As most of you would be aware by now, Malcolm Turnbull has won the Liberal leadership after defeating Brendan Nelson 45 votes to 41. Nelson won the post-election vote 45 votes to 42: not sure where the missing vote went (UPDATE: Kevin Andrews was overseas and didn’t vote – hat-tip to Dovif in comments).
Also:
• The latest weekly Essential Research survey has Labor’s lead back at 58-42 after a fortnight at 59-41. Also included are questions on approval of Kevin Rudd, the future of the Coalition and federalism.
• Peter Brent asks what became of the government’s green paper on disclosure, funding and expenditure issues, which was due in July.
• The Australian Electoral Commission has published comments on objections to the redistribution of Western Australian electorates.
• Bryan’s back.
793 Comments
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GP is selectively quoting from R v Governor of South Australia [1907].
It does not say that “the Governor-General is the Head of the Commonwealth”
It says:
“the officiating Constitutional Head of the Commonwealth, the Governor General”.
note the word “officiating”, conveniently left out.
What’s wrong with raising a tax on fuel inefficient luxury cars, exempting farmers and tourist operators then?
No 545
The way in which MPs elect their respective leaders is inconsequential to the operation of the parliament.
No 547
The public education system is funded and operated by the states. This is not a “blame game”, it is a constitutional reality.
I’m surprised no-one has commented on some of the Right defecting to Turnbull; Tony Abbott, Bronwyn Bishop, Briggs and Alex Hawke. Of course, there are no quotes from them but the numbers had to come from somewhere.
And they only have a certain amount of the pie with which to fund everything. In particular, Health funding by the feds dropped relative to the states under Howard, so it makes it harder for the states to then put more money in to education if its all going to the private sector.
One hint Turnbull should pick up if he wants to be competitive with Labor is the fact that all Labor’s shadow ministers out performed their opposites and won or drew their debates. They all including Rudd did the hard slog – study.
Tactical perhaps, in the hope to lure Cossie back into the picture?
GP @ 549
I really would like to know if Alex (who?) Somlyay voted for Talcum, I was going to pay his electorate office in Birtwill St. a visit and congratulate him on ensuring an increased majority for Labor at the next election.
No 552
1. Your claim is only correct with respect to hospitals.
2. The way in which schools are funded by the federal government has nothing to do with the states.
What Labor should do (if they are not already) when making policy is to deliberately leave a ’space’ for the Independents to put something so they can all feel good about themselves. So they wont tend to otherwise grandstand by blocking bills for the sake of advertising themselves.
No 557
How ridiculous. If independent senators wish to amend bills they can go through the appropriate senate processes.
556 . Your claim is only correct with respect to hospitals.
The reason that the Queensland hospital system is clogged up and short of beds is because the Federal Government under Howard did such a poor job of funding aged care that the hospitals are full of elderly people with nowhere else to go.
Thomas
They could call it the Harridine space.
Dario
Lots of the cars affected by the LCT are quite efficient. There are six Mercedes-Benz in the top 20 most efficient cars. I don’t know how much they cost but I’m pretty sure they would be affected. I actually agree with GP on this one. I’d be happy if the expensive inefficient cars were targetted (Porsche aren’t too bad. Look at Maserati, Ferrari!!)
http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au/GVGPublicUI/QuickCompareWebForm.aspx?CurrentTask=67d30558-c756-477b-91a3-22dba8920212
If it means there is less money going to the states in the form of grants, then yes it is related
They might be ‘quite’ efficient, but obviously not better than the 7L/100km measure that was agreed on for the LCT increase if they are subject to it.
No 561
The Merc A200 and B200 are both under the LCT threshold.
So, GP, if the Queen is Australia’s sovereign, then sovereignity is NOT invested in the Australian people.
Seems like a good argument for a republic to me.
As for trashing Australia’s history, one more proof of your lack of patriotism!! Australia (even before Federation) was the first Western democracy to use secret ballots, to the extent that they were known as ‘the Australian ballot’.
No 562
The GST largely replaces grants and because it is an efficient & broad consumption tax, its revenue rises with the economy. It is not a stupidly inefficient and unfair tax like the LCT.
Why would we want to exempt Mercs imported from South Africa? How does a C class suddenly rise in price by $13,000 in real terms (excluding tarrifs) when in lobs in Australia?
No 565
zoomster, you originally said that it was an innovation from the Australian Union movement. That is patently wrong.
Dario
That’s correct. I could only find five cars that were better than 7L/100km though. There should be a sliding scale IMO.
566 The GST largely replaces grants and because it is an efficient & broad consumption tax, its revenue rises with the economy.
GP, I thought your beef with Labor was that the economy was not expanding enough.
No 571
Due to various market distortions and our overall isolation, the cost of doing business in Australia is higher than other countries. We’re also a very small market for luxury vehicles.
Increasing the luxury car tax from 25% to 33% would make it a more efficient tax.
steve 563
Sadly, the figures don’t back up the contention that the public hospitals are all clogged up with patients waiting for nursing home beds. It’s only about 2% at any time. I was surprised myself.
Introduced by who? Oh that right The Hammock.
GP – did you oppose the LCT when it was introduced?
The C Class Benz is a dog, better off buying an optioned Camry or Commodore.
I do apologise, GP. It was introduced by the Eureka stockaders, our first republicans. No wonder you want to forget about it.
Notice you don’t challenge my statement that a foreign monarch has sovereignity over our country, instead of its inhabitants.
No 578
Yes, I did.
There are 25 apparently
No 579
The new version is outstanding. Sales have increased 500% since its introduction in Australia.
No 580
zoomster, an “innovation” does not mean when the thing was first introduced. The notion of secret ballots existed more than 2000 years ago. The first modern democracy to introduce it was the state of Tasmania.
577 Diogenes so why is it that with the ever expanding rebuilding of hospitals, that the states struggle to keep up with demand for hospital beds?
544, because I felt extremely strongly that, in that instance, that we did not need a warmed over leader who had already been rejected by the electorate more than one time. I felt Rudd was a fresh start. I wanted to know where he came down on that issue. Mattered not in the end because Rudd got elected anyways and my then member voted for Beazely. I was prepared to vote Greens in the lower house at the 2007 Federal election though had my members vote contributed to the winning total as retribution for not doing what I felt was his duty on the day.
Sorry GP trick question.
The LCT was introduced in 1986.
No 586
The LCT was introduced under the following act:
A New Tax System (Luxury Car Tax) Act 1999
Turnbull did it tuff & he cried all the way to the bank!!
No 586
What you’re referring to is the former Wholesales Tax which had a special provision for “luxury” cars.
Education and Health funding are the domian of the State Government who have seen a massive increase in revenue therefore why does the Federal Government need to fund Hospitals and Schools which are the domain of the States.
The Federal Government gave the States a massive source of Income which Kevin Rudd and co opposed (GST) please lets stop blaming Howard for what is the States job.
Here is a really simple basic way the Three levels of Government should work
The Federal Government funds Pensions, creates Internation policy
The States main purpose is to provide services & water policy
The Local Government collects the garbish and sets Planning
Yes I know there is a lot of over lap, in reality Local Government is an arm of State Government
No 585
Sorry, but your concerns about who leads the country are automatically mitigated by the existence of democratic elections every 3 years.
No 590
Yes, Mr Rudd called it Fundamental Injustice Day. What a joke.
The luxury car tax was introduced by the Hawke government in 1986 as part of the then wholesale sales tax regime.
The GST was supposed to remove the LCT but for some reason it never was.
The Bill you refer to related to how the GST applies to the existing LCT.
No 593
LOL Ruawake. Legally you are wrong. The LCT as it currently exists was introduced in 1999 under the aforementioned Act.
Up until that act, luxury cars were simply levied at a higher wholesales tax rate of 45%.
http://www.aph.gov.au/LIBRARY/Pubs/bd/1998-99/99bd159.htm
Here is an outline of the Health system!
Federal Government:
Medicare
University places for Doctors & most Health Professionals
PBS
MRI Scanners
Medicare provider numbers allowing Doctors to practice
Aged Care Acredations
State Government:
Public Hospitals including how many beds, staff and which services are provided
Tafe places for several groups of Health Professionals
Acts of Parlianment containing to the way Hospitals operate example the Victorian Health Procedure Act
Aged Care
Local Government:
Home Help services
Aged Care
This is a very simple layout for I could be here all night and there are areas that overlap the different tiers of Government
The Age, 4 April 2007
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/canberra-tax
Sorry, link for 596 should be
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/canberra-tax-grab-soars/2007/04/03/1175366241085.html#
So I can take it from that Age article that the funding numbers are averages and look like this
1980s 6.7%
1990s 5.5%
2000s 5.2%
A declinde of 1.5%, which looks a bad result but Australia’s GDP has grown somewhat and this has directly lead to massive increases in State Government revenue actually all levels of Government have seen large increases.
While I wouldn’t be happy with a 1.5% I would want to see what the total funding for Health and Education was and before GP and Glen get to it the largest falls happened based on these fiqures during the Hawke-Keating years and during the early Howard years.
Beemer
The main reason hospital beds are unavailable is because of the lack of STAFF not facilities.
There are not enough surgeons to do the operations and not enough nurses to look after them afterwards.
There is also (especially in regional and rural hospitals) beds taken up by aged persons who would more appropriately (and less expensively) be placed in a nursing home.
The Federal Government is responsible for the training of doctors and nurses (through the University system) and for the provision of aged care.
The previous Federal Government had been told numerous times that there would be a doctor/nurse shortage if they did not raise the number trained. They were also aware of the situation with aged care but were happy to cost shift this to the State governments.
Zoomster! that is the one of the reasons why the Howard Government was useless.
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