Prime Minister Tony Abbott has expressed his frustrations to world leaders at his inability to impose a $7 fee on GP visits and blamed voters who love free government programs for supporting wasteful spending.
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In his opening address to world leaders gathered for the Leaders' Retreat at Queensland's State Parliament, Mr Abbott spruiked his successes at stopping asylum seekers travelling to Australia by boat and his repeal of carbon pricing.
The address was soon attacked by Labor leader Bill Shorten as "weird and graceless".
In his televised speech, Mr Abbott also "thanked God" he had stopped the "illegal boats", noted that the former Labor government's carbon tax is "gone" and underlined his plan to build more roads.
The gathering included the presidents of the United States and China who have recently struck a landmark deal to reduce their carbon emissions beyond 2020. Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, who has previously warned he would not tolerate incursions into Indonesia's waters by Australian navy vessels turning back boats, is also attending.
Mr Abbott described the gathering as comprising some of the most "powerful and influential" people in the world.
"Nowhere on earth will there be a more influential gathering than this," he said and pointed out that they were meeting in the defunct Legislative Council of Queensland's State Parliament.
"This room symbolises the limitations on our power," Mr Abbott said. He called for leaders to speak from their "hearts" rather than "scripts" and for a maximum of five minutes each. He also urged the leaders to address each other by their first names to promote "personal warmth".
Mr Abbott became most candid when discussing his domestic issues, notably two of the federal budget's most contested measures – the proposed $7 fee to visit the doctor and the plan to uncap university fees.
The Senate is due to vote on the higher education changes before the end of the year but it is likely to be struck down. The government has not introduced any legislation for its GP fee but has not ruled out subverting the Parliament to introduce the co-payment.
Mr Abbott conceded his frustrations: "We all know what we would like to do, but we all know there are many constraints on what we can do.
"It doesn't matter what spending program you look at, it doesn't matter how wasteful that spending program might appear, there are always some people in the community who vote who love that program very much," Mr Abbott said on Saturday.
"For a long time most Australians who went to see a doctor have been seen at no charge and we would like to see a $7 co-payment for people who are going to see the doctor.
"In most countries this is not unusual … but it is proving to be massively difficult to get this particular reform through the Parliament.
"So getting the budget under control has proven very difficult," Mr Abbott said.
Mr Shorten said the address was at best "weird and graceless" but at worst a "disastrous missed opportunity for Australia".
"This was Tony Abbott's moment in front of the most important and influential leaders in the world and he's whingeing that Australians don't want his GP tax," he said.
Mr Shorten said Mr Abbott had had "months to prepare for this moment" but failed dismally.
"He boasted of taking Australia backwards on climate change action, making it harder for Australians to go to university and pricing sick people out of getting the healthcare they need," Mr Shorten said.
Barack Obama's message for Tony
US President Barack Obama has placed climate change at the forefront of the G20 summit in Brisbane, announcing a $US3 billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund, and calling on young Australians to pressure politicians to resist vested interests and tackle global warming.
In a wide-ranging speech he also declared the United States would never abandon its leadership in the Asia-Pacific and called on countries to tackle Ebola rather than build moats around their island nations.
Australia resisted US pressure to place climate change on the official G20 agenda. However, it will be raised in the discussion on energy.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott raised his government's repeal of Labor's carbon tax in a speech to a gathering of world leaders, which included President Obama, earlier on Saturday.
A few hours later, Mr Obama was applauded every time he mentioned climate change in his speech at the University of Queensland. He warned that no region in the globe had more at stake than the Asia-Pacific and said climate change meant more bushfires, flooding, extreme storms and rising seas in Australia.
"The incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef is threatened," Mr Obama warned.
The President said he wanted to return to Australia to visit the reef with his daughters when he had more time. "And I want them to be able to bring their daughters or sons to visit and I want that there 50 years from now," he said to applause.
As foreshadowed, he pledged $US3 billion to the Green Climate Fund to h
"Let them leap frog some of the dirty industries that powered our development, go straight to a clean-energy economy that allows them to grow, create jobs and at the same time reduce their carbon pollution," he said.
And he directly pleaded with Australia's youth to "keep raising their voices" and challenge "entrenched interests".
"It is in the nature of the world that those of us who start getting grey hair are a little set in our ways. That interests are entrenched. Not because people are bad people, it's just that's how we've been doing things and we make investments and companies start depending on certain energy sources and change is uncomfortable and difficult," he said.
"And that's why it's so important for the next generation to step in and say 'it doesn't have to be this way'," he said.
Mr Obama pointed to his "ambitious new goal" to speed up the rate of carbon reduction in his country, in a deal struck with China's President at the APEC summit in Beijing earlier this week. The Abbott government has welcomed the agreement but the Prime Minister has described the Sino-US climate deal as relating to the "far distant future".
Mr Obama promised to pursue co-operation on overlapping interests including on trade, Ebola and tourism but in a blunt message to China pledged the US would always seek to lead in the Asia-Pacific
But he praised China's achievement in lifting millions of people out of poverty: "That is a good thing," he said.
smh.com.au