![Joe Hockey sets unprecedented debt limit for his own department Joe Hockey sets unprecedented debt limit for his own department](http://web.archive.org./web/20140127101002/http://transform.fairfaxregional.com.au/transform/v1/resize/frm/silverstone-feed-data/92e2ee1d-cf48-4a56-8e57-00b0e4c92472.jpg/w200_h132_fcrop.jpg)
Treasurer Joe Hockey has set his own debt limit, quietly giving his department unprecedented permission to borrow up to half a trillion dollars to meet government commitments.
The ACTU has lashed the federal government for planning an “enhanced” work-for-the-dole program, warning Holden workers facing the loss of their job could end up picking garbage.
Kevin Rudd is unlikely to take any further part in Labor's bid to retain his Brisbane-based seat of Griffith.
Ben Riley elected, unopposed, as the federal Young Liberal president six months after being suspended from the party.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott's insistence that Australia is ''open for business'' is being embraced by lobbyists, with dozens of the biggest companies having signed up to Coalition-aligned influence peddlers already this year for representation in Canberra.
The federal government will press ahead with 'an independent program' to study the health effects of wind farms even though a survey of global research on the issue by a leading Australian medical body is yet to be made public.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott's insistence that Australia is ''open for business'' is being embraced by lobbyists, with dozens of the biggest companies having signed up to Coalition-aligned influence peddlers already this year for representation in Canberra.