Achievements of the Coalition Government A comprehensive list of (almost) everything the current Australian government has done

The Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison government has been in power for over 5 years. This page contains a list of most of what they have done so far.

Group By Policy Area List all chronologically

Drafted the Religious Discrimination Bill which would allow employers and vendors to make statements of belief, such as a baker telling a same sex couple requesting a wedding cake that they believe the couple will burn in hell, or telling a job interviewee that their religious belief is like a mental disorder. Deleted records of a $165,000 political donation from a political consultancy with stakeholders who stand to benefit from the government's $1 billion visa privatization plan, and refused requests for further explanation. Repeatedly approved requests by BHP to increase their greenhouse emissions limits. Blamed an unusually bad bushfire season on unprecedented arson, when the evidence suggests most fires were started by lightening. Lied by claiming that all grants issued under the controversial $100M sports grant program were eligible for funding, when only 57% were. Committed crimes against humanity according to the International Criminal Court at the Hague. Failed to declare 2 properties worth more than $1M in a minister's declaration of interests. Lied about data retention laws, claiming only metadata would be captured (e.g. domain name), when actually full URLs are captured, which includes detail such as the specified queries you give to Google, and specific videos you watch on PornHub. Lied during an election ad, claiming 6 councils would be eligible for $1M drought relief grants, when they weren't. Asked gay asylum seekers whether they could simply stay in the closet in their home country to avoid persecution, in a legally unsound attempt to find grounds for asylum rejection. Approved a $36,000 grant to a shooting club without declaring that the approving minister was a member of that club. Lied by claiming that cops who abuse data retention powers will be punished, when hundreds of instances of abuse have gone unpunished. Claimed that their data retention laws would be used mostly for terrorism and child abuse cases, when it actually is used mostly for drug offenses. Proposed expanding the scope of data retention laws to include MAC addresses. Since MAC addresses are hard coded into each devices' hardware, this would enable continuous, approximate location tracking of everyone's mobile phone. Lied about tax cuts being paid sooner than possible, and sooner than the passing of the relevant legislation. Closed down a bushfire research centre, weeks after Australia's worst ever bushfire season, which killed 34 people and destroyed over 9000 homes. Allocated sports grant funding based on which candidate projects were in marginal seats, rather than which were the most worthy. Then refused to release legal advice about whether such pork barrelling is illegal, and destroyed evidence about the funding choices. Mislead the public by claiming they achieved a surplus, when they were referring to a prediction of a surplus in the future based on overly optimistic assumptions and ignoring reasonably predictable risks such as bushfire and drought. Tried to count oil owned by Australia stored in the US towards the 90 day emergency stockpile we're required to hold. Lied by claiming the MyGov website was taken down by a DDOS attack, admitting only hours later that it was due to the more obvious reason, which was a sudden and drastic increase in legitimate load. Lied by claiming they appointed a Liberal party staffer to a job paying half a million dollars per year through an "open merit-driven, competitive process". It was actually a limited tender not open to all, exempt from procurement rules which guarantee fairness and impartiality. Paid a reality TV star $260k per year to be a "career ambassador". This is to promote vocational training as a career choice for young Australians, after they repeatedly cut TAFE and apprenticeship funding. Tried to get parliament to vote on new legislation without giving copies of the bill to the people voting on it, and using unprecedented methods to prevent any politician to speak against it. Removed the Department for arts, rolling those functions into the department that handles telcos and roads. Cut all foreign aid to Pakistan, and cut aid to Nepal by 42%. Refused to provide any information when questioned in parliament about an Australian who was secretly imprisoned in Australia, for a secret crime, after a secret trial, an even the prisoner's name is a secret. Lied by saying the prisoner consented to the secrecy. Voted down legislation to increase the Newstart allowance. Introduced a limit on cash transactions of $10,000, in a move towards a cashless society, so that it then becomes possible to have negative interest rates and have consumers pay banks to store their savings. Paid tens of thousands of dollars to a company which was known to be corrupt, through a tender that was not opened up to all competitors. Removes all mentions of "consent" from new legislation about sharing of personal data in the public sector. Proposed reversing the onus of proof, so that citizens may be guilty until proven innocent, for tax fraud and money laundering crimes. Lied about their new anti-union legislation, claiming unions can't be deregistered as punishment for any single wrongdoing, when the legislation does permit that. Illegally forged a document to publicly criticise a political opponent. Granted ministers to power to use the military to quell domestic protests and industrial action, including shoot-to-kill powers when infrastructure is at risk (such as an environmental protest threatening a coal generator). Unlawfully seized tax returns of citizens using the buggy 'robo-debt' program. Spent $30 million detaining a single asylum seeker family for a few months. Lied about the nation's oil reserve, claiming it is 90 days when it their own figures say 58 days. Voted down a parliamentary declaration that we're facing a climate emergency. Lied by claiming their religious discrimination bill wasn't intended to override state's anti-discrimination laws. The actual documents tabled in parliament explicitly says it does. Appointed someone in their sixties as Minister for Youth. Paid $9 million for a contractor to do literally nothing, because they abruptly cancelled the contract and instead gave it to a less experienced and less qualified company. Forecast an increase in wage growth despite simultaneously forecasting no decrease in unemployment. (So employers would pay more for no economically rational reason.) Each year they consistently forecast optimistic wage growth which consistently fails to actually happen. Simultaneously proposed plans to support electric vehicles and ridiculed plans to support electric vehicles, within the same week. Lied about the budget being "in the black". Lied by claiming to have introduced and passed non-existent legislation to prevent the mass extinction of threatened species. Approved construction of a mine even though the company said they cannot promise that they won't make the local rare species extinct, and that they cannot be bothered checking to see whether any member of those species does eventually survive the mine's operation. Admitted their promise to spend $2B building a fast train link between Geelong and Melbourne will actually cost $4B, and they don't have the other $2B. Introduced a law which allows the government to revoke the citizenship of whistleblowers, minor vandals and people who provide humanitarian assistance in conflict zones. Lied about Australia's emissions, claiming they had decreased when they had actually increased to an record high. Promised the creation of 1.25 million jobs without doing any calculation or modelling to arrive at that number. Blocked the construction of Australia's first offshore wind farm, which would create 12,000 jobs and meet 20% of Victoria's electricity demand. Merged the Australian Federal Police into the Home Affairs department, allowing the minister can exert political influence on investigations. Voted against a United Nations motion for increased sexual education about women's health, opposition to female genital mutilation, and access to safe abortion. Cut funding for financial support for asylum seekers by $87 million. Detained refugees close to large volumes of potentially deadly asbestos. Spent $1 million from their Emissions Reduction Fund on a fossil fuel generator which would have been built anyway. Spent $21.5 million over 10 months with an unsigned contract on a health contractor known to have a fatal lack of "necessary clinical skills". Charged taxpayers $1700 for the Roads Minister and his spouse to attend a fancy dinner party for the agriculture industry. Spent $200,000 on chartered flights for ministers to travel between parliament and their electorate. Spent $400 million on a problem plagued automated system which recovered only $500 million of unpaid debt, through a "guilty until proven innocent" approach. Ignored a Royal Commission report which found the government's Murray-Darling Basin Plan is illegal, whilst refusing to publish their own report which they claim provides a valid rebuttal. Abandoned standard tender processes when awarding a $423 million contract to a company with $50k in funds, little experience, no phone number, no mail address, housed in a shack. Refused to publish a report used to justify a $53 million contract to outsource Centrelink call handling. Broke an election promise to establish a register of shell company ownership, to fight corporate tax dodging. Shared personal information about petition signatories with a private company, without those people's consent, so that the company can send those people spam. Prevented a vote for a royal commission into abuse in the disability sector, with a filibuster. Question time was extended to the longest session ever. Declared that they will violate a new law, because they don't like it. Gave lawyers only 36 hours to respond to a proposal for legislation for a sex offender register. We do not have a murderer or burglar register. Under existing laws, consenting 16 year-olds sending nudes to each other are technically sex offenders, who may be named and shamed on the proposed register. Exempted the Adani coal mine from a normal water impact assessment because they believe 12.5 billion litres is not "significant", and because the water pipeline built solely to support the mining project is a non-mining project on paper. Cut $1.2 billion from aged care, and then denied doing so. Cut TAFE funding again, this time by $270 million. Spent $87,000 fighting against a Freedom of Information request about back-room deals, and then lied about the cost. Lied about the Assistance and Access bill not forcing software developers to make their code less secure. The first item in the bill's list of "acts or things" is "removing one or more forms of electronic protection". Spent $37,000 for flights for one minister for one day, to attend meetings which could have probably been made via a video call. Drastically increased the amount of government money spent without a proper tender process, up to $34 billion per month. Handed out $17.1M to private TV stations for a grant they didn't ask for, without offering the money to the public broadcaster. Refused a Senate Order to release details about expensive contracts for security, health and infrastructure in their detention camps in PNG. Rejected recommendations from the Productivity Commission that the government add a "fair use" exemption to copyright law, and change the law to explicitly protect Australians who circumvent geoblocking barriers to access paid content. Spent $400,000 to help train the Myanmar military, who are guilty of ongoing genocide against the Rohingya people. Punished an asylum seeker for reporting sexual assault committed by a government contractor, and lied about forwarding the complaint to the police. Spent $320,000 on legal fights denying asylum seekers urgent medical transfers to the mainland to treat life-threatening conditions. Secretly blocked funding for $4M in humanities research projects, which were already approved by the government's research approval body (ARC). Introduced a new reason for rejecting government funding of research proposals. Research which doesn't advance the national interest will be rejected. Historically important yet socially controversial research like evolution and the sun-centric solar system would have been rejected under this model. Spent $16,880 on personal stationary for just one minister for one year. Spent $20k making custom phone apps for a single senator. A website would have sufficed. Ignored advice from 3 government bodies, choosing to instead allow a private company to build environmentally damaging infrastructure in a World Heritage Area, in violation of zoning rules. Handcuffed an innocent child whilst preventing her from receiving urgently needed medical treatment. Gave corporate welfare to fund coal generators, through a grant which they claim is "technology neutral", despite it specifying a narrow range of technologies. Excused the conflict of interest arising when the head of the My Health Record (appointed by the government) privately received money for consultations about the My Health Record. Rolled out the My Health Record to the whole country as an opt-out system, despite safety concerns about how abusive stalkers can use it, and despite the trial involving 9 security breaches. 42 more security breaches happened within weeks of the system being rolled out nationally. Cut funding for the Foodbank charity for a third time. This time $323,000 was cut just before Christmas. Spent half a billion dollars on an upgrade for a war memorial. Gave money from a fund for Indigenous advancement to a fishing corporation to help it fight Indigenous land claims. Spent 2 years trying to hide documents from Freedom of Information requests, about a serious breach of top secret documents, and mishandling of those documents by a minister. Cancelled the citizenship of someone who's citizenship application was approved 18 years ago, who has lived in Australia for 41 years. Proposed the underwriting of coal power plant construction. Risks too high for the private sector will be thrust upon taxpayers, whilst the profit will remain privatised Doubled the amount spent on external consultants, after cutting public sector staff. Cut one third of jobs from the Department of Environment. Charged taxpayers for VIP plane flights to fly the Prime Minister between destinations on his "bus tour". Spent $9000 buying hundreds of hard copies of a book which is available online for free. Hid a report by the Governor General showing that the government paid twice as much as necessary for new combat vehicles, because such publicity would be bad for the private manufacturer's future profitability. The company is not even Australian. Charged taxpayers $2000 per month for one minister's home Internet connection. Reduced the income threshold at which graduates start paying back HECS debt, down to $45,000. Lied about the Immigration Minister having no personal connection to someone who benefited from the direct intervention by the Immigration Minister in a visa case. Proposed plans to privatise the visa application system. Referring to this core function of a sovereign government as a "business" which should be "commercial" and "profitable". Removed emissions reduction targets from the National Energy Guarantee. Outsourced top-level security clearance vetting to private contractors who transport sensitive documents via private courier, occasionally to the wrong address. Refused a visa application on character grounds for a whistleblower who disclosed war crimes. Refused a temporary visa application for a 10 year old boy to visit his father because the boy did not have a full time job. Drafted laws granting 'shoot to kill' powers to military soldiers during riots. Sent $440 million of Reef research funds to an obscure private organisation, instead of one of the many relevant public agencies, and without any application process. Spent an undisclosed amount of public money on legal defence for a minister who broken the law for political gain. Assigned $48.7 million to a Captain Cook memorial. There are already 35 Captain Cook memorials in Australia. The money was taken from the ABC budget. Cut $84 million from the ABC (again). Exempted a facial recognition system storing data of innocent citizens from standard procurement policy disclosure rules. The excuse is a reliance on security through obscurity rather than actual security. Accuracy figures are also not published. Threw $700k at blockchains. Spent $3.6 billion to keep an old, dirty coal power station running for a few more years, when the alternative renewable generation plan would be $1.4 billion cheaper. Increased the difficulty of the citizenship English test, so that applicants who are able to speak "basic" English will be rejected. Deliberately destroyed water supplies at a Manus Island detention centre, to force refugees out of the camp and into unfinished alternative sites. Chose not to take back money given to an exploitative coffee chain who violated the terms of the payment which was part of the PaTH program. Spent $300k on 60 seconds of advertising to spruik new energy policies designed to reduce power bills. That amount of money could have been spent to pay the annual energy bills of 5000 typical houses. Increased the jail time for journalists who report on whistleblower's truthful allegations by a factor of 10. Cut university funding again, this time by $2.1M. Banned the Eureka flag and all union symbols and slogans from personal equipment on federal construction sites, no matter how small or subtle they are. Spent $2.2 million on giant fans to protect the Great Barrier Reef from global warming. Refused to publish the percentage of calls to the veterans' suicide help line which go unanswered, because that want negatively impact the brand of the private call centre operator. Accidentally exposed the personal health records of millions of Australians, including whether they have had abortions or are on HIV medication. Introduced a bill to permit businesses to discriminate based on customers' sexual activity or gender. Proposed selling biometric data of citizens to private corporations. Proposed a law to introduce 2 year jail sentences for anyone who uses the Australian Coat of Arms without authorisation, including satirical websites who do not intend to deceive, and including when no harm comes from the unauthorised use. Tried to reduce the number of tertiary courses eligible for Austudy report. Proposed a law which would further destroy citizen's right to freedom from arbitrary detention, by giving police the power to imprison people for 14 days without arrest. Introduced a national facial recognition surveillance program, which will collate faces from CCTV cameras and other sources and share them with private companies, and claimed such a program "doesn't involve surveillance" and will increase citizen's privacy. Told tender applicants for a $90B ship-building project that they don't need to spend any of that construction money in Australia. Prohibited public servants from liking social media posts critical of the government, even if anonymous. Introduced new procurement rules which will cost telcos $184k per year in paperwork and compliance. Failed to declare multiple $1600 Foxtel subscriptions gifted to ministers by a lobby group. Spent $7000 in one month for wine for one minister, and fought against a Freedom of Information request into the spend. Kicked 100 asylum seekers into the street, taking their income away with no notice, after preventing them from working. Gave $30 million to Foxtel to boost "under represented sports", and was unable to explain why free-to-air channels didn't get the money, because the decision was made without any emails, letter, or supporting documentation. Kept secret government data showing higher than expected emissions increases. Illegally detained Australian citizens on Christmas Island because they failed character test. Cut all funding for the 40 year old Haymarket health clinic for the homeless, resulting in its closure. Lied about when they found out about the sale of Medicare data on the black market. Claimed to have not suffered a cybersecurity breach after the systems storing sensitive Medicare information had their security breached, and that sensitive information was put up for sale on the black market. Added politically weighted questions about coal to the citizenship test. Paid companies to hire young people for entry level jobs at far less than the minimum wage. There is evidence that companies replace real jobs with these underpaid ones. One such company killed a person by not avoiding obvious and easily foreseeable risks. They were fined only $70k. Chose not to appoint any climate scientists to the Climate Change Authority. Tried to allow the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in coal. Blocked the construction of a wind farm because of the 'visual impact', even though 92% of locals wanted it. Failed to comply with the mandatory 'Top 4' cyber security strategies, in multiple departments. Loosened protections for indigenous land owner rights. Paid a minister $273 per night to stay in his own home. Lent $100M to a foreign company which does not operate in Australia, for construction of a coal mine which won't employ any Australians or contribute to the Australian economy at all. This mine so bad for the environment that if it goes ahead, the world will not stay under 2 degrees of global warming. Spent $12M per year on flights for NBN staff. Prevented university newspapers from attending the release of multiple annual budgets like all other newspapers. These particular budgets contained multiple changes which negatively impact university students. Introduced a new tax, of at least $7.10 per month per NBN fixed line user. Cut the foreign aid budget again, this time by $300 million. Voted against changes which would reduce the wait times for medicinal cannabis from months down to hours. It currently takes up to 19 months to get approval for 3 months worth of medication. Started drug testing welfare recipients without consulting legal, medical or drug experts. They simultaneously claim people will be selected randomly and also based on data driven profiling tools (i.e. not random). Introduced a policy very similar to the First Home Buyer's Account policy they scrapped a few years earlier, with the main difference being that it involves using Superannuation for something other than retirement savings. Spent around $10k per person per year for a cashless welfare card trial, for welfare payments worth $14k per person per year. Almost half of the participants claimed the trial made their lives worse. Broke a promise to put in safeguards to prevent their data retention scheme from being abused. (Police illegally accessed the data within 2 weeks of retention commencing.) Cut university funding again, this time by 2.5%. Approved the sale of weapons to a country accused of committing war crimes and killing 10,000 innocent civilians. Rejected advice from a taskforce it set up, which provided recommendations to reduce foreign visa abuse, and then claimed the 457 visa is too prone to abuse. Refused to release the results for the trial of a national health register. Claimed many 'community leaders' support the cashless welfare card, but refused to list such supporters when asked. Claimed that using more wind power and less coal power will increase emissions. Prohibited the Aboriginal Legal Service from giving evidence at a legal enquiry into the loosening of racial hate-speech laws. Re-established the construction industry watchdog, which spent $100,000 investigating two mates for having a cup of tea on site. Spent over $3,000 to send the minister for Immigration to a monarchist fundraiser. Forced public servants to move from Canberra to Armidale, prior to establishing new office facilities. They now do their work in the local Macca's. Introduced NBN 'Fibre to the curb', which is almost identical to the 'Fibre to the premise' approach they criticised. Introduced a bill which would allow the government to publicly release veteran's personal information (such as medical records) without their consent. Refused to release a report into the death of a person on the government's Work for the Dole program. Skipped the normal assessment process for large infrastructure projects when deciding to proceed with the WestConnex project. Paid the first $500 million for the WestConnex project well before the funding was needed. Voted against a motion to extend the privacy act to cover political parties. Changed Newstart eligibility so that 22 to 24 year-olds get Youth Allowance instead, which is $90 less per fortnight. Excluded offshore detention centres when ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture. Appointed a mining lobbyist as the PM's climate change advisor. Increased the number of IT contractors for the government, even though they cost $80,000 more per person per year than having actual IT staff. Cut $180,000 from children's dental care funding, and almost $300 million for adult dental care. Spent over $3,500 to send a minister to watch the AFL with his wife. Spent over $2,700 on a trip to watch polo. Fined welfare recipients for not attending 'hygiene' and tie-dying classes. Spent $10,000 per day to send a single minister to the USA. Changed public servant super laws to reduce the retirement payout of long-term teachers, police and nurses by tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Conducted an inquiry into housing affordability which gave no recommendations on how to help fix housing affordability. Spent $26 million and laid off 93 scientists to move the location of the agricultural chemicals and veterinary medicines regulator. Made an 'action plan' to deal with record level bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, which lacked any new actions or funding. Broke a promise to scrap free lifetime travel for former ministers. The excuse is that the government is to busy to pass legislation through parliament, despite that being the job of the government and of parliament. Indefinitely detained someone based on information obtained through torture. Axed 900 jobs in the national flight control agency, despite concerns that losing so many staff will compromise safety. Spent $83,000 on a baggage lift at The Lodge. Flew 23 staff to the Australian embassy in Paris to discuss saving money. The government does not know how much the flights and accommodation cost. Others estimate it was $200,000. Falsely advertised the closure of the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, despite Parliament rejecting the closure attempt. Increased the cost of a Visa for bands touring to Australia by 600%. Gave $4 billion in tax cuts to the richest fifth of the population. Put the 000 call service out to tender, despite their own review saying not to. Cut $68 million from the Bureau of Statistics' funding. Introduced a second internet filter. Internet consumers will be forced pay their telcos to block websites which foreign film companies dislike. The Liberals have accepted millions of dollars of donations from those foreign companies. Refused to publish the cost benefit analysis on the agriculture minister's decision to move a federal agency from Canberra to his own electorate. Personally appointed George Brandis' son's lawyer to a $370,000 job, without making a conflict of interest declaration. Wasted over $98,000 by cancelling flights. Proposed charging 9% interest on all debts owed to CenterLink. Cut $50 million from dental healthcare funding. Tried to privatise the database of ASIC (the corporate watchdog). Under private hands the cost journalists must pay to obtain information about potentially corrupt companies would increase. Chose not to add HIV prevention medication PrEP to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which would have brought down the cost of the proven medication from $1000 per month to $30 per month. Handed out $9 million to a foreign coal mining company. Spent over $200,000 sending Border Force staff to a luxury hotel which specialises in corporate team building through circus lessons and Segway tours. Proposed a law which will allow Australians to be sentenced to life in prison, without being charged for a crime. Spent over $140,000 for 5 ministers to travel to a country we have no trade or diplomatic ties with, visiting tourist sites and dining in 5 star restaurants. Spent over $100 million per year on military operations in Afghanistan, despite the alleged budget emergency. Removed subsidies for blood sugar test strips. Now 600,000 diabetics will be forced to pay $60 per box instead of $1.20. Decided that foreign born, adopted Australians can no longer use their Australian birth certificate as proof of Australian citizenship. Had UNESCO censor a report on climate change to remove all mentions of Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. Large sections of the reef have already been bleached because of climate change. Sacked 74 scientists in Antartica. Locked up a dying New Zealander who wants to go to New Zealand. The man has had 20 heart attacks, and is close to death. He has finished serving a jail sentence, yet remains imprisoned. Refused to release 5 year old taxi receipts to assist in a fraud case, on the grounds that terrorists could use travel information from 5 years ago to help plan an attack against the minister in question. Accidentally leaked the contact information of thousands of women in a confidential database. Changed the operation of Australia's rape and domestic violence hotline so that counsellors no longer need three years of experience and a tertiary qualification in psychology or social work, and so that victims must now disclose their abuse story to twice as many people before getting help. Cut all funding for Australia's only eating disorder helpline. Claimed that refugees simultaneously are taking our jobs whilst also taking our welfare. Cut $20 million from the National Library, resulting in 28 job losses and the halting of all document digitisation. Provided no workers compensation for Australian staff injured in offshore detention centres. Refused to publicly release a video of illegal whaling. Claimed that Australia's largest coal mine (which will export more coal than our entire nation consumes) will not contribute to climate change. Proposed a government funded internship scheme where companies are paid lots of money to hire short term interns for $4 per hour with no award protections. Gave permission to a shipping company operating only in Australian waters to sack their Australian crew and hire foreigners for $2 an hour. Proposed blocking students from going to university if their ATAR is too low, even if the course has spare spaces and is happy with their ATAR. Proposed forcing students to pay back HECS earlier if they have parents or a long term partner with an income over a threshold. Waited 22 hours before air-lifting a critically ill refugee to an adequately equipped hospital. He died the next day. Rejected an offer from New Zealand to take 150 asylum seekers who are currently being illegally held in Australian detention centres. Spent $300,000 on a single lunch, for business mates. Cut $650 million in bulk billing incentives for pathology. Spent $39 billion on new submarines, despite the alleged budget emergency. Proposed new powers for job agencies so that they can fine unemployed people, without any oversight, and with minimal avenues for recourse. Offered an indigenous organisation half the pay rise offered to most other public sector organisations. The pay rise is below inflation, so amounts to a pay cut. Proposed the abolition of the independent organisation that sets the minimum wage for truck drivers. Cut all funding to Australia's only youth-led sexual health organisation. Ran out of money to pay Army Reserves. Proposed using government funds allocated for climate change action to build a 1.2GW coal plant. Lied about releasing all children from immigration detention. Spent $3.3 million on another study into 'wind turbine syndrome', even though their own senate inquiries have shown there's no such thing. The committee had all articles rejected by scientific papers, and provided no advice to the government in its first 2 years. Prohibited people who owe money to CenterLink from leaving the country, regardless of how small the debt is or how soon they will return. Spent $45,000 replacing lost and stolen devices for just one department. Reneged on their promise to accept 12,000 refugees from Syria, instead accepting 26. Spent $55 million to resettle just two refugees in Cambodia. Cut domestic violence leave for public servants. Scrapped the "Safe Schools" anti-bullying program, on the National Day of Action Against Bullying. Spent $10,000 to fly the family of 2 ministers to a tropical island for a weekend holiday. Claimed that scrapping negative gearing would simultaneously increase and decrease house prices. Spent $15.4 million on research into globally damaging an increasingly unprofitable fossil fuels. Requested in inquiry into an anti-bullying program which focused on fostering tolerance for queer youth. Spent $1.3 million on CCTV surveillance for an impoverished indigenous community who are desperately in need of more funding for education, health, housing and welfare. Cut funding for research missions by a world class marine science ship, instead renting out the ship to foreign fossil fuel companies looking for oil and gas in Australian waters. Voted against a motion asking the Housing Affordability Inquiry to update the senate on how they are progressing with the recommendations the government supported. Proposed new broad powers for the Attorney-General so that the government can demand that telcos do unspecified "things", which could include filtering the internet, tracking everyone's browsing history and more. Attempted to exempt telcos and law enforcement agencies from laws requiring users to be notified if their personal information has been breached. Rejected an inquiry which recommended that citizens accused of tax fraud be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Cut the pension for 35,000 public service retirees. Spent $1.3 million on medals for Border Force staff, despite the alleged budget emergency. Increased the cost of pap smears. Told myGov users to downgrade the security on their account when travelling overseas, which is when security risks are highest. Refused to allow the family of a terminally ill man to temporarily enter Australia to see their son one last time before he died. Paid Telstra $80 million to fix the copper network which Telstra sold to the government. Proposed an exemption so that internet providers and some other companies are not required to inform customers when their data is stolen by malicious third parties. Spent almost $6000 to fly a minister's family to a coastal holiday. Violated international law by illegally conducting war in Syria. Refused to give citizenship to eligible permanent residents, years after their refugee claims were accepted. Spent $1770 on 3 bean bags. Paid $1.5 billion for the East West Link far earlier than necessary, so that it would fall into Labor's financial year, to make them look worse. Started regularly strip searching innocent females on Nauru, with only male staff present. Spent $30,000 on a private jet to fly one minister and their partner from Perth to Canberra (instead of catching a normal plane) because a non-business event ran overtime. This is despite the alleged budget emergency. Banned zoo visits for children in detention, deeming them "inappropriate", and ruling that they must remain imprisoned instead. Made refugees work with deadly friable asbestos without any training and almost no equipment. Appointed a Windfarm Commissioner, who is paid $205,000 per year for the part-time job, who received only 2 valid complaints in its first year. Refused to investigate, prosecute or do anything to a foreign company who built a large port and cut down large areas of forest home to endangered species, without environmental approval. Introduced cashless welfare cards to reduce the autonomy and control that support recipients have over their spending. Removed the requirements that crews on ships operating for months between Australian ports get paid Australian-level wages. Voted against increasing transparency about how much tax large corporations pay. Spent $1.3 billion on replacements for Defence Force Land Rovers, despite the alleged budget emergency. Funded ethnic cleansing and war crimes in PNG. Tried to remove exclusion zones around abortion clinics which are designed to protect patients from harassment. Voted against a motion which called for independent investigation of the bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan by the USA, which is a war crime. Refused to give counselling to a pregnant woman prior to an abortion. The woman was raped whilst in our asylum seeker prisons. Violated parliamentary anti-corruption rules by not declaring a substantial loan for almost 2 years. Spent $18.5 million on a facial recognition program to log and spy on every Australian, store social media photos and potentially conduct live tracking of all citizens. Spent $80,000 on catering for a week long trip to Cape York and Torres Strait, despite the alleged budget emergency. Forced an asylum seeker to pay for medicine to treat an injury they got when a government employee physically assaulted them. Laughed and joked about the pacific islands whose very existence is threatened by climate change sea rises. Scrapped the requirement that the board members of the National Disability Insurance Scheme have actual experience with disabilities (either personally, or through someone close). Started advertising the jobs of the National Disability Insurance Scheme board without notifying the current board. Lied about how many refugees we take. Spent $21,000 of government money to fly a minister somewhere to give a speech about the need to stop wasteful government spending. Cited 'the boats have stopped' as evidence that the economy is doing well. Told an Australian company to sack their Australian employees and hire foreigners, in order to remain competitive under the government's new shipping deregulation rules. Spent $24,000 on koala hire for a G20 photo opportunity, despite the alleged budget emergency. Spent over $100,000 on flags for the G20 summit, despite the alleged budget emergency. Broke an election promise to cut the company tax rate by 1.5%. Broke an election promise to introduce a new paid parental scheme. Broke an election promise to conduct and publish a cost benefit analysis for all infrastructure projects over $100 million. Broke an election promise to not change GST, by removing the exemption for online purchases. Did not attempt to conduct privacy impact assessments for 90% of their terror bills. Lifted a ban on the import of a particular shotgun which has a fast firing rate and seven shot magazine capacity. Spent $24.6 million on an advertising campaign to spruik the benefits of a trade deal (whose content is secret), despite the alleged budget emergency. Illegally gave approval to an environmentally damaging mine. They then criticised those who pointed out the crime, and tried to change the law so that environmentalists cannot take legal action against illegal mines. Refused to offer treatment and support to an asylum seeker who was raped on Nauru. Lied about banning certain muesli bars and other products on Manus Island which have 'Freedom' in the brand name. Proposed a plan to prioritise the applications of refugees who pay the government large sums of money over less fortunate refugees. (a.k.a. a bribe.) Spent over $20,000 in a legal fight in order to hide modelling for the impact of university fee deregulation. Spent $14.4 million to get support for outdated and insecure software, instead of using current versions. Waited 3 months before giving medication to a toddler with tuberculosis (a potentially fatal illness). Spent thousands of government dollars on taxi rides to the Opera in just 8 days. The government claims that the expenditure is reasonable because the minister didn't pay for the tickets either. Spent thousands of government dollars on limousine rides, and fudged the declaration paperwork to say they were taxi rides. Spent $10,000 trying to chase down someone who leaked information to the media about how the Prime Minister deliberately and knowingly used false information to justify opposition to a defence force pay rise. Held innocent asylum seekers in the same facilities as convicted rapists and murderers. Spent $90,000 to send The Speaker to Europe for a fortnight so that she could apply for a job. Spent $5,000 on a helicopter so that Bronwyn Bishop wouldn't have to travel 1 hour by car to get to a Liberal fundraising event. Spent $27,000 on travel expenses for politicians to attend free sports events. Spent $500,000 on Australian flags in just 6 months, despite the alleged budget emergency. Banned the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) from investing in wind power and small scale solar power. Banned telcos from seeing warrants for metadata access requests issued to chase down journalists sources, thereby undermining the purpose of the warrant system. Removed the requirement for skills assessments of foreign electricians working under a Temporary Work visa. Voted against a royal commission into corruption and misconduct in the financial service industry, following a series of scandals. Spent $500,000 on flags in just 6 months. Used classified ASIO documents as props during a photo shoot. Broke an election promise by scrapping Medicare locals. Denied asylum seekers the right to make Freedom of Information requests for information the government has about them. Admitted that an innocent senator was spied on by government employees whilst performing her job. The government initially labelled the senator an "embarrassment to this country" because they said the claims were "complete nonsense", despite knowing they were true. Incorrectly claimed that the Lindt Cafe gunman was linked with ISIS. Reaped $1000 per month of government money to pay for Joe Hockey to stay in his wife's house. Illegally paid people smugglers money to turn boats around, in order to disrupt their business model. Cut $13 million from the Australia Council and Screen Australia. Cut $105 million from the Australian Council for the Arts without bothering to consult anyone in the arts industry. Introduced 2 year jail sentences for doctors who disclose government wrongdoing and the high rates of health problems in immigration jails, even if the disclosures are in the public interest. Proposed an exemption so that Australia's richest companies no longer have to publish basic information about how much tax they are paying. Refused to offer any assistance to thousands of innocent refugees stranded offshore in our region. Proposed new powers to banish Australians suspected of terrorism, possessing a 'thing' related to terrorism, downloading a single file related to terrorism, vandalising commonwealth property or entering a 'no-go zone' country even for innocent purposes. Each guilty verdict would be made by a minister, not a court. The government does not have to prove the suspects are guilty. The new laws may contravene the 1961 United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Cut funding for an anti-deaths in custody service, the creation of which was recommended by the 1991 Deaths in Custody Royal Commission. Granted the Immigration Department and local councils the power to search through the stored metadata of all citizens (and they won't need a warrant). Tried to pass off all responsibility for "matters of national environmental significance" to the states, who have weaker environmental protections. Proposed 'ag-gag' laws, under which activists who expose illegal animal cruelty can be imprisoned if they take more than 48 hours to go to the police. Chose to leave the Minister's Council on Asylum Seekers and Detention empty. Asked the Nauru government to block access to Facebook. Cut all funding for The Conversation, a website which allows academics to promote and explain their research to a broader audience. Censored data revealing shockingly high rates of mental illness amongst immigration detainees. Spent $200,000 per year on gardening at Kirribilli House. Spent $700,000 to rebrand "NBN Co" to "nbn TM". Lied about the cost of the price on Carbon. Scrapped the domestic violence education program in schools. Failed to name the leader of ISIS on the day they sent 330 troops to a war against ISIS. Spent $4 million for the 'Australian Consensus Centre', a climate denial center to be run by someone with no qualifications in science or economics. The government had already cut all funding for the Australian Climate Commission, citing a lack of funds. Withdrew from Australia's commitment to limit global temperature rises to two degrees. Granted immigration detention centre staff greater immunity against repercussions for inappropriate uses of force. They now have greater immunity than police officers. Scrapped a public inquiry into law enforcement agencies access to journalists' telecommunications data, for the purposes of identifying journalists' sources. Spent $6 million on a movie which is supposed to deter people from fleeing genocide, war crimes, torture and other persecution. No English dubs or subtitles are available. Prevented the release of a 'name and shame' list of multinational tax dodging corporations. Closed the school inside the Nauru detention centre, so that the space can be converted into offices, a staff gym and a staff recreational area. Prohibited detention centre workers from joining certain political parties, churches and protests even when not identifiable as employees. They can also be fired if an asylum seeker follows them on Twitter without their knowledge. Accidentally leaked the personal details of 31 world leaders, and chose not to notify them. They still claim your metadata will be safe though. Proposed taxing all bank deposits. Scrapped the National Produce Monitoring System, which monitors domestic food for dangerous chemicals. Breached the criminal code of conduct by offering the independently appointed Human Rights Commissioner a new job if she resigned. Tried to pass multiple bills to halve the backpay of intellectually disabled workers who earned only $1 per hour in wages. Kicked 10 Save The Children workers off Nauru, despite the government having no evidence to support their allegations of sexual and physical assault by the workers against detainees. Flew across the country on a taxpayer funded private jet to attend the private birthday party of a millionaire who has made large donations to the Liberal party. Rejected the crowdfunded offer of free solar panels with free installation for Kirribilli House. Stripped 8000 public servants of their rights against unfair dismissal. Prosecuted a white hat hacker who exposed serious security vulnerabilities of some of the ISPs who store the sensitive data of all Australians under the government's data retention policy. Closed 150 remote Indigenous communities. Breached the international convention against torture. Proposed scrapping the census. Defended the use of the War Memorial to hold corporate events for foreign arms manufacturers. Cut funding to Blind Citizens Australia, Deaf Australia and Down Syndrome Australia. Refused to publish cost estimates for the data-retention policy which were provided by the industry. Exempted Gmail, Skype and Facebook from their data-retention scheme, thereby significantly reducing its effectiveness. They are exempted because they are not Australian. Hence, Australian email providers will be forced to pay for data retention servers, while competing with non-Australian companies who don't. Accused the Human Rights Commissioner of bias, because she published a report into children in detention, finding 233 incidents of assault against children, inside the government's immigration camps. Voted to keep the text of the China Free Trade deal secret from the public. Abolished the $10,000 limit on political donations. Spent $17 million on a social media internet filter, allegedly to stop terrorist propaganda. The government believes that peaceful environmental protestors can be "terrorists". Claimed "good government starts today", after 18 months of governing. Referred journalists to the police after they reported on immigration matters, including the illegal breaches of Indonesia's borders. Lied about the use of weapons by peaceful protesters on Manus Island, when their camp was flooded with armed guards in riot gear. Chose not to do any modelling whatsoever to determine whether the Emissions Reduction Fund will reduce emissions by the amount they claim it will. Spent over $80,000 on kitchen appliances. Knighted Prince Phillip, a non-Australian who asked Indigenous leaders "Do you still throw spears at each other?". Broke the law by missing the deadline for publishing the Intergenerational Report, as stipulated by the Charter of Budget Honesty Act. Applied to withdraw from a UN convention to protect migratory sharks, 2 months after agreeing to the convention. Awarded a $6.3 million contract for armored cars for politicians to a foreign company, even though the company did not bid for the tender and an Australian company did. Criminalised some discussions about cryptography by crytographic academics. Spent more money per student on homeopathy, flower essence therapy and naturopathy tertiary courses than law, economics, languages and humanities. Proposed the loosening of 457 work visas, allowing foreigners to work in Australia for 12 months, without passing English tests, without the need to look for local workers first. Spent $88,000 on yoga workshops to improve the emotional intelligence of Immigration Department workers. Used veto powers to block a UN resolution calling to the end of Israel's occupation of Palestine. Spent over $15 million on an advertisement campaign to make university fee deregulation more palatable. Violated the principle of non-refoulement again, by sending a refugee back to Afghanistan, where he was subsequently tortured for trying to escape. Scrapped a plan to make coursework masters students eligible for income support. Cut $44 million over 4 years from the Skills for Education and Employment program which helps jobseekers improve their reading, writing and maths. Cut $66 million over 3 years from a program which supplements the income of adult apprentices earning less than minimum wage. Introduced a $900 NBN fee for all new houses. Cut all funding of homelessness and community housing programs, except the ones they are legally required to fund. Refused to give visas to refugees who were found to have a well founded fear of persecution, came by plane, passed health checks and passed security checks. Appointed a climate change denier as parliamentary secretary to the minister of the environment. Appointed who said he has "no interest in defence issues" as Minister for Defence. Cut foreign aid a third time, this time by $3.7 billion. Spent $120,000 monitoring the media for mentions of the Immigration Department. Legislated to override all non-refoulement obligations. The government can now send refugees back to countries even if they know for certain that the refugees will be tortured or killed upon return. Withdrew from the UN Refugee Convention. Gave millions of dollars to subsidise the training of priests and other religious workers, using the money cut from public, secular universities. Forced indigenous welfare recipients to work for full time, for 52 weeks a year, to get $5 per hour. Spent $10,000 trying to identify a whistleblower who told the media that the Prime Minister knowingly mislead the public using information he knew was incorrect. Claimed that virtual private networks (VPNs) would be exempt from their internet filter, then voted against an amendment to exempt VPNs from their internet filter. Introduced an internet filter. Consumers and rights groups will not be able to contest blockages. The filter will cost customers $130,000 per year. Village Roadshow Studios donate over $300,000 to the Liberals each year, as do many other studios. Gave the Immigration Minister the power to deny or revoke citizenship because someone has a mental illness. Refused to grant asylum to anyone waiting in refugee camps in Indonesia. Started another senate inquiry into wind farms, to look at the effect of wind power on power bills, even though the government's own reviews have already shown that wind power reduces power bills. Started an online petition to stop job losses at the ABC, just 36 hours after cutting ABC funding by 5%. Gave permission to Chinese companies to sue the Australian government if it implements laws which reduce the corporation's profits. Australian companies can't even do the same to the Chinese government. The actual text of the legislation is being kept secret. Perpetuated the lie of 'Terra Nullius'. Chose to not investigate claims of torture and rape by staff in the Manus Island detention centre, because the accused corporation investigated the claims themselves and concluded that they were not guilty. The investigation was done completely internally by Transfield, without any involvement with the Immigration Department. Contracted out the managing of the Do Not Call Register to a marketing company. Tried to remove the requirement that telecommunications companies disclose how many times they voluntarily handed customer's data to law enforcement agencies without a warrant. Bribed murder witnesses with the offer of the rights that they are currently being denied, to make them withdraw their statements about the death of someone who was murdered by the government's contractors. Disobeyed Commonwealth value-for-money rules by forcing the Australian Tax Office to spend millions on new offices without making a business case for it or doing a cost benefit analysis. Secretly and retrospectively changed the official record of what was said in parliament. Refused to fulfill a senate order to explain the reasons behind a ban on accepting any refugees from Ebola infected countries. No such ban exists for normal immigrants. Tried to remove the requirement that all free to air TV stations have captions from 6am to midnight. Illegally refused to grant permanent visas to people found to be genuine refugees, despite their own department and the United Nations Human Rights Council telling them it is illegal. Appointed 2 Liberal mates to the Migration Review Tribunal even though they were not shortlisted by the selection committee. Chose not to tell asylum seekers that sensitive information about their asylum claims, mental health problems and more was stolen again. The data was left on a hard-drive without password protection, outside of the lockable store-rooms. Reduced the number of charities and aid organisations allowed into the G20 summit from 75 to 3. Reduced leave allowances for defence force personnel and reduced wage increases to below the inflation rate, just a few days after declaring war. Introduced laws to allow ASIO to secretly detain people without charge, without any contact to the outside world, and allow them to conduct "coercive questioning" even when less extreme measures are available. Refusal to answer ASIO's questions would be a crime punishable by imprisonment. Gave ASIO the power to read, delete and modify anything and everything on the entire internet, with only one warrant. No one can sue them if they use that information or power illegally. If a journalist reports such abuse, they will be jailed for 10 years. Broke an election promise by cutting ABC funding again ($120 million this time). Refused to send the Prime Minister to a UN climate summit with 125 other heads of state, even though the Prime Minister was attending another UN summit in the same city the next day. Joined the Iraq war 3.0 by recklessly running in with guns blazing without a clear, public and testable objective, without a proposed timeline, without any explanation of why we won't fail just like the last time and without debating the matter in parliament. The government is calling the war a "humanitarian mission", even though they cut all foreign aid to Iraq just a few months prior. Spent $12 million trying to convince Sri Lanka to accept 2 boatloads of asylum seekers. Spent $900,000 in just 2 months on private jet flights for ministers. Forced all community TV stations off the air, claiming that moving online will be better for stations and viewers. Meanwhile they continue to fervently defend foreign corporate stations like HBO, who stubbornly refuse to make content accessible online. Raised the terror threat level to "high", despite receiving no specific intelligence since claiming that the threat level "has not changed". Refused to give medical treatment to an asylum seeker with a cut on his foot, who later died because of an infection. Rejected visa applications for unionists who wanted to attend a conference, because they didn't have enough "personal wealth". Tried to introduce WorkChoices again. The changes will make it legal for employers to pay workers in pizza instead of money. Some workers will get less pay while taking annual leave. Employers will be able to veto industrial action. Unions will be stripped of their right to enter a workplace to discuss things will employees during unpaid breaks. Workers will no longer be paid extra for weekend work and overnight work. Scrapped funding for the Red Cross asylum seeker support program. 500 jobs were lost. Removed the requirement for ASIO to get a warrant before using tracking devices. Legislated to permit ASIO operatives and associates to commit torture, and any other crime aside from murder, serious injury infliction, sexual assault and property damage. Legislated so that courts must accept illegally obtained evidence. Privatised Australian Hearing. Increased intelligence agency funding by $630 million, and fought for the power to stop Australians from travelling to Middle Eastern countries, even though the risk of terrorism "has not changed" at the time. Australians who travel to those countries will be guilty until proven innocent. They will face up to 10 years of imprisonment. Scrapped the Countering Violent Extremists Program, which involved grants to community programs. Censored doctors' reports showing that 1/3 of all detainees suffer from mental illness, and that self harm amongst children is common. Axed the Schools Business Community Partnership Brokers program, which has saved thousands of students from dropping out of school. Introduced Work-For-The-Dole despite their own data showing that such programs are the least effective way of helping people find jobs. Cut the $16 per patient per day supplement for aged care providers. Rewrote counterterrorism laws so that Australian tourists returning from Syria and Iraq will be guilty of terrorism until they prove they are innocent. Broke an election promise by allowing the new multi-billion dollar batch of Navy submarines to be built overseas, despite high levels of unemployment amongst our manufacturing sector. Spent $330,000 renovating a single room which has never been used. Including $800 on a single door knob. The cost of leaving it unused but on standby comes to $100,000 per year. Forced the unemployed to apply for 40 jobs per month. This will bombard businesses with over 1,000,000 applications per day. There's currently about 1 job availability for every 10 unemployed people, so a lack of job applications is not the problem. Introduced mandatory metadata retention schemes for all internet providers. The government admits the changes are not necessary, and that there is no evidence to show that it will improve law enforcement. Warrants will not be required to access the data. The cost of implementing the schemes will come to about another $100 per customer per year. It will be used to punish illegal downloaders. Finally admitted that "There's no crisis at all in the Australian economy", despite centering their election campaign on the alleged budget emergency. Introduced new laws which mean Edward Snowden type leaks are punishable by up to 10 years of prison. No exemptions are made for anti-corruption leaks. If journalists report on anyone (including innocent bystanders) being killed accidentally or deliberately by security personnel, they will be jailed for up to 10 years. Spent $50,000 on upgrades of curtains and upholstery for the Prime Minister's office. Falsely claimed that nations around the world are scrapping emissions trading schemes, even though there is currently a net increase in adoption of such schemes. Remained unapologetic about 10 mothers trying to commit suicide. The mothers hoped that their orphan children would be freed from torturous asylum seeker prisons and cared for. Forcefully handed over 41 innocent asylum seekers to a genocidal government, despite being aware that many had already been tortured before fleeing. This violates international laws and our own domestic laws. Incorrectly explained the mechanics of their own Carbon Price repeal. Committed maritime piracy by storming boats in international waters at gunpoint, kidnapping and then imprisoning innocent passengers. Maritime piracy constitutes crimes against humanity. Claimed pre-First Fleet Australia was "unsettled or, um, scarcely settled", and called British colonisation a form of foreign investment. Cut $44 million from homelessness services. Removed all mentions of climate change from their extreme weather website. Moved to strip environmental organisations from charity status. Refused to refer to East Jerusalem as "occupied", even though the Israeli military has met the specific criteria which constitute the legal definition of occupation, and even though Israel's own highest court ruled that the region is occupied, and even though the Israelis have built a wall twice as tall as the Berlin Wall to separate the region from the rest of Palestine. Introduced legislation to allow the government to send asylum seekers back to the country they fled from, even if there is up to a 49% chance that they will be killed or tortured upon return. This violates the principle of non-refoulement, which constitutes human rights abuse. Moved to abolish the role of freedom of information commissioner, abolish the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and charge $800 for reviews of Freedom of Information Request denials. Refused to publish any submissions it received for or against the proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, even though the government says the changes are to protect free speech. They refused to state what proportion of submissions supported the changes. The government defended this secrecy by claiming that all submissions were made with the expectation of confidentiality. This is false. The Senate Inquiry Submission Guidelines state that to make a Senate Inquiry Submission confidential, you must explicitly justify a request for confidentiality, and that such requests are generally denied. Tried to remove the laws that require financial advisors to act in the best interest of their clients, and the requirement that they provide clients with a statement of the fees they'll be charged each year. Refused to let Leo Seemanpillai's parents come to Australia temporarily for his funeral. He burned himself to death because the Australian Government wanted to send him back to proven genocide in Sri Lanka. His parents have been living in a refugee camp for 2 decades. 2 other people tried to commit suicide the same way within a month of Leo's death, to avoid being sent back to Sri Lanka. Scrapped the annual $5 million grant to the Red Cross. Defended the $4.8 million salary of the head of Australia Post, immediately after he cut 900 postal worker jobs to save money. Lied by claiming asylum claims were being processed in the lead up to the Manus Island riots. Cancelled meetings with the head of the International Monetary Fund and the president of the World Bank because Mr. Abbott would be told that the government's support for fossil fuels will heavily damage our economy in the long run. Failed to model the impact on hospital emergency room waiting times due to the proposed GP fee. Cut a further $600 million from Indigenous programs, in addition to the $534 million cuts in the 2014 budget. Claimed that removing the upper limit on university fees will cause fees to decrease. Lied about the Australian Federal Police advising Tony Abbott not to visit Deakin University for safety reasons. Blamed everyone but themselves for the murder of an innocent person during the Manus Island riots. Contractors, locals and even the victims were blamed. The report identified at least one of the murderers, but he has not been charged with murder. Slashed $560,000 from the Refugee Council of Australia. Supported Japan's moves to remove the pacifist parts of their constitution, claiming that the creation of an offensive Japanese military force will help regional stability and peace. (Japan only has a self defence force.) Offered money to Manus Island detainees if they voluntarily returned to the war crimes, genocide, torture and persecution that they originally fled from. When in opposition the government opposed these same payments. Refused to comment about American drone strikes which killed 2 Australians. Funded PNG's defence against a legal challenge to the Manus Island detention centre. Redirected $4 million from the Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission to the Home Insulation Inquiry. Gave the Minister for Infrastructure the power to silence Infrastructure Australia (an independent body) without justification. (See section 5A.2 of the link.) Tried to scrap the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency. Confiscated medication from asylum seeker detainees. A 3 year old consequently suffered repeated seizures. Deliberately hid the cost of the $4.45 million renovations on The Lodge. Tried to introduce a $7 fee for each time you go to see a GP. They claimed $7 is simultaneously large enough to act as a deterrent (thereby saving money), and small enough that it won't deter poor, sick people from getting help. Spent $50,000 on one dinner for 60 G20 guests, including food specially flown to Washington from all over Australia. Lied about the presence of a full time psychiatrist on Manus Island. Cut over $900 million from local council funding. Scrapped tax breaks for people with a dependent spouse. Voted against the creation of a federal anti-corruption watchdog. Scrapped The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. Cut $170 million from the Research Training Scheme, which supported research students. Spent $12 million to investigate whether to sell off a department for $6 billion, when it makes $0.538 billion per year. Cut $15 million from Charles Sturt University's dental health program and oral clinic. Cut $2.5 billion from aged care programs, such as Meals On Wheels. Removed financial rewards which encouraged Universities to enroll disadvantaged students. Scrapped the National Rental Affordability Scheme. Cut Sunday penalty rates for casual restaurant workers. Cut $16 million from ANSTO, Australia's only nuclear research facility, and our only source of medical isotopes. Slashed $1.1 million used to fight against animal abuse. Made $110 million of broad-sweeping cuts to the Arts. The only organisation to receive more funding ($1 million more) is coincidentally chaired by the daughter of Rupert Murdoch. Cut $28.2 million from the Australia Council, which provides grants for the arts. Cut $38 million from Australian television and film funding. Scrapped the National Water Commission. Scrapped the National Preventive Health Agency's $2.9 million National Tobacco Campaign. Broke an election promise to have over one million roofs with solar panels. Broke an election promise by cutting billions from school funding and committing to even less of the Gonski reforms than they did at the election. Scrapped a program to encourage graduates to take up work in places of need. Cut $1.3 billion from seniors concessions funding. Scrapped the Community Food Safety campaign. Cut $2.3 million from contributions to the World Health Organization. Scrapped a program which encouraged Australian video game development. Tried to deregulate university fees, thereby allowing Universities to charge what they want. Students would end up with American levels of crippling debt. Many of the politicians behind this policy received their degrees for free. Average student debt is expected to rise to $100,000, even though Abbott himself said "it is irresponsible to saddle Australians with $25,000 of debt". OECD figures show that the public benefits from tertiary qualifications twice as much as the individual. Scrapped the Women's leadership program. Broke an election promise by cutting well over $15 billion per year from health funding. Scrapped the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority, which has helped increase organ donation rates. Tightened eligibility and lowered indexation for support for injured Veterans. Scrapped the Commonwealth Human Rights Education Program. Scrapped the Education Department's Online Diagnostic Tools Program, which helped improve teachers' productivity. Cut $4.4 million from job interview workshop programs. Scrapped the Office of Water Science research program. Reduced the Medicare optometry rebate. Spent $480 million merging the Department of Immigration and Customs into Border Force, which won't have to follow public service or Defence Force laws and protocols of conduct. Simultaneously increased the cost of petrol and cut funding for public transport. The government argued that disadvantaged people can't afford cars anyway, so they won't be hurt by the changes. Scrapped Youth Connections, a program which helped disengaged youth reconnect with work and education. Removed family tax benefits for children older than 6, and drastically reduced the income threshold for its eligibility and froze it below interest rates. Cut $845.6 million from programs which fund innovative start-ups. Stopped giving under 25s Newstart. The Joint Committee on Human Rights said that this will violate our human rights obligations. Spent $218 million upgrading Christmas Island's asylum seeker operations, so that we can whisk off vulnerable people out of side quicker before we start abusing them. Halved the $2.55 billion emissions reduction fund. Cut $2 billion from Australian Renewable Energy Agency, Landcare and other environmental agencies. Cut over half a billion from Indigenous spending. Cut 16,500 public service jobs, despite promising to create one million new jobs. Cut the Exotic Diseases program. Ended the Get Reading! program. Scrapped the Centre for Quality Teaching. Cut $111 million from the CSIRO. Cut $120 million from ethanol and biofuel programs. Cut all funding to NICTA, a peak ICT technology research company. Coincidentally, NICTA publicly criticised the Coalition's NBN only a few weeks earlier, claiming fibre-to-node is an inferior option. Cut welfare for young people, so they have to survive on $0 per week for 6 months, before being put on a welfare scheme which is below the poverty line anyway. The Joint Committee on Human Rights said that this breaches our human rights obligations. Set aside $245 million for religious chaplains in schools. Secular schools were stripped of the option of hiring a secular equivalent. No guarantees have been made about preventing heterosexist teachings that will make queer students feel sinful and ashamed. (Queer students are 6 times more likely to commit suicide than their peers.) Hundreds of secular social workers will lose their jobs. Scrapped the First Home Buyer's Account scheme, which provided sorely needed assistance for young people to buy homes. Broke an election promise by tightening disability pension eligibility and financially penalising anyone who spends at least 4 weeks overseas. Broke an election promise by changing age pension indexation, and eligibility age, and the threshold. Abolished the position of disability commissioner, then created the position of wind farm commissioner. Cut all funding to the government's only dedicated disability website. Broke an election promise by cutting $40 million from the SBS and ABC. Cut foreign aid, again. This time by $7.6 billion. Started charging interest on HECS. OECD figures show that the public benefits from tertiary qualifications twice as much as the individual. Reduced the income threshold where graduates start to pay back HECS. Cut $138 million from the Australian Federal Police, resulting in 335 job losses. Scrapped a loan scheme which helped apprentices buy the tools they need to learn and work. Claimed asylum seekers are safe on Nauru, even after an unexploded wartime shell was found inside the compound. Claimed asylum seekers are safe on Nauru, even after it was leaked that some guards physically and verbally assault children regularly. Failed to provide adequate medical treatment to asylum seekers on Manus Island who were shot and bashed by locals that invaded the camp and rioted. Went $1 million (67%) over budget on the Commision of Audit, an investigation into how taxpayer money can be spent more prudently. Cut $15 million from Flinders Hospital, then spent $10 million upgrading the field for the Manly Rugby League team. Broke an election promise to not cut ABC funding, by cutting all funding to the Australia Network (part of the ABC). Described wind farms as "utterly offensive" and "a blight on the landscape". Spent $20 million on an international campaign to discourage people from fleeing war crimes, genocide and other persecution. Broke an election promise by proposing a deficit tax. Chose not to debrief any Manus Island detention centre staff after the riots by PNG locals which resulted in the death of one asylum seeker and the hospitalisation of dozens more. Paid people $1500 per person per day to recommend spending cuts. Deliberately ignored desperate and repeated pleas by security personnel on Manus Island and the commander of Operation Sovereign Borders requesting stronger fencing, CCTV cameras and better lighting. These requests were made months before locals broke down the fences, shot, stabbed and bashed detainees, none of which was caught on CCTV footage. Tried to abolish the independent national charity regulation body, which would mean the government would regulate charities, possibly resulting in less impartial regulation. For example, environmental groups stripped of charity status because they oppose government policies. Removed climate change from the agenda of the 2014 international G20 summit. Spent about $2 million for Prince William and Kate's 14 day royal visit, despite the alleged budget emergency. Spent $3 billion on new drones to patrol our borders, despite the alleged budget emergency. Spent $7.5 million on life boats to send back asylum seekers in. Allegedly the motivation behind the government's asylum seeker policy is to stop people drowning when travelling from neighbouring countries to Australia in unsafe vessels. Despite this, much of the safety equipment was removed from the boats before sending asylum seekers back into the ocean. Prevented internet supplier TPG from installing fibre all the way to customers. The arbitrary bureaucratic hurdles have increased the cost of fibre to premise by 15%. Broke an election promise by no longer guaranteeing NBN speeds higher than what ADSL can provide. Retroactively introduced legislation to classify someone born in Australia as an "unauthorised maritime arrival" because their parents haven't had their asylum claims processed yet. Scrapped a body which provides advice on over $1 billion in tax breaks that are designed to encourage Research and Development, despite promising during the election to improve incentives for Research and Development investment. Claimed a 2.5% reduction in funding every year for the ABC is not a funding cut. Cut over 300 jobs (about 1 in 3) in the Treasury department. Cut 400 jobs in the Department of Industry. Removed anti-sweatshop laws and cut all funding to Ethical Clothing Australia. Closed all Medicare offices on Saturdays. Ceased legal assistance for people exercising their right to make a claim for asylum. Cut 250 jobs from the Federal Environment Department. Increased the fee for lodging Freedom of Information requests. Increased the eligibility age for the pension. Claimed that the average electricity bill will be $200 per year lower without the price on carbon, despite relevant power companies rejecting the magnitude of this figure. Implemented a policy which dictates that public servants should be sacked if they criticise the government in social media, even if their profile does not mention the their employment, and even if the profile is completely anonymous. Chose not to give 300 children almost any schooling during 9 months of detention. Threatened staff against speaking out about the mismanagement of the Manus Island detention centre and the attacks against it's inmates by locals and staff. Detained people in conditions so inhumane and horrid that three pregnant women asked for abortions, to stop their children suffering in detention indefinitely. The Government has refused to comment. Chose not to process any claims for asylum from people detained on Manus Island. Claimed that all social media is anonymous. Chose to keep secret the interim report into the riots inside the Manus Island detention centre. Paid a public relations company $97,000 for 3 weeks of work to help improve the Education Department's image, then refused to release the report that came of it. Claimed the government will be $13.7 billion better off if the Mining Tax is scrapped, even though the scrapping the tax itself would actually result in a net loss If $3.7 billion. The only savings would be through other cuts hidden in the repeal bill. The biggest of which is the Schoolkids Bonus (an initiative which was never associated with the Mining Tax). The government claims the average household will be better off, but the average household will be $3500 worse off due to repealed subsidies and tax breaks. Interfered with the judicial process by transferring asylum seekers to a remote detention centre the day before they started a court case against the Australian Government. The case was about how the government endangered them and their families by accidentally publishing personal details about their asylum claims online. Spent more money on detention centres than it would cost to house asylum seekers in Sydney's most expensive 5 star hotels (per asylum seeker per day). Started charging people who put in bankruptcy applications, and increased the levy on money earned post-bankruptcy. Broke international laws by arbitrarily imprisoning children. Scrapped a program to give asylum seekers free advice on how to navigate Australia's immigration bureaucracy when exercising their right to seek asylum. The justification for this scrapping was based on the false claim that asylum seekers are illegal. Tried to reintroduce temporary protection visas. Ignored an order from the United Nations Human Rights Committee to release some asylum seekers who are being illegally held without proof or judicial protection, in cruel, inhumane or degrading circumstance. Reintroduced the British system of knights and dames, only 3 months after saying they would not do so. Spent $211,000 on public relations staff to make the Medibank Private sale more palatable to the public. Sold Medibank Private for $4 billion, even though that means the government will lose up to $0.5 billion per year of income from dividends. Claimed that all Australians have the "right to be a bigot". Refused to grant a human rights lawyer access to the Manus Island detention centre. Backed PNG's decision to cancel a human rights inquiry into the Manus Island detention centre. Issued Manus island detention centre guards with knives designed for noose cutting, because they frequently need to cut down people who try to hang themselves thanks to of the horrid conditions. Tried to exempt loggers in Tasmania's World Heritage forests from the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, so they won't have to worry about killing threatened species. Claimed that the majority of asylum seekers on Manus island won't be given refugee status, even though more than 90% of all asylum seekers who've come to Australia since mid 2009 were eventually found to be genuine refugees, fleeing torture, rape, genocide and persecution. Vowed to revive a part of WorkChoices which means construction Industry Enterprise Bargaining Agreements don't apply to subcontractors doing Commonwealth work. Refused to support a UN proposal to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka. If such crimes been committed, the Abbott government will be guilty of crimes against humanity for forcefully sending refugees back to Sri Lanka, and for actively helping the Sri Lankan military stop people from fleeing their rape, torture and genocide. A Sri Lankan Tribunal has already proven that the Sri Lankan government is guilty of genocide. Failed to provide running water to some toilets in the detention centre on Manus Island. Spent $25 million extending the contracts of the crew on one ship so they could be part of Operation Sovereign Borders. Provided no soap in the Manus Island detention centre and regularly gave asylum seekers worm infested food. Proposed amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act so that people who "offend" or "insult" someone because of their "race, colour or national or ethnic origin" will not be legally required to pay compensation. Gave $100 million to Australia's 2 most profitable mining companies, to build a mine which isn't even in Australia, despite claiming "the age of entitlement is over", and despite refusing to give corporate welfare to struggling companies who have to sack hundreds of workers. Prevented journalists from interviewing asylum seekers injured in the Manus Island riots. Lied thrice in one BBC interview by claiming that the Abbott government is considering settling asylum seekers in Australia, and claiming that children in detention go to school, and claiming that asylum seekers on Manus Island are having their claims processed. None of these claims are true. Cut all welfare ($260,000) for orphans of defence force casualties. Gave state governments an ultimatum: sell off government assets before a certain deadline, (regardless of whether the people or the state government want to) or miss out on billions of dollars of funding. The states would not be allowed to use the money from the sales to pay off debt. Reluctant states were told they could still access federal funds through environmental programs that the Federal Government is trying to scrap. Justified the logging of forests currently on the world heritage list because Christianity supposedly tells us "the environment is meant for man". Ripped $140 billion out of Australians' superannuation accounts through loosening of consumer protection rules regarding financial planning. Deported the mother of a 4 year old Australian citizen, thereby separating the child permanently from her only remaining guardian. Stopped collecting data on gender equality in the workplace. Threatened to block government funding from arts groups who refuse sponsorship from corporations the artists deem unethical. Lied to the United Nations about the quality of the Tasmanian forests they want removed from the world heritage list. Claimed no Sri Lankan asylum seekers have been sent back into danger, despite being in possession of documents which prove at least one asylum seeker was tortured after being forcefully sent back. A Sri Lankan tribunal recently proved that the Sri Lankan government was guilty of genocide. The United Nations Human Rights Commission is currently investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka. Suggested most existing major roads should introduce tolls. Spent $24 billion on new, buggy, spontaneously combusting fighter jets, already years behind schedule, which aren't going to be built in Australia. The jets can't run off warm fuel from a truck which has been sitting in the sun (since the fuel tank is used as a heat sink). The software for firing the guns won't be ready until 3 years after deployment. The software has not passed a security audit. Each plane holds less than 3 seconds of ammunition for the guns. Failed to supply enough food to asylum seekers inside the detention centre on Manus Island. Secretly defeated an international nuclear disarmament treaty, arguing against a sentence in the treaty which stated that it is in the interests of humanity that nuclear weapons never be used again "under any circumstances". Australia argued that a disarmament treaty would be less effective at reducing proliferation than having no disarmament treaty. Kept secret the taxpayer funded 900 page Audit commission report which recommended tightening eligibility for seniors health cards. Tried to scrap the price on carbon, even though the emissions of relevant companies have dropped by 7% due to the price. Declined an offer from the Uniting Church to care for unaccompanied refugee children currently in detention centres. The church offered to feed house and clothe them free of charge. Ridiculed the notion that the minister for women should identify as a feminist. Started 5 audits of the NBN within the first 7 months of being in power. Proposed the scrapping of regulation which prevents media monopolies and duopolies. Claimed that loggers are "the ultimate conservationists" during a speech about why the government will not create more national parks. In the same speech Abbott lamented that we have "too much locked up forest". There are currently over 1000 innocent children locked up in detention centres, presumably this is not "too much". Blamed Qantas job losses on the carbon tax, even though a Qantas spokesman said "Qantas' current issues are not related to carbon pricing". Finally admitted that "Operation Sovereign Borders" is a civilian operation not a military one. Spent over $15,000 on a custom made bookcase to replace a $7,000 custom bookcase which holds $13,000 worth of taxpayer funded books and magazines in senator Brandis' office. Spent $22,000 taxpayer dollars buying new cutlery and crockery for the ministerial wing of parliament. Spent over $8 million each year on salaries alone for 95 media staff for the department of Immigration, despite the fact that the department tells the media almost nothing. Those same staff spent over $9,000 in just 2 months monitoring the media for transcripts of their own minister's press conferences. Proposed a "green army" comprised of young people paid less than half of minimum wage without normal workplace protections. Cut $3 million in funding for a program to save an endangered rhino species of which there are only 100 left. Referred to our humanitarian immigration program as "Operation Sovereign Murders". Defended spending $3.5 million on a tent kitchen on Manus Island. Sent asylum seekers back to Indonesia, 3 of which later died trying to cross a river in the jungle they landed next to. Defended the Manus Island scheme during a press conference about the man who was shot dead in our detention centres by claiming the government is "ending the deaths" of asylum seekers. More refugees have died on Manus island than have been settled. Chose not to send any representatives to the Partnership for Market Readiness assembly, a conference which Australia helped fund which is about market mechanisms to curb emissions. Appointed someone to head the investigation into the Manus Island riots who claimed that rape victims in Manus Island detention centres receive better treatment than Australians. Planned a doubling of the defence force's annual budget, increasing it by $24 billion, despite the supposed budget emergency and after the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Defied legislation by not appointing the Climate Change Authority to run the investigation into the Renewable Energy Target. Blamed electricity price rises on the renewable energy target, despite their own modelling predicting that is will reduce electricity prices in the long term, and Energy Australia stating that it has suppressed prices since it was created. Forced Manus Island staffers to lie to detainees. Placed an ex-officer of the Sri Lanka army in charge of the Manus Island detention centre, which holds people fleeing the Sri Lanka army's war crimes and genocide. Spent $13.3 million on floating hotels for detention centre staff on Manus island. Admitted the information given about the Manus detention centre riots was drastically wrong. Convinced Cambodia (one of the poorest countries in our region) to take in some of the refugees currently in our detention centres. Serious human rights abuse continue to be committed regularly under the Cambodian government and military. Purchased 8 new Poseidon aircraft totalling $4 billion despite the "budget emergency". Guarded the body of a dead asylum seeker using guards who were possibly the ones that shot him. Those same guards confiscated a camera from a journalist on site then deleted all his photos. Blamed the Carbon Tax for job losses at Alcoa's aluminium smelter, despite Alcoa being 94.5% exempt from the tax, and despite Alcoa explicitly stating that "the carbon tax was not a factor in the decision". Accidentally published personal details about almost 10,000 asylum seekers and their claims, thereby putting all their lives in danger. Regardless of whether the original asylum claims were genuine, if those asylum seekers are returned to their country of origin, they and their family may be imprisoned, tortured or killed because governments and militias in their country of origin will know they sought asylum. After discovering the blunder, the government took 13 days to remove the information from public view. As part of a press release about the accidental leak, the government made public further information about where to find the still life threatening document. Eventually admitted that Navy ships "inadvertently" crossed into Indonesian waters despite using high tech GPS navigation, then they made the exact same mistake again 5 times. The government chose to not even interview any crew members of one such ship when writing a report on the matter. Removed poverty reduction from the goals of the foreign affairs department, which manages foreign aid. Paid their own indigenous employees substantially less than non-indigenous co-workers despite promising to help "close the gap". Deleted negative comments on the Department of Immigration's Facebook page, but left objectively false comments, such as claims that asylum seeking is illegal. Denied responsibility after Manus Island detention centre guards let in a mob of locals, resulting in an asylum seeker being shot and dozens more injured. Injuries included slit throats, machete wounds and eyes hanging from sockets. Chose not to mention a $882 million payout to News Corp. when outlining a $16.8 billion budget black hole. The payout was the single biggest item in the black hole. Annoyed the Navy by having the immigration minister tour naval bases like a defence minister would. Promised to continue with their NBN plan even if a cost-benefit analysis (which is yet to be done) shows it does not give a worthwhile return on investment. Chose a climate change denier to lead a review of the renewable energy target. Denied any link between droughts and climate change. Spent $4.3 million on market research to gauge public opinion on social media and other outlets about government policies. Proposed greater government control over the internet, including the power to order ISPs to block specific sites. Granted the Environment Minister retrospective legal immunity against court challenges alleging he failed to consider expert environmental advice before approving damaging mining projects. i.e. They are undermining the Rule of Law and legislating to allow the Environment Minister to literally ignore the environment. Exempted Western Australia from federal laws protecting endangered species to allow a shark cull, despite evidence culls do not reduce the frequency of attacks on humans. Spread propaganda to potential asylum seekers which deliberately make Australia look like a villainous, incompassionate country. The propaganda completely ignores the violence, torture, rape and persecution that causes people to seek asylum. Disbanded an asylum seeker health panel of 12 experts from a range of fields, replacing it with one military surgeon. The government has refused to comment on the matter. Alleged that Edward Snowden endangered lives and claimed that Australia does not need any surveillance reform. Denied any wrongdoing after a government aid married to the head of a junk food lobby pulled down a government website providing simplified nutritional information within hours of its launch. Cut 500 jobs from the Australian Tax Office. Violated Youtube's policies regarding deceptive content, resulting in the suspension of Abbott's whole channel. Lied about NSW signing on with their independent schools deal. Proposed the conversion of one quarter of public schools to independent schools. Claimed "the age of entitlement is over" whilst continuing to give mining companies billions of dollars of subsidies and tax concessions. Lied about the working conditions at SPC factories to justify declining financial assistance. Arbitrarily denied many asylum seekers the right to a lawyer during the interviews where they make their asylum claim. Withheld asylum seeker arrival numbers to avoid being a "shipping news service for people smugglers", despite literally advertising those same numbers on a billboard while in opposition. Dismissed out of hand serious allegations that Navy personnel assaulted asylum seekers, based on the supposed moral perfection of those personnel. A recent investigation proved that some of those personnel had sexually assaulted other crew by inserting objects up their arses. The Defence Force and the Immigration Department didn't even bother interviewing the asylum seekers who made the claims. Embarrassed Australia on the world stage by oversimplifying the Syrian conflict as "goodies vs baddies". Appointed yet another straight, white cisgendered male as Governor General. Called Edward Snowden a traitor. Criticised the ABC because they aren't biased towards the Government. Accepted a claim for asylum not because of the merit of the claim but because Cricket Australia wanted the man in their team. Violated international convention by criticising Labor on the Global stage. Stole crucial evidence from an Australian lawyer representing East Timor in an international tribunal against Australia relating to our illegal spying on East Timor's oil deal. Shut down the 113 year old Australian Valuation Office, thereby making 200 jobs disappear. Provoked Indonesia so much that they put their air force on standby at the border. Crossed into Indonesian waters without authorisation again, then abandoned a boat without enough fuel to get to shore, forcing asylum seekers to swim for an hour to get to shore. Defeated moves to cease the recital of the (Christian) Lord's prayer at the start of each sitting day of (secular) federal parliament. Cut all funding from all international environmental programs. Closed mainland detention centres and moves detainees offshore, citing budget savings as the motivation, even though offshore processing costing almost twice as much as onshore processing. Authorised the Navy to fire over the bows of asylum seeker boats. Refused to comment on 4 attempted suicides, hunger strikes and many self harm attempts happening simultaneously in detention centres. Exempted Navy personnel of workplace safety obligations to treat asylum seekers safely, and gave them legal immunity for criminal acts which are committed by order of the government. Rewrote the school curriculum to make it more right wing. The previous curriculum was developed over many years with extensive consultation. The new curriculum is being written by two people. One thinks "abos" are "human rubbish tips", called a sexual assault victim a "worthless slut", and laments that Australia has too many "mussies" and "chinky-poos". The other has questioned whether migrants and women are disadvantaged, and suggested homosexuality is "unnatural". Refused to respond to questions from the United Nations about boat tow-backs. Likened our humanitarian immigration program to war. Directed that asylum seeker families shall be given the lowest priority for processing, even those who've lived in Australia for years. Spent over $120,000 on Kirribilli House, including $13,000 on an imported luxury rug, paid for by the taxpayer. Endangered lives, committed maritime piracy and broke other international laws by turning around a boat whose passengers have the right to seek asylum in Australia. The government refused to comment on the matter. Lives were endangered as a result of this move, because the boat ran out of fuel and became stranded. Tried to deport a gay refugee to Pakistan, where he would be imprisoned for life for his sexuality. In doing so the government would have committed human rights abuse by violating the principle of non-refoulement. The man has never lived in Pakistan. Threatened to withhold food from families if children don't stand still for 6 hours per day queuing for food. The food is sometimes served with hands not utensils. Forced women to queue for a whole day just to get a tampon or pad, only to queue again when they need a fresh one, because they are a fire hazard. The government refused to comment. Scrapped the Building Multicultural Communities Program. 400 community organizations will now miss out on the promised funding they have already budgeted for. Cut all funding to Jewish Holocaust Centre ($7,700). Tried to silence the media to stop them criticising the upcoming private jet deal for politicians. Quietly reduced instant asset write-off tax breaks for small businesses despite championing themselves as pro-small-business. Criticised the ABC for not "advancing Australia's broad and enduring interests in the Asian region", without actually accusing the ABC of any specific wrongdoing or poor judgement. Scrapped the National Intercountry Adoption Advisory Group then 2 months later created the interdepartmental working group on overseas adoption, a body which serves an identical purpose. Stopped weekly press conferences on asylum seekers. Declined furthe