100 days, 40 failures: a preview of secretive, cruel and chaotic government
Releasing a list of the Abbott government’s top failures, the Australian Greens say the first 100 days have been a secretive, cruel and chaotic preview of what is to come.
“During the election campaign the Abbott government’s true agenda was hidden behind cheap rhetoric, but you can’t run a country with a slogan,” said Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne.
“The Abbott government has tried to claim a so-called mandate to take Australia back to the last century, but he doesn’t have one. The longer Prime Minister Abbott and his big business mates run the show, the less the public knows about what’s going on behind the scenes. The Abbott government is a secretive, cruel and chaotic government.
“The Australian people didn’t sign up to this, and the Greens will stand against it.
“This secretive, cruel and chaotic preview of what is to come has motivated and focussed the Greens to defend action on global warming and to care for the people the Abbott government will ignore.”
In PM Tony Abbott’s first 100 days he has:
* Continued his campaign to roll back action on global warming
* Begun a harsh campaign of cuts to health, education and community services
* Increased secrecy and cruelty towards vulnerable people seeking asylum
* Undermined attempts to address discrimination in society regarding sexuality and race
* Demonstrated that big business and mining interests will be put ahead of communities and the environment under the Coalition government
100 days, 40 failures: a preview of secretive, cruel and chaotic government
Caring for the Environment
1. Approved the largest coal port in the world in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and approved a mega coal mine in the Galilee Basin, turning the Great Barrier Reef into a dumping ground for dredge spoil and a shipping super highway.
2. Done deals with every state and territory government to gut and downgrade national environment laws by giving approval powers to state premiers.
3. Removed the community’s right to challenge decisions where the government has ignored expert advice on threatened species impacts.
4. Done nothing to protect farmers from unwanted coal seam gas operations, despite Tony Abbott saying landholders should have the right to say no to CSG companies coming on to their land.
5. Scrapped the COAG Standing Council on Environment and Water.
6. Started dismantling Australia’s world leading marine protection system.
7. Failed to provide the promised customs vessel to monitor whaling operations in the Southern Ocean.
8. Removed protection of iconic Murray River ecological communities.
9. Failed to permanently shut down Ranger Uranium Mine after a massive spill of 1.4 million litres of radioactive acid at the Kakadu National Park.
10.Started to unwind the World Heritage protections for Tasmanian forests.
11.Abolished positions of climate change and science ministers.
Foreign Affairs
12. Severely compromised and endangered diplomatic relations with key neighbours Indonesia and East Timor.
13. Failed to protect Australians from spying and surveillance overreach.
Caring for Asylum Seekers
14. Hidden information from the Parliament and the people about the government’s treatment of asylum seekers.
15. Separated a refugee mother from her newborn baby.
16. Completely frozen the issuing of protection visas, leaving thousands languishing in detention.
17. Disbanded the Immigration Health Advisory Group for asylum seekers.
Education
18. Back-flipped twice on Gonski, reversing a commitment to a ‘unity ticket’ and failing to deliver equitable education funding.
19. Converted crucial Start-Up Scholarships into loans, increasing the debt of 80,000 higher education students by $1.2 billion.
Health
20. Failed to act on mental health, despite Minister Dutton saying that mental health would be his biggest priority for the first 100 days.
21. Axed funding to the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia.
Global warming
22. Abolished the Climate Commission in an attempt to silence our climate scientists.
23. Attempted to abolish our clean energy laws including our price on pollution, in a vendetta against the science behind global warming.
24. Attempted to abolish the Climate Change Authority and Clean Energy Finance Corporation - despite the fact that both authorities are reducing pollution.
25. Failed to acknowledge the link between global warming and increasingly severe extreme weather including bushfires, droughts and storms.
Infrastructure
26. Broken its NBN election promise of giving all Australians access to 25 megabits per second download speeds by 2016.
27. Failed to prioritise public transport infrastructure over tollway projects like the WestConnex and the East-West Link.
Caring for people
28. Challenged the ACT Marriage Equality laws to the High Court ensuring discrimination against same-sex couples continues.
29. Moved to repeal protections in the Racial Discrimination Act.
30. Taken money from aged care workers by dumping the Workforce Compact which provided a $1.2 billion fund to give aged care workers a much-needed 1% pay rise.
31. Taken money from the childcare sector, by asking them to hand back funding for desperately needed wage increases.
32. Hurt families by attempting to freeze the childcare rebate until 2017 increasing childcare payments for 150,000 families.
33. Broken an election promise for PM to spend first week with Aboriginal community.
34. Scrapped Social Inclusion Board, which had been established to guide policy on the reduction of poverty in Australia.
35. Scrapped Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing, established to help address the challenges we will face in coming years as the number of older Australians grows.
36. Suspended the Wage Connect program, despite it being proven to deliver good outcomes for unemployed people.
37. Repealed the pokie reform legislation achieved in the last parliament to combat problem gambling.
38. Condoned human rights abuses in Sri Lanka by saying “sometimes in difficult circumstances, difficult things happen”.
39. Failed to intervene to protect jobs and the future of Holden and Qantas.
40. Included only one woman in the federal cabinet.
