GDP figures, wages growth and consumer spending; Foreign Interference, Energy - ABC NEWS WEEKEND...

June 09, 2018

Increased profits aren't flowing through to wages. We have got stagnant wages. In fact wages are almost going backwards in some sectors. In the National Accounts figures, household consumer spending went up a miserly 0.2%. Households aren't spending because they are not getting the wage increases that would normally be associated with 3% annual economic growth, and for the first time in Australian economic history, more than half the workforce...

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By-elections, women in parliament, tax cuts,China/Australia ties - ABC NEWS WEEKEND BREAKFAST WIT...

May 26, 2018

I will start with quotas. Quotas absolutely work to change the culture of political parties. Labor introduced quotas some 20 years ago, now we are up to 48 per cent of Labor's caucus is female. We've got 40 per cent on the front bench who are female, many with young kids. Quotas work to change the culture and force old white blokes, or middle-aged white blokes like us, to actually give way in some parts and actually let women have a voice. The...

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Federal Budget 2018

May 09, 2018

Well, I think the priorities are wrong. This budget confirms the $80 billion of tax cuts for large corporations and on top of that it announces tax cuts worth $7,000 a year for people earning over $200,000 a year, yet the average worker in my electorate of Shortland will only get $8 a week. So $8 a week for my workers versus $7,000 for someone on $200,000 and $80 billion corporate tax cuts; so for me that's symbolic of the whole missed opportu...

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Immigration and Energy

April 14, 2018

Well, let's have a proper debate about it, rather than just changing, tweaking a word when Peter Dutton became a minister from "target" to "ceiling around 190,000". I'm convinced that the majority of Australians understand that immigration, overwhelmingly is a good thing for this country, if we do the planning right, if we get the infrastructure investment right, if we get the policies to encourage people to settle in places such as regional N...

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