Foreign affairs and Deputy Liberal Leader,
Julie Bishop. Julie Bishop became the first woman to represent Australia as Minister for Foreign Affairs. In Opposition, Abbott and Bishop pledged that a Coalition government would shift Australia's foreign policy focus to be "less Geneva, more Jakarta". Abbott chose the Indonesian capital as his first overseas destination, and travelled to Jakarta on 30 September 2013, to meet with President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on 30 September 2013. In October, Abbott returned to Indonesia to attend his first
APEC leaders' summit, to discuss trade and economic relations and meet with Chinese President
Xi Jinping, US Secretary of State
John Kerry and other world leaders. Following the summit, Abbott travelled to Bali, where he laid a wreath at the memorial of the 2002 Bali bombing. He also announced a commitment to extend compensation to Australian victims of terrorist attacks, allowing payments of up to A$75,000 to those who suffered in attacks on New York, London, Egypt, Mumbai, Jakarta, Bali and Nairobi since 2001. In Brunei, Abbott also attended his first
East Asia Summit with world leaders, including India's Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh. In 2013, prior to the election of the Abbott government, US intelligence leaker
Edward Snowden had been granted asylum by Russia after handing over large amounts of confidential information from US government databases to world media. Australian–Indonesian diplomatic relations began to suffer in the early months of the government, as
The Guardian and
ABC News began to publish material, which had been made public due to Snowden's leaking, suggesting that Australian spy agencies during the term of the previous government had spied on the Indonesian President and his wife. The alleged spying had taken place soon after the
July 2009 bombing of Jakarta's Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. Indonesia recalled its ambassador over the affair.
Shooting down of MH17 During the
2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine,
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in a missile attack. Julie Bishop and Australia's UN Ambassador Gary Quinlan led negotiations at the
United Nations Security Council to adopt a unanimous resolution, demanding that the armed groups in control of the crash site refrain from interfering with it and allow for the repatriation of victims and an international investigation into the attack. Bishop was honoured by The Netherlands for her role in securing the resolution and investigation. The downing of the flight had resulted in 298 deaths, including 38 Australian citizens and residents. In the lead up to the 2014 G20 meeting in Brisbane, Tony Abbott focused world attention on Russia's role in the shooting down of the civilian plane. In a meeting with Russian President
Vladimir Putin at the APEC meeting in Beijing, Abbott reportedly told the president that Australia had information that the missile that destroyed the plane had Russian origin and that Russia should consider apologising and offering appropriate restitution to the victims of the shooting. Russia continued to deny involvement.
Trade Andrew Robb.
Andrew Robb served as
Minister for Trade and Investment. In April 2014, Abbott led a trade delegation to Japan, South Korea and China. The three economies accounted for more than half of all of Australia's two-way trade. By the close of his tenure, Abbott's government had struck free trade agreements with the three nations. The Abbott government also established the Germany-Australia Advisory Group, to advise on improving trade relations, and pursued trade agreements with Indonesia and India.
Free trade agreements ; Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement On the Japanese leg of the 2014 trade mission, Abbott agreed the key elements of a free trade agreement with the government of
Shinzo Abe. A number of concessions were secured for Australian agricultural exporters, while Australian tariffs on electronics, whitegoods and cars were to be lowered. Negotiations for the agreement began under the
Howard government in 2007. Abbott said, "This is the first time that Japan has negotiated a comprehensive economic partnership agreement or free trade agreement with a major economy, particularly a major economy with a strong agricultural sector." Abe travelled to Australia in July to sign the
Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement, and address the Australian Parliament. ; Australia Korea Free Trade Agreement On the South Korean leg of the mission, Abbott signed the
Australia Korea Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA) with the government of
Park Geun-hye in Seoul. The agreement reduced tariffs on primary products and reset the foreign investment review threshold to more than $1 billion. ;China–Australia Free Trade Agreement signing the Free Trade Agreement with Chinese President
Xi Jinping and Minister for Commerce
Gao Hucheng. The Abbott trade mission continued on to China, where he met with Premier
Li Keqiang and President
Xi Jinping. In an address to the
Boao Forum, Abbott said "Team Australia" is in China to "help build the Asian century". He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Bishop, Trade Minister Robb, five of Australia's state premiers, and 30 of the country's senior business executives. Abbott also discussed the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight
MH370, being led by Australia. Abbott announced military co-operation between the China and Australia would be developed to include high-level meetings, staff exchanges and joint exercises. He also announced that President Xi would address the Australian Parliament in 2015. The
China–Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) was signed in Canberra on 17 June 2015, by Andrew Robb, and the Chinese Commerce Minister,
Gao Hucheng. Abbott hailed the agreement, saying that, along with the Korean and Japan agreements, it would underpin Australia's prosperity in coming years. Labor campaigned against the agreement during the Canning by-election, but subsequently agreed to support the
Turnbull government in ratifying the FTA.
Defence The Abbott government period saw the continued wind down of Australia's involvement in the Afghanistan conflict and moves to enhance co-operation with China, Japan and the United States in regional defence operations, but also saw the deterioration of the Syrian Civil War and rise of the threat of Islamic State, along with an ongoing Islamist terrorism threat to Australia and its allies. Abbott committed to increasing Defence spending to two per cent of GDP within a decade.
David Johnston served as Minister for Defence until December 2014, when he was replaced by
Kevin Andrews. At the end of October 2013, Abbott travelled to Afghanistan with opposition leader
Bill Shorten for a special ceremony at the Australian base in
Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan, saying that "Australia's longest war is ending. Not with victory, not with defeat, but with, we hope, an Afghanistan that is better for our presence here." Afghan forces were scheduled to take over running of the camp in mid-December. Abbott met with US President Barack Obama in June 2014, in Washington, and approved a legal agreement for the deployment of around 1,300 US Marines to the Northern Territory, first proposed under the Gillard government. Abbott also moved to strengthen economic and defence ties with Japan, signing the Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement and inviting
Shinzō Abe to address Parliament and announcing a transfer of defence technology and equipment would be included in it. In 2014, the government announced the investment of $12 billion in F-35 joint strike fighters. ; Submarine construction Fairfax Political Editor
Mark Kenny attributed the anti-Liberal swing in the
2014 Fisher state by-election in South Australia to Federal factors associated with the Defence Portfolio, writing: "People on both sides of the aisle in Adelaide say the dominant factor was the Abbott government's perceived intention to buy submarines 'off the shelf' from Japan rather than build the high-tech vessels in South Australia as had been promised." Days prior to the by-election, the Defence Minister David Johnston had denounced the capabilities of the
Australian Submarine Corporation which wanted to construct Australia's new submarine fleet at Adelaide, saying the company was at least $350 million over budget in building three air warfare destroyer ships: "You wonder why I'm worried about ASC and what they're delivering to the Australian taxpayer, you wonder why I wouldn't trust them to build a canoe?" the Minister told Parliament. Labor campaigned at the by-election on the issue, and linked Abbott to the state vote. Labor won the traditionally Liberal seat by just five votes from a 7.27 percent two-party swing to go from
minority to
majority government. ; MH370 search On 8 March 2014 Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared and presumably crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean, within Australia's search and rescue zone. Consequently, the Chinese and Australian militaries co-operated in the search for the missing plane, and in April 2014 the
People's Liberation Army asked to operate under Australian command in the largest international exercises in which it had ever participated. The Fairfax press reported: "It is believed to be the first time the PLA would operate under Western command in a military exercise". ; Islamic State deployment Following the
Arab Spring uprisings, and withdrawal of the bulk of US troops from Iraq, the threat of
Islamic State/ISIL/ISIS emerged, amid the deteriorating
Syrian Civil War. The extremist Sunni Islamist group was battling government forces in Syria and Iraq, with the objective of establishing of an Islamic caliphate across the region. Domestic terrorist attacks by ISIS supporters occurred in Australia in 2014, with
knife and
gun attacks in Melbourne and Sydney against police and civilians. In October 2014, the Federal cabinet approved the decision to
launch air strikes in Iraq in response to concerns over ISIL militant groups. Abbott announced that the Australian mission was to "disrupt and degrade" Islamic State "at home and abroad". According to Defence analyst and Abbott confidant
Catherine McGregor, Abbott was frustrated at the lack of a serious effort to destroy ISIS and wanted to approach the British and the French to join him in lobbying the
Obama Administration to escalate its campaign against the Islamic State, and to deploy Australian Special Forces to find and kill ISIS leaders. In September 2015, the Abbott government expanded Australia's military mission, by joining US-led airstrikes against IS targets in Syria, and announced that 12,000 additional refugees from the region would be accepted. Shortly after losing office, Abbott gave this appraisal of the battle against Islamic State:
Terrorism in 2014. The government was concerned as early as August 2014 that the Indonesian militant
Islamist terror group
Jemaah Islamiah has aligned itself to
ISIL (ISIS), and formed a potential threat. On 23 September, the government raised Australia's terror alert level from medium to high. In September 2014, an Islamic State supporter was shot dead after stabbing two policemen in Melbourne, and in December, an Islamic State supporter was shot dead after taking hostages and holding up a café in Martin Place, Sydney, in an attack in which two hostages died. A month later, Abbott condemned the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in France as an "unspeakable atrocity". When 60 people were killed in attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait on one day on 27 June, Abbott said: "This illustrates yet again that as far as the
Daesh death cult is concerned, it's coming after us." In July, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the
Sydney Institute that ISIL is not "Hitler's Germany, Tojo's Japan or Stalin's Russia" and that government should not amplify its significance. At the opening of a regional summit against terrorism in Sydney in June 2015, Abbott praised the leadership against Islamist terrorism shown by Muslim statesmen such as Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib – who had described ISIS as "against God, against Islam and against our common humanity" – and of Egypt's president el-Sissi – who told Egyptian imams that Islam needed a "religious revolution". After losing office, Abbott said on
Paul Murray Live on 8 December 2015: "We've got to work closely with live-and-let-live Muslims because there needs to be, as President (Abdel Fattah) Al-Sisi of Egypt has said, a religious revolution inside Islam... All of those things that Islam has never had – a Reformation, an Enlightenment, a well-developed concept of the separation of church and state – that needs to happen, but we can't do it; Muslims have got to do this for themselves."
Citizenship In 2015, the cabinet debated giving the immigration minister new powers to strip dual nationals of their citizenship if they are supporters of terrorist organisations.
Indigenous affairs Abbott, a former Indigenous Affairs Minister, reformed the portfolio and brought it within the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, saying: "There will be, in effect, a prime minister for Aboriginal affairs". Scullion also served as Leader of the Nationals in the Senate. In 2013,
Andrew Forrest was chosen to lead a review into Indigenous employment and training programs, which was to report to the Australian government. The review was delivered on 1 August 2014, with 27 recommendations. This was the genesis of the
Healthy Welfare Card initiative. In his February 2014 "
Closing the Gap" report to Parliament, Abbott said that Australia was failing to meet the "more important and the more meaningful targets" of reducing Indigenous disadvantage, and proposed to add a new target to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance within five years. ; Constitutional recognition Speaking at the
Welcome to Country ceremony to mark the opening of the 44th Parliament in 2013, Abbott committed to pursuing recognition of
Indigenous Australians in the Australian Constitution, and noted that the 44th parliament would have two Indigenous members. Liberal MP
Ken Wyatt chaired an all-party Parliamentary Committee examining the issue, and released a report in June 2015 ahead of a bi-partisan summit. In
NAIDOC Week 2015, Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten jointly hosted a summit with around 40 indigenous leaders at
Kirribilli House to discuss the process for achieving Constitutional recognition. Abbott said he hoped the wording for a referendum could be concluded in 2016, for a referendum vote in 2017. ; Indigenous Advisory Council Abbott announced the establishment of the
Indigenous Advisory Council in November 2013. The government-appointed council was to meet three times a year with the Prime Minister and senior ministers to advise the government on policy implementation. Aimed at sparking "new engagement" with Indigenous Australians, the 12-member council was headed by
Warren Mundine. ; Remote community visits In Opposition, Abbott promised to spend a week a year in remote indigenous communities. In September 2014, Abbott and a number of Cabinet Ministers and Departmental Heads set up camp in an Aboriginal Community in
Arnhem Land, near
Nhulunbuy, east of
Darwin. The Prime Minister discussed land tenure, welfare and
constitutional recognition. On his August 2015 week in remote indigenous communities, Abbott again discussed constitutional recognition and became the first Prime Minister to visit the grave of land rights champion
Eddie Mabo. ; Funding for Indigenous affairs The government also reduced funding to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (
ATSILS) and associated policy officer positions in state governments, but not by as much as it had committed to during the election campaign. In December 2013 the government announced that was unlikely to provide further funding for the elected
National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, which had been established in 2010 as the national representative body for Indigenous Australians. In June 2014, the ABC reported that the government planned to find a further $600 million in savings from Indigenous programs, in addition to the $534 million cuts in the 2014 budget.
Economic policy Joe Hockey. ; 2013 Election Launching his campaign for the 2013 Election, Tony Abbott outlined the economic priorities of the Coalition, promising to tackle government debt, eliminate "waste" in government expenditure, and decrease taxes which place a burden on industry and business: Abbott promised to "cut red tape" and reduce the company tax rate. He committed to abolishing the carbon tax, to bring down power and gas prices, and to abolishing the mining tax to increase investment and employment. On industrial relations, he promised to "move the workplace relations pendulum back to the sensible centre, restore a strong cop-on-the-beat in the construction industry, and hit dodgy union officials with the same penalties as corporate crooks." Cormann had served as Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation. At a 27 September media conference Hockey said the government faced a challenge to sustain growth as the mining investment boom deflates, and indicated that the government was considering ways to stimulate infrastructure spending. Within the first year of their economic stewardship there were 790,000 people unemployed, with an unemployment rate of 6.4% – a 12-year high and an increase of 0.7 points from the time the government came to office. Youth unemployment rose to a 17-year high. Hockey, eleven months after coming to office, blamed the steep rise in unemployment during his stewardship on the former government. In April,
Peter Costello published an opinion piece in
The Daily Telegraph describing proposed tax changes as a "morbid joke".
National Commission of Audit The National Commission of Audit was announced by Treasurer Hockey, and the Minister for Finance, Senator
Mathias Cormann, on 22 October 2013. It was established as an independent body to "review and report on the performance, functions and roles of the Commonwealth government" and to advise on eliminating wasteful spending and government inefficiency and make recommendations to achieve savings sufficient to deliver a surplus of 1 per cent of GDP prior to 2023–24. The government appointed
Tony Shepherd AO to chair the commission. The other commissioners were: Dr Peter Boxall, Tony Cole, Robert Fisher and
Amanda Vanstone.
Taxation In the 2013 Election campaign, Tony Abbott promised a "comprehensive tax white paper" to look at tax reform. In June 2014, Abbott launched the
Reform of the Federation white paper, with an eye to clarifying "roles and responsibilities for states and territories so that they are as far as possible, sovereign in their own sphere". In March 2015, Joe Hockey launched the Abbott government's Tax White Paper titled "Re:think". In 2015 Abbott made calls for increasing the
GST to 15%.
Privatisation and efficiency The Abbott government sought to cut spending and sell assets to rein in a budget deficit that reached A$48.5 billion by June 2014. The
National Commission of Audit report released in May 2014 recommended sale of the postal service, along with the
Royal Australian Mint and other state assets. The government raised $5.68 billion selling shares of
Medibank Private, Australia's biggest health insurer (the sale was Australia's second-largest initial public offering). In the
2015 budget, the government opted to sell the ASIC share registry, but not the Mint or Defence Housing Australia. The
Australian Workers Union,
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union,
Electrical Trades Union,
Health Services Union and the
Transport Workers Union were named in the terms of reference. The Royal Commission inquired into the activities relating to
slush funds and other similar funds and entities established by, or related to, the affairs of these organisations. The Commissioner handed down his report in December 2015, finding "widespread and deep-seated" misconduct by union officials in Australia, and referring than 40 people and organisations to authorities, including police, Directors of Public Prosecutions, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Fair Work Commission. The Final Report made a recommendation for the establishment of an independent body to investigate union records and finances was made, and was received by the
Turnbull government Northern Australia White Paper The Abbott government sought to attract investment in northern Australia. In June 2015, it released the first ever
White Paper on Developing Northern Australia. The Paper contained policy proposals for the development of the north as an "economic powerhous" over the next two decades, and examined new roads, studies of dam sites, changes to land-use laws as part of a development blueprint. Elements of the push for northern development included boosting links with the Asia-Pacific economies; a $600 million roads package; money to upgrade airstrips and explore rail freight options; a $100 million beef roads fund and a $5 billion concessional loans facility; a $200 million water infrastructure fund and a plan to study river systems for dams viability; support for native title bodies and new surveys to start simplifying land arrangements for economic investment; and a $75 million Cooperative Research Centre. The Paper announced tax changes to assist farmers and encourage investment in water infrastructure and fencing, to mitigate droughts. It also includes money for roads and dam development, to assist in production and transport to markets; and five new agricultural trade counsellors help open up overseas markets. The Paper contained an $11.4 million boost to the
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), and the engagement of a new Agriculture Commissioner at the ACCC, to encourage fair-trading and strengthen competition in supply chains. The Paper added $300 million to the National Water Infrastructure Fund, established by the Northern Australia White Paper. Hockey outlined a number of proposed expenditure reductions, the abolition of the carbon and mining taxes, a Temporary Budget Repair Levy on high income earners, structural reforms to welfare and university education expenditure, the reintroduction of the fuel excise levy, and the establishment of a $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund, funded by the introduction of a $7 Medicare co-contribution. Hockey predicted, that if the measures were implemented, the budget deficit would fall from $49.9 billion to $29.8 billion over the next year. Prior to the 2013 election, Tony Abbott told SBS Television that there would be: "No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS."
Fairfax Media reported in May that a number of Budget measures broke pre-election commitments and promises made by the Liberals in opposition. On 19 May,
News Limited reported that "According to Newspoll, nearly half of voters said the measures will be lousy for the economy, and more than 60 per cent told a separate Nielsen survey the Budget was unfair." A number of savings and revenue measures in the budget were opposed by Labor, the Greens and cross benches in the Senate. In his Budget in reply speech, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said that Labor would oppose around $13 billion worth of cuts and tax hikes, including the changes to university funding. Initially Labor joined the Greens in opposing the reintroduction of a fuel excise levy, delaying passage of the measure until June 2015. Labor and the Greens opposed the Coalition's promised abolition of carbon pricing, and the introduction of "direct action" carbon-reduction policies, but the Government secured cross bench support for the repeal of the tax in July 2014. Labor and the Greens opposed abolition of the Rudd-Gillard mining tax, but it was repealed with the support of the Palmer United Party in September. The Government was unable to secure passage of its expanded Paid Parental Leave Scheme, or medicare co-contribution and the measures were scrapped. Education Minister Christopher Pyne continued to negotiate for passage of university funding reforms, but the measures are not supported by the Opposition and minor parties. This budget has been described as "the beginning of the end" for the Abbott government.
2015 Budget In his 2015 Budget Speech, Hockey said: "On the economic front, iron ore prices have fallen dramatically and the recovery in the global economy has been weaker than expected. But I say to you, the economic plan laid down by this government more than a year ago, is in place and it is helping us to deal with these challenges." Hockey proposed significant new small business tax concessions, and said the government would increase funding for development of Australia's north, drought assistance, jobseeker assistance, national security and medical research. The GST was to be revised to include digital purchases The ABC reported that Hockey's second budget would see a $35 billion deficit for 2015–16, with a fall to $7 billion by 2018–19. The ABC noted that Hockey had pledged $5.5 billion for small businesses and that small business would receive a 100% tax write off for assets costing less than $20,000. A crackdown on welfare fraud would bring in $1.7 billion over forward estimates, and the fight against ISIS would receive better funding.
Financial services policy The Abbott government refused calls for a
royal commission into financial planner misconduct at the
Commonwealth Bank (one of the largest financial service providers in Australia) after a senate committee review into the matter found gross exploitation of bank customers. The government, which favours deregulation, intends to remove customer protections in the sector; allow advisers to earn sales commission and other so-called "conflicted remuneration" from providing general financial advice; and remove the requirement for financial advisers to tell customers how much they are receiving in commissions every year and give them the chance to opt out of the arrangements every second year. This was in addition to removing the laws that require financial advisers 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.
Social policy Adoption In December 2013, Abbott launched a taskforce to help make it easier for Australians to permanently adopt children. He made the announcement flanked by NSW Premier
Barry O'Farrell and actors
Hugh Jackman and
Deborra-Lee Furness, who supported the process.
Parental leave scheme At the 2013 election, Abbott proposed a plan for $5.5 billion paid parental leave scheme to provide parents with 26 weeks' paid leave, at full replacement wage up to an annual salary of $150,000 (or a maximum of $75,000) – or the minimum wage if greater. The wage replacement strategy was designed to be an economic driver and boost female workforce participation rates and was intended to replace the Gillard government's $1.8 billion scheme, introduced in January 2011.
Same sex marriage In opposition, Abbott's Coalition had voted against a same-sex marriage bill put to the Parliament, but in office Abbott indicated that, while he personally opposed redefinition of marriage, if a bill were to come before the new parliament, the Coalition party room would discuss its stance on the issue. In Government, Abbott reaffirmed that he did not support changing the law to recognise same-sex marriages. Attorney General
George Brandis challenged the ACT Legislative Assembly's unilateral
recognition of same-sex marriage as being inconsistent with the Federal Marriage Act and therefore unconstitutional, a view which was upheld by the High Court on 12 December 2013. Abbott permitted Coalition members to advocate for change if they felt strongly on the issue, and indicated that if a bill were to come before the new parliament, the Coalition party room would discuss its stance on the issue. To settle the issue, Abbott proposed a plebiscite following the next election.
Disaster recovery assistance One day after the
2013 New South Wales bushfires destroyed 200 homes in the
Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, the government eased the criteria for receipt of the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment, removing financial assistance for evacuees.
Immigration Scott Morrison was appointed
Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in the Abbott Ministry. In opposition, the Coalition had been highly critical of the Labor government's Asylum Seeker policies. Campaigning for office, Morrison said that the Coalition "has always believed in immigration as one of the great nation building planks of policy" and that it would undertake measures to restore confidence in Australia's immigration program. The Abbott-led opposition had opposed the Labor government's tightening of restrictions on 457 "skilled migrant" visas, and pledged that in government, it would repeal the law and issue more 457 visas, to stimulate economic growth.
Refugees In 2014, Australia took in 11,570 refugees from offshore, mostly through the
UNHCR program, which was 11% of the global figure within the
Third country resettlement category. For Third country resettlement refugees, this ranked Australia as the recipient of the third highest figure overall, and first on a per-capita basis. For total refugees, this ranked Australia 22nd overall and 28th on a per-capita basis. Regardless of the cause, the Abbott Government were able to take credit for "stopping the boats". It was considered a 'delivered' election promise as Tony Abbott simply promised that "the boats" would stop during his time in office. In April 2015, ABC Fact Check reported that Abbott's promise to stop the boats had been delivered: "The Government launched Operation Sovereign Borders on 18 September 2013, when it took office. Boats continued to arrive for the remainder of 2013, at a rate of five to seven per month. The picture changed in January 2014. Since then only one boat, carrying 157 asylum seekers, has arrived." ; Operation Sovereign Borders On the day it was sworn in, the Abbott government launched
Operation Sovereign Borders, a joint agency task force designed to combat people smuggling. Deputy Chief of Army,
Angus Campbell was appointed to lead the effort. The government instituted a policy of turning-back-boats where it was safe to do so, and sent arrivals to offshore processing centres. From January 2014, until the demise of the Abbott government in September 2015, only one asylum vessel was reported to have reached Australia. giving the immigration minister unprecedented powers to control the lives of asylum seekers. The Immigration Minister told a Senate inquiry in January 2014 that sharing of information about "on-water" tactics and intelligence should be limited in the interest of national security. On 4 February 2014, he said that no asylum seeker boats had reached Australia for 36 days, which was the longest stretch in almost five years. "This is the longest period of no illegal boat arrivals since March of 2009, when arrivals first started to significantly escalate as a consequence of the former Labor Government's decision to abolish the strong border protection regime they inherited from the Howard Government", Morrison told reporters. The government apologised to Indonesia after Australian Navy ships performing border protection tasks entered the country's waters on six occasions during December 2013 and January 2014. The incidents led to a deterioration in the relationship between the Australian Defence Force and the
Indonesian National Armed Forces. ; Detention Centres On 17 February 2014 there was a riot in the
Manus Island detention centre. The riot occurred amid concerns by asylum seekers in detention that their claims were not being processed.
The Australian reported that asylum claims were being processed in the lead up to the Manus Island riots. It has since been reported that no such processing was occurring. The BBC reported in December 2014 that "Rights group say conditions in the PNG and Nauru camps are totally inadequate, citing poor hygiene, cramped conditions, unrelenting heat and a lack of facilities. They say these conditions are causing physical and mental health issues among detainees" and that "Two young Iranian men have died as a direct result of their detention in PNG." In response to a February 2015 Human Rights Commission report critical of conditions for children in detention, Abbott said "The most compassionate thing you can do is stop the boats. We have stopped the boats" and criticised the Commissioner for not investigating the issue under Labor, when hundreds of people were dying at sea and 2000 children were in detention. The detention figure had reduced to 211 under the Abbott government. ; Sri Lankan and Indian vessels In June/July 2014, reports emerged that two boats, carrying presumed Sri Lankan asylum seekers, had been intercepted in the waters between
Sri Lanka and Australia. On 7 July, the Immigration Minister confirmed to the High Court that 41 asylum seekers on a boat intercepted west of the Cocos Islands had been returned to Sri Lanka, following an "enhanced screening process" at sea. In the government's first year they spent $120,000 on domestic media monitoring on immigration and asylum seekers in the face of criticism for being an overtly secretive area of government.
Infrastructure In the 2013 election campaign, Abbott said he wanted to be known as an "infrastructure prime minister". In his first Budget, Joe Hockey announced "Over the next six years, the government will help build new roads, rail, ports and airports" and outlined spending commitments to the
East West Link, Melbourne,
Toowoomba Bypass,
Perth Freight Link,
Midland Highway upgrade in
Tasmania and the
North South Road Corridor project in
Adelaide and said: "our $1 billion National Stronger Regions Fund, together with $200 million of new Black Spot funding, and $350 million extra for Roads to Recovery will deliver jobs and better roads across regional and rural Australia." In May 2015, the Abbott government released the Australian Infrastructure Audit. In his 2015 Budget speech, Hockey announced the reintroduction of Fuel Indexation to assist with funding of road-building and said: "We are rolling out the biggest infrastructure program in Australia's history, with new road and freight corridors being built right across the country". ; Transport investment In opposition, Abbott had called for less investment in "inefficient, over-manned, union-dominated, government-run train and bus systems", because "cars facilitated a sense of personal mastery public transport never would", saying "The humblest person is king in his own car." In office, Abbott withdrew some funding for planned public transport projects. On 19 September 2013, Abbott joined NSW Premier
Barry O'Farrell to jointly launch the
WestConnex motorway for Sydney. In Victoria, Abbott supported construction of the
East West Link, Melbourne.
The Age reported that the timing of the provision of funds for the East West Link, the last day of the 2013–14 financial year, was criticised by federal Auditor-General Grant Hehir as a strategy to artificially blow out the deficit of the outgoing government. ; Second Sydney airport On 15 April 2014, the Abbott government announced approval for a
Second Sydney Airport at
Badgerys Creek, west of the
Sydney central business district, and to develop accompanying integrated infrastructure. The announcement of the A$2.5 billion project ended years of uncertainty over the site, which had been purchased by the
Hawke government. Abbott predicted that the project would create 60,000 new jobs for
Western Sydney by the time the airport was fully operational.
Science The first Abbott ministry divided responsibilities for science between the portfolios of Education, under Christopher Pyne, and Industry, under
Ian McFarlane. This was reported as the first ministry since 1931 to be without a dedicated Minister for Science. This drew criticism from scientific organisations including the
Australian Academy of Science. However, the Budget was criticised for its $450 million reduction in funding for science agencies.
Media and Communications Malcolm Turnbull took up the role of Minister for Communications following the election of the Abbott government. On 14 September 2015, Turnbull resigned the position to challenge Abbott's leadership of the Liberal Party.
National Broadband Network Tony Abbott, as
Leader of the Opposition, and
Malcolm Turnbull, as
Shadow Minister for
Communications and Broadband, stated in 2010 that in government they would 'demolish' the NBN. In opposition, the Abbott-led Coalition was critical of the Labor government's
National Broadband Network policy, and proposed to deliver "a cheaper version, more efficiently", by funding a technologically inferior
fibre to the node network, rather than Labor's primarily
fibre to the premises network. In opposition, the Coalition promised their alternative would deliver a minimum 25
Mbit/s to 100% of premises by 2016 and a minimum 50 Mbit/s to 100% of premises by 2019, requiring peak funding of $29.5bn. This compared to the previous government's NBN target of 100 Mbit/s to 93% of premises by 2021 and 25 Mbit/s to the remaining 7% of premises by 2016, with peak funding of $44bn. Social media activists attacked the Coalition's plan, describing it as "fraudband". Following the 2013 election, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull assumed responsibility for management of the network, and invited the Labor appointed board of
NBN Co to offer their resignations and announced a strategic review of the project. The review found that the Coalition's NBN would require funding of $41bn (up from $29.5bn) and that 44% of premises would receive 25 Mbit/s by 2016 (down from 100%). Turnbull, a former
Rhodes Scholar and successful businessman, had previously worked in the field of internet communications, being a co-founder of
OzEmail. On 15 December 2014, the government announced that it had struck a deal with the nation's largest telecommunications provider,
Telstra, to gradually acquire Telstra's copper fixed-line network for a total cost of A$11 billion. The government was able to effectively re-negotiate the former government's NBN deal with Telstra, at no additional cost to taxpayers.
Media relations ; Fairfax Press and Abbott government On 1 September 2015, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Fairfax Media were conducting "a bit of a jihad" against the Government, and that there was a "huge move by Fairfax at the moment to try and bring the Government down...[and Fairfax is] being helped by the ABC". In May 2015, Fairfax political correspondent Peter Hartcher had made allegations against Tony Abbott, claiming falsely that he had snubbed the gay partner of an ambassador in Paris. Parliamentary Secretary Alan Tudge described the front-page article as a "disgraceful smear". In July 2015, a court found that the Fairfax Press had defamed Treasurer Joe Hockey, and found Darren Goodsir, the Sydney Morning Herald's editor in chief, was "motivated by malice" in the matter. In August 2015, the ABC Media Watch programme reported that a front-page of
The Age newspaper "ripped into the recent war record of former SAS captain
Andrew Hastie, Liberal candidate in the
2015 Canning by-election, which could be crucial to Tony Abbott's future" and found the coverage to be "both unfair and misleading", and likened it to the Hockey defamation case. In a 29 August article, Peter Hartcher incorrectly asserted that Tony Abbott was involved in the decision to launch a planned Border Force operation in Melbourne. ; ABC & Abbott government In a Treasurer's debate prior to the 2013 Election, Hockey told the Q&A programme spending on the ABC would be subject to review. On the eve of the Election, Abbott told SBS Television "No cuts to... the ABC or SBS." In November 2014, Communications Minister Turnbull said that the ABC and SBS, as public broadcasters, should not be exempt from spending cuts that applied to almost all government departments, and the ABC would receive a cut of 4.6 per cent cut over five years. In early 2015, an internal ABC review of its coverage of the first Hockey Budget criticised the post-budget interview by the flagship current affairs shows
7:30 and
Lateline, finding that a
7:30 interview by Sarah Ferguson showed how "perceptions of bias could be inflamed unnecessarily" and that Ferguson did not appear to show the Treasurer enough respect. It found that
Lateline host Emma Alberici could have given the impression of bias by asking a Coalition MP: "Do you think voters are really stupid and can't recognise a lie when they see one?" In June 2015, Abbott initiated a brief ministerial boycott of the
Q&A programme, after it arranged for Zaky Mallah to ask a question of a Government minister, from its live studio audience. Mallah had been jailed for threatening federal government officials, and had posted violent comments about conservative female journalists on Twitter. On-air, Mallah said "The Liberals now have just justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join ISIL". Turnbull criticised Abbott's boycott, telling
7.30: "I take the view that wherever there is an open microphone I'm happy to get on the other side of it." The ABC found that there had been an "error of judgement", but repeated the programme later in the week, prompting Abbott to say that "heads should roll" over the affair. The hosts of the ABC's political programs spoke in favour of Abbott's demise.
Kerry O'Brien and
Barrie Cassidy, hosts respectively of the ABC's flagship weekly current affairs programs
Four Corners and
Insiders, welcomed the replacement of Abbott by Turnbull. as did ABC radio commentators
Fran Kelly Paul Bongiorno and
Amanda Vanstone. Fairfax and News Limited reported that
Leigh Sales, the host of
7.30 gave Turnbull an unusually warm first interview following his toppling of Abbott. ; 2 GB radio Conservative 2 GB radio commentators
Alan Jones,
Ray Hadley and
Andrew Bolt criticised Turnbull's challenge to Abbott. In the 7 months following his taking of the Liberal leadership, Turnbull conducted 17 interviews at the ABC, and boycotted 2 GB Radio.
Environment Following its election in 2013, the Abbott government created a new
Department of the Environment, with
Greg Hunt as
Minister for the Environment. In relation to climate change policy, Abbott had campaigned strongly against the Labor government's system of carbon pricing, and promised a "Direct Action Plan" for carbon emissions reduction. His government abolished the
Gillard government's carbon tax, but committed Australia to continuing to reduce greenhouse gasses at the
Paris Agreement conference.
Climate Change On the eve of the 2013 election, Abbott outlined his stance on climate policy in an interview on the
ABC TV Insiders program: After taking office in September 2013, Minister Hunt abolished the Gillard government advisory
Climate Commission, stating that this move formed "part of the Coalition's plans to streamline government processes and avoid duplication of services" and that the
Department of the Environment would take on its role. The Abbott government announced a "Direct Action Plan" on climate change, with an overall goal to reduce Australia's emission to 5% below 2000 levels by the year 2020. In April 2014, the government released a White Paper on its plan, centred around a multi billion dollar Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) designed to provide financial incentives to carbon emitters to reduce their emissions. The ERF was established to support a range of carbon abatement programs, including vegetation management, energy efficiency and transport.
Repeal of the carbon tax The Gillard government's
Clean Energy Act 2011 had established
carbon pricing in Australia. However, Gillard had promised not to introduce a carbon tax during her 2010 election campaign, and Abbott as Opposition Leader had campaigned strongly against the legislation as a broken Labor election promise, which he promised to repeal if elected. Abbott delivered his election promise to remove the carbon tax with the support of the Senate cross bench in July 2014.
2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference at Lima In December 2014 during the
2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima, the Abbott government pledged $200 million over four years to the
Green Climate Fund. The government said: "The pledge to the Green Climate Fund will facilitate private sector-led economic growth in the Indo-Pacific region with a particular focus on investment in infrastructure, energy, forestry ... and emissions reduction programmes."
The 2014 Paris Agreement In a 2014 meeting with French President
Francois Hollande ahead of negotiations for the
Paris Agreement on reducing global carbon emissions, Abbott said it was "vital" that the Paris conference succeed and did not become "another disaster like
Copenhagen," which had agreed on only non-binding goals. "For it to be a success, we can't pursue environmental improvements at the expense of economic progress," Abbott said In December 2015, Foreign Minister
Julie Bishop represented Australia in negotiations for the Treaty, and signed on Australia's behalf. She hailed the agreement as an "historic occasion". Australia committed to implement an economy-wide target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Australia announced its ratification of the Paris Agreement on 10 November 2016 (during the term of the
Turnbull government which succeeded the Abbott government).
Other climate change policy issues In November 2013, the Abbott government made a decision not to send a ministerial delegate to the 2013 Warsaw climate summit. Days later the Abbott government abandoned its longstanding policy to cut emissions by between 5% and 25% of 2000 levels by 2020, stating that the Coalition would only commit to a 5% emissions reduction target. Hunt also stated that the government will abolish the
Climate Change Authority and
Clean Energy Finance Corporation. In October Abbott and Hunt disputed statements from
Christiana Figueres, the head of the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, that the
2013 New South Wales bushfires were probably linked to climate change and that the government's Direct Action policy would be harmful, with Abbott stating that Figueres was "talking through her hat". Tony Abbott announced plans to again study the supposed health impacts of wind farms, before the public release of a survey of scientific literature on the issue. The 2014 Budget proposed to scrap the Australian Renewable Energy Agency which the Coalition repeatedly promised to retain in the lead up to the 2013 Federal Election, dumped the election promise for Million Solar Roofs, cut $484 million from Landcare and the Caring for Our Country programs, provided $1.5 billion for the East-West Link freeway and axed the National Water Commission. Legislation to implement the
Emissions Reduction Fund came into effect on 13 December 2014 In 2015, the Abbott government: • Attempted to bring climate contrarian
Bjørn Lomborg to the University of Western Australia with a $4million grant • Moved to prevent the $10 billion
Clean Energy Finance Corporation from backing wind energy and household solar projects. • Cut the Howard government's Renewable Energy Target and included a provision to include native wood waste as a renewable fuel source Documents obtained with a Freedom of Information request show that the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet proposed an investigation into the
Bureau of Meteorology to address claims in The Australian that the BoM was exaggerating global warming. Environment Minister Greg Hunt argued against the investigation, instead setting up a review forum which found that the Bureau of Meteorology data were accurate.
Other environmental issues In December 2013 Environment Minister Greg Hunt controversially approved the dumping of three million cubic metres of dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Marine Park. In the same month the Abbott government defunded Environment Defenders Offices across Australia. In January 2014, Environment Minister Greg Hunt cleared the way for a controversial shark cull in Western Australia by exempting it from federal legislation designed to protect threatened species, Following on from its decision to fund the Environment Defenders Office, in June 2014 the federal Liberal Party unanimously endorsed a proposal to strip charity status from environmental groups including the Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Bob Brown Foundation. The same month the Abbott government lost a bid to have part of Tasmania's
World Heritage forest de-listed from
UNESCO's World Heritage programme, after declaring Australia had too much 'locked up' forest and that loggers were the 'ultimate conservationists'.
Biosecurity The Biosecurity Bill 2014 passed through
parliament on 14 May 2015 with
bipartisan support, as possibly "one of the most substantial and significant pieces of legislation to pass through Parliament during the term of the [Abbott] Government", seven years from its instigation following the 2008 Beale Review. It had been introduced by Labor's
Gillard government in 2012. The
Biosecurity Act 2015 was a major reform of the
Quarantine Act, in particular in its strengthening and modernising the existing framework of regulations governing biosecurity in Australia.
Health took over as
Minister for Health from
Peter Dutton in December 2014 Following the election of the Abbott government,
Peter Dutton became
Minister for Health and Sport, the latter portfolio being elevated to Cabinet for the first time. When Scott Morrison became Social Services Minister, he proposed a crackdown on Disability Support Pensions to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme. 61 Medicare Locals were replaced with 31 Primary Health Networks. The 2014 Budget reduced the Commonwealth's share of hospital funding by A$15 billion by 2024, with the majority of the cuts beginning in 2017, despite a pre-election commitment of no cuts to health. The Government raised $5.68 billion selling shares of
Medibank Private. It later emerged that the government had failed to model the impacts of the new GP fee including the impacts on hospital emergency room waiting times and medical research. The Senate blocked passage of the medical co-payment, but approved the establishment of the Medical Research Future Fund in August 2015, with funding to be found through reduced health spending and the Health and Hospitals Fund, until a balance of $20bn is reached in 2020. The Fund is managed by the
Future Fund, with interest generated going to medical research, beginning with $10 million in 2015, growing to $390m over the following three years. The Abbott government initiative, which denies childcare rebate and family tax benefit A to parents who refuse to vaccinate their children resulted in "conscientious objector" numbers falling from 39,523 in December 2014 to 30,092 in December 2015, ahead of the commencement of the law.
Education Christopher Pyne was appointed as Minister for Education. On 24 November 2013 Pyne announced that the Government was reviewing all aspects of the Gonski funding agreements on the grounds that they were "a shambles and quite unimplementable", and inferior to the model in place under the Howard government. Following protests from the state governments that had signed funding agreements, Abbott announced on 2 December that the government would still provide the funding that the Labor government had committed to over a four-year period, but the states would no longer be required to raise their funding or make other reforms, on the grounds that the government did not want to "try to run public schools out of Canberra". In the 2014 budget, the Abbott government set aside $245 million for
religious chaplains in schools. Secular schools were stripped of the option of hiring a secular equivalent, as they had been allowed to do under previous funding arrangements. Furthermore, taxpayers would subsidise the training of priests and other religious workers at private colleges for the first time under the Abbott government's proposed higher education reforms. In 2014 it was announced that religious teaching, training and vocational institutes would be eligible for a share of $820 million in new Commonwealth funding over three years.
New Colombo Plan The
New Colombo Plan was launched as a signature initiative of the Abbott government's foreign policy, and was aimed at enhancing the knowledge of the Indo-Pacific in Australia, by supporting Australian undergraduates studying and undertaking internships in the region. In 2014, the pilot scheme supported 40 scholars and more than 1300 mobility students to study and undertake work placements. In 2015 the Scheme expanded further across the Indo-Pacific, awarding 69 scholarships and supporting more than 3,100 mobility students. The scheme was continued by the
Turnbull government.
University and TAFE deregulation The Abbott government proposed in the
2014 budget the deregulation of universities and
TAFEs. Furthermore, the amount of public funding for university courses will be reduced by 20% and expose students to big increases in their
student debts with the removal of all caps on the fees universities can charge. Student debts will be compounded at the
10-year bond rate with a cap at 6% (it has historically been typically above 6%) instead of the
consumer price index. Total government higher education funding is projected to be $9.5 billion by 2017–18. While this is a
nominal increase of $750 million compared with 2012–13, analysis by
The Guardian Australia shows it represents a cut of about $1.5 billion in
real terms when
population growth and
inflation are taken into account. This contradicts the designer of the
HECS system, Bruce Chapman, who has warned student debts will triple.
Freedom of information The government 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. == 2015 Abbott leadership loss ==