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Turnbull Crumbles Under The Pressure

Press Releases May 18 2009

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The Liberal party’s cave in on the alcopops tax shows that under pressure Turnbull will fold every time, Family First Leader, Senator Steve Fielding said today.

“The Rudd Government threw down the challenge of a double dissolution and the Coalition has blinked. It seems when the going gets tough, the Coalition just goes.

“The Coalition have repeatedly said that the alcopops tax is bad policy – so why all of a sudden have they folded?

“Just at the time the Rudd Government is under pressure to stop hiding behind the alcopops tax and is facing mounting pressure to put in place tough advertising restrictions to break the dangerous cocktail of sports and alcohol, the Liberal party has let the Rudd Government off the hook.

“The Coalition’s capitulation will be seen by the Government as a green light to ram bad policy through the Senate because it knows the opposition will do anything it can to avoid an early election.

“In the end it will be the Australian people who will pay the price because the opposition is too busy worrying about their own jobs rather than what’s best for the Australian people.

“No one can take the Coalition’s threat to vote against the health insurance rebate seriously anymore because when crunch time comes, they will just buckle under the pressure.

“Family First won’t be influenced by the threat of an double dissolution and will continue to vote on every issue according to its merits.

“Bad policy is always bad policy. Just because the Government threatens you with an election, it doesn’t make it good policy.

“Family First has always opposed the alcopops tax because it turns a $15.3 billion binge drinking epidemic into a tax issue and fails to grasp the seriousness of the problem.