Stephen Jones MP

Next week is Budget Week, the 5th Budget to be delivered by the Abbott /Turnbull Governments and it’s why this week the Government has been busy with a string of prequel announcements and authorised leaks.  There will be tax cuts for craft beer brewers, cash for a few projects in marginal Government electorates and days of speculation around personal income tax. Continue reading

SHADOW MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT, AMANDA RISHWORTH MP: Today we have heard the government talk a lot about education but their actions in early education do not back up their rhetoric. What we know when it comes to early education is that the government’s new child care package coming in on the 2nd of July will leave one in five families in the Illawarra worse off. Continue reading

The Banking Royal Commission claimed its first high-profile scalp, this week, as the Chief Executive Officer of the once highly-respected institution - AMP - was forced to resign. Continue reading

There was a moment that we all stood proud this week. It was the 10,000m women’s final with Celia Sullohern, Madeline Hills and Eloise Wellings competing for Australia. They ran well but that’s not what will be remembered. It was the image of the three of them waiting on the track for another five minutes to cheer on Lesotho’s Lineo Chaka while she finished her run. Very sporting. Continue reading

Government  backbenchers are jittery ahead of the release of the 30th newspoll.  It plans to be shocker for the Prime Minister.  Particularly with a group of disgruntled ex PMs and backbenchers using this issue to wedge the PM on the issue of coal and coal fired power stations ahead of the poll result.  It’s hard to find a financier, an energy expert or a generator who is keen to build one – but this hasn’t stopped the ginger group appropriating the name of the war hero, General Monash for their cause. Continue reading

Ever heard of Cambridge Analytica? Well that probably changed this week when the shadowy political marketing company which lurks in the murky world of data mining and fake news was exposed for its role in using Facebook data to manipulate the outcome of the US elections. Continue reading

This week Sharon Bird, Jim Chalmers and I held a roundtable in Wollongong with local community sector representatives. Cost of living is growing across the Illawarra with increases to housing costs, electricity price rises and the Turnbull Government’s cuts to family and household benefits. Continue reading

This was a pretty shabby week in Federal politics. While the public are rightly fed up with sordid allegations about politicians, the former Minister for Women, Michaelia Cash, hasn’t got the message. She threatened to read unsubstantiated rumours into Hansard about female staffers in the Leader of the Opposition’s office.  At roughly the same time, the new Minister for Women was addressing an International Womens Day function. One of these senior Government Ministers was on message. Continue reading

STEPHEN JONES, SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL SERVICES, TERRITORIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Good morning. Well, there’s got to be more to being a National Party MP than coming down to Canberra in a big hat with a fake stockwhip. Continue reading