Abbott Government

The Honourable Tony Abbott MP
Prime Minister of Australia
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 September 2013
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor General	Dame Quentin Bryce Sir Peter Cosgrove
Deputy	Warren Truss
Preceded by	Kevin Rudd

The Abbott Government is currently the federal executive government of Australia led by the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott. The government is made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition. Following the 2013 Australian federal election on 7 September, the Coalition defeated the second Rudd Government, ending six years of Labor government. The new government was sworn in on 18 September 2013.^[1]

Background

The Liberal–National coalition, led by Abbott, won the 2013 Australian federal election, returning their Coalition to power after six years in opposition. Abbott, a Rhodes Scholar, and former trainee Catholic priest, seminarian, journalist and political advisor, had entered Parliament in 1994 as the Member for Warringah and served as a senior minister in the Howard Government, which lost office at the 2007 election to the Australian Labor Party, led by Kevin Rudd. Abbott served as Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs under Liberal leaders Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull and then became Leader of the Opposition following a 2009 leadership spill in which he defeated the incumbent leader, Malcolm Turnbull, by one vote.

Rudd did not complete his first term in office, having been replaced by Julia Gillard following an internal Labor party leadership vote in June 2010. Abbott led the Coalition to the 2010 federal election, which saw the Gillard Government narrowly retain office by forming a minority government with the support of four crossbench MPs after the election produced a hung parliament.^[2] Leadership instability in the ALP continued, and Gillard was replaced by Rudd following a Labor ballot conducted shortly before the 2013 election.

As Opposition Leader, Abbott opposed the Rudd–Gillard government's introduction of a mining profits tax, and emissions trading scheme and carbon tax, and criticised the handling of asylum seeker policy. He offered support to the Gillard government's National Disability Insurance Scheme, and matched the government on its first four years funding for the Gonski restructuring of education funding. He took a proposal for an expanded paid parental leave scheme, part funded by a levy on big business, to the 2010 and 2013 elections. If elected, he promised to instigate a referendum to give recognition to Indigenous Australians in the Australian Constitution, and to prioritise indigenous affairs by placing it within the department of prime minister and cabinet, saying: "There will be, in effect, a prime minister for Aboriginal affairs".^[3][4] In his 2013 election campaign, Abbott told the media that the Coalition wanted to "build a stronger economy so that everyone can get ahead. We'll scrap the carbon tax, end the waste, stop the boats and build the infrastructure and the roads of the 21st century."^[5]

2013 election

The Liberal Party under Abbott, together with the National Party, led by Warren Truss, achieved a 3.65-point two-party-preferred swing at the 2013 election, winning 90 of the Australian House of Representatives seats compared with the Labor Party's 55.^[6] The Greens retained their one seat in the chamber, with Bob Katter of Katter's Australian Party also returned. Two independents won seats in the House, and the seat of Fairfax fell from the Nationals to Clive Palmer, leader of the newly formed Palmer United Party.^[6]

The emergence of the fledgling Palmer United Party was a notable feature of the election, which secured a House of Representatives seat and two senators. The Greens, which had been in alliance with Labor for the preceding three years, lost one senator and a third of their vote under new leader Christine Milne. The party had campaigned heavily against Abbott and promised to block his key election commitment to abolish the carbon tax it had jointly introduced with the Gillard government.^[7][8][9]

The Australian Electoral Commission successfully petitioned the High Court for the West Australian Senate election to be declared void, on account of 1375 ballot papers lost during a recount after the election. The initial count had declared the Liberals and Labor winners of four of six seats, with remaining two going to Zhenya Wang of the Palmer United Party, and Labor's Senator Louise Pratt. The faulty recount narrowly gave the final two seats to Wayne Dropulich of the Australian Sports Party, and to the Greens' Senator Scott Ludlam. In February 2014, the High Court ordered a new Senate election for Western Australia.^[10][11]

Appointments

Governor-General Quentin Bryce officially commissioned the first Abbott Ministry on 18 September 2013. Fifteen of Abbott's ministers had served in the Howard Government. The Leader of the National Party, Warren Truss, became Deputy Prime Minister, Joe Hockey assumed the post of Treasurer and Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop became the first woman appointed Foreign Minister of Australia. Senator Mathias Cormann was promoted to the position of Minister for Finance.

Julie Bishop was the only female appointed to the Cabinet until Sussan Ley was appointed to Cabinet to replace Peter Dutton as Health and Sport Minister in 2014 when Dutton was made Immigration Minister in Abbott's Cabinet revision. During 2013 Abbott backed long-serving MP, Bronwyn Bishop, to become the government candidate for Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives. (Sophie Mirabella, the former Shadow industry minister and would-be Cabinet member, lost her seat to an independent candidate at the election.) Five other women were appointed to posts in the outer ministry, and one of the twelve parliamentary secretaries is female.^[12][13] Philip Ruddock, the longest serving member in the Parliament, was appointed Chief Government Whip.^[14] Eric Abetz retained the portfolio of Employment, George Brandis was appointed Attorney-General, Christopher Pyne as Education Minister, and Abbott's former leadership rival Malcolm Turnbull took Communications.^[14]

In his speech following the ceremony, Abbott said his government would "strive to govern for all Australians":^[15] "We won't forget those who are often marginalised; people with disabilities, Indigenous people and women struggling to combine career and family. We will do our best not to leave anyone behind. We hope to be judged by what we have done rather than by what we have said we will do."

The Abbott ministry was not announced for an unusually long period and the Agence France Presse reported that Abbott had set out to stamp a "markedly different style on government" standing "in stark contrast to the 'chaos' he liked to accuse his Labor predecessors of fomenting as almost hourly soundbites, lengthy press conferences and briefings were cranked out in an effort to control the 24-hour news cycle".^[16]

It became the first ministry since 1931 to be without a dedicated minister for science, drawing criticism from scientific organisations including the Australian Academy of Science.^[17][18]

Term of government

Foreign affairs and trade

Julie Bishop became the first woman to represent Australia as Minister for Foreign Affairs. In Opposition, Abbott and Bishop pledged that a Coalition government would shift Australia's foreign policy focus to be "less Geneva, more Jakarta".^[19] Prime Minister Abbott chose the Indonesian capital as his first overseas destination following the 2013 election, and travelled to Jakarta on 30 September 2013, to meet with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on 30 September 2013.^[20]

In October, Abbott returned to Indonesia to attend his first APEC leaders' summit, to discuss trade and economic relations and meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, US Secretary of State John Kerry and other world leaders. Following the summit, Abbott travelled to Bali, where he laid a wreath at the memorial of the 2002 Bali bombing. He also announced a commitment to extend compensation to Australian victims of terrorist attacks, allowing payments of up to A$75,000 to those who suffered in attacks on New York, London, Egypt, Mumbai, Jakarta, Bali and Nairobi since 2001.^[21] In Brunei, Abbott also attended the his first East Asia Summit with world leaders, including India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.^[22]

2014 North Asian trade agreements

In April 2014, Prime Minister Abbott led a trade delegation to Japan, South Korea and China. The three economies accounted for more than half of all of Australia's two-way trade.^[23] On the Japanese leg, Abbott was received by Emperor Akihito and, secured the key elements of a free trade agreement with the government of Shinzo Abe.^[24] A number of concessions were secured for Australian agricultural exporters, while Australian tariffs on electronics, whitegoods and cars were to be lowered. Negotiations for the agreement began under the Howard Government in 2007. Abbott said, "This is the first time that Japan has negotiated a comprehensive economic partnership agreement or free trade agreement with a major economy, particularly a major economy with a strong agricultural sector."^[25] Prime Minister Abe traveled to Australia in July to sign the Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement, and address the Australian Parliament.^[26]

On the South Korean leg of the mission, Abbott signed the Australia Korea Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA) with the government of Park Geun-hye in Seoul. The agreement reduced tariffs on primary products and reset the foreign investment review threshold to more than $1 billion.^[27]

The Abbott mission continued on to China, where he met with Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping. In an address to the Boao Forum, Abbott said "Team Australia" is in China to "help build the Asian century". He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Trade Minister Andrew Robb, five of Australia's state premiers, and 30 of the country's senior business executives, which he described as "one of the most important delegations ever to leave Australia". In the discussions, Abbott pushed for an Australia–China free trade deal with China by the end of the year. He also discussed the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, being led by Australia.^[28] Abbott announced military co-operation between the two nations would be developed to include high-level meetings, staff exchanges and joint exercises. He also announced that President Xi would address the Australian Parliament in 2015.^[29]

Shooting down of MH17

Following the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July 2014 over Ukraine in an apparent missile attack amid the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Australia's UN Ambassador Gary Quinlan led negotiations at the United Nations Security Council to adopt a unanimous resolution, tabled by Australia, that demanded that the armed groups in control of the crash site refrain from interfering with it and allow for the repatriation of victims and an international investigation into the attack.^[30] Bishop was honoured by The Netherlands for her role in securing the resolution and investigation.^[31]

The downing of the flight had resulted in 298 deaths, including 38 Australian citizens and residents. In the lead up to the 2014 G20 meeting in Brisbane, Tony Abbott focused world attention on Russia's role in the shooting down of the civilian plane. In a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the APEC meeting in Beijing, Abbott reportedly told the president that Australia had information that the missile that destroyed the plane had Russian origin and that Russia should consider apologising and offering appropriate restitution to the victims of the shooting. Russia continued to deny involvement.^[32]

Defence

The government continued the withdrawal of Australia's military commitment to the Afghanistan conflict, and continued defence co-operation with various regional players. In 2014, the government announced the investment of $12 billion in F-35 joint strike fighters.^[33]

At the end of October 2013, Abbott travelled to Afghanistan with opposition leader Bill Shorten for a special ceremony at the Australian base in Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan. He told a gathering of troops and Afghan leaders that "Australia's longest war is ending. Not with victory, not with defeat, but with, we hope, an Afghanistan that is better for our presence here." Afghan forces were scheduled to take over running of the camp in mid-December.^[34][35]

In 2013, prior to the election of the Abbott government, US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden had been granted asylum by Russia after handing over large amounts of confidential information from US government databases to world media.^[36] Australian–Indonesian diplomatic relations began to suffer in the early months of the government, as The Guardian and ABC News began to publish material, which had been made public due to Snowden's leaking, suggesting that Australian spy agencies during the term of the previous government had spied on the Indonesian President and his wife.^[37] The alleged spying had taken place soon after the July 2009 bombing of Jakarta's Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.^[38] Indonesia recalled its ambassador over the affair.^[39]

On 8 March 2014 Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared and presumably crashed somewhere in the Indian ocean, within Australia's search and rescue zone. Consequently, the Chinese and Australian militaries co-operated in the search for the missing plane, and in April 2014 the People's Liberation Army asked to operate under Australian command in the largest international exercises in which it had ever participated. The Fairfax press reported: "It is believed to be the first time the PLA would operate under Western command in a military exercise".^[40] Abbott met with US President Barack Obama in June 2014, in Washington, and approved a legal agreement for the deployment of around 1,300 US Marines to the Northern Territory, first proposed under the Gillard Government.^[41] Abbott also moved to strengthen economic and defence ties with Japan, signing the Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement and inviting Shinzo Abe to address Parliament and announcing a transfer of defence technology and equipment would be included in it.^[42]

Terrorism

The government was concerned as early as August 2014 that the Indonesian Muslim terror group Jemaah Islamiah has aligned itself to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and formed a potential threat.^[43] In September 2014, the government raised Australia's terror alert level from medium to high.^[44] In October 2014, the Federal cabinet approved the decision to launch air strikes in Iraq in response to concerns over Islamic State militant groups.^[45][46]

Indigenous affairs

Prior to the 2013 election, Abbott promised that he would prioritise indigenous affairs by placing it within the department of prime minister and cabinet, saying: "There will be, in effect, a prime minister for Aboriginal affairs".^[3] Following the election, Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion was appointed the Minister for Indigenous Affairs in the Abbott Ministry. Abbott reformed the administration of the portfolio, making it a single portfolio, where it had been one of several responsibilities of the Indigenous affairs minister and other ministers in previous governments, and moved it into the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.^[47] Scullion, a former professional fisherman, was also elected Leader of the Nationals in the Senate.^[48][49]

The government has planned to cut a further $600 million from Indigenous programs, in addition to the $534 million cuts in the 2014 budget.^[50][51]

Speaking at the Welcome to Country ceremony to mark the opening of the 44th Parliament, Abbott spoke of hope that Australia could soon have an Aboriginal prime minister, noting that the 44th parliament would have two indigenous members, and that Adam Giles was serving as the first indigenous leader of a state or territory. Abbot said "we certainly can have in this parliament, or the next, full recognition of indigenous people in the Constitution of our country".^[52]

Abbott's promised Indigenous Advisory Council was announced in November.^[53] The council was to meet three times a year with the Prime Minister and senior ministers to advise the government on policy implementation. Aimed at sparking "new engagement" with indigenous Australians, the 12 member council was headed by Warren Mundine.^[54][55][56] In December 2013 the government announced that was unlikely to provide further funding for the elected National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, which had been established in 2010 as the national representative body for Indigenous Australians.^[57][58] The government also reduced funding to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and associated policy officer positions in state governments, but not by as much as it had committed to during the election campaign.^[59]

In his February 2014 "Closing the Gap" report to Parliament, Abbott said that Australia was failing to meet the "more important and the more meaningful targets" of reducing Indigenous disadvantage, and proposed to add a new target to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance within five years.^[60]

Economic policy

Joe Hockey, a former Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations in the Howard government, became Treasurer of Australia, and Senator Mathias Cormann became Finance Minister in the Abbott government. Hockey had himself been a contender for the leadership of the Liberal Party in the ballot that saw Abbott win the role in 2009.^[61] Cormann had served as Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation.^[62] At a 27 September media conference Hockey said the government faced a challenge to sustain growth as the mining investment boom deflates, and indicated that the government was considering ways to stimulate infrastructure spending. ^[63] Within the first year of their economic stewardship there were 790,000 people unemployed, with an unemployment rate of 6.4% – a 12-year high and an increase of 0.7 points from the time the government came to office.^[64] Youth unemployment rose to a 17-year high. Hockey, eleven months after coming to office, blamed the steep rise in unemployment during his stewardship on the former government.^[64]

The 2014 federal budget was released on 13 May. In 2015, the Department of Treasury released an intergenerational report, assessing the long-term sustainability of government policies based on demographic projections of Australia's population.^{[65][66][67][68]} In April, Peter Costello published an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph describing proposed tax changes as a "morbid joke".^[69][70][71]

Financial services policy

The Abbott government has so far (as of August 2014) refused calls for a royal commission into financial planner misconduct at the Commonwealth Bank (one of the largest financial service providers in Australia) after a senate committee review into the matter found gross exploitation of bank customers.^[72] The government, which favours deregulation, intends to remove customer protections in the sector; allow advisers to earn sales commission and other so-called "conflicted remuneration" from providing general financial advice; and remove the requirement for financial advisers to tell customers how much they are receiving in commissions every year and give them the chance to opt out of the arrangements every second year.^[73] This was in addition to removing the laws that require financial advisers to act in the best interest of their clients, and the requirement that they provide clients with a statement of the fees they'll be charged each year.^[74][75]

Social policy

Parental leave scheme

At the 2013 election, Abbott proposed a plan for $5.5 billion paid parental leave scheme to provide parents with 26 weeks' paid leave, at full replacement wage up to an annual salary of $150,000 (or a maximum of $75,000) – or the minimum wage if greater. The wage replacement strategy was designed to be an economic driver and boost female workforce participation rates and was intended to replace the Gillard government's $1.8 billion scheme, introduced in January 2011.^[76]

Marriage laws

In opposition, Abbott's Coalition had voted against a same-sex marriage bill put to the Parliament, but in office Abbott indicated that, while he personally opposed redefinition of marriage, if a bill were to come before the new parliament, the Coalition party room would discuss its stance on the issue. In December 2013, the Liberals Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he thought it was "very likely" that the new parliament would consider a private member's bill and that the Coalition party room would agree to a conscience vote on the issue.^[77] Attorney General George Brandis had challenged the ACT Legislative Assembly's unilateral recognition of same-sex marriage as being inconsistent with the Federal Marriage Act and therefore unconstitutional, a view which was upheld by the High Court on 12 December 2013.^[78][79]

Disaster recovery assistance

One day after the 2013 New South Wales Bushfires destroyed 200 homes in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, the government eased the criteria for receipt of the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment, removing financial assistance for evacuees.^[80]

Immigration

Scott Morrison was appointed Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in the Abbott Ministry. In opposition, the Coalition had been highly critical of the Labor government's handling of Asylum Seeker policy, and Morrison was tasked with managing the government's efforts at stemming the flow of deaths at sea, and unauthorised boat arrivals from Indonesia. Campaigning for office, Morrison said that the Coalition "has always believed in immigration as one of the great nation building planks of policy" and that it would undertake measures to restore confidence in Australia's immigration program. The Abbott-led opposition had opposed the Labor government's tightening of restrictions on 457 "skilled migrant" visas, and pledged that in government, it would repeal the law and issue more 457 visas, to stimulate economic growth.^[81]

Asylum seekers

On 17 September, the incoming government announced the selection of the Deputy Chief of Army, Angus Campbell, who had also served as the deputy national security advisor in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, to lead the Abbott government's border protection operations, dubbed Operation Sovereign Borders.^[82] In December 2014 the Abbott government passed the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014 (Cth)^[83] giving the immigration minister unprecedented powers to control the lives of asylum seekers.^[84] The extent of the Minister's powers was condemned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN’s Committee Against Torture and parliament’s own human rights committee – which say the law strips the checks and balances that have always existed in Australia’s immigration system, and removes basic protections for those who arrive seeking asylum. The legislation overrides all non-refoulement obligations. The government can now send refugees back to countries knowing that the refugees will be tortured or killed upon return.

The government instigated a policy of turning back boats where it was judged "safe to do so". On 14 January 2014, the immigration minister announced the closure of four mainland detention centres.^[85] On 4 February 2014, Morrison announced that no asylum seeker boats had reached Australia for 36 days, which was the longest stretch in almost five years. "This is the longest period of no illegal boat arrivals since March of 2009, when arrivals first started to significantly escalate as a consequence of the former Labor Government's decision to abolish the strong border protection regime they inherited from the Howard Government", Morrison told reporters.^[86]

The government apologised to Indonesia after Royal Australian Navy ships performing border protection tasks entered the country's waters on six occasions during December 2013 and January 2014.^[87] The Indonesian government stated that the violations occurred as a result of the Abbott government's policy of turning back boats; the incidents led to a deterioration in the relationship between the Australian Defence Force and the Indonesian National Armed Forces.^[88]

On 17 February 2014 there was a riot in the Manus Island detention centre. The riot occurred amid concerns by asylum seekers in detention that their claims were not being processed. The Australian claimed that asylum claims were being processed in the lead up to the Manus Island riots. It has since been reported that no such processing was occurring.^[89][90]

In July 2014 two boats, with a total of about 200 Tamil refugees, disappeared between Sri Lanka and Australia. It was later revealed that the Abbott government had returned Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka despite the Australian government having alleged previously that Sri Lanka had been "responsible for government-sponsored torture, abuse and mistreatment by police and security forces".^[91][92]

In the government's first year they spent $120,000 on domestic media monitoring on immigration and asylum seekers in the face of criticism for being an overtly secretive area of government.^[93]

Infrastructure

In the 2013 election campaign, Abbott said he wanted to be known as an "infrastructure prime minister".^[94] On 19 September, Abbot joined NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to jointly launch the 33-kilometre (21 mi) WestConnex motorway for Sydney.^[95] On 15 April 2014, the Abbott government announced approval for a second Sydney airport at Badgerys Creek, 50 kilometres (31 mi) west of Sydney's CBD, and to develop accompanying integrated infrastructure. The announcement of the A$2.5 billion project ended years of uncertainty over the site, which had been purchased by the Hawke Government. Abbott predicted that the project would create 60,000 new jobs for Western Sydney by the time the airport was fully operational.^[96]

Public transport

While in opposition, Abbott attacked public transport, calling for less investment in "inefficient, over-manned, union-dominated, government-run train and bus systems", because "cars facilitated a sense of personal mastery public transport never would", saying "The humblest person is king in his own car."^[97]

In office, the Abbott government has made road funding a priority over public transport and withdrew funding for planned public transport projects.^[98][99]

National Broadband Network

In opposition, the Abbott-led Coalition was critical of the Labor government's National Broadband Network policy, and proposed to deliver "a cheaper version, more efficiently", by funding a technologically inferior fibre to the node network, rather than Labor's primarily fibre to the premises network. In opposition, the Coalition promised their alternative would deliver a minimum 25 Mbit/s to 100% of premises by 2016 and a minimum 50 Mbit/s to 100% of premises by 2019, requiring peak funding of $29.5bn.^[100] This compared to the previous government's NBN target of 100Mbit/s to 93% of premises by 2021 and 25Mbit/s to the remaining 7% of premises by 2016, with peak funding of $44bn. Social media activists attacked the Coalition's plan, describing it as "fraudband".^[101]

Following the 2013 election, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull assumed responsibility for management of the network, and invited the Labor appointed board of NBN Co to offer their resignations and announced a strategic review of the project.^[102] The review found that the Coalition's NBN would require funding of $41bn (up from $29.5bn) and that 44% of premises would receive 25Mbit/s by 2016 (down from 100%).^[103] Turnbull, a former Rhodes Scholar and successful businessman, had previously worked in the field of internet communications, being a co-founder of OzEmail.^[104]

On 15 December 2014, the government announced that it had struck a deal with the nation's largest telecommunications provider, Telstra, to gradually acquire Telstra's copper fixed-line network for a total cost of A$11 billion.^[105] The government was able to effectively re-negotiate the former government's NBN deal with Telstra, at no additional cost to taxpayers.

Environment

Greg Hunt was appointed Minister for the Environment.^[14] Hunt, a former Fulbright scholar, and human rights and development activist with the United Nations, had held the Shadow portfolio under successive Liberal leaders.^[106] The Abbott–led Opposition campaigned on a promise of replacing the Rudd-Gillard Government's carbon pricing system with a "direct action against climate change" policy. Prior to becoming Opposition Leader, Abbott initially supported proposals by Liberal leaders Howard and Turnbull to introduce floating prices to reduce carbon emissions, but also expressed some doubts as to the science and economics underlying such initiatives. On the eve of the 2013 election, Abbott stated during an interview on the ABC TV Insiders that:^[107]

...I think that climate change is real, humanity makes a contribution. It's important to take strong and effective action against it, and that is what our direct action policy does... The important thing is to take strong and effective action to tackle climate change, action that doesn't damage our economy. And that is why the incentive-based system that we've got, the direct action policies, which are quite similar to those that president Obama has put into practice, is – that's the smart way to deal with this, a big tax is a dumb way to deal with it.

— Tony Abbott on the ABC TV Insiders prior to 2013 election.

On 19 September, Hunt abolished the advisory Climate Commission, stating that this move formed "part of the Coalition's plans to streamline government processes and avoid duplication of services" and that the Department of the Environment would take on its role.^[108] Hunt has also stated that the government will abolish the Climate Change Authority and Clean Energy Finance Corporation.^[109] In October Abbott and Hunt disputed statements from Christiana Figueres, the head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, that the 2013 New South Wales bushfires were probably linked to climate change and that the government's Direct Action policy would be harmful, with Abbott stating that Figueres was "talking through her hat".^[110]

In November 2013, the Abbott government made a decision not to send a ministerial delegate to the 2013 Warsaw climate summit.^[111] In June 2014 the Abbott government lost a bid to have part of Tasmania's World Heritage forest de-listed from UNESCO's World Heritage programme.^[112]

Health

Peter Dutton became Minister for Health and Sport, the latter portfolio being elevated to Cabinet for the first time.^[14] The Abbott Government was elected in the early stages of implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which had been introduced by Julia Gillard, and for which the Coalition had offered bi-partisan support.

The 2014 budget reduces the Commonwealth's share of hospital funding by A$15 billion by 2024, with the majority of the cuts beginning in 2017, despite a pre-election commitment of no cuts to health.^[113]

The Abbott government plans to introduce a $7 co-payment for general practitioner (GP) visits and clinical pathology. The proceeds will go towards a medical research fund. Since the announcement there has been a collapse in private medical research donations for medical research.^[114] It later emerged that the government had failed to model the impacts of the new GP fee including the impacts on hospital emergency room waiting times and medical research.^[115]

In the first term of the Abbott government the Red Cross lost $5 million in annual funding, despite being the only organisation in Australia to collect blood.^[116]

Education

Christopher Pyne was appointed as Minister for Education.^[14] He assumed the education portfolio during the early stages of implementation of the school funding reforms inspired by the Gonski review, and introduced by the Gillard-Rudd Governments, for which the Abbott led Opposition had pledged to match the Labor government's proposed funding for the next four years in August 2013 after initially opposing the measures.^[117] On 24 November 2013 Pyne announced that the Government was reviewing all aspects of the Gonski funding agreements on the grounds that they were "a shambles and quite unimplementable", and inferior to the model in place under the Howard Government.^[118] Following protests from the state governments that had signed funding agreements, Abbott announced on 2 December that the government would still provide the funding that the Labor government had committed to over a four-year period, but the states would no longer be required to raise their funding or make other reforms, on the grounds that the government did not want to "try to run public schools out of Canberra".^[119]

In the 2014 budget, the Abbott government set aside $245 million for religious chaplains in schools. Secular schools were stripped of the option of hiring a secular equivalent, as they had been allowed to do under previous funding arrangements.^[120] Furthermore, taxpayers would subsidise the training of priests and other religious workers at private colleges for the first time under the Abbott government's proposed higher education reforms.^[121] In 2014 it was announced that religious teaching, training and vocational institutes would be eligible for a share of $820 million in new Commonwealth funding over three years.

University and TAFE deregulation

The Abbott government proposed in the 2014 budget the deregulation of universities and TAFEs. Furthermore the amount of public funding for university courses will be reduced by 20% and expose students to big increases in their student debts with the removal of all caps on the fees universities can charge. Student debts will be compounded at the 10 year bond rate with a cap at 6% (it has historically been typically above 6%) instead of the consumer price index.^[122] Total government higher education funding is projected to be $9.5 billion by 2017-18. While this is a nominal increase of $750 million compared with 2012-13, analysis by The Guardian Australia shows it represents a cut of about $1.5 billion in real terms when population growth and inflation are taken into account.^[122] The government then claimed that removing the upper limit on university fees will cause fees to decrease.^[123] This contradicts the designer of the HECS system, Bruce Chapman, who has warned student debts will triple.^[124]

Freedom of information

The government moved to abolish the role of Freedom of Information Commissioner, abolish the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and charge $800 for reviews of "freedom of information" request denials.^[125]

See also

References

Governments of Australia Barton Lyons Menzies I Fadden Curtin Chifley Menzies II Holt Gorton McMahon Whitlam Fraser Hawke Keating Howard Rudd I Gillard Rudd II Abbott