Main stories in Wednesday's World Today

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-2010
Main stories in Wednesday's World Today

SYDNEY, Aug 11 AAP - Main stories in Wednesday's World Today program:

* Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced an overhaul of the welfare system on Wednesday,
offering financial assistance to those relocating for work and pledging to cut benefits
for unemployment people who do not attend work meetings. Gillard also announced Wednesday
that a re-elected Labor government would fund a new train link between Parramatta and
Epping, but Opposition leader Tony Abbott claims the NSW Labor government has already
made such a promise in the past and never backed it up with any action.

* Anthony Albanese, federal infrastructure minister, says the government's proposed
$2 billion Parramatta to Epping rail link is a viable project and necessary as Parramatta
continues to grow into Sydney's second CBD. NSW Opposition leader Barry O'Farrell has
called the project pork-barrelling at its worst, adding that similar promises in the past
by the NSW Labor government have fallen flat.

* A day after Prime Minister Julia Gillard visited South Australia to announce the
government's plan for the Murray Darling Basin, Opposition leader Tony Abbott has returned
fire with his own $750 million policy, pledging to fix irrigation infrastructure and buy
150 billion litres of water for South Australia's dry lower lakes. Penny Wong, federal
minister for climate change and water, says Mr Abbott's proposal is only a temporary measure
and doesn't put plans in place for the future sustainability of the river.



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KEYWORD: MONITOR WORLD TODAY

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