Tag Archives: media release

Barnaby Teaches Simple Simon Some Basic Accountancy

16 May

Another reason why we must replace the Goose with a proper accountant.

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 16 May 2011:

Pulling a swiftie on regional Australia

Simon Crean announced today that $1 billion worth of projects had applied for the first round of the $1 billion Regional Development Australia Fund. “The problem is that there is only $300 million in the budget over the next four years,” said Senator Barnaby Joyce today.

“I am currently travelling around northern NSW. Northern NSW is actually in regional Australia.

You know what it’s like – trees, wildlife, long distances between pubs, that sort of stuff. Most of the area is kind of dark at night.

Simon, regional Australia does not include the Antarctic, which it does in your regional budget documents, it does not include Perth, where your biggest “regional” project is being funded, and it does not include Adelaide, where migrants can come to live under your Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.

Now I know Simon you have done a smoke and mirrors trick in the definition of regional Australia, and now you are trying to pull the same swiftie with the definition of money.

You see Simon it’s quite simple, you only had $300 million allocated to the Regional Development Fund in the forward estimates, but now $1 billion worth of projects have applied.

Now to keep things nice and simple Simon, you have only got $300 million to spend, but in your media release claim that $1 billion of projects have applied for a $1 billion fund.

I am having a wonderful time in regional Australia. One day I might actually bump into you.”

More Information – Matthew Canavan 0458 709433

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Barnaby: Budget Duds Regional Australia … Again

10 May

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 10 May 2011:

Budget set to dud regional Australia… again

Labor’s first three budgets have not been good for regional Australia.

Its first budget slashed $1 billion in regional funding and axed the OPEL contract to deliver fast broadband to regional communities. Its second budget introduced a carbon emissions tax and slashed $900 million from the agriculture budget.

And its third heralded a mining tax and ramped up water buy-backs from farmers. Tonight’s is not shaping up as any better.

“Labor’s record has never lived up to its rhetoric – tonight will be no exception. The Government has already made overblown assurances that don’t stack up – like re-announcing road projects, short-term skilled migrants in the regions and a boost to apprenticeship schemes that specifically exclude agriculture and horticulture,” Leader of The Nationals Warren Truss said.

“A few things you can count on Labor to deliver tonight… less money for the regions and two big new taxes on the way.

“But we are being asked to take on trust that the Treasurer, who plunged us into record debt and the budget into a $50 billion deficit in just four years, will return the nation’s books to surplus over the next two.

“Labor is, again, taking us for mugs. But we’ve been down this path before. People in the regions do not trust a government that has already robbed them blind, habitually broken promises, overseen dramatic cost of living increases on households and mired us in massive debt.

“Once the budget hype subsides, regional Australia will be counting the costs… again.”

Senator Barnaby Joyce added: “Half of Mr Swan’s life is a promise, the other is an excuse. Tonight we are due to get both.”

“As an example, the biggest promise Labor has made in regional Australia is the Perth airport roads upgrade. I keep trying to explain this to the people of Collarenebri about how well they are getting looked after, by this regional package, but I just can’t convince them.

“They need not worry. Wayne is going to whack them between the eyes again as he ramps up their fringe benefit tax every time they jump in the car.

“Meanwhile one of the largest items, the carbon tax, doesn’t even “crack a feature” – as my old boss in accountancy called it. Interesting, the carbon tax used to be the greatest moral challenge of our time, now it doesn’t get its own line on the nation’s P&L.”

“Instead of new taxes, the Nationals want to create more opportunity for regional Australia. We have led efforts to reinstate Youth Allowance for students from regional areas. We have established a dams task group to open up new areas of economic opportunity in our nation. We want to unlock the $1.4 trillion invested in superannuation, attracting investment in nation building infrastructure through targeted tax concessions.”

Mr Truss and Senator Joyce declared The Nationals have a plan for regional Australia. Labor doesn’t even know where regional Australia is.

——————————

The facts on regional Australia

Just as it has done every year, Labor will make a lot of big claims tonight. But once again, Labor’s budget is set to dud regional Australia with less money for the regions and two great big new taxes on the way.

Labor has not delivered for regional Australia

PROMISE: Labor announced a $10 billion regional Australia agreement with the independents which apparently swayed them to support Labor.

REALITY: Less than one-tenth of this was new money, $800 million for a regional development fund (which has since been cut by $350 million) and $140 million for increased ethanol assistance. The rest was an already announced $6 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund (funded from the mining tax) and the allocation of existing health and education funds to regional Australia.

Less than one year in Labor has cut money from regional Australia

PROMISE: In their agreement with the independents, the Government promised $1.4 billion in funding for economic, social and community infrastructure in regional Australia.

REALITY: On 3 March, 2011 Labor announced a $1 billion Regional Australia Fund, $400 million less than what was originally promised.

Labor is spending even less on regional Australia than in its first term

PROMISE: Labor promised to increase investment in regional Australia and Julia Gillard promised “to deliver for regional Australia”.

REALITY: The $1 billion Regional Australia Fund is less than the regional development funding it replaces, the $1.2 billion Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program. On an annual basis, it’s $170 million less per year. The new fund amounts to $200 million per year (five-year program). The old fund amounted to $370 million per year (over three years).

The mining tax is a dud deal for the regions

PROMISE: Labor says that it will use the proceeds of the mining tax to invest in regional Australia.

REALITY: The mining tax will rip out at least $40 billion from regional Australia in the next decade. Only $6 billion has been earmarked for regional Australia.

Labor can’t even define where regional Australia is

PROMISE: Labor promised a new deal for “regional” Australia.

REALITY: Labor’s announcements so far from regional funds spend more in capital cities than the regions. The biggest “regional” promise Labor has made is the $480 million investment in the Perth Airports road upgrade.

[ENDS]

Media Contacts: Mr Truss: Brett Heffernan on (02) 6277 4482 or 0467 650 020 or brett.heffernan@aph.gov.au

Senator Joyce: Matt Canavan on 6277 3244 or 0458 709 433 or matthew.canavan@aph.gov.au

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More Dodgy Labor Figures

9 May

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 9 May 2011:

Burke needs to come clean on regional housing figures

Today’s Courier Mail reports that Labor will invest $200 million in regional cities following an interview it conducted with the Minister for Population, Tony Burke. 1

But on 27 January 2011 the Prime Minister cut $100 million from this program to fund flood recovery in Queensland. 2

The Minister’s own website reports that it is only a $100 million program.

“The Building Better Regional Cities Program is a $100 million commitment by the Australian Government …” 3

Minister Burke needs to come clean on what the actual size of this program is.

Whatever the figure, Labor’s program ignores towns with less than 30,000 people. It completely misses towns like Armidale, Mt Isa and Karratha.

If Labor can’t get these figures right how can we trust them with a $350 billion budget?

1 http://www.couriermail.com.au/property/homes-cash-migrants-to-help-gas-boom/story-e6frequ6-1226050796302

2 http://www.pm.gov.au/sites/default/files/attachment2_rebuilding_floods.pdf

3 http://www.environment.gov.au/housing/bbrc/index.html

More Information – Matthew Canavan 0458 709433

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The Inevitable Deceit

2 May

It really is now or never to stop the carbon tax.  So it’s worth reprising Barnaby’s original fighting response to Gillard’s pronouncement back on February 25th:

Now that we’ve all picked our jaw up off the ground, because Ms Gillard and Mr Swan have precisely done what they said they wouldn’t do and are bringing in a carbon tax, we have to organise the fight to stop it.

Yes, we are going to have to go through all the arguments again and we will win again.

Let’s start from these. The people who couldn’t get fluffy stuff in the ceiling for the rats and mice to sleep on without setting fire to 190 houses; the people who decided to go on some manic building spree in the backyard of every school, whether the schools liked it or not and in many cases in multiples of the cost of the true price on the structures; these same people who thought they could reboot the global economy with the purchase of imported electronic goods with $900 cheques; the same people who have got you into $181 billion in gross debt; yet the same people again who looked down the barrel of a camera to talk to the Australian people and stated categorically they would never bring in a carbon tax in the term of their government; they are the people who are going to bring in the carbon tax because they have the quite evident expertise, despite all the history to the contrary, to cool the planet from a room in Canberra.

Not surprisingly, what they have changed is the temperature of people’s disposition. There is a palpable white fury from the deceit that people feel. People can hardly afford and in some cases not afford at all the power bills they currently have. They do not need any more motivation to use less power. They are totally focused on this because they can’t afford to pay for their current usage.

People understand that you either have cheap power or cheap wages. There is another alternative, no jobs and Australia’s manufacturing industry, or what’s left of it, is well and truly in the sights of this absurd decision of Ms Gillard. I look forward to AWU Secretary, Mr Howes, in his next Mussolini impersonation behind the podium, to go into bat for these jobs, but I haven’t heard boo from him today.
In the background, literally and photographically, are Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott. Mr Oakeshott, well you can just make your own mind up about him, but Mr Windsor’s statement at the press conference is peculiar. He said, “and please don’t construe through my presence here that I will be actually supporting any scheme”. Well, Mr Windsor, what were you doing there? Did you get lost on the way to the toilet and just stumble across the Prime Minister doing her press conference and decide to stand in on it?

Please don’t tell me that we have to go through this teeth pulling agony as you stand at the front of the political church in the big white fluffy dress saying,”I don’t know how I got here and I don’t know whether I shall say I do. Don’t construe that this dress means I’m getting married to another Labor/Green party decision.

I was not in the least bit surprised about the white fury I’m hearing in Sydney and how some of the illuminati misread that there would be such an overwhelming reaction against the announcement of the carbon tax. I am not surprised in the slightest by the almost monastic silence of Mr Bill Shorten as he sits back salivating on Ms Gillard and her Green cohorts happily mounting their own political pyre.

Day one, round one, and we, the National Party and the Liberal Party are ready for the fight.

Bravo!

There is only one way to stop the carbon tax.  That is to force a change of government, before the Gillard/Green/Independent Alliance can legislate it. The only way that can happen, is by the sheer volume of people power.  Quite literally “volume” – you must make your voice heard.  By Labor.  And the Independents.

Why?

The Coalition do not have the power to force a fresh election.  And, even if they were to win the next general election in 2013, they would have to wait till the following election (2016) to have a real chance at winning back the balance of power in the Senate from the Greens, in order to repeal the tax.

So if you want to stop the carbon tax, now is the final opportunity.

Back in late 2009, tens of thousands of us were angered enough to get politically active for the first time. We phoned and wrote and emailed every single member and senator in the Parliament.  Repeatedly.

We told them exactly what we thought.  And, what we’d do if they allowed the Rudd-Turnbull emissions trading scheme to be foisted on us.

We only won the first round.

Now the Gillard/Greens are back for Round 2.  They openly admit that the carbon (dioxide) tax is just a stepping stone to an ETS three years later.

It’s all up to you. What will you do?

UPDATE:

There’s big cracks showing in the mask of Labor solidarity:

In the week before the PM left for a 10 day trip to Japan, Korea, China and the UK, several Labor backbenchers privately spoke of how they thought the Julia Gillard experiment was going.

“Put us out of our misery now,” said one. “It can’t go on.”

“Clearly it hasn’t worked,” said another. “The experiment has failed.”

And this:

This group of MPs fear for the future of their party. And it is more than just short-termism thinking that infects them.

That is to say, they believe the best thing that could happen for Labor’s long-term prospects is to lose Government now and rebuild its support in the community. They would be punished but perhaps not as badly as they might in two years time.

UPDATE 2:

The Greens too, are revolting:

Bob Brown has warned of further tensions between the Greens and the Gillard government if it rewards big business over households in the upcoming May budget.

The Greens leader acknowledged that his relationship with Julia Gillard had now changed, describing her criticism of his party last week as a “serious turning of events”.

Time to move in for the kill.

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Labor Racks Up Half-Century On Electricity Price Increases

27 Apr

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 27 April 2011:

Today’s consumer price index figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that utility price increases are accelerating not slowing down under Labor, Senator Barnaby Joyce said today.

“Last week public buildings were burning down in the centre of Sydney while homeless people merely miles away slept on the street. This week we find that good honest hard working people are struggling with the fundamentals of life because the Labor party’s management is incompetent.

“The elixir of the quality of life is the price of power.

“Labor can raise its bat today. Under this Labor government electricity prices have gone up by over 50% in not much more than 3 years. That is a bigger total increase than under the 11 years of the previous Coalition government.

“It doesn’t stop there. Ill-considered investments in desalination have caused water prices to go up by 46% and gas prices have gone up by 30%.

“Last winter my mother-in-law told me that on her meals-on-wheels runs she often finds pensioners in bed, not because they are sick, but because it is the warmest part of the house when they can’t afford the heating.

“Under Labor things aren’t getting any easier and they are not going to with a carbon tax that will push up electricity bills by another $200 per year at least.

“Australians don’t need more excuses to save on power; they have plenty of reasons already.

“But it’s not just household bills that will get hit. Combined with a high Australian dollar, these price increases are hurting Australian manufacturing. Do we want to make life even tougher for them and risk having no manufacturing industry in this country at all?

“All for a plan to cool the planet from a room in Canberra.”

(click to enlarge)

Even after adjusting for inflation:

· Electricity prices have been going up 10% per year under Labor, compared to 1% under previous Coalition government

· Water prices have gone up by 9% per year under Labor, compared to 1% under previous Coalition government

· Gas prices have gone up by 5% per year under Labor, compared to 1% under previous Coalition government

More Information – Matthew Canavan 0458 709433

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Same Old Labor Govt – Same Old Debt

9 Oct

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 4th October 2010:

Senator Barnaby Joyce says that the Labor government seems to be getting back to normal. “Our gross debt went up by $3 billion last week, the week before it went up by $4 billion. The gross Federal debt is now $163.152 billion.

This is the issue that should be front and centre of Labor Government’s attention, beyond private members bills for euthanasia, same sex marriage and a bid to cool the planet with a new carbon tax.

The reality is there in the numbers. The debt is racing ahead; it is not under control, it is not going to stop.

There is no argument for this profligate waste of money. How much money do we want to owe people overseas?

This money does not include the states’ debt which is on its miserable way to $240 billion, as noted in front page articles of recent weeks.

We also have to note now that local governments too are expected to borrow money.

If we do not get on top of the debt, these debts will get on top of us.”

More Information – Jenny Swan 0746 251500

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Another Dodgy Deal Done Dearly

27 Jul

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 27 July 2010:

In possibly what might be the dying days of a dilapidated and dodgy government, the Auditor General has slammed the process the Labor Party used to allocate taxpayer funds into what apparently has become a cash kick along for Labor mates in trouble.

The Auditor General’s performance audit on the “establishment, implementation and administration of the strategic projects component of the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program” found that due process on occasion was abandoned when it came to Labor mates in Labor seats. In many instances the assessment criterion was abandoned in applications, in many cases documentation for assessment was not apparent and for the project in general the Government has not followed its own Cabinet authorised guidelines.

In summary it is like this for the Labor party. When in trouble, cheat.

The approval rate for projects located in a Labor held seat was 42.1%, compared to 18.4% for projects located in Coalition held seats. The awarding of funding disproportionably favoured ALP seats. Even worse was the fact that the Government discriminated further against rural Australians by only approving 12.1% in Labor seats with Coalition held seats on a mere 5.3% approval. 71% (143) of the 202 projects short listed for risk assessment by the department, based on the short listing criteria agreed by cabinet on the 19th March 2009, were ineligible or non compliant in terms of the published program guidelines.

The Coalition will get a fair deal for rural and regional Australia where so much of our national wealth is produced.

It seems that the Labor Party is using the same process in delivering funds as they used in removing a duly elected Prime Minister of the Australian people. It is a mates’ job at mates’ rates. Bad luck if you are not a mate.

This is the second damming indictment by the Auditor General on Mr Albanese, the Minister for Infrastructure in the past week. However what else should the Australian people expect from this dodgy crowd?

More Information – Jenny Swan 0746 251500

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Labor’s Regional Development Trick

19 Jul

Joint Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce & Senator Gary Humphries, 18 July 2010:

Building up our regional areas is a great idea but it is a shame Labor doesn’t take it seriously.

Today they announced a Building Better Regional Cities program that doesn’t add up.

“Labor’s approach is to give regional towns $200 million after ripping out $1 billion from regional development in their first budget. Labor persists with a media splash, no cash approach” said Senator Barnaby Joyce, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, today.

Labor’s approach is a ball and cup trick. The money for this new scheme will be taken from the Housing Affordability Fund and the National Rental Affordability Scheme. Both combined were supposed to deliver an additional 50,000 dwellings over the next 12 months, yet the diverted $200 million will deliver only 15,000 dwellings – 35,000 less than the same money was supposed to produce.

“The Government is trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes but the reality is that Labor would have us spend the same amount of money on building considerably fewer houses,” Opposition housing spokesman Gary Humphries said today.

“This re-announcement of funding does nothing to make housing more affordable.

“Why would the savings not simply improve the developers’ profits, as seems to have been the case with the BER?”

Senator Joyce added that, “At $200 million, the Labor party believe that school halls are 80 times more important than relieving the pressures on urban Australia. Labor was prepared to spend 12 times as much on ceiling insulation than they are going to spend on relieving Australia’s cities from population pressure and developing our inland.

“Labor’s approach will not take a town like Dubbo from where it is now to a bigger population, with $15 million per town.

“Labor’s approach ignores cities of over 30,000 people. I live in a town, St George, that has the water, low unemployment and the proximity to a major transport route between Melbourne and Brisbane, but apparently we are too small to grow.

“My view is that a small town sometimes has more potential for growth than a big one.

“The Coalition has already announced a program of $300 million to refurbish and repair bridges that will help grow the commerce needed for regional areas.

“It is a no brainer that we have to develop regional centres in Australia to relieve the pressure on Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but it’s going to take something far more diligent and substantive than this sleepy Sunday afternoon effort by Labor.”

Senator Joyce – More Information– Matt Canavan 0458709433
Senator Humphries – More Information– Josh Manuatu 0421115365

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Joyce: Same Old Labor

16 Jul

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 16 July 2010:

Same old Labor: double the announcement, half the value

Anthony Albanese was quoted in the Brisbane Times this morning as saying that Labor “supports” the $8.2 billion Brisbane cross-river rail project.

“I am interested to know exactly what this support means”, Senator Barnaby Joyce, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, said today.

“Labor certainly has no money left in the nation’s cookie jar. They have only $705 million left unallocated in the Building Australia Fund.”

“Instead Labor has wasted most of their $90 billion stimulus, investing it in insulation and over priced school halls. They only spent 14% of this amount on economic infrastructure.”

In 2008, Labor promised to establish a $20 billion infrastructure fund. It only received $10.9 billion due to Labor’s wasteful and reckless spending and the money the fund did receive came from the Coalition’s last budget surplus ($7.5 billion), money ripped out from funds to deliver broadband in the bush ($2.5 billion) and the sale of Telstra ($1 billion).

“So we are left with half the infrastructure promised but with $150 billion gross debt. Same old Labor: double the announcement with half the value.”

“This is just more evidence that Labor can’t manage the nation’s finances. Australia can’t risk another 3 years of Labor”.

More Information – Jenny Swan 0746 251500, 0438 578 402

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Joyce: The Labor Government Is Dodgy

15 Jul

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 15 July 2010:

In trying to think of a metaphor to describe the Labor government in one word, it is this – dodgy! Their figures are dodgy when they talk about a $7.5 billion reduction in revenue but apparently only causing a $1.5 billion reduction in income. Their approach is dodgy when they talk about net debt as if the people who lent us the money don’t want the money back in gross terms and just for the record, we currently owe $150 billion and are currently borrowing an extra $150 million a day.

They are completely dodgy with how they change Prime Ministers in the middle of the night without telling the Australian people. They are even dodgy amongst themselves with the deals they make, such as the one between Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard on the process of leadership transition which Julia obviously didn’t honour because the backroom boys told her not to. They are dodgy in how they talk about future surpluses, yet their past prescriptions about current surpluses have been so totally wrong and actually end up as deficits.

They are dodgy in how they describe solutions for the processing of boat people in East Timor when they haven’t actually done the homework to get the deal through East Timor. They are dodgy in how they employ mates such as Mr Kaiser for $450,000 a year without even putting an advertisement in the paper so that other Australian’s can apply for the job. They are dodgy in how they go forward with a $43 billion capital infrastructure program such as the NBN without doing a cost benefit analysis as to whether it will actually work.

They were dodgy in the way that they allowed the importation of beef from countries with Mad Cow Disease until we found out about the deal and then they changed the decision around again. They were dodgy in how they told people that the ETS was the greatest moral challenge of our time, but the person who was crucial in changing that moral paradigm is now enjoying the benefits of the Prime Minsters office. They were dodgy when they inferred that an ETS would change the climate when quite obviously it was never going to.

They were dodgy with how they told the Australian people that they would fix the hospital system by July 2009 or they would take it over and in the end, they did neither. They were dodgy when they decided to build school halls across our nation for $16.2 billion whether you wanted them or not and at three times the price. They were dodgy when they decided to put ceiling insulation into roofs and burnt down over 180 houses causing tragically the deaths of 4 people that we know of.

However, where they are really dodgy is this – they told people that they would assist with the cost of living. They had the dodgy fuel watch scheme and the dodgy grocery watch scheme which were announced with fan fare but achieved zip.

The cost of living in Australia is going through the roof because this crowd in government is dodgy and has absolutely no idea how to get the basics right. You cannot keep borrowing money at the rate they are, putting upward pressure on interest rates, and squeezing the last drop of blood out of working families and then claim to know something about the cost of living.

You cannot talk about reducing coal fired power replacing it with renewables at many times the cost and not expect that this is going to make working families poorer. You can’t fail to develop the inland and not expect the result to be far greater pressure on the social and economic infrastructure of urban Australia. If you don’t develop water infrastructure then you have to expect the price of a limited resource, water, to go through the roof. If you keep on making it difficult for farmers to farm, with continual new laws on vegetation, and everything they do from sunrise to sundown and in between, while at the same time failing to oversee that farmers are getting a fair price at the farm gate, then the farmers will disappear and the price of food will go through the roof. You can’t borrow hundreds of billions of dollars from overseas and not expect that it has to be repaid by people who have to pay taxes, working families, who could have otherwise put that money in their pockets.

In summary, many people at the supermarkets and at the pubs and clubs and at the church on the weekend and at the sport with their kids understand one thing – that they seem to be poorer under this crowd then they were before, they have less money than they did before. They seem to be watching a political soap opera that has more episodes than Blue Hills standing in proxy for decent government.

My statement to the Australian people on behalf of the National Party in the Senate will be this – Do you honestly believe that you can carry on with this crowd for another three years? What do you think will be left of the show if you do?

More Information – Jenny Swan 0746 251500

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