[recoznet2] Meg Howard

[tim dunlop]

Meg Lees makes some Interesting comments in the article below (reproduced from the newsclips):   Senator Lees said "it is through tax that we get messages across about how we would like people to behave". Don't think Howard could have put it better himself!  Seems they both like to tell us "how...to behave".  In fact, she is sounding more like him every day, as in this quote from the same article:   "We will have major problems with any watering down of human rights, and any erosion of environmental powers. Our bottom line on our core values remains intact. Nothing has changed ..."   Core values?!  She really has been spending too much time with Howard.  And I'm all sure we're all glad to hear she will have "major problems" with watering down human rights.  "Major problems" doesn't exactly sound like the same thing as "we will never water down human rights".  Maybe they aren't a core value?   Tim ====================   No secret deals, Democrats leader pledges Date: 02/07/99 By MARGO KINGSTON in Canberra The Democrats will inject a social justice and pro-environment flavour into the pending business tax package and other economic legislation as the price for supporting the Government's agenda, but will not cross-trade as Senator Brian Harradine did. The Democrats leader, Senator Lees, made it clear that under the Senate she now controls, there would be no secret deals on matters irrelevant to legislation at hand, unlike the style of her predecessor in the balance of power role. Senator Lees said the next big agenda item - business tax change - would have no easy road. "We respect the need for Australia's corporate tax system to at least be comparable with countries we do business with [but] there are a few issues we want to make sure are on the business tax agenda as well." Top of the list are company tax avoidance - which raises the spectre of the Government's apparent backdown on its election promise to stop the use of trusts for the purpose - and using tax to promote a better environment. Senator Lees' ideas include lower tax concessions for company cars, tax incentives to promote energy efficiency, and tax concessions for investment in labour, not just capital. Senator Lees said "it is through tax that we get messages across about how we would like people to behave". "We will open up the process of negotiating with Government and our demands will be transparent. We acknowledge the Coalition's right to govern. We're not here to be a constant blockage on their program, but there are times that we will come to an impasse. "We will have major problems with any watering down of human rights, and any erosion of environmental powers. Our bottom line on our core values remains intact. Nothing has changed ... "So many people, after all the benefits we delivered in the tax package were explained, still whispered in horror, 'But you worked with a conservative government!' "The fact is we got more for the unemployed and the disadvantaged, and for the environment, than we ever achieved under Labor." This premise has caused considerable ructions within the Democrats, some of whom believe that it could see the Liberals retain government for a long period by forcing Mr Howard to broaden his appeal. The new NSW Democrats Senator, Aden Ridgeway, will take over reconciliation and the republic, and said he would like to meet the Prime Minister on both issues soon. "I haven't lost hope on reconciliation," he said. "I hope the Prime Minister can open himself up to discussion on the topic." This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this  group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes  of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."