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The Socialist Alliance released this statement on January 23 on the Queensland election. * * * The re-election of the Liberal-National Party (LNP) for a second term on January 31 — with or without Premier Campbell Newman — would be devastating. A re-elected LNP would claim a mandate to complete the sale of public assets, begun by the previous Labor government and extended during the first three years of LNP.

As the Queensland election campaign enters its final days, a Labor victory seems unlikely. Labor and the Liberal-National Party (LNP) say they will not do deals with minor parties. Recent opinion polls indicate the LNP will be re-elected with a clear majority. However, Campbell Newman could still be replaced as premier. Opinion polls are predicting between 10% and 11% swings to Labor. It needs a swing of 5.4% to unseat Newman in his electorate of Ashgrove.

"The Abbott government's humiliating backdown on its proposed $20 GP rebate cut, further deepens the government's general political crisis," Susan Price, Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Summer Hill in the March 28 NSW state election, said on January 22. "The fact that the government was forced by a public outcry from doctors and the community to drop its plan to slash the Medicare rebate paid for GP consultations of less than 10 minutes is a major win for the movement to defend Medicare over the past 12 months," she said.

Forty Australian economists have issued a statement prior to the Greek national elections on January 25 to condemn the debt recovery program imposed on the nation as unsustainable. The wide ranging list includes nine professors of economics, among them Professor John Hewson from the Australian National University (former federal leader of the Australian Liberal Party).

Despite the brutal cuts to leading renewable energy bodies by the Coalition government last year, incredible benchmarks in the field have been achieved.