PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA: Mr Deputy Speaker, the Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment (Schoolkids Bonus Budget Measures) Bill 2012 abolishes a good program, the education tax refund, and replaces it with a fistful of dollars designed to shore up the electoral prospects of the Prime Minister. The bill itself should be called the ‘sugar hit…
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA: We’d had legends before like Boy Charlton and Frank Beaurepaire and Fanny Durack, but they did not capture the public mood in the same way. It was the right moment for a whole group of athletes and the right moment for Melbourne. I don’t think Melbourne was ever the same again.” Journalist…
PUBLISHED ON THE DRUM May 7, 2012 The introduction of minimum standards for teacher education courses is urgent. Entrance scores have collapsed as revealed by a government report on university offers released last week: 6.5 per cent of offers were made to students with an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank of below 50. A further 15 per…
The Federal Member for Aston, Alan Tudge MP, joined with members and friends of the Boronia CWA to celebrate their 75th birthday today The Boronia Branch has a long and distinguished history. It was formed in 1937 by the wife of the Boronia Postmaster, Mrs Duffield who held a meeting of fourteen women in her home…
PUBLISHED IN THE AUSTRALIAN April 12, 2012: HAVING just returned from leading a political delegation to Vietnam, I have a confession: I had no idea Australia had recently given $160 million to Vietnam for a new bridge. But then neither did the Vietnamese I met. In almost 20 meetings with senior Vietnamese leaders, Australia’s funding…
The Prime Minister’s long-awaited school funding reforms outlined in the Gonski Review have been quietly shelved. The education ministers meeting last Thursday failed to endorse the reforms, with the Victorian Minister stating plainly that no substantial change will be happening anytime soon. After two years of work, it will back to the drawing board for…
PUBLISHED ON THE DRUM ABC: The Prime Minister’s long-awaited school funding reforms outlined in the Gonski Review have been quietly shelved. The education ministers meeting last Thursday failed to endorse the reforms, with the Victorian Minister stating plainly that no substantial change will be happening anytime soon. After two years of work, it will back to the…
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA: Today we lost a truly great Australian and, as Mike Sheahan said in today’s Herald Sun, ‘one of the most extraordinary figures in Australian life’—we lost Mr Jim Stynes. As the member for Flinders, who spoke just before me, so eloquently said, Mr Jim Stynes was not just a footballer, he was…
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA: Australia is a truly great democracy. We are indeed one of the great democracies of the world, the longest continuous democracy on the planet despite our relatively short history as a nation. We have never had a coup. We have never had a revolution. When we have elections at the state and…
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA: The objectives of the Corporations Amendment (Future of Financial Advice) Bill 2011 and the Corporations Amendment (Further Future of Financial Advice Measures) Bill 2011 are sound. They aim to improve the quality of financial advice while building trust and confidence in the financial planning industry through enhanced standards which align the interests…