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$42b stimulus package sunk
Phillip Hudson
February 12, 2009 - 4:21PM
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The Federal Government's $42 billion economic stimulus package has been sunk in the Senate with independent Nick Xenephon voting against it.
The five Greens senators and Family First's Steve Fielding voted for it but the ballot was tied 35-all in the Senate, meaning the legislation was defeated.
It means low and middle income workers and families will not get the $12 billion in one-off cash bonus payments promised last week by the government and more than $28 billion worth of spending on school repairs and upgrades, building new homes and providing free ceiling insulation will not go ahead unless the government can find one more vote.
The government immediately laid the blame with Malcolm Turnbull and the Opposition for voting against the package.
South Australian independent Senator Nick Xenophon demanded $5 billion be brought forward from future years to buy back water and improve irrrigation infrastructure along the ailing Murray-Darling Basin.
The government offered $410 million, including about $200 million this financial year.
Senator Xenophon said that was not credible and he could not vote for the package.
"I didn't come to Canberra to make friends," he said.
"I came here to make a difference. I will not walk away from the people of the Murray-Darling basin".
As the Bureau of Statistics today said the unemployment rate had risen from 4.5 to 4.8 per cent, Senator Fielding said the package was "flawed" because it would leave 300,000 extra people unemployed.
He wanted to divert $4 billion of the $42 billion to an undefined job creation scheme, but the government rejected that idea.
"The government in its desire to push this package through swiftly, basically has held a gun to the heads of the cross bench.
"We were damned if we voted for it. We were damned if we voted against it," Senator Fielding said.
The Victorian senator said he walked the streets of Canberra for an hour at midnight last night. |
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坐着火车游澳洲 (2012-11-6) JHHHS 
发表于 2009-2-12 16:39
