Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Merry Christmas
Thank you to you all for your support, comments and feedback throughout the year.
I have enjoyed working with all my constituents this year and I look forward to working with you all on the big policy challenges in 2009!
Wishing you and your family a merry christmas and a happy new year
Ursula MORE >>
The Rudd Labor Government's One Year Progress report  It has now been over 12 months since the Rudd Government was elected to office on a platform to build a modern Australia equipped to face the challenges of the 21st century. On 24 November 2007 we committed to get straight to work to deliver on our promises of strong and responsible economic management, action on Climate Change, restoring the fair go to the work place and delivering an Education Revolution for the nation.
In our first year in office we have been delivering on those commitments.
Just a few of our achievements include:
- Cutting taxes in the last budget for working families and low income earners;
- Starting our education revolution by building Trade Training Centres in high schools and installing new computers in nearly 1000 schools;
- Abolishing the previous Government's extreme workplace laws;
- Implementing the Water for the Future plan to restore the health of the Murray Darling Basin and securing our future urban water supplies with funding to build desalination, water recycling and rainwater harvesting projects;
- We have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and signed Australia up to international action to tackle climate change;
- And we are introducing a $480 million dollar national solar schools program to encourage schools to switch to solar power.
- We are establishing over 1000 new training places for nurses and providing incentives to encourage thousands of nurses who are out of the workforce to return to work, because we need them.
- By the end of the year we will have held nine community cabinets across the country as part of our commitment to hear people’s ideas and concerns first hand, wherever they live.
- And we have said sorry to Indigenous Australian on behalf of the Australian Parliament.
Senate releases report on non-profit regulation
A single body to register and regulate non-profit organisations and national fundraising legislation were just some of the recommendations made by the Senate Economics Committee when it tabled its report Disclosure regimes for charities and not-for-profit organisations in the Senate this month.
The report found that non-profit organisations in Australia are labouring under a heavy burden of inconsistent and inappropriate regulation and that there is a pressing need for improved regulation and increased transparency. MORE >>
Electoral Reform: Improving the integrity of Government
Kevin Rudd addresses Community Cabinet
The Government came to office committed to high standards of integrity, transparency, responsiveness and accountability. The Rudd Government has already implemented a number of serious commitments to implement higher standards and to improve integrity in government including:
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adopting a more demanding code of conduct for all ministers in the Standards of Ministerial Ethics
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introducing for the first time a Code of Conduct covering ministerial staff
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holding nine community cabinets this year attended by more than 4000 people including more than 400 meetings between members of these communities and cabinet ministers - an initiative never before conducted by a Commonwealth Government.
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strengthened the ethical base of the public service to protect it from political interference.
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winding back the benefits of incumbency by reducing ministerial staff and printing entitlements for members and senators.
This month the Special Minister of State Senator the Hon John Faulkner launched the next step of the Government's agenda to improve the integrity of government - the Rudd Government's Electoral Reform Green paper. MORE >>
$4.7 Billion Nation Building infrastructure package 
The global economy is going through the most difficult period in living memory. In just the past few months, trillions of dollars have been wiped from global share markets; the United States, Europe and Japan have slipped into recession; and almost every developed country has seen massive job losses.
Extraordinary times require extraordinary action. In the past when governments have failed to take early action, recessions have deepened as confidence falls and bad news feeds on itself. A failure to act early and decisively today would not only be an economic failure, it would be a failure of leadership and a failure to learn the lessons of the past.
The Australian Government will continue to do whatever is necessary to help protect Australian households and businesses from the worst effects of this global crisis. That's why the Government has announced a $4.7 billion nation building package to strengthen the Australian economy and create Australian jobs.
The package is a timely investment in road, rail, and education infrastructure, as well including vital tax changes to help Australian businesses during a global recession.
These national infrastructure projects and the assistance to business will boost the level of GDP and help create up to 32,000 Australian jobs.
The package includes three key infrastructure elements:
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A $1.2 million injection of funds into the Australian Rail Track Corporation
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Bringing forward $711 million in road spending to this financial year and next and more than doubling funding for the Black Spot program
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Investing $1.6 billion in critical university and TAFE Infrastructure
The package also includes two vital tax changes:
Improving Government Grants
The Rudd Government is serious about improving transparency and accountability in Government. The former government's administration of the Regional Partnerships program was just one example of the way that public money was being used in some cases for political purposes and self interest. It was a program lacked clear and transparent guidelines to ensure opportunities were not wasted in local communities.
In fact an Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report into the program found serious shortcomings in transparency and process in grant giving.
The report found instances where taxpayers money was being awarded regardless of funding procedures and guidelines and found that "the manner in which the program had been administered...had fallen short of an acceptable standard of public administration."
The Rudd Government is determined to ensure that such an abuse of public funds at the expense of genuine community need does not occur again.
All Governments owe it to their taxpayers to ensure that public money is administered appropriately with transparency and accountability. The Rudd Government believes that it is critical that we improve practices in the administration of grants across government to ensure better outcomes for taxpayers.
MORE >>
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme White Paper released  Australia will cut emissions by 60 per cent by the year 2050 and by five to fifteen per cent on 2000 levels by 2020. These are the targets set by the Government's White paper for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme released by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd this month.
Climate change is one of the greatest, enduring challenges that we face as a nation and as an international community. Our generation is the first to feel the real tangible effects of climate change and it is incumbent upon our generation to take action.
As the Prime Minister made clear whilst launching the white paper carbon pollution is causing the world's climate to change, resulting in extreme weather, higher temperatures, more droughts, and rising sea levels.
Eleven of the past 12 years rank among the 12 warmest years since records began and Australia has experienced warmer-than-average mean annual temperatures for 16 of the past 18 years.
As one of the hottest and driest continents on earth, Australia will be one of the nations hardest and fastest hit by climate change if we don't act now.
The White Paper therefore builds a decisive and strong response to Climate Change that tackles this major economic and environmental challenge while ensuring that families and vulnerable groups do not receive an unfair share of the burden of adapting to global warming.
Building Australia's low pollution future with renewable energy and new solar credits  The Australian Government will provide a new 'Solar Credits' scheme as part of a move to our low pollution future and to implemented the Government's 20 per cent Renewable Energy target.
The Renewable Energy Target (RET) will ensure 20 per cent of Australia's electricity is sourced from renewables by 2020, helping us build the low-pollution economy and jobs of the future.
Draft legislation to deliver the RET was released following on from the release of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme White Paper. While the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will help bring renewable energy technologies into the market over time, the policy announced today will dramatically accelerate their use.
Support for partnership agreement between Government and non-profit sector: ACOSS Report
Ursula chats with members of the non-profit sector during an ACOSS consultation session
An ACOSS report into the views of the non-profit sector on a compact with government has found that there is strong support within the sector for a some sort of partnership agreement with Government.
The Government commissioned ACOSS to consult with the sector and gauge a level of interest among non-profit organisations for a compact or similar agreement. The report was based on consultations held at 16 forums across Australia between July and October and 60 submissions.
The report points to the overwhelming interest among the Sector in working to improve relationships with and across Government and within the Sector. It showed that the Sector has a strong desire for a changed relationship with Government and wants to move to a relationship based on mutual respect and understanding, and mutual accountability. MORE >>
Senator Stephens opens premiere of "Who's holding my dream?"
Last month I travelled to The Butter Factory Theatre in Wodonga to open the premiere of "Who's holding my dream?" by the Somebody's Daughter Theatre Company.
The Somebody's Daughter Theatre Company is a fantastic initiative that has been operating in the Upper Hume for the past few years. It runs the Highwater Theatre Rural Program which is an intensive creative arts-based education program with a small group of teenagers in Albury/Wodonga.
Highwater Theatre is an intensive creative arts-based education program with a small group of teenagers in Albury/Wodonga. The young artists are aged between 12 and 16 years, are not in formal education and haven’t been for some time. Most are or have been homeless or in foster care. MORE >>
The impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Social Services
Ursula discusses the impact of the Global Economic Crisis on the delivery of Social Services at a forum
organised by Australia's four major church organisations providing social welfare.
Earlier this month I opened a major church providers summit on the impact of the Global Financial Crisis. The major providers converged on Canberra to discuss the effect of the global financial crisis on the non-profit sector in Australia.
Three major church providers had jointly commissioned a paper The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Social Services which highlighted the potential consequences of the current market turbulence for service providers in Australia.
The report found that the current global financial crisis and its likely impact on the Australian economy will have an acute impact on the most disadvantaged members of society, as well as pushing increasednumbers of low and middle income earners to seek the services of welfare agencies.The demand for social services was already rising and will rise substantially in the short-term. MORE >>
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