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CURRENT POLICIES

 

Social security and living standards

• Increase age pension by $150 per fortnight for singles and $300 for couples, reduce age requirement for pension back to 65 for both men and women

• Increase in Newstart by $200 per fortnight

• Provide employment, education, training in the  armed services or with councils for those unemployed more than a year

• Require all welfare recipients to supply photo id  when applying to eliminate fraud

• Support NDIS name change to National Investment Scheme and NDIS reform campaign

• Fully fund Childcare only for working parents and properly means tested.  Incentives for businesses with more than 100 employees to have in-house childcare facilities

• Job Network providers be not for profit rather corporatised profit-making entities who don’t have an incentive to find unemployed real jobs

• Government to create a skills shortages register where all vacancies in Australia are listed and those looking for work can list their qualifications and skills. Companies have to take people from the register first before requesting to bring in skilled migrants

 

Environmental issues

• Support renewable energy without jeopardizing energy reliability 

• Provide tax incentives to businesses to reduce pollution - large fines for those who haven’t  transitioned to lower carbon emissions by 2030 - like accelerated write-off of costs to reduce pollution

• All government buildings, hospitals, schools to have solar panels with batteries installed. Panels and batteries manufactured in Australia by majority owned Australian businesses

• Fracking moratorium

• Build solar plants in Western NSW, SA and WA

• Build more dams and a pipeline from QLD to bring water to NSW when the state floods to increase hydro electricity 

• Develop a comprehensive plan to transition to renewables over next 12 years

• Replace polluting buses with solar powered electric buses

• Support the installation of recharging stations in all parking stations

• Legislate the sale of 3 and 4 star energy efficient household appliances only

• Support a national recycling industry and bring consistency in Kerb side recycling by councils 

• Support State governments to ban motor vehicles made before 1970 from being registered

Education

• Australian born school and university students will receive free education in public schools. Free education at university will be for first degrees only. Foreign students will continue to pay fees

• Emphasis on literacy and numeracy in all government schools. Ensure year levels, student age of entry and curriculum is uniform across the nation

• A fully funded TAFE system to provide Australia with skilled workers and no TAFE fees.

• Support the introduction of course in year 10 where students are talk things to prepare them for life after education like tax, superannuation, budgeting, democracy, voting system, working rights 

Health

• Reform health - emphasis on aged and most needy patients, reduce patient waiting times, expedite listing of new life saving medicines on PBS. 

• GPs to have health management programs in place for all patients with ongoing illnesses

• Increase the ratio of nurses to patients in hospitals and aged care

• Reform Medicare system - eliminate fraud, over servicing by having all GPs and specialists install card readers and have cards swiped at start of session and end of session, Medicare cards to have photos on them

Taxation

• Simplify individual tax system by:  (i) removing the tax-free threshold, (ii) allow no work-related deductions, (iii) remove Invalid and invalid carer tax offsets  (replaced by direct payments by Human services), (iv) remove beneficiary tax offset

• Have a new low and middle income tax offset of $8,800 up to $50,000 that can be claimed by Australian citizens and permanent residents only to replace the tax-free threshold and tax offsets above. The offset would be reduced to nil at $120,400

• The tax brackets would be indexed annually by the CPI. Marginal tax rates reduced across the board.

 

Our Tax Scales	Current Tax Scales
0 to $40,000 5%	$0 to $18,200  nil
$40,001  to  $120,000 10%	$18,201  to $37,000 19%
$120,001  to $250,000 15%	$37,001 to $87,000            32.5%
$250,001 and above 20%	$87,001 to $180,000 37%
	$180,001 and above                     45%

 

Explanation of our tax reform changes: No one receiving $50,000 would pay tax because they would receive the tax offset of $8,800. The tax offset would be reduced to nil at $120,400 so that more Australians below that level will be better off as they receive a partial tax offset. 

 

Removing the tax-free threshold will force foreign residents coming to Australia to pay tax and stop high income earners manipulating the tax system to reduce their taxable income below the threshold to receive franking credit refunds. It also means backpackers and pacific island workers will be treated the same avoiding the need for extra tax legislation. Removing the threshold, work-related deductions and the myriad of tax offsets will simplify the system and allow for the reduction in marginal tax rates and increase in other thresholds. It will reduce the number of tax audits needed.

 

•   Reform Trusts to prevent tax minimization
•   Simplify GST system to reduce red tape and extend it to financial services
•   20% Corporate tax rate on gross income and only deductions available will be depreciation and capital investment expenditure to prevent tax minimization
•   Foreign online businesses forced to pay tax on all sales to Australian consumers 

 

Immigration

•   Review and simplify the immigration process  

a)  Immigration through family sponsorship where person of working age entering must have full employment for 5 years, not rely on welfare payments, minors to be supported by family sponsors

b)  Those seeking Australian citizenship must live in Australia for 5 continuous years, speak an acceptable level of English, have no convictions for breaking Australian law

c)  Number of visas reduced and Temporary skilled shortage visas abolished

d)  Refugees provided with protection visas until safe to return to their original country

e)  Provide visas for migrants to settle and remain in regional centres for 5 years

f) Take action to deport all 50,000 current illegal immigrants 

g) Visa overstayers to be banned for 10 years from re-entering Australia

h) Outlaw conversion of Student Visa to Bridging Visas with the intent to seeking a Permanent visa

I) All immigrants who become Australian citizens or permanent residents who commit criminal crimes to serve their sentence and then deported to original country without review by Administrative tribunal and revoke their citizenship

j) Skilled migrants must be on short term contracts, train another Australian while here and then leave after the project is completed

k) Reduce the 98 visas to 10 key visas

l) Decisions on refugees to be completed within 90 days of applying

 

 

Energy policy and phone/broadband plans

 

• Reduce gas and electricity bills by 50% by:

• implementing a gas reservation policy of 20% to reduce prices 

• Allowing discounts only off regulated base rates not on usage

• Prevent energy producers having more than 20% of the energy generation market

• Feed in tariffs for solar to be the same across Australia and based on what retailers would buy it from energy producers  

• Strengthen ACCC powers to investigate and punish companies involved in price manipulation and profit gouging

• Have a Use it or Lose it policy on gas or mining leases

• Stop all subsidies for all forms of energy production: let them compete on merit

• All government buildings, hospitals, schools to have solar panels with batteries installed. Panels and batteries manufactured in Australia by majority owned Australian businesses 

• Make it illegal to have expiry dates on data purchased on phone/internet plans

• Unused data to be carried forward indefinitely

 

Housing affordability 

•   Reduce capital gains tax discount from 50% to 25%, discount only available for assets held for 2 years or more
•   Allow negative gearing only for one rental property. No deduction for interest on negative geared rental properties after the first property  - total interest to be deducted from sale proceeds for properties
•   Abolish stamp duty Australia-wide for residential home buyers
•   Impose a 30% tax on vacant held residential properties owned by foreigners
•   Increase housing availability in regional centres and surrounding areas
•  Tax incentives to build homes in regional centres 
•   Abolish first home owners grants which push up house prices

 

Government accountability

•   Abolish Remuneration Tribunal and Independent Parliamentary Expense Authority
•   Politicians (including senior public servants) pay frozen for 5 years. Future pay rises based on average pay rise received by all public servants below the Senior Executive Service (SES) level
•   Travel allowances abolished. Electorate allowances only for running electoral offices
•   Contractors and consultants to be reduced across the public service
•   Abolish political donations by foreigners and businesses - political donations limited to maximum $5,000 by individuals aged over 18 in one year, more timely disclosure of donations, ban property developer donations
•   Existing politician’s pension system abolished and to receive same 9.5% superannuation contribution as other Australians

• support the setting up of a National Integrity Commission to fight corruption

• Keeping government expenditure to 31% of GDP and no more

 

International trade and Aid

• Impose tariffs on all imported goods to match tariffs imposed by foreign countries on exports to stimulate Australian manufacturing and review all unfair trade agreements. If they reduce tariffs Australia will match reductions

• Replacing monetary aid to overseas countries with assisting in building infrastructure in those countries by Australian companies and training workers in those countries so we improve living standards

• Ensure Austrade assists Australian companies find new markets for Australian exports to reduce reliance and links to China

​State and other issues

•  Infrastructure stimulus packages across regional Australia. Build a dam in QLD to alleviate flooding and channel excess water into the Darling river, fast rail service on the Eastern seaboard and capture rain on eastern side of Blue Mountains and pump it back through pipelines to western NSW

• Create regional airport facility in each state and territory to be able to transport produce direct to the rest of the world

• Provide tax incentives for businesses to set up around regional airport facilities to create jobs

• Build a public university in one major regional centre in each state so country students don’t have to travel to cities for education and keep youth in the country

• Abolish all road tolls Australia wide and support more public transport

• Support the revamp of the Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) so that State and Territories pass same best laws across our country to stop them competing with one another to detriment of the country and bring consistency

• Negotiate with State and Territories to remove payroll taxes to increase employment

• Support States and Territories to set up hostels for homeless to provide free meals, showering, laundry facilities, financial advice and training to obtain employment

• Enable citizen initiated referenda so Australians have a say on important issues after obtaining signatures of 5% of the population

• Reclaim assets like power stations sold by governments

•  Review gun control measures and bring in  harsher penalties for illegal gun ownership and importation

• Make it compulsory to show photo Id to vote at polling places to stop fraud

• Ballot papers to be scanned by machine to count votes and paper ballot kept as proof of vote at polling booth. Total vote transmitted at close of voting

• Northern Territory to be granted statehood

• Support fixed 3 year terms for parliament, elections held in November, double dissolutions outlawed - policies not passed taken to next election and have 5% of population petition government to hold referendum to have early election to kick out bad governments 

• Return the budget to surplus and eliminate Australia’s debt by: closing tax loopholes,  stopping middle class and high income welfare,  stopping welfare fraud and government waste on consultancies

• Support the repeal of squatters rights

• Make it a crime to claim to be an owner of a property, change the name on title deeds and sell the property and making that sale null and void

 

Superannuation

• Superannuation funds to only pay superannuation pensions. Once pensions achieve $60,000 per year indexed to CPI, superannuation contributions will cease.

• Reverse exemption from taxation of superannuation pensions paid after the age of 60 and to ensure high income earners end up paying their fair share of tax on total income received. This reform will negate the need to cancel the refund of franking credits

• All contributions to superannuation to come from post taxed income only so as to not reward certain people who structure their affairs to get huge tax advantages 

• Cease taxing contributions to superannuation funds and taxing payments on exit to grow  pensions for retirement