Abbott Says Independents Should No Longer Support Gillard

Added by David Sandercock on January 29, 2011

Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition said that independent members of the parliament should no longer support the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard as she has tried to hide her addiction to spend government money by using the recent flooding.

Mr Abbott’s statement was made at the convention of the Young Liberals, which took place today on the Gold Coast.

Ms Gillard announced last Thursday that the government would impose a flood levy of one percent to tax payers whose income is higher than $50,000. The leader of the opposition has criticized the federal government’s flood levy which would help Queensland with rebuilding its infrastructure.

“A prime minister who’s unconvincing when responding to a natural disaster is unlikely to solve the much more politically and administratively complex problems that she had previously set herself to fix,” said Abbott during his speech at the convention.

He further added that the federal government may use recent floods that hit Queensland to justify its “spending addiction”, as did Kevin Rudd with the global financial crisis. Abbott said that independent members of the parliament who supported the government may reconsider their decision seeing Gillard’s flood levy intention.

The opposition leader accused Gillard of trying to raise compassion in people, while adding that “mateship is about helping people, not taxing them”.