Class Action as a Result of Bungled Home Insulation Program

TAXPAYERS will flip the costs defending the Rudd government against an expected 800 class action law suits, as a result of the bungled $2.5 billion home insulation program.

Insulation companies are seeking to recover costs associated with materials, training and other expenses incurred had the program continued until next December, as planned.

The insulators will also seek to be compensated for potential lost profits, until that time.

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Bills to Increase up to 25 Per Cent After Proposed Mining Tax

MORTGAGE holders face a 25 per cent increase in power bills as a result of the Rudd Government’s proposed 40 per cent tax on the mining industry.

La Trobe University tax lecturer Tony Anamourlis said the tax will “chew away substantial profits…thus affecting the prices of electricity and gas, which will skyrocket prior to its implementation (in July next year)”.

He estimates residential power bills will increase between 10 and 25 per cent.

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Rawlinsons Costs at Odds With That BER is Paying

RAWLINSONS – the construction industry’s cost handbook – is going a long way into highlighting waste in the ALP government’s $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution program.

According to the latest edition of the Rawlinsons Constrution Handbook, single level primary school buildings should cost about $1350 per square metre to construct.

By comparison, the NSW government is spending $13,306 per square metre building 21 canteen buildings in public schools.

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ALP’s Commission Flat Building Boom Underway Without Community Consultation

THE Federal Government’s contentious plan to build record amounts of commission flats and social housing around your streets, and without proper community consultation – seems to finally have caught the attention of the wider community.

Despite anger in some States that details about the mass roll-out of commission flats have been deliberately kept from the community – the State ALP governments are pushing ahead with major public housing projects.

State governments need to do so in an attempt to collect part of the massive taxpayer-funded $5.6 billion the Federal ALP government has allocated to the initiative, for projects completed before a 2012 deadline.

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Government Tells Community to be Tolerant as Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast All to Receive More Social Housing

Karen Struthers - ALPA RECORD number of social housing is being developed in Queensland this year, as part of the Federal Government’s recent stimulus package.

And the ALP State Government has said it won’t let protesters get in the way of construction.

The Courier Mail reports about 3000 units worth $1.1 billion are set to be developed in the State.

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$28 Billion Rudd Bank Rejected in Federal Parliament

Kevin RuddTHE AMBITIOUS $28 billion “Rudd Bank” – designed to protect the commercial property sector from the global financial crisis – was rejected in federal parliament this afternoon.

The Liberal party and the Greens voted down the fund, officially known as the Australian Business Investment Partnership, which was being lobbied by several property unions and bodies.

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Ubertas Group to Sell Last Apartments at 505 St Kilda Road

A UNIQUE luxury apartment with a “left-wing” connection has hit the market, as the developer of a new complex clears the last of the unsold apartments.

The double-storey “townhouse-style” apartment is on the ground floor of Ubertas Group’s 505 St Kilda Road complex, a project built on the site of what was St Kilda Road’s first high-rise office.

The 505 complex is absolute park-front, having a security door connecting residents to the massive Fawkner Park. The apartment itself (G02) includes two bedrooms, a study, two car parks, downstairs courtyard and upstairs balcony – both with a park vista.

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