GREENS:The Greens think the concessions made in negotiating the MRRT are too much and that the tax should be increased. They want the revenue to be invested in skills for workers, infrastructure, reducing company tax for small business, and superannuation. However, if the Coalition blocks the bill in the Senate the Greens will support it in its present form – they will not help the mining industry avoid tax through the Coalition.
ALP:Presently, a royalty system exists to charge miners for extracting resources but has not kept pace with the dramatic increase in world minerals resource prices over the last 10 years. As of last year, miners paid an effective tax rate of 18% of their profits. Due to these being non-renewable national resources belonging to all Australians, the ALP sought to increase the tax on profits of iron ore and coal miners. In order to reach the recent agreement with miners, the ALP has made significant concessions, but in light of revised government forecasts the concessions made appear to have diminished. The mining tax still needs to receive passage through the Senate; this will have to wait till after the election.
LNP:The LNP are against the mining tax and favour broadening the tax base and allowing participants within the economy the incentive to work, to risk capital, and to be rewarded for their initiatives and innovation.
GREENS: The Greens are the only party who want to absorb the small number of genuine asylum seekers that seek refuge from persecution in Australia. Both the ALP & LNP in their view have historically engaged in implicit and complicit aversion toward accepting these suffering and displaced human beings. With 95% of asylum seekers found to be genuine and the support of the United Nations Refugees Convention, the Greens insist that we honour the Australian tradition of tolerance and a fair go.
ALP:The ALP believes that Australia should grant people who have genuinely suffered persecution in their homeland the right to live here when they seek asylum. Proper processing of these individuals is imperative in our duty to protect our nation and its citizens. While processing of asylum seekers needs to be humanly conducted the practice of people smuggling must be eradicated in the first instance.
LNP: The LNP believe that the matter needs to be resolved at its root cause. People smugglers have a product to sell and it is in offshore processing that the very basis for this commodity is thwarted. When Australian soil is no longer guaranteed, the prospect of travelling so far in dangerous waters becomes far less attractive.
GREENS:The Greens scheme appears to address the plight of women seeking to have children succinctly, but fails to include contingencies for men to take over the role of caregiver for a newborn. Still, the Greens advocate a 26 week scheme that is paid at the National Minimum Wage (approx. $570pwk) along with superannuation. Self employed are also eligible. The Greens have costed their scheme at $760m, a liability to be assumed by the government not business.
ALP:The ALP scheme while applying strict criteria for eligibility, appears to entertain a casual or low income earner who may earn more than their usual income while participating in the scheme. It provides 18 weeks leave which is less than the professionally recommended 26 weeks. The ALP scheme however, is a benefit paid to the family; it doesn’t differentiate between father and mother and so offers the family considerable flexibility. Employers will incur a cost of administering the scheme in right of employees who have given in excess of 12 months continuous service.
LNP:Criteria for eligibility is the same as Labor’s but the LNP scheme is attractive for those on high wages as it pays the replacement wage up to $150k p.a., with superannuation. The scheme is funded by a 1.5% levy on companies with profits over $5m and this is offset by a reduction in overall company tax at the same 1.5%. The scheme is administered entirely by the government but will only commence in July 2012. Until then the Labor scheme will operate.
GREENS:The Greens do not support the ALP’s proposed ISP based internet filter as it creates the mechanism for the abuse of public power, and has no evidence of achieving its objective of protecting children from harmful material. An ISP based filter is technically unworkable due to the sheer volume of content available online. The Greens instead support a strategy that includes education, increased funding for greater law enforcement, and tailored optional PC based filtering in order to ensure the internet is safe for children.
ALP:The initiative of the ALP to introduce an ISP level filter is in the face of much industry evidence that it slows internet speeds, and is technically incapable of protecting children from harmful online content. The ALP however point to other social reforms such as drink driving, tobacco consumption and speeding, and claim that merely because reforms are not 100% effective is no reason to abandon them. Further, in order to insure against the misuse of public power, they provide a comprehensive framework that ensures accountability and transparency. Notably, the legislative criteria and the National Classifications Scheme for compiling the list, once enacted, will bind a Board of Review and render any appeal relying on the quality of the list, quite useless. Presently, the ALP has decided to subject their ISP filter policy to independent review before implementation.
LNP:The Coalition are opposed to an ISP based filter due to its ineffectiveness with high volumes of content, its ineffectiveness within online networks, its impact on internet speeds, its ability to be circumvented, and its potential to encourage a false sense of security among parents. They advocate a PC based internet filter scheme. The Coalitions scheme delegates’ responsibility for distributing PC based filter software to the ISP.
GREENS: The Greens believe that Climate Change mitigation can be successfully implemented through the use of economic incentives to alter the very nature of demand. A price on carbon is inevitable. The Greens advocate a market based transition as opposed to one based on fiscal policy. This needs to be complemented by committed emission target setting, development of alternate energy sources, and intolerance for fossil fuel energy sources in the long term.
ALP: While the ALP subscribes to emission targets and carbon concentration levels that are lower than the Greens, they are committed to binding obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. They approve of non renewable geothermal energies such as coal seam methane gas, and the continued investment in coal fired electricity providing carbon sequestration and underground storage is implemented. Notably, the ALP seek community consensus to implement their $42bn CPRS in 2012.
LNP: The LNP pride themselves on being a party that imposes less tax and government intervention, while allowing market forces within the economy to regulate. Their approach to climate change is no different; it offers incentives for business & consumers to make their own choices without imposing a tax regime. The emission targets are precisely the same as the ALP’s but with a cost saving of $39bn. A price on carbon is applied somewhat ad hoc by allowing business to decide the point at which it is beneficial to adopt lower emissions.
GREENS:The Greens health policy is one that supports the financially and socially marginalized; low income earners, Indigenous Australians and women seeking terminations. Typically, the Greens advocate support of the public health system as opposed to investing in the private health system in which low income earners cannot participate. They advocate intense investment in primary healthcare and preventative healthcare, and specifically, mental healthcare.
ALP:Dedicating more than $7b over 5 years and $15b over 10 years, the ALP have made unprecedented reforms in the health system, with intensive focus on primary care and the opportunity for all Australians to consult a GP more easily. Waiting times for surgery and broader health services will be reduced and new national standards of health service will have to be complied with. Preventative health care will continue in mental health, obesity, diabetes and binge drinking. A modern cancer care system is being developed to extend to regional Australia. The Indigenous mortality rate is specifically being targeted.
LNP:The Coalition are advocates of the Private Health Insurance scheme that provides a 30% rebate for almost half of Australia’s population who maintain private health insurance. The Coalition will increase human resources and their capacity (GP’s & nurses) with incentives to develop skills, relocate and practice in regional and rural areas. Mental health will be heavily invested in. The national health system will prevail with the $15.6b paid to service providers rather than State governments. The Coalition will fund 40% of the costs of the public system but will not require GST revenue from the States.
GREENS:Essentially, the Greens are in favour of supporting the public school system as educational conduit for all, as opposed to and at the expense of, the private school system. They disapprove of MySchool.com and its pseudo league tables that pit schools against one another. The Greens advocate free education throughout a person’s lifetime at all stages of development, support Indigenous education, and encourage incentivised remuneration to bring about the best performance outcomes from teachers.
ALP:The vision of the ALP lies in setting international standards of quality education in Australia. A new generation of empowered Australians will graduate from this system by 2025, and the benefits will endure throughout the 21st Century. The Education Tax Rebate is extended to include school uniforms, and a performance based system is instituted to monitor students, teachers and schools. Of note is the incorporation of experts in various other fields into teaching within the system. While 686 000 computers are to be provided to secondary students under the Computers in Schools program, less than half of them have been rolled out.
LNP:The Coalition will continue to maintain the two tiers of education in Australia; the private school system and the public school system. The ALP had initially promised 2650 Trade Training Centres and as they have only delivered 22 of these, the Coalition may not extend the capacity of this program to its original scope. The Education Tax Rebate is extended to include school fees and extracurricular activities, and its maximum 50% rebate is increased to $500 for primary students and $1000 for senior students.
GREENS: As the privatisation of Telstra has shown, essential telecommunications infrastructure should be publicly owned in order to protect the public interest. The value of the NBN is not in its speed but the fact that 25-30% of the country will be free of reliance on non-renewable resource industries and will be connected to the national and international network. The economic prosperity this brings can hardly be measured into the future, but governments cannot implement social policies within a digital environment unless everyone is included. As a matter of public interest, the Greens support the proposed NBN of the ALP.
ALP: Australia has one of the slowest broadband services in the developed world. Our economic future, and also our jobs and productivity of the future will rely heavily on the rapid broadband service provided by the NBN. Speeds of up to 100MBPS will be achieved in 93% of Australia with 12MBPS attributed to the remaining 7%. These speeds are 20-100 times faster than present capabilities. Regional and rural areas will join in this economic prosperity as they too are for the first time connected to the national and international network. 25 000 jobs will be created and maintained every year through the operation of the NBN.
LNP:The Coalition has a considerably cheaper alternative to the ALP’s $43bn NBN. It will cost a mere $6.5bn and will provide the same 100% rapid broadband service of the NBN by 2016. The cost is reduced as the government will provide initial funding, and then withdraw its investment and use the private sector to fund, build and maintain the network under the supervision of a Commission. The Coalitions plan uses a combination of optical fibre, wireless DSL and satellite technology. Each of these components will reduce the cost of the others to achieve the same speeds of 12MBPS-100MBPS, but also allowing for advances in technology to be incorporated in the future. Priority will be given to those already underserviced.
