facts on labour gov kevin rudd ..Commonwealth Budget papers confirm the deficit for 2009-10 was $54.5 billion, which is more than $100 million per day.1 Labor inherited a Budget surplus of $19.8 billion in 2007-08. Now we have a $254 billion debt The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) confirms that current securities on issue, subject to the limit under the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911, total $254,191 million.2 Kevin Rudd wasted up to $8 billion on school hall rip-offs Labor’s own BER Implementation Taskforce Report found that New South Wales public school buildings cost on average 60% more than independent schools.3 The BER Report also found that New South Wales and Victorian projects did not deliver value for money.4 An audit by the NSW Auditor General in 2012 also found that NSW Labor had spent $664 million more on school buildings than they should have cost.5 For example, schools receiving 50 per cent or less in value include: “Primary School that was robbed” (The Australian, 25 September 2009), “Parents bullied into taking less” (The Australian, 18 May 2010), “Offer of demountables anger community” (The Australian, 20 May 2010), “Double Classroom, Double Bill” (The Australian, 23 June 2010). Other examples indicate as much as 40 per cent may have been lost “Builders reap $5 billion, say principals”(The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 2010). Kevin Rudd was the architect of the roof batts disaster On 3 February 2009 Kevin Rudd announced that “the Rudd Government will install free ceiling insulation in around 2.7 million Australian homes”.6 After being linked to four deaths, more than 220 house fires and more than a thousand potentially electrified roofs,7 the program was suspended on 19 February 2010.8 The total cost was over $2 billion, with a blowout of $1 billion for checking and repairing faulty insulation.9 In 2008, Kevin Rudd dismantled our border protection policies In 2007 when he was Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd promised “We believe in a very hard line on the question of people smuggling, a very tough line on people smuggling”.10 Yet after he became Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd dismantled Australia’s successful border protection policies. The Rudd Government closed the offshore processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island. In May 2008 the Rudd Government also abolished Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs).11 Now 45,000 boat people have flooded in Since Kevin Rudd dismantled Australia’s strong border protection policies in 2008, the Labor Government’s own records show that more than 45,000 people have arrived on more than 700 unauthorised boats.12 Kevin Rudd attacked our mining industry with a super profits tax that failed In early May 2010, Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan announced a mining “Super Profits Tax” to “ensure Australians get a fair share from our valuable non-renewable resources”.13 The May 2010 Budget forecast that the mining tax would raise $3 billion in its first year (2012- 13).14 After Kevin Rudd bungled the process of the mining tax, it went through several versions over a number of years – in the end raising only $200 million in 2012-13 (as confirmed by the Commonwealth Budget papers).15 Kevin Rudd did a back-flip on the Emissions Trading Scheme In December 2008, Kevin Rudd told the National Press Club that “To delay any longer (on emissions trading) - would be reckless and irresponsible for our economy and for our environment.”16 In September 2009, Kevin Rudd told the United Nations that climate change was the “great moral, environmental and economic challenge of our age”.17 In December 2009 he said “to delay on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, is a vote to deny the climate change science.’18 However on 27 April 2010 the Rudd Government dumped the ETS.19 Kevin Rudd supported the world’s biggest carbon tax On 12 October 2011, Kevin Rudd voted in the House of Representatives to introduce the world’s biggest carbon tax.20, 21 With five Budget deficits and the carbon tax, Kevin Rudd and Labor have driven up the cost of living In 2007 Kevin Rudd inherited a strong economy with a surplus and no net debt. Since then, Labor have presided over five Budget deficits in a row (2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13).22 Electricity, Gas and the Carbon TaxAccording to the Government’s own estimates, the carbon tax has increased electricity prices by 10 per cent and gas prices by 9 per cent, in the first year alone.23 Electricity price increases hit household budgets twice – first, when the electricity bill comes in and second, when it pushes up the cost of production and increases the costs of the necessities of life. Cost of Living Rises Under LaborBelow is a table compiled from Australian Bureau of Statistics data, with the percentage cost of living increases under Labor – December Qtr 2007 to March Qtr 2013.24  Kevin Rudd has divided the Labor Party again with one third of Cabinet Ministers refusing to work with him On the evening of Wednesday 26th June 2013, when Kevin Rudd won the Labor leadership ballot, seven Cabinet Ministers resigned (Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, Stephen Conroy, Greg Combet, Craig Emerson, Joe Ludwig, Peter Garrett).25 Emerson, Garrett and Combet later announced their retirement from politics at the election. The following day, Stephen Smith announced that he would retire at the election.26 In the space of 24 hours, one third of Cabinet had either chosen to move to the backbench, or retire from politics entirely, rather than serve with Kevin Rudd.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 23:16:55 +0000
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