Australian Labor Party - Chronic Money Wasters

/Part One of Unknown

Warren Truss (Leader of The Nationals Party) has information about Labor's broken promises on his website. I have gone through the list and come up with the broken promises that have cost taxpayers money.

Source: http://www.warrentruss.com/record.php?topic=2007%20%202011%20LABOR%20PARTY%20BROKEN%20PROMISES


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PROMISE – “I am an economic conservative, I am committed to balancing the budget” - Kevin Rudd 2007 election

BROKEN – Labor’s first budget produced a $27.1 billion deficit (double the previous highest ever deficit). The 2009-10 budget predicts a record $58 billion deficit. Net public debt will blow out to $315 billion. 2010-11 Budget predicts a $40.8 billion deficit


MY COMMENTS - The Labor faithful will always suggest that they "inherited" the Liberals outstanding debt, which I don't agree with. If the $27.1 billion deficit WAS Liberals fault than in one year Labor raked up $30.9 billion in 12 months (more than 2.5 billion per month on average). The public debt blew out whilst the Government seemed to hold onto 'their' money.

Caption: A tearful Kevin Rudd after backstabbing JuLIAR Gillard kicked him from his perch 

(after saying she was not interested in becoming Prime Minister of Australia)

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PROMISE - Parliament will resume before Christmas and Ministers will not be allowed a Christmas holiday break

BROKEN - Ministers all have Christmas holidays and Parliament does not sit until February, the latest start in memory

MY COMMENTS - There are 19 days in January that weren't public holidays or weekends. Did staff have to take leave of their own to make up this time or were they paid?

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PROMISE - Labor will deliver fibre to the node broadband with speeds of 100 megabits per second to 98% of Australians beginning by Christmas 2008 at a cost of $4.7 billion

BROKEN - Labor axed the $900 million Opel contract to deliver wireless broadband to regional Australia and has not delivered fast speeds to any household by Christmas 2009. Now only 90% of Australians will ever get fibre to the home and 2 million Australians in regional areas have been excluded from Labor's promise. The cost of Labor's scheme is now put at $43 billion

MY COMMENTS - Where do I start? Work was supposed to have started in 2008 and hadn't started a full 12 months on. The scope of the project has dropped 8% of the population - It doesn't sound like much but that represents 1,760,000 people (where the Australian Population were 22 million people), and there was always going to be 2% on top of this. 1 in 10 people won't get this, but the price has increased almost ten-fold. Fast internet in Australia is more a luxury, something for city people or people working in the industry than anything currently - And yet Stephen Conroy (of "The Great Firewall of Australia" fame) is the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital ECONOMY.

Caption: In addition to promises of fast, affordable internet for Australians there is poor policy on censorship  

Flyer for "Operation Titstorm"

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PROMISE - Labor will give a computer to every secondary school student in years 9-12

BROKEN - Now the promise is only to have a computer available for every second child and only if the State Government or parents pay for electricity, programs, cables, repairs, upgrades etc

MY COMMENTS - This is a total waste of money. I have been told that only students that declare that they will stay in school until the completion of year 12 are eligible. In some areas this means young people are even more disadvantaged (where drop out numbers are higher). These 'computers' are netbook PC's and as it says you get it as equipped and then it is your problem from than on in. They're probably good for porn, looking up bombs and bullying people on Facebook though right?

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PROMISE - Labor will establish Grocery Watch to put downward pressure on grocery prices

BROKEN - After spending $13 million on failed grocery price reporting schemes, Labor abandons Grocery Watch

MY COMMENTS - Of all of the promises/policies that Labor have or have proposed (and not delivered) this is one of the few that I would have maybe used, and now it's scrapped after blowing $13 million on not doing it.

Caption: There are now "wars" over grocery prices at major retailers in Australia, including the price of milk

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PROMISE - Labor will establish Fuel Watch to help motorists buy the cheapest petrol

BROKEN - Labor abandons its failed Fuel Watch scheme after spending $21 million

MY COMMENTS - Real-time price prices retrievable from an in-car navigating GPS would have been...where is the nearest an cheapest fuel? However Labor dropped this plan after spending $21 million on something the public never saw. 

Caption: Prices in Australia are as high as ever, even despite the AUD being worth 10c extra per USD

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PROMISE - Labor will provide an extra $15 million for Rural Research and Development Corporations affected by drought

BROKEN - $10 million provided for climate change activities instead

MY COMMENTS - Where did the other $5 million go? Lucky they used that money, considering the drought broke naturally and in epic proportions causing flooding in many areas.

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PROMISE - Labor will reduce expenditure on consultancies by $395 million

BROKEN - Labor paid $952 million in consultancy contracts in its first two years in office, more than any other government in history

MY COMMENTS - The promise (as given here) is a bit loose as it doesn't say in what sort of time frame. $952 million over two years is $476 million per year. If $395 million was to be cut annually that would leave them with an allowance of $81 million per year.

$952 million divided by 731 days (2 years with one being a leap year) equals 1.3 MILLION DOLLARS SPENT ON CONSULTANTS EVERY DAY

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PROMISE - Labor's modern award will not make workers or employers worse off

BROKEN - Labor's new awards leave most employers worse off and also many employees. ACTU Secretary admitted Labor's changes to industry based awards had left child care workers, aged care nurses, bar staff, funeral workers and some transport workers worse off (Hobart Mercury 2-3-2011)

MY COMMENTS - Remember the whole 'workchoices' campaign in 2007?

Caption: What were voters in the above industries voting for if they put their faith into this?

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PROMISE - Labor will deliver 750 new homes, rebuild 230 houses and refurbish 2500 dwellings in the Northern Territory at a cost of $672 million

BROKEN - $170 million spent and only seven new houses completed

MY COMMENTS - I have never heard of this one before. This is truly appalling where this is accurate information. It means that $502 million is left available for 743 new houses - these houses each have a budget of $675,639 based on these details.

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PROMISE - Labor will spend $100 million to re-engineer Menindee Lakes to save 200 billion litres of water a year for the Murray Darling

BROKEN - Nothing has been done

MY COMMENTS - Money that hasn't been spent couldn't have been wasted, right? Except this money was supposed to be spent on a natural, scarce (for that particular area) resource - Where was the allocated $100 million put instead?

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