Bill Shorten - not a good look

[Andrew Bolt]

Paul Kelly on Labor’s intellectual bankruptcy under Bill Shorten:

Certainly, there is no honesty in federal Labor on the GST. As reality begins to dawn — with even ABC interviewers suggesting a freeze into perpetuity on the GST is irrational — the opposition sounds even more shrill. That is hardly a surprise when [South Australian Premier Jay] Weatherill, asked about the hostility of federal Labor, replied: “I don’t have the luxury of just ­opposing for the sake of doing so

Just to prove this critique was justified, Bill Shorten thundered: “I’m against raising the GST. What a lazy bunch of people we have in the current government … why is it that Mr Abbott and his out-of-touch Liberal team always resort to increasing taxes for real Australians? ... He wants Aussies to pay more for fresh food and their school fees for kids.”

You get the drift. Federal Labor is bankrupt on this issue. It chants no change to the GST, saying it’s regressive. Well, nobody has ever proposed an exclusive change to the GST. [NSW Premier Mike] Baird said there should be compensation via the tax and welfare system. Everybody knows this is essential…

Federal Labor is ­irrelevant in the policy debate. It campaigns against Tony Abbott’s $80 billion funding reduction to the states but cannot pledge to restore the funds. It faces a Victorian premier calling for income tax increases and a NSW premier calling for a 15 per cent GST — both ideas anathema to federal Labor. The real point is that federal Labor won’t admit the problem and, as a result, resorts to negative politics, a tactic still likely to win electoral traction.

It remains in denial about the unfunded long-run spending commitments it implanted in the budget before its election defeat. It has no solution to the rising personal income tax burden on middle Australia. It perpetuates the notion that problems can be solved by more taxes on the rich.

The populism that will ruin us: Labor promises more spending but not the taxes to pay for it

[Andrew Bolt]

Yes, he’s pandering to unions, populism and racism, but Bill Shorten’s campaign will be effective unless the Abbott Government takes it very, very seriously and produces facts, not just “trust me” assurances:

Bill Shorten has endorsed a union-led assault against the China-­Australia free-trade pact, revealing Labor will take up the fight in ­parliament to rewrite ­labour ­standards, conditions and skills testing in the historic multi-­billion-­dollar agreement…

Mr Shorten argues Tony ­Abbott brought home an FTA with China that undermines safeguards for Australian jobs…

The Labor leader’s decision to back unequivocally the industrial campaign, which Trade Minister Andrew Robb has dubbed as racist and business has slammed as shameful, will be interpreted by the Abbott government as a sign he is kowtowing to unions before this week’s ALP national conference. But Mr Shorten is pitching his message to Labor’s heartland, writing that while trade is essential to the economy, “Australia cannot and should not try to compete with other nations in a race to the bottom on wages and conditions’’....

Writing in The Australian today, Mr Shorten vows: ... “In the parliament, Labor will fight to retain labour market testing, so employers need to show they cannot find suitable local workers before they turn to temporary migration for projects greater than $150 million...”

DFAT took the unusual step last weekend of releasing a myth-busting fact sheet countering the basis of the union campaign. DFAT dismissed union claims that Chinese workers would have unrestricted access to the Australian labour market and would no longer be required to meet relevant skills and licensing conditions, and that Chinese companies investing more than $150m in specific types of infrastructure projects would be able to import unskilled or underpaid Chinese workers without first offering jobs to Australians.

Mr Shorten today challenges DFAT’s facts. “For example, the government claims ChAFTA will not allow unrestricted access to the Australian labour market by Chinese workers,’’ he writes. “The fact is that the agreement clearly states that Australia will not ‘impose or maintain any limitations on the total number of visas to be granted’ or ‘require labour market testing, economic needs testing or other procedures of similar effect as a condition for temporary entry’.’’

UPDATE

From the DFAT fact sheet:

First myth: Chinese companies will have unrestricted access to Chinese workers for major projects, threatening Australian jobs

Reality: FALSE

ChAFTA will not allow unrestricted access to the Australian labour market by Chinese workers. It will not allow Australian employment laws or conditions to be undermined, nor allow companies to avoid paying Australian wages by using foreign workers.

Australia’s existing visa arrangements, including the 457 visa program, will continue to be the basis for implementing Australia’s commitments on labour mobility under ChAFTA. The 457 visa program assists employers to address labour shortages by bringing in genuinely skilled workers where they cannot find an appropriately skilled Australian....

Through Investment Facilitation Arrangements (IFAs) made available under a separate MOU concluded alongside ChAFTA, Chinese companies making significant investments in Australia (more than $150 million in specific types of infrastructure development projects) will have increased access to skilled overseas workers when suitable local workers cannot be found.

IFAs will strengthen infrastructure development and investment, leading to the creation of jobs and increased economic prosperity for all Australians.

IFAs will not allow unskilled or underpaid Chinese workers to be brought in to staff major projects. In fact, consistent with existing programmes, IFAs will provide certainty that investors will be able to access skilled overseas workers, under Australian employment conditions, when suitable local workers cannot be found.

Under IFAs, Australian workers will continue to be given first opportunity. Consistent with existing practice, employers will not be permitted to bring in overseas skilled workers unless there is clear evidence of a genuine labour market need, as determined by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.


Shorten vs the economy: attacks free-trade deal

[Andrew Bolt]

How many workers did Bill Shorten sell out?:

A deal signed by Bill Shorten and an employer to supply labour to Cirque du Soleil’s national tour ­became the subject of an extraordinary legal challenge from a rival company alleging the deal left workers worse off while “the AWU does well”.

The bargain struck by Mr ­Shorten as head of the Australian Workers Union in 2001 gave rise to furious submissions in the ­former industrial relations commission between rival labour hire firms Adecco and Manpower.

In an echo of deals brokered by Mr Shorten, which were examined by the trade union royal commission last month, the 2001 enterprise bargaining agreement between the AWU and Adecco paid below-award rates, but guaranteed payroll deductions for union dues and further payments by the employer to the union.

The agreement, which dictated the wages for ushers, ticket-sellers and other staff outsourced by the Canadian acrobatic circus company, excluding cast and crew, provided for a stipend to be paid by Adecco to the AWU of $2 per ­employee, worth as much as $20,000 in additional revenue to the union, for “training”.


But what was in this deal for Bill?

[Andrew Bolt]

BILL Shorten’s astonishing lies will kill our economy. And caution: those lies are multiplying fast.

This week the Opposition Leader made three reckless and misleading claims.

Shorten promised to double Australia’s green power in 15 years without blowing our electricity bills.

He insisted we didn’t need to raise taxes to pay for Labor’s unfunded promise to spend $80 billion more on health and education.

And he claimed a free trade deal with China threatened Australian jobs.

Believe Shorten’s nonsense — and many do, even though last month Shorten admitted lying to Neil Mitchell over his role in the Rudd-Gillard affair - and we won’t become another Greece. No, the Greeks will instead look at us and think they got off lightly.

[Neferti]

[Rorschach]

yeah.... and Bill's the BEST they've got...
makes you wonder.

[Rorschach]

Good grief Shorten worked himself up into a tizzy today...

As for the big bold BRING IT ON!!! crap... I remember Julia saying that quite a few times. Gee whatever happened to her?

BTW Bill, an ETS IS a TAX
a rose by any other name Billy Boy.

Labor never learns

[Rorschach]

ALP conference: Shorten is leading with Labor’s chin
The Australian
July 24, 2015 11:18AM
Chris Kenny
Associate Editor (National Affairs)

he ALP national conference was always going to be a major challenge, and opportunity, for Bill Shorten.

But he nobbled himself before it even began with two major policy moves this week that simply compound the impression that Labor is unelectable.

This is very good news for a Coalition government that is accident prone, unpopular and has failed to make much headway on its principle aim of repairing the budget.

Shorten’s conference speech welcoming a climate change election — bring it on — is about as convincing as the taunts of Monty Python’s Black Knight.

Let me give you the briefest possible Friday wrap-up of why Labor is now in more pain than ever on two of its greatest weaknesses — climate policy and border protection.

Climate policy can be as complicated as you want to make it but there are two unarguable facts that should shape it: because of Australia’s minuscule share of global emissions, whatever we do in this country will have no discernible benefit for the planet; because carbon abatement costs money, whatever we do will cost consumers and taxpayers, and impose a burden on our economy.

So the more we do — such as Shorten’s plan to bring in an emissions trading scheme and more than double the renewable energy target — the more we will pay.

Yet there will be no apparent environmental benefit.

Try selling that — especially when Labor broke its core climate change promise after the 2007 election, and again in the opposite direction after 2010.

Shorten is leading with Labor’s chin.

Likewise on boats.

I have argued for five years that Labor should embrace turnbacks, along with every other tool being used by the Coalition to stop the people-smuggling trade that Labor restarted.

So Shorten is doing the right thing.

The trouble is Labor is doing it so late — after delays and resistance motivated only by politics that have cost untold human trauma — and with such reluctance that it is completely unconvincing.

Instead of backing Operation Sovereign Borders from the start, Labor is now fiddling with one part of the border protection mix in a transparently political deal to try to feign competence in this area.

Because it is playing out so publicly it is having the opposite effect.

By tearing itself apart on this relatively minor issue Labor is underlining how reluctant it is to maintain the integrity of our borders and protect our immigration system.

It is showing us its heart is not in the border protection challenge.

It is sending out a loud message to the population that it cannot be trusted on asylum boats.

Vote Labor and the boats might start up again.

Vote Labor and your electricity prices will go up.

And Shorten wants to “bring it on.”

That is false bravado.

[IQS.RLOW]

I think it's hilarious that the ALP thinks they can go to an election spruiking an ETS and claiming "but it's not a carbon tax"

[Rorschach]

Honestly how immature, how childish are labor and their leaders... if they want votes some good policy and some maturity wouldn't go astray. It's not like they need to offer much to beat the other team.