“By international standards our support [of the automotive industry] is modest, so we have to work hard to attract the new investment.” – Industry minister Senator Kim Carr, Lateline, 22 July. The idea…
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FactCheck – Analysis and Comment
“The fact remains there is a very strong correlation between people’s entry score at university and their success rate.” - higher education minister Senator Kim Carr, ABC’s 7.30, 17 July. Correlating entry…
“The Liberals have a secret plan to cut jobs in Canberra – 20,000 public service jobs are just the start of the Liberals’ plan to punish Canberra. Housing prices will plummet, unemployment will rise, and…
“More than 1000 asylum seekers have perished at sea since Labor relaxed its policies in 2008 - a move it now concedes was a mistake.” - The Australian, 18 July. Asylum seekers drowning on their way to…
“The numbers have spiked. Twenty per cent of Australia’s immigration program now comes to our shores courtesy of people smugglers… You’re dealing with a very different situation when you’ve got what could…
1. Julie Bishop: Australia has the right to return asylum seeker boats to Indonesia “We cannot escape from the fact that they are Indonesian boats with Indonesian crews from Indonesian ports. Of course…
“Under this [Labor] government we’ve seen one manufacturing job lost every 19 minutes.” - Opposition industry spokeswoman Sophie Mirabella, Q&A, 1 July. The Conversation contacted Mirabella’s office…
“If you think electricity is costing you more under Labor, then you’re right. Under the Rudd/Gillard Labor government, electricity prices have gone up 94%. And don’t forget: the cost will go up even more…
“There is a fox in the chicken coop in this plan and that is that the federal minister for education will have unprecedented power over state schools, and Tasmania, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria…
“Australia has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the developed world.” - Finance minister Penny Wong, The Drum opinion article, 14 January. Several ministers, including finance minister Penny Wong…
“Just to get the regulatory approvals [to start a mine] takes more than three years. Six years ago it took less than 12 months… Australian investors are fleeing this country to invest in more stable countries…
“The Americans are screaming blue murder because WalMart and their competitor have now reached about 23% market share. Here we have two supermarkets with a market share of over 80%, so if they decide to…
“The Australian Federal Police takes [red notices] very seriously but knows it must examine the veracity or otherwise of those claims because quite often claims, even against Australian citizens who’ve…
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is the cause of delays at the very airport at which he now wants a second runway to proceed… “Kevin Rudd ran a damaging campaign against a second runway in the late ‘90s and since…
“People are coming here, not now as a result of persecution, but because they’re economic refugees who have paid money to people smugglers.” - Foreign minister Bob Carr, Meet the Press, June 9. There is…
On ABC TV’s Four Corners program last night, Paul Nicolaou, chief executive officer of Australia Hotels Association New South Wales, dismissed claims that alcohol is fuelling late-night violence, arguing…
“The UN’s climate change chief, Rajendra Pachauri, has acknowledged a 17-year pause in global temperature rises, confirmed recently by Britain’s Met Office, but said it would need to last ‘30 to 40 years…
… It became absolutely obvious after the Copenhagen conference that the rest of the world was not going anywhere near carbon taxes or emission trading schemes and that’s why the Coalition is absolutely…
According to the ABC, Senator John Williams has called for cattle grazing in national parks to reduce the risk of fire: The problem in our national parks is that when we have these savage fires with these…
“Indeed I guess there’ll be more CO2 emissions from these fires than there will be from coal-fired power stations for decades.” - acting Opposition leader, Warren Truss, January 9, 2013 On Wednesday, leader…