Future Fund Invests in Tobacco

Hypocrisy reigns. The Australian Government is bringing in extremely tough smoking laws, yet investment in tobacco companies is seen to be alright.

In 2006 the then Coalition Government set up a future fund. Its goals were to fund future costs of pensions for public servants, judges and so on. A look at the books as shown that the fund's managers deem holding shares in 14 tobacco companies to be a good thing. They obviously don't think the Government's actions to ban tobacco firms from putting their name on cigarette packets will lead to a fall in profit nor affect secure future operations.

Tobacco investment is only 0.5 per cent of total investment. However, it is unethical and it goes against Government policy. While making the highest return is written into fund guidelines, the body is supposed to be monitored by the Treasurer. There seems to be a difference of opinion between the Prime Minister and Treasurer. The Prime Minister fully supports the name and logo ban initiative, but the Treasurer said, "...the Future Fund takes its investment decisions at arms length of the government."

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~~~~~Politics~~~~~

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History Wars Argument Ends With Labor Cutting Educational Curriculum Off at the Knees

In a move to take the politics out of education the Labor Government has literally taken politics out of education. Retired Prime Minister John Howard's attempt to relinquish all blame for all Australians for persecution of Aboriginals has caused this. The Labor Government has hit back in kind, taking out all teaching relevant to the development of Liberalism in Australia.

Note we have a Liberal party in Australia that is really a far right conservative party. A touch of welfare, a lot of big business, but essentially no change should occur unless it is to collect more tax from the ordinary taxpayer. Stop the new tax on mining companies and stop the new National Broadband Network Though this hatred of the new NBN is due to Labor doing it not them.

No education system should be without instruction on how the market economy formed. But this argument over the true "facts" of history goes very deep indeed, so Labor puts a red pen through curriculum covering "free" markets just out of spite really.

It is notable that the struggle for individual freedom is included. Only from 1945 though. It is much easier that way, with the UN institutionalizing it in that year. The fight for rights by minorities is emphasized in support, of course, of Labor's side in the history debate. Labor as been so harsh as to remove the word "entrepreneur' totally from the whole syllabus.

It is unfortunate that the actions of one man, a very influential man at that, John Howard, could intervene in a debate among historians and change the course of political history of a nation. People are what they are taught and the baby has surely been thrown out with the bathwater.

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~~~~~Politics Education~~~~~

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