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The government has attacked the Coalition's draft paper, which reportedly includes plans to divide the north into different tax zones and reallocate $800 million from the foreign aid budget to build a tropical health medical centre in far-north Queensland.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr on Thursday slammed the proposed cut to foreign aid, saying it would damage relations with countries such as Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
Senator Carr said it would meant that causes such as polio, HIV and malaria would not get as much funding.
''This shows their recklessness on foreign policy,'' he told reporters in Canberra. ''It would damage Australia's standing in the world.''
He said that the draft Coalition plan was different from the government's plan to fund the cost of looking after refugees on Australian soil from the aid budget, at a cost of $375 million.
''What Tony Abbott's doing is radically different,'' he said.
Even more contentious in this election year are reports that western Sydney will lose some 20,000 public sector jobs to northern regions under the plan. With 10 western Sydney seats held by Labor within a margin of about 5 per cent, many say the election will be won or lost in that region.
Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury told Sky News the Coalition's northern plan would be ''hundreds of billions of dollars of white elephant infrastructure''.
Mr Bradbury, who represents Lindsay, a western Sydney seat Labor holds by only 1.1 per cent, said Mr Abbott's idea would result in ''gold plated footpaths in Karratha while people are stuck in traffic gridlock in Sydney''.
Greens leader Christine Milne also rejected the plan, saying it was a recycled idea from former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen and mining magnate Gina Rinehart.
She said it was an ''old frontiersman'' plan that didn't fit in with what the Australian economy needed, which was a transition out of a ''dig it up, cut it down and ship it away'' mentality.
''This is just Tony Abbott doing what Joh Bjelke-Petersen and Gina Rinehart want,'' Ms Milne said.
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http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-hoses-down-tropical... I hope Bradbury and the gang don't find fault with Rudd's plan. I hope Gina Rinehart isn't dictating ALP policy.
The ALP is the 'enlightened and progressive' party.