Drug Testing and the LNP’s Ongoing Stigmatization of the Poor | polyfeministix

Drug Testing and the LNP’s Ongoing Stigmatization of the Poor | polyfeministix

Drug Testing and the LNP’s Ongoing Stigmatization of the Poor

Posted by trishcorry ⋅ June 1, 2014 ⋅ 4 Comments

Filed Under  Australian Liberal Party, drug test, drug testing, LNP

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rate This

The
message that the Abbott Government is sending Australians and the
world, is that Australian people in receipt of welfare are lazy, drug
addled parasitic bludgers who have the only aim in life of ripping off
the tax payer. The constant use of ‘welfare recipient’ and ‘unemployed’
rather than the use of the positive ‘job seeker’; the punitive measures
such as cancelling of benefits as a prime punishment; forced labour not
supported by workplace health and safety protections, nor minimum wage
all serve to create a negative stereotype of welfare recipients. Now we
have mandatory drug testing being flagged.


Mandatory
drug testing was flagged whilst LNP were in opposition, particularly
pushed by the born to rule, privileged class of the Young Liberals.  The
group who have the highest likelihood of being able to be supported by
their parents as unemployed adults; being afforded the privilege of
gaining employment with their parents or their parents friends and being
afforded the privilege access to many other social benefits, such as
never going hungry and never being homeless.


The
underlying argument for drug testing of welfare recipients, is that
people on welfare are drug takers and associate with drug addled groups
of friends and they should not use tax payers money to do so.  The fact
is, people across all levels of society can take drugs, so if the
Government was so concerned about the use of tax payers money to
purchase illegal substances then the following groups should also be
tested.

• 
  

  All Government Scholarship Recipients

• 
  

  All Politicians, Federal, State and Local Government

• 
  

  All public servants, state and federal

• 
  

  Farmers who receive subsidies

• 
  

  Mining Magnates who receive subsidies

• 
  

  CEOs and  Board Directors in receipt of corporate welfare

• 
  

  All research groups in receipt of Government funded research grants

• 
  

  All CEOs and Board Directors of NGO’s in receipt of Government funding

If the concern is about drugs and not about stigmatising
welfare; then testing of these groups can be supported by studies in the
United States indicate that rates of drug and alcohol problems in
welfare recipients were no greater than the general population, or
non-recipients of welfare.

Some
of the answers against testing all of these groups, would be the cost to
the tax payer. However, so does the drug testing of welfare recipients.
In fact, studies show that of States in the USA who have drug tested
welfare recipients, only a very small percentage showed positive, as
compared to the general population.  This will be a counter productive
exercise which will in fact cost the tax payer a lot more than any
recouping of welfare dollars.

The only real answer against testing the above groups, is
that they do not make the list of groups that the Abbott Government has
an agenda to stigmatize.

One of
the biggest concerns cited within the literature surrounding random
workplace drug testing, is that of a false positive. A false positive is
where the drug test shows a positive result, but the recipient of the
test is not an active user of illicit drugs.  The other concern within
the literature is unfair dismissal, where it is too difficult to
determine the length of time a drug has been in a person’s system and
there is no measure of impairment and the result would not impact on the
safety of the tasks performed.


Another
concern, is that there is no way of detecting how it was administered.
This includes being in the same vicinity of someone engaged in the
smoking of cannabis (passive inhalation) or the biggest concern,
pharmaceutical and prescribed medications and the ingestion of some
foods.

Please see the appendix for a list of substances that can return a false positive in a drug test:

To put this list quite simply – the following common substances can return a false positive:

• 
  

  Poppy Seeds

• 
  

  Cocoa Leaf Tea

• 
  

  Herbal Medicines

• 
  

  Nasal Inhalers (ie as in the ones you use when you have a cold)

• 
  

  Cold and Flu tablets

• 
  

  Cough medications

• 
  

  Prescribed mental health drugs, including anti-depressives and anti-psychotics and ADHD medications

• 
  

  Ibuprofen (for example but not limited to: Nurefon)

• 
  

  Codeine (for example but not limited to: Panadeine Forte)

• 
  

  Pain relievers (for example but not limited to Tramadol)

The above information poses some serious questions:

1. 
   

   Will the Government be prepared to drug test all the non-welfare recipient groups listed above?

2. 
   

   If the Government is only prepared to drug test welfare recipients
   only, what is the argument that this is not to purposely stigmatise
   this group of welfare recipients?

3. 
   

   Is the drug testing of welfare recipients a demarcation of deviant
   and acceptable behaviour in society to shape the public view as negative
   towards welfare recipients?

4. 
   

   What studies has the Government done into False Positives in drug testing?

5. 
   

   How can the Government guarantee that income will not be stopped in the case of false positives?

6. 
   

   With the ongoing active stigmatisation of welfare recipients by the
   Abbott Government, what systems will the Government have in place to
   ensure that welfare recipients will not be unfairly treated and that
   their objections will be listened to, in the event of a positive result,
   that the recipient claims is false?

7. 
   

   In the case of a false positive, what research has the Government
   done on the self-efficacy of welfare recipients to use the complaints
   process?

8. 
   

   Knowing that common prescribed drugs and some foods can return a
   false positive, would Mr. Abbott and his Government also be confident
   that they will never return a positive drug test?

9. 
   

   What impact will this have on regional, rural and remote areas without drug testing clinics?

10. 
    

    Will drug testing be bulk billed, will the welfare recipient have to pay full cost, or will it attract the GP Co-payment Tax?

11. 
    

    Drug dependency can equate to disability. What are the scenarios for
    illicit drug dependent welfare recipients, who do not qualify for
    disability, but are assessed to work more than 15 hours per week and are
    on Newstart?

12. 
    

    Will the Government’s only agenda be to stop welfare payments, or
    will they be referring positive testers for treatment? If so, what is
    the cost to the taxpayer?  If the Government isn’t referring for
    treatment, why not?

13. 
    

    What impact will the removal of benefits have on the children of welfare recipients?

14. 
    

    For all the LNP politicians advocating initiatives that deny
    financial assistance to welfare recipients; on a scale of one to ten,
    (one being the least hypocritical and ten being the most hypocritical)
    what level of hypocrisy will be felt for those who will be participating
    in the 2014 Vinnies CEO Sleepout on Thursday 19 June?

This is quite a complex area and I have tried to be as brief as possible to hold the readers attention.

I would urge everyone who is concerned with this, to push this to the
wider media and also to politicians to seek answers on this new
“Government Initiative of Stigmatising the Poor.”

 

 

Bibliography:

Amundson, K, Zajicek, A, & Hunt, V 2014, ‘Pathologies of
the Poor: What do the War on Drugs and Welfare Reform Have in Common?’, Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 5-28.

Begala, P. 2013. “Drug Testing for Congressmen.” Newsweek Global 161, no. 11: 1.

Berger, PB n.d., ‘Science misapplied: mandatory addiction screening and treatment for welfare recipients in Ontario’, CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 165, no. 4, p. 443-444.

Blank, A, Hellstern, V, Schuster, D, Hartmann, M, Matthée, A,
Burhenne, J, Haefeli, W, & Mikus, G 2009, ‘Efavirenz Treatment and
False-Positive Results in Benzodiazepine Screening Tests’, Clinical Infectious Diseases, vol. 48, no. 12, pp. 1787-1789.

Brahm, N, Yeager, L, Fox, M, Farmer, K, & Palmer, T 2010,
‘Commonly prescribed medications and potential false-positive urine drug
screens’, American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy, vol. 67, No. 16, pp. 1344-1350.

Chathanchirayil, S 2011, ‘False positive urine drug screening for tricyclic antidepressants in patients taking quetiapine’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 45, No. 9.

Fitzsimons, M, Ishizawa, Y, & Baker, K 2013, ‘Drug testing
physicians for substances of abuse: case report of a false-positive
result’, Journal Of Clinical Anesthesia, vol. 25, no. 8, pp. 669-671.

Gunders, L 2012, ‘Immoral and un-Australian: the discursive
exclusion of welfare recipients’, Critical Discourse Studies, vol. 9,
no. 1, pp. 1-13.

Makkai, T, 2000, Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA): Drug
Detection Testing, Australian Institute of Criminology, Research and
Public Policy Series No. 25.

Moeller, K, Lee, K, & Kissack, J 2008, ‘Urine drug screening: practical guide for clinicians’, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, vol. 83, no. 1, pp. 66-76.

Pollack, H, Danziger, S, Jayakody, R, & Seefeldt, K 2002,
‘Drug testing welfare recipients—false positives, false negatives,
unanticipated opportunities’, Women’s Health Issues, vol. 12, no. 1, pp
23-31.

 

 Appendix:

List of substances that can return a false positive in a drug test

10 reasons why the Liberals' end is nigh

10 reasons why the Liberals' end is nigh

Alan Austin 1 June 2014, 7:49am 13

Politics

(Image by John Graham / johngraham.alphalink.com.au)

Resignations of prominent Liberal Party members last
month highlight deep rifts within the party. They bring to ten the areas
of failure which taken together suggest the party is in terminal
decline. Alan Austin reports.

1. Resignations and defections

Martin Hamilton-Smith is a former leader of the South Australian Liberal Party and regarded
as its most capable parliamentarian. This week he joined a long list of
respected MPs and elder statesmen who have found they can no longer
stay within the Liberal Party of Australia as it currently operates.



Hamilton-Smith is now an independent member of South Australia’s Labor cabinet.



One of the more notable Queensland Liberal National MPs was Dr Chris Davis,
a past president of the Australian Medical Association’s Queensland
branch and chairman of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.



He could no longer stomach the direction Liberal National Party (LNP)
premier Campbell Newman was taking the government. He protested over
several issues, including changes to the Crime and Misconduct Commission, and finally resigned as assistant health minister.



Davis was the fourth minister in the dysfunctional Newman government to resign or be sacked this year.



Other prominent Liberals in the procession of recent deserters include former prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, whose disgust at the party’s current state has become an internet phenomenon:

Tony Abbott Character Slam by Malcolm Fraser

The list continues:



NT Country Liberal Party MPs Alison Anderson, Larissa Lee and Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu; Robert Brokenshire who left to join Family First in South Australia; Carl Judge in Queensland who joined the new Palmer United Party last year; and Clive Palmer himself, formerly the LNP's biggest donor, who resigned after a series of disputes to form his own party.



We will come to the other nine issues pointing to terminal affliction shortly.



But first, a short detour through history.



It is not only minor parties such as the Democrats and One Nation that have disappeared after periods of fame.



Australia’s first dominant Federal party was the Protectionist Party, formed in 1889. It held government from 1901 to 1904 and from 1905 to 1908 with Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin as prime ministers.



The Nationalist Party, formed by Billy Hughes in 1917, governed for almost 13 years from 1917 to 1929.



The United Australia Party ruled for most of the period from 1931 to 1941.



All have since disappeared, although major policies continued in other party structures.



Reasons for their demise vary. Commonalities appear to be internal
divisions, shifting away from serving mainstream community interests and
the presence of a strong alternative political force.



So the fact that the Liberal Party has been successful for some
decades is no guarantee it will remain. Indeed, there are definite signs
that its downfall may be imminent.

2. Internal dissent

The second area of evident dysfunction is the growing number of open divisions among those who have stayed within the party.



Topics of dissent now number more than twenty, including same-sex marriage, industry support, paid parental leave, superannuation, the medical research fund and the inequity of last month’s budget.



Two more emerged this week with Dr Dennis Jensen openly condemning the Abbott government for its “lack of understanding of how science works”. 



The former scientist asked:

“Where is the coherent, co-ordinated approach to science policy?” 

Jensen slated Lib over not understanding how science works with video



And while Abbott was meeting with miners on Thursday, his communications minister Malcolm Turnbull was holding a private meeting with rival party leader Clive Palmer and mysterious others.

3. Abandonment of honesty and integrity

This journal has published a fully-referenced list of Abbott’s thirty blatant lies and his additional forty broken promises.



The mainstream media are now – at long last – highlighting these as well.

4. Abandonment of governing in the interests of all

Even the most superficial analysis shows the first Abbott budget takes from the poor and middle and redistributes to the rich. There is no real attempt to conceal this.

5. Abandonment of racial fairness

All commitments to Australia’s Indigenous people made before the election have been abandoned since.

ABBOTT MISLEADS PARLIAMENT 12 FEB 2014

One of the few promises Abbott seems intent on honouring is changing the racial vilification laws to allow racism and bigotry to flourish.

6. Abandonment of all pretence to consistency

The latest prominent Liberal to come under fire for serial hypocrisy is Treasurer Joe Hockey.



His first two backflips – immediately after taking office – related
to debt and the budget deficit. Having campaigned relentlessly on
reducing both, his first move as treasurer was to increase the debt and abolish the debt ceiling.



Then, in last month’s budget, according to the ABC fact checkers, the deficit is now actually double Treasury’s forecast under Labor.



Hockey was earlier exposed as a hypocrite for weeping
in Parliament in 2012 over the threat – not at that time a reality –
that unaccompanied refugee children would be incarcerated in offshore
detention centres. There are no tears now, however, now his government
has realised that threat.

Joe Hockey Contradicts Himself On Children in Detention

And then this week videos have emerged
of a younger Joe Hockey — a strident student activist, opposing
university fees. But now, having secured his own free degree, he is
content to allow a deregulated university system to expropriate from
students however much they like.



Other prominent Liberals whose hypocrisy has been exposed include immigration minister Scott Morrison, education minister Christopher Pyne, foreign minister Julie Bishop, attorney general George Brandis and, of course, Abbott himself multiple times.

7. Corruption allegations and findings

Victorian state balance-of-power MP, Geoff Shaw,
was charged last year by Victoria Police with 23 counts of obtaining
financial benefit by deception and one charge of misconduct in public
office. The public prosecutor dropped formal charges in December,
however, referring the matter to a parliamentary privileges committee.



The government-dominated committee found Shaw lacked ‘diligence’ in
contrast to the Labor members who claimed the misuse of his government
vehicle was ‘wilful’ and, therefore, in contempt of Parliament. In a
shock announcement that threatens the Napthine government’s grip on power, former speaker, Ken Smith has pledged to cross the floor to support Labor in a vote of ‘no confidence’ in Geoff Shaw.





The NSW Liberal Government has now lost premier Barry O’Farrell, two ministers and several backbenchers following findings of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).



Assistant Federal Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos has stepped aside pending further ICAC inquiries.



Queensland Liberal National MP, Scott Driscoll,
failed to declare his business interests and financial connections when
he entered parliament in 2012. A Privileges Committee Inquiry
recommended he be expelled from parliament. He resigned first.



Allegations of inappropriate fundraising activities and receipts of donations remain unresolved involving Joe Hockey, speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Abbott’s family.



The Liberal Party accepts funding from undisclosed sources
through associated entities like the Institute of Public Affairs, which
are not required to reveal their donors. Donors who wish to hide from
public view can also launder their donations through trusts such as the Free Enterprise Foundation, the Cormack Foundation and the Greenfields Foundation.



Whilst the Liberal Party no longer accepts donations from the tobacco
industry, its junior Coalition partner, the Nationals, have refused to rule it out.  

8. Refusal to deal with endemic corruption

The Greens have proposed a national anti-corruption authority and a national lobbying watchdog.

Christine Milne: Why we need a national anti-corruption body

The Liberal Party is opposed to both.

9. Heightened media scrutiny

The mainstream media has now fractured over promoting Abbott as Australia’s saviour.



Before the election, News Corporation, ABC News and Current Affairs
and Fairfax outlets all boosted Abbott and the Coalition shamelessly.



This has changed significantly with Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age now beginning to run critical analyses of the Abbott government.



The Age this week openly mocked Abbott’s government with

‘Tony Abbott is a liar: It's a mathematical truth’.

ABC news also now allows critiques of government policy, notably by
its fact checker unit, although remains firmly pro-Coalition overall.

10. Abandonment by the electorate

Opinion polling shows the Abbott Government to have the lowest level of voter support just eight months into the honeymoon period of any regime since polling began.





The by-election for Scott Driscoll’s seat of Redcliffe in February resulted in a 17.2% swing to Labor.



It appears likely the Abbott Government will last only one term.



But will the fallout from this budget mark the beginning of the end of the Liberal Party as well?



Upcoming by-elections and state elections – of which there are several – will be highly instructive.

R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License

Tony Abbott - Happy

ABBOTT AND CO HAPPY DESTROYING AUSTRALIA.

Canberra’s Pot and Palmer Night or When the Bull Turns « The Australian Independent Media Network

Canberra’s Pot and Palmer Night or When the Bull Turns « The Australian Independent Media Network

Canberra’s Pot and Palmer Night or When the Bull Turns

By rossleighbrisbane on May 31, 2014 • ( 1 )

“One version of the get-together is as follows.

Mr
Turnbull was back late in Parliament House because his department was
being grilled in Senate Estimates hearings. As he left he ran into a
friend, business executive and Liberal Party vice-president Tom Harley
who also was a friend of Mr Palmer. They agreed Mr Turnbull should text
Mr Palmer and invite him to dinner. Another businessman, John Fast, was
with them.

In
the Parliament House car park Mr Turnbull ran into Dr Parkinson, who
had been head of the Environment Department when Mr Turnbull was
Environment Minister in 2007. He, too, was invited to dine.” 

news.com.au

A couple of weeks ago, I tried to explain to someone that Labor and
The Greens couldn’t force a double dissolution in the current
circumstances, and that I couldn’t really see a scenario where Abbott
was likely to declare one. For a start, even if they blocked supply,
Abbott could simply wait till the new Senate and have a great time
shifting the focus from the Budget to their “economic vandalism”. Even
in the highly unlikely event of the new Senate still refusing to pass
appropriation bills, Abbott could still just wait it out, all the time
blaming Labor for any problems being caused. “Wouldn’t the
Governor-General sack him – like in 1975?” When I tried to explain that
John Kerr’s sacking of Whitlam was incredibly divisive, the person
declared that it was either a double dissolution or a revolution. Like
Russell’s Revolution where we all declare we won’t vote until they get
their act together?  At this point the conversation broke down.


However, when I’m wrong I’m the first to admit it. Maybe not loudly,
or even audibly, but, at least, I do admit it. So I’m going to give you a
far-fetched scenario on how a double dissolution may occur. But before I
do, I’d like to give you an account of the events leading up to the
“secret” dinner between Turnbull, Palmer and Company.


Scenario A.

Turnbull – Hi, Tom, good to see you.


Harley – Hi, Malcolm, what you up to?


Turnbull – Just going to grab some dinner. Want to join me?


Harley – Sure. But what if we order too much and can’t finish it?


Turnbull – I know, Clive Palmer’s a friend of yours. Why don’t we invite him along?


Harley – That’s a good idea. And he’s a friend of mine, why don’t you text him at the Minerals Council dinner and ask him to leave that to join us at the Wild Duck.


Turnbull – Slow down, Tom, we haven’t agreed we’re going there yet. We have to get our story straight.


Harley – Sure, you text as we walk into the Parliamentary car park.


Turnbull – Hey look, there’s Martin Parkinson. Hey, Martin, you want to come to dinner with us?


Parkinson – Sure, there’s nothing I’d rather do than hang
around with a couple of Liberals, given how Tony Abbott has liberated
me from my job.


Harley – Clive’s probably going to join us.


Parkinson – Super. Clive’s so much fun. I hope we’re going to The Wild Duck. I hear they have a banana split to die for.

Now, for the far-fetched scenario.


Scenario B


With Abbott languishing in the polls, Turnbull is doing the numbers. (Remember this
from a couple of weeks ago?) His dinner with Palmer was all about
garnering support for certain items, so that he could add his ability to
convince Clive to pass them as an extra selling point when making his
case that the time has come for a change. Palmer, on the other hand, is
extracting deals from Turnbull. And Parkinson would have a good idea
about what was and wasn’t possible. 


Abbott gets wind of Turnbull’s plan, and decides to do
the only possible thing to ensure the long term future. He calls a
double dissolution, so that leadership speculation has to stop and the
party has to unite behind him. Once he wins that, he figures that his
leadership will be safe. But what about being behind in the polls?
Abbott decides that he’d have a better chance of winning an election
where Murdoch backs him, than a party room ballot where nobody does.


Yep, that does sound far-fetched, doesn’t it? Scenario A sounds much more credible. Like I said, I always admit when I’m wrong.

Dont like the budget? Your options arent limited to voting

Don't like the budget? Your options aren't limited to voting

Mark Chou 30 May 2014, 7:30am 2

Politics

Cartoon courtesy John Ditchburn - www.inkcinct.com.au

Democratic theorists, Jean-Paul Gagnon and Mark Chou, have come up with two peaceful ‘people power’ options to oppose the Coalition’s controversial first Budget.



MAY 13 saw the Coalition hand down its first budget. The response
since has been one long story of protest and opposition. Even State
Premiers have banded together to reject the proposed changes.



It's now looking likely that Premiers will ask Senators to staunchly oppose the bill.



The budget, it's been argued, is heavy-handed, unjust and illogical. Most Australians don't want the budget to pass in its current form. Nor do a number of elected representatives, including several Liberal MPs.



But so far, it's primarily been opposition political parties making
their case about how they plan to block the budget. Is there anything
that we, as citizens, can do to block the budget in our own right?



There are at least two approaches.



The first is from ‘within’ the system and the second is from
‘without’ the system. In the past week or so, Australians have already
shown their resolve on both fronts. Yet if we want to pressure the
government to change their path, more Australians still need to act.

Blocking the budget from within

One key form of action is hardly new: communicate directly with MPs
and Senators. The aim here is to petition federal representatives
(Liberal, Labor, National, Green, PUP, independents, and so on) to
maintain their political opposition on your behalf.



Contacting Senators is particularly important since the government
lacks a majority in the upper house.  Email them. Send them tweets,
Facebook posts or even snail mail. If you can, try to visit them in
person at their office. Don’t just make noise: make a clear case against
the budget.



You can protest. But protesting from within means that you must be
ready to back up your revolt with a plan for a positive alternative.
Direct your displeasure at government legitimately; make it difficult
for your representative to dismiss you as just another protester. Here,
it's not just citizens who need to act. Political parties and
parliamentarians must be ready to respond.



We saw what shape this type of action can take recently when tens of
thousands took to city streets across the country to protest against the
proposed budget. The so-called March in May rallies united people from all cross-sections of society left disenchanted with their government's plan for their future.



Sydney & Melbourne "Bust the Budget" Rallies







But this was not just any protest. It wasn't just rants and marches.
Political parties, such as the Greens, were also out in force and
they’re asking for people to share
their stories and proposals. They want everyday perspectives to bring
back to Canberra. This is the type of representative politics we need —
the type that depends on our active participation.



Public servants, many of whom may soon face the axe, can also play a
role from within. Before departments close and the projected 16,500
public servants are forced from their jobs, they can strike —  even for
an hour. In solidarity with colleagues, and as a symbolic gesture,
public servants can show government that efficiency comes with costs.



Try running a government, even for an hour, with insufficient staff
and see what happens. Sometimes, you just can't do more with less. It's
not just about economic benefits. It's not even about a 'smaller, less interfering government’,
as Joe Hockey put it. It's about the public and how they'll no longer
be served by the government that's supposedly there to represent them.

Idle No More protests held across Canada. Image - CBC News

Blocking the budget from without

The other form of action – which can overlap with the first – is
often advocated by those outside formal political institutions. This
form of action is about peacefully disrupting the continuity of everyday
life. It's about challenging the system until the government gives in
or a new election is called.



The indigenous Idle No More
movement in Canada serves as an instructive example. Protests, marches,
sit-ins, boycotts, and the like can be headline grabbing. But how often
do they truly impact the decisions of leaders? Protest is easily
dismissed or, worse still, condemned.



Take the recent demonstration on Q&A
for example. Not only were the students dismissed by Education
Minister, Christopher Pyne, they were condemned by host, Tony Jones, who
chided:

“That is not what democracy is all about and those students should understand that.”

QandA hijacked by student protesters proposed cuts by Edu Min Christopher Pyne

But what Idle No More does so well in the Canadian context is to
protest where it matters. By peacefully blocking things like major
highways, commercial railway lines (a useful technique for protesters in
country Australia) and the gates of major ports, they target the
national economy. They force a response from government. In Canada, the
government has responded and even entered into dialogue with the
movement.



For those not able or inclined to challenge the budget from within,
this may be your route. For those who feel un-represented by political
parties – even minor parties like the Greens or PUP – there is no need
to speak truth to power through an intermediary. You can stand together
as citizens and associations.







Indignados demonstration Madrid. Image - Samuel Cossar-Gilbert



Some of the techniques used recently in Thailand, or during the height of the Occupy/Indignados Movements
are also helpful. Peacefully and consistently blocking busy inner-city
roads and the entrances to train stations, ferries, and airports has the
effect of annoying others that would rather stay out of politics. It
spreads the message through irritation as those inconvenienced by the
protest are more likely to petition the government to resolve the issue.



Of course, state response to peaceful mass protest has the
unfortunate tendency to turn violent. Rather than dialogue with
demonstrators, governments have a habit of shutting down rallies and
evicting occupiers. Just last week, students protesting the proposed
changes to higher education as part of the budget initiatives were dragged from the streets by police.



Still, this is no reason not to try. Remember: in many other
democracies, it's not uncommon to occupy public spaces for prolonged
periods of time. It shouldn't be in ours either.

Putting the two together

Combining strategies from within and without
will weaken the government’s resolve and strengthen the opposition
case. But there are provisos. Both strategies need to be performed
non-violently. Violence de-legitimises democratic opposition. Both
strategies must have the same goal in this instance: block the budget by
putting forward a more just and measured alternative.



There should also be a clear follow-up policy for the government. Following the world's first Citizens Parliament run in Australia
more than 5 years ago, we would recommend that a citizens’ deliberative
assembly be created to thoroughly investigate the budget. Economic
reforms should then be made in line with the assembly’s recommendations.







In an age brimming with democratic innovations, it's a shame that a government can ask a panel composed of people with possible conflicts of interest to review an entire country’s budget. It's appalling that a government can use dodgy numbers to breed uncertainty and fear in the electorate.



Australians should be thinking seriously about how we got ourselves into this situation in the first place. 





This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License

Achievements of the Abbott Government To Date | The Sauce

Achievements of the Abbott Government To Date | The Sauce

Achievements of the Abbott Government To Date

By Matthew DavisWednesday, May 21st, 2014

 6995
 49

 

This guest post by Matthew Davis originally featured on his website.

The Abbott Government has been in power for 263 days. Since the election they:

• Funded PNG's defence against a legal challenge to the Manus Island detention centre.
  
  
  
• 
  Redirected $4 million from the Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission to the Home Insulation Inquiry.
  
  
  
• 
  Gave the Minister for Infrastructure the power to silence Infrastructure
  Australia (an independent body) without justification. (See section
  5A(2) of the link.)
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to scrap the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency.
  
  
  
• 
  Confiscated medication from asylum seeker detainees.
  
  
  
• 
  Deliberately hid the cost of the $4.45 million renovations on the Lodge.
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to introduce a $7 fee for each time you go to see a GP.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $50,000 on one dinner for 60 G20 guests, including food specially flown to Washington from all over Australia.
  
  
  
• 
  Lied about the presence of a full time psychiatrist on Manus Island.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut over $900 million from local council funding.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped tax breaks for people with a dependent spouse.
  
  
  
• 
  Voted against the creation of a federal anti-corruption body.
  
  
  
• 
  Called Bill Shorten a "cunt" in parliament, on camera.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $170 million from the Research Training Scheme, which supported research students.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $12 million to investigate whether to sell a department which makes $0.538 billion per year for only $6 billion.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $15 million from Charles Sturt University's dental health program and oral clinic.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $2.5 billion from aged care programs, such as Meals On Wheels.
  
  
  
• 
  Removed financial rewards which encouraged Universities to enroll disadvantaged students.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the National Rental Affordability Scheme from 2015 onwards.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut sunday penalty rates for casual restaurant workers.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $16 million from ANSTO, Australia's only source of medical isotopes.
  
  
  
• 
  Slashed $1.1 million used to fight against animal abuse.
  
  
  
• 
  Made $110 million of broad-sweeping cuts to the Arts. The only
  organisation to receive more funding ($1 million more) is coincidentally
  chaired by the daughter of Rupert Murdoch.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $28.2 million from the Australia Council, which provides grants for the arts.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $38 million from Australian television and film funding.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the National Water Commission.
  
  
  
• 
  Threw another $100 million at the mining industry.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the National Preventive Health Agency’s $2.9 million National Tobacco Campaign.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise to have over one million roofs with solar panels.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise by cutting billions from school funding and committing to even less of the Gonski reforms.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped a program to encourage graduates to take up work in places of need.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $1.3 billion from seniors concessions funding.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Community Food Safety campaign.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $2.3 million from contributions to the World Health Organization.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped a program which encouraged Australian video game development.
  
  
  
• 
  Deregulated university fees, thereby allowing Universities to charge
  what they want. Students will end up with American levels of crippling
  debt. Many of the politicians behind this policy received their degrees
  for free.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Women's leadership program.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise by cutting well over $15 billion per year from health funding.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority, which helped increase organ donation rates.
  
  
  
• 
  Tightened eligibility and lowered indexation for support for injured Veterans.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Commonwealth Human Rights Education Programme.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Education Department’s Online Diagnostic Tools Program, which helped improve teachers' productivity.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $4.4 million from job interview workshop programs.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Office of Water Science research program.
  
  
  
• 
  Reduced the Medicare optometry rebate.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $480 million merging the Department of Immigration and Customs
  into Border Force, which won't have to follow public service or ADF laws
  and protocols of conduct.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Simultaneously increased the cost of petrol and cut funding for public transport.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped Youth Connections, a program which helped school leavers find work.
  
  
  
• 
  Removed family tax benefits for children older than 6, and drastically
  reduced the income threshold for its eligibility and froze it below
  interest rates.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $845.6 million from programs which fund innovative start-ups.
  
  
  
• 
  Stopped giving under 25s Newstart.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $218 million upgrading Christmas Island's asylum seeker
  operations, so that we can whisk off vulnerable people out of side
  quicker before we start abusing them.
  
  
  
• 
  Halved the $2.55 billion emissions reduction fund.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $2 billion from Australian Renewable Energy Agency, Landcare and other environmental agencies.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut over half a billion from Indigenous spending.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut 16,500 public service jobs, despite promising to create one million new jobs.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut the Exotic Diseases program.
  
  
  
• 
  Ended the Get Reading! program.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Centre for Quality Teaching.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $111 million from the CSIRO.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $120 million from ethanol and biofuel programs.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Cut all funding to NICTA, a peak technology research company.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut welfare for young people, so they have to survive on $0 per week for
  6 months, before being put on a welfare scheme which is below the
  poverty line anyway.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Set aside $245 million for religious chaplains in schools. Secular
  schools do not have the option of hiring a secular equivalent.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the First Home Buyer's Account scheme, which provided sorely needed assistance for young people to buy homes.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise by tightening disability pension eligibility
  and financially penalising anyone who spends at least 4 weeks overseas.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise by changing age pension indexation, and eligibility age, and the threshold.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Abolished the position of disability discrimination commissioner.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut all funding to the government's only dedicated disability website.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise by cutting $40 million from the SBS and ABC.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Cut foreign aid, again. This time by $7.6 billion.
  
  
  
• 
  Started charging interest on HECs.
  
  
  
• 
  Reduced the income threshold where graduates start to pay back HECS.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $138 million from the Australian Federal Police, resulting in 335 job losses.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped a loan scheme which helped apprentices buy the tools they need to learn and work.
  
  
  
• 
  Deliberately ignored desperate and repeated pleas by security personnel
  on Manus Island requesting stronger fencing, CCT cameras and better
  lighting. These requests were made months before locals broke down the
  fences, shot, stabbed and bashed detainees.
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed asylum seekers are safe on Nauru, even after an unexploded wartime shell was found inside the compound.
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed asylum seekers are safe on Nauru, even after it was leaked that
  some guards physically and verbally assault children regularly.
  
  
  
• 
  Failed to provide adequate medical treatment to asylum seekers on Manus
  Island who were shot and bashed by locals who invaded the camp and
  rioted.
  
  
  
• 
  Went $1 million (67%) over budget on the Commision of Audit, an
  investigation into how taxpayer money can be spent more prudently.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $15 million from Flinders Hospital, then spent $10 million upgrading the field for the Manly Rugby Leage team.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise to not cut ABC funding, by cutting all funding to the Australia Network (part of the ABC).
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Described wind farms as "urterly offensive" and "a blight on the landscape".
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $20 million on an international campaign to discourage people from fleeing war crimes, genocide and other persecution.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise by proposing a deficit tax.
  
  
  
• 
  Chose not to debrief any Manus Island detention centre staff after the
  riots by PNG locals which resulted in the death of one asylum seeker and
  the hospitalisation of dozens more.
  
  
  
• 
  Paid people $1500 per person per day to recommend spending cuts.
  
  
  
• 
  Failed to act on the recommendations of the commander of Operation
  Sovereign Borders regarding CCTV cameras and strong fences on Manus
  island. 3 months later security guards and locals pushed over the fences
  and assaulted the asylum seekers, resulting in 1 death and dozens of
  hospitilisations, none of which was caught on CCTV footage.
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to abolish the independent national charity regulation body, which
  would mean the government would regulate charities, possibly resulting
  in less impartial regulation. For example, environmental groups stripped
  of charity status because they oppose government policies.
  
  
  
• 
  Removed climate change from the agenda of the 2014 international G20 summit.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent about $2 million for Prince William and Kate's 14 day royal visit.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $3 billion on new drones to patrol our borders.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $7.5 million on life boats to send back asylum seekers in.
  Allegedly the motivation behind the government's asylum seeker policy is
  to stop people drowning when travelling from neighbouring countries to
  Australia in unsafe vessels. Despite this, much of the safety equipment
  was removed from the boats before sending asylum seekers back into the
  ocean.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to prevent internet supplier TPG from installing fibre all the way to customers.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise by no longer guaranteeing NBN speeds higher than what ADSL can provide.
  
  
  
• 
  Classified people born in Australia who have never left Australia as
  "unauthorised maritime arrivals" because their parents haven't had their
  asylum claims processed yet.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped a body which provides advice on over $1 billion in tax breaks
  that are designed to encourage Research and Development, despite
  promising during the election to improve incentives for Research and
  Development investment.
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed a 2.5% reduction in funding every year for the ABC is not a
  funding cut. The government promised during the election to not cut ABC
  funding.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut over 300 jobs (about 1 in 3) in the Treasury department.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut 400 jobs in the Department of Industry.
  
  
  
• 
  Removed anti-sweatshop laws and cut all funding to Ethical Clothing Australia.
  
  
  
• 
  Closed all Medicare offices on Saturdays.
  
  
  
• 
  Ceased legal assistance for people exercising their right to make a claim for asylum.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut 250 jobs from the Federal Environment Department.
  
  
  
• 
  Increased the fee for lodging Freedom of Information requests.
  
  
  
• 
  Increased the eligibility age for the pension.
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed that the average electricity bill will be $200 per year lower
  without the price on carbon, despite relevant power companies rejecting
  the magnitude of this figure.
  
  
  
• 
  Implemented a policy which dictates that public servants should be
  sacked if they criticise the government in social media, even if their
  profile does not mention the their employment, and even if the profile
  is completely anonymous.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Chose not to give 300 children almost any schooling during 9 months of detention.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Threatened staff against speaking out about the mismanagement of the
  Manus Island detention centre and the attacks against it's inmates by
  locals and staff.
  
  
  
• 
  Detained people in conditions so inhumane and horrid that a pregnant
  woman asked for an abortion, to stop her child suffering in detention
  indefinitely.
  
  
  
• 
  Chose not to process any claims for asylum from people detained on Manus Island.
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed that all social media is anonymous.
  
  
  
• 
  Chose to keep secret the report into the riots inside the Manus Island detention centre.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Paid a public relations company $97,000 for 3 weeks of work to help
  improve the Education Department's image, then refused to release the
  report that came of it.
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed the government will be $13.7 billion better off if the Mining
  Tax is scrapped, even though the loss of the tax itself would actually
  result in a net loss If $3.7 billion. The only savings would be through
  other cuts hidden in the repeal bill. The biggest of which is the
  Schoolkids Bonus (an initiative which was never associated with the
  Mining Tax).
  
  
  
• 
  Interfered with the judicial process by transferring asylum seekers to a
  remote detention centre the day before they started a court case
  against the Australian Government. The case was about how the government
  endangered them and their families by accidentally publishing personal
  details about their asylum claims online.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Spent more money on detention centres than it would cost to house asylum
  seekers in Sydney's most expensive 5 star hotels (per asylum seeker per
  day).
  
  
  
• 
  Started charging people who put in bankruptcy applications, and increased the levy on money earned post-bankruptcy.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke international laws by arbitrarily imprisoning children.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped a program to give asylum seekers free advice on how to navigate
  Australia's immigration bureaucracy when exercising their right to seek
  asylum. The justification for this scrapping was based on the false
  claim that asylum seekers are illegal.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to reintroduce temporary protection visas.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Ignored an order from the United Nations Human Rights Committee to
  release some asylum seekers who are being illegally held without proof
  or judicial protection, in cruel, inhumane or degrading circumstance.
  
  
  
• 
  Reintroduced the British system of knights and dames, only 3 months after saying they would not do so.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $211,000 on public relations staff to make the Medibank Private sale more palatable to the public.
  
  
  
• 
  Sold Medibank Private for $4 billion, even though that means the
  government will lose up to $0.5 billion per year of income from
  dividends.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed that all Australians have the "right to be a bigot".
  
  
  
• 
  Refused to grant a human rights lawyer access to the Manus Island detention centre.
  
  
  
• 
  Backed PNG's decision to cancel a human rights inquiry into the Manus Island detention centre.
  
  
  
• 
  Issued Manus island detention centre guards with knives designed for
  noose cutting, because they frequently need to cut down people who try
  to hang themselves because of the horrid conditions.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to exempt loggers in Tasmania's World Heritage forests from the
  Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, so they
  won't have to worry about killing threatened species.
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed that the majority of asylum seekers on Manus island won't be
  given refugee status, even though more than 90% of all asylum seekers
  who've come to Australia since mid 2009 were eventually found to be
  genuine refugees, fleeing torture, rape, genocide and persecution.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Vowed to revive a part of WorkChoices which means construction Industry
  Enterprise Bargaining Agreements don't apply to subcontractors doing
  Commonwealth work.
  
  
  
• 
  Refused to support a UN proposal to investigate war crimes and crimes
  against humanity in Sri Lanka. If such crimes been committed, the Abbott
  government will be guilty of crimes against humanity for forcefully
  sending refugees back to Sri Lanka, and for actively helping the Sri
  Lankan military stop people from fleeing their rape, torture and
  genocide. A Sri Lankan Tribunal has already proven that the Sri Lankan
  government is guilty of genocide.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Failed to provide running water to some toilets in the detention centre on Manus Island.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $25 million extending the contracts of the crew on one ship so they could be part of Operation Sovereign Borders.
  
  
  
• 
  Provided no soap in the Manus Island detention centre and regularly gave asylum seekers worm infested food.
  
  
  
• 
  Proposed amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act so that people who
  "offend" or "insult" someone because of their "race, colour or national
  or ethnic origin" will not be legally required to pay compensation.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Gave $100 million to Australia's 2 most profitable mining companies,
  despite claiming "the age of entitlement is over", and despite refusing
  to give corporate welfare to struggling companies who have to sack
  hundreds of workers.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Prevented journalists from interviewing asylum seekers injured in the Manus Island riots.
  
  
  
• 
  Lied thrice in one BBC interview by claiming that the Abbott government
  is considering settling asylum seekers in Australia, and claiming that
  children in detention go to school, and claiming that asylum seekers on
  Manus Island are having their claims processed. None of these claims are
  true.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Cut all welfare ($260,000) for orphans of defence force casualties.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Gave state governments an ultimatum: sell off government assets before a
  certain deadline, (regardless of whether the people or the state
  government want to) or miss out on billions of dollars of funding. This
  includes selling NSW's 'poles and wires' for only $3-5 billion, even
  though they generate over $1.5 billion per year for the government. The
  states would not be allowed to use the money from the sales to pay off
  debt.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Justified the logging of forests currently on the world heritage list
  because Christianity supposedly tells us "the environment is meant for
  man".
  
  
  
  
• 
  Ripped $140 billion out of Australians' superannuation accounts through
  loosening of consumer protection rules regarding financial planning.
  
  
  
• 
  Deported the mother of a 4 year old Australian citizen, thereby
  separating the child permanently from her only remaining guardian.
  
  
  
• 
  Stopped collecting data on gender equality in the workplace.
  
  
  
• 
  Threatened to block government funding from arts groups who refuse sponsorship from corporations the artists deem unethical.
  
  
  
• 
  Lied to the United Nations about the quality of the Tasmanian forests they want removed from the world heritage list.
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed no Sri Lankan asylum seekers have been sent back into danger,
  despite being in possession of documents which prove at least one asylum
  seeker was tortured after being forcefully sent back. A Sri Lankan
  tribunal recently proved that the Sri Lankan government was guilty of
  genocide. The United Nations Human Rights Commission is currently
  investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Suggested most existing major roads should introduce tolls.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $24 billion on new fighter jets, which aren't going to be built in Australia, despite the supposed budget emergency.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed locating detention centres on Australian soil would not be "civilised".
  
  
  
• 
  Failed to supply enough food to asylum seekers inside the detention centre on Manus Island.
  
  
  
• 
  Secretly defeated an international nuclear disarmament treaty, arguing
  against a sentence in the treaty which stated that it is in the
  interests of humanity that nuclear weapons never be used again "under
  any circumstances". Australia argued that a disarmament treaty would be
  less effective at reducing proliferation than having no disarmament
  treaty.
  
  
  
• 
  Kept secret the taxpayer funded 900 page Audit commission report which
  recommended tightening eligibility for seniors health cards.
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to scrap the price on carbon, even though the emissions of relevant companies have dropped by 7% due to the price.
  
  
  
• 
  Declined an offer from the Uniting Church to care for unaccompanied
  refugee children currently in detention centres. The church offered to
  feed house and clothe them free of charge.
  
  
  
• 
  Ridiculed the notion that the minister for women should identify as a feminist.
  
  
  
• 
  Started 5 audits of the NBN within the first 7 months of being in power.
  
  
  
• 
  Proposed the scrapping of regulation which prevents media monopolies and duopolies.
  
  
  
• 
  Claimed that loggers are "the ultimate conservationists" during a speech
  about why the government will not create more national parks. In the
  same speech Abbott lamented that we have "too much locked up forest".
  There are currently over 1000 innocent children locked up in detention
  centres, presumably this is not "too much".
  
  
  
  
• 
  Doubled electoral registration fees in an attempt to suppress the
  Liberals' loss of votes to minor parties, thereby undermining democracy.
  
  
  
• 
  Blamed Qantas job losses on the carbon tax, even though a Qantas
  spokesman said "Qantas' current issues are not related to carbon
  pricing".
  
  
  
• 
  Finally admitted that "Operation Sovereign Borders" is a civilian operation not a military one.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent over $15,000 on a custom made bookcase to replace a $7,000 custom
  bookcase which holds $13,000 worth of taxpayer funded books and
  magazines in senator Brandis' office.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $22,000 taxpayer dollars buying new cutlery and crockery for the ministerial wing of parliament.
  
  
  
• 
  Hired 66 media staff for the department of Immigration, despite the fact
  that the department tells the media almost nothing. Those same staff
  spent over $9,000 in 2 months monitoring the media for transcripts of
  their own minister's press conferences.
  
  
  
• 
  Proposed a "green army" comprised of young people paid less than half of minimum wage without normal workplace protections.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $3 million in funding for a program to save an endangered rhino species of which there are only 100 left.
  
  
  
• 
  Referred to our humanitarian immigration program as "Operation Sovereign Murders".
  
  
  
• 
  Defended spending $3.5 million on a tent kitchen on Manus Island.
  
  
  
• 
  Sent asylum seekers back to Indonesia, 3 of which later died trying to cross a river in the jungle they landed next to.
  
  
  
• 
  Defended the Manus Island scheme during a press conference about the man
  who was shot dead in our detention centres by claiming the government
  is "ending the deaths" of asylum seekers.
  
  
  
• 
  Chose not to send any representatives to the Partnership for Market
  Readiness assembly, a conference which Australia helped fund which is
  about market mechanisms to curb emissions.
  
  
  
• 
  Appointed someone to head the investigation into the Manus Island riots
  who claimed that rape victims in Manus Island detention centres receive
  better treatment than Australians.
  
  
  
• 
  Planned a doubling of the defence force's annual budget, increasing it
  by $24 billion, despite the supposed budget emergency and after the
  withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Defied legislation by not appointing the Climate Change Authority to run the investigation into the Renewable Energy Target.
  
  
  
• 
  Blamed electricity price rises on the renewable energy target, despite
  Energy Australia stating that the target suppressed prices.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Banned the distribution of condoms in detention centres.
  
  
  
• 
  Forced Manus Island staffers to lie to detainees.
  
  
  
• 
  Placed an ex-officer of the Sri Lanka army in charge of the Manus Island
  detention centre, which holds people fleeing the Sri Lanka army's war
  crimes and genocide.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $13.3 million on floating hotels for detention centre staff on Manus island.
  
  
  
• 
  Admitted the information given about the Manus detention centre riots was drastically wrong.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Convinced Cambodia (one of the poorest countries in our region) to take
  in some of the refugees currently in our detention centres. Serious
  human rights abuse continues to be committed regularly under the
  Cambodian government and military.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Purchased 8 new Poseidon aircraft totalling $4 billion despite the "budget emergency".
  
  
  
  
• 
  Guarded the body of a dead asylum seeker using guards who were possibly
  the ones that shot him. Those same guards confiscated a camera from a
  journalist on site then deleted all his photos.
  
  
  
• 
  Blamed the Carbon Tax for job losses at Alcoa's aluminium smelter,
  despite Alcoa being 94.5% exempt from the tax, and despite Alcoa
  explicitly stating that "the carbon tax was not a factor in the
  decision".
  
  
  
• 
  Accidentally published personal details about almost 10,000 asylum
  seekers and their claims, thereby putting all their lives in danger.
  Regardless of whether the original asylum claims were genuine, if those
  asylum seekers are returned to their country of origin, they and their
  family may be imprisoned, tortured or killed because governments and
  militias in their country of origin will know they sought asylum. As
  part of a press release about the accidental leak, the government made
  public further information about where to find the still life
  threatening document.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Admitted that Navy ships "inadvertently" crossed into Indonesian waters
  despite using high tech GPS navigation, then they made the exact same
  mistake again 5 times. The government chose to not even interview any
  crew members of one such ship when writing a report on the matter.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Removed poverty reduction from the goals of the foreign affairs department, which manages foreign aid.
  
  
  
• 
  Paid their own indigenous employees substantially less than non-indigenous co-workers despite promising to help "close the gap".
  
  
  
• 
  Deleted negative comments on the Department of Immigration's Facebook
  page, but left objectively false comments, such as claims that asylum
  seeking is illegal.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Denied responsibility after Manus Island detention centre guards let in a
  mob of locals, resulting in an asylum seeker being shot and dozens more
  injured. Injuries included slit throats, machete wounds and eyes
  hanging from sockets.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Chose not to mention a $882 million payout to News Corp. when outlining a
  $16.8 billion budget black hole. The payout was the single biggest item
  in the black hole.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Annoyed the Navy by having the immigration minister tour naval bases like a defence minister would.
  
  
  
• 
  Promised to continue with their NBN plan even if a cost-benifit analysis
  (which is yet to be done) shows it does not give a worthwhile return on
  investment.
  
  
  
• 
  Chose a climate change denier to lead a review of the renewable energy target.
  
  
  
• 
  Denied any link between droughts and climate change.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent $4.3 million on market research to gauge public opinion on social media and other outlets about government policies.
  
  
  
• 
  Proposed greater government control over the internet, including the power to order ISPs to block specific sites.
  
  
  
• 
  Attempted to undermine the rule of law by granting the Environment
  Minister retrospective legal immunity against court challenges alleging
  he failed to consider expert environmental advice before approving
  damaging mining projects. i.e. They are legislating to allow the
  Environment Minister to literally ignore the environment.
  
  
  
• 
  Exempted Western Australia from federal laws protecting endangered
  species to allow a shark cull, despite evidence culls do not reduce the
  frequency of attacks on humans.
  
  
  
• 
  Spread propaganda to potential asylum seekers which deliberately make
  Australia look like a villainous, uncompassionate country. The
  propaganda completely ignores the violence, torture, rape and
  persecution that causes people to seek asylum.
  
  
  
• 
  Disbanded an asylum seeker health panel of 12 experts from a range of
  fields, replacing it with one military surgeon. The government has
  refused to comment on the matter.
  
  
  
• 
  Alleged that Edward Snowden endangered lives and claimed that Australia does not need any surveillance reform.
  
  
  
• 
  Denied any wrongdoing after a government aid married to the head of a
  junk food lobby pulled down a government website providing simplified
  nutritional information within hours of its launch.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut 500 jobs from the Australian Tax Office.
  
  
  
• 
  Violated Youtube's policies regarding deceptive content, resulting in the suspension of Abbott's whole channel.
  
  
  
• 
  Lied about NSW signing on with their independent schools deal.
  
  
  
• 
  Proposed the conversion of one quarter of public schools to independent schools.
  
  
  
• 
  Said "the age of entitlement is over" yet continues to give mining
  companies billions of dollars of subsidies and tax concessions.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Lied about the working conditions at SPC factories to justify declining financial assistance.
  
  
  
• 
  Arbitrarily denied many asylum seekers the right to a lawyer during the interviews where they make their asylum claim.
  
  
  
• 
  Withheld asylum seeker arrival numbers to avoid being a "shipping news
  service for people smugglers", despite literally advertising those same
  numbers on a billboard while in opposition.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Dismissed out of hand serious allegations that Navy personnel assaulted
  asylum seekers, based on the supposed moral perfection those personnel. A
  recent investigation proved that some of those personnel had sexually
  assaulted other crew by inserting objects up their arses. The Defence
  Force and the Immigration Department didn't even bother interviewing the
  asylum seekers who made the claims.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Embarrassed Australia on the world stage by oversimplifying the Syrian conflict as "goodies vs baddies".
  
  
  
• 
  Appointed yet another straight, white cisgendered male as Governor General.
  
  
  
• 
  Appointed Kevin Donnelly to lead the new curriculum review. Donnelly
  once questioned whether migrants and women are disadvantaged, and
  suggested homosexuality is "unnatural".
  
  
  
• 
  Called Edward Snowden a traitor.
  
  
  
• 
  Criticised the ABC because they aren't biased towards the Government.
  
  
  
• 
  Accepted a claim for asylum not because of the merit of the claim but because Cricket Australia wanted the man in their team.
  
  
  
• 
  Violated international convention by criticising Labor on the Global stage.
  
  
  
• 
  Stole crucial evidence from an Australian lawyer representing East Timor
  in an international tribunal against Australia relating to our illegal
  spying on East Timor's oil deal.
  
  
  
• 
  Shut down the 113 year old Australian Valuation Office, thereby making 200 jobs disappear.
  
  
  
• 
  Provoked Indonesia so much that they put their air force on standby at the border.
  
  
  
• 
  Crossed into Indonesian waters without authorisation again, then
  abandoned a boat without enough fuel to get to shore, forcing asylum
  seekers to swim for an hour to get to shore.
  
  
  
• 
  Opposed moves to cease the recital of the (Christian) Lord's prayer at
  the start of each sitting day of (secular) federal parliament.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut all funding from all international environmental programs.
  
  
  
• 
  Closed mainland detention centres and moves detainees offshore, citing
  budget savings as the motivation, even though offshore processing
  costing almost twice as much as onshore processing.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Authorised the Navy to fire over the bows of asylum seeker boats.
  
  
  
• 
  Refused to comment on 4 attempted suicides, hunger strikes and many self
  harm attempts happening simultaneously in detention centres.
  
  
  
• 
  Exempted Navy personnel of workplace safety obligations to treat asylum
  seekers safely, and gave them legal immunity for criminal acts which are
  committed by order of the government.
  
  
  
• 
  Halted the roll out of the national school curriculum (which was
  developed over 3 years with heavy and wide consultation). The
  justification was that it needs to be rewritten by 2 individuals so that
  they can make it more right wing.
  
  
  
• 
  Refused to respond to questions from the United Nations about boat tow-backs.
  
  
  
• 
  Likened our humanitarian immigration program to war.
  
  
  
• 
  Directed that asylum seeker families shall be given the lowest priority
  for processing, even those who've lived in Australia for years.
  
  
  
• 
  Spent over $120,000 on Kirribilli House, including $13,000 on an imported luxury rug, paid for by the taxpayer.
  
  
  
• 
  Endangered lives, committed maritime piracy and broke other
  international laws by turning around a boat whose passengers have the
  right to seek asylum in Australia. The government refused to comment on
  the matter. Lives were endangered as a result of this move, because the
  boat ran out of fuel and became stranded.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to deport a gay refugee to Pakistan, where he would be imprisoned
  for life for his sexuality. In doing so the government would have
  committed human rights abuse by violating the principle of
  non-refoulement. The man has never lived in Pakistan.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Threatened to withhold food from families if children don't stand still
  for 6 hours per day queueing for food. The food is sometimes served with
  hands not utensils.
  
  
  
• 
  Forced women to queue for a whole day just to get a tampon or pad, only
  to queue again when they need a fresh one. The government refused to
  comment.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Building Multicultural Communities Program. 400 community
  organizations will now miss out on the promised funding they have
  already budgeted for.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut all funding to Jewish Holocaust Centre ($7,700).
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to silence the media to stop them criticising the upcoming private jet deal for politicians.
  
  
  
• 
  Quietly reduced instant asset write-off tax breaks for small businesses despite championing themselves as pro-small-business.
  
  
  
• 
  Criticised the ABC for not "advancing Australia's broad and enduring
  interests in the Asian region", without actually accusing the ABC of any
  specific wrongdoing or poor judgement.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the National Intercountry Adoption Advisory Group then 2 months
  later created the interdepartmental working group on overseas adoption,
  a body which serves an identical purpose.
  
  
  
• 
  Stopped weekly press conferences on asylum seekers. Declined further comment on the matter.
  
  
  
• 
  Approved 6.2% increase in health insurance premiums.
  
  
  
• 
  Deliberately omitted 23 questions asked of the immigration minister in a
  press conference. They have refused to comment further on why those
  questions were omitted.
  
  
  
• 
  Refused to give proper medical treatment to a pregnant women in
  detention who subsequently had a miscarriage. She probably would have
  had a normal birth had she received the treatment she asked for. The
  government declined to comment further.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise to send a boat to monitor whaling by instead
  promising to only send an aircraft. The government subsequently broke
  that second promise too, allowing whalers to kill endangered whales
  without any Australian monitoring.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Broke and election promise by renaming the NDIS, making it
  "DisablityCare" and renaming the "launch" a "trial", thereby casting
  doubt on whether they will even commit to the scheme fully.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the AusAid graduate program, requiring the sacking of the newest batch of graduates.
  
  
  
• 
  Axed the position of coordinator-general for remote indigenous services.
  
  
  
• 
  Approved the construction of gargantuan coal mines in the Galilee Basin,
  including one in the habitat of an endangered species. If all projects
  go ahead the emissions released from that coal annually will amount to
  130% of what our entire nation currently emits annually.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Appointed Tim Wilson as human rights commissioner - someone who has
  personally advocated for the abolition of the human rights commission,
  and who's new 6 figure salary is so large that the commission will have
  to cut education and anti-bullying programs to fund it.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Biodiversity fund.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut funding for the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, a body of elected representatives of the indigenous people.
  
  
  
• 
  Handed $16 million to Cadbury, but refused to give subsidies to Holden,
  Qantas and SPC Ardmona. Cadbury is owned by a multinational firm whose
  profits rose by 64% to $74.9 million last year. Coincidentally the
  Cadbury factory is located in a marginal electorate.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Axed the home energy saver scheme, which successfully helped struggling households cut down high electricity bills.
  
  
  
• 
  Dismantled the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the Low Carbon Communities Program and the Caring for our Country Program.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $43.1 Million in legal aid funding, including Aboriginal and Torres
  Strait Islander legal services, community legal services, the UNSW
  Indigenous Legal Centre and the Family Violence Prevention Legal
  Services.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Cut funding for the Energy Efficiency Program (which was compulsory for large electricity consumers).
  
  
  
• 
  Slashed all funding (over $10 million) from the Environmental Defender's Offices.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise by cutting $150 million from NSW hospitals.
  
  
  
• 
  Axed a scheme to improve the wages of aged care workers.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Wage Connect Program (a scheme which encouraged employers to hire long-term unemployed people).
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise for a 25Mbi/s National Broadband Network, and announced that it will cost more than they promised.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise to return to surplus by 2016-2017.
  
  
  
• 
  Undermined the rule of law by proposing a "code of conduct" for refugees
  living in Australia, despite the fact refugees commit fewer crimes per
  person than the national average.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Failed to take any action in response to Snowden's leaks showing that
  the Australian Government is helping the USA spy on all Australians.
  
  
  
• 
  Repealed poker machine laws designed to address gambling addiction.
  
  
  
• 
  Planned the unwinding of the World Heritage protection of Tasmanian
  forests despite opposition from the Forest Industries Association of
  Tasmania.
  
  
  
• 
  Changed the ministerial code of conduct so ministers no longer have to sell shares which create a conflict of interest.
  
  
  
• 
  Threatened queer detainees in PNG by saying they will be reported to
  local police if they engage in homosexual acts. Homosexuality is illegal
  in PNG. Such threats mean refugees fleeing persecution because of their
  sexual orientation are not able to make their asylum claim without fear
  of arrest. This counts as human rights abuse because it violates the
  principle of non-refoulement and strips people of their right to safely
  make a claim for asylum. The government has refused to comment further.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Terminated their deal with the Salvation Army to provide humanitarian
  assistance with those on Manus Island and Nauru. Consequently 300 people
  lost their job. The government has refused to comment further.
  
  
  
• 
  Disbanded IHAG, a group that provides advice about the health of asylum
  seeker detainees, which helps combat the rising rates of mental illness
  and self harm. the government has refused to comment further.
  
  
  
• 
  Approved the expansions for Abbott Point coal port, which requires
  dumping 3 million tonnes of dredge spoil onto the Great Barrier Reef,
  thereby threatening the Queensland's entire tourism industry and
  hospitality industry, and the reef's heritage status.
  
  
  
• 
  Removed the Murray Darling from the list of threatened ecological communities.
  
  
  
• 
  Signed a trade agreement with South Korea that allows foreign companies
  to sue the Australian government if it implements policies which
  adversely affect their business (e.g. for environmental or
  anti-sweatshop reasons).
  
  
  
• 
  Removed the requirement for the government to consider advice about the
  protection of endangered species when approving projects.
  
  
  
• 
  Detained innocent asylum seekers in conditions so horrible they amount
  to torture according to Amnesty International. 500ml of water per person
  per day, in a shadeless tropical island, with mental illness rates of
  over 30% and no soap despite rampant gastro.
  
  
  
• 
  Made Orwellian threats about cutting ABC funding because the government
  didn't like one of their stories, and because their quality of
  journalism is too high, thereby creating competition which threatens the
  corporate newspaper duopoly (who are now floundering because they
  didn't see the internet coming).
  
  
  
• 
  Incorrectly defined meta-data as billing data only, when it actually
  includes email subject headings, location data, financial transaction
  details and more.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Called for privatisation of electricity networks, despite evidence showing it does not lower power bills.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $3 billion in welfare for students, the elderly and families.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing, despite the fact our population is aging.
  
  
  
• 
  Secretly changed voting position at the UN regarding Israel and Palestine issue without telling anyone.
  
  
  
• 
  Abandoned Gonski agreements with states and committed to 3 fewer years of Gonski than their pre-election promise.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia. The
  government spent $1 million on administrative costs to do so, even
  though the council only received $1.6 million in funding per year. The
  Coalition made an election promise not to cut them.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $4.5 billion in foreign aid.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to scrap the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corp, even though it
  provides $110 million per year in revenue to the government.
  
  
  
• 
  Disbanded AusAid (the foreign aid body), merging the remainder into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
  
  
  
• 
  Ceased reporting births and clinical depression in detention centers. Downgraded self harm.
  
  
  
• 
  Forcefully and unapologetically separated a mother and her newborn child.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $300 million from child care staff subsidies.
  
  
  
• 
  Introduced a bill which allows for unpaid union officials in elected
  roles to be jailed for up to 5 years and fined up to $340,000.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $2.3 billion from higher education, and removed start-up
  scholarships (thereby significantly increasing the debt of the poorest
  students) and removed the 10% HECS discount for paying up-front.
  
  
  
• 
  Increased superannuation tax for the poor, and decreased it for the rich.
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to scrap the school kids tax concession (thereby increasing the
  cost of living for families by $16,000 per school child over their
  education).
  
  
  
• 
  Proposed axing funding for Commonwealth supported places at University.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Australian Animals Welfare Advisory Committee, Commonwealth
  Firearms Advisory Council, International Legal Services Advisory
  Council, National Steering Committee on Corporate Wrongdoing, Antarctic
  Animal Ethics Committee, Advisory Panel on the Marketing in Australia of
  Infant Formula, High Speed Rail Advisory Group, Maritime Workforce
  Development Forum, Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing, Insurance Reform
  Advisory Group and National Housing Supply Council (all in one day).
  
  
  
• 
  Provided $2.2 million for miners and farmers to fight against native title claims.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut $435 million from the Renewable Energy Agency.
  
  
  
• 
  Unwound same sex marriage laws in ACT.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Social Inclusion Board (an anti-poverty advisory group).
  
  
  
• 
  Used Wikipedia as a source, incorrectly.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Declared bushfires unrelated to climate change.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Mandated that all public servants should incorrectly refer to boat arrivals as "illegal".
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Sent no one important to the international climate summit. The people
  who did go went in tee-shirts, giggled and were so insensitive and
  disrespectful that there was a walkout by other countries.
  
  
  
• 
  Proposed privatising HECS.
  
  
  
• 
  Tried to raise the debt ceiling by $200 billion.
  
  
  
• 
  Moved to protect companies from boycotts against them (e.g. for using
  slave labour or destroying the environment) thereby undermining the
  foundation of capitalism by reducing consumer power.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Kept Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations secret, even though it
  threatens the very foundations of our democracy. The leaked agreement
  would allow international companies to sue governments if their profits
  are diminished by environmental laws. The TPP would give corporations
  many of the same rights that individuals have.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the 2020 emissions target.
  
  
  
• 
  Scrapped the Climate coalition.
  
  
  
• 
  Cut 600 CSIRO staff.
  
  
  
• 
  Donated $2 million worth of patrol boats to help Sri Lanka stop people
  fleeing proven genocide, human rights abuse, war crimes and extra
  judicial killings.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Excused torture in Sri Lanka.
  
  
  
• 
  Chose not to appoint a minister for science, for the first time in half a century.
  
  
  
• 
  Appointed a man as minister for women who said "I don't support womens' causes".
  
  
  
  
• 
  Chose a cabinet with 1 woman and 18 men.
  
  
  
• 
  Broke an election promise that Abbott would spend his first week in an Aboriginal community.
  
  
  

Matthew Davis

Matthew Davis is an independent writer and political
reporter. He has previously written for the publication Tharunka, and is
currently completing a bachelor of Engineering at the University of New
South Wales.