IN CASE THEY FORGET

YOUR GUIDE TO WHAT THE ALP PROMISED 

This is your very own personal guide to what the ALP promised us during the 2007 Federal election campaign – the official campaign that is.  So in the interest of every voter, this guide has been meticulously recreated from The Sunday Age (Sunday, 25/11/07) 

Keep this with you over the next 3 years and tick off the promises as the ALP comes through with the goods. 

ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT

• Deliver budget surpluses equivalent to 1% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
  Maintain Reserve Bank independence, improve transparency of board appointments
• $31 billion tax package: saving $6050 a year for annual incomes of $200,000, $2150 for incomes of $100,000, $1550 for incomes of $80,000, or $1800 for incomes of $40,000 by 2010-11
•  Aspire to reduce the number of tax rates from four to three by 2013-14
• Invest up to $4.7 billion in a national broadband network, connecting 98% of households to service 40 times faster than the current network
• Aim for full employment, boost productivity and tackle infrastructure and skills bottlenecks 

HEALTH

• $150 payment for annual dental check for teenage children through Medicare
• Reduce waiting lists for elective surgery in public hospitals
• Put 9250 extra nurses into the hospital system
• Screen all 50-year-olds for bowel cancer.  Other measures to tackle cancer
• Increased screening for postnatal depression.  National focus on mental health
• Establish a Commonwealth Dental Health Program providing up to 1 million more consultations
• Establish National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission
• Establish GP Super Clinics in local communities
• Make fighting obesity a national health priority 

EDUCATION 

• $1 billion for every student in years 9 to 12 to have own school computer
• $2.5 billion to build trades and training centres in every secondary school
• Education rebate – families could claim half the cost of computers, software, Internet access and textbooks up to $750 a year for each child at primary school and up to $1500 at high school
• Establish a National Curriculum Board to develop national curricula from kindergarten to year 12 in maths, English, history and sciences
• $202 million to double number of undergraduate and postgraduate Commonwealth scholarships
• $111 million in financial incentives for uni students to study and teach maths and science, including halving of HECS repayments
• $450 million to give four-year-olds an entitlement to 15 hours of preschool or early learning per week
• 1500 new university places in early childhood education 

ENVIRONMENT 

• Will ratify Kyoto Protocols
• Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050 through national carbon trading system
• 20% renewable energy target by 2020, 30% wastewater recycling target by 2015
• $10,000 low-interest loans for householders to implement energy and water savings such as solar hot water, rainwater tanks and insulation and $489 million for National Solar Schools grants
• $500 million for National Clean Coal Fund
• $500 million for Green Car Challenge
• Support federal takeover of Murrary-Darling River system, but with more money spent sooner 

FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE 

• Staged withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq
•  AFP officers to Afghanistan to counter opium trade
• Create Pacific Partnership for Development and Security to improve stability in Asia-Pacific region
• Increase foreign aid from 0.3% of gross national income in 2010-11 to 0.5% of GNI by 2015-16
• Use RAAF’s long-range patrol aircraft and warships to gather evidence on Japanese whaling ships in Southern Ocean 

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS 

• Scrap existing IR legislation, formerly known as WorkChoices
• Abolish AWAs and statutory individual contracts
• Reinstate unfair dismissal laws and create a “safety net” of 10 national minimum conditions for people under $100,000
• Establish a new independent industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia
• Allow both parents of newborns to take one year of unpaid annual leave, one parent to take up to one year further 

HOUSING 

• First-home buyers eligible for 15% tax rate on the first $5000 of income they deposit into a home saver account each year, rather than the ordinary tax rate they would pay, interest earned will be taxed at 15% or less
• Housing affordability fund to provide money for local infrastructure and give state and local government incentives to lower development charges
• National rental affordability scheme, saving 50,000 low-middle income families 20% on their rental bills
• Release surplus Commonwealth land for housing development or community infrastructure 

CHILD CARE 

• Child-care tax rebate lifted from 30% to 50%, covering up to $7500 of out-of-pocket costs a child
• 50% rebate every three months rather than annually
• Strengthen child-care quality standards, including regular unannounced spot checks
• New healthy eating and physical activity guidelines for centres
• Incentives to improve the qualifications of child-care workers
• Establish 260 new long day-care centres on school, TAFE, university and community sites
• Early intervention and specialized child-care services for children with autism 

ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS 

• Support Government’s intervention in NT communities including constitutional recognition of Indigenous occupation and land rights
• Retain Community Development Employment Projects program
• $92 million for Indigenous child and maternal health services
• $30 million for teachers for 2000 Aboriginal children not enrolled in school in 60 prescribed communities
• $90 million over five years to train and employ up to 300 more Indigenous environmental rangers
• Increase the number of Indigenous officers in the Australian Federal Police
• Endorse Noel Pearson’s welfare reform plan for Cape York communities, cost $15 million 

AGED CARE 

• Increase utilities allowance to $500 a year
• Senior’s Card holders can travel at concession rates anywhere in Australia
• Increase telephone allowance from $88 to $132 a year
• Establish a senior’s Internet fund to provide grants of up to $10,000 for 2000 eligible community organizations to set up free Internet connections
• Create up to 2000 transition-care beds for older people waiting in hospital beds for an aged-care bed and allow others to return to their home
• Zero-interest loans paid to aged-care providers to make up to 2500 permanent residential aged-care beds
• Establish an ambassador for ageing 

Guide to ALP Promises Download