Canberra Saving You Time for Six Years
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Issue 68 22 October to 19 December, 2014 Letter from Canberra Saving you time for six years. The Christmas Edition Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free; We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil; Our home is girt by sea; Our land abounds in nature’s gifts of beauty rich and rare; In history’s page, let every stage, Advance Australia Fair. In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair. Inside End of a Big Year ♦ Start of Next Year ♦ G20 Plus Senate Leverage. Jacqui. Etc. ♦ Senator John Fawkner to be missed Union Focus ♦ The Murray Report ♦ Federal push further into state space Budget still in trouble ♦ Five Future Directions for our fine land Uranium to India ♦ Taxes: domestic and international ♦ Trade with China GP7 gone ♦ ANU investment fuss ♦ No to PPLS Some more refugee limitations ♦ Competitive education quality ♦ Tertiary education bill Contact us Affairs of State Letter from Canberra 14 Collins Street A monthly digest of news from around Australia. Melbourne, 3000 Saving you time; now in its sixth year. Victoria, Australia P 03 9654 1300 F 03 9654 1165 Contents Contents [email protected] 3 Editorial 13 Agriculture, cattle & water Letter From Canberra is a monthly public affairs 3 Governance 13 Media bulletin, a simple précis, distilling and interpreting 5 Labor doings 14 Justice public policy and government decisions, which affect business opportunities in Victoria and 6 Industrial relations & employment 15 Broadband & IT Australia. 8 Business, economy, manufacturing 15 Transport & infrastructure Written for the regular traveller, or people with & finance meeting-filled days, it’s more about business 15 Health 9 Mining opportunities than politics. 16 Education 9 Trade Letter from Canberra is independent. It’s not party 17 Foreign affairs political or any other political. It does not have the 10 Refugees & immigration imprimatur of government at any level. 18 Defence 11 Tax The only communication tool of its type, Letter 19 Sports & arts from Canberra keeps subscribers abreast of recent 12 Tourism developments in the policy arena on a local, state 19 Society and federal level. 12 Climate change, environment & energy Published by A.B Urquhart & Company Pty Ltd trading as Affairs of State. Disclaimer: Material in this publication is general comment and not intended as advice on any About the editor particular matter. Professional advice should to be sought before action is taken. Alistair Urquhart, BA LLB Alistair Urquhart graduated from the Australian National University Material is complied from various sources in Canberra, in Law, History and Politics. He may even hold the including newspaper articles, press releases, record for miles rowed on Lake Burley Griffin. government publications, Hansard, trade journals, etc. He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor to the Supreme Court of Victoria, and remains a (non-practicing) member of the Law Copyright: This newsletter is copyright. No part Institute of Victoria. Previously, he graduated from high school in may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by Bethesda, Maryland, and had many opportunities to become aware any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, of the workings of Washington D.C. recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission from the publisher. For 30 years, he listened every Sunday evening to the late Alistair Cooke and his Letter from America. Alistair’s early career was mostly in the coal industry, where he became Affairs of State respects your privacy. While we involved with energy, environmental and water issues, and later in the SME finance sector. do believe that the information contained in Letter from Melbourne will be useful to you, please advise us if you do not wish to receive any further He found time to be involved in a range of community activities where he came to understand some of the practical communications from us. aspects of dealing with government and meeting people across the political spectrum. He now chairs a large disability employment service, including its British operations. Edited words in this edition: 23,107 Cover: Australia House, London, by Ronnie Macdonald About the publisher Affairs of State Established in 1993, is an independent Australian public affairs firm with contemporary international connections. Staff Affairs of State provides a matrix of professional tools to multinational businesses, professional and industry Editor associations, government agencies, pressure groups, NGOs and community causes in Australia and abroad. Alistair Urquhart [email protected] The firm works with many engineering and information technology firms and other professional association and Sub Editor industry groups on a wide range of issues in Victoria, Canberra and overseas. Morgan Squires [email protected] The firm provides the following to clients: Design Cory Zanoni [email protected] - Two monthly publications Copy Editor - Events at our offices and elsewhere Robert Stove - Charts and specialist directories [email protected] - Facilitation with business and legal skills Subscriptions & advertising - Training courses [email protected] - Mentoring of senior executives 22 October to 19 December, 2014 Letter from Canberra Editorial Corporation to ‘build a canoe’ . This opened up Abbott’s office to take a seat in the Senate or a whole new front of Labor attack on ministe- House of Representatives. Your editor apologises for the distance between rial competence. this edition and the last one. Getting back from No rift London after his ‘public affairs holiday’ was Refresh According to a report in The Age, Foreign Min- quite distracting. Then catching up with sub- The federal government is poised to dump the ister Julie Bishop has strenuously denied there scribers and clients and zeroing in on just what $7 Medicare charge and water down its paid pa- is any friction between her and Prime Minister is possibly happening in Canberra, behind the rental leave scheme as it seeks to clear itself of Tony Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin, de- scenes, let alone in the media (s). It has been a problems before Christmas and begin the new scribing their relationship as ‘very professional, big few months in Canberra year on the front foot. According to the Finan- close and very good.’ And at the same time watching the fabulous cial Review, other contentious budget meas- Comedy Media play out in Victoria along with ures, including the higher education deregula- Six of the best the help of a few folk who seemed to slow tion, still the subject of furious negotiation with In the Herald Sun, six Coalition up and com- down some more energetic folk in some elec- the Senate crossbench, are under a cloud be- ers were being spruiked to give portfolio du- torates and the converse in other electorates. cause the government is determined to rid itself ties. They included Kelly O’Dwyer, Dan Tehan, of damaging issues it feels it cannot resolve. Alan Tudge, Darren Chester, Josh Frydenberg So we have a dis/un/unified group of Victori- and Scott Ryan. ans running that state, and copying the narrow After taking the back down proposals to cabi- group (s) who are running (?) the wider Austral- net and the outer-ministry, Tony Abbott told Deserting ian scene. his MPs the past year had been difficult and, at times, tumultuous, but there was reason to be According to a Fairfax/Ipsos poll, Bill Shorten Overall, perhaps Australia’s Future is a bit of optimistic about the next 18 months. Eager to has leapt ahead of Tony Abbott as preferred a mess. start 2015 free of baggage, he told a meeting of prime minister and is now regarded by voters Liberal MPs, and then a subsequent joint meet- as stronger, more trustworthy and more compe- Am feeling a little patriotic and sad as I write ing of Liberal and Nationals MPs, there were tent. According to Michael Gordon in The Age: these words, hence The Cover. Australia House, ‘one or two barnacles on the ship but by Christ- ‘This constitutes the worst start to any govern- London. The present Australian High Commis- mas they will have been dealt with’. ment since 1972, which explains why we are sioner is former federal government minister starting to see signs of internal tensions.’ Alexander Downer. His father also held that Senior government sources said pragmatism position was now a key motive and there was no point Disgruntled persisting with measures that were hurting the The Coalition is ‘not a happy family’ and there A bit longer than usual. Merry Christmas and a government and which had no hope of passing is a ‘shitload of room for improvement’ say Happy New Year. the Senate. government MPs, who confess to being in the dark on the future of the government’s contro- Governance At the Beach versial GP co-payment and a mooted cabinet On the Home Front In The Age, Michael Gordon wrote: ‘The re-shuffle, because those decisions are central- Something has snapped in federal politics re- question for Tony Abbott to ponder over the ised in the Prime Minister’s office. According cently as the distractions of foreign policy Christmas break is why, if his government has to a report in The Age: ‘We are not all a happy ventures fade and the final week of parliamen- delivered so substantially on its election com- family ... you’re going to have to ask people tary sittings loomed with no end to the budget mitments, it is being rated so harshly by the outside the backbench what’s happening with impasse in sight. Prime Minister Tony Abbott electorate. Back in February, the Coalition had any of the policy decisions, because there is found himself defending the indefensible, or a two-party preferred lead of four points, Ab- very little inclusion,’ said one disgruntled back- the already mortally-wounded, on three differ- bott’s approval rating was only just in negative bencher.