Monday 29th of April 2024
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trust who .....

trust who .....

Julia Gillard has tackled head on her principal perceived weakness among voters by framing the next federal election as being about trust.

After the routing of the Labor government in Queensland on Saturday put the Prime Minister's trustworthiness at the centre of the political debate, Ms Gillard went on the front foot yesterday, mimicking the strategy John Howard adopted at the start of the 2004 election campaign.

''I'm happy now and in the 2013 election to say 'who do you trust to manage the economy in the interests of working people?','' Ms Gillard said from South Korea where she is attending a nuclear summit with world leaders.

''Who do you trust to understand the needs of the future and the building of that future economy?

''Who do you trust to spread the benefits of the mining boom to make sure that they are shared by all Australians? Who do you trust to improve your local schools and local hospitals?''

According to the latest count after the election, Labor is likely to be reduced from 51 seats to eight.

Campbell Newman's Liberal National Party leapt from 31 seats to a forecast 77 in the 89-member Parliament.

The devastation has sent shockwaves and panic through federal Labor, which holds only eight of the 30 federal seats in Queensland, all of which would be lost with a swing just half the size of that on Saturday.

Labor, which had been in power in Queensland for 20 of the past 22 years, was always going to lose but the enormity of the loss was attributed in part to the decision of the defeated premier, Anna Bligh, to privatise assets and abolish a petrol subsidy for motorists - all without a mandate - soon after she won the last election.

The federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, drew parallels yesterday with Ms Gillard's 2010 election promise not to implement a carbon tax.

''The Queensland election certainly is a verdict on governments that don't tell the truth,'' he said. He conceded that while a price on carbon per se was not a pivotal issue in the campaign, the cost of living was and this and the carbon tax were ''really flip sides of the same coin''.

''You've got to listen to the Australian people. You can't run away from democracy and I think the Prime Minister should be taking a long, hard look at herself, her government and her party as a result of the verdict of the people of Queensland.''

Ms Gillard admitted she was surprised by the scale of the rout in Queensland but said she would not be making any changes to the scheme to price carbon, which is due to start on July 1.

She reiterated that she meant what she said before the election about not having a carbon tax. But the hung parliament meant her policy options were more limited and the only other choice was to do nothing about climate change.

''And there is no place in the country that stands to better prosper from a clean energy future than Queensland, because of its natural assets and natural advantages,'' she said.

The Labor strategist Bruce Hawker said Ms Bligh had never recovered from her broken promise and establishing trust was now Ms Gillard's ''big challenge''.

The former Queensland premier Peter Beattie said last night that Ms Gillard and her ministers needed to expend ''an enormous effort'' in Queensland between now and the federal election.

Mr Beattie and Mr Hawker said this involved selling the benefits of the carbon and mining taxes, which include pension increases, tax breaks and infrastructure investment.

Ms Gillard responded, saying: ''Labor in Queensland, state Labor - has got a lot of rebuilding to do. We've got a lot of hard work to do and I'll get on and do it.''

The Trade Minister, Craig Emerson, a Queenslander, said: ''Plenty of people are going to get the opportunity to meet Julia Gillard''.

Julia Gillard Says Trust Me

 

where's kevin when he's needed .....

It doesn't help Prime Minister Julia Gillard that she has to stand alongside Barack Obama as she endeavours to show her mettle on the world stage.

A moment ago at the global nuclear summit in Seoul the US president warmly grasped the hand of China's Hu Jintao, hugged South Korea's Lee Myung-Bak and shared a grin with Russia's Dmitry Medvedev - after their private words the day before had been caught on a hot microphone, triggering a minor global scandal.

Mr Obama leaned forward in his chair to implore more than 50 world leaders to prevent nuclear material falling into the wrong hands and killing "hundreds of thousands of innocent people".

"The security of the world depends on the actions that we take," he said.

Nobody should be expected to match the charisma or statesmanship of Mr Obama, but Ms Gillard seems to be struggling to find a receptive audience in any crowd.

She has travelled 10,000 kilometres to find Koreans asking the same questions that Australian voters are asking back home.

"Why do you think she didn't answer my question?", asked a law student, Yoon Hye In, after Ms Gillard's speech at Yonsei University yesterday afternoon.

Ms Gillard had stuck word-for-word to her script on "Australia and Korea, Partners and Friends" and Ms Yoon had asked her an on-topic question about racial discrimination faced by her relatives and friends in Australia. 

Ms Gillard answered that "we do stand resolutely with you on security challenges", leaving the student bewildered, and a little upset.

Korean students are one of Australia's largest export markets, paying close to a billion dollars a year to Australian colleges and universities.

Ms Gillard's second question was from Ken Yun, head of the Korean arm of accounting firm KPMG.

Mr Yun's father in law founded the steel mill POSCO, which is a major investor in Australia and probably the single largest buyer of Australian exports, thanks to its hunger for Australian coal and iron ore. The current POSCO chief was sitting next to him, in the front row.

Mr Yun had asked Ms Gillard what she thought about the matter closest to his heart: the plight of 100,000 North Korean refugees who have crossed the border into China, many of whom are repatriated and shot.

He had expected Ms Gillard would have a view on one of the world's great refugee dilemmas, or at least shown some curiosity, given she had been talking about the impoverishment that has caused it.

Instead, Ms Gillard told him that Australia shares South Korea's concerns about security. Then she gave a long answer to another question that was not asked to explain that she had entered politics because of her values and beliefs.

"It was disappointing," said Mr Yun.

Gillard At Nuclear Summit In South Korea

making "rattus" proud .....

Is there anything Canberra won’t do to please its Washington masters (hint: no)?

New Matilda reveals the latest episode:

As Julian Assange tilts at the Senate, new laws have been passed that will make it harder for organisations like Wikileaks to operate legally – and there are more to come, writes Matthew da Silva

The Labor Government is tightening up Australian law in areas that will have a direct impact on organisations such as WikiLeaks. Only the Greens are challenging the new bills in parliament, and they are receiving scant media attention.

There’s a new extradition law that will make it easier for foreign governments to request extradition of Australians and a new spying law that broadens ASIO’s reach, which has been dubbed the WikiLeaks Amendment.

And finally there’s a bill that will make it easier to retain digital data for Australians, and easier also to pass that information to overseas law enforcement agencies. Senator Scott Ludlam, the Greens’ spokesperson for communications, told New Matilda that the Attorney-General wants all digital records for all people for all time to be trapped and recorded so that intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies, and welfare agencies can mine the data.

The new extradition law contains elements that make it easier for foreign governments to request that people be extradited from Australia. The new federal law also enables people to be prosecuted in Australia for alleged crimes overseas.

New Matilda

Antony Loewenstein

yet another labor 'sell-out' .....

The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has rejected union demands that employers bear the full cost of the superannuation increases associated with the Minerals Resource Rent Tax.

Mr Swan said yesterday the government had no intention of amending the Fair Work Act to ensure the increased super payments to workers do not translate into less take-home pay in the form of wage trade-offs.

Instead, Mr Swan said, the increases should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis as workplace enterprise agreements were negotiated.

''We have a system of enterprise bargaining where employers and employees sit down and negotiate. That's the way it is done,'' he told ABC Radio.

In association with the mining tax, which comes into effect on July 1, the 9 per cent compulsory superannuation guarantee will increase incrementally to 12 per cent by 2020.

The opposition is against this increase but it is the only measure associated with the mining tax that it will keep if elected.

Businesses fear that if the extra three percentage-point increase is paid on top of wages, the cost to employers will be about $20 billion more by 2020.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions resolved at its national executive meeting this week to oppose wage trade-offs to accommodate the three-point super increase.

When the 9 per cent super guarantee was phased in during the 1980s, it was largely paid as wage trade-offs as part of the accords struck with the trade union movement.

The chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, Heather Ridout, said yesterday it was extraordinary unions were not prepared to do the same again.

''The unions have campaigned for this increase in the [super guarantee] for years.

''They've been the most aggressive campaigners for it, yet they don't want to make a contribution to paying for it and, frankly, it is part of wages,'' Ms Ridout said.

Swan Rejects Union Demands On Super