In the News
Monday, 17 June 2013
Alex Hawke
MP, Federal Member for Mitchell says the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has misled
the parliament on funding arrangements for the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ case on the
Constitutional Recognition of Local Government referendum.
“In his
second reading summation, the Attorney-General made direct reference to my
speech, claiming that I had stated an untruth in the House. Actually, it is
that remark from the Attorney-General which is an untruth.”
In his
speech, the Attorney-General stated;
“The member for Mitchell also made the claim during
debate that the government has committed $21.6 million to a campaign to support
the yes vote at the referendum. This is simply not true. What the government
has committed to—and this is set out in the budget papers—is $10 million to fund a neutral,
non-partisan civics education campaign.”
That campaign will provide the community with
information about the Constitution and the process for considering any change
in the roles of the Commonwealth, the states and local government, and about
the terms of the proposed alteration. This
education campaign will not advocate either a yes vote or a no vote but will
help ensure electors are aware of the issue and in a position to make an
informed vote. (House of Representatives Hansard, 5th
June, 2013 – Page 93)
Today, Minister for Local Government Albanese
announced that the $10 million allocated for that neutral, non-partisan
civics education campaign but would be allocated to the ‘Yes’ case based on the
vote in parliament last week;
The amount of funding to be provided for each case will reflect
the proportion of Members that voted for and against the Constitution
Alteration (Local Government) Amendment Bill 2013. Over 98 per cent voted for and less than 2
per cent voted against this bill. Accordingly,
$10 million will be provided to the Australian Local Government Association
(ALGA) to assist it in its promotion of the ‘Yes’ case. (Minister Albanese release – 17th
June, 2013 - http://anthonyalbanese.com.au/funding-provided-to-promote-public-debate-about-constitutional-change)
While the ‘No’ case would attract less on a strictly proportional
basis, the Government will provide up to $500,000 to proponents of the ‘No’
case. The two Members who voted against the bill will be asked to determine the
distribution of this funding.
At the last
referendum in 1997, both the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ cases received $7 million each so
each side could make their case on a fair footing.
“Clearly,
the government is trying to buy the outcome of this referendum. Once again, the
government is guilty of announcing one thing and then doing another. Other
members of the House may have voted differently had they had known their vote
would determine the funding for the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ cases.
“What needs
to happen is the Attorney-General needs to come into the House and apologise to
the Parliament and the Australian people for misleading them in this way. It is
unacceptable that on an issue as important as Constitutional Recognition that
the Attorney-General should be able to mislead the Australian people.” Alex
Hawke concluded.
In his second reading summation,
the Attorney-General made direct reference to my speech, claiming that I had
stated an untruth in the House. Actually, it is that remark from the
Attorney-General which is an untruth. Click here for the full article.
Matter of Public Importance - 4 June 2013
{flv
img="/images/stories/videos/MPI_4June2013.jpg"
width="300" height="211"}MPI_4June2013{/flv}
Thursday, 6th June 2013
Alex Hawke
MP, Federal Member for Mitchell said households and families will get another
rude shock in less than a month when the carbon tax increases by another 5 per
cent.
“The carbon
tax is a bad tax based on a lie and only the Coalition will abolish the carbon
tax. Families, pensioners, retirees and small businesses have all seen their
electricity and gas bills rise because of the carbon tax – and they will go up
again after 1 July” said Alex Hawke MP.
“Households
are trying to get ahead – yet under this government, electricity prices have
gone up nationwide by 94 per cent and gas prices have gone up by 62 per cent (since
start of 2008). Australian manufacturers, who all pay the carbon tax, have
to compete against overseas companies that don’t pay it.
“The carbon
tax is hurting family budgets, putting jobs at risk and damaging the economy.
Alex Hawke
said his unequivocal pledge was that Coalition would abolish the carbon tax.
“We will
abolish it – it’s that simple. Repealing the carbon tax will be the first
piece of legislation introduced, if the Coalition wins government.
“Julia
Gillard said there would be no carbon tax under the government she leads and
all Australians know that she broke her word.
Alex Hawke
said the coming election was a referendum on the carbon tax and a bad
government that does not keep its promises.
“The choice
in this election is clear: a Coalition government that will abolish the carbon
tax, ease cost of living pressures and create more jobs or another three years
of a chaotic Labor who have legislated for even more increases in the carbon
tax.
Across Western Sydney,
Labor members of parliament like Julie Owens in Parramatta, Michelle Rowland in
Greenway and Ed Husic in Chifley have to state for the record if they support
thislegislated rise in the carbon tax which is another broken promise.
Thursday, 6th June 2013
Alex Hawke MP, Federal Member for
Mitchell, said local residents must be fully informed about any health and
safety dangers from Labor’s NBN rollout and how these will be managed well
before work begins.
“There are
serious questions the Government needs to answer about asbestos and its
NBN. Labor’s NBN involves running fibre to 12 million homes and businesses
across Australia. In a majority of cases that requires digging up local
streets and re-using or replacing Telstra’s pits. It is estimated up to
one third of pits – those built between the 1950s and early 1980s – are
asbestos-contaminated, and this work therefore poses risks to workers and
residents alike unless safety procedures are carefully followed.
“We need a
safety first, politics last approach when it comes to asbestos. In speaking in
the Parliament on this matter earlier this week, I stated we should not
politicise this issue but;
“when I look at the map of Western Sydney and I
look at Liberal seats and marginal seats and I see the NBN rolling out in those
marginal seats, who has politicised this debate?’”
“It is very
disappointing that Labor has failed to properly manage the health and safety
hazards of its approach to the NBN. And it is unacceptable that
subcontractors working on the NBN have exposed employees and local residents to
danger by not complying with required procedures to ensure such work is safe.
“I have had
calls from members of our community concerned that if we were to see this
government even begin a rollout of the NBN in Mitchell, that members of the
community would be put at risk of the exposure to asbestos.
Alex Hawke
MP said one of the advantages of the Coalition's NBN plan is that
infrastructure between street cabinets and premises is in most cases not
disturbed.
“We won’t be
digging up streets and opening pits in front of millions of homes and
businesses. Instead our plan is to roll out fibre to nodes that each
serve several hundred premises, and use the existing network to make the final
connection. This will greatly reduce the disturbance of ducts and pits
including those made out of asbestos containing material, This contributes to making our plan less
expensive, faster to deploy, and much safer.
Alex Hawke
MP said the Gillard Government needed to come clean and detail to communities
how workers, subcontractors and residents will be protected from the risk of
exposure to asbestos in areas where Labor’s NBN is rolled out.
The text of Alex’s speech on ‘The Government’s mismanagement of the NBN
Rollout’ can be found online at http://bit.ly/11k3RpJ