In just two years the Rudd Government has developed a busy agenda for a stronger and fairer Australia.
Here are some highlighted achievements of the Rudd Government, but you can read in more detail by downloading a copy of the Mid Term Progress Report.
- Acting decisively to support jobs, tradespeople and small businesses during the worst global recession in 75 years;
- Investing in more than 28,000 nation-building infrastructure projects that are underway now – supporting jobs today while building the infrastructure we need for tomorrow, including rail, roads, ports, broadband, clean energy projects and the largest school building program in Australia’s history;
- Funding a 30 percent increase in GP training places to address a shortage of GPs, especially in regional and rural areas;
- Funding 1000 new nurse training places nationwide to ensure patients get the care they deserve;
- Investing in new cancer research and treatment centres;
- Building Trades Training Centres in our high schools;
- Creating 130,000 new training places;
- Granting 290,000 new computers for schools;
- Abolishing WorkChoices and replacing it with the Fair Work Act to build a fair and balanced industrial relations system for all Australians;
- Taking action on climate change by: ratifying the Kyoto Protocol; supporting investment in alternative energy sources; and developing a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme that puts a cap on carbon pollution, that will make polluters pay, that compensates working families and helps them to become more energy efficient and save money;
- Establishing a single national school curriculum with a focus on the basics: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic;
- Withdrawing troops from Iraq;
- Tax cuts for working families;
- Maintaining strong Government finances with Australia retaining its AAA Credit Rating;
- Helping secure our urban water supplies by providing funding to help build desalination, water recycling & stormwater harvesting projects in our major cities & towns;
- To restore the health of the Murray-Darling Water System we are implementing the Water for the Future Plan, including the first ever purchase of water entitlements by the Federal Government;
- Establishing a 50 percent tax refund for working families on key educational expenses like laptops, stationery and school text books; and
- Building a National Broadband Network to ensure Australian businesses have the communication infrastructure necessary to compete with other countries in our region which have broadband – NBN will deliver superfast broadband to 90 per cent of homes, schools and workplaces.
