'The Coalition wants to sack teachers.'

The Federal Government doesn’t employ any school teachers, meaning it’s simply not possible for any Federal Government to change teacher numbers.

'The Coalition will cut Trades Training Centres.'

Labor promised 2,650 Trade Training Centres in 2007. As of February 2012 they have delivered only 160 or 6% of the number of Trade Training Centres originally promised. Labor has now frozen the programme to save money.

The Coalition will replace Labor’s Trade Training Centre programme with the highly successful Australian Technical Colleges that existed under the Howard Government providing a valuable pathway for young Australians into technical and vocational education.

'The Coalition will freeze the Computers in Schools Programme.'

Labor has ripped out the entire $600 million from the Computers in School programme. These funds were supposed to upgrade and maintain computers. This means that the current fleet of computers can’t be replaced and Labor’s legacy will have been a $2.6 billion spend on obsolete computers in schools.

'The Coalition will reduce funding for Teacher Training.'

Labor’s teacher training programme has been a failure. It has been heavily criticised by both the Auditor General and the Productivity Commission. Both agencies have questioned the effectiveness of national partnership programmes in delivering better student outcomes.

The Coalition has promised millions of dollars in funding toward teacher related support.

'The Coalition will cut funding to schools.'

The Coalition will not reduce any of the recurrent funding currently going to schools, government or non-government. 

The Coalition will increase Commonwealth School funding by $6.5 billion over the next four years. Under the Coalition, all schools will receive more. 

'The Coalition wants to increase class sizes.'

The Federal Government has no jurisdiction over class sizes. State government schools are owned and managed by the states, and they have authority over class sizes in Government schools.

'The Coalition will bring back WorkChoices'

There will be no return to WorkChoices.

The Coalition has made this crystal clear since 2007. As Tony Abbott has said many times: “WorkChoices is dead, buried and cremated”.
Of course, this has not stopped Julia Gillard and Labor repeating their lie to distract attention from their own mistakes and failures

Labor also repeatedly claims that the Coalition is hiding its Workplace Relations policies. This, also, is untrue.

Improvements to workplace relations under the next Coalition government will be careful, cautious and responsible. They’ll be based on an analysis of problems, not on ideology.

The Coalition has already begun announcing its Workplace Relations policies, including its plans to:
• Establish a Registered Organisations Commission to overcome the inadequacies revealed by Fair Work Australia’s investigation into the Health Services Union.
• Amend the laws so registered organisations and their officials have to play by similar rules to those required of companies and their directors.
• Reinstate the Australian Building & Construction Commission that was established originally following the Cole Royal Commission into the building and construction industry.

The Coalition will continue to announce its policy approach to workplace relations in the lead up to the next election.

'The Coalition opposes high speed broadband'

The Coalition strongly supports all Australians having access to fast broadband at affordable prices.

Our approach to broadband will be to restore competition to the network so that costs are met by the private sector, not the taxpayer.

Already beset by poor planning and rollout delays, Labor’s NBN is digging up streets so that households pay three times the current price for internet speeds they don’t necessarily want or need and which could be delivered sooner at vastly lower cost.

Nor do we support broadband services being delivered by a government-owned monopoly at a cost to the taxpayer of $50 billion, especially when it has not even been subject to a cost-benefit analysis.

Under the Coalition’s plan, broadband will be national but not nationalised.

It will be technologically neutral, allowing a mixture of fibre, wireless and satellite services depending on local circumstances.

While we cannot undo the investments made by the NBN Co, in government we will seek to realise value for them. In doing so we recognise that special arrangements will need to be made where the NBN has already been rolled out.

'The Coalition has a $70 billion budget ‘black hole’'

There is no black hole. And there never was one. This is just another Labor scare with no foundation.

The Coalition has an unmatched record of financial discipline and actually delivering Budget surpluses.

We will end Labor’s debt and deficit and return the Budget to sustainable surpluses.

Australia had $70 billion in net Commonwealth assets when the Coalition left office in 2007.

Since then, Labor has delivered the four largest Budget deficits in Australia’s history and has amassed $142 billion in government debt, the highest amount of debt in Australia’s history. Interest payments on Labor’s debt are running at $22 million a day.

Labor often talks about Budget surpluses but it hasn’t delivered one for more than 20 years.

The only budget ‘black hole’ around is Labor’s – and they have just increased Australia’s debt limit to a record $300 billion.

The Coalition has gone through the Budget line-by-line. We won’t shirk the task of cutting Labor’s wasteful spending and finding more efficient ways to deliver services.

'The Coalition will slug business to pay for their paid parental leave scheme'

The Coalition is committed to a company tax cut so there will be no overall increase in the tax burden on business.

The Coalition’s paid parental leave scheme giving mothers six months to be with their babies at their full wage (up to a maximum salary of $150,000 per year) is an acknowledgment of contemporary social reality. Women today rightly expect to be able to work when they leave school or university. They expect to be able to continue working, albeit often part-time, even after they become mothers. They expect to make a financial contribution to the family budget. Most want some financial independence. Few accept that career and family should be an either/or choice. This is acknowledged by the Coalition.

Most households can’t afford to lose a substantial part of their regular income. If that’s what having a child means, then fewer families will have children and they will have fewer children. As well, fewer women will have careers because it will be less easy to combine serious work with involved parenting.

People who are doing it tough undeniably deserve financial support when their families grow. But every family’s budget comes under strain as it grows which is why all families deserve the support that a fair-dinkum paid parental leave scheme provides.

Paid parental leave ought to be paid at a person’s wage rate, like holiday pay and sick leave, because it’s a workplace entitlement, not a government benefit.

By getting rid of the carbon tax and delivering a business tax cut, the cost of doing business under a Coalition government will be reduced.

'The Coalition is opposed to Australians getting a fairer share of the proceeds of the mining boom through the mining tax'

The mining industry is already taxed twice. It pays royalties on the non-renewable minerals taken out of the ground and it pays company tax. Under Labor’s mining tax, they are being taxed again.

Labor are tax and spend addicts who consider success a dirty word. The Gillard Government’s mining tax runs the risk of harming one of Australia’s most successful industries.

No country has ever taxed itself into prosperity.

This idea that the Gillard Government is somehow doing Australians a favour by hitting us with a carbon tax and a mining tax is just dead wrong.

The so-called benefits Labor claims will flow from their carbon tax and mining tax are simply not true.

The Gillard Government is taking money out of one pocket to put it in the other pocket and grabbing a big slice for itself on the way through.

'The Coalition's Direct Action policy won't work and doesn't add up'

The Coalition’s Direct Action Plan for the environment is costed, capped and fully funded from savings to the budget.

A cleaner environment is an essential part of restoring hope, reward and opportunity for all Australians because we should leave our country in better shape than we found it.

The question is not who is “for” and who is “against” environmental protection. The challenge is to support smart ways to protect the environment.

The Coalition supports sensible measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but will never accept the proposition that you can only save the environment by killing the economy.

That is why we support direct action that will reduce emissions, not just make them more expensive.

In stark contrast to Labor, the Coalition’s Direct Action Plan is a practical, affordable and effective way to reduce emissions and to improve the environment without harming the economy.
We support the creation of a Green Army marching to the rescue of Australia’s degraded waterways, wetlands, and native vegetation.

We support a one-stop-shop environmental approvals process that sets high standards, makes swift decisions and delivers certain outcomes.

Our Direct Action Plan means no costs to households, no new taxes, and no increase in electricity prices as a result of the policy.

'The Coalition won’t – and can’t – repeal the carbon tax in government'

The Coalition can – and will - rescind the carbon tax.

The carbon tax can – and will be - repealed quickly by an incoming Coalition Government that has gone to the election seeking a clear mandate for the repeal of this toxic tax.

The repeal of the carbon tax will be the first piece of legislation introduced into Parliament by the incoming Coalition government.

If Labor loses the election it is almost impossible it could ignore such a mandate again.

Removing the carbon tax can be done within six months if Labor respects the mandate, or 12 months if not.

While a joint sitting is not our preferred option, our advice is that if necessary, it can be done in a little more than eight months at a minimum and in well under 12 months practically.

In short, the tax can and will be removed early in the life of a Coalition Government.

Furthermore, there is no need for or risk of compensation by abolishing the tax. We do not have to cancel or abolish any carbon permits; they would remain the property of the business in question. All that happens is that businesses stop having to pay any further tax going forward.

'The Coalition will take away carbon tax compensation from pensioners and tax cuts to average families'

Tax cuts and pension increases to ‘compensate’ for a tax increase is a Labor con.

The next Coalition government will deliver tax cuts without a carbon tax

Labor’s tax cuts and pension changes won’t keep pace with a carbon price that will keep going up and up.

Our tax cuts will recognise the cost of living pressures that are hitting families and small business hard.

'By opposing Labor's 'Malaysia solution', the Coalition is responsible for the influx of new boat arrivals'

It is the government’s job to protect our borders. It is not the Coalition’s job to support bad policy. It is our job to propose good policy.

We support proven policies that have been shown to work. The Gillard Government’s ‘Malaysia Solution’ is bad policy that would never work.

In 2008 Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard Julia Gillard, abandoned the Howard Government’s successful border protection policies. This effectively revived the people smuggling business, which has in turn led to the flood of illegal arrivals.

Julia Gillard never had a Plan B for offshore processing. Now we know that Plan B is the blame game with a Prime Minister who blames the opposition for her failure to get legislation passed should accept that she’s not capable of protecting our borders or governing our country.

The Coalition will restore the strong border protection regime that Labor abandoned.

The Nauru option for offshore processing together with the re-introduction of temporary protection visas and turning the boats around where it is safe to do so is good policy.

'The Coalition’s border protection policies cannot be implemented'

The Howard Government successfully stopped the boats the Coalition will do so again.

We will re-establish an orderly immigration and refugee settlement programme in which Australians can once again have confidence.

Labor has already backed down and accepted the Coalition's policy of re-opening the detention centre on Nauru.

Within a week of a Coalition Government taking office, Tony Abbott will go to Indonesia to renew our co-operation against people smuggling.

New orders will be given to the navy that, where it is safe to do so, under the usual chain-of-command procedures and based on the advice of commanders-on-the spot, Indonesian flagged, Indonesian crewed and Indonesian home-ported vessels without lawful reason to be headed to Australia will be turned around and escorted back to Indonesian waters.

Under a Coalition government temporary visas for illegal boat arrivals will be re-instituted and there will be a presumption against refugee status for boat arrivals transiting through Indonesia who lack identity papers.

There will also be tougher minimum sentences for people smugglers with mandatory non-parole periods.

'The Coalition is not committed to health funding and ripped a billion dollars from health when in government'

Under the Howard Government, funding for public hospitals increased from $7.49 billion in 2003-04 to $9.76 billion in 2007-08.

The priority for the next Coalition government will be to deliver practical improvements to our hospitals.

We will work with the states to make public hospitals more accountable to their communities, with more control for local boards and councils.

When Tony Abbott was the Health Minister he dramatically increased the number of medical and other health places.

As Health Minister, Tony Abbott increased the number of medical student places from 2,000 to 3,000 and there was a comparable percentage increase in the number of nursing places.

Under the Howard Government, nine new medical schools were opened around Australia.