sweet_gurl_tina
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2005
- Messages
- 18
- Gender
- Female
- HSC
- 2005
Labor's policy principles
Labor believes in the powerful combination of hard work, strong families and the civilising role of government services. Labor has a plan for Australia - responsibility from all, opportunity for all.
Labor does not have a long list of spending commitments. We will only make promises we can keep. Labor's responsible approach to government spending will keep downward pressure on interest rates.
Labor's policy review
Labor's policy review is now complete and has endorsed the positive principles that underpin Labor's policies in the key areas listed below.
The Caucus will also contribute to the deliberations of the new economic committee established by Shadow Cabinet, which will work hard to establish a new economic growth agenda for the nation throughout 2005.
Tax and Family Payments
Labor believes in a tax and family payment system that rewards hard work and takes
the financial pressure off Australian families.
Labor will:
· combine Family Tax Benefit Part A and Part B;
· give access to a second tax-free threshold for couples with children;
· increase the "free area" for Family Tax Benefit;
· end the poverty trap; and
· expand services such as childcare, training and other strategies to assist in transition from welfare to work.
Fixing the debt trap would allow more families to get the full value of the $600 lump
sum increase in the base rate of Family Tax Benefit A.
National Security
Labor's approach to national security is based on three fundamental pillars:
· an abiding commitment to the UN and a fair, rules-based international order to enhance Australia's long-term security and prosperity;
· support for a strong alliance with the US — a critical factor in the long-term security of the Asia Pacific region; and
· comprehensive engagement with our friends and partners in our own region — where our most fundamental security and economic interests lie.
Labor supports Australia's international efforts to defeat terrorism.
Labor will:
· ensure a strong regional focus for the Australian Defence Force;
· expand the infantry as part of the Australian Army; and
· never allow an air combat fighter gap to develop in the Royal Australian Air Force.
Labor will establish a Department of Homeland Security and an Australian Coastguard.
Labor will ensure a national role in:
· land transport security; and
· airport security, including regional airports.
Health
Only Labor is committed to affordable and universal health care.
Labor will:
· invest in bulkbilling, with incentives to increase access to bulk billing, and will continue to defend the Medicare model of universal health care;
· expand bulk billing services at the evening and on weekends through expanded supply of after hours clinics;
· provide a national role in dental care;
· increase the national role in funding public hospitals;
· increase preventative health measures, particularly by publicly funding all listed vaccines;
· expand and redesign the health workforce - delivering more doctors and nurses;
· deliver affordable medicines and improve the quality use of medicines; and
· bring a national focus to mental health as a core health issue.
Labor will continue to hold the Government to account on its promises on the so-called Medicare Safety Net - a policy which is financially unsustainable, inequitable and open to abuse.
Medicare Gold
Labor has consistently advocated the need for health reform to fix the waste and inefficiency caused by the current division of funding between the Commonwealth and the States. The Howard Government has finally recognised the need for such reform with the Podger review. The Productivity Commission has also called for major reform.
The single biggest problem is the waste of between $500 million to $600 million per year and the needless suffering caused by having frail aged people trapped in acute hospital beds because there are not enough aged care places available.
Labor advocates a Medicare Gold-style solution with one level of government funding the health and residential aged care needs of older Australians - a solution that will:
· end the waste of $500 million to $600 million per annum;
· make private health insurance cheaper;
· use private sector capacity to meet public needs, freeing up public hospital beds for all Australians; and
· assist with containing specialist and other costs by having one purchaser of the hospital services required.
Education and Training
Only Labor is committed to quality lifelong education and training for all Australians.
Schools
Labor will:
· fund all schools on the basis of need;
· bring a national approach to the funding of all schools;
· introduce a national resource standard for all schools;
· maintain overall Commonwealth funding of non-government schools;
· in order to raise all schools to the national standard, reduce Commonwealth funding to schools operating above the national resource standard;
· ensure additional funding delivers quality teaching and higher school standards; and
· make public education a national priority.
Higher Education
Labor will:
· improve access with more university places;
· ensure affordability; and
· properly fund our universities; and
· abolish full-fee places for Australian undergraduate students.
Labor's policy will be consistent with the principles of access, affordability and better funding.
Vocational Education and Training
Labor will:
· improve access with more TAFE and apprenticeship places;
· ensure affordability; and
· drive better quality and standards.
The Howard Government's technical schools are a quick fix that deliver new bureaucracies instead of real skills for Australians. Labor will deliver a world-class TAFE system.
Labor advocates a Learn or Earn model for young people. We will create opportunities for the 45,000 young people leaving school early in Australia, through a mix of education, training, employment and mentoring strategies.
The Howard Government has left older workers behind. Labor will continue to advocate policies that create more work and training opportunities for older Australians.
Early Childhood Education
Universal literacy is the mark of a good society. Labor will deliver a National Reading Program to bring the benefits of reading into every home.
We will also extend the principles of universal access and early childhood education into the child care and preschool systems.
Environment
Only Labor is committed to protect Australia's unique environment.
Labor will:
· ratify the Kyoto Protocol;
· support a carbon trading regime;
· increase environmental flows in the Murray River to achieve the goal of an additional 1500gl in the Murray River;
· increase the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target to 5% by 2010. And we will continue to review this target as 2010 approaches;
· protect our coasts and beaches by investing in high conservation value areas as well as meeting international obligations, continuing legislative reform, and opposing inappropriate development;
· protect the Great Barrier Reef;
· support World Heritage listing of suitable areas of Cape York and environmental buyback of suitable areas of Cape York and the Daintree;
· support the phase out of plastic shopping bags - with a legislated ban if necessary; and
· hand over Point Nepean to the Victorian Government for a National Park.
Tasmanian Forests
Labor's plan for the Tasmanian forests will be based on principles of:
· a sustainable forestry industry plan, developed in consultation with unions, industry and the Tasmanian Government and based on the use of plantation timber, selective use of native timber, value-adding, and downstream processing;
· no overall loss of jobs in the forestry industry; and
· further protection of identified Tasmanian high-conservation-value old-growth forests, rainforests, and other ecosystems.
Indigenous Affairs
Indigenous Affairs
Federal Labor is committed to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, an apology to the Stolen Generation, and acknowledgment of prior ownership of the land.
Labor will:
· replace ATSIC with an elected representative body that accords self-determination to Indigenous Australians;
· improve service provision in health, education and housing and work for better employment and training outcomes for Indigenous people, including those in remote communities; and
· deliver non-discriminatory social and economic policies aimed at encouraging broad participation and based on genuine reciprocity of obligations, where governments as well as citizens fulfil their responsibilities.
Senior Australians
Labor will:
· index pensions more fairly; and
· improve income support for grandparents with dependent grandchildren.
Communications
Labor continues to oppose the sale of Telstra and will vote against the sale in the Parliament. If, as expected, the Howard Government is successful in selling Telstra, Labor will argue for a robust, open and competitive post-sale regulatory framework.
Broadcasting
Diversity must be the key to broadcasting regulation. In principle, Labor supports retaining cross-ownership restrictions but liberalising foreign-ownership restrictions.
Labor believes in the powerful combination of hard work, strong families and the civilising role of government services. Labor has a plan for Australia - responsibility from all, opportunity for all.
Labor does not have a long list of spending commitments. We will only make promises we can keep. Labor's responsible approach to government spending will keep downward pressure on interest rates.
Labor's policy review
Labor's policy review is now complete and has endorsed the positive principles that underpin Labor's policies in the key areas listed below.
The Caucus will also contribute to the deliberations of the new economic committee established by Shadow Cabinet, which will work hard to establish a new economic growth agenda for the nation throughout 2005.
Tax and Family Payments
Labor believes in a tax and family payment system that rewards hard work and takes
the financial pressure off Australian families.
Labor will:
· combine Family Tax Benefit Part A and Part B;
· give access to a second tax-free threshold for couples with children;
· increase the "free area" for Family Tax Benefit;
· end the poverty trap; and
· expand services such as childcare, training and other strategies to assist in transition from welfare to work.
Fixing the debt trap would allow more families to get the full value of the $600 lump
sum increase in the base rate of Family Tax Benefit A.
National Security
Labor's approach to national security is based on three fundamental pillars:
· an abiding commitment to the UN and a fair, rules-based international order to enhance Australia's long-term security and prosperity;
· support for a strong alliance with the US — a critical factor in the long-term security of the Asia Pacific region; and
· comprehensive engagement with our friends and partners in our own region — where our most fundamental security and economic interests lie.
Labor supports Australia's international efforts to defeat terrorism.
Labor will:
· ensure a strong regional focus for the Australian Defence Force;
· expand the infantry as part of the Australian Army; and
· never allow an air combat fighter gap to develop in the Royal Australian Air Force.
Labor will establish a Department of Homeland Security and an Australian Coastguard.
Labor will ensure a national role in:
· land transport security; and
· airport security, including regional airports.
Health
Only Labor is committed to affordable and universal health care.
Labor will:
· invest in bulkbilling, with incentives to increase access to bulk billing, and will continue to defend the Medicare model of universal health care;
· expand bulk billing services at the evening and on weekends through expanded supply of after hours clinics;
· provide a national role in dental care;
· increase the national role in funding public hospitals;
· increase preventative health measures, particularly by publicly funding all listed vaccines;
· expand and redesign the health workforce - delivering more doctors and nurses;
· deliver affordable medicines and improve the quality use of medicines; and
· bring a national focus to mental health as a core health issue.
Labor will continue to hold the Government to account on its promises on the so-called Medicare Safety Net - a policy which is financially unsustainable, inequitable and open to abuse.
Medicare Gold
Labor has consistently advocated the need for health reform to fix the waste and inefficiency caused by the current division of funding between the Commonwealth and the States. The Howard Government has finally recognised the need for such reform with the Podger review. The Productivity Commission has also called for major reform.
The single biggest problem is the waste of between $500 million to $600 million per year and the needless suffering caused by having frail aged people trapped in acute hospital beds because there are not enough aged care places available.
Labor advocates a Medicare Gold-style solution with one level of government funding the health and residential aged care needs of older Australians - a solution that will:
· end the waste of $500 million to $600 million per annum;
· make private health insurance cheaper;
· use private sector capacity to meet public needs, freeing up public hospital beds for all Australians; and
· assist with containing specialist and other costs by having one purchaser of the hospital services required.
Education and Training
Only Labor is committed to quality lifelong education and training for all Australians.
Schools
Labor will:
· fund all schools on the basis of need;
· bring a national approach to the funding of all schools;
· introduce a national resource standard for all schools;
· maintain overall Commonwealth funding of non-government schools;
· in order to raise all schools to the national standard, reduce Commonwealth funding to schools operating above the national resource standard;
· ensure additional funding delivers quality teaching and higher school standards; and
· make public education a national priority.
Higher Education
Labor will:
· improve access with more university places;
· ensure affordability; and
· properly fund our universities; and
· abolish full-fee places for Australian undergraduate students.
Labor's policy will be consistent with the principles of access, affordability and better funding.
Vocational Education and Training
Labor will:
· improve access with more TAFE and apprenticeship places;
· ensure affordability; and
· drive better quality and standards.
The Howard Government's technical schools are a quick fix that deliver new bureaucracies instead of real skills for Australians. Labor will deliver a world-class TAFE system.
Labor advocates a Learn or Earn model for young people. We will create opportunities for the 45,000 young people leaving school early in Australia, through a mix of education, training, employment and mentoring strategies.
The Howard Government has left older workers behind. Labor will continue to advocate policies that create more work and training opportunities for older Australians.
Early Childhood Education
Universal literacy is the mark of a good society. Labor will deliver a National Reading Program to bring the benefits of reading into every home.
We will also extend the principles of universal access and early childhood education into the child care and preschool systems.
Environment
Only Labor is committed to protect Australia's unique environment.
Labor will:
· ratify the Kyoto Protocol;
· support a carbon trading regime;
· increase environmental flows in the Murray River to achieve the goal of an additional 1500gl in the Murray River;
· increase the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target to 5% by 2010. And we will continue to review this target as 2010 approaches;
· protect our coasts and beaches by investing in high conservation value areas as well as meeting international obligations, continuing legislative reform, and opposing inappropriate development;
· protect the Great Barrier Reef;
· support World Heritage listing of suitable areas of Cape York and environmental buyback of suitable areas of Cape York and the Daintree;
· support the phase out of plastic shopping bags - with a legislated ban if necessary; and
· hand over Point Nepean to the Victorian Government for a National Park.
Tasmanian Forests
Labor's plan for the Tasmanian forests will be based on principles of:
· a sustainable forestry industry plan, developed in consultation with unions, industry and the Tasmanian Government and based on the use of plantation timber, selective use of native timber, value-adding, and downstream processing;
· no overall loss of jobs in the forestry industry; and
· further protection of identified Tasmanian high-conservation-value old-growth forests, rainforests, and other ecosystems.
Indigenous Affairs
Indigenous Affairs
Federal Labor is committed to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, an apology to the Stolen Generation, and acknowledgment of prior ownership of the land.
Labor will:
· replace ATSIC with an elected representative body that accords self-determination to Indigenous Australians;
· improve service provision in health, education and housing and work for better employment and training outcomes for Indigenous people, including those in remote communities; and
· deliver non-discriminatory social and economic policies aimed at encouraging broad participation and based on genuine reciprocity of obligations, where governments as well as citizens fulfil their responsibilities.
Senior Australians
Labor will:
· index pensions more fairly; and
· improve income support for grandparents with dependent grandchildren.
Communications
Labor continues to oppose the sale of Telstra and will vote against the sale in the Parliament. If, as expected, the Howard Government is successful in selling Telstra, Labor will argue for a robust, open and competitive post-sale regulatory framework.
Broadcasting
Diversity must be the key to broadcasting regulation. In principle, Labor supports retaining cross-ownership restrictions but liberalising foreign-ownership restrictions.
