The latest coalition nonsense. Instead of raising Australia's foreign aid to 0.5% GDP (the previously agreed target), which would put us on about the same footing as the UK... instead Abbott is going to make up a good slice of the budget shortfall by axing aid instead. Because we're in such a tough spot don't you know. This is just unbelievable but of course exactly the sort of shit you get from the mean spirited right. The world's best performing economy, some of the world's richest people... but you know, power bills have gone up a bit so we're going to have to axe foreign aid so we can run our aircons. Sorry.
Oh and the small beans $75m to get started on the badly needed Melbourne metro rail tunnel is canned. Also, the whole opt-out porn filter thing was 'badly worded'. It was perfectly clearly worded, since it was basically a carbon copy of the UK's scheme, so it's hard to know what's going on there.
All of this policy action of course comes at the 11th hour, where up to this point they've said nothing other than sloganeering things like "stop the boats" and "end the waste". #auspol
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Matt Giuca
Wait, what? They announced a last minute internet filter policy? The hell?
Ironic that the same political party that 'promises to stop the boats' also has a policy of cutting foreign aid (because foreign aid doesn't in any way help alleviate the reasons why people are trying to escape to Australia?)
