So the ALP lost the election and everyone has a post mortem explanation of what went wrong (eg Ian Macaulay: it’s the economy)or what needs to be the future focus (Albo: It’s jobs, we are here for the workers). Yet the big story should be how voters reflected increasing distrust
One of the bizarre bipartisan policy overlaps between the Coalition and Labor is in the area of income support known as welfare payments. Labor has been seen as the party that cared about the poor and disadvantaged, but the former ALP government adopted and extended a range of the Howard government’s paternalistic and punitive measures.
With the federal budget in the next week, there is the usual jockeying for headlines by various groups. The interest groups include those who want more for their constituency and those who are scared they may lose some benefits or privileges. It seems that the more powerful the groups are, the less likely they are to have their government support cut.
The disappointing data that regularly appears in Closing the Gap reports should raise serious questions about policy development and funding processes.
Mal Brough, creator of the Northern Territory intervention, declared last Saturday that it was a failure, Jenny Macklin, not surprisingly, denies failure and claims it is both proceeding and succeeding.
The baby bonus is gone and the record of this Labor government robbing from the poor is a profoundly disappointing one. There wasn’t much for those struggling in the federal budget
If Chris Bowen and the ALP really want to do the right thing on asylum seekers, they should put people smugglers out of business. Some ideas on how to get started
