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Tax is 'electoral suicide': Liberals
Category: Liberals
Video will begin in 5 seconds.
The government backbench is voicing concern about policy in the lead up to the budget. Analysis with Chris Hammer and Mark Kenny.
Senior Liberals have described plans for a possible deficit tax in the budget as "electoral suicide".Some talked of a party-room revolt and one warned the Prime Minister Tony Abbott would wear the broken promise as "a crown of thorns" if the government decided to go through with it.
The figure, part ofMr Abbott's ministerial team, spoke on condition of anonymity, arguing the suggestion of a tax was one that could come to "haunt"Mr Abbott's entire prime ministership.
Tough sell: Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaking to Neil Mitchell on Fairfax radio in Melbourne. Photo: Penny Stephens
"I worry that this is Tony's Gillard moment, when she announced the carbon tax," said the senior Liberal.
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Several other Liberals also expressed dismay at the prospect of a government, elected to restore trust to politics, overturning a "crystal-clear" policy commitment of no new taxes, in its first budget.
Incredulous Liberals contacted by Fairfax Media said they had been given nothing to tell voters who were beginning to call electorate offices to complain.
A Gillard moment: Senior Liberals are worried that Tony Abbott's deficit tax could spell disaster for the government. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
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Tax is 'electoral suicide': Liberals
Ontario vows to raise care workers wages
Category: Liberals
The Ontario Liberals are promising to boost the minimum wage of personal support workers in the home-care sector by $4 an hour, the latest in a long line of spending commitments the Wynne government is making in a bid to survive beyond Thursdays budget.
Health Minister Deb Matthews and Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced Tuesday that the Liberals would increase the minimum wage for 34,000 publicly paid PSWs to $16.50 an hour by April 1, 2016, up 32 per cent from the current rate of $12.50.
The first $1.50-an-hour of the raise is retroactive to April 1, meaning it would take effect even if the budget fails, forcing a snap election. The next $1.50 increase would kick in in 2015, and the final dollar would take effect in 2016.
The Progressive Conservatives dismissed the pay hike as a pre-election ploy, while the New Democrats, the party that will determine the minority governments fate, chastised the Liberals for moving too slowly to address the recruitment problem plaguing the home-care field.
Theyve made 39 announcements under their budget-leaking team and every single one of these has been to try to win seats in the upcoming elections, said Vic Fedeli, the Tory finance critic.
The PSW wage increase is expected to cost the government $50-million in 2014-2015, an outlay that would increase to $130.5-million a year in 2016-2017, if the proposal is fully implemented.
Mr. Sousa said he is planning to find the money in savings reaped from moving chronically ill and elderly patients out of expensive hospital beds which cost nearly $1,000 a day to operate and back into their homes, where they can be looked after by PSWs.
That is a very smart investment, Ms. Matthews said, after announcing the pay hike to a cheering Toronto crowd of purple-shirted members of SEIU Healthcare, the arm of the Service Employees International Union that represents 11,000 PSWs. As we attract and retain more people to work in the home-care sector, that takes big pressures off our hospitals and off our long-term care homes.
The home-care sector has struggled to recruit and keep workers, according to Sharleen Stewart, the president of SEIU Healthcare.
The pay is low, the hours are irregular and expenses such as mileage are not consistently covered by the private and non-profit companies that deliver home-care services in the province, she said.
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Ontario vows to raise care workers wages
'This is Tony's Gillard moment'
Category: Liberals
Video will begin in 5 seconds.
The government backbench is voicing concern about policy in the lead up to the budget. Analysis with Chris Hammer and Mark Kenny.
Senior Liberals have described plans for a possible deficit tax in the budget as "electoral suicide".Some talked of a party-room revolt and one warned the Prime Minister Tony Abbott would wear the broken promise as "a crown of thorns" if the government decided to go through with it.
The figure, part ofMr Abbott's ministerial team, spoke on condition of anonymity, arguing the suggestion of a tax was one that could come to "haunt"Mr Abbott's entire prime ministership.
Tough sell: Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaking to Neil Mitchell on Fairfax radio in Melbourne. Photo: Penny Stephens
"I worry that this is Tony's Gillard moment, when she announced the carbon tax," said the senior Liberal.
Advertisement
Several other Liberals also expressed dismay at the prospect of a government, elected to restore trust to politics, overturning a "crystal-clear" policy commitment of no new taxes, in its first budget.
Incredulous Liberals contacted by Fairfax Media said they had been given nothing to tell voters who were beginning to call electorate offices to complain.
A Gillard moment: Senior Liberals are worried that Tony Abbott's deficit tax could spell disaster for the government. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Continued here:
'This is Tony's Gillard moment'
NT councillor Eli Melky denies he's the next recruit for the Palmer United Party
Category: Liberals
ABC Alice Springs Town Councillor and Country Liberals stalwart Eli Melky.
Clive Palmer is claiming another defection to his Palmer United Party from the Northern Territory Country Liberal Party (CLP), saying Braedon Earley has made an application to join the new NT branch of the PUP.
Mr Palmer said that Mr Earley, a former CLP president, had joined Eli Melky, the CLP deputy treasurer who resigned yesterday, in expressing his dissatisfaction with the party.
Three former Country Liberal MLAs - Alison Anderson, Larissa Lee and Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu - have already joined PUP after quitting the CLP and moving to the NT crossbench.
Mr Melky has not confirmed joining the PUP, although Mr Palmer said Mr Melky was on the PUP plane when it flew into Darwin on Sunday.
Mr Palmer today said that applications by the two ex-CLP politicians to join PUP reflected dissatisfaction with the ruling party.
"Very significant that the former president and the existing deputy treasurer of the Liberal Country leaves," he said.
"It indicates how bad the organisation is that it doesn't really care about all Territorians."
Mr Melky, an Alice Springs town councillor and CLP stalwart, said while he had always been a supporter of Ms Anderson and would continue to support her, that did not mean he was getting on board with Mr Palmer.
"To deny such a thing - the cynics would be laughing at it - and to acknowledge it would be just simply inaccurate and simply not true," he said.
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NT councillor Eli Melky denies he's the next recruit for the Palmer United Party