Doctor Prescribes A Tour To Heal Ratings
Sun Herald
Sunday March 16, 2008
BRENDAN NELSON will move to cement his hold on the Liberal leadership when he unveils a detailed five-prong vision in his first major address on Tuesday.
Drawing a line under the Howard era, Dr Nelson will present himself as a compassionate conservative committed to building a better society - "not just running an economy".The federal Opposition Leader will outline his ideas for the future priorities of the Coalition in a televised address to the National Press Club in Canberra.His vision will be unveiled in the five broad areas of prosperity, federation, the environment, defence of country and human capital.In making the equivalent of a Howard-style "headland" speech, Dr Nelson will aim to leave behind the leadership rumblings that have dogged his 31/2 months in the job.His hopes were boosted on Friday when his Treasury spokesman and leadership rival, Malcolm Turnbull, was ticked off by Treasury head Ken Henry for inaccurate comments he made on the minimum wage case.Dr Nelson is frustrated by the constant harping on his leadership. But his supporters believe his grip on the top job has firmed dramatically since he snatched the leadership from Mr Turnbull by two votes in a late November party room ballot.Dr Nelson's broad vision, which will be fleshed out as the Coalition's policy reform process rolls out this year, will be unveiled through five main themes: ProsperityCovering policies such as education and workplace relations, the policy emphasis will be on ensuring the prosperity of the next generation rather than "prosperity for prosperity's sake".FederationEnsuring the Commonwealth and states work together "in the best interests of Australia". The carve-up of federal and state responsibilities in areas such as health and schools will be analysed with a view to streamlining service delivery across all levels of government.The environmentDr Nelson will argue that this generation has been "living on environmental interest rather than capital", and it is now time for policies that "adjust to the environmental deadlines bearing down".Defence of country Dr Nelson will argue that the concept of "defence of the realm" should be expanded beyond border control and fighter planes to embrace "defence of values". He wants to initiate what could be a politically volatile public discussion about what Australians stand for beyond universal values.Human capitalThe "health and integrity of human life" will become a main artery of the Nelson blueprint, through programs aimed at tackling social ills such as gambling addictions and "welfare without responsibility".Dr Nelson will follow up the unveiling of his policy framework with a national "listening" tour, which will take off after Easter.Dr Nelson will visit most major cities and venture into regional and rural Australia to conduct election defeat post-mortems that he hopes will help the Opposition to overhaul policies.He will be joined on the road in stages by some of his shadow ministers, including Mr Turnbull, who will talk up the Opposition's strengths in the economy, health and education.Dr Nelson has ordered his shadow ministers to work on a new policy agenda, setting them a deadline of December for new ideas.NELSON'S VISION 1 Prosperity 2 Federation 3 Environment 4 Defence of country and values 5 Human capital
© 2008 Sun Herald
