Federal election campaign - ALGA articulates its agenda online

The first week of the 2007 election campaign provided an opportunity for the major players to frame the agenda. ALGA has entered the fray with its ELECTION 07 website on http://www.alga.asn.au/Election2007/ which provides links to key policies of relevance to local government and local government's '10-Point Plan' election document. ALGA is strongly campaigning for both parties to commit to a $250m per annum 4-year Local Community Infrastructure Renewals Fund among other initiatives such as financial sustainability for local government, and constitutional recognition.

In setting the scene for the next six weeks, the Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd both talked about leadership - "the right leadership" vs "new leadership." Mr Howard said he would focus on the economy, jobs and "policies that will lift living standards and address pressures felt by sections of the Australian community", Mr Howard promised further detail on climate change and water security policies and plans to give communities a greater say in the running of their own hospitals. Mr Howard and the Treasurer, Peter Costello, also announced a $34 billion tax policy. Mr Rudd highlighted education, industrial relations, broadband, delivering benefits for working families, the environment and health as Labor's agenda. Labor focused its housing affordability statement on the issue of land release.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of The Nationals, Mark Vaile, outlined the Nationals plan to share the benefits of a strong economy with local communities. He said the biggest issue facing local communities was the state of public hospitals and community management was the answer. He also said that creating jobs in the regions would be a priority. "The Nationals' plan for roads is to fast-track safety work on local roads by injecting funds directly into your local councils through Roads to Recovery and to improve the safety of our regional and interstate road networks through our new National Transport Plan - AusLink 2," he said. "Our vision includes a strong rail network to get more big trucks off our roads through projects like the Inland Rail link from Brisbane to Melbourne through Western NSW."

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