For information on how to make a submission to the ACCC inquiry into grocery prices, Fraser residents are invited to go to the ACCC website – www.accc.gov.au – or call the ACCC Infocentre on 1300 302 502.

The ALP Advisory Group on Federal-State Reform today released its report on reform to the system of Specific Purpose Payments (SPPs).

Among the range of options was a suggestion to reform SPP agreements to focus on outcomes, not inputs, to encourage efiiciency and innovation in the delivery of services by States.

I confidently predict that John Howard will, at some time during 2007, declare that reform of federal-state relations is a national priority. I expect he will then announce a proposition which will look like a step in the right direction, even though nothing will actually happen.

Question Time should be central to the vital process of holding ministers accountable for the discharge
of their important public duties. On most days, however, it is a farce!

This article on trade policy originally appeared in The Age on 24 July 2006.

Australia ’s alliance with the United States has always had a different character under Labor governments. The key elements remain the same: policy dialogue; intelligence; access to technology; and the distant possibility of the “security guarantee”.

This is a proposal for reforming the structure of the Australian Labor Party. It was written by Bob McMullan, and he has circulated it to ALP Members within the electorate of Fraser.

The recently announced decision to abolish the Board of Austrade is extraordinarily silly and will almost certainly be counter-productive to Australia’s desperate need to improve its export performance, particularly in manufactured goods and services.

(This article appeared in The Canberra Times on 5 January 2006 with slight amendments.)

It is a source of great disappointment that John Howard appears to have rejected out-of-hand the proposition that the size of the ACT Assembly should be increased.

The Ten Percent System will give the Territories fairer representation in the Federal Parliament.

Canberra citizens are being short changed. The Australian Capital Territory has the lowest level of Federal representation in the country. I hope the people feel that the quality of their representation is of a high standard. The problem is the quantity.

The 7th annual Fraser Lecture was delivered by Clare Martin MLA, Northern Territory Chief Minister. She spoke on developments in Indigenous Affairs in the Northern Territory.

Australian author Thomas Keneally delivered the 2005 Fraser Lecture. He spoke about Australia's policy and attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers, focussing on their treatment in Australian detention centres.

Copies of the 2005 Mid-Year Report are available from my Electorate Office on request.

Australia will help increase youth employment in East Timor.

A $24 million four-year program is helping to create short-term employment opportunities and establish vocational education and training benefiting up to 70,000 young people.

I will visit East Timor from 7 to 11 May, 2008. It will be my first visit to East Timor as Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance.

During my visit I will call on President HE Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta and meet with Prime Minister Mr Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao and other Ministers and senior officials in the Government of Timor Leste to discuss the Australian development cooperation program.

I am pleased to announce funding of a new agricultural research project that will help increase wheat and maize production in Afghanistan, as part of Australia’s commitment to rebuilding food security, income generation and rural employment opportunities.

To achieve this, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and AusAID are providing $1.5 million funding over four years in partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and the Afghanistan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.

The refurbished Papua New Guinea National Library will be officially opened by Bob McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance today, 30 years after its official opening in 1978.

The Hon Bob McMullan MP, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, will today open Survivors, a photographic exhibition detailing the impact of landmines on survivors in Cambodia.

A range of Australian organisations will open their doors to current and future regional leaders after securing funding under Round 2 of the Australian Leadership Awards -Fellowships program.

Australia will help the Philippines to ensure public schools reach and maintain higher standards of basic education and increase young Filipinos’ access to education.

We will provide a $41 million development assistance grant over four years (2007 –2011) through a World Bank trust fund in support of the Government of the Philippines’ basic education reforms.

The Australian Government will establish stronger alliances with a range of domestic, regional and international partners to improve the quality and effectiveness of health sector development assistance in the Asia-Pacific region.

We will provide up to $24 million over four years to establish Health Knowledge Hubs with the Nossal Institute; the University of New South Wales; the University of Queensland; and the Centre for International Child Health, Menzies School of Health Research and the Burnet Institute.

Australia will help increase youth employment in East Timor.

A $24 million four-year program is helping to create short-term employment opportunities and establish vocational education and training benefiting up to 70,000 young people.

I will visit East Timor from 7 to 11 May, 2008. It will be my first visit to East Timor as Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance.

During my visit I will call on President HE Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta and meet with Prime Minister Mr Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao and other Ministers and senior officials in the Government of Timor Leste to discuss the Australian development cooperation program.

I am pleased to announce funding of a new agricultural research project that will help increase wheat and maize production in Afghanistan, as part of Australia’s commitment to rebuilding food security, income generation and rural employment opportunities.

To achieve this, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and AusAID are providing $1.5 million funding over four years in partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and the Afghanistan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.

The Rudd Government has taken action to end unacceptable delays experienced by home-owners seeking to access the Federal Government's $1,000 rebate for installing a solar hot water service.

The refurbished Papua New Guinea National Library will be officially opened by Bob McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance today, 30 years after its official opening in 1978.

The Hon Bob McMullan MP, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, will today open Survivors, a photographic exhibition detailing the impact of landmines on survivors in Cambodia.

A range of Australian organisations will open their doors to current and future regional leaders after securing funding under Round 2 of the Australian Leadership Awards -Fellowships program.

Australia will help the Philippines to ensure public schools reach and maintain higher standards of basic education and increase young Filipinos’ access to education.

We will provide a $41 million development assistance grant over four years (2007 –2011) through a World Bank trust fund in support of the Government of the Philippines’ basic education reforms.

The Australian Government will establish stronger alliances with a range of domestic, regional and international partners to improve the quality and effectiveness of health sector development assistance in the Asia-Pacific region.

We will provide up to $24 million over four years to establish Health Knowledge Hubs with the Nossal Institute; the University of New South Wales; the University of Queensland; and the Centre for International Child Health, Menzies School of Health Research and the Burnet Institute.

On the eve of United Nations World Health Day (7 April), the Australian Government has reaffirmed its commitment to improving sanitation services in the Asia-Pacific region.

Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, said improving access to clean water and sanitation services is crucial to raising the health and living standards of people in the Asia Pacific.

The current Australian trade crisis has many causes. Therefore, any solution will require a number of elements.

But the first thing is to acknowledge just how bad our trade performance has been. There is no way anyone can find a solution until they acknowledge the need for one.

Craig Emerson has contributed this Progressive Essay, which examines broad concepts of how the Labor Party can position itself to improve the lives of Australians.

In this Progressive Essay, Bob McMullan and Dave Peebles examine the "Responsibility to Protect" principles in the light of Australia's experience in the Solomon Islands.

Writing for the Progressive Essay series, Bob McMullan examines the need for an Indigenous representative body to hold government to account, and suggests a number of ways in which such a representative body could be improved.

In the latest Progressive Essay, Andrew Leigh argues that those who advocate lowering top tax rates are out of step with the views of most Australians. Contrary to figures that are often reported, the income of the average Australian is merely $26,000 per year, which is near the bottom of the 30 percent tax bracket.

Leigh suggests simplifying our tax filing system by allowing most people the option of not filing a return. He also argues for reducing effective marginal tax rates at the bottom, where the rates are highest, and the problem of joblessness most acute.

Major political parties exist to form governments. Minor political parties exist to gain enough votes to influence the policies of the government of the day but not enough to form a government in their own right.

In the recent past Labor has been at risk of making an unwanted transition from a major political party to a minor one. Any Australian political party that fails consistently to attract 40 per cent of first preference votes must struggle to qualify as a mainstream political force.

The citizen is at the heart of a properly functioning democracy. In this Progressive Essay, Carmen Lawrence examines democratic participation by Australian citizens, and puts forward a case for strengthening their role.

Greg Combet was the guest speaker at the first Progressive Essays Dinner. In his speech he speaks about the injustice of the industrial relations changes, and how they fail to address the real issues for the Australian economy.

Bob McMullan says that Australia can learn some important public policy lessons from developments in the debate about global poverty.

Dave Peebles' Progressive Essay discusses how the ALP must market itself better in order to win the next federal election.

I support the amendment moved by the shadow minister and the position which she outlined in her remarks. I have some serious concerns about the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Payment Reform) Bill 2007 and cognate legislation, notwithstanding the proper and necessary decision that we, as an opposition, have made to support it—hopefully with some amendments. But in the realistic knowledge that the government will never accept amendments we reluctantly support the bill as it is.

Click here to read Kevin Rudd's speech to the Lowy Institute

I want to raise a series of issues this evening concerning a growing trend in the Howard government’s failure to distinguish between the national interest and the Liberal Party’s interests, between public purposes and private purposes and a trend towards confusing public assets and private assets. We have seen it recently with advertising. We have seen it recently with polling. We have seen it recently with fundraising. We are seeing serious allegations raised now with regard to the overlap between the Liberal Party, the government and what was previously seen as being, quite properly, a legitimate business campaign. We are starting to see the first glimpses of it with regard to taxpayer funded dirt units. In the time available, I want to talk mainly about that.

I want to talk this evening about some matters relating to the Public Service. Firstly, and most importantly, I want to talk about politicisation of the Public Service. I have a serious concern that after 11 years we have a government which takes the benefits of office as a right. We have seen it in highly publicised ways in, for example, the outrageous advertising campaigns robbing the taxpayers to fund what should be funded by the Liberal Party. But I want to proceed from that, which I now take as a given fact, to some serious matters concerning the Public Service.

The debate on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2007-2008 and cognate bills gives me an opportunity tonight to speak on three matters of my shadow portfolio: firstly, my constituents in the ACT; secondly, federal-state relations; and, thirdly, international development assistance.

The recent Budget speech by the Treasurer and the Budget Reply by Kevin Rudd illustrated the contrast in approach to Federal/State relations which is at the heart of the philosophical and policy division in this area in the lead-up to the 2007 election. The Treasurer made only one reference to the states and territories in his Budget speech – that was to blame the states for the inadequacy of current dental services to the poor and disadvantaged, not withstanding that his own government had cut $100 million from the programs which states run. By contrast, Kevin Rudd’s two principal initiatives of his Budget Reply were predicated on a cooperative, Federal/State approach.

Australians will be extremely disappointed. Australians are very generous with their own money to fight global poverty and they’ll be extremely disappointed to hear that the money they thought the Government was using for that is actually being used to fund the Government’s tricky political exercises.