How low can Tony Abbott go?

AUSTRALIA - TONY ABBOTT'S MO

"Sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission"

SMH Article   Tony Abbott briefed Rupert Murdoch on paid parental leave before party room PUBLISHED: 11 hours 7 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 5 hours 50 MINUTES AGO Tony Abbott gave media proprietor Rupert Murdoch a detailed briefing on his controversial $5.5 billion paid parental leave scheme before he announced it without consulting his shadow cabinet or MPs. ... Madonna King, the author of Hockey: Not Your Average Joe, writes neither the Coalition party room nor the businesses who would pay a levy to fund the expensive scheme were consulted before it was announced in 2010. But Mr Abbott “conferred with one leading business figure, the media proprietor Rupert Murdoch, who had been in Australia the month before”. The book says Mr Abbott, a former Murdoch employee and then the new leader of the Liberal Party, “like many before him, had dinner with Murdoch, where he gave the media mogul a full rundown on the scheme – ­supplying enough detail for Murdoch to later have his Australian-based editors briefed on Abbott’s plan, which [Murdoch] considered a visionary approach to dealing with a real problem in his workforce”. “They were encouraged to support it, notwithstanding that it represented a tax impost and was skewed to be of most benefit to parents outside their middle-Australian readership,” the book says. ... The book discusses two contentious policy issues – the Green Army and the paid parental leave scheme – which it asserts involved Mr Abbott making significant policy announcements without discussing them at all, or at least in any detail, with his shadow treasurer. ... “Joe says he didn’t think too much more about it, believing it was an un-costed proposal, not an Opposition policy. At least, that was until Abbott announced it publicly.” The announcement of the policy provoked criticism from the Coalition party room (and subsequently threats that some MPs and senators might cross the floor to vote against it). It also created bad blood with big business. In response to the criticism, Mr Abbott told a joint party room ­meeting he had made a captain’s call on the policy. ‘‘Sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission,’’ he said at the time. ... Mr Hockey told Sydney radio on Wednesday he was confident big business would pay the levy to fund the parental leave scheme, after it was put to him that business was arranging its affairs so it wouldn’t be liable for the impost. “They will pay it Alan, they will pay the 1.5 per cent to pay for the paid parental leave scheme, there is no doubt about that because at the end of the day, they are the also the ­beneficiaries of it and the beneficiaries of more women going into work”, he said.  ... extracts only ... entire @... SOURCE - AFR - here.

SMH Article Tony Abbott's green army enlisting now March 2, 2014 Tony Abbott's federally funded ''green army'' will enlist 15,000 young people in environmental work, striking young workers from official dole queue figures as youth unemployment soared in the year to January to 12.4 per cent. But young people who fill the green army's ranks will be paid as little as half the minimum wage ... ... Under the legislation introduced by Environment Minister Greg Hunt on Wednesday, green army participants - who will be aged 17-24 - will work up to 30 hours a week. They will be given the chance to undergo formal training as part of their duties, but will lose their Centrelink benefits for taking part in the scheme and fall off official joblessness figures. ... The government is aiming the scheme at indigenous Australians, people with disabilities, gap-year students, graduates and the unemployed. Enlistees will do manual labour, including clearing local creeks and waterways, fencing and tree planting. Green army members will not be covered by Commonwealth workplace laws, including the Work, Health and Safety Act, the Fair Work Act and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act. ... But ACTU president Ged Kearney said the workers should be covered by the appropriate federal workplace protections. ''This is about taking away well-paid, well-protected jobs from people and replacing them with low-paid, unsafe jobs,'' she said. ''This is not about getting people on the margins of the workforce into work, this is about providing a low-paid workforce.'' Greens MP Adam Bandt said: ''Only Tony Abbott could create a 'workforce' where the workers aren't legally workers and have no workplace rights. If a green army supervisor and a worker under their command get injured while wielding a pick or building a lookout, the supervisor will have the same safety and compensation protections as ordinary employees but the worker won't.' Source - SMH - here.

Just when you think Abbott and the Liberal party couldn't sink any lower ...

An independent blogger indicated that the Greens may oppose the PPL in senate and that without their support the Liberals won't get the legislation through [Source - here].