Media Releases
| Let’s focus on the federalism issues that are affecting our lives today |
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| Thursday, 21 January 2010 11:18 | |
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Recent media reports leading to speculation as to whether the Rudd Government is planning a series of referendum questions on federal-state relations next year show how desperate the Government is to distract us from the current federalism issues that are facing Australians today. “Mr Rudd was elected on the promise that he would fix the public hospital system, take action on water reform and undertake an education revolution. Later, when the Government plunged our nation into unprecedented debt, Mr Rudd told us that his Government’s Nation Building and Jobs Plan would result in the biggest infrastructure program this country has ever seen,” said Senator Marise Payne, Shadow Minister for COAG and Modernising the Federation.Two years later Australians expect results - and results are not being delivered. Instead, the Government is again, ‘all talk, no action’, teasing the media with a “will they or won’t they” on the possible referendum questions regarding the republic, the recognition of indigenous Australians, local government and co-operative federalism. “The Government will probably end up just adding these questions to the current COAG quagmire” said Senator Payne. “Instead of talking about what the Government may or may not do next term, it should be focused on the commitments it has already made – including following through on its plans to engage in a new era of ‘co-operative federalism’ with the (all but one) State Labor Premiers” “It’s certainly not ‘co-operative federalism’ when the Federal and State governments can’t agree on plans to fix our public hospital system and where it takes 18 months for them to agree on implementation plans for the Murray-Darling Basin agreement that it announced at a COAG meeting a year and a half ago,” Senator Payne concluded. |
