Brendan Nelson
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- Listening Tour of Australia
Media Releases
Video
8 April 2008 |
Brendan Nelson's Listening Tour of Australia - halfway |
31 March 2008 |
Brendan Nelson's Listening Tour of Australia |
18 March 2008 |
Brendan Nelson's National Press Club Address |
26 January 2008 |
Australia Day 2008 |
1 January 2008 |
New Year's Message |
25 December 2007 |
Christmas Message |
Contact
Email
B.Nelson.MP@aph.gov.au
Address
Suite 8, 12 Tryon Road, LINDFIELD NSW 2070
Phone
02 9465 3950
Fax
02 9465 3999
Website
Parramatta
Diary from the road:
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After more than three and a half weeks on the road, it was wonderful to be able to wind up my national listening tour at the Parramatta RSL for a pre-ANZAC Day morning tea.
At this time of year, millions of Australians come together to reflect upon and give thanks for the courage and sacrifice of the men and women who have served our country – and who continue to serve – so that today we can enjoy the freedoms which we so often take for granted. ANZAC Day has become a popular expression of solidarity in support of shared Aussie values that transcend the generations.
The morning tea was also reminder of the wonderful services the RSL provides to our veterans and the important place it holds in our community.
Over the last few weeks it has been a real privilege to travel the country from Bunbury to Brisbane; from Tassie to the Top End and to meet and spend time with everyday Australians from all walks of life.
What has become clear is that the issue of foremost concern to everyday Australians is growing cost of living pressures. Many average Aussies are struggling with the increasing cost of petrol and groceries, along with rising interest rates, and they are waiting for Mr Rudd to deliver on the expectations he built up last year that he would bring all of these down.
Ever inspirational, the small businesses men and women whom I met – who get out of bed every morning to take a risk and work hard to deliver the goods and services we all want and provide jobs Aussies need – were concerned by what they sensed as a significant drop-off in consumer confidence in the last couple of months. In fact they could pinpoint almost to the day when business slowed dramatically. After months of talking down the economy and talking up inflation, it is time that Mr Rudd and Mr Swan started to act responsibly.
In many parts of Australia the drought is still as devastating as it has been at any point in recent years. The farming community must have the necessary financial support to re-stock and get their farms and businesses moving again. Water is essential to everything, and no more so than in the state of South Australia. I will continue to fight to ensure the national water agreement actually works and that we get fair compensation and support for affected farmers.
The listening tour has been an opportunity for me and my team to gather ideas and inspiration that will help us to develop and shape our policies for the future.
18 April 2008 |
Nelson address at the Pre-ANZAC Day Morning Tea - Parramatta RSL |
18 April 2008 |
Central Coast, New South Wales
17 April 2008 |
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17 April 2008 |
Nelson Doorstop - Erina Fair, Central Coast, New South Wales |
Goulburn
Diary from the road:
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Goulburn is one of Australia’s great inland cities with a proud history dating back to the 19th Century. Sadly this great city has suffered more than most from the worst drought in one hundred years.
The drought has had a devastating impact not just on the farming community but also on the small businesses that support it in towns and cities throughout Australia just like Goulburn. I visited one such small business, Ranger Geale Construction and Agriculture Specialists, which has had its turnover cut by 60 per cent as a result of the drought.
Small businesses throughout Australia must be protected from unfair dismissal laws which would severely discourage them from taking on new staff when conditions improve. This is a real concern I have picked up from small business owners around Australia and it is a core principle for me and my team.
Another issue that is raised with me wherever I go is obviously the cost of fuel. Mr Rudd created the expectation last year that he would reduce the price of petrol, yet since November the price of petrol has gone up.
The Coalition will obviously support responsible policies that reduce the cost of petrol for Australian motorists. But the Government must demonstrate that no motorists will be a cent worse off as a result of new policies. I have particular concern that Mr Rudd’s FuelWatch scheme will get rid of the heavy weekly discounting of fuel which currently takes place and which millions of Australians rely on.
16 April 2008 |
"Brendan's still listening: Dr Nelson hits Goulburn" - video on LiveNews.com.au |
16 April 2008 |
Nelson Doorstop - Goulburn - FuelWatch, Tour, Drought assistance, Carers... |
15 April 2008 |
Brisbane
Diary from the road:
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Each time I visit Brisbane I enjoy the refreshing honesty and frankness of Queenslanders. I spent an hour with my good friend and colleague Andrew Laming at the Capalaba shopping centre and when you talk with the locals they're not shy in telling you what they think.
Of most concern is the growing pressure on their household budgets. Many Australians are finding it tough at the moment, with the cost of petrol, food and interest rates on the rise. This is one area where many people are looking for the Government to deliver and for Mr Rudd to meet the expectations he created last year that these costs of living would come down.
One of the great success stories in Capalaba is John Titman Racing. Over 25 years, John has built up his business of making motorcycle parts and accessories from working out of his back shed to a business which now employs 14 staff. He's a great example of the get up and go needed to make a small business work. The more time you spend travelling around Australia, the more encouraged you get as you meet hardworking businessmen like John Titman.
In visiting numerous small businesses, I have been inspired once again by the get up and go of people who take a risk and work hard to deliver the goods and services we all need and provide jobs for other Australians.
15 April 2008 |
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14 April 2008 |
Nelson address at the John Howard Testimonial Dinner - Brisbane |
14 April 2008 |
Nelson interview with David Iliffe (ABC Radio, QLD) - Tour, Petrol, Hosp... |
14 April 2008 |
Nelson Doorstop - Brisbane - GG, Leadership, Emails, Tour... |
13 April 2008 |
Melbourne
Diary from the road:
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It is not often that you have the opportunity to sit with a group of Australians that are prepared to open up and explain the hardships that they and their families face. I had such an opportunity at the Frankston Private Day Surgery today with families from different circumstances but who all have at least one child with insulin dependent diabetes.
Sandy – a sole parent – has two insulin dependent children and became quite emotional when she was explaining that she could not afford the $16,000 necessary to provide an insulin pump for her children.
Insulin pumps have been an outstanding breakthrough in the management of insulin dependent diabetes, keeping blood glucose levels at a stable level and therefore reducing the crippling long-term consequences of uncontrolled diabetes and reducing also life expectancy.
These families – in some cases with three children suffering from insulin dependent diabetes – have found life extraordinarily difficult. The constant attention to diet, exercise and weight, interaction with the medical profession and battling to balance jobs with family commitments is nothing short of inspirational.
It will require $35 million over three years to provide 5,000 insulin pumps for Australia’s insulin dependent children. We should put our kids first and make this funding available to them.
I will be focused on the Government’s Budget to see whether they deliver for these children and their families.
12 April 2008 |
Brendan Nelson: Address to the Victorian Liberal Party State Council |
11 April 2008 |
Nelson Doorstop - Melbourne - Visit to Frankston, Olympics, Defence, Tour ... |
Recent photos
Bourke
Diary from the road:
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Bourke is one of the quintessential towns of western New South Wales. We arrived from Sydney and had the opportunity to spend time with 50 or so seniors in the new ‘Back O’Bourke’ tourist development.
These are men and women who have either been born in Bourke or spent most of their life in Bourke engaged in backbreaking work that has driven the economic development of this important part of Australia.
No group of Australians know more about drought and water management issues than the people of Bourke. Surviving on the pension, cost of living pressures and of course, water and the sense of isolation that the people of Bourke feel were issues foremost in their mind.
Whilst there has been some rain in the north and north-east of the Shire it’s still important that the farming community have the necessary financial support to restock and get their farms and businesses moving again.
Again, as for many parts of remote Australia, getting young people to university if that’s what they choose to do is a real financial struggle in need of further policy development.
The Aboriginal people of Bourke and Brewarrina are also after additional funding to support a men’s group that is facing the scourge of domestic violence and also the development of a facility for Aboriginal women in need of support.
As one of the Bourke old timers said to me, ‘We’re very proud of the way the Aboriginal people are facing up to their problems. They just need a bit of help from the rest of us and especially in creating and finding jobs.’
10 April 2008 |
Nelson interview with Joseph Thomsen (ABC Goulburn Murray Radio) |
Tasmania
Brendan Nelson's Listening Tour of Australia - halfway
- G’day, it’s Brendan here.
We’re now halfway through the listening tour. This week I’ll be in Tassie – it’s always good to get back to Tassie and Launceston will be the purpose of this visit. Where I spent the early formative years of my life. I’ll then be going into regional Victoria, we’ll go out to western New South Wales and by the weekend you’ll find me in Melbourne.
If you see me say g’day, but most importantly tell me what you’re worried about. What ideas do you have for Australia? I know that may of you are struggling with home loan interest rates, putting petrol in the car, buying groceries, feeding, clothing and housing kids and getting them to school.
The last week has been a very important one in visiting many of you. I remember at Lowood helping a lady put petrol in her car, it’s about an hour’s drive out of Brisbane and she said to me Brendan I can only afford $30 worth of petrol. I’ve got to go and buy groceries in a minute and then we had a chat about interest rates and home loans and raising children. I notice another lady at the same servo put only $5 worth of petrol in her car. That’s life for many, many Australians in a climate where we’ve got these global economic pressures but we’re also very concerned about the new Government being able to manage the economy to the best interests of all of us as Australians.
I particularly was moved by the environmental, economic and human tragedy that’s unfolding on the Lower Lakes in South Australia. You go down into that windswept sand of Lake Albert, at least what’s left of it, it’s shrinking every day. And have a man and his wife with a young baby there explaining to you that the three kilometres of pipeline they’ve laid has already moved quite some distance from the edge of the lake. Having to truck in water and you know when a lady said to me Brendan tomorrow we have 300 cows that need a drink, who is actually helping us? And in that regard when Mr Rudd gets off his plane from overseas I think he needs to go down there with the South Australian Premier and have a look at it.
Water is a major issue across Australia but no more so than in the state of South Australia.
We had a terrific visit to the technical college in Marayong out in western Sydney and you’ve got over 100 kids there that are having an academic education at the same time as learning the essential trade skills for their chosen careers – whether it’s in carpentry or cookery.
And I also had the opportunity to talk to tourism operators and small businesses, especially on the Gold Coast and Southport, and we had a good chat about the importance of tourism to Australia’s economy.
The important thing is when you see me, just sing out – say g’day and tell me what’s on your mind, tell me what you want done. What do you want said on your behalf? My job is to be the most effective voice for you to see that we have a well positioned alternative government for Australia. We’ve started the process of policy development but most importantly those policies need to serve you.
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The carers roundtable was one of the highlights of the visit to Launceston. All expressed their great relief that Kevin Rudd had caved in to the Opposition’s pressure to deliver the lump sum carers’ payment this year and for the next four years.
Starting the day on the side of the Tamar River and to see the amount of silt that’s built up is quite disturbing. The Government needs to provide the additional $200,000 for the saltation study and I’m at a loss to understand why Jodie Campbell, the Labor member, will not campaign for the necessary funds. So too the flood levies need serious refurbishment and restoration and the Federal Government must provide written confirmation that its $13 million contribution will be given this year.
It was also uplifting to visit St Finn Barr’s School where the students are absolutely magnificent in the way they are presented and the questions the year sixes asked me were tougher than at any press conference. The school provides a first rate Catholic education and is the school where I began my own education in grade one to grade four at its then outreach school Our Lady of Christians.
The meeting with the chief executive of the Launceston General Hospital provided further emphasis to the need to restructure hospital services and especially reduce the load on the hospital from inadequate use of GP services in northern Tasmania.
A stroll through the Mews Shopping centre at King’s Meadows down the road from where my grandfather lived, was a reminder of just how difficult a lot of Australians are finding the current climate. Trying to buy groceries while putting petrol in the car and facing increased interest rates was a struggle freely admitted to me by many shoppers. It’s absolutely essential that Mr Rudd and Mr Swan get the economy right.
Sydney
7 April 2008 |
Nelson interview with Mike Carlton and Sandy Aloisi (2UE, Sydney) |
Darwin
7 April 2008 |
Beware Rudd's union mates (opinion piece for the Aust Fin Review) |
Adelaide
Diary from the road:
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I started the day at the Adelaide Central Markets and saw my becoming good friend now, Ross Savos, who runs the Central Deli at the markets, and then went on to have the opportunity to speak to a number of the stallholders. These are the men and women in small business who really make Australia the great country that it is. They're out there at 3 o'clock in the morning getting their stalls organised and making sure that the residents of Adelaide have access to fresh, healthy foods of one sort or another. Breakfast at Lucia's and an opportunity to meet with teachers who look after disabled children and a variety of people on their way to work.
Christopher Pyne and I visited Campbelltown Primary School and presented leadership certificates to students who were just so magnificently polite, well-behaved and impressive in the way that they responded to their principal, teachers and our visit.
It was also a wonderful experience to return to St Ignatius College and address and field questions from year 12 students on issues as diverse as Aboriginal issues, Iraq, my political journey and what the school was like when I attended in 1975.
A luncheon with members of the Adelaide business community was an opportunity to listen to concerns about an economic downturn and interest rates and cost of living pressures and again to emphasise the dreadful circumstances of, not only the people of the Lower Lakes around Meningie, but increasingly South Australians being dudded in the recent COAG water deal.
Sydney
Brisbane
Diary from the road:
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The people at the pointy end of the economic debate in Australia talk about the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Sentiment being the lowest in 15 years or the Sensis survey having the largest fall on record for the March quarter, but you’ve just got to spend a bit of time at the Lowood service station to see Australians coming in with their cars – 10, 12, 15 years old – putting $5, $7 or $30 worth of petrol in the tank.
And one lady I gave a hand to get some petrol into her car, who put $30 in, was saying “gee, I really hope petrol comes down soon. I’ve got to buy groceries; we’ve got other commitments with the house and interest rates and so on”.
But then going to the Woolies in Nundah, just going through talking to the shoppers and helping to bag the groceries, you see a string of people, from sole parents with two or three kids, elderly people on fixed incomes, retirees, mothers that have got three kids to feed and a husband at work, and they’re really battling with their grocery prices.
And, by the way, they’re not too happy about the idea of some sort of tax on plastic bags. Mr Garrett needs to go back and have a look at that one. Big time.
The other thing that’s really emerging as a big issue is the funding of aged care. I’ve had a number of people, not only in aged care facilities but also the facilities themselves and the operators who are very concerned about what the Government’s going to do with aged care funding in the Budget.
And again, like the carers and disabilities issue for which I was thanked by people who are desperately in need on that lump sum carers payment, the providers are very concerned about what the Government’s going to do in the Budget for the funding of the care of our nursing home residents.
Brendan Nelson
1 April 2008 |
Nelson Doorstop - Brisbane - Reserve Bank, Mal Brough, Albanese comments... |
1 April 2008 |
Nelson interview with Peter Dick and Ross Davie (Radio 4BC, Brisbane) |
Gold Coast
Diary from the road:
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Well, the first day of the Listening Tour was absolutely fantastic. I had the opportunity to meet Tony, a surf life saver on the lookout at the Southport beach, a magnificent view of the people, the swimmers and the importance of the job that is the story of Australia - looking after the coastline and looking after other Australians.
I met Nicky, 30 weeks pregnant, had a listen to her baby's heartbeat and we had a talk about not only education but children.
I ask myself why it is that a man has to wait four months to get his cancerous kidney removed in a Queensland public hospital.
I went to Bumbles and met Catherine - a classic Australian small business working really hard, a small number of staff, really concerned about making sure we get exemptions for unfair dismissal laws for small business - and saw the hard work of making coffees and sandwiches and light meals for people seven days a week.
One of the other things I've learned is this country makes a caravan every nine minutes. But also the caravan parks around our coastline and throughout Australia are disappearing and I think there's a real need for governments to make sure that there's always going to be a place where you can take your family for a budget holiday. And caravan parks need I think to be protected and we've got to stop developers and people moving in and turning them into money-making machines for apartments and dwellings for people that have got a bit of money. I mean development is good, but I think we've got to protect the things that are really important to us.
Among the many classic sights I've seen is a lady driving a taxi on the Gold Coast with a passenger in the passenger seat and a jack russell terrier snuggled between the both of them with its eyes up looking out the front windscreen.
Today I'm looking forward to meeting with the people of Brisbane and visiting Clarendon State School with my good friend and colleague Senator George Brandis.
Brendan Nelson
Gold Coast Beach and Bumbles Cafe. |
31 March 2008 |
Nelson interview with Richard and Bridge (Gold FM, Gold Coast) |
31 March 2008 |
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31 March 2008 |
Nelson interview with Nicole Dyer (ABC Gold Coast) - Tour, WR, Merger, Pension |
Brendan Nelson's Listening Tour Underway
Leader of the Opposition Dr Brendan Nelson today launched his Listening Tour of Australia, during which he will cross the length and breadth of the country and give Australian families the opportunity talk about the issues important to them.
Dr Nelson said:
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“As a doctor I spent a lot of time listening to people, from all walks of life.
As the leader of the alternative government I want to do the same thing – listen – to help me really understand your concerns and get ideas and inspiration that will help me and my team in developing our future polices for Australia’s future.
For 17 days Mr Rudd will be overseas. I’ll also be out of the office, travelling the length and breadth of Australia – from Bunbury to Bathurst, from Tassie to the Territory and many places in between.”