The Liberals' agenda is bad for regional Australia - but the Nationals play along anyway | Richard Denniss

Cutting tax rates and government payments and changes to industrial relations laws will disproportionately hurt people in National party electorates

The National party represents many electorates which have high rates of unemployment and people receiving government support payments, and a high proportion of workers on the minimum wage. So you can see why they spend so much time attacking IR laws, renewable energy, and “urban elites” – creating blame is a lot easier than creating regional jobs.

Over the summer, Australia’s deputy prime minister Michael McCormack, actually blamed the viewing habits of city residents for the lack of fruit pickers in regional Australia, declaring: “I say to those people who perhaps have done reasonably well off jobseeker, who may have earned more than they could have dreamt of, it is perhaps to turn the Stan and Netflix off to come to the regions [where] you can have a better life.”

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2ZrVrUo
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