Word: laborities
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...Labor wants to introduce an income test, denying such families the handout that has proven so versatile and so costly to the Budget's bottom line. Howard sees family payments as an important symbol (and a terrific way to rain money on key groups of voters). The Prime Minister describes Labor's proposal as "the thin edge of the wedge." Future Labor Treasurers, he warns, would define down definitions of "rich" and "wealthy." On the government's own figuring, lowering the eligibility limit to annual incomes under $A125,000 would save "less than $100 million." Each year the FTB system...
...Howard, as he told the Menzies Research Centre last month, the FTB issue represents the great philosophical divide in Australian politics, between "a Labor party which thinks government should direct people's behavior and a Coalition which sees its role as letting families make up their own minds." That's strange, because Howard's policies have been quite prescriptive when it comes to certain families, such as those headed by sole parents...
...tightening of welfare rules means single mothers are obliged to work when their youngest child turns eight. As Labor's Tanya Plibersek points out, if Australian society chooses to pay mothers -including millionaire mums with 15-year-olds-for the full-time care they give their children, we can't choose only to pay mothers with partners. Or consider the many disincentives to work that have become entrenched in the tax and welfare systems. The withdrawal of certain (means-tested) benefits as income rises leads to high effective marginal tax rates. For some families in the middle-income tiers...
...that the Howard government isn't completely deaf to concerns about female workforce participation. But the inadequacy of the changes to FTB rest on a simple truth: after a decade of constructing a family-welfare state on this scale, major improvements aren't likely to come from the architects. Labor leader Kim Beazley's support crew is mulling over the implications of the trends in tax and welfare. Beazley is now pitching to the middle; the tax burden, workplace insecurity, high petrol prices and interest-rate rises are the core of his crusade. It's also open season on Howard...
...includes some surprising gems and, as a bonus, sits nicely in your hands. "Our speeches are leaner than most, and more direct," writes the one-time speechwriter to former Prime Minister Paul Keating and now director of the global issues program at the Lowy Institute. Although his choices favor Labor leaders such as Keating, Gough Whitlam and John Curtin, there's a good sample from the Tories, including Robert Menzies, Alfred Deakin and John Howard. Each selection is adroitly and briefly introduced. Fullilove laments that today's speechmaking and writing ain't what they used to be, particularly in foreign...