Policies of the incoming Abbott government.

[tssk]

They're moving even faster than I thought they would. As to the axing of student unions this needs to be done as a matter of urgency to starve the ALP of new talent. Then the ALP can wither and die leaving us with a secure one party state.

Not a future I look forward too but one of my Tory friends has a killer line on it that pretty much wins the debate.

"Why should poor and disadvanteged people have to take out loans to cover fees that subsidise cheap beer for rich kids?"

[Matthew Of Canberra]

"his needs to be done as a matter of urgency to starve the ALP of new talent"

Good luck with that. I think we can all agree that the biggest single problem with both sides of politics today is their collective hangup over student politics. Sure, the conveyer belt turns out well-practiced campaigners who've played the game long enough to know the roles and tricks really well, but ... jeeze, maybe mix it up a bit?

Trying to "starve" the ALP by starving student unions would backfire. I think it would open the field to a wider catchment of potential candidates with broader life experience. That would be good for all political parties, but I think the ALP would stand to benefit more.

We don't need student politics to produce grown-up politicians, but I suspect it does tip the odds off selection in favor of former student politicians, and I don't see why that's a good thing.

[angra]

Frackin' hell!

" Federal intervention to kickstart NSW CSG sector


Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane says kick starting NSW's coal seam gas industry is one of his biggest priorities.

Mr Macfarlane says he wants to ensure the CSG industry is subject to consistent rules across every state and territory.

"We've got to get the drill rigs going... We've got to get them going by Christmas if we can," he said.

But NSW Energy and Resources Minister Chris Hartcher is adamant the state will not weaken its CSG framework."

ABC

[Matthew Of Canberra]

Re: CSG

Love it! I like to think that they're getting the bad news out of the way early, but if they can keep this up I'll be very impressed. I wonder if "conscription" is anywhere on their list of things to do.

I have to admit that I bow out of a lot of the arguments around fracking. I'm very unconvinced about the water quality problems, but I do hope that australia does a bit better than the US has on declarations of what's going into the pumping liquids.

I think there probably is some seismic risk, though. And think it's a great idea if we experiment with causing faults to slip in the area around newcastle. What's the worst that can happen? ;-)

The real problem with fracking is (IMHO) access to land. Landowners get annoyed when somebody has a right to access their land to survey and drill and just generally wander around annoying the sheep. I suspect that the landowners don't get anything out of it, or they'd be less annoyed.

It's ironic that the people who think that land-access arrangement is just peachy will also whinge if the same landowner chooses to host a wind turbine, because it might spoil the scenery.

So, farmers, that's your lot - let the surveyors in, suck it up, and whatever you do don't spoil the view.

[angra]

So the questions remain. Who was Pyne co-ondling at a Qld resort?

What is his relationship to Ashby?

Why did he lie?

[jreidy]

Ross Gittens has a great article in the weekends SMH, asking who will the government govern for - their rich big business mates , or the consumers.
He frames it in terms of classical economics, where consumers are king, the whole point of a capitalist economy is to benefit the consumer not business and to protect 'jobs' most claims of job losses are false.
One decision come up is on changes to financial planners handling super and the gravy train they are on.
The coalition had committed to roll back certain things, but are now asked to do more.

[angra]

Amazing how much of the strident rhetoric of the campaign has been watered down.

"Australia faces economic disaster!" now means "We still have an AAA credit rating!"

"We must achieve a budget credit at all costs" now means "of course infrastructure investment doesn't count as part of Australia's debt."

"The NBN must be destroyed - Malcolm - that's your job" now means "Well we think its a good idea but we'll shave a few million off the cost by cutting the fibre short a few hundred metres down the road from your house. No one will notice the difference between 10 mbps and 100."

"Stop the boats! Turn back the boats! Tow the boats the bloody hell away from here!" now means "Gees, we never meant to offend the Indonesians, and we are sorry for suggesting that Malaysia treats its refugees like the Indonesians treat Australian cattle. But the idea of shipping them to Manus and Nauru is just fine by us."

"Stop this vile trade!" now means "We'll let the Indonesians keep beating our cattle to death because that will keep Barnaby happy."

"Slipper must be prosecuted! An expenses scandal! Bring down the corrupt greedy Socialists!" now means "but that was never meant to apply to us. Sure we can claim for riding bikes and swimming and attending weddings, but Slipper had to go for the sake of a few taxi fares, because he jumped ship!" The unforgivable sin.

(The ultimate irony - Abbott claimed expenses for attending Slipper's wedding)

[Matthew Of Canberra]

I've been chuckling to friends that the current mob are basically re-running what they first did last time they won government. It worked for them then, so why on earth wouldn't they?

Those who have trouble remembering the mid 90's ... they did this too:

www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-17/budget-coalition-myefo-paid-parental-scheme/5160326

Quite soon after winning office in the 90's, they hugely revised upwards everything they could find to show how awful the previous lot were, and to give themselves wiggle room on election promises and to make any subsequent gains look more awesome.

I'm curious to see what's in the next budget. After xmas I'm going to see if I can find Costello's first and see how well it tracks.