{"id":26940,"date":"2024-05-30T14:35:45","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T14:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=26940"},"modified":"2024-05-30T14:35:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T14:35:45","slug":"albos-half-a-billion-dollar-referendum-folly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2024\/05\/30\/albos-half-a-billion-dollar-referendum-folly\/","title":{"rendered":"Albo\u2019s half a billion-dollar Referendum folly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Australian Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers, has revealed to Senate Estimates that the cost of Anthony Albanese\u2019s failed Referendum is in the order of the $522 million spent on holding the 2022 Federal Election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commissioner Rogers specifically stated, \u201croughly it will be in the order of whatever the cost of the last election\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AEC records show that the 2022 House of Representatives and half Senate elections cost $522,390,716.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction, James Stevens, said \u201cdespite the divisive nature of this public debate and the obvious indications that the referendum would fail, Anthony Albanese stubbornly refused to budge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Prime Minister continued with the failed Referendum, dividing the nation, and torching more than $500 million dollars in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are enormous challenges facing indigenous communities, and $500 million could have had a meaningful impact in areas like housing, health care and childhood development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During a cost-of-living crisis, the Labor Government chose to focus on the Prime Minister\u2019s personal vanity project, instead of addressing the serious financial pressures facing families and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Australians deserve better than a federal government that is distracted from the real issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite people struggling with soaring mortgages, rents and power bills, Labor are wasting our money on the wrong priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Australian Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers, has revealed to Senate Estimates that the cost of Anthony Albanese\u2019s failed Referendum is in the order of the $522 million spent on holding the 2022 Federal Election. Commissioner Rogers specifically stated, \u201croughly it will be in the order of whatever the cost of the last election\u201d. AEC records &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2024\/05\/30\/albos-half-a-billion-dollar-referendum-folly\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Albo\u2019s half a billion-dollar Referendum folly&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26941,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26940\/revisions\/26941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}