’s Government as a “shambles”.

Disturbingly, the dumping of a first-term government in Victoria for the first time in nearly 60 years means part of the the federal narrative this week and beyond will be about whether Abbott will suffer the same fate.

The Prime Minister’s November woes started at the G20, which turned out to be a global festival of one-upmanship with Abbott always seeming to come out one-down.

A few days later, while heads of state filed through the House of Representatives to say what a great country Australia is and to praise the wisdom and grace of their hosts, the Senate was supposed to sit as a sideshow.

Yet one of the Government’s few significant achievements – the FOFA changes – were knocked off by the end of that week.

The Senate is now no guarantee to pass anything at all, and with Government revenues tumbling, house prices soaring, and wages remaining stagnant – there are tougher times ahead of us than behind us.

Last Monday’s confirmation of cuts to the ABC and SBS clearly and obviously broke an election pledge, and saw the Government’s credibility plunge into free fall.

Christopher Pyne’s ridiculous community petition to guard against ABC cuts in his home state of South Australia when he is a cabinet minister made them look all the more sneaky and foolish.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Defence Minister David Johnston insulted Australians and confused investors by saying he would not trust the Government’s shipbuilder ASC to “build a canoe”.

The $7 Medicare co-payment looked set to be shelved or abandoned altogether – with senior ministers then backing it the next morning – and Abbott’s signature paid parental leave policy is rumoured to be in trouble.

Things are so bad that even the Abbott cheer squad is barracking against him.

They don’t think the Government has convinced anyone of a budget emergency and serious questions remain about the overall communications strategy and lack of core narrative.

“Domestic issues, especially Budget cuts and broken promises, continue to kill the Government,” News Ltd columnist Andrew Bolt said.

“The Abbott Government is doomed without narrative,” The Australian newspaper editorialised.

Prominent 2GB shock jock Alan Jones doesn’t think the China FTA passed the “pub test”, while the normally unshakeable Dennis Shanahan opined in the Australian that “Johnston’s remark is part of a pattern of poor public messaging from him that also goes to the core of the political misjudgements of the Abbott government”.

So what to do? Abbott could do worse than call for a Lifeline.

Fans of Channel Nine’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire will recall that you have four options.

The first is ‘Ask the Audience’. This could be done via a double dissolution. Unfortunately for Abbott, the polls are disastrous, ranging from 45:55 in Newspoll (two-party preferred) – in which the Coalition has trailed in 14 consecutive samples – to 48:52 in Essential. Add to that the Victorian result, and it doesn’t look like a good idea if you want to stay in the game.

The second is ‘Phone a Friend’. Well, the shock jocks and News Ltd are out, so what about new BFF Clive Palmer, with whom the Government had done deals on the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) regulations as well as ending the carbon and mining taxes?

Unfortunately, Jacqui Lambie and Ricky Muir have now formed the ‘Coalition of Common Sense’ and voted to disallow the FOFA changes, which had taken away the obligation for financial advisers to act in their clients’ best interests. Lambie is also in direct negotiations with the Government on defence pay, having left her former party behind. In short, Clive no longer has the balance of power in the Senate and it’s now a proper mess.

Could Julie Bishop be the first friend the PM is looking for on the end of the line?

At times during November, Bishop was overseas indulging in easy photo ops and puff pieces while Abbott toughed it out at home – ironically, much like Abbott did to the hapless Treasurer Joe Hockey after the budget earlier this year.

She’s appeared on the covers of both Fairfax’s Good Weekend and Harper’s Bazaar as Woman of the Year in recent weeks, and is now among the most popular Coalition MPs for the leadership. Maybe she’s not quite the mate Abbott is looking for. And as for Sunday’s call by Bishop for domestic nuclear power, at worst this was a senior minister now intent on product differentiation from the leader.

Which leads us to Malcolm Turnbull, who was sent out last week to defend the ABC cuts. If got off to a good start with the Communications Minister arguing black is white and something about so-called “efficiency dividends”.

Turnbull then shifted considerably by arguing that the Prime Minister was in fact clearly not a liar unless you looked at the actual quotes in question. He also admitted that the 4.9 per cent “efficiency dividend” was indeed a cut, with Abbott himself finally forced to concede “of course I made that statement”, and deliver a significant victory to his political opponents.

The next Who Wants To Be A Millionaire option is the ’50:50′. This is a mechanism whereby two of four possibilities are knocked out, leaving a simpler choice for the right answer. Abbott’s office tried to eliminate the $7 GP co-payment and the rest of his party has its eyes on paid parental leave, which would only leave deregulation of university fees and welfare reform in the too-hard Senate basket. But any move on the co-payment hit a speed bump if not a brick wall last week, so this method doesn’t look like the way forward.

Which leads us to the last option (which, for those playing at home, only lasted for a few seasons of ‘Millionaire’ in the mid-00s): ‘Switch The Question.’ And it’s here that one possibility arises. Why take the blame when you can push it onto others? So head for a reshuffle.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, despite his self-imposed exile from the media, remains one of the Government’s best media performers.

While this speaks volumes in itself, there have been rumours circling in Canberra for some time that the Government wants to clean up Morrison’s image by moving him somewhere else, possibly Defence – or even Treasury.

One of the key things Abbott lacks is a head-kicker, a loyal foot soldier to go out and say undiplomatic things that move the debate closer to where he wants it.

John Howard had Abbott. He also could use Peter Reith, Alexander Downer, or even Peter Costello to do some of the heavy lifting as the moment required.

Abbott currently has no-one.

Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard both had head kickers, although they seemingly forgot who the real enemy was. It was much to the Labor Government’s detriment.

But for Abbott, Morrison is that man. He’s not overly liked by the Gallery, but it doesn’t seem to phase him and, besides, he stopped the boats.

In addition to Defence, Abbott could easily add all things terrorism, and suddenly Morrison has daily access to the news cycle.

Treasury would also offer a high-profile, and if the upcoming MYEFO announcement turns Cabinet’s worst fears to public nightmares, Hockey could find himself in a world of trouble.

So just when you thought all was lost, Senator Johnston selflessly placed his head on the chopping block, and he will be gone sooner rather than later.

The fact Abbott has declared his “full confidence” in the Minister is the best evidence yet that Johnston’s time clock is ticking and a reshuffle is imminent.

Darrin Barnett is a former Canberra Press Gallery journalist and press secretary to prime minister Julia Gillard. He is now a fellow of the McKell Institute. View his full profile here.

Abbott, Government score, Joe Hockey, Kevin Andrews

Does this remind you of any one? Abbott/Hockey Buget. Kevin Andrew DSP cut “he can work 8 hours”

 

 

Australia, Government score

Mourning the death of ‘big P politics’

MPs stand in the House of Representatives to mark the death of Gough Whitlam. Photo: MPs stand in the House of Representatives to mark the death of Gough Whitlam. (AAP: Lukas Coch)

In the four decades since The Dismissal showed us the possibilities of winner-takes-all politics, we have witnessed the victory of pettiness and soundbites over vision and substance, writes Jonathan Green.

There’s more to all of this than our quiet awe as the fondly recalled components of the Whitlam legacy are paraded.

There are cheers for the policy pageant of land rights, universal health care, tariff cuts, equal pay and all the rest.

But there is also a darker undertone. At the heart of this moment of national sadness and reflection is a comparison: between then and now, between a time of transformation and national ambition and the bitterly contested mundanities of the present.

It’s not a flattering contrast, but then the times have conspired against grandeur in contemporary politics.

Whitlam looks Periclean in retrospect, a man in full, a statesman, a leader; a man from a time when politics shared his policy scope and deep sense of calculated purpose.

Our times have delivered us rather different results.

Today we have a government that campaigns on slogans rather than programs, then fumbles to fill that intellectual and policy vacuum in office. A government that, unlike Whitlam, struggles to pass its first budget through a hostile Senate. A Prime Minister who makes a crowd-pleasing play of physical threat to a world leader (“I’m going to shirt-front Mr Putin… you bet I am”), while Whitlam saw the potential of a mature relationship with our region (“a generation of lost contact between our peoples has ended”).

Today we have a Labor party struggling to heal the schisms cut by plays of ego and narrow ambition, where Whitlam worked assiduously over a decade to patch a party rent by the deepest of moral and ideological divides. Today we have an opposition struggling to offer more than an imitation of the constant negativity of the opposition before it. A Labor party shirking the necessity of reform and intellectual reinvigoration that Whitlam saw as the core of not just electability, but also of a visionary program.

That’s the real lesson of the four decades past Whitlam: of the reduction of politics into mean division and pettiness, a contest of soundbites rather than substance.

A signature feature of Whitlam-era politics was the dominant place of the Parliament in the national conversation. What follows from that is argument, rhetoric and serious debate … a form of contest that benefits politicians from both sides who can hold a tune.

Most modern political communication bypasses the comparatively long form conversation of the chamber. Our political rhetoric compromised by the increasing demand for brevity and repetition made by the various media that dictate the modern style of political performance.

Politics has been diminished, shrunken as a result, played now with the elaborate caution of figures whose primary objective is to communicate broadcastable fragments without being fully seen. The tendency is to smooth and reduce public life, to have it played small: a politics suited to the handheld device rather than the ripely lit smokiness of the vaudeville stage.

That’s part of the strange sense of loss that has followed Whitlam’s death, a mourning for the whole process of “big P politics” that crosses generations and includes many who would have no memory of the 1970s, but still have a sense of the comparative pygmies that fill the Punch and Judy puppet show theatre of the modern contest.

There’s another strand to these obsequies of course, the counter narrative explored with almost indelicate haste by the likes of Greg Sheridan:

But sentimentality, and the overwhelming power of the Labor myth-making machine, should not blind us to the central fact of Whitlam: he was the worst prime minister in our history.

Miranda Devine bemoaned “the myths, the exaggeration and the outright lies”, when in fact:

Gough Whitlam led a chaotic big-spending government for less than three years between 1972 and 1975, reaching high farce in the shady Khemlani Loans Affair, and ending when he was dismissed by the governor-general and lost the ensuing election in a catastrophic landslide. That’s the truth.

Whitlam was equally disparaged in his day, of course, and a sense that his government lived on borrowed time fuelled his haste in office. He also trod that traditional Australian tension between political ambition and the politically fatal, but banal, notion of arrogance … as if a politician of meaning and purpose could be anything but arrogant.

Of course, he changed much in a time when change was the most pressing of possibilities, bringing the bracing shock of the new to a country eager for reinvention.

But there is perhaps a bigger truth in the version of his passing offered by Sheridan and his like.

The awkward, dark irony of the Whitlam legacy may be that that its most lasting and transformative element was perhaps the depth of bitter, binary division brought on not so much by The Dismissal, but by the proof that Whitlam’s sacking offered of the possibilities of winner-takes-all politics.

As Paul Keating observed, the modern political tussle and its emphasis on power at any cost was born in the bitter scheming of Whitlam’s passing, a legacy from which we are struggling still to recover.

Climate, Government score, Uncategorized

Abbott takes Australia to last place on global climate change leadership we dropped 33 places…wow

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, Australia has the ignominy of being easily bettered by Colombia (ranked 14), Peru (16), Kenya (17), Zambia (24), Ethiopia (26), Rwanda (27) and the Philippines (32).

The previous GGEI released in 2012 showed Australia ranked 10th on performance, out of 27 nations then evaluated. In 2011, for which only the top ten were shown, Australia was outside that elite.

Data available from the four GGEI reports issued so far suggests Australia’s performance peaked in 2012 and has fallen badly since. (There was no report in 2013.)

On global leadership on green energy, Australia in 2012 was ranked equal third with Sweden, behind Germany and South Africa. This year Australia ranked last.

This latest humiliation for Australia follows more than nine earlier embarrassments on the world stage caused by inept decisions, actions or inactions by the Abbott Government on environmental issues.

These include:

  • Obstructing the UN climate meeting in Warsaw last November with damaging  ‘bad behaviour’.
  • Allowing three million cubic metres of dredged seabed to be dumped in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to make way for the Abbot Point coal export facility.
  • Logging Tasmania’s endangered  forests.
  • Repealing Australia’s modest carbon tax/price.
  • Abbott’s call for an alliance with Canada and others in June to oppose the global climate initiatives of US President Obama. The Canadian Star ridiculed this folly with the heading, ‘Climate disdainers Canada and Australia form Axis of Weasels’.
  • Abbott’s refusal to attend UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon’s climate summit in New York in September.
  • Recalcitrance at that UN climate summit in New York by the Australian representatives who did attend.
  • Earning Australia the title ‘world’s dirtiest nation’ in The Slate. The influential US journal headlined its analysis: ‘The Saudi Arabia of the South Pacific: How Australia became the dirtiest polluter in the developed world’.
  • Cutting the renewable energy targets.

Those episodes created the strong impression worldwide that the Abbott Government was failing Australia’s people, their local environment, the global community and the planet. This report shows with rigorous research that this highly negative impression is indeed sound.

This further undermines Australia’s once proud reputation as a good global citizen. The GGEI report has received prominent media coverage worldwide, including in Denmark, the USA, Brazil, Spain and Argentina.

Australia, Government score

abbott and shorten

Trust Federal Parliament? Sure can

Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten close ranks and seem to like the current situation of factional groups being installed by industry lobbyists to control our treasury.

In 1992 the former secretary to the Office of Governor-General, Sir David Smith, wrote: There is much that is wrong with the way this nation is governed and administered: never before have we had so many Royal Commissions and other inquiries; never before have we had so many office-holders and other figures in, or facing the prospect of prison; never before have the electors registered their dissatisfaction with the political process by returning so many independent and minor party candidates to Parliament.

This quote from 22 years ago could have been written today.

 

On 16 June 2013 in The Australian newspaper Tony Fitzgerald QC (who chaired the 1987 Queensland Royal Commission) wrote an article The Body Politic is Rotten. He stated: “There are about 800 politicians in Australia’s parliaments. According to their assessments of each other, that quite small group includes role models for lying, cheating, deceiving, “rorting”, bullying, rumour-mongering, back-stabbing, slander, “leaking”, “dog-whistling”, nepotism and corruption.”

The dominance of the major parties by little known and unimpressive faction leaders who have effective control of Australia’s democracy and destiny… might be tolerable if the major parties acted with integrity but they do not. Their constant battles for power are venal, vicious and vulgar The 2010-13 Federal Parliament saw the major parties virtually eliminate any real form of democratic debate substituting little but character assassination of opponents.

The same period saw both state and federal governments pandering to special interests allowing massive increases in the promotion of gambling and alcohol. Pandering to the development and mining industries and the seemingly endless privatisation of public assets often creating private monopolies, continued irrespective of public opinion.

Over the last 30 years politicians’ staff has increased dramatically. At federal level there are now some 17 hundred personal staff to ministers and members. The states probably account for over two thousand more. Add to this the direct political infiltration of federal-state public services and quangos with hundreds more jobs for the boys and girls, there is now a well-established political class.

This has provided the political parties with a career path for members. In many cases it often produces skilled, partisan, “whatever it takes” warriors with a richly rewarded life through local state and federal governments to a well-funded retirement. Unfortunately while this career path, as Tony Fitzgerald states, does include principled well-motivated people … it also attracts professional politicians with little or no general life experience and unscrupulous opportunists, unburdened by ethics, who obsessively pursue power, money or both.

In an article in the Saturday Paper, Rob Oakeshott writes:

“Australia needs a royal commission into political donations.

The real threat is within government itself. It is the increasing corruption of our public decision-making by influence gained through record levels of private donations. The only colour Australia needs to fear is the colour of money in its democracy. Chequebook decision-making is the silent killer of necessary reform.”

Political parties as they have developed over the last century seem like two mafia families seeking control of the public purse for distribution to themselves, supporters, the special interests who fund them and for buying votes at the next election. Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution. They are effectively unregulated private organisations but they now control government treasuries

The two-party system stifles ideas, debate and decision-making within the parties. The faction system often ensures minority views triumph within both party rooms. In the case of the government, the minority view will then be taken into parliament and become an even greater minority law. Voting within parties is often based on what faction members belong to, who wants to become or stay a minister or who wants to be party leader. What the electors think is at best a secondary consideration. Party members almost always follow the party line and are often voting against what they really believe or what their electorates would want.

 “Government of the people, by the powerbrokers, for the mates”.

Australia's Shame, Government score, Tony Abbott

Too good you wont see this in Murdoch’s papers. It would be so diluted in the Age. Read it! Save it! Read it Again and remember!!!

Do ya do ya do ya really care?

Tony_Abbott_5
I make this pledge to you the Australian people.

I will govern for all Australians.

I want to lift everyone’s standard of living.

I want to see wages and benefits rise in line with a growing economy.

I want to see our hospitals and schools improving as we invest the proceeds of a well-run economy into the things that really count.

I won’t let you down.

This is my pledge to you.

-Tony Abbott campaign launch speech, August 25 2013

Nice words but let’s face it – the Abbott government doesn’t give a shit about you.  The evidence is overwhelming.

With one in seven Australians living in poverty, we have a Prime Minister who spends hundreds of billions on defence, security, and buying armaments. We have a Prime Minister who is so stage-managed he refuses to face the electorate on Q&A.

Our Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs has overseen the slashing of funding and the abolition of many successful initiatives that were working towards supporting our Indigenous people and closing the gap. But we have truancy officers aplenty, even if most of them are working for the dole.

We have a treasurer who feels those on welfare, the ‘leaners’, should be the ones to clear the country of debt. His justification for this is that he must cut spending and poor families get more money from the government than the rich, whilst steadfastly refusing to consider raising revenue by cracking down on tax avoidance.

He tells the world that our economy is in good shape while whipping up hysteria here about a non-existent emergency.

After coming to power on the promise of reducing the debt, Hockey has been borrowing so fast the net debt has increased from $178.10 billion when he took over to $217.55 billion at the end of August. PEFO numbers had net debt peaking at $219bn (12.7% of GDP) in 2015/16.  The gross debt has risen from $290 billion to $345.035 billion – that’s extra borrowing of about one billion a week.

We have an education minister who has reneged on funding reform for schools, wants to make tertiary courses unaffordable, has closed down trades training centres, has insulted teachers, wasted money on a pointless review, and wants to rewrite history as a Christian crusade.

We have a health minister who is busily unwinding universal healthcare and preventative health agencies and who wants to discourage the poor from seeing a doctor.

On one hand we are warned about the alarming increase in obesity and diabetes, on the other we have the assistant minister for health, at the behest of her junk food lobbyist chief of staff, taking down a healthy food website.

Senator Nash insisted the health star site be pulled down a day after it was published in Febuary on the grounds it was published in error, despite freedom of information documents showing the minister was warned it would be published, and the states committing to spend $11 million on it.

In June, a watered down version of the site was reinstated, with the voluntary introduction period extended to five years from two and companies allowed to use the star ratings in conjunction with the industry’s daily intake guide.  They also decided to continue voluntary pregnancy warning labels on alcohol, despite poor uptake by mixed drinks and so-called alcopops. Michael Thorn, the chief executive of the Foundation for Alcohol Research & Education, said it was “disgraceful” and put “booze before babies”.

“The alcohol industry will be celebrating that they have been able to successfully avoid introducing a warning label on their products for almost two decades,” he said.

One of the first steps of the minister for social services, Kevin Andrews, was to wind back gambling reform laws despite recommendations made by the Productivity Commission in its 2010 report into Australia’s gambling industry and the Victorian coroner’s report linking 128 suicides in that state directly to gambling..

This is the man who, along with our employment minister (he of breast cancer/abortion link fame), wants to see young unemployed without any income for 6 months of the year, and for the disabled to get out there and get one of those thousands of jobs that are just waiting for them if only they weren’t such bludgers. He also wants to lower the indexation rate of pensions which will cause the gap in standard of living to widen.  All this while cutting $44 million from the capital works program of the National Partnership on Homelessness.

We have an environment minister who wants to cut down Tasmanian old growth forests and expand coal ports and dump sediment on the reef. He has wound back environmental protection laws and the right to appeal and gone on a spree of approving record amounts of fossil fuel production.  At the same time, he has overseen the destruction of the renewable energy industry.  They don’t even send him to world conferences on climate change because, after all, what could he say other than sorry.

Not content with these overt attacks on the environment, the government has quietly initiated a low key, unscheduled review into Australia’s national appliance energy efficiency standards. The only formal explanation offered to date is in the Energy “Anti-” Green Paper, which refers to “opportunities to reduce the red-tape burden on businesses”.

At least they were honest when our communications minister was appointed to “destroy the NBN” and he has done a damn fine job of it. Despite Tony Abbott’s election speech claim that within 100 days “the NBN will have a new business plan to ensure that every household gains five times current broadband speeds – within three years and without digging up almost every street in Australia – for $60 billion less than Labor,” the truth has emerged.

We will be left with a sub-optimal network, a mishmash of technologies, at a time when the world is increasingly going fibre. It will end up taking nearly as long and costing nearly as much as the all-fibre network it is replacing. The industry – and many around Turnbull – is increasingly realising this. But Turnbull will not budge.

Australia is the loser – all because of one man’s pride.

Scott Morrison, our immigration minister, is about as welcoming as a firing squad. He is like Hymie from Get Smart in his robotic determination to stop the boats at any cost.  That goal apparently absolves him from any form of scrutiny, criticism, or human decency.  He has a blank cheque and not one cent of it will be used to help refugees.

Despite our growing unemployment, he is also front and centre in providing Gina with her 457 visa workers – no rights, no entitlements, and if they complain they get deported.

Our minister for trade is working in secret, getting signatures on free trade agreements at any cost – it’s the announcement before the end of the year that’s important, not pesky details about tariffs and the fact that we no longer have the right to make our own laws without getting sued by global corporations.

Our attorney-general, the highest legal appointment in the land, thinks defending bigots is a priority. When faced with illegal actions by the government, steal the evidence, threaten journalists with gaol time and funding cuts, and introduce laws which remove official accountability.  And while you’re at it, let’s bug the entire nation and make people prove themselves innocent.  Even if they haven’t done anything wrong I am sure they have had evil thoughts.

Barnaby was last seen trying to hasten the demise of a few endangered species that are standing in the way of his dams.

Warren Truss is run off his feet planning roads, roads and more roads. Luckily they dumped that idea about releasing cost benefit analyses for any expenditure over $100 million.  Thank god we got rid of that pesky head of Infrastructure Australia so we could get someone who understands our idea of what ‘independent body’ means.  If the people want public transport they can build it themselves.

And how’s our girl doing? She’s looking tired to me.  Making a case for a seat on the Human Rights Council whilst torturing refugees, or being sent in to bat at the world leaders’ conference on climate changed armed with nothing other than a rain forest conference, must shake even asbestos Julie’s steely resolve.  The Armani suits and death stare can only get you so far.  When in doubt, flirt.

I know you would like a mention Jamie Briggs but for the life of me, the only thing that comes to mind is your fawning introductions for our ‘Infrastructure Prime Minister’….

”To introduce our Tony, is what I’m here to do, and it really makes me happy to introduce to you…the indescribable, the incompatible, the unadorable….. Prrrriiiiimmme Minister!”

 

Government score, Hilarious

I’m untestable detestable and a raving lunatic but nobody talks about about the hard issues anymore

http://media.smh.com.au/news/federal-politics/abbotts-performance-re

<i>Illustration: Glen Le Lievre</i>

It was rubber stamp time in Canberra, with the Prime Minister pouring a torrent of sparkly gold stars on his head boys and girl  for their efforts thus far. “I think some are getting A’s and some are getting A-pluses,” the proud PM beamed as he handed out report cards. He couldn’t find a single one who “can do better” in a class of 19 cabinet ministers.Mr Abbott didn’t bring up the unfortunate expulsions of two boys: Cory Bernardi, for distracting the class by thinking way too much about gay people, polygamy and bestiality; and one-time Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos, for not thinking nearly hard enough about some exam questions set by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

We don’t know whether Joe Hockey was an A or an A+ for his sterling work behind the bike sheds, holding the poorer kiddies by the ankles and shaking them up and down until their lunch money fell out.

George Orwellian Brandis was almost certainly an A++ with extra gold stars for his performance in the debating finals – on the topic “That people do have a right to be bigots, you know” – and his introduction to student council of legislation making it legal for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation prefects to torture anyone they caught hanging around looking a bit suss.

Eric Abetz, gets some sort of medal for his science report on the links between abortion and breast cancer. Links that had previously escaped the entire medical profession.There surely is no justice if Scott Morrison, the head boy in charge of detention, doesn’t get called up on parade for special commendation after only losing one refugee to a machete attack and another to septicaemia.

Let’s not forget the PM himself, who early on in the school year demonstrated such a cheeky inventiveness with the guidelines for excursions that we somehow paid for his trips away even when nobody could quite work out what any of the travel had to do with his job.

To which he replied trying to change the conversation

Government score, Tony Abbott

ABBOTT’S SCORECARD THE FIRST 7 MONTHS: WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT THAT GETS THINGS DONE

 MemeLegislation

The score card is far from impressive
Tally the lies Abbott wins hands down
The Broken Promise Count
1. Does not spend his first week as Prime Minister with an Aboriginal community – 14 September 2013. This promise was made in front of indigenous elders and participants at the Garma Festival on 10 August 2013, this is a live recording.
2. Fails to “stop the boats” – 23 September 2013. This promise was repeated so many times I can’t count. Here’s Abbott’s 2013 campaign launch speech.
3. Breaks his promise to support Gonski – 25 November 2013 and 13 May 2014. Fails to commit to future funding or to require States to match the Commonwealth funding commitment. See paragraph two from Christopher Pyne on 29 August 2013
4. Breaks its NBN election promise of giving all Australians access to 25 megabits per second download speeds by 2016 – 12 December 2013 This was the Coalition’s policy they took to the election first announced 9 April 2013.
5. Changes name of NDIS “launch sites” to “trial sites” and flags cuts to funding – 17 December 2013. The unequivical promise to deliver the NDIS in full was made 20 August 2013 and is in the policies they took to the election
6. Breaks his election promise of no cuts to education by cutting funding for trade training centres in schools on 17 December 2013. He made this promise at the National Press Club on 2 September 2013 and in writing on 5 September 2013 as part of their policy commitments.
7. Breaks a promise to make no cuts to health. He made this promise at the National Press Club on 2 September 2013 and in writing on 5 September 2013 as part of their policy commitments. This promise was first broken on 27 November 2013 when they cut funding to the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council and again on 17 December 2013 when they cut $150 million from hospitals and health services.
8. Fails to provide the promised customs vessel to monitor whaling operations in the Southern Ocean – 23 December 2013 Promise made by Greg Hunt – 9 April 2013
9. Breaks a promise to provide fibre-to-the-premises for all Tasmanians for the National Broadband Network. This promise was confirmed my Malcolm Turnbull on 17 August 2013 and confirmed as broken by the NBN Co executive chairman Ziggy Switkowski on 13 February 2014.
10. Breaks a promise to introduce the paid parental leave scheme he took to the election on 30 April 2014 by reducing the promised benefit for those earning above $100 000.
11. Breaks promise of “no cuts to the ABC or SBS” by cutting $43.5 million from the ABC and SBS.
12. Breaks a promise of “no new taxes” by introducing a deficit tax rise of two percentage points for people earning more than $180,000 a year.
13. Announced to sacking of 16,500 public sector workers as whole Departments are abolished despite promising only 12,000 job losses and through natural attrition.
14. Breaks a promise of “no new taxes” by introducing a fuel levy.
15. Reduction in foreign aid budget of $7.9 billion over five years despite promise to not exceed $4.5 billion and cut via indexation.
16. Increases the pension age to 70 from 2035 after promising last month that changes to indexation and pension age would come in three years.
17. Cuts to old age pension by indexing to CPI, while it was promised there would be no changes.
18. Scraps The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) which was set up to support new and emerging renewable technologies and in doing so breaks an election promise.
19. Tears up Federal Government’s agreement with states and territories to help fund increasing health costs despite promise of no cuts to health.
20. Breaks a promise to make no cuts to health with a $368 million cut from preventative health measures.
21. Reduces the Medicare benefit for optometry services and allows optometrists to charge more, despite promise to not cut health budget.
22. Axes the Charles Sturt University’s dental and oral health clinics, despite promise to not cut health budget.
23. Abolishes Medicare locals, despite promise to not cut health budget.
24. Breaks a promise to spend $2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund by committing less than half this amount in the budget.
25. Breaks a promise to have one million more solar roofs across Australia and at least 25 solar towns.
26. Breaks a promise not to cuts funding to health by dramatically cutting hospital funding.
27. Breaks election promise and slashes funding to Landcare
28. Breaks promise that no public servants will be forced into redundancy after revelations that two public servants in the Department of Industry have been made involuntarily redundant since September.

THE LIST – Tracking Abbott’s Wreckage
275. Directs all government departments to disclose every contact with every union for any reason over the last decade to the Royal Commission – 28 July 2014
274. Allows the suspension of payments to parents whose children do not attend school in the Northern Territory – 19 July 2014
273. Axes the carbon tax with no viable policy to address climate change or Australia’s emission targets – 17 July, 2014
272. Risks up to $1 billion in revenue through job cuts at the ATO – July 15, 2014
271. Cuts all funding to Vibe Australia, the Indigenous organisation responsible for creating and producing the Deadly Awards, Deadly Vibe and InVibe magazines, Deadly Sounds radio, Move It Mob Style TV and deadlyvibe.com.au –  July 14, 2014
270. Detains 153 asylum seekers at sea on board a customs ship, despite questions about the legality of this action – July 12, 2014
269. Offends China and many Australians by praising the “skill and honour” of Japanese soliders who killed 22 000 Australians and hundreds of thousands of Chinese during World War II – 9 July 2014
268. Hands over 41 Sri Lankan asylum seekers to the custody of Sri Lankan authorities after screening them at sea and transferring them while still on the water – 07 July, 2014 
267. Creates a strategic communications branch employing 37 people  and costing $4.7 million each year, to oversee communications in the department of Prime Minister and Cabinet despite saying at the 2013 launch of the Liberal Party’s book on ALP waste, that they would spend less on spin than the previous government  – July 05, 2014
266. Describes Australia as ‘unsettled’ before the British arrived, during an address to the Australia-Melbourne Institute Conference – 04 July, 2014
265. Creates a new ‘national interest test’ to deny permanent visas to refugees. The Immigration minister will personally decide the conditions of the test and Ministerial decisions will not be subject to appeal – 03 July, 2014
264. Screens asylum seekers via teleconference while they are still at sea – 03 July, 2014
263. Prohibits Community Legal Centres from using Government funding to advocate for policy or law reform – 02 July, 2014
262. Appoints a former Liberal MP and a conservative columnist and vocal opponent of the ABC to the ABC and SBS appointments panel – 02 July, 2014
261. Strikes out protections for consumers of financial advice before the report into the Commonwealth Bank of Australia financial planning scandal is tabled, which recommends a Royal Commission into the bank to investigate allegations of fraud, forgery and a management cover-up – 01 July, 2014
260. Refuses to confirm the existence of two boatloads of refugees reported to be currently on board customs vessels. The Government previously denied the vessels were in trouble and refuses to comment on whether the refugees will be landing in Australia – 30 June, 2014
259. Revokes the residential determination of two asylum seekers from Vietnam currently in high school in Adelaide and removes them to a detention centre, resulting in up to 7 other children, also in school, running away for fear of the same fate – 28 June, 2014
258. Cuts Dementia and Severe Behaviours Supplement, a payment to those who provide care for people with severe behavioural  and psychological symptoms of dementia – 26 June, 2014 
257.  Breaks promise that no public servants will be forced into redundancy as it is revealed that staff in Treasury in Finance will be made involuntarily redundant  – 24 June, 2014
256. Seeks to reintroduce Temporary Protection Visas after the High Court strikes down the Government’s attempt to limit the number of permanent visas available each year  – 22 June 2014.
255. Offers asylum seekers $10 000 to voluntarily return home – 21 June, 2014
254. Refuses to halt return of refugees to war-torn Iraq – 18 June, 2014
253. Abandons the long-held, bipartisan position of referring to Palestinian land captured in 1967 as occupied – 06 June, 2014 
252. Abolishes the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee, which has, for 25 years,  investigated gaps in Australia’s corporate and financial markets law  and recommended ways to close them – 05 June, 2014
251. Excludes Australian shipyards from a major new contract, sending jobs offshore and threatening the industry in Australia – 05 June, 2014 
250. Cuts funding to the peak refugee organisation the Refugee Council of Australia – 30 May 2014
249. Takes money from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and gives it to the Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Scheme – 28 May 2014
248. Breaks promise that no public servants will be forced into redundancy after revelations that public servants in the Department of Industry have been made involuntarily redundant – 19 May 2014
247. Scraps the National Water Commission – 13 May, 2014
246. Abolishes funding for Building Australia’s Future Workforce — Connection Interviews and Job Seeker Workshops and the Experience+ Career Advice initiative – 13 May, 2014
245. Abolishes the Get Reading Programme – 13 May, 2014
244. Scraps the annual subsidy to local ethanol producers – 13 May 2014
243. Slashes the Biodiversity Fund – 13 May, 2014
242. Cuts the Education Department’s Online Diagnostic Tools Programme – 13 May, 2014
241. Abolishes the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority which was established to encourage organ donation – 13 May, 2014
240.  Introduces annual reviews for veterans receiving military compensation payments due to illness or injury – 13 May, 2014
239. Terminates the Office of Water Science research programme – 13 May, 2014
238. Abolishes the Commonwealth Human Rights Education Grant – 13 May 2014
237. Abolishes funding to the Exotic Disease Preparedness Programme – 13 May 2014
236. Slashes funding from the Indigenous Health Budget – 13 May 2014
235. Cuts funding for Indigenous language support – 13 May 2014
234. Cuts funding to the Torres Strait Regional Authority – 13 May 2014
233. Abolishes the Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, the only elected representative body for Indigenous Australians – 13 May 2014
232. Breaks election promise and slashes funding to Landcare – 13 May 2014
231. Abolishes the National Rental Affordability Scheme – 13 May 2014
230. Cuts funding from the corporate regulator ASIC which oversees the financial sector – 13 May 2014
229. Axes the first home buyers savings scheme – 13 May 2014
228. Reduces funding to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency – 13 May 2014
227. Abolishes the Improving Educational Outcomes Programme – 13 May 2014
226. Cuts funding to the Child Care Early Learning Projects and the Professional Support Program which assist childcare workers gain skills – 13 May 2014
225. Reduces funding to the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership – 13 May 2014
224. Cut the Research Training Scheme, with tertiary education providers to introduce student contributions for higher degrees – 13 May 2014
223. Ends the development of the Australian Baccalaureate – 13 May 2014
222. Cuts higher education reward funding – 13 May 2014
221. Cuts the Australian National University’s HC Coombs Policy Forum – 13 May 2014
220. Cuts Australian Research Council funding – 13 May 2014
219. Abolishes tax break for mature age workers and replaces it with a payment for employing people over 50 who have been on Newstart or the DSP for more than 6 months – 13 May 2014
218. Cuts an incentive program for graduates to take up work in regional locations of need – 13 May 2014
217. Axes the National Partnership Agreement on Certain Concessions for Pensioners and Seniors Card Holders which supports state and territory concessions for senior citizens including energy rebates. – 13 May 2014
216. Kills off four grant programmes including the the Australian Community Food Safety Campaign and Outreach Support Services for Criminalised Women – 13 May 2014
215. Cuts $2.3 million in contribution to the World Health Organisation – 13 May 2014
214. Abolishes the Australian Interactive Games Fund which helped support local video game developers – 13 May 2014
213. Breaks a promise not to cuts funding to health by dramatically cutting hospital funding – 13 May 2014
212. Cuts $240 million over four years to community programs that support poor, sick or disadvantaged people – 13 May 2014
211. Cuts $25million over 4 years or a quarter of the funding to Community Legal Centres who provide legal support to the poor and disadvantaged – 13 May 2014
210. Cuts the Women in Leadership program – 13 May 2014
209. Breaks a promise to have one million more solar roofs across Australia and at least 25 solar towns – 13 May 2014
208. Breaks a promise to spend $2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund by committing less than half this amount in the budget – 13 May 2014
207. Orders the spending of $11.7 million to plan the privatisation of: Defence Housing Australia, the Royal Australian Mint and the registry function of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission – 13 May 2014
206. Announces 3000 job loses at the Australian Tax Office – 13 May 2014
205. Freezes the Family Tax Benefit A at a set income level regardless of the number of children – 13 May 2014
204. Cuts the Family Tax Benefit B end-of-year supplement by 15% – 13 May 2014
203. Reduces funding for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation – 13 May 2014
202. Reduces funding to the Australian Institute for Marine Science – 13 May 2014
201. Scraps a range of grant programs aimed at funding innovation and start-up businesses, including: Australian Industry Participation; Commercialisation Australia; Enterprise Solutions; Innovation Investment Fund; Industry Innovation Councils; Enterprise Connect; Industry Innovation Precincts; and Textile, Clothing and Footwear Small Business and Building Innovative Capability – 13 May 2014
200. Rips a further $111.4 million over four years out of the operating budget of the CSIRO – 13 May 2014
199. Ceases funding for National ICT Australia, which is a research centre for communications and information technology – 13 May 2014
198. Abolishes Medicare locals – 13 May 2014
197. Reduces payments to people under 35 with a disability who cannot find employment if they could work more than eight hours a week – 13 May 2014
196. Mandates religious education in schools by taking away the option for school to opt for a secular social worker instead – 13 May 2014
195. Abolishes the ABC’s disability communities website Ramp Up – 13 May 2014
194. Abolishes the Disability Discrimination Commissioner – 13 May 2014
193. Abolishes the Better Schools Centre for Quality Teaching and Learning – 13 May 2014
192. Dismantles the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and will establish a health productivity and performance commission – 13 May 2014
191. Abolishes the Seniors Supplement – 13 May 2014
190. Axes the tax break for people with dependent spouses – 13 May 2014
189. Axes the Diagnostic Imaging Quality Programme – 13 May 2014
188. Ceases the Dental Flexible Grants Program – 13 May 2014
187. Axes the Charles Sturt University’s dental and oral health clinics – 13 May 2014
186. Axes funding for the nursing and allied health scholarships in Tasmania – 13 May 2014
185. Defers 13 Partners in Recovery programs which help people with severe and persistent mental illness and complex support needs – 13 May 2014
184. Cuts funding to the National Anti-Tobacco Campaign – 13 May 2014
183. Cuts Australia’s Animal Welfare Strategy – 13 May 2014
182. Abolishes Health Workforce Australia and cuts the expansion of the Clinical Training Funding Program – 13 May 2014
181. Axes the National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health – 13 May 2014
180. Defers the National Partnership Agreement for adult public dental services until July 2015 – 13 May 2014
179. Reduces the Medicare benefit for optometry services and allows optometrists to charge more – 13 May 2014
178. Abolishes the GP Education and Training Limited and ceasing the Pre-vocational GP Placements Scheme – 13 May 2014
177. Axes industry and community clean energy programs include the Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund, the National Low Emission Coal Initiative, Energy Efficiency Programmes, the National Solar Schools Plan, Energy Efficiency Information Grants and Low Carbon Communities – 13 May 2014
176. Scraps The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) which was set up to support new and emerging renewable technologies and in doing so breaks an election promise – 13 May 2014
175. Scraps the Housing Help for Seniors scheme which provided assistance to older Australians – 13 May 2014
174. Pulls $2.5 billion from aged care, including $1.7 billion from home based support such as Meals on Wheels – 13 May 2014
173. Cuts the benefit for unemployed people under 25 by moving them onto the Youth Allowance – 13 May 2014
172. Kills off the Gonski school funding vision by cutting future funding by $30 billion – 13 May 2014
171. Reduces Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme safety nets – 13 May 2014
170. Breaks a promise to make no cuts to health with a $368 million cut from preventative health measures – 13 May 2014
169. Cuts the Family Tax Benefit A end-of-year supplement by 17% – 13 May 2014
168. Increases the fuel excise twice a year by indexing it to CPI – 13 May 2014
167. Forces students to repay their debt earlier by lowering the wage they need to earn before payments kick in – 13 May 2014
166. Increases debt for students by increasing the interest on their fees – 13 May 2014
165. Makes it harder for retirees to access the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card – 13 May 2014
164. Guts the Australia Council and Screen Australia by cutting $87 million for the Arts – 13 May 2014
163. Forces people under 30 to work for the dole if they want to receive any financial support after a waiting period of six months with no financial support – 13 May 2014
162. Imposes a six month wait for people under 30s to receive unemployment benefits – 13 May 2014
161. Cuts the Family Tax Benefit Part B – 13 May 2014
160. Cuts the old age pension by indexing it to CPI instead of wages – 13 May 2014
159. Increases the pension age to 70 from 2035 – 13 May 2014
158. Imposes a $5 increase on the cost of all medicines available under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (80c for concession card holders) – 13 May 2014
157. Cuts the ‘Tools for the Trade’ program which helped apprentices buy their tools, and replacing it with a loan scheme apprentices will have to repay – 13 May 2014
156. Caps the amount of money workers can recoup in entitlements if their employer becomes insolvent or bankrupt to 16 weeks – 13 May 2014
155. Breaks a promise to only cut the foreign aid budget by $4.5 billion and cuts it by $7.9 billion instead – 13 May 2014
154. Axes funding to the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition, the national peak body for young people– 13 May 2014
153. Slashes Disability Support Pensions by indexing to inflation – 13 May 2014
152. Abolishes the highly successful Youth Connections program that supports young people who have not completed, or are at risk of not completing Year 12 or equivalent qualifications also costing hundreds of community sector jobs – 13 May 2014
151. Breaks a promise of “no new taxes” by introducing a fuel levy – 13 May 2014
150. Announces the sacking of 16,500 public sector workers as whole Departments are abolished despite promising only 12,000 job losses – 13 May 2014
149. Cuts $500 million from indigenous programs over five years – 13 May 2014
148. Breaks a promise of “no new taxes” by introducing a deficit tax rise of two percentage points for people earning more than $180,000 a year – 13 May 2014
147. Scrapping a net $1.2 billion in tuition subsidies for universities – 13 May 2014
146. Scraps the Australia Network, Australia’s international television service broadcast across our region that provides news and current affairs from an Australian perspective – 13 May 2014
145. Breaks promise of “no cuts to the ABC or SBS” by cutting $43.5 million from the ABC and SBS – 13 May 2014
144. Undermines Medicare by imposing a $7 fee increase for GP visits – 13 May 2014
143. Tears up Federal Government’s agreement with states and territories to help fund increasing health costs – 13 May 2014
142. Scraps caps on university fees, meaning universities will be able to charge whatever they like for degrees – 13 May 2014
141. Abolishes the COAG Reform Council — which provides information to Governments so they can track the performance of their programs – 13 May 2014
140. Sacks the National People with Disability and Carers Council — which pushed for and then helped build the NDIS – 13 May 2014
139. Releases the Commission of Audit report which recommends savage budget cuts that would negatively affect every Australian – 1 May 2014
138. Breaks a promise to introduce the paid parental leave scheme he took to the election – 30 April 2014
137. Spends $12.4 billion on new fighter jets whilst claiming a budget “emergency” and preparing to make big cuts to health and welfare – 23 April 2014
136. Abolishes the research and development tax incentives board – 11 April 2014
135. Begins dismantling GP Super clinics – 8 April 2014
134. Cuts 480 jobs from the Environment Department who are responsible for protecting places such as Kakadu, Antarctica and the Great Barrier Reef – 7 April 2014
133. Forbids public servants from making political comments online, even anonymously, and instructs them to report on colleagues who do – 6 April 2014
132. Establishes a secret, publicly funded “hit squad” to target political opponents led by the man who provided a “chaff bag” for Alan Jones to auction at a Young Liberal fundraiser – 1 April 2014
131. Imposes fees and charges on people who become bankrupt – 1 April 2014
130. Axes free legal assistance for asylum seekers – 31 March 2014
129. Defunds Ethical Clothing Australia that worked with industry to protect outworkers in the textile and clothing industry from exploitation and abandons the Governments ethical procurement guidelines – 30 March 2014
128. Opposes a UN resolution to conduct war crimes inquiry in Sri Lanka – 28 March 2014
127. Closes all Medicare offices on Saturdays – 26 March 2014
126. Brings back the awards of knights and dames which were abolished in 1986 – 25 March 2014
125. Cuts 400 jobs from the industry department – 25 March 2014
124. Ensures a human rights enquiry into the Manus Island detention centre is shut down and human rights lawyers are denied access to the centre – 23 March 2014
123. Abolishes one third of the jobs in Treasury costing approximately 300 jobs – 21 March 2014
122. Cuts welfare payments to orphans of soldiers – 16 March 2014
121. Moves to deny funding to artists or events that refuse corporate sponsorship for ethical reasons – 15 March 2014
120. Cuts hundreds of jobs at the CSIRO – 14 March 2014
119. Reopens 457 visa loophole to allow employers to hire an unlimited number of workers without scrutiny – 12 March 2014
118. Overturns a ban on cattle grazing in the Victorian Alpine National Park – 6 March 2014
117. Frustrated and defeated an attempt at the UN to highlight the humanitarian consequences of nuclear war – 5 March 2014
116. Axes funding earmarked to save the Sumatran rhinoceros from extinction – 28 February 2014
115. Introduces legislation to allow people aged between 17-24 years old to work for half the minimum wage and be exempted from all other work rights including health and safety laws and protections should they be injured at work – 26 February 2014
114. Axes funding to Aboriginal Early Childhood Support and Learning Incorporated, the only Indigenous peak body advising on early childhood issues for Indigenous people in NSW – 25 February, 2014
113. Misleads the Australian public about what occurred on Manus Island when asylum seekers were attacked killing one person and injuring seventy-seven. Once the information was known to be untrue, waited five days to correct the record – 25 February 2014
112. Contravenes 113 years of established practice by moving to release the previous Government’s confidential cabinet papers to the Royal Commission into the Pink Batts scheme – 22 February 2014
111. Scraps food grants program for small farmers – 21 February 2014
110. Pressured SPC Ardmona to cut the pay and conditions for workers in return for Government money – 20 February 2014
109. Blames carbon pricing for the close of Alcoa smelters and rolling mills and the loss of nearly 1000 jobs, despite the fact the company states it had no bearing on their decision – 19 February 2014
108. Breaches the privacy and puts in danger around 10, 000 asylum seekers and their families by releasing their personal details on the Department of Immigration website – 19 February 2014
107. Fails to ensure the safety of asylum seekers in our care on Manus Island who were subjected to a vicious attack, which left one person dead and seventy-seven seriously injured – 18 February 2014
106. Reverses the previous government’s decision to care for refugee children who are without an adult family member (ie unaccompanied minors) in the community and sends them to detention centres in Nauru – 17 February 2014
105. Removes poverty reduction from the goals of the foreign affairs budget –February 17, 2014
104. Appoints a climate change sceptic to head a review of our renewable energy target – 17 February 2014
103. Pays hundreds of indigenous workers in his Department up to $19 000 less than non-indigenous workers doing the same job and cuts the budget for the representative body the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples causing two-thirds of the staff to lose their jobs – 15 February 2014
102. Breaks a promise to provide fibre-to-the-premises for all Tasmanians for the National Broadband Network – 13 February 2014
101. Unemployment rate jumps to highest in more than 10 years – 13 February 2014
100. Lies to the Australian public about the reasons Toyota gave for their decision to close in order to blame the workers and their union – 12 February 2014
99. Takes down a website providing information to the Australian public on the ingredients and nutritional content of foods. It is later revealed that the person in the Minister’s office who gave this directive is married to a lobbyist from the junk food industry and was still a share holder in their lobbying company – 11 February 2014
98. Destroys the Australian car manufacturing industry by refusing to provide any industry assistance leading to the decision of Toyota to shut costing up to 30 000 jobs – 10 February 2014
97. Launches a Royal Commission into unions – 10 February 2014
96. Attempts to reintroduce temporary visas for asylum seekers found to be fleeing persecution preventing them ever settling in Australia and retrospectively applies them to 20 000 people. This is stopped in the Senate twice by the ALP and The Greens – 7 February 2014
95. Supports a reduction of penalty rates and other Award minimums in a submission to the Fair Work Commission’s review of all Awards – 4 February 2014
94. Lies to the Australian public about the wages and working conditions of factory workers at SPC Ardmona in Shepparton and uses this incorrect information to blame them for their job insecurity – 4 February 2014
93. Launches an “efficiency study” into ABC and the SBS – 30 January 2014
92. Cuts the wages of Australian troops deployed overseas by almost $20 000 per solider – 29 January 2014
91. Intervenes on the side of Toyota to support cutting Australian workers wages and conditions – 28 January 2014
90. Privatises the 104 year old Australian Valuation Office costing nearly 200 jobs – 24 January 2014
89. Seeks to wind back the World Heritage listing of Tasmania’s forests – 23 January 2014
88. Withdraws funding for an early intervention program to help vulnerable young people – 22 January 2014
87. Exempts Western Australia from national environment laws to facilitate shark culling – 21 January 2014
86. Defunds all international environmental programs, the International Labour Organisation and cuts funding to a range of international aid programs run by NGOs such as Save the Children, Oxfam, CARE Australia and Caritas – 18 January 2014
85. Violates Indonesia’s territorial sovereignty while turning back asylum seeker boats – 17 January 2014
84. Politicises the national school curriculum by appointing a former Liberal staffer and a Coalition supporter, both critics of the current curriculum to conduct a review – 10 January 2014.
83. Directs that people already found to be refugees who arrived by boat be given the lowest priority for family reunion – 8 January 2014
82. Fails to contradict or take any action against a member of his government, Senator Cory Bernardi, who makes divisive statements about: abortion, “non-traditional” families and their children, same sex couples, couples who use IVF and calls for parts of WorkChoices to be reintroduced – 6 January 2014
81. Scraps funding from the Jewish Holocaust Centre –January 3, 2014
80. Devastates Australia’s contribution to overseas aid by cutting $4.5 billion from the budget, causing vital programs supporting those in extreme poverty in our region to collapse – 1 January 2014
79. Drastically reduces tax breaks for small business and fails to publicise it – 1 January 2014
78. Appoints Tim Wilson, a Liberal Party member and Policy Director of a right-wing think tank to the position of Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission even though this think tank argued for the Commission to be abolished – 23 December 2013
77. Approves private health fund premium increases of an average 6.2% a year – 23 December 2013
76. Breaks his promise to provide the promised customs vessel to monitor whaling operations in the Southern Ocean – 23 December 2013
75. Requests the delisting of World Heritage status for Tasmanian forests – 21 December 2013
74. Cuts funding to the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Programme which makes it mandatory for large energy using businesses to improve their efficiency –17 December, 2013
73. Breaks a promise to make no cuts to health by cutting $150 million from hospital and health services – 17 December 2013.
72. Scraps the Home Energy Saver Scheme which helps struggling low income households cut their electricity bills – 17 December 2013
71. Defunds the Public Interest Advocacy Centre whose objectives are to work for a fair, just and democratic society by taking up legal cases public interest issues – 17 December 2013
70. Defunds the Environmental Defenders Office which is a network of community legal centres providing free advice on environmental law – 17 December 2013
69. Axes funding for animal welfare – 17 December 2013
68. Breaks his election promise of no cuts to education by cutting funding for trade training centres in schools – 17 December 2013
67. Abolishes the AusAID graduate program costing 38 jobs – 17 December 2013
66. Cuts Indigenous legal services by $13.4 million. This includes $3.5 million from front line domestic violence support services, defunding the National legal service and abolishing all policy and law reform positions across the country – 17 December 2013
65. Abolishes the position of co-ordinator-general for remote indigenous services – 17 December 2013
64. Breaks his promise to unequivocally support the NDIS by changing the name of NDIS “launch sites” to “trial sites” and flags cuts to funding – 17 December 2013
63. Abolishes the National Office for Live Music along with the live music ambassadors – 17 December 2013
62. Cuts $2.5 million from community radio – 17 December 2013
61. Weakens the ministerial code of conduct to let ministers keep shares in companies – 16 December 2013
60. Disbands the independent Immigration Health Advisory Group for asylum seekers – 16 December 2013
59. Dumps the National Occupational Licensing Scheme which was designed to increase productivity by making it easier for skilled workers to work interstate – 14 December 2013
58. Axes $4.5 million from charities and community groups for the Building Multicultural Communities Program – 13 December 2013
57. Starts dismantling Australia’s world leading marine protection system – 13 December 2013
56. Scraps the COAG Standing Council on Environment and Water – 13 December 2013
55. Breaks his NBN election promise of giving all Australians access to 25 megabits per second download speeds by 2016 – 12 December 2013
54. Overturns the “critically endangered” listing of the Murray Darling Basin – 11 December 2013
53. Dares Holden to leave Australia. Holden responds by announcing its closure which costs Australians tens of thousands of jobs – 11 December 2013
52. Approves Clive Palmer’s mega coal mine in the Galilee Basin which opponents say will severely damage Great Barrier Reef – 11 December 2013
51. Demands that the few childcare workers who got pay rises “hand them back” – 10 December 2013
50. Approves the largest coal port in the world in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area – 10 December 2013
49. Removes the community’s right to challenge decisions where the government has ignored expert advice on threatened species impacts – 9 December 2013
48. Downgrades national environment laws by giving approval powers to state premiers – 9 December 2013
47. Undermines Australia’s democracy by signing a free trade agreement with South Korea allowing corporations to sue the Australian Government – 6 December 2013
46. Damages our diplomatic relationship with our nearest neighbour East Timor – 5 December 2013
45. Repeals the pokie reform legislation which was designed to combat problem gambling – 4 December 2013
44. Suspends the Wage Connect program, despite it being proven to deliver good outcomes for unemployed people – 3 December 2013
43. Axes funding to the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia, forcing the 46 year old organisation to close. It is later revealed that a staffer in the Assistant Health Minister’s office had links to the Alcohol Industry – 27 November 2013
42. Breaks his promise to support Gonski and back flips three times – 25 November 2013
41. Shifts Australia’s position at the UN on Israeli settlements – 25 November 2013
40. Damages our diplomatic relationship with the Indonesian Government by refusing to apologise for tapping the phones of their President, his wife and senior Government officials – 23 November 2013
39. Converts crucial Start-Up Scholarships into loans, increasing the debt of 80,000 higher education students by $1.2 billion – 21 November 2013
38. Gifts two navy patrol boats to the Sri Lankan government to stop asylum seekers fleeing the Sri Lankan government – 17 November 2013
37. Introduces a Bill to impose on workers who are elected onto unpaid union committees huge financial penalties and jail terms for breeches of new compliance obligations – 14 November 2013
36. Condones torture by foreign governments by saying “sometimes in difficult circumstances, difficult things happen” – 14 November 2013
35. Hides information from the Parliament and the people about the government’s treatment of asylum seekers – 13 November 2013
34. Abandons Australia’s emission reduction targets – 12 November, 2013
33. Separates a refugee mother from her newborn baby – 10 November 2013
32. Cuts 600 jobs at the CSIRO – 8 November 2013
31. Abolishes Insurance Reform Advisory Group which provided a forum for industry and consumer bodies to discuss insurance industry reform – 8 November 2013
30. Abolishes the Maritime Workforce Development Forum which was an industry body working to build a sustainable skills base for the maritime industry – 8 November 2013
29. Abolishes the High Speed Rail Advisory Group whose job it was to advise Governments on the next steps on implementing high speed rail for eastern Australia – 8 November 2013
28. Abolishes the Advisory Panel on the Marketing in Australia of Infant Formula which for 21 years ensured companies comply with agreements on the advertising of infant formula – 8 November 2013
27. Abolishes the Antarctic Animal Ethics Committee who ensured research on animals in the Antarctic complies with Australian standards – 8 November 2013
26. Abolished the National Steering Committee on Corporate Wrongdoing that for 21 years worked to make sure the law was effectively enforced on corporate criminals – 8 November 2013
25. Abolishes the National Inter-country Adoption Advisory Council which provided expert advice on overseas adoption – 8 November 2013
24. Abolishes International Legal Services Advisory Council which was responsible for working to improve the international performance of Australia’s legal services – 8 November 2013
23. Abolishes the Commonwealth Firearms Advisory Council a group of experts in gun crime and firearms which was set up after the Port Arthur massacre – 8 November 2013
22. Abolishes Australian Animals Welfare Advisory Committee a diverse group of experts advising the Agriculture Minister on animal welfare issues – 8 November 2013
21. Abolishes the National Housing Supply Council which provided data and expert advice on housing demand, supply and affordability – 8 November 2013
20. Abolishes the Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing, established to help address the challenges the country faces as the number of older Australians grows – 8 November 2013
19. Refuses to offer support to manufacturing in Tasmania, despite requests and warnings. Caterpillar announces the move of 200 jobs from Burnie to Thailand, costing around 1000 local jobs – 5 November 2013
18. Provides $2.2 million legal aid for farmers and miners to fight native title claims – 1 November 2013
17. Abolishes the 40 year old AusAID costing hundreds of jobs – 1 November 2013
16. Launches a successful High Court challenge which strikes down the ACT Marriage Equality laws invalidating the marriages of many people and ensuring discrimination against same-sex couples continues – 23 October 2013
15. Denies there is a link between climate change and more severe bush fires and accuses a senior UN official was “talking through their hat” – 23 October 2013
14. Appoints the head of the Business Council of Australia to a “Commission of Audit” to recommend cuts to public spending – 22 October 2013
13. Cuts compensation to the victims of bushfires – 21 October 2013
12. Instructs public servants and detention centre staff to call asylum seekers “illegals” – 20 October 2013
11. Appoints Howard era Australian Building & Construction Commission (ABCC) Director to help reinstate the ABCC with all its previous oppressive powers over construction workers – 17 October 2013
10. Axes the Major Cities Unit a Government agency with 10 staff which provided expert advice on urban issues in our 18 biggest cities – 24 September 2013
9. Breaks his promise to “stop the boats” – 23 September 2013
8. Scraps the Social Inclusion Board, which had been established to guide policy on the reduction of poverty in Australia – 19 September 2013
7. Abolishes the Climate Commission – 19 September 2013
6. Appoints himself Minister for Women – 16 September 2013
5. Appoints only one woman into his cabinet and blames the women for his decision, saying he appoints “on merit”– 16 September 2013
4. Abolishes key ministerial positions of climate change and science – 16 September 2013
3. Breaks his promise to spend his first week with an Aboriginal community –14 September 2012
2. Takes away pay rises for childcare workers – 13 September 2013
1. Takes away pay rises from aged care workers – 13 September 2013