Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has rebuffed Cardinal Pell’s Easter attack on the Greens as not very Christian.
“I hope the good Cardinal reads The Australian’s Easter editorial noting comments from Melbourne’s Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart and calling for ‘forgiveness, atonement, hope, tolerance and generosity’. Somewhere up the Hume Highway as you get towards Archbishop Pell these sound religious values tend to evaporate,” Senator Brown said today in Hobart.
“Cardinal Pell’s mischievous and patently false claim that the Greens are ‘quite explicit about their opposition to Christianity’ belies the fact that the Greens back pure Christian values in the public arena more strongly than Cardinal Pell himself. For example Cardinal Pell’s poorly restrained embrace of the free market has let down poorer Australians in a nation where mega profits from the resources boom are draining out of the country rather than funding health, education and poorer families’ welfare.
“Cardinal Pell should nail Mammon for starters, and stand for parliament if he wants to get so ridiculously political.
“But I agree with him on the loss of family farms in Australia- he’s with the Greens there,” Senator Brown said.
http://bob-brown.greensmps.org.au/content/media-releases/cardinal-pell-should-nail-mammon
• Q&A tonight (Monday): Pell v. Dawkins
And,
Wrong way on economy, go back: Brown to Swan
Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has called on Treasurer Wayne Swan to reverse the government’s doctrinaire insistence on a surplus in the May budget.
“The cuts affecting art galleries, environmental well-being and a growing range of public services are not just unnecessary, they threaten Australia’s small business economy and jobs in the public and private sector,” Senator Brown said today in Hobart.
“A growing number of experienced economists are saying ‘wrong way, go back’ to the Treasurer.
“I have written to the Treasurer asking him to drop the strangulation of the economy and public service involved in this ideological silliness.
“The government should also look to reform superannuation tax breaks in the upcoming budget to give low income earners a tax break and save billions of dollars at the same time,” Senator Brown said.
“”The most recent figures released by the Association of Superannuation Funds show that 60% of tax concessions go to the wealthiest 20% of income earners. The Greens have proposed taxing superannuation contributions at a person’s marginal tax rate minus 15%. This would mean low income earners would pay no tax and therefore would save more for their retirement.
“The architect of the scheme, Vince FitzGerald, who is quoted today as saying the system is skewed towards high income earners, agrees that we should be taxing superannuation properly,” Senator Brown said.
Download business and economic commentary on the surplus:
20120407_MEDIA_RELEASE_Swan.pdf
http://bob-brown.greensmps.org.au/content/media-releases/wrong-way-economy-go-back-brown-swan
First published: 2012-04-07 01:10 PM
• Tuesday, April 10: Essential to put economy and services ahead of doctrinaire surplus: Brown
Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today’s Essential poll, showing 73% support maintaining services and investment and a delay in returning to a budget surplus, backs the Greens’ call for the Government to drop its doctrinaire insistence on a surplus.
“This Essential poll shows public opinion is aligned with the Greens in putting the economy and services ahead of the political mantra of a budget surplus,” Senator Brown said.
“In fact, the public knows that a budget surplus spells widespread job losses and is unnecessary when the income options of a stronger mining tax, ending fossil fuel subsidies and forgoing corporate tax cuts are readily available if either Labor or the Coalition were to join the Greens in action to achieve these outcomes,” Senator Brown said.
